Like a shuttle revving up for takeoff, the dome filled with a loud hum, shaking the table on which Tejeda and Shayla were leaning. Their growing uneasiness was worsened by the steady increase in volume and tone.

Shayla pressed her hands over her ears as the continuous noise scraped at her brain. The commotion died down just when she felt she couldn't stand it any longer. She opened her eyes and took her hands away from her ears just in time to hear Uni1 speak.

"L-403 is now ready for action. We are not a tolerant race in general. But our curiosity for the Nubilae compels us to be lenient this time. We are scientists at heart, and we like knowledge. One of our deepest desires is to capture a Nubilae while he is still alive. I will give you two minutes to consider your surrender. We will even think about letting your companion leave."

Shayla wanted to decipher what was beneath the smirk on Admiral Vologorn’s face. He had a plan now for sure, but was that for the better or worse?

“I suppose you want the Oculus Grandi as well, right?” Tejeda yelled to Uni1.

The latter responded unaffected. "Not necessarily. Our primary objective is to obtain you. For the Universal Consensus, you are far more important than the Oculus Grandi. That is a mere weapon of mass destruction, while a Nubilae is something far greater than that. With you, our research will advance several centuries ahead of time."

Tejeda stared at his feet, wishing to overcome the ensuing silence. He shook his head, making his silky black hair flutter. When he turned to Shayla, his glare was clear. A purple spark danced around his grey irises. The madness was there, barely kept in check.

His hand reached into his pocket and took out a small black box. "Shayla, take it! Keep it safe. Inside is the Oculus Grandi. I know I messed things up big time. I just want you to trust me for one last time. First, we will switch weapons."

Tejeda took her laser gun and shoved Carmen into Shayla's palm, forcing her to clench her fist around the spoon. "Please look after her for me. You run when I signal, take E00, and don't look back. After you leave the dome, don't stop even for a second. Simply keep running. You will be able to tell when it is time to stop."

When he tried to rise, Shayla grabbed him by his collar, pinning him under her dark green stare. “What do you mean by one last time?”

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The purple hue was more obvious by the second while his gray gaze appeared amused. That was how madness, bloodlust, and amusement looked like combined?

“Just run and don’t look back. Don’t come after me. When everything is done, leave with the shuttle and forget I ever existed.”

Shayla couldn't identify his normal sense of humor and carefreeness in his speech. Was this the same individual that impersonated Karl and Kalden Deltak? Was he the same person who had been on the dance floor?

Shayla couldn’t tell and that revelation made her heart skip a beat. That happened again when he raised his hands above his horns and shouted. "I will come out. Uni1, make sure none of the novices have a cramp in their finger on the trigger."

Once he was up, Tejeda could see L-403. It was a sublime piece of tech for any enthusiast. Too bad that he didn’t like such things. That was the reason why he always avoided taking over the bodies of engineers. Too much headache to impersonate one.

The L-403 particle cannon stood atop an antigrav platform, as it was too heavy to be moved about. It was spherical in shape, with three curving arms positioned equidistantly around the main gun assembly. The cannon could fire a concentrated stream of negatively charged ions that could kill everything in its path.

The morons had L-403 fully charged even though it was highly unstable after the energy build-up. That made Tejeda’s upper lip curve into a perverted smile. Everything was going according to his plan.

“I will come to you while you let the woman go for the exit. We have a deal?”

Tejeda lowered his focus on Shayla, guiding her to the door with a tilt of his head, and Uni1 nodded in accord. She dashed up to E00, grabbed his robotic arm, and began pulling him toward the exit. Shayla returned a brief glance as she passed through the doorway. She couldn't see the enemies since they were hidden behind those extremely broad shoulders that covered everyone else. His hands were tucked behind his head, concealing the gun.

Shayla threw away her high-heeled shoes and continued running alongside E00, who was considerably slowing her down. The air dislocated by her body's rapid movement made her dress entangle around her legs and took away the tear from her cheek.

Tejeda smirked as the Alpha Pirates and Unis closed in on him. His eyes were totally purple now, and he was in full crazy mode. He used his thumb to set the required wavelength for the laser beam. He pulled the gun from behind his head quicker than a cowboy in an old western and fired right through the L-403 orifice.

The laser stimulated the particles to vibrate, causing them to release electromagnetic waves, in this instance gamma rays. The gamma rays, in turn, created additional electron-positron couples, and so on, culminating in a particle and radiation avalanche. The photons were powerful enough to cause atomic nuclei to get excited. Tejeda was curious about Uni's expertise in nuclear photonics, or the use of strong light to regulate nuclear processes.

Shayla was far enough away that the blast that demolished the dome merely threw her a few meters into the air. Her fingers dug into the ground, and dirt got under her fingernails. Her jaw ached from gnashing her teeth so hard. Shayla's gaze was drawn to the spoon that had fallen next to her. "What did he do, Carmen?"