Nomad drifted in the sky. Eve was still in Medical bay, unconscious for two days now.
Skybreak never left her sight. He never slept. Sappherine and the rest of the squad never disturbed him.
Axel, Zohan, Aura, Kayden, Tina, Dr. Aris Thorne and Sappherine gathered in the meeting room.
This was the first ever meeting without the queen at the table.
Thorne: "Based on what Skybreak says, it is possible. The dreadnaught with the monolith was never accounted for."
Zara: "Which means, Sable could still be alive."
Aura: "Based know what we know. Her consciousness must have already transferred, she could be walking in a new body as we speak."
Sappherine: "What are our options here? How much Thelarian force are we talking about?"
Zohan: "There's no way to know. The real question is… how do we track the ship?"
They discussed the odds. Skybreak had told them, warned them. It was up to Nomad's high command to decide the course of action. He just wanted to protect her. Be there with Eve.
Sappherine: "IC Intel confirms, there's only one Thelarian ship."
Zara: "Can Nomad eve take on a ship that size?"
Sappherine: "We can't risk them hyperspace jump inside our orbital spaces."
Kayden: "If we can't take them head on... we go covert. Blow the ship inside out."
Zohan: "But without the commander… even if she wakes up, she doesn't have powers."
Aura: "We still have Skybreak."
Kayden: "If Sable is alive… so is Baalthore?"
Sappherine: "Which explains orbitil bypass tech. Only he can pull that off. They are still using the monolith."
When Eve woke up and saw Skybreak's face, she instantly caged him in her embrace. "Don't say anything. Just hold me close."
Another meeting in the Nomad's crisis chamber. Skybreak joined the squad.
Zara: "Like the old times."
Skybreak: "Not exactly like the old times."
Sadness on his face said it all. The room felt incomplete without Eve Andromeda.
Zara: "We need to give her time."
Sappherine: "She's emotionally not available."
Kayden: "It's not just that. We saw what happened down there. We can't risk taking her with us."
Skybreak: "She's safer here on Nomad."
Sappherine: "Then it is just us. And we have to make it count before the last Thelarian ship strikes again."
Skybreak helped Eve walk inside the enormous botanical garden.
He watched her step as she tried to walk. With every step she took, Skybreak missed a heartbeat.
His heart broke every time he looked at her face. He'd never seen her so fragile.
Minor wrinkles only adorned her beauty with grace. He couldn't just keep her eyes off her.
She looked up, realizing, Skybreak had been looking at her all this time. His gaze never wavered, caught in awe and longing. Their eyes locked, lips clasped and time became meaningless.
Sappherine: "IC intel is solid. There's only one ship."
Kayden: "So we find it. Move in. Destroy it."
Skybreak: "The only way to ensure the safety of Saiyarans, to ensure her safety, is to take down Sable along with that ship once in for all."
Tina: "I get the ship part, but how's Sable still alive?"
horne: "Sable wasn't supposed to be alive in the first place. She wasn't supposed to be born."
Axel: "They had created Eve's clones before. They genes never stabilized."
Thorne: "Until Eve countered her first monolith and ended up activating it."
Axel: "We left that planet thinking the monolith was destroyed. It wasn't. It had been moved."
Thorne: "Baalthore used its powers to stabilize Sable's genes. Awaken her fully to her xenomorphic power."
Axel: "Not only that. He used the monolith to create a machine to bring Sable back to life every time she died. Transmit her consciousness to a new body."
Axel: "There were rumors of a huge Dreadnaught carrying the monolith. We went chasing after it into the Dark Galaxy. But we never found it."
Eve was now recovering fast. She never asked once why he left her. Skybreak explained why he left… where he had been. That he had lost purpose without her. "Every day I had to fight the urge to return to you and hold you in my arms."
But he couldn't because… he had made a deal.
Tina: "You never found it?"
Zara: "We thought we were looking for the dreadnaught, but we found something else. We found the Sanctum."
Axel: "And that changed everything. Eve was never the same afterwards. Nomad's priorities had changed."
Zara: "We couldn't risk letting the Alliance wander around the Sanctum. Eve had to stay away from that place. We all had to."
"I'm a Timecop." Skybreak explained further to Eve. The deal he made was with a legion called Timecops. Those who worked against The Void's Threat.
Two legions, time travelers. Going head to toe eternally against each other, each trying to take control of the timeline. Traveling to the future and past, trying to undo each other.
"They showed me how you died. I couldn't bear to live to see that happen." So he offered to serve them in order to let him time travel and save her from that moment.
But there was a problem.
Axel: "Overtime we thought the dreadnaught had either been lost to time and destroyed in the clash. And Sable was either killed with it or was in hiding."
Axel: "Until one day, she suddenly showed up. Eve captured her and threw the pod in the deepest abyss of Ocean planet, Zargzaar."
Sappherine: "That was before Yarkhzaer. I guess Thelarians finally found her. Brought her back in the game."
"They showed me it was impossible to save you… as long as I remained with you."
"And the only way to ensure that was to join them. So I became a Timecop."
Kayden: "So how do we track that ship?"
Thorne: "From the wreckage of the Thelarian ships downed in Saiyara, we were able to salvage their modified warpdrive."
Tina: "Every hyperspace jump leaves a signature behind. Previously we couldn't track their trail because we didn't know what it looked like. But now we know their warp signature."
Thorne: "Doesn't matter when and where they jump, we'll instantly know their destination."
Sappherine: "So, we wait…"
"Eve, I was gone all that time to save you from that moment. Sable was that moment. They had shown me beyond doubt, there was nothing else I could have done unless I joined them. A lifetime of service just to earn that one time opportunity to use the timelines for my personal benefit. I went to lengths to rewrite their rules."
"When I couldn't see you in the prime timeline, I skipped to your past, just to take a glimpse of you. Watching you silently, through your journey."
Tears fell from her eyes. She only had his memories she couldn't touch, he had all her life but he couldn't talk to her.
He left her to save, couldn't see her so the timeline can't be affected. All he was trying to do... Save her life.
Axel: "We have the trace."
Sappherine: "Let's make sure this is their last jump."
Zara: "Sappherine, if you are coming with us, who is staying behind to care of Eve?"
"No one is staying behind!"
The most familiar voice came from the door. They all turned. It was Eve.
She quietly walked in the room and joined the crisis table.
Eve: "I'm coming with you."
Zara: "You can't, we just got you back."
They all argued against it, had their say, but Eve was determined.
"It all started because of me. I have to see it through to the end. I have to be there when that last monolith is destroyed."