Entering the pilot's room, Val would look off to the stars as Serry was just finishing setting up for their journey back to their homeworld. Various glowing buttons and levers were all over the cockpit. Compared to Serry, he only really had a rudimentary understanding of it, despite knowing how to fly himself.

"Did hashing it out with her go well? I heard yelling from all the way over here." Serry asked.

"Yeah. We're cool now." Val assured. "I opened her cell up, but she wanted to go back to bed. Can't really blame her."

"She didn't kill anyone. Something was wrong with CALCOR's report. She underestimated us and tried to use it to drive us away. That's what she really did with those soldiers CALCOR sent." he relayed.

"Seriously?" Serry asked. "How do you mess up a report up that badly?"

"And why even send normal soldiers there when they could've just sent Star Patrol from the start? What are they doing over there?" the robot prodded even further.

"Well, Zu says that they falsified their report on purpose to lure her into provoking me with it. This way, they would've used me to set some kind of example for her." Val elaborated.

"And as for the soldiers, I just assumed that it was them trying to sweep this entire mess under the rug."

"Zu? You mean..." Serry questioned.

"Yeah. Her real name." Val said.

"Two characters. And it somewhat conveys the feeling of what the passing of an electric current sounds like." Serry commented.

"Uh... yeah." Val replied, not really being able to construe anything better to say to that.

Serry would put a finger to his chin in thought.

"Well, that would make more sense than it being some freak accident. Though, they're going to get in trouble once we get evidence..." he considered.

"And from their perspective, I suppose I can see where they were going by choosing to send local militaries instead of affliated ones..."

"Really? I just saw it as them kicking the can down the road." Val said.

"They probably wanted to send local military forces to deal with it so that once her powers and ability to move were eventually restricted by Lock Coils, he'd just make them send her back to their base directly." Serry clarified.

"All those soldiers had to do was somehow get her to that point. They may have had a chance had they stacked three or more sets on her at once, but... that would have been difficult."

"If they were successful, then it would have skirted any intergalactic protocols for dealing with a banished species, such as her having to be detained in an off-world facility and going through a court ruling, where getting her back isn't exactly guaranteed. The entire incident would have been effectively covered up, as you said." Serry stated, adjusting his goggle implants.

"Tch. These guys will do anything other than being honest, will they?" Val grumbled.

"Speaking of honesty..."

Suddenly, Val would turn his shell from soft wear to hard wear, green, grid-like lights encompassing his face as that fossil-like design had covered it once again. Serry would gaze at him, wondering what he was up to.



[CONTACT INFO]


[Our main comm lines are currently destroyed, so direct calls cannot be taken. As an alternative method for contacting our officials, please consult this Net-Mail address - calcor[bxz]mumogo*]

[Main Base DYKUVANE is currently undergoing repairs, so high ranking officials may not be available in person. We apologize for the difficulties, we are still recovering from the previous incident.]



"Didn't think Alchemist had so many tricks up his sleeve." he muttered to himself.

".. How so?" Serry inquired.

"CALCOR at least gave us one other way of contact... but they still haven't replied back to us." Val commented. "I thought they were just busy with some contractors helping them rebuild or whatever..."

"But now, with what Zu told me... this is all starting to sound pretty convenient." Val said with focus in his voice.

"Well, it must be a busy time for them. We only really knew about all of that for the two days we took getting here." Serry asked.

"Well, maybe..." Val said.

"But I'm just saying... they really are taking their sweet time. It's been months since she broke out of there."

"You'd think that a team of scientists and engineers would at least have their communications fixed up for the guy who was pretty much being sent to pick up their brat."

"Or at least, have a backup line ready instead of a Net-Mail you won't even reply to. It was getting on my nerves when we were flying over."

"I thought they were just being lazy. But now..." he griped.

Val then looked over to Serry, green lines appearing over his face once more before the mask vanished. "When you called them, were you able to get anything from the militaries that they sent in?"

"None at all. The organizations that he asked for help had regulations to keep their employees identities classified for security purposes, and they weren't affliated, so I wasn't able request any details from off-world." Serry replied.

"They were the kind of groups that are usually used for covert operations. Which is in line with the fact that they were sent to capture a top secret fleet project in the first place."

"We could've gotten something from them had we gone over there and requested the info in person, showing them everything we had. A preference to two voices in a call. It would've been better than going to the CALCOR base directly, as any higher-ups who knew anything about it being there would have been a shot in the dark. At least, according to what they told us."

"You could've used your high status position as a Warden as leverage. But..."

"You kept insisting on going directly to her instead." he glanced to Val.

"Yeah. Because as soon as we got to Requdon, I wanted to deal with what was apparently a huge threat first before doing any of that." Val said. "There could've been lives at risk, and I didn't want to waste any time."

"Typical..." Serry remarked, though not disagreeing with him.



Following that, there was silence between them. Serry would've adjusted some settings, as Val looked down in thought. All Serry had to do now was switch on the primary fields and set the ship onto 3rd Rate. Though, there was something that he had to ask Val before they blasted out of Requdon's orbit.

Regretful memories started filling Val's head.

"I'm going to make things right. No matter what happens." he swore to himself.

Serry looked over at him, his earlier train of thought being interrupted. He'd then glance back to the controls.

"We're going to make things right." Serry corrected. Val glanced over at the Gizmo.

"You're not the only one who judged the situation wrong, you know. Nothing I read ended up being accurate at all." he elaborated.

"I thought something was off, but because what I had seen in that data set... I thought it was some kind of fluke."

"Yeah..." Val scratched his chin. "You said your systems read a high probability that she was telling the truth, right?"

"They did." he stated. "But the reason why they came to that conclusion was because a case like hers is practically unprecedented."

"Every documented encounter with the Zanziko across reports, articles, and written first hand accounts describe them all the same way."

"Drifters from the outer edges of the known universe who go from celestial body to celestial body to feast on natural matter. Planets, asteroid belts, and moons. Anything that can be considered "pure" and not artificial is something they can eat and digest."

"Swarms of thousands have conquered entire worlds, and have threatened empires millenia ago. They're pretty much unaminously described to be barbaric, cruel, and unempathetic to anyone who isn't one of their swarmmates."

"Since the mass destruction event they caused that led them to be banished in the first place, they've rarely been seen... but the reputation that they built for all of that remains strong."

"This is what I took to mind. They are portrayed the same way everywhere my systems looked. It really did seem like the most logical, obvious conclusion to make about it."

"But... I guess that kind of logic isn't really something that can be applied to everything, can it?" he said while staring intently into the controls. "I don't exactly have one, but I should have just followed my gut."

Serry then thought deeper about it. "Not to mention... we don't really know much about what they are doing now, do we?"

Val hesitated, not really having an answer to that question. "Well, don't beat yourself up about it. It was tough. I mean, we couldn't really see CALCOR lying to us coming no matter how much brains or guts we put in, right?" Val said. "We shouldn't have jumped to conclusions so quickly, but what's done is done."

"Now... we know what's REALLY going on. And moving forward, that's going to make a big difference." he said with a grin. "So let's make things right together, Serry!"

He held his hand up for a high five. A simple, but universal gesture of encouragement across most cultures. What helps is that it's also very satisfying.

The problem here was that Serry was leaving him hanging.

"Brother? My hand's, uh... been up here for an uncomfortably long time." Val said, his eyes dashing between the palm and his friend.

"So... now to address something." Serry started in THAT tone. Val slooooowly lowered his hand.



"Are you going to tell me why there is not one..."

"But TWO signs of life in the carrier section of this ship?"

"Uh..." Val uttered.

"I can explain."

"What do you mean "explain"? Don't just sneak anything you see out there onto our ship without telling me!" Serry exclaimed.

"Hey, man! It wouldn't stop following me around and biting me! I just gave up and let it come with! Zu would surely appreciate it, right?" Val defended.

"And where exactly do you plan on putting it? We're going across the cosmos away from it's natural habitat!" Serry argued.

"Did you even think about what you were doing?"

"Not... really?" Val said, chuckling a bit after.

"I guess I shouldn't have expected for that to be a "yes"..." Serry replied with defeat, deciding to save the matter for later. It wasn't worth going through the effort to find the exact spot this goober found it in at this point...







Going faster and faster, Dynoclaw's Capture Transporter would have sped far away from the orbit of Requdon, retracing the path that they used to arrive in the first place. The ship's primary fields activating, they would blast deeper into the solar system on the path back home. Uncertainty would weigh over them for the entire trip, even if they didn't outwardly show it. When would the kingdom figure out what happened? Would they send a fleet, or go for a simple arrest? Would they even be given a chance to negotiate like what was planned?

For now, these matters would remain as questions. And for this trip throughout the stars, and the days that would follow, they would have a chance to relax from the tension and get to know more about one another. Withdrawn at first, Zu would eventually find her footing as the latest member of Dynoclaw, making a trio. She would get along with them, realizing that they're actually not that much different from her. She fits in almost effortlessly, to her surprise. There was a great sense of hope within her unlike anything she had ever felt before.

This did not last as long as they would have liked.

And after what happened next, and the long lasting consequences that followed...



The three of them would eventually remember this fleeting period as the eye of the storm.