She allowed her mind to wander, to ask questions, and to pull at memories from her past, re-analyzing them with fresh eyes. If this Strata group had come by the foundational scientific information through dishonest and immoral means, then she would have wanted nothing to do with it.
Foster had been right to leave her out, despite the hurt it caused.
She hadn’t realized how long she’d sat there, digging into the data, until Iax stroked the side of her arm gently.
“We will eat,” he said when she focused on him. “Then you can return to this if you wish.”
Her stomach rumbled its agreement.
Sawyer’s cruiser was equipped with a fully stocked dispensary, and they ate identical plates of balanced greens and proteins, sitting side by side in the small kitchen space.
“Your soup was better,” Iax said, his eyes crinkling.
She agreed, but didn’t say so aloud because sitting next to Iax redirected her focus to his throat and lips, and the way his hands moved. His glinting eyes darkened at her continued perusal, and her body warmed in response.
They found themselves in bed before either of them finished their meals, staying there for hours while they explored each other’s bodies. Wynn acknowledged he might be purposefully distracting her from analyzing data, but didn’t mind in the least. Not when the pleasure he gave her, the intimacy they shared, escalated with each encounter.
They fucked in every part of this ship, in positions she couldn’t have dreamed up on her own.
But whenever her mind cleared, curiosity followed, and she found her feet moving to the main terminal and the data files Iax had downloaded there.
“What more can you tell me of Calypsons?” she asked during their third day of travel. “Can you upload information to the terminal like you did with the lab on Earth?”
He was silent for a long while, and she turned her body to face him. A pucker marred his brow. “I have not downloaded a dataset like I did at the lab. I can not give you continuity that way.”
“But you could give me something else?” She had so many questions, but answering one created three more. “My ocular implant and PALMnever seemed to fit me right. Drugs rarely work too. Is it because I’m Calypson?”
His chin jerked in a small nod. “It aligns with our origins, the discord between human cells and Calypson ones. It is a strain that is never balanced in some individuals.”
A breathless sensation filled her mouth with this new information. “Can you tell me more about your origins?”
He tipped his head, hesitating again. “When we arrive, I will find you the access you require.”
Her stomach swam with sudden nerves. “How far away are we?”
“Not far,” Iax said, tilting his chin at the viewer. “There.”
Wynn looked in the same direction. The stars hadn’t changed, but the longer she stared, the more a slice of color emerged in the center of the viewer.
She straightened, setting her feet more firmly on the ground. The bright patch lengthened, then widened as they neared.The nebula.They were finally here, and she was seeing it with her own eyes. It grew in size with each passing second, and what hadn’t been visible minutes ago, spanned the viewer from edge to edge.
A dry swallow lodged in her throat.
Her sense of time slipped through her fingers as they traveled farther inside. She kept glancing at Iax, waiting for him to look concerned, but his focus didn’t waver as he piloted the ship in his unique way, taking them closer to what hid inside.
Her stomach clenched with unease the deeper they submerged the ship into the gaseous cloud, her nerves telling her this was a mistake. But it was too late now, and she had nowhere else to go.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the clouds thinned, revealing dark shapes within. She clutched at the armrests, fingernails digging in. Her apprehension turned to confusion as the clouds dissipated into nothing.
What am I looking at?
Her brain couldn’t comprehend it, though it tried. It wasn’t a station or a ship. It wasn’t mechanical or a plant. There was no metal composite, though a majority of the formation was as dark as a Tellusian warship.
It was none of that, but all of it at the same time.
As they neared the structure, the more it baffled her. Thick arms, both transparent and opaque, extended away from a central mass, becoming slenderer as they reached outward toward the gaseous clouds. Bulbous shapes bigger than research stations grew from senseless locations. The organic quality of the construction reminded her of the shirt Iax wore when he first arrived at her outpost.
She turned her head, taking in his placid expression. His calm kept her panic at bay, though her stomach twisted from the sight of this unusual… structure. She refocused on the parts of it that were the closest. Glasslike tubes wove in and out of the darker appendages, then twirled in on themselves. They had to be constructed from transparent aluminum to withstand the pressures of space, but she’d never seen the material used like this.
