The fog cleared from Victor's mind. He stumbled out of the shuttle and headed for the dock entrance to the main hall. No one was there to greet him. A rumble shook the station, bringing him to the ground. He got up and headed for main hall. What the hell was happening?

He entered the main hall, students were running to and fro all around him. Students. No adults. He looked at the walls and hallways. They were gleaming and perfect. He was on the whole Nexus.

"Vic? Where the hell have you been? Nexus is about to get ripped in two!" It was Lucas.

"Lucas?" Victor said, smiling.

"Yeah. What is it Vic?"

There was no time for Victor to enjoy his return or share his story. He had work to do. "Lucas, have you discovered the bridge, yet?"

"Eve and Miguel are there now, trying to make heads or tails of things."

Victor nodded. "Great. I've got to head there."

"Wait a sec, Vic. Fumio's running simulations in the Information Room. Nexus A.I. is working with Fumio to determine how the station will break. We've got to get as many people as possible to the right side!"

Victor shook his head. "If I get this right, we won't have to do that," he said. He dashed toward the bridge at a run.

"Where the fuck are you going, hero?" Roger said, but Victor didn't stop. He clothes-lined the tank of a boy and kept going. Sure his arm hurt, but it was well worth it.

Actually, his head was hurting, too. He didn't remember how he had gotten to this Nexus. He was on the shuttle. A voice on an comm was telling him something terrible. Then he woke up here. Didn't matter now. Had to get to the bridge. Saving Nexus was all that mattered right now. He could sort out the details, later.

"Headed for the bridge?" Rajia said, running aside him. How long had she been there.

"Yeah. I've got something that can save the station."

"Really?" said Rajia, as they ran. "That might be bigger than my news."

"What's your news?" Victor asked as he dodged a student. The station rumbled hard, making half the students in the hall fall to the ground or lean on the walls for support. Victor caught himself and managed to bull Rajia up.

"My news? Outside of one of the windows we've spotted a green ship."

Victor doubled his pace and pulled ahead of Rajia.

---------------------------------------------------

Victor woke up in the shuttle inside the Nexus dock. He got out and headed for the main hall entrance when its door opened.

"Not so fast. Come with me."

It was a man with a pulse rifle. Victor had no intention of playing nice. Not this time. He nodded at the man and raised his hand, as if to surrender. He moved slowly, dragging his heals uncertainly.

"Move it!" The man shouted, but when he tried to hit Victor with the butt of his gun, Victor grabbed hold of it, twisted it out of the man's hands, and fired two pulse shots into his gut. The man collapsed onto the ground, his lifeless eyes frozen in confusion and fear.

Victor dropped to his knees and retched. Killing someone was pretty much like he had expected it to be. But he also expected that it would get easier.

He made a dash into the hallway, stopping the first person in a Nexus crew uniform.

"Where are they holding them?" he asked. Assuming everyone on the ship had heard at least part of the conversation, it should be clear who he was talking about.

"They've moved to the bridge, but they're stuck. They can't leave or properly take the ship, but they don't dare hurt anyone after those order you gave."

Victor nodded. That was what he'd been hoping for.

"Do you have anything smaller than this?" he said, motioning to the pulse rifle he was holding. The crew officer nodded and handed him a pulse pistol, instead. Pulse and laser guns were the preferred weapons for dealing with a ship being boarded by enemies, as there was little danger of hull damage.

Victor wasted no time heading for the bridge.

---------------------------------

When Victor reached the Bridge, Eve and Miguel were going to and fro from various panels. There were other students in the room looking at controls and engaged in animated discussions. Victor caught Miguel looking over at Eve from his panel a few times. Rajia ran straight to Eve.

"Eve. We've got some news!" she said. Then realizing that there was more important news, "First Victor has something that can help us."

Victor pulled out the black cube, smiling.

"The Captains' slot should have administrative access. I'll put it in here," he said, walking to the chair.

"Hold on a sec!" Eve said, looking at him in horror. "Do you want to tell us what you're up to before you maybe make things worse?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"There's no time, Eve. Do you trust me or not?"

Eve considered it. They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment before Eve nodded. "Okay, Victor. You haven't really steered us wrong, yet. Do it."

Victor sat in the Captain's chair and inserted the data cube into the slot. Red lines ran across the visible side of the cube while they all watched anxiously. Victor hoped the Dream Dwellers had come through. Then again, from what he'd seen on the other Nexus this was unlikely to make things much worse.

"What was that news, Rajia?"

"A green ship. It's just outside and it's been hailing up for some time now."

The shielded window of the bridge lowered, revealing the space outside. Strangely, it wasn't the hazy purple that he expected, but a near perfect pitch black.

"What the hell?" Victor said, his brow furrowing in confusion. As he had suspected, however, he didn't see any other Nexus floating in a bubble and doubted that they would find any. He wasn't sure what made him suspect this. Perhaps it was the fact that the crew of the other Nexus had made the moment of entry into the wormhole seem particular and special. Something to explore, later.

"Screens are up. I think I found out how to open the comm channel onscreen, too."

"Let's see who's hailing us," Eve said.

"No!" Victor shouted, reaching toward Miguel. Miguel froze and looked around, as if expecting to see something standing behind him.

"What's wrong, Vic?" Miguel asked.

"Don't contact them. It's a long story, but we've got to think about how we handle this."

"Software Revision Complete," said the soft voice of Nexus over the bridge comm. Victor breathed a sigh of relief as the rumbling faded away. So far so good.

"Victor, what's going on? Did you manage to get the revisions on the cube before you left the relay station?"

Victor shook his head, wondering if he should even bother to explain right now.

"Something like that. But I know something else: that alien is fucking hostile. If we let it on board the ship, someone will die."

"Okay," Rajia said. "Even if you're right, it can't hurt to talk to it. We'll just make sure it never comes on board."

Victor didn't want to talk to it. He wanted to blow it into goddamned bits.

"Miguel, have you found the weapons controls?"

"I think I've found basic turret defenses. Why?"

Eve stepped forward. "Hold on a minute. Victor, if you say we need to fire on that thing, then fine. But we're not going to kill a sentient being and risk interstellar conflict blindly. Tell us how you know someone will die if we don't destroy it."

Victor looked around him, scrounging for something, even a lie, that would be convincing enough. He could fine none. He shrugged his shoulders in resignation.

"The moment Nexus and the ansible stations were dragged into the wormhole, I was left behind. A Nexus from an alternate future showed up a few days later and rescued me. They told me a lot of things about their timeline."

"Is that how you acquired the cube?"

"No," Victor said. "I got it from these aliens that visited me in a half-dream."

There was total silence as everyone on the bridge, including a few of the students investigating the other panels, stared at Victor blankly. He wondered if they would confine him to a room, or merely ignore everything he had just said. Instead Miguel started busily working on the panel in front of him.

"Rajia, see if any of the other groups have found shield controls," Eve said. Rajia nodded, smiled at Victor, and moved toward the other stations at the front of the ship.

"Do you remember anything about their weapons or shield capabilities?" Miguel asked.

Victor was stunned. "You -- You believe me? Just like that?"

"Just like that," Eve said. "You're not much of a liar, Victor," Eve said. "It's one of the things I like about you."

Everyone trusted him so much that he went over the decision again. Was destroying that ship the right move? Again he came to the same conclusion: it definitely was. On that green ship was a Speluncam. It was clear that these were beings that wouldn't stop. Wouldn't surrender. Wouldn't go away.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, Victor," Eve said, perhaps seeing his thoughts turn the decision over in his mind. "Are you sure?"

Victor looked out into the empty, starless, black. The green ship had floated into view of the bridge's viewing port. "I'm sure. Blow that green bastard out of the virtual vacuum."