"Don't pay it any attention," Eve said, but she continued staring at the ceiling a moment before regaining her composure. Everyone else followed suit.

"We're different ages because some of us, for various reasons, have done longer stints out of the box than others."

Rajia rolled up Victor's sleeve and attached a wireless node to his arm. Victor felt the light tickle of the nearly imperceptible needles digging into his skin, feeding diagnostic information back to Rajia's device.

"Is there something on this ship?" Victor asked, interrupting. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to Eve. The skittering returned, this time louder.

"Shh," Eve said, under her breath. "Later."

Then, in a normal tone: "Are there any other questions you have?"

Victor shrugged. A hundred years was a lot of time to cover, even if they had been in the box during most of it. He was curious about who else was still alive, but was afraid to ask. It was clear that many had died in the initial incident and in other events over the years, but he wasn't ready for that, yet.

There was, however, one pressing question.

"You never found the Ansible Relay Stations?"

"Unfortunately, no. For all we know, they're all still frozen in sleep somewhere."

"If the damn Yunts didn't get them," Miguel said, adjusting his gun strap. Rajia threw him a dirty glance. "I'm sorry, mi'lady," he said. "I believe their official name is the Speluncam. My apologies." Miguel made a small melodramatic bow.

"The who?" Victor asked, raising an eyebrow.

"One step at a time," Eve said. "We're not there yet."

Miguel rolled his eyes.

"All done." Rajia said. Now she was beaming without restraint. "He's clear. In as many ways as I can tell, this is the real and free Victor Vance. He's one hundred percent the original and completely free of anomalous material."

It was subtle, but Victor could sense everyone in the room relax. Miguel took a deep breath and slung his gun onto his back.

"Welcome back, Vic. Damn, it's really you," he said, bumping his finger-less gloved fist on Victor's shoulder with a smile.

"There'll be time to celebrate later," Eve said, but Victor detected a small grin on her also. "We've got to get to the bridge to make adjustments for the next shift."

When they exited the med bay another adult was waiting in a Nexus uniform. He was about Eve's age from all appearances, with black hair and dark brown eyes. Despite his best efforts, Victor couldn't connect the man's face with any of the students he had known aboard Nexus.

"Are we clear?" he asked. Miguel nodded.

"We're good to go, Nettleson. Tell everyone they can come out."

Nettleson? Victor looked at the man again, but there was no sudden connect the way there had been with Miguel. This man was not Roger Nettleson. Not at any age. Victor was sure of it for some reason.

"You're not Roger," Victor said. The man gave him a sour look.

"No. I am not my father, thankfully." Then to Miguel. "Sir, if you'll excuse me, there's some maintenance work I have to get around to."

"You're dismissed, kid," Miguel said. After he'd left, Miguel patted Victor on the shoulder. "Don't take it personally, Vic. William's father spent a lot of the early days regretting how he'd treated you. Long story short, he became a bit bitter in his later years."

"Is Roger still around?" Victor ventured.

"No. He passed long ago."

Victor nodded as Eve led the way to the bridge. He hadn't been aware that Nexus had even had one. Had they makeshifted one? A hundred years might be enough time to get the job done, even from mere scraps.

"How did Roger die?" Victor asked, as the hall began to fill with people. They were of all different ages. Some where mere toddlers or babies held against their mother's breast.

"Old age," Miguel said. "Some chose not to go into suspension. We found out in the early days that Nexus is quite sought after. We're always getting visitors of one sort of another. Generally speaking, the represent one of two sides..."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Eve threw Miguel a glance over her shoulder. Not yet, her look said. Miguel shrugged and continued.

"Anyway, someone has to stay awake, keep the lights on, or it isn't safe." He massaged the back of his neck. An old wound from some conflict or another, perhaps?

"Then these people...."

Miguel nodded. "You got it. They're the descendants of the brave boys and girls who decided to stay up, safeguard those who were on ice, and keep back the things in the eternal dark. Without them, things would have been a lot worse. Some of the families are two or even three generations in, especially the ones who refuse to go into cryostasis."

"Damn," Victor said. Gone for a few days, and people had lived their entire lives in that time. "What about Fumio?"

Miguel shook his head. "Man oh, man. Fumio Tanaka. Haven't thought of him in a while. He died saving everyone's bacon in the early days. First contact with the Rift Worms."

Even Tanaka? Victor could hardly believe it. He was the last person Victor had expected to hear was dead. It made him even more anxious about the others. His curiosity was beating his fear of them all being long since turned to dust.

"And Lucas? What about Edgar?"

Miguel sighed and kept staring straight ahead as they walked. He didn't respond.

"Lucas became a Walker, or so we were led to believe," Rajia volunteered. "Edgar.....was one of the first to be taken by the Speluncam. The Soul Keepers."

What the hell was a Speluncam? Miguel had mentioned them before. Victor had another question first. He wondered how the boy that had cared only about survival had fared.

"What happened to Bracias?"

Miguel grabbed Victor by the collar and slammed him against the wall. His face was twisted in a snarl. Eve stopped, but didn't turn around. Rajia finally rested a hand gently on Miguel's arm.

"He didn't know, Miguel."

Victor could see Miguel considering this. The man dropped him to the ground and kept walking ahead of the group. Victor was realizing that it had been stupid to drop his guard. These weren't the same people he had known. Being in these circumstances had changed them. The pain in Victor's shoulder where he had been slammed against the hard wall was a reminder that most of them were more experienced and stronger than him. They had protocols in place, and had their own long histories and agendas. Victor was back on Nexus, but a nightmare version: one that had been warped and changed by time and necessity.

Victor walked the rest of the way in silence. Eve hit one of the points that had been a partition in what seemed like Victor's former life, and kept going. There was a sliding door a few paces past the point where the partition had been. Despite what it had looked like from the shuttle, Nexus hadn't been split perfectly in half. This was the bigger half.

The door opened to reveal the bridge. People in Nexus uniforms stood at their stations and controls, adjusting parameters, reading outputs. A wide visor showed the endless black expanse outside of the nano-glass. A hundred years or not, they hadn't built this out of scraps. No, this had been hiding here the whole time.

Near the center of the room there was an elevated platform with a captain's chair and a chair to each side. Each chair had a panel of buttons on each right arm rest. All faced forward toward the open visor.

"Hello Captain. She's ready whenever you are."

Eve nodded and pointed to a chair next to hers.

"Sit next to me. Pay close attention, Victor."

She sat down. Miguel stood behind Victor's chair and Rajia sat to the chair on Eve's other side.

"Are we about to go back to the homeworlds?" Victor asked, confused. Maybe they had learned to properly wield the wormhole. Victor hoped so. Glad as he had been to be rescued, he had no desire to live out his life on a broken down version of Nexus, waiting to be picked off by aliens.

Eve laughed. "We all wish, Victor. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Everyone ready systems for jump in ten minutes." Eve pressed a button on her arm rest panel. "This is Captain Eve Storm. Everyone, please prepare for re-entry into the wormhole."