It was one small step for him, but at the same time, one giant leap for those, who bring the light.

Andrew crossed his fingers and jumped, below him was an object parallel to a black hole, it devoured everything in its vicinity, be it visible or invisible.

Andrew's soles stopped on a giant, glass bubble that surrounded the corrupted core of a dead star. The astronaut gave thumbs up to Limi, who was responsible for controlling the sphere and busy focusing the energy.

"Dragonflies." - Andrew spoke to his radio. - "Andrew here, as disposable as always... and ready."

"Understood." - Voice spoke through the comms. - "Plant the flares, the light will guide you."

Limi concentrated and tens of white beacons, in the shape of a cylinder, emerged from the glass bubble. Andrew pressed a button on his backpack and the first flare ejected into his other hand. The astronaut drove it into the glass and leaped to the next beacon.

"Remind me, what happens If the white spell fails?" - Andrew asked Limi hesitantly as he placed the tenth flare.

"In short, you might be stuck in a Limbo, in such case, you will need to... take your own life."

"Again?"

"Andrew, don't whine."

"Of course, of course." - Andrew drilled the eleventh flare. - "What about you?"

"You'll have to retrieve my soul core later. It'll be in hibernating mode."

"Eh, it took me ten weeks during the exercises. I was bored out of my mind."

"Trust me, Andrew, that's nothing."

Andrew activated his rocket boots and propelled himself up and forward, gravity pulled him to the next beacon. - "You always say that."

"Because it's true. You're still a rookie, the weight you have to carry is minuscule compared to other astronauts."

"It might be, but nobody tries to boast, so I'm kept in the dark."

"It's better this way."

"Why?"

"We don't want to scare you."

"Oh, just tell me something, for once. What was the longest you had to wait?"

"Uhmm... do you know what busy beaver is?"

"Uh... some sort of animal... or a cartoon, for kids?"

Limi giggled. - "Not close enough! Look it up when we're back. Once you understand the concept, I'll tell you about what the graymoon knights had to discover."

"The order of graymoon knights? Oh, forget it. Something tells me, that I'm not going to like the answer. I think I'll pass."

"Your loss, young dragonfly!"

Fifteen flares were placed. Andrew looked at the sky above him, it was a pitch-black void.

"Limi... how do I know that the bubble didn't collapse?" - Andrew asked.

"It's hard to tell, but look on its surface. You've to tell from the cracks and the density of glass. If it gets too white, we've screwed."

"Okay."

"Just okay?"

"Well, If it happens, there's nothing I can do about it."

"Everything will be okay. We've simulated it over million times."

"Yeah... yeah... it's just, you're not the one walking over... this thing."

"Would you like to swap?"

"Oh, no... no! It's not like we could, anyway."

"Not in years. You're just a young dragonfly, after all."

"Hey, I'm proud to wear that emblem, even If we're in the lowest ranks. Not everyone gets a chance to become one of the astronauts."

The sixteenth flare was ready. - "Is that true, that in this place, the time stands still?"

"Uhm... not really... but it's very, very slow."

"...so a lot must be happening outside as we stand here."

"Yeah, we're missing the fun."

"...and to think, that I'll be still a newbie."

Seven extra flares were on their spots. Andrew felt an earthquake and dropped a flare, it rolled a few meters away.

"Limi... there was a tremor. Are you focused?"

Comms opened, but all Andrew could hear was a short, high pitch.

"Oh, for heaven's sake." - Andrew turned controls on his helmet to the left. The voice slowed down.

"Yes... but the transmission is very slow. I'll ask for your status every cycle, please reply. - Status? - Status? - Status? - Status? - Status? ..."

Andrew looked at the glass, it was still semi-transparent. - "Sending two signals. Estimate the time dilation."

"Oh... finally. I'm glad to know you're still there. You must've dropped a few millimeters. I'll ask for status again in... eh... about twelve thousand cycles. Get to next beacon by that time..."

"Yeah, yeah, I will." - Andrew stepped on the glass and heard a crack underneath him. He looked at the black sphere below, there were ripples on it. He carefully leaped to the flare and drove it into the glass, then adjusted the speed of messages. He could only hear the beginning of the message, slowed down, then the rest of it accelerated, so he switched the mode of reading to transform it with a non-constant function.

"Status? Status?"

"Several waves are forming on the sphere, I don't know what's going on."

"Oh, no! Avoid their crests... it's all with.." - Then, there was an error, the message was too compressed to be translated.

"I guess, I am on my own."

Andrew observed how the shadow of tide acts under the glass bubble, which lost most of its transparency, and propelled himself whenever it would come at him. He looked at a screen on his wrist, the counterweight and counterforce generated by his suit were enormous.

Andrew looked at the readings - "I think... with the way it escalates... it can withstand a few more hours in here." - then placed over twenty more flares, but stopped for a moment when he saw a row of lights behind the glass shell. A long shadow moved with serpentine grace just below the barrier, all in its path turned completely white.

"That wasn't the part of the training!" - Andrew started running, then activated the propelling jets, once the shadow drew closer to him. He pierced the flares into the glass until just three remained.

The glass, however, started to crack small shards of it were pulled into the blackness. Through the gaps in the protective sphere, Andrew saw a long dragon made from fluctuating, black matter, with two rows of spikes at its back, ended with glowing white orbs.

Two flares remained.

The cracks grew larger and more and more shards fell into the blackness. The holes in the sphere revealed the waves, and what was between them, astonished Andrew. He saw three dome-shaped houses built out of black matter. In front of each, were stumps, and on them, sat three black golems. The entire place seemed like it was frozen in time.

One last flare remained.

Andrew did not bother with his findings, but yet – he felt, that If the spell succeeded, whatever lived there, would be gone.

He placed the last flare and adjusted the decompression level of the message, to make sure it was not nullified. - "Flares ready! Pull me out!"

...but Limi's blurry image was shifting rapidly and very bright. Andrew adjusted settings on his helmet, he saw Limi's afterimages all around him, their luminosity increased each second and they were like a large, white smudge soon.

He knew it meant only one thing, they couldn't pull him out and the spell started.

All the flares activated, burning with white light. The temperature in Andrew's suit was increasing. He was going to be slowly boiled alive. He saw his last chance in the rocket boots, but they malfunctioned the second he tried to activate them. On top of that, a high tide was coming, followed by the dragon.

As soon as the levels of the black matter raised, the timer on Andrew's suit was reduced to mere seconds and it got scalding hot. All Andrew could see above him was a tiny circle of extremely bright light, that started melting everything around him.

"Disable the shields!" - Andrew screamed, prepared for his quick demise.

[ . . . ]

When Andrew opened his eyes, he found himself in a sterile white room, with a large, darkened glass window in place of a wall, behind it, shone a large, bright star. Limi hibernated next to his bed, hovering in the air.

"Limi!" - Andrew extended his hand and touched her torso, it interrupted her slumber.

"Oh, good morning, Andrew."

"Did we... did we do it?"

"Yes, don't you see?" - Limi turned to gaze at the new sun. - "It took us exactly one Andrew's cycle."

"Huh... Andrew's cycle... and how long is that?"

"2 881 251 316 511 110 499 720 cycles."

"You androids, are a different kind."

"Once we adjust our internal clocks, or hibernate and set up alarms, it's shorter than you may think."

"Eh, it's beyond my imagination, but still – you did an excellent job out there."

"You too, young dragonfly."

"...so ...what do we do next?"

"After you make a report, we get a week of vacation."

"Ehh... and what will I do with all that time?"

"Do you want to visit a few outer worlds with me and see what has changed?"

Andrew had a roguish grin. - "...and have to write another lengthy report right after we're back? Forget it."

Limi's antennas moved. - "Andrew! You knave! You won't make me do it again."

"Hey, I try to be fair, you're the one who always gets to choose what planes we visit!"

"I wouldn't mind If you were to choose our destination, for once."

"You know that I'm bad at these things. I'll probably pick some barren rock again."

"Even barren rocks can be nice places."

"Huh? Since when?"

"Since you get to visit them with a good friend."

"A good friend, huh? I guess... we can split the paperwork."

Limi covered her lips and giggled. - "Fifty-fifty?"

"Fifty-fifty, but I get to choose our first destination!"

"Of course, and what would that be?"

Andrew lifted his arm and pointed in a random direction. - "There... maybe?"