atomic man, john murphy.

The Dark Year

All of the defectors, Spacekru, plus Kane and Diyoza sat in a dark cave with a flickering flame illuminating the stone walls. Clove sat on the ground with her back against the wall as she ran her fingers through the dirt. Murphy was sitting right next to her and leaned toward her ear. "What are you doing?" 

Clove paused her movement to glance at him. She mimicked him, and whispered into his ear, "Playing with dirt." 

"I can see that," He rolled his eyes. "Why are you playing with dirt?"

"I'm bored," She shrugged. "Plus, as weird as it sounds, I kind of missed dirt."

"You missed dirt?" Murphy questioned skeptically. Clove nodded and started tracing her fingers through the dirt again. "I feel like the more I know about you, the more of a mystery become." 

"I must be doing something right then," Clove teased. She slowly traced the outline of a heart and added two small letters inside. She nudged Murphy with her elbow. "Look." 

"C plus J." Murphy read out the letters quietly then glanced at her. "How cheesy." 

"Right?" She smiled at him softly. "I'm totally in love with you. So lame." 

"What's lame?" Raven interrupted, pausing her work on the satellite for a moment to look at the two. 

"Nothing!" Clove exclaimed and hurried to wipe the dirt heart away with her hands. 

Raven stifled a laugh. "Okay," She answered and turned back to her work.

"Is there anything you can't fix?" Shaw wondered.

"Except my leg?" Raven pretended to think about her answer. "Nope."

"I mean, it did take her six years to get us back down to the ground," Murphy pointed out.

"Yet here we are," Raven answered. "He hates when I'm that good."

"Careful, cave's not big enough to fit your head," Murphy said dryly.

"See?"

"Okay, well, then what about Eligius III?" Raven frowned slightly. "Ah, she has the look of failure right there."

Shaw furrowed his eyebrows. "When we were on the mother ship, I hacked the Eligius files. I just couldn't crack that one," Raven explained.

Emori and Echo walked into the cave. "Alright. We're all set. The antenna's aimed at Polis. Fire it up."

Raven shook her head. "It's not connected yet."

"So, connect it," Echo stated.

Murphy stood up and stretched his hand toward Clove to pull her up. "What's wrong? You get spotted?"

"Worse," Echo answered. "They're not looking for us anymore."

"What do you mean?" Diyoza interjected from over her shoulder.

Echo hesitated. "Okay...you want to be useful? What does it mean that from the antenna positon, we saw your people moving weapons and supplies to the Northern perimeter?"

Diyoza sat up and clutched her pregnant belly. "If McCreary's moving his troops North, then Wonkru's on the march again."

"So much for blinding the eye," Murphy sighed.

Echo's eyes widened. "Quiet, Murphy," She muttered.

"Look," Kane spoke up. "We can't be helpful unless we know all the facts."

"The facts are I got played," Diyoza smirked. "They hacked the eye in the sky. I'm impressed."

"Don't be," Echo deadpanned. "If McCreary knows they're coming, then we've failed. Without the element of surprise, it'll be a massacre."