"WARNING! STATION DESTABILISATION IN PROGRESS! ARRAY FAILURE IN T-MINUS THIRTY MINUTES."

Nova and Izerva trudged their way through the sector as the PA system echoed its doomed report. Nebulous tendrils bled out of the vents, free of its vaporized prison Neo put it in. It dug itself into the hull and the station rumbled.

"We have to get off this station," she repeated and guided Neo and Izerva along. "What was happening when you left Ulin and Thuni?"

Izerva's ears flicked when they descended into the south transit and they set Neo across the seats. "We heard things in the ventilation system." Their tail trembled. "It was all around us."

Then we're finally out of time.

Both their communicators rang to life. "Where are you two?" Thuni yelled over crumbling metal. Static drowned out his voice. "We have a serious hull breach! I'm having Ulin disconnect the Droid Bay from the main station to give us some time, but you three need to hurry up over here."

Nova eyed Izerva, who frowned. "Thuni?" she asked at the continuous static. "What's going on?"

...nothing.

Dread overflowed in her heart when the transit closed in on the southern station. Every minute threatened to crush the space station in the maw of the cosmic void. "Hull breaches," she mumbled. "Something either attacked us from the outside or... no, something crashed into us." No time to consider the options where everyone died over and over again, she regathered her thoughts and squeezed Neo's shoulder. "Neo?"

Izerva tapped their communicator with an agitated twitch of their ears.

Nova patted him when he gave the slightest nod of acknowledgement, but never opened his eyes. She jumped when the transit screeched to a sudden stop. "What?" Nova rushed for the override terminal, but it sent out red error codes. "Shit!" She sent her fist into the screen, but it refused to budge.

"We must walk the rest of the path." Izerva hauled Neo to his feet, and Nova rushed over to help them.

"I hope Thuni and Ulin are waiting for us on the other side," Nova hissed, trying to push out the choke of another loop out of her mind, where the monster left Thuni for a fate worse than death. "Something is ripping this station apart from the outside." Nova glanced at Neo, who rested his head against hers with an enviously calm expression on his face. And I don't think it's him.

Izerva hopped onto the track, and with their help, Nova lowered Neo into their waiting hands. All around them the PA system and alarms shuddered into stardust. Other parts of the station lost itself to the unknown. Her despair threatened to crush what hope remained as they guided Neo along, his own steps too weak to hold himself up. So far in the distance, but so close to the end. The bulkhead opened up as Thuni's broad shape rushed around the corner to stand at the edge.

"Get over here!" Thuni snapped. "There's something coming from behind you!"

Nova jolted and snapped her head to look behind her, but the hungering void mixed with the nebula. Slowed down with Neo attached to her and Izerva's shoulders, they tried to outpace the speed of light. Close to the edge, Izerva let go of Neo to hop onto the edge with Thuni. Nova went to hand Neo to them, but gasped when the transit tracks snapped with wires and metal. Another maw opened up when her hand slipped out of Neo's.

NO!

Izerva and Thuni both lunged forward in the slow piece of time.

Nova scrambled to the edge, and twisted around as Neo clung onto Thuni, eyes now open as he hung there. Thuni dragged Neo from the drop into engineering. "Starsdammit, Teimea, you're heavier than you look," he hissed and tugged Neo onto flat ground as metal cracked across from them. "Get through the bulkhead!"

Nova held onto Neo when Thuni tossed them both through. Izerva followed behind. Thuni tucked his head when sparks exploded in the darkness, and a formless shape oozed its way through the hull and closed in on the transit car. "Ulin! Close it!"

With an energetic snap, the bulkhead closed.

Thuni stumbled them into the droid bay. His hands went to his short black hair when the silence reigned once more. "Fuck," he whispered as the next pair of blast doors shut them inside. "We're good and trapped now... I can't say how long the bay will stay uncompromised."

Nova checked around, and then passed Neo to Izerva. "Get him on the droid," she said over the ringing before rushing over to join Ulin at the docking clamps. "I am not going to get trapped again." She input her code after Ulin's while Thuni and Izerva lifted Neo into the back of her droid.

"Can the droid carry all of us?" Ulin asked as they started the launch sequence.

Nova ignored the tightness in her throat. "It depends on what you mean by all of us." One of the terminals beeped out an alert, and the clamps released. Ulin shuffled on their feet, and the weight of the question dragged down her spine. Unable to carry life, she shook her head. "Remember what I said? I gave up scanning reach so my droid could be controlled from the inside. It was meant for small research teams for planetary ventures. It was part of my proposal and that's what got me on this station in the first place, so time to use it." Her hands trembled when she opened the rest of the docks. "Just get on it."

I can save us, but I don't know if this will stick... I don't even know if Neo will survive... we're not going to loop again if we use the coordinates he has. If he dies from it...

Ulin obeyed her instruction when the monster rippled through the shadows. Unable to find anything else she needed, she raced for the droid to enter it, closing the ramp behind her. Thuni and Izerva settled Neo on one of the safety cushions. Nova took the time to activate the oxygen tanks to give them added time out in space.

"Hey..." Ulin pointed outside.

The bulkheads sucked in with cosmic dust, and the nebula swallowed it all.

The droid rumbled to life.

Nova rushed forward to the main terminal as the gaseous nebula sprayed across the walls with reds, purples, and greens. Panic weighed her heart when the terminal glitched.

No, don't do this to me now.

The clamps released in full.

"Do you even know how to fly a spaceship?" Thuni snapped from his small corner where he hung on for dear life.

"No."

Nova fought against the black hole to point their droid out into the endless expanse.

The bay doors flew past them.

It spun into a torrential cloud of stars as the B.H Supernova disappeared into its rainbow. Another hazy image of a similar station overlapped it and crushed it. Her droid beeped an alarm, but she jolted when Neo laughed, soft, certain, almost devious.

A cosmic tsunami to rip open a hole.

Nova twisted to him with Izerva, where his eyes opened and the grey nebula made a return. "Just keep flying through."

Thuni slumped into the corner. "Stars."

Dark tendrils reached out of the nebula, and drove itself into the unknown to tear it apart. It dragged the past and present together until there was nothing left, and they were sent careening out of the nebula.

Floating.

Nova kept her eyes shut. Don't reset. Don't reset. Don't reset.

Back to her reality, she whipped to face Neo when he trembled with the last remnants of his soft laugh. Dead in space, they floated through the stars. Nova jolted when Neo's eyes fluttered, and they slipped to the back of his head. "No, Neo." Nova crawled over to him, to keep him awake. Hands pressed against his face, she shook him. "Neo, come on."

He didn't stir.

Come on. We're not resetting this time. So don't... Nova bit down on her lips and begged for a chance. We're out...

Someone's hand brushed her forearm, and Nova followed the source.

Neo blinked open his eyes with a soft huff. Grey, no longer carrying the universe's truth. "Just... tired," he whispered, then slumped into the safety cushions.

Breathing. Alive.

Nova tested the reality.

No reset.

"Destination locked," her droid AI spoke, and caused the other three to flee into corners. "Movium 1XH — coordinates unregistered."

A different force clung onto them with the power of gravity. It all fell back towards a massive planet, whose well dragged them closer when the droid went into auto-pilot to adjust.

Time went forward.

Ugh... Nova held her swimming head, and the strength seeped out of her limbs. Wait... what's wrong with me...?

Everything darkened.

Nova steadied herself, but slumped beside Neo's sleeping shape when the world disappeared and Thuni shouted something.

It went silent.

—

THE END