"Ahh!"

  Kai shot up, his face pale, his hands ice-cold.

  A face appeared in front of him, inches away. Instinctively, he recoiled, his vision struggling to focus.

  Slowly, he realized the face belong to Eliana.

  She was beside him, holding his hands. But he couldn’t feel a thing. He tried to move, to squeeze her fingers back, but his hands remained unresponsive.

  His tentacles weren’t there, but he could still feel them. He knew how to move them, control them. Except they no longer existed and he was back in his own body.

  He glanced around, everything was sharper, clearer compared to the raw, overwhelming sensory data of the machine body.

  He recognized he was in the medical bay of the Black Swan. Slowly, he willed his arms to move. His fingers twitched slightly.

  Eliana noticed it immediately. Her eyes lit up, and she tightened her grip, rubbing warmth back into his hands.

  “Welcome back, Kai,” she whispered, her voice unsteady. A single tear rolled down her cheek, one she couldn’t hold back.

  Kai lifted his hand and felt it was heavy, sluggish, as if it wasn’t entirely his. It took all his willpower to move it, but he did. He reached for her face, aiming for the tear.

  Eliana helped him, guiding his trembling fingers against her cheek. Her skin was warm, but the tear was cold and wet.

  Kai didn’t mind. He was here in his own body, able to feel again. A relieved breath left him.

  Eliana wiped at her face with his hand before pressing it into her own, holding it there like it was the only thing she cared in the whole universe.

  “What happened to you, Kai?” she asked, concern laced in every word.

  Kai’s mind flashed back to the battle. To the moment he had become one of the creatures. Eliana had no idea it had been him inside the machine, unnoticed that he was the same one she had shot at.

  “I was in the body of the creature. The one you shot,” he admitted. “I turned and fought off the others, but I couldn’t stop. The people were still being attacked, so I kept fighting. We forced them off the ship and...”

  His breath hitched and a sharp pain tore through his skull as a memory surfaced. The voice heard in his head still vivid in his memory.

  "Traitor."

  Something had been giving commands to those creatures. Controlling them. And it had spoken directly to him. His chest tightened. His body reacted before his mind could catch up.

  Kai sat up.

  Eliana reached for him, trying to stop him. “Kai, you’re still weak...”

  “No.” He pushed himself off the bed, his muscles protesting, but his focus had returned now. “Their target wasn’t just the stealth ship. It was also the Black Swan. We’re going to be attacked.”

  Eliana’s eyes widened. She didn’t argue. Instead, she grabbed his uniform as he pulled off the hospital gown, helping him dress.

  She fastened the jacket, adjusting the fit around his shoulders.

  He exhaled sharply, gripping his hands into fists. They still felt slow, heavy, but he didn’t have time to wait for his body to catch up.

  Kai pushed himself forward as fast as he could, his steps uneven, his legs still adjusting to the weight of his own body. He stumbled slightly, but Eliana was there, steadying him with a firm grip, guiding him forward.

  A part of his mind still expected tentacles to respond, instinctively commanding limbs that no longer existed. For a brief moment, he wished he could grow some of his own—the way they moved was so much faster, smoother. Floating through the battlefield had felt effortless. Now, being back in his own body felt heavy, clumsy.

  The bridge doors slid open, and the tension inside was already high.

  Commander Grayson was in full command mode, barking orders across the room. “Robert, launch as many EMP missiles as you can! Don’t worry about the ammo count, just keep them off us!”

  For the first time, every crew member—on and off shift—was on deck, working together in unison, but semmed like even that wasn’t enough.

  “There are still too many behind us!” Teresa shouted, her voice sharp with urgency. “We need to jump now.”

  At the helm, Ivan sat with Ray beside him, both working together to dodge the incoming swarm. Their hands flew across the controls, banking, twisting, and rolling the Black Swan through unpredictable, high-speed maneuvers that kept them from being overwhelmed.

  “The jump drive is still charging,” Ivan called back. “Fastest we can go is two minutes, we just need to last that long!”

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  Two minutes.

  Kai clenched his jaw.

  The creatures were gaining. He could already picture their razor-sharp, knife-like tentacles slicing through the Black Swan’s hull in seconds if they caught up.

  Kai threw himself into his seat, snapping the headset into place. “Robert, give me control of the turrets! Focus on the missiles. I’ll handle close-range!”

  A voice crackled in his ear. “Kai? Welcome back!” Ivan sounded relieved, but there was no time for chit-chat.

  Kai took over the turret controls, the targeting systems syncing to his hands. The screens lit up, showing enemy movement in way too many red markers. His fingers flexed on the triggers, and the turrets moved with him.

  He aimed at the closest machine and fired.

  The guns roared, high-caliber rounds tearing through the nearest attacker.

  The Black Swan’s turrets weren’t just standard weapons—they were top-grade, high-impact cannons designed to punch through armored hulls. The creatures, no matter how tough, weren’t built to withstand this kind of firepower.

  One by one, they burst apart, shredded by the sheer force of the blasts.

  The swarm was massive, but at least they weren’t hard to hit. Kai kept firing, he locked in, his heart pounding. They just needed two minutes.

  Kai held down the trigger, ignoring the ammo count flashing on his screen. This wasn’t the time to conserve rounds,1 and if they ran out, they’d all be dead anyway.

  The swarm split into two waves. Kai adjusted immediately, shifting his focus and controlling both the top and bottom turrets separately. His hands moved instinctively, his eyes darting between the two waves as he fired on both fronts.

  Then the swarm split again.

  Robert launched another wave of missiles. The EMP blasts detonated within the mass of creatures, sending arcs of electricity rippling through them. Each blast was able to took out a chunk of the swarm, frying their circuits mid-flight, sending them aimlessly into space.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  By the time the next barrage of missiles was reloaded, the swarm had already replenished itself, as if they were endless. For every one destroyed, ten more surged forward.

  Kai estimated there were at least tens of thousands of them.

  A pit formed in Kai’s stomach. His turrets were doing a lot of work, but it was still not enough. The creatures were getting closer. He could only take out the ones leading the charge, while the thousands behind remained untouched.

  Sweat dripped down his palm. His muscles tensed as he kept firing, pushing the turrets to their limits. His shots were precise, yet it still felt like he was trying to hold back an ocean of water with a bucket.

  “Come on!” he shouted, gritting his teeth.

  Crack! Small bursts of electrical explosions ran through the side of the swarm.

  Kai’s screen flickered as several small ships zipped past his view, their designs strange, unfamiliar.

  His eyes widened as he recognized the smugglers' ships. Ife had come to their aid!

  A voice crackled in his headset. “30 seconds!” Ivan called from the comms. “Hold on, Kai!”

  "Roger!" He said.

  Hope surged in Kai’s chest. With reinforcements at their side, he refocused his fire, hammering into the swarm, determined to slow them down.

  The creatures however, changed tactics, as if sensing that their target was about to escape, the swarm spread out.

  On his turret screen, Kai saw it in its entirety. They didn’t come as a single wave anymore. They scattered, breaking into hundreds of smaller formations, attacking from every angle like a rogue wave crashing down on a small ship.

  Kai’s targeting system flared red. There were simply too many threats, too many angles for him to keep up.

  His hands clenched around the controls, shooting out the targets closest to them.

  “Ten seconds.” Ivan’s voice came through the comms with both excitement and nervous tension.

  Kai held his breath. He didn’t even allowed himself to blink.

  The swarm was everywhere, blotting out the stars. The sheer number of machine creatures was overwhelming, their sharp limbs glinting in the faint light as they surged forward.

  This was going to be close.

  “Eliana!” Teresa’s voice boomed through his helmet. “I need their signature right now!”

  “I got it!” Eliana responded.

  Kai kept firing. Another creature went flying in his sights, but it didn’t matter—there were just too many. The swarm had fully engulfed them, their view of space sealed away in a sea of black, mechanical objects.

  And they were closing in.

  "5...4..."

  Kai exhaled, steadying himself.

  This was the best he could do. He had pushed the turrets to their limit, bought them every second he could. The rest was up to Eliana and Teresa now.

  "3..."

  Kai shut his eyes.

  "2..."

  His simulated vision flared white-hot as a powerful EMP wave detonated from the Black Swan, expanding outward as a violent surge of energy. The wave slammed into the advancing swarm, shutting down everything in its path.

  The creatures froze mid-flight. Their glowing red sensors flickered, then died.

  They drifted lifelessly, motionless as the wave wiped through them like a tsunami.

  "1!"

  Kai ripped off his helmet, chest rising and falling in sharp, uneven breaths.

  Through the viewport, the dark mass of machines had vanished—replaced by the breathtaking glow of quantum particles swirling outside the ship.

  A long, heavy silence filled the bridge.

  Kai let out a shaky sigh of relief.

  Then the whole bridge erupted into cheers.

  Robert shouted so loudly it nearly rattled the consoles. Ivan and Ray dubbed their hands in celebration, their exhaustion momentarily forgotten. Eliana and Teresa locked their fingers together, letting out nervous laughter and relieved smiles.

  Kai turned to Commander Grayson.

  The older man met his gaze, his expression no different from his usual calm. But there was something in his eyes—a flicker of approval perhaps.

  “Welcome back, Kai,” Grayson said with a slow, satisfied nod. “I knew you guys were going to pull it off.” His mouth pulled into a broad grin. “Good fucking job.”

  Kai blinked, then, he laughed.

  This was the first time he had ever heard the commander curse, and in that moment, it was the funniest damn thing in the universe. Grayson chuckled too, shaking his head as the tension of battle finally faded.

  Eliana walked over.

  She held a hand to her side, pressing against her waist.

  Kai smiled as their eyes met. “Adrenaline?”

  Eliana smirked. “Yeah. Haven’t felt a rush like that in a long time.” She stepped closer, getting into Kai's space.

  Kai opened his arms in invitation. “Come here.”

  Eliana didn’t hesitate. She stepped into his embrace, resting against him as he wrapped his arms around her, feeling her nervous breaths on his neck.

  “Good job, Eliana,” Kai murmured. “That EMP wave was clutch.”

  She smiled against him. “Thank you.” Then she pulled back just enough to meet his gaze. “The same goes for you—good work on the guns.”

  The swirling quantum particles faded, leaving behind the calm stillness of space as the Black Swan completed its jump.

  Outside the viewport, the scene was quiet and serene. No more monstrous swarms remained. Just the ship drifting in the vast emptiness, bathed in the warm, golden glow of a distant yellow sun.

  “Warning: Fuel Level Low.”

  For a moment, there was silence, then, it became a collective of laughters.

  Of all the possible warnings they could’ve heard at that moment, this was the least they worried about.