I walk towards the commanding deck of the spaceship. It’s late. I just want to have something to eat. That tree-woman wouldn’t eat anything even if I pushed the food straight down her throat. And it’s all Pyro’s fault for assigning her to me.

Damn! Damn it all! I, Jasih of the Esuh, a First Kind, and a Prime Officer taking orders from a man that I haven’t even seen his face, I sure must be getting old after all.

But, he promised. He fucking promised that I will see Eladia again if I follow him. And that he’ll also tell me the truth about what happened to my people.

You’re way too gullible to believe a man weaker than you. He’s shitting you, and you do nothing about it.

I suddenly stop and look around me; there’s no one around.

“What other choice do I have? He’s the only one that knows about us and doesn’t want to cut us in pieces and experiment on us. Don’t you want to know what happened to our people, Jay?”

I feel a deep disturbance inside me; he’s not happy with me calling him Jay.

Let me out, just for an hour, and I’ll take care of him for you. And then we can finally search for Eladia and stop this fucking game.

“Don’t you forget the Cube? What will we do with that? Carry this thing around and wait until it magically disappears? Also, there are those visions. I’m sure you had them too. There’s something seriously wrong going on here.”

He doesn’t answer. He probably agrees with me, but it’s in his nature to defy me. I get it, though. I would be angry and mad as hell if I ended up stuck inside someone else’s body.

“Now, if you have nothing more to say, I have to get to the bridge. They expect a full report of the girl’s behavior.”

I start again towards the elevator as soon as I get a feeling that Dark Jay has returned back to his slumber.

It’s getting easier to talk to him every day. It’s like I talk to myself, only weirder. After everything that happened last year, the lies Eladia spouted at me, the cube showing us the way to every crazy corner of the Known Galaxy, fighting countless men and surviving, I think I’ve seen everything. Nothing surprises me anymore. But still, after everything, I don’t know why we had to risk our lives to get into that spaceship and abduct a young, alien girl. Pyro never shares his thoughts with us, not until after he’s sure that everything has gone according to his plan.

It has been a long year since we left that crazy planet. Back then, and after floating into nothingness for two days, I, Silver, and Zan were finally picked up by another spaceship, the mysterious Enigma Juggernaut. At first, I thought that the men with the black masks had finally found us, but as soon as the gate opened, we saw him, Pyro, the man with the red mask, waiting for us on the other side.

My first reaction back then was to attack him and quickly get immobilized by him and the gray-masked siblings in mere seconds. But he didn’t kill me like he did with those people back then. When he explained to us that he and the blond Doctor know each other and that he wouldn’t hurt us if we followed him peacefully, it was the only thing we could do to survive until we find Eladia.

Nevertheless, we ended up traveling with him around the galaxy. At first, I thought we were searching for Eladia and Doctor Dale Cross. But soon we started taking part in those weird missions—abducting political targets and exterminating small fleets of spaceships. I started thinking that the man behind the red mask has his own agenda and saving the galaxy from destruction is his afternoon hobby.

When I finally arrive on the bridge, Pyro and his two apprentices, the men with the gray, twisted masks, look at me. Both men remove their masks immediately and greet me, but Pyro never even moves a muscle.

“Jasih! You were awesome back there man. The way you kicked their butts without even breaking a sweat. It was awesome dude.”

That’s Alec. Very talkative and somehow childish, but at the end of the day, he means well. He’s our tech expert, able to hack everything he sets his mind into faster than a robot would ever do. Still, he lacks fighting experience, making him an unstable element during an operation.

“It was nothing, young man. We caught them off guard. That’s all.”

He nods and looks at his friend, the silent and mysterious Arlen. The guy was caught by a pirate crew when he was still a small child, and they ended up cutting his tongue for some reason. I don’t know the details, and I don’t care enough to ask either way. He just stands there, looking at me, just creeping me out.

Both men use their hands to talk. It’s strangely mesmerizing seeing them use that sign language (that’s how Silver said that it’s called). Arlen is one of the best assassins I’ve seen in years. It’s impossible to know that he’s after you until after he has killed you. But, the fact he can’t talk makes him another unstable element for operations. If he’s the first one to go down, we’ll never even know.

Still, these two work with the Organization for years now, following the grand plan of their master, Pyro.

“Enough, all of you. That was only the beginning of our operation. We now have to keep the ambassador’s daughter safe until we arrive at the Phadh home planet, Zeania. Jasih, you’ll continue to monitor her behavior throughout our trip there,” Pyro says.

I growl at him; he turns and looks at me. “I’m not a babysitter, Pyro. One of your men can take care of her. Why should I do it?”

They all look at me like I’m dumb. Well, of course, I’m acting foolishly when they never brief me up about anything, and they expect me to understand. I have the right to complain. I haven’t had a day of rest since we left that planet a year ago.

When we aren’t on a mission, we train. And when we don’t train, we investigate, kill, save, do every kind of mission without anyone ever telling me what’s the grand scheme behind all those missions. I just have to suck it up if I want to see her again.

Pyro takes a step closer to me. I can sense his murderous aura. It makes Dark Jay inside me stir. If I released him now, it would be a bloodbath before they finished fighting.

“I thought you wanted to find your girlfriend, Jasih. The Phadh girl we captured, she is our ticket into Zeania, the one place you can’t infiltrate without having a Phadh aboard. And the last time I checked, the Nusae Relic points straight to that planet for some reason. I’m just helping you fulfill your mission. And taking care of that girl is part of your mission. Do you understand?”

I hate how he’s right but wrong at the same time. I probably hate that I can’t do anything to stop him. I’m not sure I want to be here at this moment, but I won’t ever let him see that. I nod and turn my back to him. I feel their eyes following me all the way outside the commanding deck.

But I don’t fucking care anymore. Only the thought that I’m closer to finding her, to actually see her after all this time, it makes all this wait worth it. Damn, I have to let her know how I feel.