Inside the room, Annie and the rest of the crew are standing right on the front of a glass window. They are looking inside where the remains of an unknown creature was currently prepared for transport.
"What do ya think?" Asked by doctor Strovorsky who was currently standing on Annie's side.
".....It looks,,, pretty much fragile" She keep silent for a moment and then answered.
The corpse was completely dried out, it was like all the watery substance are being suck out. Some of the major parts are also gone messing like the head, both legs, its right arm while the other is only half of it is left.
"You may say that by just looking at it, but it is not really the case. The corpse was, ommhh, how do I'm gonna say this,.... I think it is more durable than you think." the doctor said while still looking inside.
Annie nodded "by the way, where's the gem?"
the doctor look at her like he was confused but later on he snapped his finger and said "ohh yeah, I'm sorry, this past days I seems too forgetful, maybe I'm just thinking too much"
"I understand doctor, you have a tough time these days so it would be understandable" she said. Annie look at the doctor, just this time she realized that the doctor looks like a zombie. Dark spots can be seen around his eyes, maybe because of lack of sleep. His skin was totally pale like all blood was drained out. There are also grey strands of hair on the top of head while his full stature was a little bit skinny.
On the left side of the room there is a big safe box. The doctor walks towards it, using his card and a palm print, he successfully opened it. From inside, he fished out a black box. There is nothing special to it, it is just palm size box with a logo of the Union on top.
Then the doctor returned back to where Annie is and hand over the box.
"Is this it?" Annie asked confusedly.
"Why are you look confused?" Seeing Annie was confused, the doctor chose to asked.
Annie look at him and into the box. "I thought, it would be grander because the director personally ordered us to get this."
"Sometimes, don't expect too much, you'll just disappointed, anyway base on our preliminary test, the gem, there is nothing special to it. Except it is very exquisite on the design" he said while pointing on the box.
She nodded and look back to the box. Clyde and her crew also gathered around her. She touched the above part of the box and feel the leather like wrap, on the side, there is a small button. She pushed it and the black box slowly opened. Clyde and the crew held their breath as they were expecting spectacular. But when the box was completely opened, the crew released their breath because what the doctor said was true and disappointment can be seen on their face.
Annie touch the surface of the gem, it is smooth without any flaws. Its shaped was also regular and ordinary, there's nothing special except the the color of its edges. She tilted it slightly and the colour of the edge, from pure blue turns into something ruby like.
"doctor, I think this gem is used to be a jewelry, right?" after following Annie and the doctor silently, finally, Clyde spoke.
The doctor looked at him from head to toe "I'm sorry, who are you again?"
Annie rolled his eyes because not too long ago, she introduced Clyde to him and now he forgotten him.
"ohh! I'm sorry" he offered his hand for a handshake " Clyde, Annie's vice-captain"
The doctor enthusiastically accepted his hand " oh! Dr. Strovorsky, I am really sorry, sometimes when you are thinking too many things, you forgot the other." he released Clyde's hand and continued " yeah you are right, we also speculated that theory but for now we need a much more thorough experimentation to uncover its origin and we can only do that when we are at Pangaea."
"Yeah, of course." Annie looked around and then she found out that everything was ready. The corpse was sealed on an containment that looks like a coffin while the gem was currently on her hand. " I guess everything is ready"
She looked back to the doctor " It is nice meeting you doctor. I wish I could talk to you more but we really need go back, don't worry about these things, we will take care of it"
"of course you do" Strovorsky said seriously.
Annie turned around to leave but she was stop by the doctor. She turned around and saw a very grieved expression made by the doctor. "What's the matter?"
The doctor seems he want to say something "it's nothing, just take care and from now on, don't trust anyone" The doctor said and immediately walk away leaving Annie who was currently in trance of comprehending what the doctor said. In the end she shook her head and leaved the room.
Walking back to the ship, Annie cannot help herself but to think what the doctor means by his word. She also noticed that the doctor was different, it is like he know something and hide it from her.
No matter what it is, I will return back to asked him, maybe he could help me about my father, she think of.
After returning back to the ship. The corpse and the gem was placed in an in closed chamber where it was monitored from time to time.
"Is there any changes outside?" she asked Andrew who was currently maneuvering Angel toward outside.
"Nope, everything was the same as before. Defense are still active....." he paused and rub his forehead " actually there is"
"What is it?" Annie's expression turned serious.
"It seems that most of the small ships are leaving while the warships and battleship are preparing for something."
"That's weird" Clyde slowly said. "maybe they are preparing for an attack, right?"
"Yeah, but we haven't received any notification, right" She looked to Jenny indicating that she wants answers immediately.
Jenny was startled and went straight to the message board to find any message containing the memo for an attack. After several seconds, Jenny looked back to Annie and shook her head.
Upon confirming, Clyde walked towards to Annie "I'm not feeling good, I think there is something wrong going on here" he whispered.
Annie looked back at him "Yeah, me too" "
"What should we do? your call cap" he replied.
"We should get out here immediately and we should maintain vigilant"
Angel slowly drifted further from Andromeda while preparing to jump into warp speed.
Its engine on the back started yo glow while the red line formation released its protective layer.
The warp core slowly but constantly charged up until it reached up to seventy five percent margin. The core needed at least eighty percent to work well, so Annie, Clyde, and the rest waited for about a minute to fill the bar. But when it reached up in the seventy eight margin, Jenny noticed something in the main monitor and exclaimed " What's that!?"
She got the attention of everyone, feeling the eyes that are looking at her, she immediately pointed what she saw.
Everyone shifted their attention to the main screen including Annie. They saw a very small red dot in the darkness of space but after a blink of an eye, it suddenly grow much brighter and bigger accompanied by the intense red light was the alarm of the ship. It was going towards them " evasive maneuver to left!!" She shouted.
"We can't!" She was startled by what Andrew replied.
She eye Andrew, "we can't because we are at the middle of jumping into warp speed. if do that we don't know where we will appear. It would be likely firing a gun without aiming. Not only that, the ship might be divided into two pieces because of the stress we created to its body" he explained himself.
Annie's thought was fighting what to do.
a/n: got a bad day,