Usually, I was never this attentive around the public docking bay. There was barely anything to do here most of the time but the last few days were different. Those extra credits on my account rubbed against my motivation just the right way. Easy credits easy job.

All I had to do to earn some extra spending cash for the next few days was to pay attention in my area for any ships that ‘looked remarkable’ as the guy put it.

It wasn’t hard because nobody interesting ever came to this corner of the Empire. The fungar space wasn’t among the most frequented travel destinations. For obvious reasons. Even I was thinking about moving to a different place but my second legal partner was having none of it.

As I was grumbling about my love’s reluctance for leaving behind this galaxy, I spotted something interesting approaching the bay. I had been doing this job for nearly a decade now, and this was the first time I saw anything similar to the ship that was coming in. It was blocky and shabby looking. Nothing I would ever fly around with but different people different tastes. It was still a lot better than the gooey ships the fungari pranced around in.

The unique looking landed on an open spot with a heavy thud. Another thing that could be considered strange. Not many ships actually ‘landed’ in the bay. All in all, this ship fit the ‘looking remarkable’ criterion of the guy, so I decided to hover over and try to start a conversation with the passengers. I licked my lips in hopes of a hefty bonus in case I managed to find something that the guy was looking for.

While hovering over to the ship, a side ramp lowered down with a loud hiss, and a guy stumbled down on it. At first, I nearly laughed out loud because the poor fellow slipped and fell on his ass. I was close enough now that I could see clearly, but I stopped the dock hoverer immediately. The guy looked like a Gnacker chew on him and spat him out. He was unbelievably filthy and haggard looking. When he got up, he struggled to remove his helmet, and I could hear the various curses spewing from his mouth even from so far.

This was definitely out of the ordinary, but I had seen worse, so I carried on. When I was close enough to greet him I took a deep breath to call out loudly to him but right when I was about to, he looked up at me, and the breath stuck in me. The guy looked up from his hunched posture with a look that nearly scared the shit out of me. I had a feeling that if I had said anything, he would have flipped out. His scarred face, pale skin and that red eye creeped me out immensely.

I was standing still in silence while the passenger was staring at me for a few more seconds then he stumbled onto his hoverer ready to head into the station. I closed my mouth which I didn’t even realize was hanging open the whole time. I looked at the information of the ship, and this guy was the sole passenger.

I turned back to the teenage resonar behind me. Unlike my last assistant, that cranky old linbog, she was quiet all the time which I greatly appreciated.

“I’m going to hand over the hoverer to you, and you’ll follow that guy anywhere he goes. Okay?” I said to her.

“Follow him? Why?” she asked with a frown.

“I might have someone that would like to do business with him, and I didn’t feel like holding him up. He looked… to be in a hurry.”

“Okay,” she responded meekly.

“Just… don’t follow him too openly. Don’t want to spook him.”

I got down, and she took off with my hoverer after the guy that just got on his own. As Kala got closer to him, she made a sudden stop. I frowned and connected with her immediately.

[What’s the matter? Why did you stop?] I asked.

[N-N-Nothing. I’ll just keep a little bigger distance,] she responded with a shaky voice before hovering after the guy again.

Ugh… She must have gotten too close. My face scrunched up as I thought about that it was a good idea not speaking with him. The guy wasn’t paying THAT much for me to deal with complete weirdos.

I slipped and fell on my ass. I didn't have enough problem already… I had to fall too. With a chain of my worst curses, I tried tearing off the stupid helmet that was still freezing my head. I knew it was a bad idea showing my face around, but I really couldn’t care at the moment. I was so happy for the warm air in the docking bay that I just wanted to get my face free too.

I was still shivering from the cold, and I wouldn’t warm up on my own anytime soon. Thankfully we had arrived earlier, so I had an extra time before the museum realized that their ship was missing. When we were close enough, Genna connected to the network and found out for me that they had a Health Center near the docking bay. That was my first destination since my body temperature was still dangerously low and we decided that it was better not to call in a medical team. That would have made things overly complicated, and I didn’t need any more of that.

I was barely standing on my own, but I had to just reach the Health Center. Genna told me that there was hover platform that I could use to get out of the bay area quickly. Before I could move on, I saw from the corner of my eye someone approaching. Actually, it was two people. They were hovering over on a blue translucent panel. When I looked at the guy, he was about to say something. I swore that if he had said anything or tried to waste my time, I would have ripped his insides out and crawled into him to get warm. I stared at him for a few seconds, but he didn’t do anything, just stared back.

I was in a horrible condition, so I turned around and headed for my hoverer. The thing appeared out of nowhere. It was like Aladdin’s flying carpet, but it looked more ethereal. According to Genna, it was some kind of hardened energy thingamajig.

When I got on it, my body was gently held in place by some invisible force. I was standing on the thing, but I felt like I was laying. I didn’t have to keep myself standing. The platform was supporting my body somehow. I was sure that it would have been an incredible experience, but at the time I was way too preoccupied with how cold I was.

I was so tired I would have probably fallen off the thing if it weren’t holding me. I had to control it with my balance which went a bit clumsily at first but I got used to it in no time. Barely awake I followed Genna’s instructions to get out of the bay. After that, I had to ditch the hover thingy and continue on foot. It was a major pain in my butt because I could only shuffle forward like a cliche zombie. Genna was trying to keep me awake by talking but she also kept me on the right way towards my destination.

[Going back to your question, as I said the flickering of the asteroid wasn’t because the screen malfunctioned. That’s how it looks to the naked eye. The station is set up around it and the asteroid provides the power,] she explained.

[By flickering?]

[Turn left in a few meters,] she instructed. [I could go into a lengthy explanation of how this type of power harvesting works but I’ll keep it short as usual. The station around the asteroid creates a field around it that breaks the object’s dimensional balance. Following that they Bend-Phase the object halfway out and then apply enormous pressure to it from the outside. The object, in this case, the asteroid constantly tries to return to its original state and that’s where the energy and the 'flickering' come from,] she lectured on. [Interestingly, the fungari don’t allow the use of asteroids from their space so the station has to haul them in every couple decades when the previous one deteriorates too far. Usually, phase powered stations like this one have a cycley holiday when they do the necessary restart on the asteroid.]

[Ugh… this sounds way too complicated… to power a station,] I groaned while shuffling forward.

[Most of the energy goes towards the long distance travel gates the station has,] she said. [Go into the first building on your right,] she then followed it up with another instruction.

I did as she told me. When I entered, I walked right up to the reception desk and leaned on it with my head lowered. I gathered my mind and looked up at the pretty girl sitting behind the counter. She was horrified.

“Oh, Darkness help me! Sir! Are you alright?” she exclaimed after gathering herself and jumping up from her seat.

“No… not alright,” I croaked.

[Ask for a full-service bed quickly!] Genna said.

“I need a full-service bed. Now!”

“Sir, you should have called a medical team if you are in such a bad condition! What happened?” the girl said while going around her desk to my side and helping me stand.

“Ugh… the bed, please!” I exhaled.

“Yes! Right away!” she said while holding my arm. “Catherin! Come out here and help me!” she shouted.

Another girl walked out from the side. They were talking about something, but I really couldn’t pay attention anymore. The new girl walked up to my other side, and they helped me into a room where they instructed me to lay down on the bed.

[Tell them that I’ll handle it from here. Put your hand on the metal plate on the side,] Genna instructed.

“I’ve got it,” I said weakly and then slid my hand onto the panel.

The following minutes were a blur at most. I remembered feeling the warmth going through my body. I could even feel it in my bones.

I was floating down a river on a raft made out of ants. I was trying to reach the market city so I could sell ice to the amazons. Amazons… the anticipation was building up in me with every passing second. I steered my ant boat to the side a little so…

[Aium! I know you are exhausted, but you can’t fall asleep just yet. We have to move on!] woke me Genna’s voice in my head.

I sat on the bed and touched my head. I wasn’t cold anymore, my knees, my shoulder even my chest wasn’t hurting anymore. Discounting my tiredness, I was feeling great.

[How much time passed?]

[Nearly 20, but I didn’t want to skimp on the treatment. It will cost you, but it was necessary,] she added.

I touched my neck, and I could feel my crumpled skin.

[Don’t worry. I didn’t let the equipment touch your scars. We wouldn’t even have time to fix that even if we wanted to.] She continued, [I think we need to talk about something… scary.]

[What now?] I groaned.

[I didn’t want to bother you with it right away, but when I reconnected to the network near the station I saw that you had a bunch of different calls hours ago, but there are no calls anymore,] she said. [The scary part is that you got a message from… well, it’s hard to explain, but it’s from… nobody.]

[What do you mean nobody?] I winced at what she said while moving around my pain-free shoulder.

[There is nothing where the sender’s information should be. It’s not unknown or blocked or anything similar… it’s just empty. Which shouldn’t happen. Ever!]

[And? What’s the message? Can you read it for me or is there any screens we can use here?] I asked while looking at the small, white room I was in.

[Just say ‘screen’ and touch the metal plate on the bed for a second.]

“Screen,” I said loudly, and right away a holoscreen popped up right in front of my head.

I jumped back a little by its sudden appearance. It came out of nowhere, and it was stuck to my head. The holoscreen followed my face no matter how I moved around. How did they do that? I had no equipment on my head.

[This is awesome,] I chuckled as I tried to duck my head from left to right to test the screen if I could shake it off. [What if I say the word ‘screen’ in a normal conversation? Wouldn’t that be annoying as hell?]

[It knows the difference between when you say it as a command or just use it in a conversation, but can we focus on the urgent matters?] she scolded.

The message she was talking about appeared on the screen the next second.

“Mr. Roowe?

I wanted to have a real conversation between us through a call or better yet, in person but you seem to be a hard person to reach. I have no confidence in accurately guessing your identity, but you are clearly connected in some way to the time anomaly that occurred near planet Hatuu. Coincidentally that phenomenon happened the same time as another experiment was taking place at a different corner of the cluster.

My associates tracked down said anomaly’s location and followed the leads all the way to you, dear recipient. The way you handled the situation clearly pointed out that your background is more complicated than a random citizen that got wound up in this by accident. It’s also clear that you aren’t an Arbiter because my associates are still alive and free. IDEA wouldn’t slip up like this either, so I’m confident that we can rule that connection out too.

This is quite the conundrum! You aren’t Empire employed, and you aren’t part of the Research Department either, BUT you had something to do with MY project. Your accommodation reeks of leftover particles.

I adjure you to give me a satisfying explanation before the situation escalates further! I believe you have one of my associate's contact information.”