“How is he?” Grand Elder Enine had been anxiously pacing outside the emergency medical bay until Dr. Goodman came out through the sliding doors.

Xeight, Bone, Yfour and Asix stood outside with their backs against the hallway walls, all had a variety of expressions-- a frown, expressionless face, squinted eyes.

Dr. Goodman shook her head somberly, and their hearts dropped.

“The emergency medical function within the cockpit of the nexarm prevented his situation from worsening for a time,” she notified them with a sorrowful voice. “But his generation…Many of his generation passed due to bodily function failure, so he was always at risk.”

“Unfortunately, this event triggered his body functions to fail. He won’t last more than an hour.” The doors slid open. “Head in.”

The group entered the medical bay to find Senior Zseven with an oxygen mask to his face. His eyes and skin were discolored yellow, a sign of liver failure. There were many other signs, such as the irregular heartbeat monitored by an ECG among others.

The elderly man weakly gestured with his hand and Enine went forth, bending down just to barely hear his father’s weak voice. Then it was Asix went next, then Bone, Yfour and lastly, Xeight.

“Xeight…” Senior Zseven’s voice could barely be heard even with Xeight placing his ear right beside the elder’s lips. “Do you see my generation’s pain…? Even those of us that live long… a stressful trigger and our brains sink into oblivion… I watched most of my friends’ final moments looking just like I do now.”

The elderly’s hoarse voice further weakened. “Xeight. If the martians fail… promise me you’ll take us to a beautiful place… a safe haven… a world of my generation’s dreams…where others can live their dreams… as you do!” At this very moment, Zseven suddenly found the strength to grip Xeight’s hand so tightly that his knuckles shone white.

“Promise me!” Zseven stared into Xeight’s eyes in desperation.

Xeight closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them again, he gazed into his dying grandpa’s eyes and nodded. Zseven’s grip relaxed in relief.

Half an hour later, Senior Zseven would breathe his last breath surrounded by his son and those he considered his grandchildren. And thus fell a past grand elder of the T3ST colony.

“Grand Elder… Should I arrange grandpa’s departure?” Asix’s voice quivered, barely retaining control.

“Yes.” Enine closed his eyes as he, too, stoically stood tall with his head held high. “Asix. We will repair his unit. You will carry on his hopes and dreams. I will take control of the ship’s coordination for now.”

Xeight felt a deep sense of sorrow in his heart, but he only knitted his brows in contemplation of what the elderly man had asked of him before his demise.

“You… you ass!” The abrupt yell came from none other than Bone, who had tears streaming down his two cheeks. Bone leapt at his younger brother, Xeight, and threw a right hook to the left jaw that sent Xeight stumbling before falling to the ground.

“If you had fought properly! Fought seriously! This wouldn’t have happened!” Bone subsequently stormed off. Yfour followed Bone’s exit, though she only shot Xeight a look of sadness and disapproval.

Asix, on the other hand, pulled Xeight back onto his feet and gave a single pat on his shoulder before leaving to arrange Senior Zseven’s departure.

Xeight looked to his father, Grand Elder Enine, but his father only waved for him to leave with his arm. “Get some rest, Xeight… I wish to be alone.”

Xeight returned to his own quarters, and though he laid in his bed, he found his mind and body restless. Eventually, he sat up and turned on his holographic news device.

He found himself watching a channel from Earth.

“The Earth Federation has deployed peacekeeping forces to counter any future forms of terrorism across the globe! All of Earth’s citizens are to cooperate to ensure safety and prosperity for all terrans! Any resistance may be perceived as a potential cover for terrorist activities and sympathizers!” A female newscaster announced.

“Next, there is a message from the EFSF!” A black-suited many walked forth and activated a holographic device.

The holographic image was the face of James MacLeod in his handsome blonde glory.

James MacLeod… Xeight still recalled their amicable conversations over the years when James visited the T3ST colony. Xeight struggled to understand why James had opted to lead the NSF against the T3ST unit. James MacLeod always spoke with a loving heart of Earth-- was that all it took?

“To the people of Earth. I am Special Lieutenant James MacLeod, leader of the nexarm special forces. We, the NSF, have managed to incapacitate an enemy’s unit!” The holographic device played the scene of nexarm bull being skewered by the three terran nexarms.

“The debt of Warsaw has yet to be repaid. We of the EFSF will ensure the people of Earth will have their enmity repaid in blood!” The shadow of his nexarm stood towered in a dominating fashion, its x-alloy plates a gleaming dark shine behind his frame.

“This is your victory. The spirit that we share with the continued efforts of the Polish to rebuild Warsaw. We will ensure that Earth remains pollution-free and its people prosperous, and our bounty from the belt guaranteed to you all!”

This announcement received many cheers from the viewers across the globe, many commenting on the barbarism of the asteroid attack in response on the channel.

Xeight sat on the edge of his bed in the darkness of his quarters, his elbows on his knees, his eyes initially closed in sorrow. Then, a petunia bloomed in his heart, filling his mind with anger and indignation.

Far away in the hangar of Starship Oneiroi, Jen MacLeod was instructing and coordinating a team of engineers to fix the damaged nexarm bull. Dressed in their spacesuits for safety, they had begun repairing the holes to the central cockpit sphere. They should be done in a few hours, then it was simply a matter of reconnecting the severed artificial muscle fibers of the nexarm’s limbs, and slotting a new x-alloy plate over the cockpit.

The eyes of Nexarm Chimera, docked and attached to many maintenance bridges, inexplicably glowed a crimson red as it suddenly took a half-step forward that rumbled the hangar, its head tilting upward in a silent scream!

Some members of the engineering team glimpsed this phenomenon out of the corner of their eyes and yet before they could confirm if it was but a hallucination, the whole team simultaneously stumbled and collapsed with their knees onto the ground as they were struck by a keening in their brains. This keening was hard to describe-- it was as if their brains were vibrating to a frequency that dulled their minds to a state of motion sickness.

One of the engineering team’s members fainted on the spot, collapsing onto the ground. Unlike the members on her team, Jen felt… different. Although she, too, felt her mind wobbling, to her, this was not unlike a comforting swaying cradle of a ship’s bow in a warm summer breeze cruising across the beautiful seas on Earth.

“Jennifer MacLeod!” Enine had contacted her through Neurorave, and his teeth seemed to be chattering in her ears, his words slurring in delusion.  “The b--bridge can feel an over-verwhelming nauseating frequency-cy from the hangar! Report your… your status!”

She walked in an uneven line towards the exit sliding doors of the hangar as if drunk.

“It… it has to be Xeight!” Though Jen was slightly unsteady on her feet, she had no issue with speaking clearly. Her mind, too, still very much maintained a high degree of function. “I believe his brain must be… resonating with his nexarm unit in some unique way. I’m heading to his quarters!”

She grasped a handle and activated the device. The handle began moving on the rails through the many corridors within Starship Oneiroi. Jen had to switch at a few intersections, but soon found herself dragged before Xeight’s quarters.

When she entered his quarters, she saw the silhouette of the man in the darkness, seated with his elbows on his knees, his shadow a hulking presence on the walls.

“Xeight!”

Xeight’s eyes opened and in the dim light that entered the room through the open doorway, Jen stumbled a half-step at Xeight’s glowing-red eyes. A single tear rolled down Xeight’s left cheek, yet it was not only sorrow that she saw in his eyes, but a mix of grievance, unwillingness combined with a state of yearning, in a state of incoherent reverie.

“Xeight!” She yelled again.

Xeight’s eyes slowly blinked, and it felt like an eon passed before his eyes opened again. His eyes had cleared, and Xeight had returned to his typical placid state.

The frequency that had been shaking Jen’s brain ceased, the storm in the seas abated. The keening in her mind had halted.

“Jen.” Xeight’s cool voice sounded in her ears. “Weren’t you repairing grandpa’s unit? My father would not be happy if he were to find you here at this specific time with our current situation…”

Xeight had stood up and removed her helmet as bear-hugged Jen. She was silent as she returned the warmth and melted into his arms.

“Are you alright?” She whispered. She had wanted to comfort Xeight, but they had to maintain a state of combat readiness, and she had no choice but to prioritize fixing nexarm bull.

“I’m better than ever.” He softly ran his hand up and down her back to allay her concerns. But Jen could sense that something had changed. He still gave her the sense that their natures had similarities, like they were two peas in a pod. Yet.. she could also tell that he now also had this… compartment within his mind that felt very much alienating to her.

“I need to run a diagnostic on your Neurorave system…” she muttered. “Something… unexpected occurred…”

“Mmmm.” They shared a deep kiss. “Go ahead.”

Xeight sat down and Jen synced their Neurorave systems. She needed to understand what had just occurred.

Her hypothesis was neither confirmed nor denied. She initially thought Xeight’s mind had somehow resonated with the neuro-core cockpit system in Nexarm Chimera. Yet, none of the data available within Xeight’s Neurorave system supported or rejected her guess.

She returned to the hangar of Starship Oeniroi. The engineering team had continued repairing the bull unit. She entered the cockpit of the chimera unit and also found nothing of note to prove or disprove her hypothesis. It was like chasing a ghost.

In the bridge of Starship Oneiroi.

At some point in time, the keening within their brains had stopped. Enine gazed around, somewhat concerned.

The door to the bridge opened as Xeight entered and stood beside his father.

Enine’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Xeight had never stood beside him on the bridge before!

“Son. Are you alright?” Enine recalled that Jen MacLeod had said something about brain resonance.

“I’m better than ever,” stated Xeight. “I would like to be the one to carry out the retrieval mission on Earth.” He needed to see Earth. This…protected globe of James MacLeod’s.

Enine’s eyes further widened, if that was even possible. For Xeight to take an interest… was inexplicable. But, it is a welcome change. Enine couldn’t stop a small smile taking shape on his face.

“Good. Son. You will take charge of that mission!” He breathed with zeal.

“Grand Elder!” Qeleven yelled, his voice quivering. “Our buoy that we left behind in the first jump point was triggered. The terran starship is pursuing us. Our energies are at forty-nine percent! Should we return home to resupply first?” He had no desire for them to run out of e-cube energy and be coasting in space for a year just to get anywhere! They had already received the signal that the asteroid ‘AR-gamah’ was accelerating towards Earth. They had time to resupply and jump to the opposite side of Earth.

Forty-nine percent might seem a substantial level of e-cube energy. Yet, if they were to do battle with the pursuing terran starship again…They also needed some energy to return to the T3ST colony, preferably undetected.

“Rejected, Qeleven. If the terran starship is pursuing us, our return will allow the terrans to pinpoint the location of our T3ST colony. You understand what that means, right?” Enine could understand Qeleven’s fear. Perhaps the previous grand elder’s death had shaken some members of the T3ST unit much deeper than he imagined.

“Any place close-by where we can scavenge for e-cube? Perhaps a recent skirmish between the martians and the terrans?” Xeight was the one who spoke, and Qeleven wasn’t sure if he should answer.

“Go ahead,” Enine nodded at his navigator.

Qeleven and his navigation team began manipulating the holographic map in the center of the bridge, searching for something close to them. There had been quite a number of skirmishes between the two fleets over the last six-to-seven months.

“Nothing recent. Older skirmishes… probably have most of their resources pillaged already.” Qeleven bit his lips with concern.

“Then, let’s threaten the e-cube generation facility at the lagrange point between Venus and the sun.”

Enine felt his heart beating at his son's audacity. Yet, it might work. The EFSF was very much focused on the asteroid belt.

“And… let’s trigger a solar flare. We just need to find an area where the magnetic field is entangled. If we use our starship’s warp field to disrupt certain interactions between celestial objects, in combination with our particle beam cannon… We should be able to release a flare from the sun. There will be no need for us to attack Earth’s umbrella.” Enine did not know his son was capable of such devious ideas.

“Analyze the possibility and presence of sunspots.” To trigger such an event required certain conditions to be in place first. An entanglement of the magnetic fields on the sun.

A few minutes later.

“Grand Elder. Simulations indicate a high certainty of triggering such an event. The sun is over seventy percent into its flare cycle. With a bit of coaxing, our simulations indicate that we can induce the early release of said flare.” This came from Ofour, a member in charge of analyzing space phenomena for the T3ST unit’s travels.

“Will we be safe?”

“The multi-layered x-alloy plates will do their job. Pity that Earth can’t afford to coat all of its systems in this metal,” Ofour grinned. He felt rather excited that they would get to trigger such a phenomenon.

“Prepare short-ranged warp,” ordered Enine. “We will do a small jump to preserve our energy. We have some time before the asteroid ‘AR-gamah’ reaches the range at which the terrans will engage it. Do not bother obscuring our destination with a jump into unidentified space. We also do not have the artillery to set half-effective traps for our stalking terrans.”

“Yes, Grand Elder.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Unidentified space. Starship Atlas.

“Special Lieutenant,” Vargas spoke. “They only performed a small jump towards Mayer Station by Venus.”

“What?” James MacLeod couldn’t believe his ears at first, but it did make sense. Though, James had yet to piece together why they had accelerated the asteroid and then aimed at Mayer Station. “I see. They’re trying to resupply while avoiding EFSF strongholds. Their ETA?”

“Based on their predicted end-jump point and the coasting speed of an A-class starship…two weeks.”

“Two weeks?” James almost wanted to laugh. “They must be concerned about their energy.”

How much e-cube stores did they have left? Forty-five percent after this jump? Perhaps even less! In comparison, Starship Atlas had over sixty percent. And they would be able to resupply at the friendly Mayer Station. Venus had allied with the Earth Federation.

“Jump directly to Mayer Station. We will set a trap at the entry into the debris field around Mayer Station.”