A low humming vibration shook Victor to the bone. None of the crew members on deck seemed to notice.

"If the wormhole is such an awful place, why are we going back there? The homeworlds might be at war, but we should still be relatively safe on the central planets," Victor said. He was clasping onto his seat handles for dear life.

"Captain, we've got two entities coming in fast. Six minutes until arrival," said a female member of the bridge crew.

A hologram appeared in front of the view of space. It had a green mark in the center and several approaching red dots.

"Because it's the only place we can hide," said Eve, as much to herself as to Victor. "Acknowledged Sara. Navigation, how long until that jump?"

Two boys and a girl of various ages were working furiously on their panels, screens and diagnostics popping up and they tweaked and modified as quickly as possible.

"The containment field pulse has already been primed and we've managed to shave off a minute of the mandatory pre-jump diagnostics. We should be out in five," said the oldest person in the group, a man.

"Let's hope so. Keep working on it, Tom," Eve said. She didn't seem stressed about the situation in the least. How many times had they cut it this close? "Victor," she said, continuing the conversation calmly. "there are much bigger things at work than a conflict back home and a strange wormhole that is a strategic asset. The conflict and the wormhole are connected."

"Two scatter beams coming in hot," the girl named Sara said from her standing post a few feet behind the Captain's chair.

"Captain, engaging evasive maneuvers," said a girl from the front deck right.

"That'll add time to the jump, Captain," Tom said.

"Negative, Leora. Increase shields and wait it out. We've withstood worse than scatter beams."

Victor was wondering how the hell Nexus made anything like an evasive maneuver. It was always more questions and less time. He was at the complete mercy of events, much like he had been in the vents. His life was still being steered for him, much like it had been under his father's thumb on Aurora.

"Captain, shift is in five seconds."

"Understood, Tom," Eve said. She gave Victor a wink and a smile that said 'relax'.

"Eve - ahem - Captain," Miguel said, catching himself, "if you want to talk to Victor about you-know-what, the time will be right after the shift."

Eve nodded. "Thanks, Miguel."

It was odd. There was a strange 'casual formality' atmosphere aboard the Nexus run by Eve that Victor liked. They all called her Captain, at least while on the bridge, but she called them by their first names.

Then came the shift.

Time skipped. It was like a vid in which everything was playing smoothly until the sound and visuals went blank for a moment. Victor had been looking at Eve at the beginning of the shift, remarking in his own mind at how beautiful she had become, and now he was staring straight ahead with the realization that he was in the middle of wondering what the inside of the slow wormhole would look like. It certainly hadn't seemed slow.

"Shift successful, Captain," Tom said, smiling.

Eve smiled back. "Well done. Miguel, steer us to our destination. You know where. Victor come with me."

Victor took a second to hear her. He was too busy trying to understand what it was he was seeing. Outside, everything appeared as though it was behind a tinted glass. There were stars and planets densely packed around the ship, and instead of the inky black that normally filled the space between them there was a hazy purple. Whatever Victor had expected, it certainly wasn't this.

Eve saw his confusion and looked out at the scene as she stood. "Breathtaking, isn't it? The wormhole goes through non-linear phases depending on where you enter it. Probability has been skewed and folded. Right now, what you're seeing is a folded universe. It doesn't actually exist in any normal sense but, rather, is a densely packed limitless structure in which things can half or even quarter-exist. The truth is, every part of this area, including that which Nexus is taking up now, is packed with possible stars and planets. Most are invisible. The ones you see are the ones that have a substantial possibility of coming into existence."

She gave Victor a few moments to let all of this sink in.

"Victor, we still have much to talk about. Time is short. Follow me."

"Where are you going?" Miguel asked. There was something in his eyes. Jealousy? Eve shot him a sharp glance. "I apologize Captain. Have a good talk." He sat down in the Captain's chair a little gruffly and didn't look at Eve again.

Out in the hall, Victor couldn't help asking.

"Eve - er- Captain, what was that just now with Miguel? Are you two..." Victor let the question hang in the air, but Eve only laughed.

"No. Well, not exactly. I won't patronize or lie to you, Victor. We're....there for each other at times. I don't want anything beyond that. Life out here can be brutally lonely," she said. There was that sadness, again. Victor changed the subject.

"Where are we going now? I've been taking it on faith that I'm going to get an explanation somewhere down the line, but so far all I've really gotten is more questions."

Eve nodded sympathetically. "I know, Victor. You have to remember, however, that you and I are from different timelines. I have to be careful not to clutter your mind with irrelevant things."

Victor shrugged, raising an eyebrow.

"What does it matter?"

"I'll tell you that when we reach my quarters. First, I want to discuss something else."

Victor felt his face grow hot for some reason. Had Miguel known that was where they were headed? If he and Eve had been involved on some level it would explain his reaction.

"By now I'm sure you'll have noticed the odd skittering that happens at times."

"Yeah. What is that about? You all seemed determined not to acknowledge it."

"We were. It was one of the first anomalies aboard the ship." Eve said with a trembling sigh.

"Well, what is it?" Victor asked as they walked through the busy corridor. People were pointing at him and whispering to each other as they continued on their way to Eve's quarters. It was nice to know that some things hadn't changed on Nexus, even in a hundred years. Eve's response shook him out of his rueful thoughts, and down to his very core.

"We think it's Edgar. What he became."