A few hours later a groggy Fiolas woke up. "Keish?" She hadn't left his side in the med bay and quickly sat up.

"Hey, there you are. You scared me." Keisha rubbed her eyes and smiled.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You collapsed right after delivering a bombshell in the Command Center. Zayd and I rushed you here. They said you just pushed yourself too hard and needed rest." She gave him a half-smile. She stood up and put her holo down, careful not to show what she had been working on. "How are you feeling? Do you need anything?"

He looked her in the eye and gave her a sleepy smile, "I have everything I need Keish." He put his hand on top of hers. "How long were you waiting for me to wake up?"

"A few hours." She laughed as his eyebrows went way up.

"Didn't you have anything better to do than babysit me?"

"Nah, the end of the world can wait a few hours. Besides," she picked up the holo, "this type of problem is above my paygrade." They both chuckled a bit. "Why was I invited to that meeting Fiolas? I just take care of ships and run errands for the scientists."

He sighed and looked down at his hands, "I wasn't able to get to that part." He looked sideways at her and shook his head. The doors opened and the woman from the conference room came in, Dr. Mirlaj. She was a petite woman with dark thick hair, the white and red accents on her uniform made her skin glow and the red brought out a rich auburn in her hair. Keisha couldn't guess her age, she could just as easily be in her late middle age or right out of military school like her. She walked with purpose directly to Fiolas and picked up his chart and started tapping through it and mumbling to herself.

Keisha fought back the urge to hurt this woman, "What are you doing?"

Dr. Mirlaj looked up at her over the chart, "I'm saving his life."

"Excuse me?" Fiolas said. "The doctors said I was fine and just needed rest."

"I don't know why you waited so long to see me. Your doctors should have called me in straight away." By now she was changing the settings on some of the machines hooked up to Fiolas.

"How long have you been feeling tired?" she asked briskly.

"Since I boarded." He laughed.

She started tapping his legs and asked him to tell her when he felt her, as normal his entire legs didn't feel anything. She got to his stomach and slightly above his belly button he nodded.

Keisha inserted herself between the doctor and Fiolas. "You need to explain yourself right now. Doctors have green on their uniforms, you have red. So, what, you're a biologist. You work with plants, not people, and if I don't get some straight answers from you soon you will find yourself in need of this med bay yourself." The two had a stare-down for a few awkward moments. Fiolas started drumming his fingers on his lap nervously.

Dr. Mirlaj took a deep breath. "You do have one thing correct. I am a biologist, but what you are unaware of is what specialty I am. Your doctors may know about the body, but they are unaware of the effects of time and phases on the body. I am a chrono-biologist, and your friend needs a lot more than just rest." She firmly pushed Keisha aside and continued her examination of Fiolas.

"The paralytic that was administered on Klokos II has changed him and as we careen into the past he is not coping. Our artificial gravity has kept the interior of this ship moving forward in time for the most part. Most people assume time is only linked to gravity and it is mostly true, however, we have discovered rather recently, that time is also linked to locations in space. People born on Chronos experience time slightly different than those on Klokos, and both of them are slightly different than Earth.

"The differences are, as I said, very slight, as they are all relatively close in the sector. As we branch out further we have been noticing larger differences, an hour here, a day over there. The bite your friend received is in a completely different place. Klokos II is very close to Dark Space and as of now, we have no idea if that planet is affected or not. The venom is not responding to the gravity of this ship, which means Fiolas is constantly fighting off the paralytic effects."

Keisha and Fiolas shared a look.

"In other words, the paralytic is reversing at the same rate Rigel is uncollapsing." She gave a huff and started working on the machines connected to him again.

"Wait, does that mean he could walk again?" Keisha asked. Fiolas looked at Dr. Mirlaj and she paused, looking uncertain. "If Rigel can uncollapse, then could his back unbreak?" Keisha held her breath, hoping for Fiolas, maybe this could undo what she did to him. Her face lit up, this could be the answer she had been searching for all afternoon.

Fiolas furrowed his brow and answered her, "We don't know what will happen after the event horizon Keish. What I was about to tell you was, we have to prevent it from getting there. For all we know time could freeze, it could be on a loop where it crashes, then uncollapses, then crashes over and over again, it could keep going forever. We've never seen this before. So far we've been on the outskirts of Dark Space, we haven't even gotten all that close. We don't know how long the ship's gravity can outlast the gravity fluctuation that Rigel is producing."

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Hope was falling from her face. "What if it could save you?"

"You already did Keish." He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer, "I'm alive. I'm alive because of you. My legs are not worth the people on this ship possibly reverting back to children, or getting frozen in time, or, or, whatever is going to happen." Tears were falling from his face, "It's enough for me to just be with you and enjoy the time we do have, together. Is it really so terrible to be with someone whose legs don't work?"

"No, that's not it at all, Fiolas." Keisha felt her heart being pierced. Fiolas had wanted to be with her as soon as he had woken up, but the guilt of leaving him to save herself had been overwhelming. She didn't deserve to be so loved by someone she couldn't be brave for. Love was supposed to give you the courage to be better, but she had been the worst version of herself at that moment, that one moment she was constantly trying to redeem. Tears ran down her cheeks and she held his hand as tightly as she could. The silence between them deepened.

"I don't understand Keisha. I wish you would just talk to me." Fiolas gripped her hand right back. Keisha had lost all her words though, how do you tell someone you love them while simultaneously being around them is a constant reminder of your own selfishness.

Dr. Mirlaj coughed slightly, to remind them she was still there. They separated and regained some composure. "Well, I have some good news for you." She kept working while she was talking, "We should be able to run you through dialysis to keep the paralytic at bay. I will..." She kept talking but Keisha couldn't hear what she said. Fiolas needed medical treatment because of the bite for the rest of his life? The complications of that one decision to save herself just kept rippling out.

The doors opened again and this time Captain Katopodis walked in with a few other crew members trailing behind her. She walked directly to the foot of Fiolas' bed, "Right, so here's where we're at." She began the meeting again as though they were still in the conference room and Fiolas hadn't collapsed. "We believe the answer to this problem could be found on the Icarus. Doctor Sturletto, after calming down a bit, began to hypothesize what could be causing this time anomaly and the only thing we know of that has directly been in contact was the specialty shield the Icarus used to view the collapse. Doctor Sturletto," She motioned to him and he sulkily came forward.

"Thank you, Captain." he cleared his throat, "Right, so the Icarus was the first of the deep space missions. They believed if they could gather enough data from the supernova they could find a way to cross the light-speed barrier. We all know Adam Scofield demolished that theory shortly after the Icarus was lost. However, the Icarus was outfitted with what they called a Time Shield, thinking they could keep the researchers safe from the gravity/time problem and get back with the data in a reasonable time frame to work on it.

"The schematics were part of what was lost in the purge, so we don't have all the details and it's a long shot, but if the shield malfunctioned, or was simply created faulty, it could be radiating out and being amplified by Rigel's collapse. If we can get to their shield and I don't know, turn it off or something, we could return this sector back to a normal time phase." He lifted his hands and shrugged then stepped back.

The group reshuffled to make space for him and Keisha saw that Zayd was there. He looked as though he were attending a funeral. Keisha had an unsettling feeling in her stomach.

"That's great, who's going?" Fiolas asked.

"I am putting together a team," Zayd looked him straight in the eye, "I was going to ask you to navigate as this was your discovery but with your collapse, I'm afraid you need to stay here. Doctor Sturletto will be my navigator, you'll need to catch him up to speed on everything you found and make sure he's up to the task. Dr. Mirlaj, you have the most experience with time and gravity studies on biology which could prove invaluable." She nodded in assent, "I also need an electrical engineer." His eyes fluttered to Keisha.

This time it was Fiolas who shouted, "No, no way. She is not going. Take shipmaster Turloc, he's the senior engineer on this ship."

"He's needed on this ship." Zayd said calmly, "Pilot Brakas, you're being assigned to this mission."

"Yeah? Well, the head Navigator should be needed too, I'll go." Fiolas looked like he was about to try getting off his bed.

"No. You will stay and rest and do your treatments on time." Dr. Mirlaj pushed him back on the bed. "You are needed here." The firmness with which she said it seemed to cement the deal.

Keisha looked from Fiolas to Zayd. If this really could save the ship, save Fiolas, she couldn't let him down again. She stood at attention and saluted, "Yes sir."

Zayd nodded back, "Ok, wheels up in four hours. We're taking the scout ship Velos, it's being outfitted with the AI as we speak." He nodded and the group left the med bay, except for the captain and Dr. Mirlaj.

"Dr. Mirlaj, will you be able to stabilize Navigator Fiolas?" The Captain asked.

"I believe so sir. I've developed a treatment that will need to be given at regular intervals. It will be implanted on his arm and he will need to be resting when it is working. It is not a cure," she said looking at Keisha, "but it should buy him some time."

"See to it the medical team has what they need to keep him going. With our head navigator gone, he will be needed." She nodded at both of them and turned on her heels and left. Dr. Mirlaj made a few more notes then left for the doctor's offices to inform them of the change in treatment for him.

Once again alone, the weight of what Keisha had signed up for finally hit her. "You don't have to go, Keisha, stay here. Stay here with me." Fiolas looked at her pleadingly. "There are 500 people on board this ship, surely one of them can go."

"No Fiolas, they can't." Keisha held his hand again. "I'm sorry I haven't been the woman you needed me to be. If I can save you, I will." She held his gaze. "I have to do this. I'll be back, I promise."

Fiolas pulled her close and they held one another, "You have to come back to me Keish. We didn't go through hell just to be separated now." He kissed her forehead and they reluctantly let go of one another.

As if out of nowhere, Andromeda showed up. "It's ok Keisha, I will look out for him. No one knows this ship better than I do. I will make him as safe as I can." She gave Keisha a smile and Keisha knew that she meant it. Andromeda's head was often in the clouds, but Keisha knew Andromeda cared about them more than anyone else on this ship.

"Ok, I have to go pack and get ready." She took a big breath and tried to capture the moment of Fiolas and Andromeda together in the med bay. "I'll be back, I promise."