Before Carmen passed out, he managed to point his finger towards the top of the warp construct.
Jack, who was the first to notice Carmen falling, made his energy form a barrier around him and looked towards where Carmen was pointing.
At the tip of his finger is a blue blob of light that is seemingly ready to fire at Jack's command. Of course, this happened inside his suit.
When Jack looked, there was nothing on the construct. Jack was only momentarily confused, he wasn't stupid. At this point, how can there be nothing?
Commanding his energy to flow through the eyes, the scenery changed. Everything from infrared to ultraviolet became visible to Jack. This came with a drawback. Some colors disappeared, such as green and red. Everything had turned blue and yellow.
Jack saw a small black gadget stuck on top of the platform. Flicking his hands, the blue blob of light that was held on the tip of his finger disappeared inside the suit. Quietly, the black gadget was struck, and the various colors that were swirling inside faded.
At that moment, everyone's heart rate increased.
"Shit. We were emotionally controlled," Jack spoke.
When everyone heard Jack, the room's temperature seems to have lowered.
Just to what extent they were sabotaged?
Everyone's heart began to waver. One man down, and there are still hidden traps around.
What if this warp is rigged?
What if one of us is a traitor?
What if everything was planned all along?
What if?
Jack saw everyone's face and understood what happened. There was a hormone explosion that caused everyone to mentally break. Looking at everyone, he sighed. At least this proved to him that there were no spies in the mission, just a ragtag bunch of undesired people.
With already one down, Jack made quick work of the other five with his energy shot and knocked everyone down. Typically, it won't be this easy, but since everyone's state is terrible, nobody had their guard up.
With a thump, everyone fell down on the ground.
"There's no time left," Jack thought to himself.
Energy began to flow throughout his body, increasing his speed, reaction, and strength.
Warping is not Jack's expertise, but he was a captain of a space pirate crew. Warping was something mandatory when traveling distances as hyperdrive posed more dangers than hyperwarp.
Still, warping in this era isn't as well developed as the one at the end of the universe. Limited by only up to five milky-way galaxies, Jack had to make do.
In the next 24 days, the artificial planet would enter the range of the warp.
Pneumatology was in its infancy during the 900th millennia. Only advanced beings of the fourth stage could do something with their souls. Since the time localizer works constantly and uninterruptably, Jack could only leave the goods in the middle of space until the artificial planet passes by.
This can go wrong so easily in so many ways.
Closing his eyes, Jack peered deep into his mind. There he saw himself, glowing white and was burning like a man who caught flames.
With a strong pulse, from its chest, a piece of a white flaming orb was cut. Jack immediately summoned the fragment of his soul and made it cover the entire package.
This was his attempt at protecting it.
At this time, Jack was unaware, but along with his soul came with his persona about his desperation.
It was with the intent to maximize everyone's gains before they die. They knew they will never be saved unless they survive one more year in the ergosphere. That is why, instead of hope, it was the last piece of desperation—the last leg.
Fixing the coordinates and the goods, Jack activated the warp construct.
The three concentric circles moved mechanically and expanded. Then, half of the rings went underground, and only a half-circle remained visible.
Booting…
The circles began to spin as energy began to flow from the source to the construct. Every injection of energy creates a small vortex just above the platform, which grew every time the mechanical circles spun.
Booting successful, initial coordinated found. Please confirm.
On the control panel, a confirm or cancel box appeared with the coordinates of the current position. Fortunately, they still haven't entered the event horizon of the black hole, or else not even warping would be able to help them.
After confirming that the data was correct, Jack tapped confirm.
Target coordinates found. Please confirm.
The target was correct, it seems like there was no sabotaging done on this part. Fortunately, archaic tech requires archaic means for hacking. Nothing in the new world works in the tech of the old. Different interfaces, systems, and even the concept of a processor are different. Not to mention that the control panel was made by the law. Everyone knew it'd be archaic tech, nobody knew how old.
With this, Jack tapped confirm again.
Hyperwarp vortex emerging, etc. 3 minutes.
Two and a half minutes later…
The vortex in the platform was already huge, reaching the diameter of the smallest mechanical circle.
Stability: 95%…
Stability: 97%…
Stability: 99%…
Stability: 100%. This is a one-time use portal, please connect the goods with warp enabled cables to transfer multiple objects. The portal closes in two minutes if unattended.
When the message appeared, jack threw the metal plate where the conditions of the new contract were written. The moment the plate touched the vortex, it and everything that it was connected to became particles. All of these particles were immediately sucked by the vortex as it imploded.
Jack heaved a sigh of relief.
But before he could smile, another change happened in the base.
Gravity began to shift.
It was at this moment that Jack knew it was over.
The now turned off warp construct lost its luster. Every single light went off, and the vortex disappeared as if it was never there.
Jack began to inspect and dismantle the warp construct.
Platings after platers were thrown to the ground until an energy crystal the size of a basketball appeared in Jack's eyes.
Initially, this energy crystal was as large as 2 meters in diameter. After getting sucked dry by the warp, it shrunk significantly.
Jack removed his spacesuit and created a barrier of 10 meters in diameter. Unlike the time when he just needed air for voice communication, this time, he produced a small atmosphere around him. Borrowing the energy from the energy crystal, the atmosphere was created.
Then a blue plane appeared underneath him. Jack carried everyone into the circular plane and sat down.
There was nothing left to do.
They've entered the event horizon.
Not even light could escape.
Without desperation, there is only calmness.
Jack, sitting on the floor, closed his eyes.
A thin line of blue energy shot out from where he was towards the six crew members who were still passed out.
One by one, they woke up.
With their mental state recovered, everyone woke up calm, vigilance apparent in their eyes.
Jack kept his eyes closed. These people aren't stupid, in one glance, they'd be able to tell what happened. He was sure of it.
Seeing the dismantled warp construct, everyone's heart froze. But when they saw that all the energy crystal blocks are gone, their hearts thawed.
Just like Jack, they gained calmness.
It was a sort of acceptance towards death.
All that's left to do now is wait.
Detecting that there were optimal amounts of oxygen in the air, everyone removed their spacesuits.
Unbeknownst to them, colorless energy began to form a small thread connecting all seven of them. Jack had his eyes closed and was resting. Everyone else was only in the third stage and was unable to see the colorless energy forming.
No one noticed, but everyone's heart began to beat in sync. Jack left enough space so everyone could lie down on the ground if they wanted to, which they did.
At the same moment, everyone entered a dream-like state.