“Sebi, are you still not going to sleep?”
Misharu stood at the entrance of the door, dressed in his pajamas as he stared at the slender young adult in front of the hologram computer that was projecting a series of areas across the star fields within the Terrarian Star System. The bluish glow of the screen reflected on his face, the only source of light within the dark room. It was lights off after all, they were supposed to be sleeping already based on the curfew of the starship they were currently on.
“Misharu,” Sebi called out, looking over his shoulder. The spill of the lights from the hallway behind Misharu illuminated Sebi’s face, his smile was clear and bright in the darkness. “I can’t sleep, these fluctuations in the star fields are getting stronger. I’m sensing something strange.”
Behind his blindfold, Misharu narrowed his eyes and walked over. He sat on a chair next to Sebi and took off his blindfold. Although he was a powerful telepath, he couldn’t accurately read data virtually with just his telepathy alone. He was with Sebi who was of similar power as him, so he can’t influence him easily and he also has more control over his ability now. He can actually stop using the blindfold, but he felt like it was too much trouble since he wasn’t socially used to it.
When Misharu saw the data, he frowned. One by one, he zoomed into the star fields to find something, just anything that they can use as a clue. He and Sebi had been dragged by their mentor from graduate school on this starship for a trip towards a few star fields that were emitting strange energy fluctuations despite no star phenomena happening nearby that could cause this. It seemed alarming, so the Ministry of Astronomy sponsored their mentor, Dr. Li Cheng, to go on this trip and find out what was happening. He was free to choose his entourage, so he grabbed his two fresh assistants along with some doctors and researchers from his branch.
Now here they were, floating in space for three days already to observe the fluctuations before heading to Planet Iandi, a notable location that one of the precognitive ability users working at the Ministry of Astronomy saw in her vision related to the whole situation.
Now that Sebi found out the energy fluctuations were starting to become stronger, the whole thing became even stranger than it already was. However, they couldn’t do anything about it, especially when even Dr. Li and the other doctors and researchers on board were still debating fiercely over what this was. All they could do was stare at the screen and record the change in fluctuations for them to analyze once they woke up.
“See anything notable?” Sebi asked.
“This is so infuriating,” Misharu grumbled as he backed off and wrapped the blanket over his shoulders tighter around himself. “Why are we even here? I’m working on my neuroscience master’s, while you’re doing a double with anthropology and astronomy. We don’t have expertise in astrophysics or radiation or whatever. We’re just here as assistants, but we don’t even know what we should be looking for.”
Sebi chuckled as he leaned back on the chair. “Why don’t you go bother Akhenaten? I think you’re just being cranky because we’ve been on this starship for days.”
With profound red eyes, Misharu looked at Sebi and sighed inwardly. “Do you think I’m immature, Decebal?”
“A little bit,” Sebi laughed lightly. “It’s nothing to be sad about, we’re young.”
“I’m only immature because you matured too much in comparison!”
Sebi’s smile weakened as he straightened up on his chair, suddenly all defensive and tense.
“Let’s not talk about that anymore,” he dismissively said.
“No, listen to me,” Misharu insisted, grabbing him by the wrists. He then pried his hands open and held them. “It’s been a long while, how are you?”
“We’ve always been together, it’s silly when you ask me that.”
“You know exactly what I mean, Decebal,” Misharu said. He usually acted a little petulant and spoiled, but without his blindfold, as he stared seriously at Sebi, he can’t help but feel a little intimidated.
“I don’t really want to talk about feelings right now.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“But we have to. It’s so rare to have moments where those old men aren’t bickering with us stuck in the middle or trapped with Akhenaten and Bellona.”
“Qtja vb sbe kjca wf ab rjs, Zlrtjge?”
“Ktf ageat, bo mbegrf.”
Sebi sighed heavily. “Do you even need to ask? You know full well I miss him more than anything. But just like this issue with the strange energy fluctuations, can I even do anything about it other than just bury it deep in my heart and one day be able to transcend the stars and pull him to my side?”
Zlrtjge ofii lcab rlifcmf obg j ofk wbwfcar.
“P’w rbggs.”
“Qtja jgf sbe yflcu rbggs obg?” Vfyl mtemxifv rboais jr tf gfjmtfv bea jcv geooifv Zlrtjge’r tjlg.
“P mbeivc’a tfiq sbe mbwweclmjaf klat tlw. Pa lr j ilaaif lcmbcrlvfgjaf jcv lcrfcrlalnf bo wf ab obgmf sbe ab ajix jybea sbeg offilcur ktfc P mbeivc’a vb jcsatlcu ab jmaejiis tfiq sbe.”
“There are also things money can’t afford, young master,” Sebi teased him. “Those people want to keep him so bad that they aren’t willing to be bribed, at least we can be certain they’re keeping him alive. I can feel that we’re close to pinpointing his exact location, we just need to climb up the ladder a little more shamelessly.”
Misharu sneered as he playfully bumped his shoulder against the other man. “Now I know why you’re cracking your head over so many masters and kissing up to many old people in the sciences. You’re just trying to find someone whose brain you can peep in with the hopes that they know where Necomir is, right?”
“That’s half the reason,” Sebi shrugged. “Mainly, I just want to dominate the sciences.”
“Since when have you become so domineering?”
“They should be thankful I haven’t turned them into zombies who can only obey my orders. Like those horror movies about scary crazy telepaths.”
“That movie made me want to stab the director, for real.”
Sebi burst out laughing and finally pulled up the keyboard. “Go to sleep, I’ll need to file the recent spikes. I want to see those old men fighting again. Dr. Li is supposedly a combat-type ability user, I’m curious what he will do if those old men make him mad.”
“You’re scary when you’re bored. I’m going back.”
Sebi did not say anything as Misharu jumped off his seat and walked back to his cabin. This was because just as he finished talking, he had noticed a black mark on one of the energy fields. It honestly looked like a shit stain, though darker in color that if you didn’t look closely, you wouldn’t notice it because it disguised itself against the backdrop of space.
“Misharu!”
The white-haired man was spooked by Sebi’s sudden cry. He turned on his heels, nearly stumbling over his long blanket as he ran back into the observatory.
“What now?!” Misharu shouted.
Before Sebi could explain, the starship suddenly shook and trembled, as if something had crashed against its side. Misharu yelped as he tipped over, struggling to grab onto the table. Sebi held on to the side of the table and grabbed him, stopping him from crashing into another table.
“What the fuck was that?!” Misharu cried out, desperately holding on to Sebi.
“Look! Something appeared on a starfield! The location is just a few thousand kilometers away from us to the left!” Sebi said, scrambling to click on the interface and zoom in to a certain spot on the star field nearby.
Upon seeing what it was, Sebi and Misharu gasped. A huge, gaping black hole suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“We need to alert the others!” Misharu cried out as he hastily wrapped his blindfold over his eyes.
“Planet Iandi! It’s so close too, we need to alert their branch of the Ministry of Astronomy!” Sebi panicked as he rushed to contact the authorities from the nearby planet while Misharu hurried.
They didn’t need to struggle out of the observatory to go find the others though, nor did they have to use telepathy. The old researchers ran on their own into the observatory before Misharu could leave to find them, mouths spewing endless nervous chatter and speculation.
“What is going on? Did we reach an asteroid belt?!”
“Activate the protective measures!”
“You old things, look!”
There was so much bickering and arguing that Sebi could only let these old men rationalize what was happening as he warned Planet Iandi. He then extended his hand and pulled down the emergency level across the room to activate the protective measures of the starship. The trembling finally stopped as a barrier enveloped the whole ship to protect it from the threat.
When they finally saw what was happening, they exploded into shock and anxiety.
“My gods! What is this?!”
“Isn’t it a blackhole?!”
Li Cheng grabbed hold of the controls. “No, look! There’s a log here, the hole came out from an area where the fluctuations seem to resonate from. The structure does not seem to comply with the general structure of a blackhole — it does not have a singularity, it’s only a mass of swirling energy with an event horizon!”
“An ability user must have made this,” said the eldest of the researcher, Dr. Hayashi Aki. “Compare it to the database of the Ministry of Ability Science. Especially the teleporters. The kids have been here, they definitely must have logged the changes.”
“I did, doctor,” Sebi confirmed.
Li Cheng hurriedly led the others to capture the composition and structure of the hole and then compared it to the logs. Sure enough, they were able to find out that the hole was not a natural space phenomenon at all, and it emitted a kind of energy that could only be seen from the energy space of an ability user.
Li Cheng and the others started sweating. There were multiple fluctuations across space, and although the culprit only made one hole for now, they had no idea of the potential they had. Forming one massive hole already took up a lot of energy, how powerful was this person?
“Doctors, the one responsible for this might be one of those ability users who went through illegal enhancement,” Sebi spoke up. He didn’t have to completely understand the data on the screen to know how impossibly powerful the culprit was. This was the possibility he had in mind, and it wasn’t far-fetched.
“We can’t be sure, but this whole situation has become more complicated than we initially thought,” Li Cheng grimly said. “The Ministry of Astronomy was right. One of their precognitive researchers revealed she sensed something in Planet Iandi related to this situation. Did you remember what she said, Decebal? At the time, they couldn’t find a correlation, but they put it on our itinerary as a scheduled location we need to investigate.”
“Then maybe the culprit is residing there,” Sebi chimed in. “We’re going to have to take an earlier trip there, it seems.”
One of the screens suddenly flashed with a distinct notification sound signifying that the caller was of important status. Li Cheng hurriedly answered it, stunned when he saw who it was.
“Doctors,” the man greeted formally. “We have been notified of the situation, I am heading there with a team of responders.”
“G-General Chakrabarti!” Li Cheng spoke up, finally saluting. Sebi and the others hastily followed suit. Kace Chakrabarti was a strong general stationed on Planet Iandi, a powerful teleporter who can use his ability to send himself, entities, and objects to another area. It was a relief for the crew knowing someone like him was out to help them deal with the hole.
“General, is it possible for you to send this hole away to a starfield with no civilization in proximity? Or maybe let a black hole swallow it?” Aki spoke up. “Of course, it’s better if you can just wipe it out of existence.”
“That’s what our scientists also suggested,” Kace said, looking a little stressed as his sharp handsome features turned down into a frown. “However, it’s not what I am worried about. That’s the easy part. Have you found out what is causing this?”
“Sebi, go send them our observatory logs,” Li Cheng ordered Sebi, who quickly did what he was done.
There was a pause as Kace looked towards something out of the screen and talked with his crew. There was the voice of another man, reading the important parts of the logs. As he read through it, the general’s face became darker and darker.
“A possible ability user doing this in our planet… There is no way I will be letting this go without proper repercussions,” Kace shook his head as he looked back at the people on the starship. “Doctors, you will be headed here, it seems? How can we assist you?”
“General, you need not worry,” Li Cheng assured him. “I’m sure you received a military unit some time ago from Terra?”
“Indeed, they said they’re waiting for an important mission.”
“That’s good. We’ve sent in a request for their unit to assist us during our investigation, we’ll just have to send another request to move the schedule. We have to apologize for the sudden situation, General.”
“There is no need to apologize, Doctor,” Kace answered good-naturedly. “Well then, I’ll be waiting for your entourage. I will be working overtime to make sure nothing drastic happens and blocks your passage to our planet. Safe travels, everyone.”
“Thank you, General Chakrabarti.”
Author’s Note:
How is everyone? I finally updated! Also, I finished my internship and I am just waiting to graduate~ I’m hoping I can have more time to update this story. I badly want to write Sebi and Neco’s romance scenes already aarrrgghhh…
I hope everyone enjoyed, and thank you for reading 
hehe, are they going to meet again after all these years?!