The beeping continued, faintly, going stable. Fresnon weakly opened his eyes as he could finally feel warmth.
“A-Anne.”
‘I am here, Fresnon.’
He is glad to hear that voice again. Programs are no human and have no soul. Being still able to talk to her lit a joy in him to know that he’s still useful to the Captain’s team.
“I-I am s-still alive.” He breathes, and that was enough for him to confirm that he is indeed still living.
‘You are, Fresnon. Thanks to the Captain. He made it in time.’
“W-what did the C-captain—” He glanced slowly to his left side, and there was the man he is looking for; lying peacefully in his sleep.
‘To be a core is already risky if to be done on Earth, no matter how favorable the conditions are to the host. How much more here on the space? We have almost lost you. He knew there is something wrong here. If he had thought twice, he’d been a step late to tend you.’
“Is he a-alright?”
‘He is. You should be worrying about yourself more. He’s just unconscious, but he’ll wake up anytime soon.’
“H-how’s the progress of our efforts?”
‘We’re just six percent away to one hundred, Doctor. We’re almost there.’
“Thank goodness. I want to get out of here now. I don’t think I can last for another three days if I stayed longer here.” It was a struggle for him to stop breathing, to not stutter.
‘I assure you, this won’t take that long as long as we are still on safe mode.’
Fresnon stared at Anne. She has surely know him by now.
“D-don’t tell them that I am like Eve. Don’t tell them about our condition. Don’t make them feel sorry about us. And that girl, promise me, you will protect her identity at all cost.”
‘Your secret is safe with me. But, do you know how hard it is for me to keep things from the people who trust me?’
“You are not 'someone', Anne. We both know that—”
‘I know that to anyone else aside from this team, I am just 'something'. I never considered myself as a human, Doctor. But, to let you know, I may don’t have the capability to feel, but I know how those feelings encrypted to me feels. I understand it all, well and clear.’
“I am sorry.”
‘That’s okay. You have nothing to say sorry for.’
He looked at Eulysis again.
“Tell him my thanks.”
‘I will.’
“Regarding with Eulejius…”
‘He is doing fine, I think.’
“That is good to know.”
‘Don’t cry, Fresnon. Save your tears and strength. They need you most.’
He nodded successively before closing his eyes.
‘Are you sleeping now?’
“No. I just don’t want him to see me grieving.”
A groan from Eulysis silenced them. That is a cue for Fresnon to shut his eyes and pretended to be sleeping.
He is itching to tell him his thanks personally, but he couldn’t bear looking at his eyes that is coated with pity whenever they meet his. He is aware how often he comes to check on him; he heard everything; and he knows how hard he cried thinking that he is loosing everyone in his team.
“Anne?”
‘Yes, Captain?’
“How was the transfusion?”
‘It went well, Captain.’
“How is he?” Eulysis unbelted himself and sat down, glanced at the doctor as soon as he got up.
‘He is better now. He just needs some rest.’
“Should we stop the process for a while?”
‘No. An interruption may lead to future problems with the program.’
“Has he never wake up yet?”
‘He did once ever since we began.’
“Is it normal?”
‘It is.’
He looked away from the man. If not for the monitors that indicates that he is still breathing, even him would think that Fresnon is already cold dead.
“If he wakes up again, tell him not to push himself too much.”
‘I will.’
He then write something and put it on his palm before closing the capsule.
“I will be back.”
‘You always do, Captain.’
He turned to Anne and examined her features, thinking which first to ask.
“Do you really think we can trust him?”
‘Who?’
“Jasper.”
That shut her responsiveness. She can’t tell him—just not yet.
‘He is not intervening here. Whoever commanded him to keep this chamber out of his business, we can safely trust the new program then.’
“Do you have any idea who ordered him?”
Anne shook her head.
“I will know then.” Eulysis walked out without knowing that he has just closed the door that is keeping every truth he wants to know.
When she turned around, she saw how those tears fell, rolling one after another.
—
The system went back to normal and so is the radar’s sensors. A sigh of relief was heard from the monitoring team.
Eve grabbed on Epharil’s arm when the monitors resumed working and a red alert numbers of asteroids are shown to be approaching.
“Epharil, look!”
From her seat, Eula remained stiffened, which is unusual since she is the most excited during the take-off. Eve wrapped her arms around her.
“We are inside the mother ship, Eula. And we have a barrier. We are safe here.”
She got no response but even with the spacesuit they are wearing, she can still feel her trembling weirdly.
“Those wasn’t there earlier! The monitors went off for like just five minutes, and I can assure you… No, no! I am sure they’re staying still in their place a while ago!” Epharil restarted the monitor’s system.
Being the only man they are with, Eulejius shook away his own fear and acted like he is all calm and fine.
“Calm down, Epharil. It is not a bug. Those are real.” He held her shoulders.
“Breathe, breathe. There you go. Now, inform the others about the situation.”
He gently pushed her behind him and handled her work.
“Eve, call Euno’s group. Ask them if they have already seen this. If not yet, tell them to get prepared.”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Eula—” Eulejius hesitantly called.
“I am okay, Sir. Give me your order.”
“Just think that this is a drill, darling, and you will be alright. Okay?”
Eula looked at him and for once, all she could see is a father like figure—something that she has always been longingly looking for but was never found in her own home. She cleared her mind and nodded.
“I am fine, Sir. There is nothing to worry about me.”
“Very good. You are doing great, hija. Maximize the barrier defense on the front and top side of the spaceship at 80%.”
“Will just 80% of defense can take the impact, Sir?”
“Don’t you trust your own work, Eula?”
“I do, Sir.”
“Then do it.”
Hence, she raised their frontal and top barrier to 80%, leaving the other parts having lesser defense.
“This is just for now. Once the program has finally had an overall control of the mother ship, we can already boost the barrier to the maximum range without dropping the other parts’.”
“Sir, the group for the explosives are now in standby, just waiting for the asteroids to come closer for better blasting,” Eve told, still communicating with Euno.
“Tell them to just use two Class III explosives.”
“Copy, Sir!”
Eulejius keeps focused while he’s trying to search for Eulysis. He has already gone for more than an hour and that has never happened before, not even when he visits Fresnon, or he spends some time alone either in his chamber, in the laboratory room or in the meeting hall.
“Not here. Not here either…” He stopped as the captain is nowhere to be found in any of the rooms.
He glanced at Epharil who gave him a questioning look. Eulysis won’t let more than an hour to passed by without checking everything.
“You know where he is. Let him. We can do this.”
“Yeah, I know. But—”
“We know him, Eulejius. In times like this, he never missed leading us. He rarely leaves the leading to us. Something might happen. Let us buy him some more time.”
“You’re right. The captain won’t abandon us.”
He blinked his eyes thrice when he felt that sting again. Perks of being not well honed, he thought.
A moment of minutes passed before they got a call from Euno’s groups’ chamber. It isn’t them but the system itself—doing the report for them.
‘Target is at forty-three kilometers.’
‘Thirty nine.’
‘Thirty eight.’
“Euno, do it at twenty kilometers,” Eulejius ordered.
Eve never took her eyes off him. They know how serious Eulysis and Eulejius could be, but it will be her first time to see him taking over the Captain’s position of ordering them around, except for the usual and casual mandates he had given them before.
“Jasper!”
‘Yes, Head Eulejius?’
“Can you locate the Captain?”
‘He is coming this way, Head.’
“Good then. Where is he now?”
‘At the chamber fourteen, about to turn left.’
“Tell him to go to chamber five. The group needs assistance. I can’t leave here yet. Once the two explosives got fired, I will switch places to him.”
‘Copy, Sir!’
“And check on the girls, too. We have to keep them conditioned perfectly.”
‘That, too, is noted, Sir!’