Walking while in labor has started to bother me. I’m six months in, my belly swelled up and heavy, and still, I can’t stop visiting all these Nusae ruins.

Today we’re in planet Ziurus, discovering another Nusae relic indicating the existence of the Cube and of another civilization way before humans, way before time itself. It was that civilization that created the Cubes and the same civilization that left behind it a massive Great Mystery, the likes of it no one has ever seen.

“Honey? Where are you?”

It’s him, Jay. He’s the one that has led me to this site.

“Down here, baby! Follow the lights,” I say and grab my back, trying to alleviate some of the pain I’m feeling there.

Usually, I want to piss every two minutes, and I’m hungry like I haven’t eaten for days, but when I’m inside an ancient Nusae site, it’s like my little angel understands my need for knowledge and stops squeezing my bladder all the time. I already know that he, or she, will become a great Chronicler.

“Eladia! What I’ve told you? No ruin-exploring by yourself. What if the ruins collapse on your head? What would happen then?”

“Relax, Jay. I got Pioneer here to check three times before entering. If there was a crack on the walls or anything indicating the ruins are dangerous, I wouldn’t venture in here all by myself.”

Jay looks at me with disbelief. Pioneer is our little assistant robot, a small spherical-shaped robot that flies around me all the time and helps me with my research.

“Really? Pioneer, show me a catalog of your last recorded scans,” Jay suddenly says.

“Okay, okay. You got me red handed. I didn’t quite check it, but my experience tells me that the site won’t collapse. Isn’t that a good enough reason?”

He smiles at me and shakes his head; he does that a lot since I got pregnant with his child.

“You’re crazy, you know that?”

“Yeah, but that’s why you love me after all,” I reply to him.

He moves close to me and gives me a kiss on the lips. I kiss him back and pull him closer to me. My huge belly doesn’t allow me to feel his throbbing cock in my vagina, but hell, I can’t wait to get back on the spaceship and fuck like bunnies, all night. Pregnancy hormones get me horny all the time so I can’t get enough of him.

“Well, you seem like you’re in the mood again,” he says, trying to keep a calm face but not quite managing it.

“You know me. I’m in the mood every second. It’s the hormones. You’re like a big, hot sausage to me, and I want to keep eating you until I’m stuffed.”

He laughs out loud and hugs me; I laugh as well. “That was weirdly hot. But now we have to keep on with this research. We’re close to discovering another Nusae Relic. Maybe, this time, we’ll get a time machine,” he says.

“Or tastier food?” I continue his sentence. “Yeah, I would like that,” I say.

He moves deeper into the ruins laughing, leaving me behind in the anteroom of the temple. There are many kinds of signs on the walls, most of them not even recognizable by Pioneer. It’s not that he can’t translate them, is that there are no immediate translations from the K.G.A. That means that this site is of Nusae origins and that we probably have to scan the whole room to get an answer.

Still, it’s amazing that after so long, we’re still able to find new ruins almost every other week. Jasih is an endless pit of Nusae and Esuh knowledge, especially after his memories returned.

I didn’t know anything about his life before the incident on Mosa, but since then, after we left Mosa he told me everything about his visions and his wife being inside the cube from the beginning, trying to protect him. It somehow moved me. Their relationship was strong, strong enough to span a whole century, strong enough for her to control the power of the Cube and save him, us, everyone.

Lenora is the true hero of the story; her, Dale, and Dark Jay. It’s the anniversary of half a year since the incident, meaning that six months passed. Sadly, it feels like a whole life away from where I’m standing today. Thinking back, I still wonder why Dale never told me the name of his lover; I could have made sure to bury them together or something. But it seems he didn’t want that.

He wanted for his life to mean something, even if his name would only remain in the archives of the Organization as the Legendary Swamp. It was a rough life the one he lived.

When he told me his plan to set a bomb in the City Hall, one strong enough to bring down the building, I thought he was crazy. Still, he somehow managed to think ten moves ahead, taking into consideration that Jay wasn’t in the mental condition to decide the destiny of the whole Galaxy, while also wanting to take down the other black-maskers with him and give us time to get out.

However, he didn’t have a remote detonator for the explosives, so the only way to follow through his plan was to detonate them himself, sacrificing himself in the process. I knew that, and I walked away to save the man I love the most, the father of my child, Prime Officer Jasih. If it wasn’t for Dale, the other Jay would have chosen to drive humans into extinction, renewing a long cycle of deaths and revenge. If it wasn’t for Dale, Mosa would still be a wasteland of undead humans and destroyed buildings.

I walk deeper into the ruins until I find Jasih, shirtless, using his shirt to remove the dust from a tablet on the east corner of the temple. He’s dusting off the ruins, the muscles of his back tensing up and down, giving me a sense of hotness deep into my belly. I’m either horny or the little guy, or gal, in there decided to suddenly cause me trouble.

Still, holding my belly between my hands, I can’t stop thinking of that last, hazy memory I have of Dark Jay.

I remember opening my eyes, looking at him sparkling like an angel, the cube flying around him in circles. I remember him squatting next to me, giving me a kiss on the forehead, and smiling. And then, he said those words that I’ll keep inside me for the rest of my life.

“You’re my love and light, the only human I ever loved and will love as long as I’m alive. I couldn’t spend an eternity with you, my love, but I’ll make sure you spend a lifetime with me. Or at least, a part of me.

“I love you and...well, that’s it. I love you. I hope I will tell you that sooner,” he said and then walked away, like a dream long lost.

I asked Jay what happened during that hour that the building was frozen in time. The Cube had engulfed the building into a time-warping sphere, allowing enough time to Dark Jay to say his goodbyes. According to him, Lenora had brought him to life to become the sacrifice needed for the Cube to unlock, so that even if Jay opened the Cube, as he eventually did, he would have a way out of its curse.

What Lenora didn’t expect is that someone would fall in love with that parasite, that bloodthirsty monster that killed everyone in his path. She couldn’t have known that the same woman that fell for her husband would also fall for his armor. And so, when the time came for him, Dark Jay, to choose, he chose to sacrifice himself so that I could be happy with a part of him, the platinum-skinned Jasih.

Everything comes back to me, and I turn my head so that Jay doesn’t see me crying again. I’m so happy with him that I wouldn’t change this for the world, but every now and then, tears run from my eyes, reminding me of everything that came to be.

The one thing I regret the most is never saying goodbye to him. He was alone back there, a man wondering in and out of people’s lives, waiting for someone to recognize him as a living being.

“Honey, you really should come and see this!” Jay yells from deeper into the temple.

I wipe the tears from my eyes, shush my belly so that the little critter in there doesn't say anything to his, or her, father, and then walk next to him.

“Tell me! I’m all yours!”