I walk into the command deck. I’ve been searching for Pyro for some time now but he’s nowhere to be found. I can’t imagine where he might be hiding this time. This man really gets on my nerves when vanishing like that.

I see Silver and Zan in the cockpit. The cockpit isn’t exactly secluded from the rest of the bridge, but when these two are in there, it’s like there’s no one around them. Even so, they still go out of their way to talk to me when they spot me.

“Hey, Jasih. Long time no see,” Zan says.

The boy has grown to be a man. Nowadays, he has muscles in all the right places, and he takes care of his super-growing hair all by himself. It’s not like Silver, the friendly Chronicler’s assistant doesn’t want to help him, but the boy seems to have become kinda shy around her now that he has acquired some sense of modern consciousness.

“What are you talking about? I had just seen you yesterday. It’s not that long ago,” I reply. Sometimes, I don’t understand what he means when he says these things.

He shakes his head, hides his face behind his palm, and laughs. “It was meant to be a joke, Jasih. You still don’t get humor?”

No, he doesn’t, Dark Jay comments in my head. Let me out! I want to have fun with them, too. I’m bored in here.

I can’t answer to him so I just ignore him.

“I don’t get why humor exists in the first place. It’s not like it offers me something intellectually or helps me collect information about the current situation. It doesn’t even help me feel better about anything. So no. My answer is that I still don’t get it.”

I’m a bit too rough on the boy, I admit it. But that Phadh girl, Alyce, is really a pain in the ass. She drives me seriously crazy. Zan is sulking on his seat when I’m over, looking for something to avoid continuing our conversation.

“What’s going, Jasih? How can we help you?” Silver joins the conversation.

To be honest, I never believed that a robot could change. Recently, though, I get the feeling that this one has almost become sentient, especially when around that Earth boy. It’s like for every minute they spend talking to each other, she gets closer to becoming human.

“I’m looking for Pyro. Can you track him using the ship’s sensors?”

Silver has been good with me since we got separated from Eladia and the doctor. I’m not sure why, but I’m in better terms with her now that the three of us are all that remained from the original bunch. It kinda feels like she’s my only true connection to Eladia and I want to cherish it as long as I can.

“Hmm. This is strange. I don’t have access to the sensors. It looks like someone raised a firewall last night limiting my access rights to the ship’s control sensors. I’m sorry, Jasih. I can’t really help you,” she says.

Frankly, I do believe her. She’s a robot after all, and robots can’t lie.

I’m ready to thank her and turn back to my search when something suddenly buzzes in my pocket. At first, I thought it was the Cube, but soon I notice that it’s something else entirely.

“Shit. Who the fuck came up with the idea of giving that girl a notifier? That thing vibrates in my pocket every ten minutes. It’s like she’s playing a twisted mind game with me, trying to drive me crazy!” I say.

Neither Silver nor Zan reply to me. They’re still afraid of my outbursts, scared that if something goes wrong, the other Jasih will come out and kill them. I have to hand it to them, though, they don’t show it as plainly as they did a year ago. It was the first time they ended up alone with me, without Eladia to help them if need be.

“You should get to her. If Pyro finds out, you’re not following his orders...” Zan says.

I’m not glad that I agree with him.

He’s right. Unfortunately, Pyro is my only chance to solve this Nusae bullshit and find Eladia. If I don’t follow his orders, then he’ll make sure to dispose of me.

I leave the room without saying a thing. I walk all the way to the elevator and head downstairs, towards Alyce’s room. I’m still pissed off at the world, and when that happens, the other Jasih seems like he’s in turmoil. It’s like a window opens in my mind and he’s using it to take control of my body.

You don’t have to follow his orders. Let me out and I’ll take care of him for you. You know that I can, right? You just have to let me out!

“If you kill him, then you kill our only chance to see Eladia again. How many times do I have to tell you?”

Since I found out that Dark Jay has the same soft spot for Eladia as I do, I started using it to appease his anger. It still takes some effort not to hit myself trying to hurt him for having all those illicit thoughts about her, but living with him—my symbiote—has become way easier.

I feel the disturbance inside me calm down; it seems even he can’t risk losing her.

A subtle ring notifies me that I’m on the right floor. The Class 5 spaceship Enigma is big enough for almost ten times its current population, so there are many floors to explore. Even so, I was just called to this particular one.

“I hope this isn’t another stupid chore,” I mumble to myself.

Honestly, I’m at my limit with this young girl, Alyce. It has been a week already and instead of becoming less feisty she’s more of a hindrance than when we first closed her in there. I understand that being imprisoned against your will can do that to you, but this relationship of ours has been getting out of hand.

I carefully enter the code on the control panel next to the door to unlock it and get inside. She’s lying on her bed, reading a book, waiting for me to arrive with that arrogant smug of hers.

“It took you long enough,” she says.

“I was busy. What do you want?” I keep all the nice words out of this conversation.

“Nothing. I just want you to get me a glass of water.”

I turn and see that the glass I got her earlier is still intact. “Are you kidding me?”

I almost growl at her.

“No, I’m not. That is mineral water. I want natural, unprocessed one. The kind you have here is making me sick.”

I’m not sure what happened after that. I blink, and I’m standing next to her, roaring on her face, actually being over her shit. The gutsy girl doesn’t even flinch.

“I could kill you, you know? I could make you choke on your blood while slicing your throat with my teeth. Do you want that?” I say, aiming to intimidate her, but her eyes suddenly fall behind me.

“Can you please hold your dog? You don’t want him to kill your most important asset, right?” she says to someone standing behind me.

I slightly turn my head to see who’s the one standing there, but it’s too late. I feel something pulling me closer to Alyce, a force strong enough to almost sever my hands from the rest of my body. I try to pull back, but I can’t.

I close my eyes, and then there’s α feeling of falling into the void. I scream for a moment but soon, it feels like everything is over. Once again, I’m standing on solid ground. Quickly, I pull my hands away from Alyce and look around me. We’re in the middle of a forest with gigantic trees surrounding us, a forest thick enough that light doesn’t get all the way to the ground.

“What did you do? Where are we?” I ask her immediately, getting even more intimidated by her calm smudge.

“Welcome to my home planet, Zeania. It seems your boss’ plan is going exactly as he intended to.”