Chromium

14.3

First draft

Traveling through the Nebula was a strange experience. Dia would have never thought that a clump of hydrogen and helium could be so mysterious. From the window on the bridge, she could see revolving forms and odd shapes, distant stars overshadowed by that dense crimson smokescreen, their shining lights glowing intermittently as they went deeper into the nebula.

It was an anomaly: wide but thick like a cluster of clouds. Sometimes it looked like a sunset sky, a somber display of red and yellow, other times like a vortex, drawing them inside. Now, however, it looked like a swamp. It was resisting them, pushing the Nostromus back like the nebula was rejecting their very presence. Maybe it was just an impression, a false sense of perception, but it almost felt like the Nostromus was a ship sailing against the tide.

Dia lingered on the quiet bridge for a few more minutes, her gaze lost in that red expanse. Then she bit her lips, hard, and turned around, anxiety pooling in the pit of her stomach as she walked through the Nostromus' claustrophobic corridors. Most of the pirates were still drunk, sleeping in their cabins, and the silence was a little unnerving.

It gave her time to think, time to change her mind. She'd finally mustered the courage to follow Omen's advice, but now that she was approaching the captain's quarters, she was getting cold feet. She forced herself to take a breath, then another, her fingers trembling as she reached for the buzzer.

Then she heard something. A sound. She frowned. Someone was talking. She eased over to the door and pressed her ear against it. Nothing. The metal hatch was too thick.

She remembered Omen's training and closed her eyes, forcing herself to relax. She attempted to exclude all other sounds to focus on that voice. When she finally succeeded, she felt her guts tense up. She knew that voice all too well.

The Umbra? How is this possible? Reyes said communications don't work inside the nebula.

That wasn't the only odd thing. There was something wrong with that voice, something fundamentally different.

"...maybe I should reconsider my options, Number One."

"We had a deal." Reyes' voice sounded especially tense as if he was struggling to hold his temper at bay. "You can't back out now."

"I fulfilled my part of the bargain, Number One." The Umbra commented emotionlessly. "It's you who failed to deliver."

"I need more time!" Reyes hissed, his voice uncharacteristically hoarse. "The Imperials..."

"...I don't want to hear your excuses." The Umbra broke in. "Six years, Number One. That's a long time to wait."

"Don't try to put this on me! Even if I brought her back, you would have failed."

"Maybe, maybe not." The Umbra answered with a frosty tone to his voice. "But this an old discussion, Number One. Let me ask you another question. Was it worth it?" His voice was slightly different, more human-like. He sounded genuinely curious. "You protected her from the Empire, the Collective...from me and she doesn't even know about it."

Dia finally understood what was different. The Umbra's voice was still cold, unemotional, but now she could hear something in his voice, a flicker of emotion unaltered by his mask's distortion system. Whenever the Umbra was, he wasn't wearing his armor at the moment.

"Why do you think I let her go?" Reyes shot back.

"Oh, yes you were defending her from the big bad Umbra." The Umbra replied with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. His voice sounded old, male and a bit sibilant. "How noble of you, Number One. Noble and stupid. If she only knew how close our relationship really is..."