The stars stretched into lines as the ship prepared for another aether jump.
New Verizon shrank in the distance, its glowing atmosphere dimming behind layers of reinforced glass.
Nova stood in silence near the cockpit, arms crossed. Nyx sat at the control station, her fingers flying over the aether-calibrated interface, while Anna leaned against the wall, chewing on her bottom lip.
"I hope they'll be okay. The people of New Verizon."
Anna said, her voice quiet.
Nyx didn't look up.
"You're more than welcome to go back and babysit them if you want."
Anna blinked, caught off-guard.
"W-What?"
"If you've fallen for someone, just say it. We don't need dead weight aboard the ship if your heart's stuck on some warrior with too many muscles and too few brain cells."
Anna flushed, her face turning red.
"I haven't fallen for anyone! And definitely not anyone from New Verizon!"
Her eyes flicked involuntarily toward Nova, and Nyx noticed.
"Oh? Not yet, huh?"
Nyx drawled, a grin creeping onto her face.
Anna straightened like a soldier under fire.
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"Sure you didn't. You're free to leave anytime. No one's forcing you to stay."
Nyx leaned back in her seat, smug.
"I'm staying."
Anna snapped, and turned around in a huff, muttering something under her breath.
Nyx narrowed her eyes slightly, watching her go.
Nova glanced sideways.
"Maybe don't bully her so much."
"She needs to grow thicker skin. Besides, if she's going to travel with us, she has to understand what she's signed up for."
Nyx replied curtly.
"You sound jealous."
Nyx didn't answer. She just pressed a few keys, and the aether drive purred with energy.
"The aether absorption unit is stabilized. We're ready to jump."
She said instead.
With a low hum, the ship shimmered before blinking into the void.
Anna returned minutes later, trying her best to act like nothing happened.
"So, uh... what's our next destination?"
Nyx swiveled in her chair.
"Now that we've recovered the master key from the ruins of the Mother Core, we're going after the first of the ten lost ships."
"The first?"
Anna asked.
Nova nodded.
"The Ship of Life."
Anna's expression brightened, intrigued.
"That sounds… beautiful."
"It would be, if it wasn't under the control of General Urn."
Nyx said,
The name dropped like a stone into the room. Anna's face stiffened, her lips parted in disbelief.
"Wait. General Urn? From the Galactic Naval Command?"
Nova nodded once.
Anna paled.
"You mean the Butcher of Myxian Skies? The one who leveled the Sand Arcologies on Velterra? He's the one who has it?"
"That's the one. And from what we've tracked, he's upgraded the ship of life into a mobile fortress and aligned it with the Navy's flagship battalion."
Nyx confirmed, cool as ever.
Anna slumped into the nearest seat.
"We're going to die."
Nova didn't answer.
"We're going to die. He commands a battalion. You know, fleets of warships, thousands of soldiers, orbital cannons. We have... this. A half-broken ship patched together with spare parts and sarcasm!"
She repeated, louder this time.
"Don't forget me."
Nyx added, offended.
"And Nyx. Yes. Sorry. You're very competent. But we're still going to die."
Nova moved toward her, his tone calm.
"If we were going to die, I'd tell you."
"That's not comforting!"
Anna snapped.
Nyx chuckled.
"At least she's getting louder. Maybe she'll actually survive."
"Why do we need this Ship of Life anyway?"
Anna asked, half-desperate.
"Isn't there another ship we can retrieve first?"
Nova leaned against the panel.
"Each ship has a piece of my sealed power. The Ship of Life holds my regenerative matrix. Without it, my body won't recover fast enough from using large-scale aether. The longer we wait, the more risk we take."
Anna buried her face in her hands.
"Why do all powerful people have so many problems?"
"Because power isn't free."
Nova said, his voice quiet.
The ship's control room went silent again as the jump finished, a new star system unfolding before them on the screen.
On the far edge of the scanner's range, an enormous construct shimmered against the void—almost too large to comprehend.
Nyx squinted at the readings.
"That's it. The Ship of Life... or what's left of it. He's reinforced it, spliced it with war-tech, and made it a floating military temple."
"And we're going there."
Anna said.
"Yes."
Nova replied.
Anna exhaled deeply.
"Fine. But just so you know, when we get blown up, I'm haunting you both."
Nyx rolled her eyes.
"Noted."
Nova just smiled.
"You won't get the chance."
And ahead of them, the ship surged forward once more—toward their next war.
Nyx's fingers moved quickly over the control panel, her eyes narrowed as she focused on the aether calibrations.
"Alright, I'm initiating the jump now. We'll be within scanning range of the Ship of Life in three minutes."
She said.
Anna strapped herself in tightly, her nerves already flaring.
"Do you think we'll get a peaceful welcome this time?"
"Unlikely. General Urn doesn't believe in peace."
Nova said calmly, standing near the edge of the control room.
The lights on the ship dimmed momentarily as the aether drive began to charge, a soft hum resonating through the floor.
Just as the jump sequence reached final calibration, Nova's eyes flicked sharply toward the view ahead. Something… shifted.
Like a ripple in still water, only on a scale far larger than anything natural.
"Nyx. Cancel the jump. There's something wrong."
His voice was low but commanding.
Nyx frowned, glancing back.
"What?"
"I can feel something."
Nova said, stepping toward her console.
"Another force—an external pull interacting with our aether stream. We're being redirected. Change the coordinates. Now."
Nyx's hands flew to the override console, but her expression turned grim.
"It's too late. The jump's already locked. We're caught in its gravity—and whatever's pulling us in... is stronger than the drive."
The ship shuddered violently.
Anna gripped her restraints.
"Is this supposed to happen?!"
"No. This is not normal."
Nyx snapped, her voice tight with frustration.
Aether waves collided in blinding flashes across the dashboard. The ship's readings went haywire, and alarms blared in warning.
Outside the window, the stars twisted into shapes that defied geometry.
"Brace yourselves. We're being hijacked."
Nova said, stepping beside Anna and grabbing hold of the stabilizer rail.
With a final tremor, the ship vanished from its original trajectory and reappeared—abruptly, violently—in a place none of them recognized.
Silence.
Static flickered on every monitor. The sky outside the viewport was not their destination. It wasn't even a known sector.
Anna unbuckled slowly, her voice hushed.
"Where… are we?"
Nyx scanned the local systems, sweat on her brow.
"Unknown space. No planetary signatures. No comms network. No exit trails. We're completely off-grid."
Nova stared ahead, unblinking.
The void outside shimmered unnaturally, the laws of physics warped like stretched glass. And in that emptiness, something ancient… watched.
Anna slowly moved toward the main screen, her throat dry.
"This place… it feels wrong."
Nyx nodded, fingers flying over the console.
"The aether here isn't just distorted—it's sentient. It's responding to us… watching us. This wasn't a random pull. We were brought here."
Nova narrowed his eyes at the void.
"Then someone—or something—wants us here."
Just as he spoke, the ship's lights flickered, and the air grew cold. A low hum vibrated through the walls, a presence pressing down on them.
Nyx muttered.
"This place isn't empty. It's a trap… a very old one."
And now, they were caught in it.