L`Univers:

New enemies

     “So Peter where is this planet we are looking for?” asked Benedict as he paced around the bridge of the ship waiting impatiently like a little kid.   

“Hm…I`m not sure but we should be close,” he replied checking the papers that were on the table to make sure.                                                           

“Guys what are we doing here, hell I don’t even like this place,” Dave was unsatisfied probably because he wasn`t very fond of Andromeda.                        

“He is right I mean this galaxy will collide with the milky way we won`t be able to recognize the solar system`s not even the constellations,” John stood on Dave`s side on this argument.                                                                                    

“Calm down guys you will find it eventually,” Khan tried to calm the situation over the radio.                              

“We are here!” yelled Viktor out of nowhere as he took a sip from his can of juice and pointed outside of the window.

    From the window, they were able to see the planet which had continents, but the atmosphere was so thin that all the liquid water had evaporated, therefore it`s kind of impossible for life to dwell on this planet.                                                                                                                                 

“It`s a dead planet,” called Alexander.                                                                         

“Wait, don`t those look like some sort of structures?” asked Zack moving closer to the window.                       

“Nope probably shadows from the mountains,” replied Viktor as if he knew anything about the surface of planets or how mountains cast shadows on the same surface.                           

“Wait,” Sarah noticed something. After all odds and defying the laws of the universe the shadows suddenly shone bright red, ending the debate whether they were shadows or buildings. They were buildings menacing ones at that, with their brutalist design, sharp edges, dark grey tone mixed with the red lights. In the next moment, something else took their attention which looked like a large number of small spaceships something like a swarm of bugs.                                                         

“Well we`ve woken up the planet,” Dave joked as he looked at everybody who was stunned and did not laugh at his joke.                                                         

“Oh... s**t,” John slowly took a step back as the swarm was approaching closer and closer. "To your stations," he looked at the captain. "f**k! This is bad!" he sat down on the chair.

    It was Stormagedon along with his followers Galio and Eliz, Stormagedon was something like a guardian on that planet with the red lights, he was a cyborg along with his race but he had a human skin, therefore, his right side of the face was burned revealing the complex machinery from which they were made. He stood on the top of a building overlooking at the city with the red lights whilst two figures approached him from behind. 

"It seems..." he opened his mouth and spoke in a deep robotic voice. "All of our ships have been deployed into space," he turned toward the figures it was a male and female robot concealed in a human-like skin. "Remind me again, who exactly is the leader of our race?" he asked. 

"It`s you sir..." said Galio his voice trembling. 

"It`s me?" he slowly moved towards him as he looked in the distant horizon and all of a sudden grabbed Galio by the neck and lifted him off from the ground. "Then why have all of our armada been deployed in space without my orders!?" he yelled at him, but Galio couldn`t speak. 

"Please sir..." pleaded Eliz. 

"Have something to tell me?" he looked at her with anger still holding Galio in the air.                                          

“Sir there is a ship that has entered the mesosphere of our planet,” she told him.                                                                                                                                

“What!?, Destroy it immediately!!” he yelled with his deep robotic voice.

    The swarm instantly started attacking the Star Fury, John was terrified and furious so he explained that they are under attack.                                               

“Zack, can you return fire?” Benedict asked.                                                        

“Negative Captain, there is too much of them and they are flying too fast I can`t get a lock on them. Shooting blindly will only be a waste given that there`s not enough ammunition in the first place.”                                                                         

“f**k! -John can you get us out of here?” he looked at him as John started pressing a bunch of keys on the console and pushed the lever but it didn`t do anything, he looked at Benedict and just moved his head in neglect, Zack took a peek through the small window in engineering at the culprit, one of the wings for aerodynamics detached and fell on the thruster causing explosion rendering the one remaining thruster useless, while with only one they cannot rotate nor move.

    The swarm was making their second turn and started shooting at Star Fury again, a big explosion echoed in the bridge as it pushed everybody on the floor, Zack warned them that the explosion was too close to the bridge and they need to get out of there. But Simon just showed up on the bridge he was completely confused because nobody explained to him as to what`s going on, but at that moment something happened like a miracle. “John you said we can`t move, correct?” asked Viktor.                                                                                                    

“Yes that is correct,” he replied.                                                                                     

“Then how are we moving?” Viktor dramatically turned toward the others.                                                             

“The shooting stopped!” Peter was also surprised. But out of nowhere in the air, black stripes showed up floating everywhere around them, everybody was hurt and confused and on top of that this stripes now bothering them, but from the black stripes morphed figures with humanoid form and glowing red eyes touching everyone on their hands as they morphed again in an instant transforming themselves and the crew into the black stripes again and then disappearing into thin air, everybody except Benedict. He was all alone on the ship asking himself what just happened? Are they all dead? , he was yelling after them but in vain. From all the panic he didn`t notice that the black stripes formed again and morphed into a woman with the glowing red eyes with a perfectly round face, small nose, and thin lips, and long dark hair, as she touched him on the shoulder and morphed again.

    The two of them found themselves on a planet with a blue sky and mountains behind them and the air was fresh it smelled as if you were on a mountain but lived in a city, Benedict saw his friends standing next to him as he realized all that morphing and the black stripes is teleportation as he took a deep breath and felt the smell of fresh mountain air and saw Simon just standing in front of him.                                                                                

“Look...” he pointed towards the sky. The moment when they looked it was the moment when they felt helpless and uselessness collectively all together. It was Star Fury all covered in flames falling toward the ground making sounds like a dogfighter from world war two, surprisingly the nose was still attached but as soon it hit the ground the nose detached and rolled around three-sixty degrees along with the body which was sliding leaving a big crater behind, the wings from the left side detached from the body as they flew in the air falling back on the ground, when the body stopped sliding another explosion echoed from the damaged thruster.

    Everybody was in shock starting from Alexander who was fearing that something might happen to the core, in that case, everyone will be exposed to radiation, Zack was on his knees pulling his hair.                                                      

“What the hell!!!” he yelled as Viktor shed a tear but he didn`t say anything, while Raven was comforting Sarah. But Simon he didn`t give up he held his anger and didn`t say anything.

    At IASA Khan was trying to contact them, while Adam was looking at him “It`s just static,” said Khan as Adam only looked at him blindly and walked away as he touched his forehead in sadness and sat down.

    The evening at the horizon from the crater Benedict showed up looking down at the destroyed Star Fury whose flames were still raging around it, while Peter showed up behind him but Benedict didn`t even look at him.                                                                                                               

“I failed…, I failed to protect it,” spoke the captain.                                                   

“No we are both guilty, I`m the first officer for f**k`s sake something much more is expected from me.”    The woman who saved Benedict from the ship approached behind them. “Who are you?” asked Peter.           

“My name is Azra I`m what you call the president on this planet, named Sirius, come with me we owe you an explanation for all this.” Before a large building stood Dave and Simon both of them seemed to like the architecture of the more advanced civilizations than their own. giant and futuristic with big and tall, white facade, and crazy shapes. One of the inhabitants of the planet stopped before them and explained to them that this is the Great Archive where all the stories of the whole universe are preserved here, and then he presented himself to them with the name Ajax who had short hair and rectangular glasses. Then he explained that they are called here as Primes instead of people that Prime is a man and Prima is a woman, but Dave had a question about them which bothered him since they teleported here on this planet.                 

“Do you speak English as your prime language?” that`s what he asked. He didn`t ask: What the f**k has just happened to them? Or who are they? Or where are they? Or I don`t know maybe how can they return home? He asked whether English is their main language with Ajax just smiling at him. 

“With our technology, we can learn a language in a few seconds so that with special tools directly enters our memory”                          

“Oh wow,” Dave`s jaw dropped. “So if I use that tool I can learn Chinese in a matter of seconds?” he asked again.                                                                                 

“Well, I don`t know what Chinese is, but if it`s a language then yes,” replied Ajax.                                                                                                                              

“It`s like magic,” Dave looked at Simon.                                                                                                 

“All advanced technology seems like magic that is why sometimes it`s good and sometimes bad,” as soon as Ajax said that both of them got confused, of course, advanced technology is cool what the hell is he talking about now?

    When they entered the large archive, Zack bombarded Azra with questions.                                                                                                                       

“What were those creatures that attacked us?, And can you fix the Star Fury?” Azra calmly answered that everything would come in its time. “But first do you not want to know a bit about your history and the universe?” she asked them as Dave became interested.                                                                                              

“Can it Zack I want to hear this.” When they entered the main room of the Great Archive, Simon was so excited by its height of the ceiling and the shelves full of books as far as the eye could comprehend. But in the middle, there was something round like a cylinder that was high about to their waist. The cylinder was gray and seemed to be made by a well-polished concrete, on the top it had a screen that was shining white light illuminating the particles of dust that flew above it. Azra turned it on and a hologram appeared, the hologram was a planet that looked like Earth.                                                                                                                    

“Planet Earth?” asked Benedict.                                                                                      

“No!” Azra replied swiftly and surprised everyone.                                                      

“This is Othoana or Tera as you named it,” she explained.                                           

“Ok so why are you showing it to us then?” asked Benedict.                                 

“Because this is where your story begins,” replied Azra.                                             

“Well I suppose you can put it that way now,” said Viktor. “But how do you know that we were on that planet?”                                                                            

“Not your story…” Azra looked at him angrily. “The history of how the humans came to be, I mean we can`t tell how life came to be, but your story, the story of the humans from Earth,” she finished.                                                  

“Ohhh boy, this will be interesting,” Dave rubbed his hands.                               

“They were at war with the homo-reptilians,” said Ajax as he walked up to a statue made out of cement which looked like a man and the other had a human figure with green skin, long teeth like a vampire, and long ears. Homo-sapiens against homo-reptilians seemed that Ajax enjoyed it when explaining.

"Homo-reptilians?" asked Alexander. "I thought we moved past conspiracy theories of humanlike reptiles living underground," Ajax had no idea what he was talking about, and how could he? It`s not like he is from Earth so how could he know all the crazy things that are happening on that crazy rock we call home. 

"I think that what you are implying is that they never existed?" Ajax wasn`t sure. 

"Of course they didn`t," smiled Alexander. "I mean who would be stupid to believe in that? Not to mention how much more complicated medicine would become," he laughed looking at everybody who stood still and didn`t show any emotion. "You guys... come on! You can`t seriously believe this!" he pointed towards the statue. 

"Let the man speak dude," said Simon. 

"A Prime not a Man," Ajax corrected him. 

"Right, a Prime... Let the Prime speak dude," he corrected what he said previously.

“So what happened?” asked Alexander with a mocking tone.                                                                                

“Humans happened,” replied Azra, as she approached something that looked like a rocket with a red spiked end, it is only logical that that`s the detonator thought Zack, although no one had ever seen such a thing.  

“What is that?” asked Sarah.                                                                                           

“You may survive the explosion but not the radiation,” explained Azra “It`s called R-bomb,” she then added.                                                                            

“Everything will be clear to you when you watch this video,” said Ajax. Azra began to explain to them about the video that they had found a camera in the Othoana ruins while she was placing the screen, the video finally started, so everyone entered the role of Joe who filmed that video.

“Oh… careful there,” a soldier handed Joe a hand so that he can climb a ledge, the soldier wore a green uniform with yellow boots that had blue light coming from them on the base probably enhancing their running speed or boost jump, he also had an exoskeleton attached on him and a black elastic helmet on it attached advanced binoculars that also served as a night vision. And of course, he had a white rifle that shot red lasers instead of bullets. The soldier had rectangular glasses and a grim look, he moved forward up the muddy road as Joe followed behind him slowly ascending the hill. 

“I reckon you`ve heard the good news,” said the soldier.

“What news?” asked Joe.

“Well word is out there that our great scientists developed a new sort of bomb,” the soldier turned his look back at Joe making sure he was still following and listening to him.

“A bomb?” asked Joe.

“Yes… It`s said to rain radiation from the heavens.”

“But that is…”

“Not practical? We will eradicate ourselves scenario?” asked the soldier finishing the sentence that Joe started. “Well this type of radiation only seems to be targeting a specific genetic code, I suppose you could guess which code that is.”

“That is an inhuman thing to do,” said Joe as the soldier stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned back at Joe.

“Truth be told buddy…” he placed the rifle on top of his shoulder. “I cannot wait to see my wife and kid. One way or the other I want to see this war over, besides I am not the one giving out the orders. Those deaths are not gonna be on me,” he smiled but Joe could not believe that such a thing exists. “Come on then the general is gonna be pissed,” they hurried up the hill.

“There you are! Where have you two been!?” the general yelled at them.

“Just in time to enjoy the show sir!” the soldier stood tall in front of him.

“The reptiles are advancing sir, we have no choice but to ...” the lieutenant approached the general.

“I know what needs to be done,” said the General. “Joe can you not film while we are in the middle of a war.”

The clip ended.

Another clip started.

“Hey Joe, I`d like you to record this,” said the soldier

“What is that?” asked Joe.

“R-bomb is launching and will obliterate the reptiles.”

In the video, the R-bomb was being launched from one hill of the planet.

    The mechanization of the R-bombs was divided into two parts the back part of the rocket whilst flying mid-air it split itself in two, the first part with the detonator that continues to fall towards the target but the second part releases parachute which keeps it in the air whilst raining down radiation in a liquid state. When the first part detonates all the heat turns the radiation into steam leading to the enemies inhaling it. Those who inhaled it probably vomited blood or their eyes were leaking blood, but in both cases, nobody survives.

Joe began to realize that it was not right, while the other soldier laughed at the reptiles and the tragedy that befell on them.

    “You humans managed to eliminate an entire civilization! Just because you couldn't co-exist with another species,” Azra was livid.                                                                                                                      

“But we are not like them anymore,” Benedict was desperate for an excuse.                                                          

“Yes you are World war one, World war two, terroristic attacks and whatnot,” added Ajax, it's no wonder they are more advanced seemed Ajax was insulting them, but the video continued.

“Sir, you would want to see this,” said one scientist with messy short hair and round glasses whilst they were on a space station.

“What is this?” asked the general

The perfect solar system, Azra explained to them that they have found their solar system that they today know and love.

“The third planet from this solar system is suitable for life,” the scientist continued in the video.

“We can make her look like Othoana, but the problem is that it`s inhabited by these monsters,” it was the Dinosaurs.

Dave made a sad face it seemed that he liked the dinosaurs. “Keep watching,” said Ajax

“We can direct an asteroid that wipes them completely; we will also shape the moon to twist the planet by twenty-three degrees so that the planet will have four seasons.”

“The exact same replica,” the general was happy

“The exact same replica,” confirmed the scientist

“The exact same replica that’s how your home was made,” explained Azra, as the video continued.

“So for six hundred years, our civilization will be able to migrate to this planet.”

“But we do not deserve it, we will destroy this planet too,” said Joe.

“Joe turn off that camera!!!” the general yelled, but before it got off it recorded the scientist's voice agreeing with Joe.

    “Wait what happened to Othoana? Why were they on a space station? What happened after the bomb was dropped?” Peter was buzzing with questions. “There is a blank, some records from history are missing, it would seem that those that knew that part of history are now dead,” explained Azra. Peter's opinion was that this was not true, and also he had the support of Viktor.                                                                                                                                  

”What have we done?” Sarah was frustrated and frightened.                                          

“These are the logs from the space station that we recovered,” said Ajax.

“I know you were right we do not deserve to live at all we are spreading plague where ever we go in the universe,” said the scientist as Joe was only listening and agreed with him and the video ended leading to an audio log which gave a sound of loud banging on metal.                                                                                   

“Do you realize what you have done!!!” yelled the general at the scientist. “You`ve doomed us all!” the general kept yelling as he ordered the soldiers to seize the scientist. “What were you thinking of putting human DNA on monkeys?” he got close to the scientist. “One war was not enough with the reptilians and now we have to fight monkeys!”                                                                                   

“With all due respect sir, but the war is what brought us here!” said the scientist. “The monkeys will be pure, they will not warmonger against each other nor another civilization.”                                                                                         

“My dear friend, you will never understand that you need to cull the herd to gain supremacy above all,” said the general.                                                  

“At what cost!?” yelled the scientist. “Billions of deaths and experiments like we did on Hex!” as soon as the scientist mentioned Hex the video became distorted and it went pitch black again.

     “Who is Hex?” asked Benedict.                                                                                    

“We don`t know, until this day that name remains a mystery, but one thing is for sure they`ve done something terrible to him,” answered Azra as she played another video.

 “Get them!!!” yelled the general as they were chasing after Joe and the scientist.                                                                                                                        

“Here take this!” the scientist gave something to Joe that looked like a diskette. “Put it in a capsule along with that camera of yours, they are an important piece of information for us,” as Joe listened to him and did as he was told and launched the capsule to the now barren Tera. The atmosphere was dark green, there was smoke everywhere and the land was destroyed, it was scorched there wasn`t a patch of grass nor forest on the surface. It seemed as if something terrible has happened during the blank period where nobody could find records of it.                                                            

“This is Tera?” interrupted Zack.                                                                                   

“At the time it was, shame such a beautiful planet and to be seen destroyed by humans just like that,” Ajax snapped his fingers.  

“We were there,” spoke Raven looking at the screen and comparing the image with what she saw. “It would seem the planet has healed,” she finished as Ajax played another recording.                                                   

“This is it, are you ready?” asked the scientist as he stood near a red button.                                                                                                                        

“Let`s do it,” said Joe.                                                                                                

“After I press this the capsules with the monkeys will fly off and automatically go in cryo-sleep, hopefully, they will reach in time on the planet,” explained the scientist. “What should we call it?” he asked. “Earth, because that’s the only thing we don`t have right now,” replied Joe. “So how will the future generations locate this planet?”                                                                                                      

“Simply, you just need to draw a line from Othoana through the universe and that line will meet with Earth,” answered the scientist.

    When he heard this Benedict, wrapped his eyes around and staggered. Everyone was amazed at how it was possible, behind him approached Raven she wanted to ask him something, but she was stunned too, as Peter approached Benedict saying.                                                                                                                  

“You don`t belong in this time dude,” Benedict just looked at him with terror in his eyes and at the same time excitement.

“What will happen to us?” asked Joe.                                                                              

“This station…” the scientist looked around. “It won`t last long when we free the monkeys and by the time they evolve we will be a forgotten civilization.”                                                                                                                         “You will be forgotten by history completely, SEIZE THEM!” the general finally broke through the locked metal door. “My dear friend, you were the last person I expected to betray not only me but the whole human civilization, did you think this would go unpunished?”                                                                                           

“The things we did are more punishing for future civilizations, you only bring pain,” said the scientists brazenly.                                                                            

“Well…” scoffed the general. “To secure domination, you must shed some blood, I hope that you will understand one day.”                                                           

“And I hope that you will understand that with violence you only cause death, and tell me is ruling over dead civilizations a worthy rule?” asked the scientist.                                                                                                                    

“We were made to rule, the universe gave birth to us to rule over it, to shape it, and one person such as you is not about to change all of that,” threatened the general.                                                                                                                                      

“I may not be able, but those monkeys will not be one person, it won`t be long until they develop consciousness, and know this they will stop you…” the video went black.                                                                                                                          

     “Wait that`s it?” asked Sarah.                                                                                             

“I`m afraid so…” said Azra Dave was looking for the positive thing from the whole situation and said that their ancestors were not so bad after all. But Ajax immediately interrupted him and told him to prove it to the reptiles. Alexander just could not believe at this, but everyone deep down they knew that it had some logic. Benedict thoughtfully said that he would like to be able to speak with that scientist, Azra understood him but it`s not possible because it all happened a long time ago.                                                                                                   

“Okay! So who attacked us!? Zack slightly yelled.                                                              

“And what will happen with Star Fury?” added John.                                                        

“Not who, but what,” replied Ajax. “Cyborgs…you were attacked by cyborgs,” all of Ajax`s pride disappeared. 

“Well who are they?” asked Simon.                                                                                                                                   “Our civilization wanted to go beyond this universe in hope of finding a new home for us because when this universe cools off life would be impossible to a bacteria, not even a living being,” Azra`s voice broke down. “Our scientists reached the edge of the universe but it was too much pressure they could not withstand, we had to build something stronger than prime or human thus we created the cyborgs,” Azra finished telling the story, while everyone was staring at her with curiosity.                                                                                                                                          

“The rest is cliché they rebel against us in hope to overthrow us and they made a settlement on a planet Mecha-1, the planet where you nearly died,” she added, Alexander`s theory was correct the planet was indeed dead but cyborgs don`t require water nor oxygen.                                                                                  

“That is why we need your help in this war so we can destroy the cyborgs once and for all,” Ajax`s voice broke down a notch.                                                         

“And we need to fight them off, otherwise everything is in jeopardy,” said Azra.                                                                                                                              

“Not long ago you were teaching us lesson`s about war, and now you want to fight in one?” Peter asked them.                                                                                 

“This is different, we created something evil and now that mistake must be corrected,” Peter was still hesitant, because they told them that wars are bad, and now they are rallying for war, they might play games with their minds who knows, but they saved their lives have they not appeared the Star Fury would have exploded completely together with the entire expedition and on Earth, there was nobody to know who they were and what their story was.                                                                                                 

“The Star Fury can participate in this war,” proposed Azra.                                   

“No…the Star Fury is an explorer, not a battleship,” contradicted Sarah.                 

“Our engineers can modify it for battle purposes,” added Azra as Benedict called everyone aside.                    

“Look I know this is not our fight…” he started.                  

“Wait let me stop you right there before you start talking inspirationally, we`re in, we will participate in this war,” said Dave.   

“Wait, what?” Benedict was confused.           

“Dude think about it, space, lasers, explosions, advanced weapons and whatnot, and the others will benefit,” said Viktor as Raven agreed. “He is right me and Alexander could learn something new in the medical sciences.”                                                                                    

“Besides we`ve got to avenge the Star Fury,” said Zack.                 

“Damn right we`ve got to,” added Peter.                             

“Guys this is not about revenge or who will benefit or not, this is war,” Benedict looked at them strangely. “People die in wars in case you didn`t know, and if something happens to us…” his voice broke down. 

“Don`t say that nothing will happen to us,” comforted Sarah.

“You don`t know that you don`t know what we can expect from the enemy,” said  Benedict.                   

“I wouldn`t worry about it, besides we do have some training,” said Viktor.                                                         

“Yeah and if Azra says that they can equip it for battle then I think we will be fine,” added Zack as they managed to persuade Benedict into this.

    After a week Benedict entered the engineering facility where the Star Fury was being repaired and looked at the skeleton of the ship it looked very much the same, from one perspective he was happy to see it being fixed on another perspective he felt guilty because he dragged everyone into this and that they are going to be missing them home let alone if something happens to them.                                                                                                                        

“It`s a beautiful thing you have there,” said Azra as she walked up from behind.                                                                                                                          

“What?” Benedict turned.                                                                                              

“The ship…” said Azra. “It`s fine engineering,” she looked at Star Fury “Although it lacks one thing,” she looked at Benedict.                                                             

“What?” he asked.                                                                                                              

“To defend itself of course, here on Sirius even the explorers are equipped with weapons,” said Azra. “Now we are adding a new feature to your ship,” Azra pointed at the Star Fury.                                                                                                    

“How do you know all this stuff?” Benedict asked out of the blue as Azra just looked at him strangely.                                                                                                

“What? Am I supposed not to know them?” she smiled.                                          

“No, it`s just on our planet young girls such as you are not really into this stuff,” explained Benedict.                                                                                                        

“And what are they into?” she asked.                                                                            

“I don`t know, I guess they just waste their parent's money every night in nightclubs and end up living a simple life with minimum payment and then they curse about how shitty their life is,” said Benedict. “Now that I think about it even the guys are the same.”                                                                                

“Yeah I guess you are right,” Azra looked away.                                                                                                                          

“I suppose my real question is what made you lead this kind of life?” asked Benedict.                                      

“Oh well it`s Ajax, he is grooming me to become the leader of this planet” answered Azra.                          

“Really? Man I swear in every sci-fi movie I`ve seen there`s one and only leader on a planet,” said Benedict. 

“Actually, no,” said Azra there are other rulers in other parts of the planet, no one is capable of ruling over a whole planet,” said Azra.                                                            

“Oh… that makes sense, we do have a similar system back on Earth with governors ruling over certain parts, but then I guess he is doing the right thing,” said Benedict.                                                                                                                

“Yes I suppose so, although I don`t think I am up to the task,” confessed Azra.                                                      

“Well that`s because you are not trained enough,” said Benedict.                               

“Says the captain that stands in front of his destroyed ship,” laughed Azra as Benedict just nodded and saddened his face. “Sorry, I didn`t mean to…”                                                                                              

“No it`s okay I like when people are honest with me, or in this case Prima,” Benedict looked at Azra as she smiled.                                                                         

“Come on I`ll show you something,” she grabbed his hand and took him deep into the facility. “This thing will bring advantage to the ship if it were to happen to be in a battle where it`s outnumbered” she pointed at a giant ring made out of metal.                                                                                                                         

“But it`s just a ring made out of metal,” said Benedict.                                            

“Trust me it`s more than it looks,” said Azra. “Like this bracelet, it`s not only used for teleporting, it has many uses,” she looked at the bracelet she had on her hand.                                                                                                                             

“Like what?” asked Benedict.                                                                              

“Damn…” said Azra as she looked at him.                                                         

“What?” he asked again.                                                                                                  

“You are very curious,” Azra told him.                                                                          

“Yeah well I`ll trade the curiosity for a tad bit of confidence every day,” said Benedict.                                                                                                                             

“I promise you we will talk about the bracelet some other day, for now, we must return and discuss the plans for the war,” said Azra as both of them started walking toward the exit.

Stormagedon walked into one of the warehouses on Mecha 1 he carried his menacing double spiked hammer, the cyborgs that stood on guard instantly saluted him and opened the door for him. This wasn`t your ordinary warehouse as soon as he walked in he turned his gaze down below, the outside was just an illusion the inside was far more different. The warehouse was deep down below the planet very deep. The robots had no hard time digging the hole with the help of nanobots they were done in a matter of hours, the whole was covered with concrete and was later used as a hangar, not just an ordinary hangar but they were building a space station, very large one.

“Sire…” Galio approached him.

“How are the preparations going?” he asked.

“Very well sir, with this…” he looked at the station. “No empire will dare stand against us,” smiled Galio.

“It`s name?” asked Stormagedon.

“Decimator…” replied Galio.

                                                                            After a couple of weeks

    The Star Fury was almost finished; the problem was is that it lacked one part as Peter was kind of expecting this to happen.                                                                 

“So what is this part? And where can we find it?” he asked.                                    

“It`s called deflector a metal that renders the cyborgs useless” replied Ajax as Benedict looked at him strangely.                                                                              

“So you`ve made a weapon against them?” he asked.                                                           

“Quite right,” he confirmed. “We`ve been thinking of every possible outcome and we knew that something needs to be done if things turned out as they are now.”                                                                                                                

“All this time… we were under fear of building robots and not to think to build anything against them if they went rogue…” said Zack.                                             

“I know it would have made our lives easier,” said Benedict who was also confused.                                                                                                                            

“Your ship does work against them except it`s much more vulnerable,” explained Ajax.                                                                                                                 

“But if the cyborgs know about it, why don`t they destroy it?” asked Dave.                                                                                                                                    

“They can`t, as I said they are harmless against it,” said Ajax.                                    

“No matter how good you are there`s always something better than you” mouthed Benedict.                                                                                                          

“That is smart, did you come up with it?” Ajax asked him.                                   

“No, It`s just I think I`ve heard it somewhere” replied Benedict, whilst Simon looked at everybody nervously. 

“Okay, what is this?, What`s going on? I can`t understand a word you are saying,” he was getting angry.                                                                        

“It`s rocket science you would never understand,” Zack smiled at him.              

“So let`s go get this bloody part! Where is it?” Peter burst out of the blue.

“Mecha-1” Ajax replied instantly.                                                                                                 

“Really?” Raven looked at him with disbelief. “The cyborgs have it?” she asked.                                                                                                                                          

“They do, the only thing that can harm them it`s under their protection, but alas they can`t destroy it,” comforted Ajax. “Alright then…” he looked at the group. “Any volunteers?” he asked but no one showed any enthusiasm except for Peter as if he had a deathwish going to Mecha-1. After ten minutes of negotiating, Ajax formed the team to help him with the deflector, the doctors should stay with the others to help them, as Alexander wanted to go, but Peter convinced him in some way to stay where he is needed, also one of the captains should stay, as Benedict immediately asked Peter to stay because he wanted to see what they are up against, Peter was calm and accepted to stay, because Raven wanted to go with them Azra came forward and rebelled that the girls would be needed for the final preparations.

    Ajax gave bracelets to Dave, Simon, Zack, and Benedict, explaining to them that the bracelets will allow them to teleport and also armed them with rifles.

“Mecha-1 apart from the tall buildings it`s also heavily populated with warehouses,” spoke Ajax, he and the team were gathered around a table and were going over the plans. “Luckily for us, we know which warehouse to target, the bad news is it`s that is heavily protected,” he sprang up from the map and looked at everybody.

“I assume you have a plan?” Zack was impatient.

“Yes… the strike team would strike from the back,” spoke Ajax. “Since nobody expects an attack from the front, it`s only logical they attack from the back causing a diversion so that we can enter from the front,” he looked at everybody. “Now once the alarms start blaring we won`t have much time, the whole planet will be after us,” he warned. “Gear up!”

     They entered a shuttle that will take them close to Mecha-1 not too close so they wouldn`t get blown up. What the team didn`t know was Peter`s dedication and drive force that he wanted to go on the planet, he snuck inside the shuttle and hid underneath one of the shafts, he showed up just in the right moment when they were about to teleport and touched Benedict on the shoulder.

     On Mecha-1 appeared the black lines the same ones from the ship, they morphed but there was also a plus one before the team that teleported from Sirius, Peter touched Benedict on his shoulder, and in that way he teleported with them.                                                                                            

“Dude, what are doing here?” Benedict was livid.                                                    

“I`m sorry I just wanted to come and be useful for once” Peter kind of got angry.                                                                                                                                  

“Hey! Don`t argue we need to be quiet we don`t want to be discovered, remember?” Ajax warned them. 

“Here,” he pulled out the bracelet from his wrist. “Take mine,” he gave it to Peter.                                                                       

“What about you?” Zack asked him.                                                                           

“I`ll be fine,” said Ajax and led the way straight to the engineer's workshop of the cyborgs.

    After twenty minutes they reached a warehouse, Ajax pulled out some advanced binoculars and zoomed in toward the entrance of the warehouse, he was right it was teeming with robots, cameras, drones, he clicked a button on the binocular and the lenses turned from red to green, once they turned green they revealed a whole new thing. Apart from all the security, there seemed to be something in the air like a mist. Was it a toxic mist? Couldn`t be as the metal on the cyborgs would erode, it was nanobots in clusters, millions of them could enter through your nose and tear apart your organism from the inside in a matter of seconds, nasty little things.

“Just as I thought,” said Ajax, he pressed a button on his suit and it generated a blue glow around him, he looked at the rest and gave them instructions to do the same. “It`s an electromagnetic field generated by the suit, it runs on battery so…” he looked at the screen on the suit that was on his left hand. “We don`t have much time.”

“Strike team is advised nanobots in the area, I repeat nanobots in the area,” he spoke over the radio.

“Roger that sir, proceed with caution,” said the leader. “We are in position,” Ajax looked through the binoculars again and saw as a group of soldiers were making their way toward the warehouse, until one of the soldiers fired a rocked and the shooting started, the robots ran around and the alarms started raging it was chaos. “Let`s go!!!” yelled Ajax as he ran toward the warehouse. They ran as fast as they can, this was actual war it was chaos robots and soldiers were dying. Benedict was hit by the realization finally but it was too late as he was already there and in the middle of it, he looked around him and saw the rest of the crew members who were lost and in panic, they had no idea what they were doing.“Pull yourselves together! Come on!” yelled Ajax as he came running at them and pulled them by their hands.

“Oh… no! This is not what we signed up for!” panicked Dave as he was leaned on the metal of the warehouse.

“Look at me!” Ajax grabbed his head. “We`ve got to do this, we`ve got to be stronger than them, mentally and physically,” everybody breathed heavily whilst listening to him and they knew he was right, but none of them could gather enough courage to make any step forward afraid they might get shot and whatnot. “We`ve got to do this, or we will fail every living thing in the universe,” said Ajax finally as Dave stood up and walked to the door. “Alright everybody cover him!” everybody started shooting at the robots not that they knew how to shoot but they provided cover enough for Dave. The door was locked with a password, but Dave took the laptop from the backpack and plugged it in in the console as Simon started to repeatedly open and close his eyes.

“Man I cannot believe how red everything is on this planet,” he said.

“Yeah well, what were you expecting from a bunch of cyborgs,” said Peter as in the meantime, Dave managed to brute force the password.

    The moment Dave hacked the password it warned the cyborgs like a silent alarm as Stormagedon ordered that several robots be sent to investigate what was happening; they did not have much time, they had to work faster. When Ajax and Benedict entered the workshop and found the deflector, Benedict realized that the part was an electromagnetic generator but this one did not stop radiation, but rather what the cyborgs threw at it. The cyborg patrol already reached the warehouse and spotted the intruders and opened fire at them as they shot Peter in the leg, Simon immediately ran toward him and dragged him behind a cover.                                                                                                           

“Go!” Benedict looked at Simon as Simon grabbed Peter and teleported him out of there, while the others were protecting them.                                               

“Hello, creator…” behind Ajax out of nowhere jumped Stormagedon, Galio, and Eliz. Galio and Eliz grabbed Dave and Zack they held them hostages and they couldn`t move, Benedict was overwhelmed with fear from seeing Stormagedon he stood motionless and watched at both of them. “You`ve come to steal from me like you always do?” asked Stormagedon.                                                    

“This technology was never yours, just like that consciousness of yours, it`s not real, never has been.” Ajax taunted him as Stormagedon watched at him angrily. “You are nothing but a robot, a figment of an engineer's imagination…” Ajax kept insulting him until Stormagedon lost his patience and he ran toward him. Ajax was confident and he smiled at Stormagedon, he clicked the bracelet to teleport out of his way except he couldn`t find the bracelet on his wrist he looked at his wrist but remembered that he gave the bracelet to Peter before he realized Stormagedon waved his hammer and struck Ajax so hard that he flew a few meters breaking his visor. Benedict started running toward Ajax.

“No!” he cried out as he pressed a button on the deflector. The whole room was filled with the fields that it generated Galio`s and Eliz`s circuits went haywire as they let go of Zack and Dave. “Get out of here!!” he ordered to Zack and Dave to teleport back.

    While Benedict was running after Ajax who was knocked unconscious Stormagedon threw the hammer towards Benedict. Galio grabbed Zack by his leg and didn`t allow him to go any further, Dave used the rifle and shot a few lasers at him but Eliz grabbed him from behind and started choking him, Zack fell to the ground and started kicking at Galio but it wasn`t going to help he was a robot after all. Zack saw that Stormagedon threw the hammer at Benedict and he used the bracelet to teleport the both of them between Benedict and the hammer. In a matter of seconds, they found themselves in the middle as Zack dodged with his head but Galio saw it too late the hammer hit Galio and exploded his whole head. Benedict looked at Zack and nodded at him as he touched Ajax on the shoulder and teleported. Zack grabbed the deflector and cranked up its settings even higher to a point where even Stormagedon couldn`t resist it.

“Come on!” he called out to Dave who was lying on the floor gasping for breath, both of them activated the bracelets and teleported away from the warehouse, the nightmare was over… for now.

    Stormagedon sprang up and fixed his destroyed arm in a matter of seconds, but Galio did not share the same fate, Stormagedon walked up to his dead or rather deactivated shell and kneeled next to him. “Your death will not be in vain soldier,” Stormaggedon turned toward Eliz. “Prepare the Decimator, there`s a war coming!!!”                                                                                             

“Yes sir,” she accepted the order.

    When Azra saw Ajax she immediately ran to him and hugged him whilst Benedict was on his knees fully devastated by what he saw it was his first encounter with Stormagedon, for him it seemed that Stormagedon is a walking nightmare and that he would need to fight and oppose to that nightmare and turned to see as Azra held Ajax.                                                                    

“Ajax please I`m begging you, you can endure this pain you will survive,” Ajax was barely breathing, but he collected enough strength.                                      

“Azra remember your training…” he looked at her, he looked directly at her eyes filled with tears. “Be a good captain and win this war, find strength in the darkest of times, you must endure for you must win,”  he exhaled his last breath. For Azra as the whole world crumbled.                                                             

“No…no…no” she kept tapping Ajax on his chest “I`m not ready,” she cried. “I`m not ready, I need you to teach me,” she whimpered. “You!” she angered her eyes and threw herself on Benedict.                                                                   

“How could this happen!!!?” at that moment Peter stepped in front of her.                                                                                                                                           

“It was my fault I teleported with them, Ajax gave me his bracelet if he still had his bracelet he still would have been…” his voice broke down as he shed some tears, Azra could not believe what she was hearing, but Benedict had to do something.                                                                                                                       

“Azra please concentrate, pick yourself up because a war is coming,” risked Benedict.                                                                                                                              

“You are right, us Primes should know better than to mourn,” said Azra with her face all covered in tears,                                                                                                     

“No that`s not what I meant,” said Benedict.                                                        

“Oh…captain emotions are a weakness, you of all should know that,” said Azra as she walked away leaving Benedict confused.

    After a week Azra was completely reconciled and was aware that she was the captain of the Sirius Prime Galactica who was with two sharp cannons and a rounded area that connected the two cannons and also where the bridge was located, she quickly supplied everything with necessities and was aware that the cyborgs were coming, she was aware that she must defend the planet.

They arrived

    Mecha-1 Star Fighter was the name of the ship of the cyborgs, it had a sharp peak in contrast to Star Fury and had only two wings on the sides as they were getting closer more and more. Azra was upset because Star Fury was still gone, Stormagedon ordered to discharge the swarm ships and attack at that moment Azra released her ships as well that stood safely behind the electromagnetic field where the lasers from the swarm could not penetrate. The cyborg swarm broke through the field and attacked the defending army. The war began it looked like Dave described it: the fleet spaceships blasting lasers left and right in different colors, explosions, and whatnot. The Galactica triggered the cannons and fired two lasers with tiny bundles of light that wiped out half the swarm of Stormagedon.

    “Mind if we cut in captain?” asked Benedict as Star Fury instantly came to existence right next to the Galactica.                                                                      

“FIRE!!!” yelled Benedict as Zack and John immediately executed the order. Star Fury looked pretty much the same only this time it had two laser cannons attached to the main body, the cannons activated and destroyed Stormagedon`s armada. The only thing left now was the Mecha-1 Star Fighter and the battle would be won, but Stormagedon was no fool, he wouldn`t rush into a battle just to be defeated in only a matter of minutes. Alas, Stormagedon called upon the Decimator. The Decimator was a space station that was bigger than a space ship its construction material was similar to the spaceships. The station carried nuclear weapons that the blast could go around any planet for a couple of times.                                                                                                                                   

“Oh…fuck,” spoke Dave quietly.                              

“What the bloody hell is that?” asked Peter.                                                                

    The Decimator gathered enough energy and had Sirius as its target as it fired a huge amount of rockets. Azra watched the rockets fly toward the field and was confident enough that it wouldn`t penetrate, but they did, she just watched as the rockets move past her armada missing deliberately and were headed toward the planet.                                                                                                  

“Shoot down those rocket`s now!!!” she yelled on the bridge, as the crew on the Galactica immediately started aiming and blowing up those rockets before they could reach the planet. The armada also chased down the rockets every single battleship. The Star Fighter did not stand idly by and shot its lasers moving down the ships that were chasing after the rockets, the Decimator kept unleashing rockets as if the whole station was filled with them, one rocket is all it would take.                       

“Zack aim at the rockets now!!!” Benedict also ordered as the two ships were shooting lasers continuously left and right destroying the rockets before they can do any harm, but soon the ships will run out of energy and the canons will need time to regenerate.                                                                                          

“Azra we are running out of juice,” said Benedict over the radio.                      

“Keep firing as much as you can, we need to take them down,” said Azra and after a while, all the rockets vanished they`ve managed to take out every single one as the canons also died down. The crew of the Star Fury and the Galactica took a breath of relief for a job well done.

“Oh… no,” said Sarah looking out of the window. All of them moved toward the window starring at a speck of light that was headed towards the planet. The speck of light reached the planet and it engulfed the whole surface in a fire before anyone could blink and do anything the only thing they could do is watch that tragic scene. Sirius was terraformed from a habitable planet into a fiery volcano in a matter of seconds without anyone doing anything about it. Even if the anti-aircraft guns had reacted it was enough to reach the atmosphere and rain hellfire on the surface. On Star Fury, everyone was shocked and had no idea what to do, the alarms were triggered a rocket from the Decimator was headed towards them.    “Well come on get us out of here!!!” yelled Benedict as John instantly warped the ship out of there, but the Galactica stayed, Benedict felt guilty for leaving probably expected that the Galactica would follow, he teleported on Azra`s bridge with the bracelet that she gave him and touched her on her shoulder teleporting together out of the ship, Azra did not want to do anything, she just wanted to die along with her species. The Galactica was destroyed every Prime was dead, everyone except for her… “No, get me back where I belong there with them!!!” Azra was in anger as Zack tried to comfort her but it was futile.                                                                                                                        

“What are you going to do now? Are you just going to let Stormagedon get away with what he has done!!?” Benedict didn`t reply, he just turned his back on Azra.                                                                                                                               

“Tell me what are you going to do!?” Azra yelled at him.                                        

“Bite the bullet!!!” Benedict yelled. Azra stepped back and retreated as Sarah just looked at him with anger and disbelief as to what he just said and hugged her.                                                                                                                                      

“Azra no, I`m sorry, when I said that I meant that we are going to hell, or whatever metaphor there is for war,” he had a plan. “John you will warp us a couple of times in short intervals, just in and out.”                                                      

“Got it, captain,” he replied.                                                                                  

“Zack when we get out of warp you will have enough time to shoot directly at the Star Fighter.”

    The Decimator turned on the electromagnetic fields to protect the Star Fighter and the Decimator itself from the blast and the radiation from the planet, but it was futile as the Star Fury could penetrate them, they appeared in front of the Star Fighter firing directly at the thruster and then disappeared immediately, only to appear shortly afterward firing again at the enemy ship and again and again, the cyborgs could not catch them on the radar and could not predict their movements. Finally, the appeared behind the Star Fighter destroying the wings so that it lost balance and started falling toward the Decimator. Stormagedon had a bracelet for teleporting but Azra beat him to it as she teleported first and shot Stormagedon and Eliz and destroyed his bracelet, she left the deflector inside the ship messing up with the systems of the ship and the robots, she left right before the Star Fighter crashed into Decimator causing a chain reaction that turned off the electromagnetic fields, which led the nuclear blast from the planet, destroying the Decimator as well. The war was won at a great cost, on the bridge of the Star Fury everybody was shocked and devastated especially Azra whom she lost her home-planet and with it everything, her friends, her family, every single Prime except her and for what? A mistake they did create those robots, they underestimated their enemy and that costed them greatly. Benedict tapped John on the shoulder as John just nodded and set the coordinates of the Star Fury back to Earth it was time they returned; besides there was nothing they could do about the planet as Azra had no other choice but to go with them.                                                          

“Oh damn how long haven`t we contacted IASA?” asked Benedict as Dave frightened himself.                                                                                                             

“I`ve lost count myself,” he answered.

    After a few weeks, the ship arrived near Earth as the sight seemed unfamiliar from the one they were used to, instead of green and blue Earth was grim and dark gray.                                                                                                                       

“Woah…” Viktor was shocked.                                                                                       

“What happened to you?” asked Benedict as he took a couple of steps toward the window.                                                                                                                        

“I think it`s best if we land and see for ourselves,” proposed Peter as John just looked at him and nodded. They landed on Earth before they got out Benedict warned them. “Do not say a word that we went to war, or that the ship was destroyed!”                                                                                                                   

“I`ve got a bad feeling about this,” said Peter as the shuttles landed on the ground all of them were greeted by a grim sight which gave a hint to a post-apocalyptic Earth with piles of junk burning and half-collapsed buildings and on top of that the atmosphere was polluted. Khan headed towards them and he slapped Benedict the slap was so loud even Dave felt it, but Khan headed towards him and slapped him as well.                                                                     

“Peter!!!” yelled Khan, Peter didn`t have much of a choice but to answer the call as he appeared frightened before Khan and he received a slap too.                             

“Where have you been for whole twenty years!!!” yelled Khan.                                  

“Wait what is he talking about?” Alexander was confused.                                                    

“How is that possible for them to be gone twenty years?” Simon was confused as well.                                                                                                                         

“I don`t know what to tell you, we`ve rebuilt the ship just as it was,” said Azra.                                                                                                                          

 “Then the device that prevents time dilation was also implemented?” Zack asked her.                                                                                                                              

“Oh…” Azra looked confusedly at Zack. “That`s what that device was,” she was sort of shocked.                                                                                                           

“Azra!?” Dave turned toward her.                                                                             

“Sorry we had no idea,” she apologized.                                                                        

“Oh my…” Peter started losing his s**t as he sat down on a collapsed column.     

“Khan what is going on?” asked Benedict.                                                             

“Look around you, isn`t it obvious?” he asked.                                                          

“No, really it`s not,” said Alexander.                                                                  

“Well…” Khan`s voice broke down. “There`s no one else to tell you this, but me,” he looked at all of them.                                                                                               

“What is it?” Raven was getting anxious.                                     

“Plague…it hit us hard, we were unable to find a cure,” Khan sat down. “No matter how hard we tried with Adam, they crushed us, and for what? The plague took over and they were unable to find a cure,” he looked at the ground.

“What!!!?” Simon burst.                                                                                              

“I`m sorry, everyone you ever knew is probably dead, even your parents,” a tear ran across Khan`s face.                                                                                                

“For f**k's sake!!!” Peter stood up and grabbed a rock that he slammed on the ground.                                                                                                                               

“Calm down!” Dave looked at him. “Who are they? The ones that crushed you? The ones that couldn`t find a cure?” he asked.

“There was a secret organization, embedded into the highest echelons of society, they knew about the plague all along and didn`t tell anyone,” explained Khan.

“And our parents are dead? Our family?” Sarah cried.                                           

“Don`t worry they died knowing their kids became legends and saviors,” said Khan.                                                                                       

“Oh… really!? What the f**k does it matter!? What does it matter what they thought of us? They are dead!!!” yelled Sarah as she fell on the ground crying out loud with Raven kneeling to her and comforting her.                   

"All we did was survey planets,” said Zack.                                                  

“Yes and Tera saved the human race from going extinct,” explained Khan.                                                                                                                                

“You mean…” Benedict did not finish.                                                                           

“Yes, humans escaped on Tera far away from Earth, far away from the plague, all thanks to you,” Khan looked at Benedict. “Thanks to all of you,” he looked at the rest of the crew.                                                                                                            

“If the humans colonized it, how come our parents weren`t amongst the ones that were colonized?” asked Sarah.                                                                                 

“The plague struck swiftly and our budget was focused on the cure something that we never managed to find, as you know the budget for spaceships was small and only a small number was saved, scientists mostly and those who can contribute to the colonization,” explained Khan.                                                 

“Yes, but how are you still dwelling here?” Alexander asked him.                           

“I turned out to be immune…as for a very little amount of people too, but what`s the point?” he asked. “Being all alone now?”                                               

“What are we to do now?” asked John.                                                            

“Nothing,” Khan stood up. “Look around you,” he turned. “There`s nothing to be done here."                                                                                                                   

“We can help, rebuild Earth,” said Raven.                                                              

“No,” Khan cut her off immediately. “You`ve got your lives ahead of you and you cannot waste them by trying to fix somebody else`s mistake…our mistake,” he looked down on the ground feeling ashamed, guilty.                                            

“Perhaps it is best if we are to leave,” Azra stepped up.                                              

“She is right,” Khan sprang up. “Go out there, visit other galaxies, hell even other universes, adventure awaits in every corner, new places, new planets, new aliens, new friends, new love, and remember you will also meet new enemies, that is why I need you to be careful,” Khan gasped for breath as Dave sobbed.                                                                                                                                 

“I`m sorry that was emotional,” he wiped his tears, as they looked at each other and it seemed that Khan managed to persuade them, besides there wasn`t anything to be done it was already late.

    As they were moving toward the ship Viktor and Sarah were bittersweet happy as they are still going to be the pilots of the now famous Star Fury that traveled in the future and greeted Benedict that stood in front of them and was staring at Peter as he was sitting alone on a pile of rocks.                                        

“Everything alright?”                                                                                                       

“No,” replied Peter as he threw a rock in the distance. “I… I`m not coming captain,” he told him.                                                                                                       

“Wait, but why?” Benedict did not understand the reason.                                      

“Look Captain, Khan is right twenty years is too much time, besides I got shot in the leg, I got a living being killed because of me, I don`t think I`m good enough for this."                                                                                                                               

“I see but I cannot go without you I need my first officer,” Benedict tried to talk him out of it.                                                                                                               

“I understand,” he said. “But you also have to understand that I cannot keep doing this,” he finished. “ I need to rest, my consciousness would eat me alive and I cannot be there in times like that when my focus is no longer with me.”                                                                                                      “I understand,” Benedict nodded with his head.                                                       

“Thank you, captain.”                                                                                                      

“So I need a new first officer if it`s okay…”                                                               

“Oh…It`s okay, you can pick whomever you want, you have my permission,” smiled Peter.                                                                                                                     

“Okay, you take care now,” said Benedict as they hugged it out and went their sperate ways.                                                               

    “You should go visit Tera it`s beautiful this time of year, besides it`s got buildings and its thriving,” said Khan to Benedict as he just looked at him strangely.                                                                                                                            

“Khan is there something you are no telling me?” Benedict asked him as Khan drowned in his thoughts and ignored Benedict`s question. “Khan!” he yelled.                                                                                                                                   

“No! there`s nothing I need to tell you,” he snapped.                                                

“Khan I`m like what forty-five years old now? You can tell me I`m not a kid anymore,” said Benedict.                                                                                                   

“No I`ve got nothing to tell you everything`s still the same, besides you can be a hundred and forty-five years old and you are still going to be a kid to me,” laughed Khan.                                                                                                                 

“All right take care of yourself old man,” Benedict offered him a shaking hand.                                                                                                                                     

“Oh…so that`s how it is now?” Khan smiled.                                                         

“Well you`ve aged twenty years,” said Benedict.                                                          

“Get out of here you cheeky bastard,” said Khan as they laughed and departed on each other.

    Benedict entered the bridge and saw as everybody was unloading their favorite things from home, from action figures in mint condition to pictures of them and their family, the Star Fury was now their home and every little thing from a picture to a figurine was an awesome addition, something to remind them of home a driving force that kept them pushing forward. He turned over his shoulder and saw Azra staring out of the window doing nothing but, sobbing.    

“Azra?” she turned. “Are you all right?” he asked.                                               

“No,” she replied shortly as she walked past him. “Everybody please,” she waved her hands asking for everybody`s attention. “I must apologize to you in the name of our engineers for the mistake they`ve made, if they had succeeded you would have been back to Earth with your friends and family.”                  

“And we would have been dead,” Benedict stood next to her. “Had we returned earlier, the plague would off gotten us too, so instead of you apologizing, we should thank you,” Benedict looked at her straight in the eyes. “Thank you!” he nodded, as everybody said one loud ‘thank you’ in unison. The Star Fury and its crew were ready as Benedict gave the order to John who pulled the lever and Star Fury left the now devastated Earth in hope that it will return to it one day.

    “I see that Raven and Sarah made you try coffee” Benedict approached Azra as she was drinking a cup of coffee.                                                                         

“I like this stuff so far,” she smiled and looked at the cup.                                          

“Wait till it becomes an addiction, you wouldn`t be able to function without it, glad I didn`t become addicted by it,” Benedict tapped himself on the head. “Azra…” he looked at her as both of them stood quietly in the corridor. “I need a first officer,” he spoke after a long silence. “Witnessing the things that you did back on your home planet, guiding the fleet to victory and everything, made me realize…” Benedict stopped and looked at the floor.                        

“What?” Azra looked at him.                                                                                    

“I think you are the most qualified person for this job, I mean it`s nothing compared to governing a planet but still it`s something…” he looked at her as Azra only smiled and agreed.                                                                                        

“Where do we set course captain?” she asked him.                                             

“Well, we`ve got limited time and so much to visit so we should check our bucket list first,” he answered and went toward the bridge. It was not easy for Benedict he even felt guilty for instantly replacing his previous first officer but he was in desperate need of an assisting hand in commandeering the ship.

    After a week, everything was ready everyone with new strength and excitement waited for the captain's order, but in front of Benedict`s mind flew over a couple of memories some of which when George told him that the stars of the planets he found were young and the memory when Azra told them that those events happened a long time ago. “Captain…everything all right?” asked John.                                                                                                                                      

“I`m sorry I got a bit carried away,” he snapped out of it.                                  

“Well come on, we arrived at Tera,” John told him, as Benedict just nodded.     

    On Tera after all those years life thrived again with buildings and roads people going on about their stuff, it`s like Zack said Earth two-point o, Raven seemed to like it but not Simon he probably preferred the old Tera as when they first arrived. Dave noticed something is odd about Benedict.      

“Amazing!” Azra was blown away as they landed on the planet.

“Glad some of us is excited,” said Simon as he moved past her.

“Humans have returned home!” she looked around. “This is better than a twilight story!”                                

“What`s the matter?’ Dave approached Benedict who stood astray from the group.                                                                   

“I need answers,” he replied his back still turned at Dave. “When I first went to IASA they told me this planet`s star was young,” he stopped and pointed toward the ground. “So tell me how can a star be young when it`s age is as much as the planet itself?”                                                 

“I don`t know,” Azra simply answered.                                                                         

“What do you mean you don`t know, you told us all of this happened a really long time ago?” Zack asked her. “We even saw the logs of the scientists and Joe.”                                                                                      

“I don`t know you have to believe me,” said Azra.                                           

“And what do you mean this star is young when it`s old as the planet?” Zack asked again.                                                                                                                         

“Yes that`s what George told me,” said Benedict.                                                       

“So who is lying?” asked Dave.                                                                                   

“Perhaps no one,” said Sarah. “It`s unexplainable I know but…”                       

“Perhaps we should keep traveling to find answers,” Simon finished the sentence for Sarah, Viktor seemed to like that idea.                                           

“So what`s it going to be captain?” asked Alexander.                 

“All right let's go,” he accepted.                                                                                     

Dave smiled. “To go where the stars shine the brightest!”                                

“Dave for the love of science stop it!!!” yelled Raven as Viktor was laughing, the Star Fury disappeared.

     Peter walked on the pavement, he looked around the destroyed houses, the fallen lampposts, the cars that were upside down, he was in his neighborhood, he sprang up and looked toward a house that was in front of him. Part of the roof from the left side was missing, the windows were broken and the door was gone, the inside furniture was thrown away and the clothes were scattered on the floor, he was just about to enter inside when a voice spoke behind him…    

“You should have gone with them! Hex is here!” warned Khan.

“What!?” Peter turned his head away from the destroyed house that he used to live in and looked for Khan, he was really confused, especially when Khan told him that and now he was walking away. Peter tried to chase after him, but he came to an intersection and Khan seemed to have disappeared underground he looked and turned everywhere but it was futile the wind was blowing as the traffic light blinked yellow other than that there was no other sound for example of footsteps as if Khan did disappear underground. Peter now began to worry about his safety and the safety of the crew. Hex…the mysterious, Hex the scientist talked about in the video, whomever Hex was or whatever he was it`s clear now that it`s not just a name.