Butterflies of the Dark Star

8 (REVISED)

Internship work uploaded into her datascroll; numbers, measurements, questions, points of interest. Her shifts spent shadowing Thuni taught her much of the differences and similarities between the class shop and the real deal, as well as how to conduct herself with her internship and studies. She logged all her activities and notes all the same way for reference and marked down any issues she spotted in her droid. Several of the engineers met in the break room near the facility to chat about their work, though Thuni, like her, preferred his own company, with Ulin acting as a sort of mediator between two socially awkward people.

We're going to launch these droids out into that nebula and find the D.S Butterfly. As long as my droid doesn't hold back the others, I'll consider that a success for my internship. Anything I can learn to submit into my paper when we get back home. Nova readied her to-do list for launch prep for her upcoming shift before hauling herself off the squishy covers of her wallbed. Across from her, Neo's unit had his Codex tucked inside the shelf. Over the small arch out into the hall, the time which ticked down for the next block.

At the desk, Neo rested his head in the crook of his arms with his ears covered by headphones. His shoulders rose and fell in even waves. Nova clipped the tools on her desk before shuffling over to his side and put a hand on his back. Graphs bounced along on his computer screen, oscillations of unheard noise in repetitive lines. What is he listening to that put him to sleep?

Nova gently lifted the headphones off his ears to place it over her own, then reached over his shoulder to restart the sound file.

It started with a touch of spatial silence, dragging on until it shuddered her bones. One beep, into two, until it formed into a dissonant heartbeat with a mechanical touch of a UCG standard distress beacon. Its wavelengths coiled around her arms and pickled gooseflesh raised on them. A chill swept down her spine when it lowered in frequency, a deep drum between the high pitched, metallic screeching — as if something ripped apart a chassis hinge by hinge, the last call of lost lives. Nova dragged it off her ears when the silence swallowed all, and Neo stirred.

"What time is it?" he murmured into his sleeve.

"What is this?" she asked when he lifted his head out of his arms. "Neo, what are you listening to?"

He brushed his hand through his hair and straightened himself against the back of his chair. "It's the last signal from the D.S Butterfly's cosmomarker," he explained. "You see, they've been struggling deciphering it due to some weird oscillations within the pulse. Everyone on the research team has been listening to this file, and I have the honor of helping with that." He squirmed in his seat with a burst of energy. "I wasn't expecting that one, if I'm honest! I mean, these people have been at the game longer than I have been around." Neo took the headphones from her to put them in the holder. "So, I was listening to it to see if I could figure out the anomalous wavelength but I guess I dozed off, I'm sorry," he said in a single breath.

"Of course you'd fall asleep listening to that." Nova stopped at the door. "I need to hand in my launch prep to the engineer I've been shadowing."

"Oh! Perfect!" Neo raced to stand beside her. "I'll come with you."

Nova glanced at his computer. "Shouldn't you focus on your work?"

"Ah..." Neo tipped his hand forward. "I need a step away from it. Longer I take, the harder it gets to focus." His eyes widened, and he added, "My next shift won't be for a while if that's what you're worried about."

"What about your training sessions?"

He avoided her gaze. "I've been doing those."

Sure. Nova smiled. "Well, I guess I should introduce you to who I'm shadowing, since they work with an AI programmer who wants to talk to you about the scanner details you gave me for my droid."