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Chapter Nine: Station of the Dead, Part One

Twilight groaned as he endured Afternoon's daily abridgment of horrible images that really became the status quo for the Kagen, trapped in another world on the whim of a madman. For him he still had at least nine months until he'd be able to reunite with Koji and start the downfall of the Kagen Empire, so he had to be patient.

He was current floating in Afternoon's "torture chamber" which after a while just became more like a trippy room, as the back ground bubbled and red spots moved around the screen. However, instead of the normal hour he got with the mental torture, Afternoon barged in and the mental images stopped.

"Ah, why hello their Afternoon; what kind of horrid torture are you going to do that I haven't seen in the last Eight or so years, please try something creative for once." Twilight said joking with the other Kagen, hoping to appeal to Afternoon's sense of humor.

"Sorry there, no how about we talk about space exploration. Today I found something; I think the mortals thought they could hide from us." Afternoon said as instead his view of the human world was projected in front of Twilight on the walls. However, instead of zooming in to the planet it dragged away and focused in on a tiny asteroid floating around Earth.

"Humans have recently discovered this place, I thought I might show you sense we took your Earth sense away; they believe that a temporary Lagrange point opened up between the Earth and Moon, however this anomaly has always been there they just couldn't notice until a massive rock got stuck in it." Afternoon said as he showed Twilight a nice view around the rock, rotating it around until suddenly white exploration buildings showed up.

"Oh dear, I see how this matters; don't do this you'll always regret it." Twilight said begging Afternoon, he figured based on the time that he had spent in the torture realm; it would be the start of Noon and Afternoon. Twilight's face turned nervous as more and more of the human settlement was revealed.

"I'm sorry, I only mutating one of the viruses into a water virus, takes over the body and attempts to spread. I think you'll appreciate the reference." Afternoon said as he zoomed into the large and green biodome of the station, slowly zooming into to one of the carrot plants, and then on one of the leafs, before zooming in further and further until it reached an tiny amoeba on the planet.

It zoomed in on the amoeba, Afternoon laughing as they reached it DNA and his powers, much more powerful outside of Earth orbit, activated. His hands and eyes glowed as he transformed the DNA, adding a few orbs and more stands to the Amoeba. He zoomed out and the amoeba was shaking as its color changed to blue, tiny molecules of water flowing out of its body.

"It will be ready in say, eleven months or so." Afternoon said as Twilight squirmed and tried to exit the nightmare realm as the images of biological warfare was forced into his mind, torturing him as Afternoon opened the door and exited the room, closing it and allowing Twilight the motivation to start his escape.

...

Jackson groaned as he walked into the Outsiders warehouse, at about one in the morning. For some reason it was the security system went off and someone entered but never left. Jackson flipped on the lights knowing that even if he alerted the person, the only entrance was behind him.

Looking around Jackson found Twilight at a table, playing with a few Black Book shards. Jackson walked over as he tried to figure out what the Kagen was doing at one o'clock at night, he broke in and apparently decided to use equipment on the shards of the black book.

"Twilight, It's one at night please go to bed." Jackson said whining across the room as he attempted to get the Kagen to stop. He looked around and Twilight apparently didn't hear him as the orca walked forward making sure that the shark would fully know what he was doing wrong.

Jackson walked forward and there was a laser shining down near the black books and onto a steel plate that couldn't be melted. Twilight looked focused on his task as he took a piece of the shard and placed it under the photon beam, the shard glowing for a second as he took it out observing the result and adjusting the laser. Jackson looked confused, he tried to figure out what Twilight was doing with the pieces of the black book but he had no idea what the Kagen was doing.

"Twilight, come on we need to get out of here." Jackson said as he walked out of the shadows and behind Twilight. The shark didn't notice him, he was in the zone and Jackson would have laughed but at one o'clock in the night, it wasn't very funny.

He put his hand on Twilight's back and suddenly the Kagen freaked out as he was knocked out of the zone and nearly had a heart attack. His arm freaked out and he knocked the proton laser out of position and it flew over multiple black book shards all of them reacting to themselves as the feedback loop and forming a bubble that engulfed Jackson and Twilight.

There was a bright blue flash and both of them disappeared from the room. The warehouse stood empty for a few minutes as air blew in from the open door, until finally a car pulled up to the warehouse.

"Twilight, are you in here?" Koji asked as he closed the door and peaked in the warehouse, he walked forward suddenly in his mental tired ness his eyes flashed from blue to grey and back and forth. Noon was trying to infect the only Outsider left without a mental resistance.

...

Twilight gasped out for air as he closed his lungs and stored what oxygen he had left. He could survive in an airless environment, but as he looked over he realized that Jackson couldn't. He grabbed the orca as he tried to take of breath of air but found himself only inhaling toxic atmosphere that had built up. Twilight grabbed him and closed his mouth. He looked around and found an airlock entrance.

Twilight walked forward feeling the hard gravity that felt as strong as Earth. Dust and red air bellowed in his face as he made his way to the airlock, Jackson gasping for air as he pushed forward and pressed the button. He threw Jackson into the airlock and climbed up, looking around as he pressed a big red button and the door behind them closed.

With a burst of fresh air behind them the toxic air of the atmosphere drained out of the airlock and fresh lock flowed in like a fresh river. Jackson gasped for air and took in a big gulp of the fresh air as he tried to get the toxic air out of his system. With a burst of red dust out of his mouth, it seemed that Jackson was fine.

"Where the hell are we?" Jackson asked as suddenly the inner air lock door opened and a woman with a massive machine rifle pointed it at them.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked as she threated them with the massive gun pointed at their faces.

"Why the hell are we here?" Twilight asked as he put his hands up into the air, putting a sarcastic tone in his voice as he slowly stood up making sure to appear submissive as he tried to not get himself killed again. He gave a push to Jackson who also put his hands up and stood up as well.

"Oh please don't be so formal, just people tell us why you're on our friendly little space rock, or I'll shoot your heads off." She said causing both of them to gulp air. She was dressed in a captain like outfit, with a white suit and multiple metals and showings of rank. "Well then go on, are you with the Argentina's program, they always were jealous that we got to this rock first."

"No ma'am, we we're two scientists on Earth working on a teleportation experiment, it seems we we're transported to your planet." Jackson said as he made a up a story quickly explaining their sudden appearance on the planet. Twilight nodded and agreed with Jackson as the woman put her gun down.

"We're not exactly on a planet, this hasn't been told to a planet but where on an asteroid on a gravity well orbiting around Earth." She said as she pointed out of the window and showed them the sphere of Earth right below them. Jackson looked in wonder while Twilight tried to figure out what was happening.

"No I presume you are public scientists, because any government hired would have known how to avoid this kind of gravity well, so we'll have to get this sorted out." She said as she looked out of the window and towards the Earth. "What did you use to transport here?"

"These." Twilight said as he held out the black book pieces used to transport them. "They're filled with quantum energy and we must have not been going fast enough to avoid you. We might be able to transport back with a photon laser and a few hours for them to recharge."

"Interesting I've never heard of that kind of experiment, by the way I am Captain Helen Creek, and you two are?" She asked as both of them realized that they were in front of a near celebrity, she barely went on a spacewalk to fix the international space station when the boosters failed, yet she also released the capsule that was holding them down and it landed in Africa, leaking radiation into the ground.

"I am Jackson and this is my associate Twilight, where exactly are we?" Jackson asked as he tried to figure out what was happening with space outside of the window, it looked like there was nearly a red atmosphere around the space rock, and they weren't floating.

"Well this is Phoenix Base Three, they put me up here as not to cause more trouble on Earth, either way it is a gravity well so it only affects this rock. But we have Earth like gravity, and a toxic red atmosphere. We're investigating why it's here and how we could possibly us it." She said as she shook their hands and welcomed them to the base.

"Now then surrender your weapons, I can see them right there." She said as he grabbed Jackson gun as he tried to swat her off. "Sorry, but we can't have any windows breaking around here." She said as she pushed off.

"Now then you would have to be informed of situation in order to perform a teleportation experiment, unless you're preforming an illegal teleportation operation. Well then until you are cleared by the government, I guess your under planetary arrest." Twilight made a worried face, as she grabbed them and Twilight was detained with the left hand of the handcuffs. Jackson didn't put up a fight and was put on the right clip.

"You always carry handcuffs?" Twilight asked as he tried to break his bonds but decided not to make a break, seeing as they were in space and had a few hours until they would be able to teleport again.

"Just for fun sometimes, never know when they will come in handy. Now we're going to be here for a while, until we cross out of the Earth's shadow we can't set up a comms link or risk being detected by the wrong people." She said as she grabbed the handcuff links and pulled them along through the base.

"Why don't you tell me why you're really here?" She said as she put her hand on the door and it opened in reaction. Jackson groaned knowing it was going to very unprofessional in the end.

"I was trying to reactivate a dimensional transporter but it accidentally reactivated and instead of getting transported we bounced off the Earth's atmosphere because it was uncalibrated and ended up right here." Twilight said with shame as he walked forward, putting his head down. "It was a complete accident on our fault."

...

"Where the hell are Jackson and Twilight?" Eric said as Koji silently dragged him into the empty warehouse. He looked around the only evidence of a person being there was a burned circle on the floor near one of the tables. Koji looked around, Twilight wasn't at his house, and Eric checked in on Jackson's house, and he was gone too.

"Ah, is someone lost without Twilight now?" Eric said jokingly with Koji as he petted the large shark on the head. He looked around and there was a laser sear on the table. Eric wondered what could have caused that, looking around for what was happening.

Eric walked around and saw no other evidence, the security laser was broken twice but that would have only explained one if they came to the base. Looking around Eric exited the warehouse and looked up into the sky, he had no idea but he was probably looking straight up at Jackson, right over his nose.

"Ok, Koji this is a missing person's case now. Get the police, get K9 Units and shutdown Las Vegas if you have to, I want Jackson and Twilight's sorry asses delivered to my desk tomorrow morning, and I want a desk too." Eric said taking control of the group as he recognized a problem and decided to deal with it. Koji nodded and walked away, his eyes turning grey as he walked towards his car.

"Oh wait I'll come with you, save the environment and what not." Eric said causing the shark to groan with annoyance, and then suddenly his eyes turned back to their normal blue. Now normal Koji entered the car and Eric followed, Koji turned on the car and drove out of the parking lot, his eyes blinking between blue and grey.

...

Captain Helen dragged them to the main deck where they were sat down and looked at with shame or general interest, or a mix of both. There were three more people in the main deck, they were introduced; Nikolai Anosov, a Russian draconic about the age of 18 that won a contest and was allowed to join; Malcom Walker, a bear and Nikolai's mate and the base's drill expert; and Mia Walker, a lizard the robotics expert. Apparently there was another two in the biodome, Bob Carry and Drew Barker.

...

"Yo Bob, how do the plants looks today!" Drew said, yelling over the biodome. He looked at all the growing plants, made by an aquaponics kit. Their plants were growing and providing oxygen to keep the station fresh and breathable. They looked around and saw the growing plants.

"They look pretty good today; I say we finally enjoy the fruits of our labor." Bob said as he pulled a carrot out of a ground. He opened his mouth and ate the carrot. Drew looked as Bob chewed the carrot and swallowed it down his throat. Bob made a sound of application as he enjoyed the vegetable.

Bob froze in place as he started to make gaging sounds. His eyes rolled back and his month closed as he tried to hold back vomit. Water started to flow out of Bob's mouth, he was trying to hold it back and not let him flow it out. His eyes reappeared and they appeared with water in his eyes.

Water blasted out of his mouth and out onto the floor of the biodome. Drew backed up as the aquaponics system shorted out and started to spurt more water on the floor. Drew's shoe was soaked with water and suddenly the man froze in place.

The water flowed over to the edge of the biodome and shorted out the door sensors. An electrical signal was sent throughout the base and set off an alarm in the whole of the area. The signal traveled through the base and all the way to the main room, and set off an alarm.

...

Before Helen could interrogate them further, a red light flashed and a siren blared in the room. Helen put her head down and groaned as she realized that something was going wrong again.

"Don't tell me those bozos have set off the alarm again." Helen said as she saw something going on the alarm panel. She walked over and turned it off the alarm off, groaning as she looked to the monitor but found that it was cut off. "I'm going to kill the two."

"Wait biodome, no Jackson we have to go now!" Twilight said as he pulled Jackson away, before getting held back by Captain Helen. She looked at them with confusion as she wondered what could want them to be so escapey as they seemed so peaceful before.

"Well then you two seem to know what might be going on, so you two go with Nikolai to the biodome and find out what's happening." Captain said as the draconic stood up and grabbed Twilight by the handcuffs.

"Come with me, gets go." Nikolai said as he dragged the two through the biodome gate and towards the area. Jackson noticed twitching on Nikolai's back but Twilight was far too worried of what might await in the biodome. He tried to hide that he knew what would happen and let their deaths pass but he knew that he might be able to save them in the end, however he didn't think he would get so close. He looked around and looked outside to the planet Earth hoping that he might get back to Koji and the planet soon.

As they walked towards the biodome, the stranger Nikolai became. His scale structure was weird and he was made with black scales, ice colored tips. He seemed to have large back that returned to normal every once and while. He seemed strange and did say much and for some reason he was on a military mission.

He didn't say anything but they did finally arrive at the biodome in awkardish silence. He pressed a door pad button but instead the lights flashed red and the door didn't open. He looked around scanning around the door, until he walked a bit to the side and pulled off one of the wall panels.

"Well you can't come up with those on." Nikolai said as he grabbed the handcuff on Jackson and freed him. The dragon walked forward and while Twilight tried to leave, Jackson grabbed him and ducked him under the panel, forcing him up as he tried to investigate.

Twilight continued up the latter shaking all the way up to the top, until they reached an over-looking catwalk. He looked around and looked at the biodome below them. It was covered in a thin layer of water to the plants. He looked around trying to find the water source.

"This doesn't look good, where are the sources?" Twilight asked causing Jackson to look at him strangely as he tried to figure out what was happening in the biodome. Jackson wondered if Twilight knew what was going on, he appeared to be frightened of what was happening and wanted to escape it was like he was causing it.

Nikolai walked forward along the catwalk, balancing himself as he tried to continue to the end of the biodome, where a latter down to floor level was located. He looked around to, searching for Bob and Andrew. He found no one in the biodome.

Twilight searched around and tried to see if the water level was slowly rising. However, after a minute in the biodome nothing seemed to rising anymore and whatever was causing the water rise stopped.

"Ok, turn around we can go back to the main section." Nikolai said as he turned around, Twilight followed and so did Jackson. As he did Twilight looked up against the wall that was hidden before, he saw some evaporating water along tracks up the ceiling.

Twilight slowly looked up and saw two beasts attached to the ceiling. They dropped down and landed on the catwalk, Jackson backing up as they opened up their mouths and water flowed out at an alarming rate, like a river traveling out of their mouth. Their bodies looked water bloated and their eyes were clear like a pond, their mouths were watery and they seemed to be covered in a layer of water.

"Oh dear Bob, Andrew; I'm so sorry." Nikolai said as he saw the state that his coworkers were in. Jackson walked back letting Twilight over him and into the front of the line. Twilight pushed away the water heading at them protecting them as he tried to figure out if this was Afternoon's grand plan.

Nikolai started to back up trapping themselves as they backed up from the watery beasts standing before them. Twilight put his hands forward and the water seemed to somewhat react to them as he attempted to push them back. However, as he remembered that Afternoon created it, there must have been a bit of water control protection in case of a situation like they were in.

Twilight pushed back against the water walking forward as he attempted to push them off the catwalk. The two water beasts caught on and grabbed onto the catwalk, shaking it and making Twilight lose his balance. The water was pushed off into the biodome and Twilight instead decided to help the water, instead of pushing it back; he pushed it to the side.

He helped the water continue down its natural path through gravity. Pushing to the side, he kept back some water and then with one motion, he pushed the two off the catwalk, along with the rest of the water. He looked down as the beasts fired water up to the catwalk, trying to get them, but Twilight pushed them back with gravity.

They walked all the wall back to the catwalk access and quickly climbed back as Nikolai shut the access down and then closed the wall panels.

"We're my coworkers those monsters? What did that to them." Nikolai said as he walked back towards the main room of the base, trying to figure out what happened. Behind him he flicked a switch and raised a forcefield behind him. Twilight was more focused on an escape plan, a way to get back to Earth without carrying the virus.

"I don't know, they were infected by a virus. An evil man put the virus in your food just to screw with you and kill you all. We might be able to cure them with Earth technology, leave them here go back and make a return, but they're smart they might deorbit the asteroid and crash it into the Earth." Twilight said explaining.

"And when that happens?" Jackson asked, stuttering as he was slightly apprehensive to what Twilight's answer might be.

"The virus enters the ocean and spreads to all connected water sources on the planet, even if one drop makes it way to Earth then we all die." Twilight said as he looked behind, and watched as water slowly forced the biodome door open and it flooded out to be stopped by the forcefield. He realized that the water was going to find a way to the main room and it was now a race against time.

"How'd you get here?" Twilight asked.

"In a spaceship with enough fuel for six of us." The door before them opened and Captain Helen said as she stepped out to see what was happening at the biodome.

"Well then there's six of us and there's no way to those two are coming back." Twilight said giving a command to Helen as he delivered an ultimatum.

"You can't just expect us to leave here; we still have so much research to do." Captain Helen said as she closed the biodome connector door and sealed it. She looked out and saw the water flooding, trying to get through the forcefield and towards them.

"If you stay here, you die, that is coming for you and the Earth, this station needs to be destroyed." Twilight said as he walked towards the computer.

"There is a self-destruction program on our base, Malcom put the charge in the button of the drill tunnel." Mia said telling Twilight the information he needed.

"The bomb should vaporize all the atoms with in a five mile radius, made in case this thing deorbits." Malcom added.

"Don't tell him that." Captain Helen said as Twilight searched through the computer. Twilight searched through the computer and with one click on a mouse started the countdown.

The red light flashed again and the entirety of the computer screens flashed red, with white font. There was a countdown clock set for thirty minutes. Malcom flashed a worried look at Nikolai, who nodded back in agreement. Twilight turned to the group and looked back.

"Thirty minutes, get everything you need and get to the shuttle. There is a threat to Earth on this station and we need to destroy it." Twilight commanded as Captain Helen looked in amazement at everything going out of control.

"Override." Captain Helen said as she turned off the self-destruct command. "I'm sorry but we need to save Drew and Bob, they're still in the biodome." Twilight groaned and walked over to her.

"They're dead. They are currently beasts mutating into water creatures, and the cause of this problem. If we don't leave soon we'll all be dead as well." Twilight said as he defended his idea. It was clear that at least some part of Twilight's ego was taking place.

"Well then this station is nearly air tight there is no way that water could possibly get into this area." Captain Helen said as she proved her point, showing Twilight the massive sealed door and giving him a reason to calm down.

"I don't think it is." Suddenly Malcom said as he shivered. Jackson looked down and backed up, gasping as he saw a puddle of water below Malcom's Feet. His body convulsed and shook as the water started to climb Malcom's body, the bear was already in a losing battle. "Go Nikolai, live a better live."

"Malcom no! You keep fighting against the water, I can save you." Nikolai said as he ran towards the bear his emotions on overload as he realized what was happening. Jackson grabbed the draconic and pulled him back.

"Stay back, we need everyone we can alive when we get off this station." Jackson said as he counteracted the draconic's pushing towards his mate. He pulled Nikolai back, pulling him back into the group. Captain Helen looked around as she sought escape.

"Back into the medbay, it's completely sealed." Helen said as she made sure there was no water in the area and opened the doors to the medbay. She walked back in and so did Twilight. Against Nikolai's cry, Jackson pulled him back into the medbay, closing it and sealing the door.

"Is this area sealed?" Twilight asked as he tried to find a light switch. Captain Helen walked to the wall and switched on the lights. They were trapped in the medbay now. Twilight as he was looking outside; covered the door from Nikolai as the water infected Malcom turning him as well.

Twilight grabbed a piece of paper and hung it over the door to hide Malcom from the draconic. They caught their breaths and calmed down each of them trying to find a rational explanation.

"That thing killed Malcom, and Drew and Bob, we need to do something with it." Nikolai said as he sat down, Jackson patting his back as he tried to do some rational thinking.

"It travels through water so, if we open up the air lock it would freeze. We could escape." Mia said as she thought of her own plan, looking at the computer schematics of the base.

"Problem, we have an atmosphere it's about air temperature out there, so that in our way as well." Captain Helen said as she accessed a computer, using her fingers to type in commands. "It's smart, it cut off access to other computer ports, everything we have in here is all we have."

"What if we syphon it out, increase the asteroids spin with the reaction wheels and gravity control we put in the middle." Nikolai said thinking rationally somewhat as he calmed down and ignored what had just happened.

"Oh that's good, but that sends all the water into orbit, if it clumps up enough in a hundred years it will make it back to Earth, and we don't want that. It will survive re-entry, so we want to keep the water on the asteroid." Twilight said responding as he went through his own ideas.

"What if we do the opposite? Spin it while turning up the gravity, so that all the water flows into the biodome and then we can escape." Jackson said thinking of his own ideas as he calculated the possible of that working. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a knocking.

Everyone paused as there was a knocking on the window. Twilight walked over to the window and moved the piece of paper. Against the window was Malcom, Drew and Bob all knocking their faces against the window. Twilight gasped and moved back regaining his composer as he walked back to the medbay.

"What are they doing?" Mia asked as she backed up against the cabinet trying to put distance between them. Looking around their appeared to be another way out of the medbay, their appeared to be another exit, but that would only trap them further.

"I don't know stay back." Twilight said putting his arms out as he pushed back against the water. Suddenly they froze as they heard one last sound, the sound of cracking glass. Water rushed in through the crack and everyone stood back.

"On the tables!" Twilight called as he jumped on top of the metal, looking around and making sure everyone else was. He pushed back against the water but as he kept to the walls, it surrounded them. Twilight summoned all his power and keep pushing back.