"Dad! DAD!"

Urle pushed out of his seat. The panic if his daughter's voice was something serious; not a bumped head, not in jest. There was a problem.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"Lieutenant Pirra and Commander Cenz are back! He's hurt!" Hannah said, fear and panic in her voice.

Urle pushed off the deck past her and into the hall.

There was already a crowd, and he saw Cenz being helped along by a crew member. His suit was gone; he looked dry as bone, and Urle felt a stab of horror as he saw the massive chunk of his side that was missing.

Pirra was leaning against a wall, waving away another crew member who was trying to help her.

"Just help Cenz," she said. She looked exhausted, battered and bruised, but not seriously injured.

"Pirra!" Alexander shoved through the crowd in his haste to reach her, and when she saw him her eyes lit up.

She said nothing, merely throwing her arms around him.

"Oh god, I was so worried," he said, embracing her.

"We should have gone to Axas," she said, a true but weary smile on her face.

Urle pushed in towards Cenz. "Let me through, I can assist," he said.

Brooks appeared as Urle hooked his arm under Cenz's other side. There was some dampness left in the crevices of his body, but it didn't seem good. His polyps looked like the color had drained from them.

"System, begin filling medical tub A with a saline solution for a Coral," he ordered.

Pirra came alongside, still watching Cenz. "He's been out of his suit for a few hours now. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure how long, I'll have to check my system."

She sounded like she blamed herself, and Urle nodded to her. "You did good work bringing him back, Pirra."

She glanced towards the airlock. Kell was standing there, watching impassively.

"The Ambassador saved our lives," she said. "We wouldn't have made it back without him."

Urle said no more, continuing on with Cenz.

As they brought the being into the medical bay, the tub was already half-filled.

Even in the low gravity, it was tricky getting Cenz into the tank, but they managed. As the medicated water went over his body, he saw the polyps begin to move. But it was only the flow of water that was doing it. He still was not sure if the being was even alive.

"Sir," the medical orderly said. "I think we've got life signs!"

Urle slowly let out his held breath. "Track the numbers. I want every last polyp accounted for."

As the orderly went to work, Urle crouched next to the tank, looking in the side. His own sensors could not tell much about Cenz. He never had seen the being like this.

He'd always seemed huge, in his hulking water-filled suit. But now, outside of it, he could see each chunk of rock, held together by strange pink strands that he knew served as the muscle fibers of his body.

And he looked so small.

*******

Pirra felt drained. She felt shocked that she had made it. Her guard didn't want to drop - somewhere along the way she had accepted her death as inevitable.

Alexander still held her, his presence a comfort. She was shivering slightly, a reaction to adrenal letdown that many species shared.

But her duty wasn't done yet. She had to tell the Captain.

"I have to make a report," she told Alexander, slipping from his grip.

"Pirra, you need medical attention-" he said, alarmed - and right, she knew.

"This is more important," she told him, meeting his gaze.

He stared back into her eyes, and she knew that on some level he would never understand her, nor she him. There was just too much distance.

Alexander nodded. He did not understand her, but he respected her.

It was enough.

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She moved away, glad they were in zero-g. She wasn't sure she could walk right now in full gravity.

Alexander kept watching her until she rounded the corner. The Captain had gone down towards the med center.

A shadow loomed over her, and she nearly jumped. It was Kell.

"You did not abandon him," the Ambassador said. "Why?"

It took her a moment to realize that it meant Cenz. "I won't abandon anyone if I have a choice," she replied.

There was nothing on the Ambassador's face to read. Was Kell really that mercenary? Would he have simply left a dying comrade?

But then, he had showed up for them.

She didn't know what to make of that. Looking at him, she could only think of the violence he'd left in his wake.

"I am impressed," the Ambassador said as he turned and drifted away.

Pirra watched after the being for a moment, before forcing herself to move again. Entering the med center, she saw Brooks standing out of the way as Urle and the medical team tried to save the Commander's life.

She forced herself to ignore it. She couldn't do anything else for Cenz right now.

"Captain," she said. "I have to report to you what we saw."

Brooks looked her over. "Are you in a condition to-"

"They were trying to kill us," she said quickly. "I have evidence. And . . . there's more."

Brooks' expression went grim. "Step into the conference room and tell me everything."

*******

Apollonia felt light-headed as the aide told her to follow him.

He was grim, and she wondered if the . . . thing . . . had spoken to her honestly. If it had even gotten a chance to talk to Captain Brooks.

Maybe she was being taken to the airlock. The Governor might be wanting to kill her rather than let her go.

Lord knew the man had hated her from the moment she'd come onto the station.

It was the same everywhere she'd been, though. People disliked her from the moment they met her. Just something about her - no matter how much she'd tried to overcome it, once people made their judgments they were hard to change.

They came to a juncture. To take the left path would lead to the more public docking stations. The right would lead to the more deserted airlocks. Where she could be disposed of quietly.

Part of her wanted to fight, to not go down easily.

But enough of her still wanted it to be over, to let the end come. She wouldn't have the will to fight hard, to the bitter end.

She was almost disappointed as they went left.

Moments after, she felt a burning sense of fear that left her knees weak. The possibility of her own end was overwhelming, and yet it had been averted.

She heard a sound and looked over. She often heard them, but they were nothing - a literal figment of her mind.

But this time it was real. It was a person noticing her. He'd dropped the box he was carrying, and it had floated into the wall. He was just staring at her.

Another man stopped, looking first to him quizzically, but then his gaze was drawn to her. He leaned in to whisper something to his friend.

It didn't even surprise her at this point. She smiled to them, a smile laced with threat, and they wilted away.

At least that part was amusing. Until people started throwing stones.

They were now in one of the busier parts of the station, an area she rarely had frequented. The brightness was exotic to her, and she looked around. Would the ship that Brooks commanded be like the colony? Smaller, maybe?

The aide stopped. "My instructions are to take you to this ship and observe you boarding. You are not to return to the colony." He regarded her with a confused look. Part of him seemed to be drawn to her, another part seemed revolted.

"What about my belongings?" she asked.

"I was not informed of-"

"I'm kidding, I don't own a damn thing." She gave the man a look up and down. "Don't worry, I'm never coming back to this shithole again."

She went towards the ship - or rather, the docking hatch. The ship itself was on the other side of a thick wall that protected them all from the vacuum of the dock. The image of it was just projected.

It wasn't a big ship at all. Did they really want her to live on that thing . . . ?

Going up to the airlock hatch, she wondered what she was supposed to do.

A voice came out. "Identify yourself," a computer voice said.

"Uh . . . I'm Apollonia Nor. The Captain is expecting me."

"You are not on the itinerary. One moment."

The airlock door opened almost immediately, surprising her - but then she realized just what it was that had opened the door.

The thing that called itself Kell stood there, watching her impassively.

"Are you going to let me in?" she asked. He was blocking the way.

Without a word, the being turned and moved back in.

It didn't push off anything. It simply moved . . . the body was an illusion. Real and physcial constructions, yet a lie. The true thing, the . . . Shoggoth . . . was nothing like it.

Slowly, she followed. The airlock door behind her closed and the one at the other end opened.

Brooks was there, looking surprised.

"Thank you, Ambassador," he said with surprising calm to the being.

Part of her wanted to scream to him that he should be afraid of that thing, not act nice to it. But she didn't voice the words. Too many people had said things like that about her for it to ever sit right with her.

"Captain," she said. "I was brought here. Am I now your prisoner?"

"No," Brooks assured her. "There's no evidence to make any charges of murder stick in a real court. The Governor has asked that we take you off this colony - and we will do that. If you then decide you do not wish to join my ship's crew, then we will be fine dropping you off wherever you wish when we next make port."

She wasn't sure she believed that. People generally were not this nice - unless they were pretending.

"All right," she said. "I'll come along."

It wasn't like she had a choice.