“If you don’t mind me asking, how come that it was there? I thought that the planet was just discovered recently? Judging the spaceship’s condition, it seems like it is already been there for a long time, right?” she adjusted her glasses and pretended to be checking every detail of the picture.
“Zimmerman, did you not hear what the report said earlier? Maybe, just maybe, the claim of whoever stranger he is, is true—” Hopps was cut off by their Head.
“What we are working on at this moment is not to know why our old model of spaceship is on that planet, but to make plans for the mission given to us—to explore and investigate this new planet,” he meddled and faced her. “Anyway, we have already chosen the people who will be sent for the mission. Those who are selected are already in the different department, doing their part. Our job is to give—” His brows furrowed when she stood up. “We don’t send newbies, Zimmerman.”
“I see.” She sat back, reminding herself that this time, she is not a Captain. “Understood. Pardon for my rudeness, Sir.”
“That is fine. I was actually quite amazed that you are not anything like the other new hired. Let us have a private conversation after this.”
A kick of resentment fired up inside her, at the same time excited, for she is just either hours or days near to know the team’s doings.
—
No one knows and have seen how much he spent his every second thinking which way to go, how much he stayed up to call the heavens and asked for guidance, how many times did he almost lose hope, and have thought of giving up.
Henry has to bit his lip to suppress his sobs as he has finally seen one planet look like close enough to the Planet Freed, that he can’t even feel himself anymore in numbness as he landed his spaceship.
Upon landing, it surprised him to see four individuals wearing spacesuits heading to him. But as soon as they get closer, he almost ran to meet them halfway.
“I am glad you are fine and have found this planet!” he chuckled and cried while hugging Doctor Fresnon. “How did you make it?!” He pulls away and looked at the others.
Captain Eulysis stared at the initials on his suit. “So, all this time, my conclusions are true. What I never thought was that H.Y. is the real Lux,” he muttered.
“It is a long story. The organization is no longer working now, and my clones are already dead. They were killed by Captain Eve and her team.”
Eulejius came closer and glanced at Epharil. “Captain Eve?” he asked. “Could it be that she’s our Euvy?”
“Indeed, she is. She became your team’s Captain after they come back from your mission, and the other two became her Heads.”
“There were twelve of them who made it back, right?” Eulysise meddled.
“Yes. But three of them were assassinated by someone from the organization—another day long story.” Henry noticed the Doctors’s bandaged arm. “Good thing Head Euno’s foster parents, are quite capable of tending the team some help. It was just sad that at the end, him and Head Eula has to die as well to save their Captain.”
Epharil’s eyes watered upon hearing the news. She always knew something wrong had happened to her kids, her instinct had never wronged her. But never did she get prepared from hearing it.
“I have a lot more to tell you, but first, I want to know what did you do? I mean, thinking about your situation back then, it was really impossible for you to leave the mother ship on time before it explode.”
“Thank you for your high-end shuttles, Boss, we made it. Though, as you can see, we barely landed safely here.” Eulysis looked back at their spacecrafts. “We don’t know if we can make it back, so we never tried—”
The man stopped as Henry walked past by him. “Where are the others?” he whispered. “Where is my team?” He turned around to the four.
Fresnon shook his head and gazed at the mother ship lying not far from where their shuttles have landed.
“We don’t know. We can’t open it. And ever since we set foot here, never did we saw anyone come out of that spaceship.” He looked down. Being the only doctor around makes him feel guilty of not being able to do even the very least thing that he could.
They followed and watched the man marched towards the wreck. His footsteps are heavy and almost to be dragged for him to get himself to the mother ship.
“This is I, Captain Henry.” He placed his palm on the sensory device installed by the heavy door.
That is when they finally got a glimpse of how it looks like inside. There are capsules like beds aligned on each side. And there are a few lying in some of it.
“They are eight when we left! Where are the others?!” the man went everywhere.
“You might be referring to these.” Eulejius handed him captured photos of creatures lurking in the middle of the night. “They always go here whenever the sun finally set.”
“It is them, there is no way that I will not recognize them,” he confirmed, then went to the ones sleeping peacefully in their capsules. “I am really sorry. I came too late.”
Epharil looked away, however, rubbed the man’s back. No wonder those creatures have never been violent, neither shown wildness. They must be going back there to secure the rest of their members.
“This might be for you.” She touched the journal placed on the table next to the capsule, nearby the monitors.
He flipped the pages, but rarely read the contains, as if he is looking for a note, to which he has found at the last page.
‘IF ONE DAY YOU FIND ME NO MORE, PLEASE KNOW THAT ONCE, I WAS HERE AND WAITED FOR LONG. SORRY FOR MY SELFISHNESS, AND SORRY FOR I FAILED TO FIND A BETTER FUTURE WITH YOU.’
Her chest drummed as he reads it repeatedly. She has never seen Lux’s weak side. Though, she is certain, and she was right when she thought he had a soft side. Seeing the real one break down assured her, finally, that no villain have been one for no reason.
Seconds after, they are all froze when he opened the capsule and someone looking familiar is lying inside, pale and seems to be stiffened.
“E-Euvy, I am already here,” he pled, holding the woman’s hands, staring at her longingly. “I came back.”
“No, Eulysis.” Eulejius held to his Captain’s shoulder when he is about to grab on Henry while the doctor stand in his way.
“Let him be, Eulysis. We don’t know what really happened.” Epharil turned to the three of them.
They walked away a little and turned their backs on the two, yet still, his yearning reaches them. Surely, they don’t understand anymore what is happening. But they feel what he feels—exactly.
“I am so sorry. Please, wake up.” From the reflection, they saw how he desperately shook the body and listen to the woman’s chest, hoping to hear even just a faint beat. “Euvy, p-please.”
Eulysis went outside, followed by the rest, except for Epharil. How can she bear to leave someone who is grieving melancholy? She might really have betrayed the organization in able to protect her team, but that doesn’t mean she will never pay back the goodness that the man has given her.
She wiped her tears and go through the files piled on the desk, to at least have even a little knowledge of what happened. And in her attempt to watch the videos recorded, she has understood who is him, his team, their mission, their plans—almost everything.
“Eve,” she muttered, slowly look behind her. She fisted her palms while interchangeably glancing at the two. And there, without asking, she found out a piece of the truth.
“I love you. I really do. Please, breathe.”
“Sir.”
“No, Epharil. I know I can find a way—” He looked at his wrist being held tightly.
They both stared at the last commands Euvy had input on her capsule and the data. She let out a gasp, and he remained silent.
Dated a decade and five years earlier, in Earth’s calendar, she decided to lay in her capsule at last. The same date when her comrades’ percentage of being a human have dropped by fifty percent.
“Being exposed to this planet’s environment, when she finally got inside this enclosed bed, which provides the Earth’s environment condition, her body cells reacted to the sudden change of her surroundings.” She evaluated by basing it on the data and events occurred. “She is in perfect condition when she gets in here.” Her forehead creased.
The more that Henry looks devastated, finding that Euvy was just forced to do it just because she got run out of choices to do.
The capsules are protected both by barriers and lasers, which he had just switched off upon they entered the laboratory room. And she is fully aware of it. Hence, she has the choice. It’s just that, she did not consider it as one. She just didn’t want to see their team to might turn into a different being, get violent and the protection barrier will have no other choice but to kill them, he thought.
The man frustratedly covered his face with his palm. “Right. And I think, it is because of that that she eventually—” He took a deep breath, obviously not wanting to utter the words. “She eventually fell asleep, permanently.”
Shown that the life the bed is supporting passed away after almost seven years after it gets in there: well-preserved, her remains stayed in a good phase, as if she is just lying in a coffin, died in her peaceful sleep while having a wonderful dream, Euvy have a bright smile on her face.
“Until the very last minute, she believed that you will be back, that she doesn’t want to look bad when you meet again.”
“She had never looked less beautiful to me. Not even once. She never will.” Henry gently gripped her hand. “Not even she has flaws that no one has ever thought she has, despite the unreasonable decisions she has made, she is and will always be the most wonderful woman for me.”
As the man closed the cover, when the notice warned that the body should not be exposed to the outside environment for long, Epharil saw nothing but pure and immeasurable love. One thing that most people thought the man is not capable of.
When he turned his back and leaned on the capsule, as his shoulders shake and glottal grunts came out from him, she felt as well the unbearable pain he is holding in.
“Sir, I believe she had never considered your coming back as late, either.” She left the note which was originally pasted at the back of the woman’s journal and headed outside.
The door closed, and the space get filled with his cries. Henry hardly cleared his vision to read the writings, but he couldn’t agree with it.
‘THANK YOU FOR COMING JUST IN TIME.’