The lab was silent as the three of them looked around, a mix of shock, fear, and sheer confusion on their faces. It was Arda who first broke the silence, speaking tentatively in a soft, worried voice.
“We are sorry for any disturbance we might have caused—we were simply trying to reach out, to connect with you. We are very sorry for what was done to you. I hope you understand that it wasn’t us—”
“You are not Kharlath,” Windek’s voice responded, though it was clear the mind behind it was not his own. “That is what you mean.”
“Yes. We are at war with them. We have seized control of this ship—of you,” Arda stammered, searching for the right words.
“You do not control us,” the reply came, cold and emotionless. “You are parasites aboard this vessel. Your presence is tolerated, so far as it does not interfere with our duties.”
“Your duties?” Jack mustered the courage to speak for the first time. “What are your duties?”
“To wait,” the entity answered through Windek’s body, offering no further explanation.
“We do not want to interfere with your duties,” Arda took charge again, her voice steady but careful. “Our primary goal is to stop the Kharlath from using you to harm us. No more, no less. Beyond that, we can cooperate, maybe reach an agreement that benefits everyone—”
“You have nothing to offer us,” the entity cut her off abruptly. “Save for leaving us alone.”
“We can reconnect you with the rest of the ship,” Arda offered, hesitantly. “That’s actually why our friend, Mr. Windek, is there.”
A few moments of tense silence followed before the entity spoke again, its tone more measured this time.
“That would not be unwelcome. It would save us some time and effort. Do this, and we shall grant you a boon: an aspect of us that will interface with you and answer your incessant questions.”
"And Mr. Windek?" Jack interjected, his voice laced with concern.
"...hello?" came the confused reply from the other side. This time, it was no longer the entity.
"Are you alright?" Jack yelled, a mix of desperation and relief flooding his voice.
"Why wouldn’t I be?" Windek’s voice responded, matter-of-fact, as if nothing unusual had happened.
"Are we to assume that you don’t remember anything that just happened?" Dr. Liu finally spoke, his curiosity overcoming his initial fear.
"I fixed the severed connections like you taught me. There was a bright flash, communication cut off for a bit, and then Mr. Nereus yelled out all worried. Did something happen?"
"Why don’t you come back here, and we’ll talk about it," Jack suggested cautiously.
As they waited for Mr. Windek to return, the three of them exchanged worried glances, their silence heavy with unspoken fears. A million questions swirled in their minds, but none of them dared to voice them. What exactly was that entity—or entities, given that it referred to itself in the plural—how did it possess Mr. Windek? Had it truly relinquished control, or was it merely pretending, manipulating him like a marionette, waiting for the perfect moment to strike? As the fear and paranoia began to settle in, Jack was the first to break the silence.
"We can’t keep this between us. We need to talk to Barrett."
"You mean, you need to talk to Barrett," Dr. Liu quipped dryly. "He doesn’t seem like the type of man I’d want to deliver bad news to."
"We’ll do it together," Arda corrected him. "Just as we chose to do this together. I have never met Major Barrett, but surely he cannot frighten you more than whatever being we just spoke to."
"I’d put them on about equal footing, really," Jack joked, trying to lighten the mood.
As soon as Mr. Windek arrived back at the laboratory, the trio informed him of what had happened. Jack observed him carefully, looking for any signs of the entity’s lingering presence, though he could draw no real conclusions one way or the other. In all aspects, his colleague seemed perfectly normal, although that in itself was somewhat suspicious. In fact, given the circumstances, he seemed in abnormally good spirits, and, perhaps even more worryingly, his limp had noticeably lessened. Was this simply a fortunate byproduct of his time in zero-G? Or was it a clue that all was not as it seemed? Either way, Jack decided to keep a close eye on him. Once they finished interrogating Mr. Windek, the group prepared for the even less pleasant task of debriefing Major Barrett.
“I will do most of the talking,” Jack surmised, attempting to project confidence. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Barrett might be unpleasant, but he isn’t crazy. The worst he can do is request a disciplinary commission. And given everything else that’s going on, I doubt he wants one digging too deeply.”
“I can take the blame,” Arda offered. “He has no authority over me, nor does the Platharian military command structure. I report directly to the Platharian Extraplanetary Exploration Directorate. Civilian. They will back our choice.”
“It won’t be necessary,” Jack insisted. “We’ve done nothing wrong. I will stand by the decision we made. And if Barrett has a problem with it, well, it’s about time someone stood up to him.” He wasn’t sure what had gotten into him. He had started the day hoping to avoid a confrontation, but now he was actively seeking it. In truth, Jack knew they weren’t fully in the right. What they did could have easily had terrible consequences. He wasn’t even sure yet that it didn’t. And perhaps under a different commanding officer, he would have been happy to admit it. But to put his principles on trial for a man who had none? To be judged by someone who took it upon himself to risk so much more? To be condemned by the man responsible for Adam’s death? No. If this was to be the moment that all hell broke loose, then so be it.
The group soon arrived in Barrett’s office, where they were greeted by the Major lounging casually against his desk and Mr. Okoro, who seemed preoccupied with reading some reports. As they began telling their story, Jack studied the Major’s face. As with their earlier confrontation, Barrett maintained his composure perfectly, as if nothing they could say could possibly surprise him. When Jack finished speaking, Barrett, still perfectly composed, stood up, straightened his back, and approached him. In an instant, his entire demeanor changed—his body tensed, and his face twisted into a horrifying grimace. Before Jack could react, Barrett punched him in the jaw, sending him to the ground.
With his calm façade fully stripped away, the Major towered over Jack, completely unhinged as he prepared to deliver another blow. With his mouth filling with blood and his vision blurred, Jack tried to stand up, in vain. He lay back on the ground, fully accepting his fate, when Arda stepped between them. Her body language was rigid, but not overtly aggressive, as she tensed every muscle in her body, like a predator on the prowl. Suddenly flummoxed, Barrett briefly contemplated taking a swing at her as well, before retreating, while Mr. Okoro breathed an audible sigh of relief in the background.
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As the Major backed off, Arda let out a series of angry-sounding, high-pitched wails and whistles, which the translator around her neck rendered into dispassionate, monotone English after a brief delay:
“I was the one who negotiated with the entity. I am to blame for the situation we are in. If you cannot vent your frustration in another way, I am the one you should hit. But be warned, I will hit back.”
Barrett didn’t seem inclined to take her up on her offer. Wordlessly, he sat down at his desk, opened a cabinet, and dug out a fancy-looking bottle of whiskey. He tried to compose himself as he meticulously poured two fingers into his glass and took a small sip. Finally, after some time, he fixed his gaze on Jack, who was now sitting cross-legged on the floor, and began speaking in a low, menacing tone:
“From the day you waltzed into my office, high on your own sanctimoniousness, I expected something from you. But this? This!?” His face slowly turned red as he spoke. “You would screw over this entire goddamn ship just to get back at me?”
“This had nothing to do with you!” Jack protested, finally getting up. A sliver of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth as he spoke. “Dr. Liu and Arda were working on a task you gave them yourself! Mr. Windek and I were only helping them. The only thing screwing us over is your paranoia!” He was stretching the truth, but in light of what had occurred, no onlooker would have suspected it. Barrett had overplayed his hand.
The Major rifled through his desk for a few moments, then pulled out a piece of paper. “In the last update I received, they were working on temperature controls. You mind telling me how you get from that to promising some AI—or whatever this thing is—that you would give it back control of the ship?”
“It had taken one member of the crew hostage,” Jack replied, pointing to Mr. Windek. “We were dealing with an intelligence of unknown capabilities and intent, and we got it to cooperate with us to the best of our ability.”
“It’s a peculiar thing, isn’t it, Nereus? How things always seem to work out in your favor,” Barrett retorted sarcastically.
“We will have to comply with it,” Mr. Okoro spoke up for the first time, still half-pretending to be immersed in his reports. “Regardless of whatever differences of opinion we might have, it’s out of our hands now. We cannot risk upsetting it by going back on the deal they made.”
“Of course not. All we can do now is evacuate as many people off the ship as possible and pray that these four morons haven’t doomed the rest of us.” As he spoke, the Major dismissively pointed the group toward the door.
“That didn’t exactly go as planned,” Mr. Windek joked as soon as they were out of the room. “You shouldn’t make a habit of antagonizing your superior officers, Jack. It’s not wise.”
“Perhaps the Major shouldn’t make a habit of assaulting those under his command,” Dr. Liu retorted.
“In our military, he would have been stripped of his command for that alone,” Arda’s translator relayed. “This man is out of control.”
“I doubt it,” Jack said, still nursing his jaw. “The problem is that this is what he’s like when he’s perfectly in control.”
With those words, the four of them parted ways, and Jack began walking toward his tent. His entire face hurt, and so did his pride, but he had managed to stand his ground against the Major. As he walked back, evacuation orders began blaring throughout the ship, with various crew members and soldiers frantically running around. As he watched the spectacle unfold, a thought suddenly dawned on Jack: he had inadvertently solved one of Barrett’s biggest problems. With a legitimate threat aboard, this was the perfect excuse for Barrett to get rid of most people who could have undermined his authority or caused problems, keeping only his most trusted men and the garrison of Intelligence Operation commandos. Jack briefly wondered if he would be sent away as well. In many ways, it would have solved most of his immediate problems. He wouldn’t have had to worry about Barrett anymore, or the Mothership. And given all he had gone through, he would probably end up reassigned somewhere far from the frontlines.
But the more he thought about it, the more he hated the idea. He was no longer the kind of man who would run away from danger and responsibility, and as much as he worried about the various issues aboard, he didn’t want the situation out of his hands either. He had grown accustomed to responsibility, and he had even begun to crave it. No sooner had he walked back into his tent than his wristpad buzzed with a message from Mr. Okoro. He demanded to see him.
As he was making his way through the increasingly frantic and noisy crowd, Jack was unexpectedly grabbed by the arm and quickly dragged into an empty room. He turned around only to see Mr. Okoro shut the door, signaling him to keep quiet with a quick gesture. Paranoid and visibly unnerved, the agent paced around the room silently for a few seconds before speaking in a hushed, serious tone:
“I have known Barrett for 12 years. In all this time, I have never seen him lose it like that.” He looked Jack straight in the eyes, an unnerving expression on his face. “Either he’s truly gone off the deep end, or it was all an act for our benefit. In any case, we need to be careful. He’s planning something.”
“What exactly can we do?” Jack inquired tentatively.
“Nothing, for now. He’s assigned every scientist and technician we aren’t sending away to reconnect all the processing centers the Kharlath cut off. There are a few dozen of them, but it will only take a few hours. He wants all unnecessary personnel off the ship by the time it’s ready. Luckily, I’m the one who gets to make the list of who stays.”
“Don’t you think it’s a test? To see who you’d pick?”
“Everything is a test with Barrett,” Mr. Okoro laughed. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ve talked him into keeping three Assault Corps platoons on board to make sure we comfortably outnumber the Kharlath prisoners who stayed behind. More importantly, I’m keeping you, Ms. Nakayama, Mr. Windek, and everyone else who came on the Bismarck or the Yi. The Platharian scientist who was with you stayed behind to supervise the operations, alongside Dr. Liu. That means that, leaving aside the Assault Corps guys, we have a slight edge, at least in terms of pure numbers, over his Intelligence Operations goons.”
“Aren’t you one of those goons, Agent Okoro?” Jack accused, half-jokingly.
“I am your friend.” The operative seemed genuinely hurt by the assertion. “As far as I’m concerned, you did nothing wrong. So long as that holds true, my loyalties lie with you.” As if that exchange hadn’t taken place, he continued in the same cold, professional tone: “There’s also another matter. The Templar, Knight Zhōu, has requested to remain on board, and more crucially, so has one of the Othiri. The Templar will stay out of everyone’s way; I suspect he’s merely curious about what is going to happen to the ship. Our other passenger, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely.”
“The Othiri are what started this in the first place. There’s no way he’d be on Barrett’s side, right?” Jack wondered aloud.
“They’re not on anyone’s side but their own. Truthfully, we have no clue what they want or what they will do to get it. To them, everything is like a game of chess, and we’re all just pawns.”
Mr. Okoro signaled for Jack to wait a few seconds, then crept through the door. Left alone in the dingy, cavern-like chamber, Jack began pacing back and forth, absentmindedly looking around. The muffled chaos of hundreds of people running around aimlessly could be heard from outside. Rather than join them, he decided to wait there for a while and catch his breath. He didn’t know who to trust or what to do. He was stuck, waiting for something to happen, for who knows how long. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the noise outside abated, and he decided to venture out of the room.
Now virtually deserted, the Mothership’s corridors seemed a lot creepier, especially in light of the recent revelations. He walked around aimlessly for a bit, trying to gather his thoughts, before resigning himself to going back to his tent and trying to catch some sleep. There was nothing else he could do, and whatever was about to happen, it couldn’t hurt to be well-rested. As he re-entered the gigantic open room that served as their living quarters, he was stunned to see the state it had been reduced to in only a few hours. Collapsed tents, half-eaten meals, pieces of clothing, even weapons littered the floor from one end of the room to the other. A handful of tents scattered about still stood in the chaos, like tiny shoals jutting out of an ocean of garbage. He searched around for a bit until he located his former abode, dismayed to find it destroyed and scattered around. Resigned, he fished his sleeping bag out of the pile, set it on the ground, and jumped inside, still in uniform. He was too exhausted to care about anything else.
As he drifted off to sleep, he felt a slight vibration in the room that grew stronger and stronger until he was violently rattled awake and thrown into the air. As he tried to regain his bearings, he realized that he was still in the air, not falling. He looked down to see his body lying there, eyes wide open, frozen in time. For a moment, he thought he was dreaming before he realized what was happening: the Mothership had jumped again!