Space station theta, placed at the furthest edge of the known universe.

Three astronauts lived inside, their task was not so simple.

To fix the universe.

There was Bono, the golden-skinned herald with a thorny halo, who was responsible for communication with the mother base.

There was Natalie, a girl with colorful, parrot feathers sparsely decorating most of her body, including the arms, legs, and face. Two feathers protruded from her hair, acting like small antennas. She also had four wings, although there was no use for them in space.

At last, there was Yerl. Half-cyborg with a woolly coat on his shins and forearms, and a pair of small horns.

Natalie looked outside the window, there were long, barely visible, dark rifts spanning across the region – layered one after another. She knew that her shift started in a few minutes. Lazily, she stretched her arms and awaited Yerl's return.

The airlock opened, Yarl was standing in his blue spacesuit and unfastening a repair tool.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." - Yerl noticed that Natali, in her citrine suit but still without a helmet, was ready to replace him.

"Yawn, good morning." - Natalie replied. - "How was your day?"

"Uninteresting, no anomalies or intruders." - Yerl responded and handed the repair tool to Natalie. - "I wish you the same luck that I had."

"Thanks." - The girl attached the tool to her belt, then equipped a helmet.

Yerl sat on a bench next to the airlock and leaned against the wall, he stared at the cold light of long, rectangular lamps above his head. - "When do you think we are getting a vacation? It's been six straining years... I miss my family."

"When the universe is fixed, of course." - Natalie laughed through her helmet.

"Don't joke, I'm serious." - Yerl smiled, Natalie's statement was absurd. There was no way that they were capable of fixing the universe just in a team of two, it would take an unimaginable amount of eons.

"If you want to be serious, then talk with Bono." - Natalie winked.

"Oh, Bono. You know our boss, his answer is always the same."

"Yes - 'When the council finds a new team'" – Natalie giggled.

"Apparently, we're the only qualified personnel who wants to spend a big chunk of their lives just fixing holes in space." - Yerl complained. - "If I knew it's going to be like this, I would've..."

Natalie stopped Yerl. - "You would have still chosen the same, you've got a big, golden heart."

Yerl smiled, but it was a tired smile. - "Thanks, I needed this."

"...so, will you talk to the Bono?"

"What for? You know how empty it is, all he can talk about are procedures and work."

"You must feel it. He acts more and more like a machine, don't let him forget who we are. He might be well adjusted to solitude, but there are better choices than his robotic loneliness."

"Sigh, I'll talk to Bono, but I'm worried it'll affect my mental health."

"Hey, I'm here to cheer you up." - Natalie said as she entered the code to an airlock, then swiped an access card.

"You say that, but you're already leaving."

"I'm sorry, the time is one the clock."

"Yeah, I get it. Once again, good luck."

Natalie smiled for the last time and waved goodbye. The lock closed and pressure slowly stabilized, until the girl was ready to venture into the unknown.

Natalie drifted through the empty vastness of space, stars shined around her. She stopped at the large rift and took out her repair tool. The girl pressed the trigger and flux of white spatial energy shot towards the edges of the rift. The edges started closing in, until the upper part of the hole fully closed. Natalie slowly moved her device down, fixing the rift in its entirety.

"The first hole closed!" - The girl cheered for a small success, then moved to another gap.

She fixed a hole after a hole, minutes passed, until red lights activated in herm helmet and alarm started blaring. Natalie quickly activated comms. - "What is it, Bono?"

"The nightmares!" - Bono shouted.

"Nightmares? Sorry, I don't understand."

"Just return to base, RIGHT NOW!"

Natalie didn't hesitate and activated pulse jets on her back. She located the base and pushed herself in its direction.

Then, the space around her and the base turned white. At the same time, the stars turned black. It's like the colors of everything reversed.

"Bono!? Bono!? What's the status?" - The girl shouted.

"Don't. Return." - Bono uttered, his voice was different. Deeper, like If he was severely wounded.

"Why change your mind!? WHY !?" - Natalie shouted, but there only was radio silence.

I have to return. - Natalie thought to herself, but her hands were shaking from fear. She felt that something is very wrong.

As she was nearing the base, she spotted a black slimy orb, covered by a fabric akin to a silver web. Underneath it, were many arms, eyes, and mouths, blabbering in an unknown language.

"I don't know what you are, but you're blocking the way." - Natalie warned the creature as she pressed the buttons on the forearm of her spacesuit. Her waist was surrounded by a red ring formed of nine other red rings parallel to her body.

The creature directed its gaze towards the girl, and the girl froze in terror. Her mind was filled with images of gore, her friend Yerl experiencing unspeakable horrors. It was a vision of the present. It was also a warning to not come any closer. The beast didn't want to be interrupted.

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Under Natalie's helmet, tears formed. She didn't want to stay here, but she also didn't want to walk away.

"You... you won't do 'that' to me?" - She uttered out in low voice.

"Not yet." - A sound echoed in her head and the girl screamed in response.

All of the rings illuminated at an instant and a barrage of crimson missiles shot at the monster, riddling its body in holes. The nightmares didn't know who they were messing with.

"Yerl!" - The girl screamed after the nightmare was incapacitated and flew to the airlock. She hastily pushed the buttons on the wall, then entered the corridor.

Emergency power was on, blue light flickered in the dark. The walls were cracked and distorted, like by some kind of vortex. There were unfamiliar outgrowths on them. There was a thick layer of sand on the ground, of unknown origin.

"Yerl, Bono!?" - Natalie screamed through the comms, hoping for an answer, as she rushed past the strange drought. She tripped over something and landed on her knees.

The girl looked, it was Yerl, but he was deformed beyond recognition. There were yellow eyes on his entire body, they were implanted by sharp bristles. Those were parasites, they dried Yerl's body off all life.

"Yerl..." - Natalie covered her mouth. - "Yerl!" - She hastily started taking eyes off the Yerl.

Yerl barely gurgled out a word. - "Bo... no."

"I can't leave you like this!" - Natalie despaired.

"He... lp. Bo... no."

Natalie cried, but there was nothing she could do anymore. The curse was too strong. She stood up and recollected herself. - "Okay. Thanks for everything, Yerl." - She tried to smile one last time, but instead she broke into tears.

"Go." - Yerl uttered with his last breath.

Natalie rushed to the armory and took a pistol and a forearm blade.

As she ran, walls became like liquid obsidian and started shifting, constructing formless silhouettes with wide mouth-like and eye-like gaps. Natalie slashed through them, splitting them in two, but they would just splash and recreate.

It didn't take long before she was surrounded. She fought fiercely, firing rounds in all directions, but she could not withstand increasing assaults. In a moment, she was pierced by a net of black wires and eldritch fluids started seeping inside her flesh.

Natalie vomited into her helmet, it was a black substance.

"No... not yet." - The girl slashed at wires and freed herself, then screamed. A pinkish nova burst, originating from her body, and incinerated the tarlike blobs.

Natalie took off her helmet and upper part of the spacesuit, then inspected the wounds. They were infected, they've hurt like nothing she endured before and her head was getting dizzy, flashes of invasive, horrific thoughts invaded her mind.

"Only Bono can cure this." - She uttered, then headed to the control room.

The gate was guarded by a blob made of grey scales that constantly shifted down, like a sort of a fountain. Natalie shot at it, but the missile couldn't penetrate the armor.

"Bono, I'm coming." - The girl said as her eyes started glowing with golden shine, there were silver sparkles in her pupils.

Natalie focused all energy in her fist and directed her punch at the monster, which in response focused all of the scales in a single place. The fist struck the scales, which shattered under the tremendous power of the blow. Energy blew a hole in the creature, and it the gate behind it.

Bono was sitting in the chair, without an arm and leg, trembling and in tears, directing a gun at the now broken gate.

"Bono..." - Natalie smiled with relief and collapsed. - "You are not a machine, after all."

"Natalie!" - Bono yelled and dropped on the floor, then started crawling towards the girl.

"Bono..." - Natalie uttered. - "Help, please."

Bono didn't speak a word, instead, he leaned over Natalie and held his only hand over her wounds, the black spots gradually evaporated, replaced by pale circles.

"Your arm... and leg." - Natalie uttered as she was getting better.

"Don't worry. They can be replaced by cybernetics." - Bono spoke through tears.

"Bono... are we safe?"

"It was a stray nightmare and it's dying, but we have to finish it off."

"How? Can you kill a nightmare?"

"We will blow the core of the station up, creating a pocket universe to imprison it. It can't escape the explosion range."

"We will die as heroes."

"No."

Natalie lifted her big eyes, she didn't understand.

"We won't die." - Bono responded. - "We will escape in drop pods."

"Where? There is only space around us."

"To the nearest star, in cryostasis. That's our only chance... to continue our work."

"Bono... you still think about fixing the universe, after all that happened?"

"It's our mission, so what happened today, won't happen to anyone in the future."

"Ah." - Natalie smirked and slowly got up. - "You make me do all the work again, Bono."

"No other choice." - He replied as Natalie lifted him by the arm, over her shoulder.

Natalie and Bono left the room, but what awaited them wasn't what they used to know. It was like a psychedelic vision, wavy stripes in chromatic colors replaced steel rooms, the reality was deforming. Their feet sink in the floor slightly, and when they lifted them, it was like they were walking on a chewed gum.

Strange tubes and jellyfish-like creatures made a home out of their station, they ignored the astronaut crew, but their proximity caused a strong migraine.

As they progressed, roots started growing out of Bono's missing arm and leg and he started screaming in pain.

"Just a few meters more, Bono." - Natalie said as she carried him, but suddenly she stopped.

It was Yerl. He stood in front of her. Alive and normal.

"Yerl! You're alive!" - Natalie screamed with happy tears.

"Natalie – you need to leave him, we won't make it out otherwise." - Yerl extended his hand to the girl.

"Yerl? What are you talking about?"

"This place is turning into a trap, If you stay here, you will suffer unimaginable horrors, like me. There will be no second chance. We need to get out. He's already a lost case, look at the roots."

"We can't leave Bono! He has saved my life!"

"You saved his first, but he doesn't care about us, he only cares about the mission."

"Don't say that!"

Bono lifted his tired head. - "He's honest."

"What?" - Natalie uttered.

"See?" - Yerl added.

"I lack empathy, I never could adjust to people. I consider myself and you only as tools."

"Don't be so heartless to yourself!" - Natalie exclaimed. - "You still do what you do, for some reason, you accepted the mission! For the greater, utilitarian good!"

"Perhaps there is some good to that, but I only work for the sake of forgetting about who I am. Just... let me go."

"No, you can have a heart, If you wish to!" - Natalie shouted and started dragging Bono with her.

"I don't want to have a heart!" - Bono replied. - "I don't want to feel. Not anymore. Let me go."

"Yerl! Say something!" - Natalie cried out.

"What!? Nothing is going to change his mind! He's a lost cause!" - Yerl replied. - "You have to hurry and get out of here! I won't be waiting! The place is soon going to collapse."

Natalie regained her resolution. - "Yerl would never say that."

"What?" - Yerl uttered.

"What?" - Bono whispered out.

"How did you restore your body?" - Natalie asked and pointed her gun at Yerl.

"You must be kidding me! You're no longer thinking sanely, give it to me!" - Yerl said and took a step closer to a girl, extending his hand.

"No, not another step!" - Natalie shouted. - "How are you alive and intact!?"

"I don't know, I just woke up like this!"

"How do you know that the place is going to collapse?" - Natalie asked.

Yerl was standing still, unable to answer.

"So? Tell me..."

"I just... know."

"Somehow?"

"Somehow."

"I'm sorry Yerl, but Yerl is already gone." - Natalie pointed the gun at Yerl's head.

"Don't do that! Natalie, it's a big mistake!"

Natalie pulled the trigger. Yerl's head exploded, turning in black tar, like the rest of his body.

"How did you... know?" - Bono asked.

"One day, one day, Bono." - Tear's welled up Natalie's eyes, she couldn't stand to watch Yerl, gone again. - "It's time to go..."