Across the Expanse: Day 90

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Day 90

*Start Transmission*

Jim: Find anything?

Amy: *Sigh* No, nothing cool unless you’re counting all the other mummies I’ve dug up.

Jim: I’m thinking the Stalker probably activated their stealth function somehow, to stop the crew of the ship from finding them too fast.

Wraith: This one has come to that conclusion as well. It appears the reason Amy is only finding more members of the crew is that the technology on the frames they wore degraded at a faster rate.

Amy: Well shit, how long till one of those stealth functions on a small ship breaks down?

Wraith: Including the amount of time that has passed… at least another millennia.

Amy: Son of a bitch. Wait, how come we were able to detect the science lab then?

Wraith: The facility, in that case, was only detected due to the fact that it was shut down in the first place. Had the facility been operational and running a stealth protocol its detection would not have been so simple.

Amy: You figured the Verakore would have realized that and kept the facility up and running.

Wraith: Without a crew to monitor the reactor it would be a foolhardy task to put oneself into stasis for long periods of time.

Jim: Yeah, I snooped a little bit more around the Archives and found two stasis pods. Judging from the cables of free energy running into them I think they kept the reactor running in lower power mode to maintain their stasis.

Wraith: You would be correct in your assessment, this one believe when it was attempting to reassemble the fractured systems it may have reset the stasis pod programming and woken up the Verakore from their slumber.

Amy: And somehow they shut down the reactor from there?

Wraith: Correct, it takes quite a lot of time to recover from prolonged periods of stasis, which would have explained why it took so long for them to come after you.

Amy: That could explain why Jim could take them on too then, can’t really be at your best when you’re sluggish.

Wraith: I am afraid not. An appropriate amount of time had passed for them to fully recover by the time they decided to pursue you.

Amy: Well now, you hear that Jim? Looks like you’re definitely a bonafide badass now.

Jim: Sure as hell didn’t feel like a badass getting thrown across the room.

Amy: Better than running wildly through the dark…

Jim: Hey now, don’t beat yourself up, you ran like a champ.

Amy: That makes me feel soooooo much better Jim.

Jim: How about a nice home cooked meal then? I’m sure that’ll brighten your day.

Amy: You know me so well.

Jim: Let’s meet up on the ship in say.. What, a couple of hours?

Amy: See you then Jim.

*End Transmission*

---

Jim: Cheer up Amy, I’m sure you’ll find a ship somewhere looking for a drone or something. We did kind of run into that master key pretty randomly if you think about it.

Amy: If deciphering a message hidden in porn then yeah, sure, we found it randomly. I wonder how it even ended up there anyways.

Wraith: This one assumes one of the crew hid away the master key when the crew grew even thinner as a precaution, so that whoever was eliminating the crew would be unable to take the ship for themselves.

Amy: Explains why you were shut down then, otherwise you might have ended up like the AI back at the facility.

Wraith: A likely result, yes. Though this one follows the instructions of the one with the master key, this one has been given enough leeway to ignore instructions from the Verakore for such occasions.

Jim: Huh… smart, if a little paranoid.

Amy: Well regardless for the most part it’s been fun Wraith, minus the whole almost dying part.

Jim: And here I thought you love adrenaline pounding situations.

Amy: There is the rush of flying Jim, and then there is the terror of a giant space beast charging at you through the dark.

Jim: Nonsense, when all else fails, punch the beast in the face. At least then you can say you fought back.

Amy: Cept in your case you stabbed, shot, and smashed the thing to hell and back.

Jim: Well I mean, I fight to win… don’t roll your eyes at me.

Amy: You don’t know if I was rolling my eyes at you or not, I could have been reveling in how delicious this pasta tastes.

Jim: Please, this was made from leftovers, I need a whole other supply from Requisitions because of your appetite.

Amy: Oh shush, let a lady enjoy her fancies.

Jim: *Chuckle* Fine, fine.

…

…

…

Amy: Hey Jim?

Jim: What’s up?

Amy: Thank you.

Jim: Oh stop, it’s just pasta.

Amy: No, I mean for saving me.

Jim: No thanks needed, you would have done the same for me.

Amy: I want to think that… I really do, but I don’t know if I could have Jim. When I was running through that darkness, not a clue of what was after me. All I could think about was how much it was going to hurt to die. Then they started to pull me back, and all the only thing in my mind was how much I wanted someone to save me… for you to save me. And you… you still came, you didn’t really know what was waiting for you, if I was still even alive or not, if you were even going to live or not and you still came. So...thank you Jim. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I’m glad you’re here with me.

Jim: ...I’ll always be here Amy, don’t ever forget that.

Amy: That’s something I’m gonna hold you to Jim, as long as you breathe.

Jim: Well then, better start holding my breath.

Amy: Hey!

Jim: *Laugh* Don’t worry about it Amy… I’m not going anywhere.

End Part 2

          A big thank you to everyone who has read this far. This is not the end of Amy and Jim, but I'm gonna be taking a break from this story to focus on some other ideas that I've been itching to write. For now, I'll leave Jim and Amy as they are, with a new friend, and a stronger bond than ever. Thank you all again for reading, and feel free to express any sort of feedback and criticism in the comments below. I hope you all have the most pleasant of days.

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