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in the void, they dwell
chapter twelve

Written by Ghost Capelton

What they had all just experienced was… harrowing to say the least. That creature, whatever it had been, was not something they’d want to trifle with in the future. They were lucky to have seemingly shaken it off their tail. Bruno chose to ignore the monolith, and the others followed close behind, crowding around a glowing terminal. They had to do something, had to get through to the other person on this vessel. “Maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll listen to reason.”

“They’ve gone crazy at this point,” Adair said with a scoff. Her eyes drifted to Cassian, still quiet. Contemplating on everything they had just been through, and no doubt still reeling from what he had been through on his own. “What’s the point in trying to reason with her? We’d be better off using the terminal for anything else.”

“And what idea do you have, exactly?” Florian interjected. “We’re on the cusp of death every moment. We have to try something, and right now, Bruno’s the only person trying.”

Already, he had been typing away a lengthy message on the terminal. His hand hovered over the enter key, reading over it quickly, before pressing down to send. The group waited with bated breath, completely unsure as to what the response would be from the stranger, and then…

A video feed popped up on the terminal. Ambrose, lit by the glow of a monitor, stood on what looked like the bridge of Entropy IV.

“A truce?” she said, cackling. “Fools.”

“Fools?” Bruno said incredulously as the monitor switched off.

“I warned you it was a bad idea,” Adair stated through gritted teeth. “Now she's going to know where exactly we are and-”

“Warning.” A cool, flat voice coming over the ship's loudspeakers interrupted. “Self-destruct sequence commencing. Please maintain orderly conduct en route to any escape vessels. Please ensure to follow the flashing safety lights if you do not know the location of an escape vessel.”

The lights, and the rest of the power to their deck, shut off. They were cut off, lit dimly in the emergency lights.

“Shit,” Florian said with a dark chuckle. “That isn’t good. We should... get out of here.”

Bruno looked at his datapad in frustration. "She locked down the docking ports. Even if we could get back to the ship, we can't leave."

"What about escape pods? Aren't there some on the bridge?" said Florian.

"We'd be stranded in space, Florian," said Bruno.

“I think that's where Ambrose is. That's where we need to go. Escape or shut off the self destruct, or just... y'know, kill her," said Adair.

“Wait,” Bruno interjected. “The path could be dangerous. Scans show... strange anomalies on this deck. We could try plugging Cassian into the system. See if we can get the self destruct shut off remotely, or call a turbolift straight there.”

“That's not an option,” Adair said. "You know what happened to Cassian last time he interfaced with something on Entropy IV."

“Well, whatever we do, there’s going to be a risk. Either we walk into some new fresh hell, or someone takes the risk and plugs in. Either way, there’s a chance we don’t make it.” Bruno answered.

Adair mulled it over. She had no idea if it would end in disaster or not. They certainly couldn't get back to the ship in time - Ambrose would know that's exactly where they were going. The likelihood of other functional escape vessels being around was low, and they'd be stranded in space anyway. Everything at this point was entirely up to chance. But a choice had to be made.

Art by gummiisnax