The Erebus hummed quietly as it ascended from the surface of Nibiru, leaving behind the ancient ruins and the horrors they housed. The once vivid landscape was now shrouded in the eerie glow of the Entity's awakening, the planet itself seeming to exhale a long-forgotten breath. We were relieved to be off the ground, but the tension inside the ship was palpable, thick as the cold void outside our windows.
We drifted in silence, the only sound the gentle whirr of the engines as we passed through Nibiru's upper atmosphere. Amara sat in the corner of the control room, her knees pulled up to her chest, her eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. The rest of the crew had gathered around the central console, where Luca was running diagnostics on the ship's systems. We were all lost in our own thoughts, each of us processing what had just happened in our own way.
Suddenly, the console beeped, cutting through the silence. Luca glanced up, his brow furrowing. "We've got an incoming transmission. It's… it's from CE Command. Delayed, but it just came through."
I stepped forward, my heart skipping a beat. "Play it."
The screen flickered, and the stern face of Admiral Nikolai Petrov appeared, his expression as hard as I'd ever seen it. The static and slight delay in the feed only added to the tension.
"This is Admiral Petrov of the Citizens of Earth Fleet, addressing the crew of the Erebus. We have received scattered reports and fragmented data from Titan. Our information is incomplete, but we know that the situation has escalated. Titan has fallen to the Terrestrial Empire after UNE forces were annihilated. We have reason to believe that the artifacts you recovered may be involved in a larger threat."
Petrov's eyes narrowed, his voice growing more intense. "Where is your current location, and are any of you infected? This is a matter of utmost importance. The situation on Titan suggests that the infection—whatever it may be—originated from the artifacts. We need immediate confirmation of your status and the status of any survivors from Titan. Respond as soon as possible. Petrov out."
The transmission ended, leaving us in a thick silence. I could feel the weight of everyone's eyes on me, waiting for a decision, a direction, anything to make sense of the chaos that was closing in around us.
"So… what do we do?" Luca asked, his voice tinged with the uncertainty we all felt. "Do we tell them everything?"
I rubbed the back of my neck, my mind racing. There were too many variables, too many unknowns. We were sitting on top of what could be the most dangerous entity humanity had ever encountered, and now we had to decide how much to reveal and how to handle the fallout.
"They're asking about the infection," Elena said, her voice steady but concerned. "We can't lie to them, not when lives are at stake. But if we tell them about Amara… about what we've seen…"
"Then they'll see her as a threat," Siegfried finished, his tone grim. "If they think she's infected, they might order us to—"
"No!" Amara's voice cut through, sharp and desperate. She had stood up, her glowing eyes wide with fear. "You can't let them… I'm not… I'm not like it. I'm still me."
I stepped toward her, holding up a hand to calm her down. "No one's saying you're like the Entity, Amara. But they're going to want answers. And right now, they don't know what we know. They're in the dark."
Sophia sighed, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "They know Titan fell, but they don't know how or why. If we tell them about Amara, we risk them thinking she's the cause, or worse, the vector for the infection."
"Then what do we do?" Luca asked again, looking to me for leadership.
I took a deep breath, weighing our options. We couldn't afford to lie or withhold too much information, not when every second counted. But we also couldn't throw Amara to the wolves. She was the key to understanding the Entity, the only one who might be able to help us stop it. But she was also… infected, in some way, by whatever had happened on Titan.
Finally, I made up my mind. "We tell them the truth, but we control the narrative. We say that we have Amara on board, that she's the only survivor from Titan, and that she shows signs of an infection, but not in the way they're expecting. We ask for guidance, but we emphasize that she's critical to understanding what we're dealing with."
Elena nodded slowly. "That's a balanced approach. It keeps them informed but doesn't give them any reason to panic or make rash decisions."
Siegfried crossed his arms, his gaze steely. "And if they tell us to turn her over, or worse?"
"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. "Right now, we need to stay together and figure out what we're dealing with."
I moved back to the console, Luca handing me the microphone. Taking a deep breath, I began recording our response.
"This is Captain Mark Kontos of the Erebus. Admiral Petrov, we've received your transmission. Our current location is just beyond Nibiru, what we've designated as Planet X. We've encountered an ancient structure containing artifacts of unknown origin. During our exploration, we were forced to flee due to an emergent threat—a non-terrestrial Entity of immense power, which we believe is linked to the artifacts.
We have one survivor from Titan aboard, Dr. Amara Singh, who appears to have been exposed to the Entity, but she remains conscious and coherent. She's the only one who can help us understand this Entity and potentially stop it. We await further instructions and are standing by for your response. Erebus out."
I ended the recording and sent the message, watching as the transmission indicator blinked, signifying the long journey the message would take before reaching Earth. Now all we could do was wait.
The tension in the control room was thick enough to cut with a knife. No one spoke as we settled into our stations, eyes flickering between the console and each other. The uncertainty of what would come next weighed heavily on all of us.
Amara sat back down, her glowing eyes dim but still watching me, a mixture of fear and gratitude in her gaze. She was a survivor, just like us, but she was also something more now—something we didn't fully understand. I could only hope that the decisions we had made would buy us enough time to figure out what to do next.
As the minutes ticked by, the silence stretched out, the uncertainty gnawing at us. Out here, in the vastness of space, we were alone with our thoughts, our fears, and the knowledge that somewhere out there, a response was coming. But whether it would bring hope or doom, none of us could say.
The only thing we knew for certain was that nothing would ever be the same again.