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The Passing

The airlock opened with a hiss, followed by smoke. As it cleared, the room in front of the trio was revealed to be big enough for at least ten humans. Seiryu could see the section of the prison beyond the airlock. It was dark, with no lighting at all. It was as if he was staring at the starless beyond of space.

It felt weird not being able to breathe normally, given his status as a spirit. Seiryu didn't know that was such a new sensation to be able to breathe while not breathing at the same time. A living, organic creature did not need to think about it when they were breathing. It was like reflex, an unconscious impulse. Even those living in an anaerobic environment had alternate method to stay alive.

Which came to the condition of the abandoned sector. The sector was very dark, with no light coming through except that of the airlock. Even then, the light was not intense enough to shine to the end of the place, if there was a wall nearby. Seiryu could not even sense anything resembling water or any plumbing that ran through the sector, and it was considerably cold.

"Great, not only this place is dark, it's cold like a freezer," said Dajar. "I can feel the water freezing inside me."

"It's below thirty out here. Seiryu, I don't think any worm can live in this kind of environment."

"Tell that to the werewolf," said Seiryu while opening a door. It opened with a creak. Because he voluntarily numbed his senses, he did not feel any chill coming from it, but Capisa, who actually had a thermometer inside his suit, said, "It's like a chiller in there."

"Because it is," said Seiryu while looking around. "This is a 'cold spot'."

"Cold spot?"

"When a supernatural activity is nearby, a cold spot will gather. It is traditionally associated with malevolent ghosts, but I don't think it is."

"A ghost, like..."

Dajar's question was cut short when he saw a pale-looking human standing beside him. His face looked like he was dead, and there was a gaping injury. From it came the worm, that ate through his eye and fell to the floor. This horrifying sight was enough for the Aquros to shriek and ran behind Capisa, in which the other Aquros said, "Hey, stop that."

"Poor man," said Seiryu while approaching him. The ghost turned towards him. He recognized Seiryu as a ghost and said, "I never believed in ghosts, but seeing that I am one now, I guess...heaven and hell broke loose, huh?"

"Yes, but more importantly, how did you die? Is it the worms?"

"Yes, and I must warn you. The worm that ate me is not the one you need to be concerned with. There are bigger ones. Be very careful."

"Do you know a way to restore light to this section?"

"You'll find a door with 'electric room' sign on it. You just need to go down the corridor to the left and take the second turn to the right. There you can find the room."

"Much appreciated."

Before Seiryu left, though, the ghost said, "You are different. You did not die here."

"It won't be long before we all go back to the realm we have been accepted. Goodbye, and let chance meet us again."

The ghost, despite of his injuries, smiled, and vanished. Seiryu looked towards the ghost's last position, before he walked away from the room and followed the direction the man told him. Dajar and Capisa followed him.

"H-hey, your job requirement did not mention 'frequent ghost sightings', right? Then what was that?!"

"Do you worship Leviathan?"

"I do, but I am not an acolyte. I don't follow him a lot and I rarely attend a sermon."

"So why are you so scared to a human ghost like it's Leviathan's wrath? C'mon, Dajar, I thought you are handpicked by that old Aquros for a reason."

"As an assistant Engineer to Cal!"

"Can you fight, though?"

"Studied little self-defense. But this is not self-defense!"

Capisa suddenly looked towards the dark blue aqura. Dajar suddenly felt the water's regulator started to fail, but quickly returned to normal. His confused expression turned to fear when he realized the source.

"Sooner or later, you gotta learn how to fight. If you think the seedy small town you live is a challenge, you haven't seen the big picture yet. Atlantis is no longer an isolated little aquatic planet in a planet system. It is a hub for countless variety of alien races belong to the Federation. You may think that living underwater is an adventure itself, but even the sea has its own limits. The realm of Leviathan is not for space, you understand? Right now, stay calm and follow me. This suit will give you a degree of protection, even if you are eaten by a giant worm."

"Hey." Seiryu's voice took Capisa's attention. His flashlight took on Seiryu's hand signal, commanding him to shut up and take cover. Capisa did just that, with Dajar following. Seiryu kept staring at the end of the corridor, where he could have reached the electric room. After a while, the black Orient gestured Capisa by tapping his forehead and pointed it towards a point. Capisa recognized it as pointing his flashlight to what Seiryu pointed. He did just that, and found a terrifying discovery.

At the end of the corridor, there was a figure eating something on the ground. Judging by the color of the blood and the thing it was eating, Capisa knew it was the worm it was eating. Upon closer inspection, however, was a horrifying decaying corpse of an Aquros gurgling. It was wrinkled due to dehydration, and its eyes were dead white. Capisa, however, was more fixed with the thing on its back, a lump of black substance that latched on the corpse's back and spreading.

"I can't believe it!" thought Capisa while readying his gun. "I've been thorough with killing every last one of them and one is still alive?!"

"Judging from your movements, I think you know what that thing is."

"Ten years ago...one of the Aqura's colony planet, Pascoforta, was devastated by the outbreak of these creatures. The Rendlok's colony, Alain Delon...they were just a fraction of what that Black Creature can do. Seiryu...the reason why your former companions were dead and Dairyu's guilt...is because of that creature."

"You mean that lump of goo?"

"It's an ancient bio weapon. Whatever you do, do not get killed. The moment you are killed, that thing will take over and kill everyone on this asteroid. Yes, the crew included."

"What?!" exclaimed Dajar.

"Hey, keep your voice down!"

It was too late. The Black Creature realized that there was a voice and with a growl, started running towards Dajar. Capisa was fast enough to move in front of him, but was not fast enough to pull the trigger. It quickly overwhelmed him by breaking the laser gun. Seiryu, however, managed to snatch the gun and the corpse. The force broke the corpse apart, and it made the Black Creature started to target Seiryu. It made its body into spikes, and one of them launched itself towards Seiryu's head. It lodged into the draconian's head and bore deep.

"Seiryu!" exclaimed Capisa. But then, when he saw the draconian's eyes, he realized something. Seiryu made a grin and threw the Black Creature to the ground and stomped it with all his might.

"Yeah, I'm already dead. Dairyu, you son of a bitch. He knew this would happen."

"You didn't get taken over?"

"I think I understand how this creature works, and right now this place is full of them."

Upon hearing that, Capisa realized that the corridor leading to the electric room was black, while the rest of the facility was gray-colored. His fear was realized when eyes suddenly appeared on the floor and the wall, looking at Seiryu, who was standing directly in front of the corridor.

"Hey, Capisa...if something happens to me that I can't move, I want you to get the hell out of here and fly away."

"But..."

"I know I am a ghost, but being solid has its own weakness. These things won't be able to take over my body, but even then, I will be trapped. If I am Dairyu right now, I would use the air to propel myself."

Capisa knew that Seiryu would just make himself a ghost again to phase through objects, but both of them knew that it would prove risky. Seiryu had no idea if he returned to ghost could let him return to solid again. Without solid body, he would just phase through objects, and would not be able to help.

Without warning, though, Seiryu ran through the floor of Black Creatures looking at him on a giant leap. Capisa was caught unaware and tried to warn him, but what he saw was something entirely different from what he thought it would be.

Despite of the leap, Seiryu could not reach the end of the corridor, which was at least 30 meters from where he started to jump. Even if he had animalistic digitigrade legs, he could only leap for 10 meters at best. It was then Capisa realized something he did not thought was possible. As soon as Seiryu's leg reached the floor, he made another jump without even alerting the Black Creature. What he saw, however, was a ripple.

"Holy shit! Never thought these things are made of water, too!" thought Seiryu as he repeated the step. "Most creatures, aliens or not, always have water component in their body. The water is used to transport many minerals to all parts of the body. Even if this thing is a bio weapon, the fact that it has uneven shape is because of its goo-like component, which is water. Using that, I can leap through them as easy as walking over the surface of water."

"But doing this exhausts me because I basically control scarce water to make a leap. The moment my concentration falters, it will be the end of me."

Though technically he wouldn't die again, Seiryu still needed to help Dairyu and his new crew. He was the only one who could be solid, and he needed to be the guide. The other group, using the giant space exploration ship, knew that their travel was toward the center of the galaxy. Seiryu wanted to make sure his mission is fulfilled until the end.

He finally reached the door and opened it. The Black Creatures tried to go in, but Seiryu closed the door as fast as he could, sealing him inside, in the darkness. He then looked around, trying to find something that looked remotely like a breaker. After rubbing the wall around him, he finally got the right lever and pulled it. All of the sudden, the backup generator hummed on and lights flickered all around the room and on Capisa's side. The Aquros knew he did it, and could finally see the extend of the Black Creatures covering the floor. He also found a fire extinguisher beside him and threw it towards the floor while simultaneously shoot it. It exploded, spraying an unknown substance that covered the entire black floor. The Black Creatures started to become static, before completely frozen in less than a minute. The infected were the one still moving, but it was also broken into pieces. Seiryu, opened the door to see the result.

"Cryogenic fire extinguisher? Now that's new. What are they afraid off? Black fire?"

"That's not important right now. Look at the corridor in front of me."

Seiryu, confused, looked up and gasped in surprise. Dajar also did that, but unlike the two warriors, he just yelped and hide behind Capisa.

What they saw was a horrifying scenery out of a horror movie. The corridor's wall had blood splattered on it out from a body. The body's back was facing the wall, disemboweled. Apparently something happened in this black site that the warden did not want to talk about. All the bodies and the carnage seemed new. It was as if aside from the Black Creature, the aforementioned 'space worms' were the cause of the deaths.

"W-what the hell is this?!" exclaimed Dajar.

"Do they actually think they can cover this up?" said Seiryu with a bewildered expression. "Was this because of the Black Creature?"

"No, I don't think this Creature is the cause of everything," said Capisa while checking the wall. "The blood seemed fresh, but the moment you touch it, it crumbled away like dried blood. I cannot say this is dye. My suit sensors administered it as genuine human blood."

"Hey, someone's still alive!"

The 'someone' Dajar was talking about moved slowly towards them, trying to grab on Seiryu. He looked up, revealing his mutilated face. Like the rest of them, he looked like he was just recently killed.

"You...you're one of us," said the human with a tone of surprise. "How?"

"You're not making any sense." But then Seiryu realized something. "Y-you're..."

"Come on, Seiryu, we need to get him back to the station! This place is freezing and he won't gonna make it."

"No, Dajar. I know why Seiryu is hesitating. This place has been a vacuum space for many years and survival in vacuum is impossible. The reason why the blood is fresh and the recent deaths of these people is because..."

"They are already dead. No...it's not just this place. Something happened to this asteroid prison."

Seiryu looked at the mutilated human and said, "Hey! What happened to this place? Why is this section's the only one with recent damage?!"

"We...were being attacked by that black creature," said the human slowly pointing at the frozen Black Creature. "We didn't know where it came from. You need to ask the logistics section...if any are still alive at this point. The Warden took a decision to torch the whole thing after communication was cut off and almost everyone was killed. A riot occurred, but...I don't remember anything beyond that. All I remember after that was..."

"The Fifth Dimension," said Seiryu empathically. "But...you did say something like the warden trying to torch this place, right? Does he mean incinerating this whole sector?"

"No, 'torch' is not about burning the whole place. It's..."

"Turning off life support systems on a particular sector," said a voice behind Seiryu. As he turned, the Aquros that he barely knew came with Dairyu in tow, pointing his positron gun on his head.

"I suppose I owe you and explanation, now that you've turned on the whole sector," said Ateran. "I should've told you directly, but I don't want to make you think it's some kind of a joke."

"Did you kill everyone on this prison asteroid?" said Dairyu. "Tell them everything you told me."

Ateran made a laugh. "Not only did the Black Orient found out it sooner than I thought, but he actually saw my files."

"What is he talking about?"

"Ateran's files were last dated 12 years ago, before the whole Black Creature Crisis happened. I confronted him about it, but I need more than just verbal confirmation."

After Dairyu released Ateran, the Aquros said, "I should've known the Crimson Rain was one of your crew, Dairyu Tsukasa. But how are you suspicious?"

"Your suit looks a lot like a junked suit from the scrap planet I went to. Aquros are not known to throw away their suit. They just upgraded it. Is that right, Capisa?"

"Yes, but you must throw it away after 10 years due to age and newer components unable to be retrofitted into the suits. If there's a suit thrown away...but how are you able to see it? I mean, it looks brand new."

"Seriously? You are an Aquros and you don't even know if a suit is an old model or not?"

"Hey, don't blame me if I don't know that much about older models! There are also Aqura who can't even make a difference between a thermal coupling and a bivalve energy converter!"

"Uhmm...that's high-level spaceship engineering..."

"Shut up, Dajar!"

"Yeah, well...you sharks don't give a tech-savvy kind of feeling, so...."

Dairyu turned to Ateran. "Care to explain why you prefer to sacrifice yourself and the rest of the prison?"

After a moment of silence, Ateran said, "That thing can survive in the vacuum of space, so 'torching' the section won't help us. By the time we realize it, it is already too late. That...Black Creature...can infect a corpse and launch an attack into the main complex, causing major power failure and freeing the prisoners. A riot ensued and that Black Creature infected every dead bodies and caused confusion. I was still in my room when it happened, so I took the extreme measure by blowing up the whole asteroid."

"Why don't you escape with the survivors?"

"I...was thinking that the ship had been compromised. I blow up everything to ensure that the creature will not infect anyone, but I guess it doesn't help the fact that no one knew about those creatures."

"Without information coming out from this place, no wonder no one's ready for the Black Creature Crisis," said Dairyu, lowering his gun. "But why haven't you been attacked by that thing?"

"5 hours have passed between us torching the place and the subsequent self-destruct sequence," said Ateran. "That creature moves slower in vacuum, but it isn't dead. We should've thought cryogenically freezing that thing is the only way, but...I guess I'm too harsh."

"Why didn't you tell the Federation about this problem?"

"Because...my pride did not allow it, and it is a fatal call," said Ateran with a smirk. "Now...I guess I have been denied a place in Leviathan's Deep Realm. Not that I mind, though. I don't believe in entities."

He then turned to Capisa. "Capisa S'Hor...does Kotine knows about this place's crisis? Using your resources, I guess he..."

"No...Fas'ren never talks about family during the job. He always acts professionally."

Ateran smiled. "Typical Kotine...hey, if you ever meet him again, will you tell him this?"

"He might think I'm a lunatic for giving him a message from a dead person."

"With all the things happening, I think he'll understand. Tell him...there is always a time when he needs to settle down. Being a Mako Agent...does not always mean not having a child forever."

"How do you know he doesn't have a wife?"

"I know my cousin like my own brother, and I know he is an Agent, just like I know you are, Capisa S'hor. And Dairyu Tsukasa...finish your mission...so we can rest without worrying on our mistakes."

"We will do that."

"I know you will. You are...the one who changed this galaxy's community forever, after all."

Despite of being called that, Dairyu did not feel that way, possibly because he didn't actually change the community for the better. Instead, he made his own race, the Terrans, isolated for so many years before the tyranny was overthrown and it became an open space community. He didn't do anything right, after all.

The surprise revelation from Oberon-231 did not change their original route through the asteroid belt. With the help of Ateran and his navigators, they managed to traverse through the belt and towards the nearby Relay Gate, making them closer to the center of the galaxy full of exploding stars. It was, however, still an estimated 3 months' journey, because there hasn't been any meaningful exploration to the center of the universe and the lack of Relay Gates due to the instability of the sector, called sector Zero by many Federation star charter due to its sector designation: Z0.

The travel, however, felt different due to their meeting with the asteroid prison. The experience given from the long dead could be overwhelming to the crew, but it changed them to the better and not to rely on harsh decision.

They knew that, sooner or later, they would make a decision that can change the fate of the crew.