A deafening silence swept across the bridge. Only the sound of an alert permeated the air. The lights flickered before illuminating the room with a bright light. The consoles emitted a red hue, signifying the gravity of the situation.

“Status report,” Minerva, captain of the SF Seraph, voiced out. She clutched her head, her fingers gripping through her dark brown hair, as if trying to stabilize her own head. Slowly, she recovered from the grogginess brought about by the impact. Her cloak—messily draped over her shoulders—ended up slipping onto the chair. It seems the other crew members were in a similar state. The only ones worse off were those that had been thrown out of their seats.

A crew member was able to recover and immediately examined the readings on the console.

“Shields and main engines are down, captain. Hull integrity is in the red.” he said.

“We can’t take another hit like that. Use the auxiliary engines and get us as far away from that... thing as possible.”

She pressed some keys on her console only for her already sour mood to take a turn for the worse. More than half of their fleet were wiped out. Most of them were just sitting ducks at this point.

“Lieutenant Serys!” She turned around to where she expected the person she called out to was stationed but there was no one posted there. The door leading in and out of the bridge, however, was fully open.

“Where is Lieutenant Serys?” She asked, though she already had an idea.

“She ran out when the wave started to spread out, captain. She may have gone to the—”

“Captain! Energy readings are spiking up! There’s another wave incoming!”

All eyes turned to the main screen. What seemed to be in the midst of a singularity was a large cloud-like phenomenon. The cloud eerily appeared to be various heads clumped together, expressing anguish as they appeared from within the cloud. Each would disappear back into the cloud, most likely to emerge on another side and repeat the action in intervals.

Then, all of the heads surfaced in a synchronized scream as a blasting wave of energy emanated from all around it. It did the same thing before and while they survived the first, those that were closer to it were obliterated. Without their shields nor the capability of retreat, they might as well consider themselves done for. They could only stare until the inevitable point where one would close their eyes both in fear of destruction or perhaps some hope of salvation.

Eyes closed. They waited for their ends with bated breath.

Tip. Tap. Tip. Tap.

“,gd;s graci|s4 ,i'm suppos$ to 2 on vaca;n4.” (Goodness gracious. I’m supposed to be on vacation.)

Instead of what they could imagine was a concussive blast obliterating their ship and all its residents, they were instead met with a few moments of silence as the ship rumbled, and a voice they could not understand.

Minerva herself would open her eyes and turn towards the source of the voice. In front of the open doors stood a young dark-haired man, dressed in a peculiar garb. He wore a dark blue shirt and black pants. On top of those were what seemed to be some pieces of leather armor with fur trimmings. He wore a dark-colored cloak with a fur mantle, upon which a person was seen being carried on his shoulders. That person had the same uniform as the crew, albeit with minor differences pertaining to duty and position.

“,oh1 sorry4.” (Oh, sorry.) The silence was broken when the man bowed a bit before coughing and clearing his throat. “Is this better? Can you understand me?”

“You—Lieutenant!” Only now did Minerva realize who the person on the man’s shoulder was. She instinctively got up and reached for her standard issue energy pistol.

“Calm down,” he cut her off as he gently let down the unconscious lieutenant from his shoulders. “She hit her head on that relic. I’ve fixed her up, don’t worry.”

“After all, you’ve got bigger problems, don’t you?” As he said those words, the ship shook. The eyes on him went back to the screen and the crew realized that the head-cloud unleashed yet another wave. However, it seemed to have been stopped by some sort of barrier in front of a ship. They can only describe it as some sort of glowing circular pattern.

“You… who are you?” It took her a great amount of effort just to ask those words. ‘What are you?’ She almost said.

“I’m supposed to be on vacation. This wasn’t exactly what I had planned.” He rubbed the back of his head as he took a look around. He grumbled and muttered to himself. “Wrong genre, huh?”

He was met with even more confused looks so he simply shook his head and shrugged. “Don’t you know that you’re too close to the primordial epicenter? If you wanted to watch that badly, you should have moved back maybe a parsec or two…”

“Primordial epicenter? Is that what that thing is?” She motioned her hand for her crew to stand down as she confronted the strange man. Some of the crew members observed the man while the remaining returned to their duty and started to monitor everything they could. She turned towards two auxiliary members and motioned for them to attend to the unconscious lieutenant. They did so immediately.

“Yes, that is the primordial epicenter.” The man said, once more catching Minerva’s attention.

“That doesn’t tell me much.”

“I see.” He nodded

“...”

“Hm…?” He raised an eyebrow towards the woman that moved in front of him. She was, now that he has gotten a better look, quite attractive. Thus, he leaned forward for a closer look.

“May I request that you start explaining immediately?” Though frustrated, Minerva realized that they were saved just now. While her words were an attempt to be somewhat respectful, the tone of her voice easily conveyed her annoyance.

“I was under the impression that you knew about it but not what it looked like.” He scratched the back of his head and chuckled. “In that case, let us move back a bit.”

His hand grasped the air in front of him and he slowly pulled his hand back, his fingers shaking as if desperately gripping something.

All of the a sudden the ship jerked backwards and started to move in reverse. They moved in such a speed that it would have taken the engines at full power to do so.

“Captain, all other ships are moving back at maximum impulse.” One crew member reported.

“This should be enough.” Said the man as he eased up and sighed. Several more blasting waves occurred but none of the ships were in range. They dissipated enough to be negligible before reaching them at this distance.

“The primordial epicenter, ladies and gentlemen, occurs when a universe is nearing its finals stages.” He continued, “and from the looks of it, well, you should have six hours left.”

Lieutenant Serys slowly came to. She vaguely recalled the moment before she fell unconscious. She was running towards the cargo hold where they were asked to bring the relic for this mission. She saw the three foot tall triangular pyramid and broke into a sprint. Then the ship was rocked by something and she stumbled forward and onto the relic. She could clearly see the tip of the pyramid getting closer and closer.

“AAAH!” Jolting awake, she screamed. She had both arms across her face and her eyes tight shut. Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw that she was in the bridge. All eyes were on her just now because of that.

“You’re fine. I took care of it.” A man she could not recognize had been speaking with the captain before her outburst. “But I should thank you, at least. If you didn’t, erm, injure yourself on that thing, it probably wouldn’t have activated.”

The truth was that she was on the brink of death. It was the blood that was the trigger. The amount of life force flowing out of her as she was bleeding out was enough to make a call, and he answered.

“The relic… worked?” She was still trying to piece things together. They weren’t told any specifics, only to bring that relic and that it ‘may be’ able to help them deal with the anomaly. Even the top brains did not know exactly what it was, or maybe they did but withheld that information. “Then… we’re saved, right?”

“For the next six hours, I guess?” The man merely shrugged. “As I was saying, the primordial epicenter occurs when a universe has reached the end of its lifespan. Imagine an elastic material that would never break. You can stretch it as far as you want but there will still be a limit.”

He was making a motion with his hand of gripping and pulling something imaginary between them. “The universe, as you may know it, expands indefinitely. When something that huge reaches its limit, what happens?”

He opened his hands at the same time. One could almost here an imaginary snap. “All that energy, all that force, everything, will snap back towards the center. That is the primordial epicenter. That will result in the entire universe condensing into one large clump of energy, setting off the next big bang. Then, the cycle begins once more.”

Silence.

Was it hopelessness or disbelief? It was completely absurd and hard to believe. They recalled how he was the one that stopped those blasts in the first place, and how he was able to pull their remaining ships away from the primordial epicenter. Maybe it was denial, refusing to accept that they had a mere six hours left.

“But… you’re able to stop it… right?” Serys broke the silence as she coughed up those words. She figured, why else would they be ordered to bring the relic without any explanation? In fact, they were the most important ship in the fleet because of it and during their travels, their security was the most prioritized. When she heard of the mysterious artifact, she couldn’t help but be excited. She had always been a fan of all those fantastic stories she could get her hands on. She clung onto that hope that there was just someone out unbound by the laws of the universe. Their technology did develop to a great degree and there were certainly a lot that can be done with it. But she still loved the ideas of gods and celestial beings bending and weaving reality to their whims.

“Well, I could but why would I?” He answered and raised an eyebrow. “It’s the natural cycle of things, you know?”

“But…”

“Also, the paperwork will be a pain in the ass. I’m on vacation, damn it.” He crossed his arms and pouted.

“You…” Minerva clenched her fist and glared at him. “You’re unbelievable! Are you simply going to let an entire universe perish when you can prevent it?”

“Geez,” he sighed and shook his head. “You do realize what you’re asking me, right? This is supposed to be a cycle. It’s a natural phenomenon. Let’s say that I stop it, do you know what will happen next? No, you don’t.”

“You’ll have to be able to provide enough energy in order to stop the universe from expanding or collapsing, yet still somehow able to cycle through all the things occurring in it. Not to mention, all that energy is going to come from somewhere. Where are you going to get all that?”

He paused for a bit and looked around. Of course, no one could answer such a ridiculous question.

“It’s like you’re asking me to prevent the big bangs of all other universes just to sustain your own. Tell me, are you willing to sacrifice countless universes just for your own?”

Out of nowhere, he snorted and started to chuckle. “Of course, that’s the problem if I want to stop it. I won’t so don’t bother asking. But, it should be easier if I delay it. Maybe a thousand years or two? Just a tiny bit of extension, I suppose.”

One could swear there was a simultaneously inhale that occurred.

“I’m on vacation, of course, so you’ll have to hire me for my services.” He walked up to the captain and leaned forward a bit. “So, how about I ask for six hours of your time, captain?”

Minerva instinctively took a step back. “Six hours? Of my lifespan?” Given how heavy she felt his words were on stopping the primordial epicenter, she initially thought her life would be reduced.

“Ah, no, captain. I want to spend six hours with you,” he clarified and smiled before he added, “alone.”

All eyes were on him. Everyone was stunned. He looked around as if what he said was not completely absurd. “What?”

She had no words to say. Being shielded from those blasts and having the ability to pull their remaining forces back may give him some credibility but that request was off putting. She was starting to doubt his words. But if they were true, then six hours would be a small price to pay for a millennium, at least.

“Fine! Whatever! But only after you deal with that thing, understood?” If they were all being conned quite magnificently, she would at least want some sort of evidence. Although, in this situation, it was really hard to determine what was the truth since none of the crew knew anything about the phenomenon in the first place. Some doubt lingered in her mind due to how it was simply too good to be true if he indeed wanted to spend time with her to expand a universe’s lifespan by one or two thousand years. It was ridiculous and she’d rather not think about it any further.

“It’s a date then, nice!” He did a fist punch and seemed genuinely happy. Not like how a person would feel in successfully tricking others but someone that, well, had gotten a date. At least, that’s how it seemed.

He already started to stretch and crack his bones as if he were about to go on some exercises.

“Is all of that necessary?” Minerva was openly showing her irritation.

“Physically, no,” he said as he cracked his neck. “It’s just something for me to do while I gloss over how I’m going to solve the issue. It’s easy to do but the energy issue… ah, screw it.”

He flicked his wrist and a piece of paper appeared in his hand. On there were three big bold letters ‘IOU’. It then went aflame and burned into nothingness. “Sorry, future me. I’ll let you deal with it instead.”

He took a step forward and instantly burst into several light orbs that phased and rushed outside of the bridge. They trailed towards the primordial epicenter (cloud-head) with haste.

“On screen!” Minerva quickly ordered. In a matter of a few seconds, they saw that the orbs were already above the cloud-head. Half of them started to travel to the other side, slowly turning into darker orbs. Each group of orbs merged into a large version and aligned with the other.

“Energy readings are spiking up!” One reported as a thin bright line started to appear from the light orb and a thin dark line from the dark orb, going through the center of the cloud-head.

Minerva had an ominous feeling about it. The two lines met and exploded into a swirling mass of bright and dark clouds. It expanded rapidly outward dissipating just before it reached any of the ships. However, they all felt as if something had passed by.

A few more seconds after that and the entire ship rumbled before that something passed through them again, only this time in the opposite direction.

Then, in the midst of the cloud-head, a void appeared. It started to swallow up the cloud-head into it. The ship started to shake once more as images of the blasting waves started to appear but in reverse. There was no harm done to ships but it still caused some disturbance within the crew. The void simply continued to consume everything until the last bit of the cloud-head.

There was a flash of bright light and then, nothing. There was nothing but an empty space where the primordial epicenter once was. The silence was almost unnerving.

Tip. Tap. Tip. Tap.

A familiar set of steps echoed from the hallway.

“So, about that date.”

Captain Minerva sat on her resting chair in her quarters. Flustered? Only a bit. She was more of frustrated if anything. Especially so when she was wondering why she even made preparations—taking a shower and adjusting the lights a bit dimmer. The man explained how the same phenomenon will occur in the same location and they would be unable to do anything about it. She had given the orders for the ship to turn around and head home, relaying the information to the other ships. She had given the task to Lieutenant Serys to disseminate the specifics of the incident. She seemed quite eager. Minerva just hoped she wouldn’t exaggerate things. Then again, is there even a way to exaggerate what just happened?

There was a knock on her door. Which was strange because it was made of metal and that was a distinctively wooden sound.

“Come in,” she said.

The man phased through the door and bowed his head.

“How did you even—you know what? Forget it.” There was no point asking this man questions about the peculiar, she thought, so she just stopped it at that.

He sat across from her and leaned forward. “So… shall we eat?”

“Dinner? What for?”

“I should at least take you to dinner first. Or so it was said. Has that phrase gotten obsolete?”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“Ah, well, never mind that.” He got up and went behind her. She was surprised when he had placed his hands on her shoulders. “You’re too tense,” he said and started to massage her shoulders.

“W-who’s fault do you think that is?!”

“Come on, relax,” he stopped her from getting up and continued with his massage until she started to calm down.

“Thank you… I suppose.” She managed to say, after a lot of consideration.

“It’s fine. With such a lovely captain, I couldn’t help myself.”

His response brought back a bit of her irritation but she took in a deep breath and let it pass. After a while, she said,“come to think of it, what is your name?”

“You first, captain.” He said and applied some pressure on her spine. It made her back arch a bit. A soft moan barely slipped passed her lips as she placed her hands on her mouth.

“You… ugh, it’s Minerva.”

“Lovely name.”

“...”

“...”

“Are you going to tell me your name or not?”

He went to her side and leaned close, whispering his name in her ear. Finding her actions just weird and unnecessary, she turned towards him to question him on the matter. However, as soon as she did so, he pressed his lips against hers.

“Mmf!” She found herself caught off guard. After a while, though, she pushed him back, clenched her fist and hit him squarely on the jaw. He staggered back but she caught him by the collar as she wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

“Warn me first, you bastard,” she muttered. A lot of thoughts raced in her head. In the end, she has had enough of thinking about it too much.

“Yeah, screw it,” she said and pulled him back into a kiss.

After the promised six hours had way passed, Minerva was sound asleep under her covers. She was too exhausted to move even a little bit. She felt very comfortable and—strangely enough—safe. She slowly stirred awake, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of her own room.

“Lights.” She said as she forced herself up, grabbing hold of the blanket to drape around her form. There was nobody else in the room. On the pillow next to her was a small silver triangular pyramid with a chain attached on its peak. Under it was a small note.

Upon reading it, she smiled a little and sighed.

“You bastard…” She muttered to herself.

In an unknown place and time, the doors leading to a rather lavish room opened and a young man stepped inside. The furnishings were mostly made of wood and there were no highly technological devices anywhere. It was the kind of room that one would think of as a noble’s from a medieval period. What’s more notable are the copious amount of bookshelves lining the walls. They reached all the way up to the ceiling. In fact, they extended to far out that it was impossible to see an end to them.

Welcome back, Master,” a slim woman, with light pink(almost white) hair, in a maid outfit greeted him with a bow. A close look at her limbs would show some pieces of metal attached like some sort of armor. It clashed with both her outfit and the room. “Is your vacation over already?”

“Ah, no. I accidentally got the genre wrong.” He responded as he took a seat and leaned back. He heaved a sigh at such a foolish mistake but given what had occurred, he really didn’t mind all that much.

“You seem to be injured, Master,” the maid went to his side and leaned forward. She then poked his jaw.

“Ow!” He flinched a bit before placing his own hand on his jaw and removed the inhibition on his regeneration. “Ah, I almost forgot about that.”

The maid leaned closer and started sniffing near his neck. “You smell of another woman, Master.”

“It can’t be helped.”

“I am sure the others would like to know about it, as well.”

“Ah, look at the time. I need to make the most of the vacation,” he promptly got up and fixed his clothes, immediately exiting the room the same way he came. “I’ll get it right this time.”

“Ah,” the maid was left stunned with the speed and efficiency of those actions that she was still leaning forward. She fixed her posture and her outfit before she said. “He escaped.”