Glass

**"Glass"** is the fifth episode of *Part II: The Battle of Borealis*, the second instalment of *Hyperspace: The Cosmic Gospel*. It was written in February 2022.

## Plot

*A deadly heist is set in motion. The crew of the Indigo Dawn turn to desperate measures to unearth the true depths of the conspiracy.*

## Synopsis

The *Unreliable* maneuvers to match the course of the cargo ship carrying "Tsunami". On the command deck, Alia creates a trajectory to intercept the ship near a wandering asteroid 560 light-years from Borealis. "Elijah" approves and attempts to complement her, but Alia, still hurt from her previous interactions with him, coldly ignores him.

Zelphor, locked in his cabin, tries to convince SHAE to release him, but the AI cannot disobey the captain of the ship. However, he is finally set free by Kera, who informs him that the "Elijah" on the ship is not the true Elijah.

Back on Methuselah, Elijah follows Amphear out of the ministry building, keeping tabs with the crew of the *Indigo Dawn*. He stealthily follows Amphear into a refugee camp below the city, where stranded shilt are forced to live in squalor. When he overhears the other shilt denouncing Amphear, Elijah finally reveals himself and calls Amphear a hero. A shocked Amphear gleefully embraces Elijah and asks him how he is alive.

Elijah takes Amphear into a back room and explains everything: his resurrection by the Rising Tide, the creation of Hadron, and the purpose of "Tsunami". In turn, Amphear says he departed the *Unreliable* over his guilt for leaving Elijah behind on Everest Station, but Elijah comforts him by saying he did the right thing and saved everyone else. Reassured, Amphear offers his aid, and Elijah says that he and his new crew need help breaking into the ministry to steal the location for "Tsunami"'s delivery site. Amphear reluctantly accepts the plan and agrees to Elijah's offer to rejoin his crew, but says he must help the other stranded shilt before he can leave the planet. He reveals the shilt cannot leave due to the minister placing a tax, now an embargo, on the liquid nitrogen that the shilt need to survive on other planets, and will otherwise be forced to leave with precious little liquid nitrogen.

Lara, Ryzen and Platinum leave the *Indigo Dawn* and join Elijah at the shilt camp. They agree to a plan: Ryzen will infiltrate the ministry from the sewers below and release Platinum into its mainframe to locate "Tsunami"'s delivery site. Amphear and Elijah will break into the minister's office and lift the embargo on liquid nitrogen, while Lara will remain on the *Indigo Dawn* to allow for a quick escape. After Amphear informs the other shilt of the plan, they decide to head out.

As the *Unreliable* approaches the cargo ship, it goes into stealth mode while SHAE attempts a remote shutdown of the cargo ship's engines. The shutdown is successful and "Elijah" uses his SpecOperA credentials to authorize a search of the ship. The *Unreliable* docks and "Elijah" picks a team that includes Alia to enter the cargo ship. The teams dons power armour and are welcomed onto the ship. The team enters the cargo bay, where they discover a large metal sphere housing "Tsunami". Upon the discovery, the Kingdom soldiers try to kill the team, but they are torn apart by an angered Hadron, leaving one soldier alive. Hadron begins to gleefully torture the soldier to death with telekinesis, but stops when a rageful Alia aims her weapon at him and orders him to stop. Hadron brands her an insubordinate and orders his soldiers to arrest her. Alia defends herself, causing Hadron to unleash another gravity wave. The energy damages the containment sphere, although the "Tsunami" does not leak.

On the *Unreliable*, Kera leads Zelphor through the corridors and tells him that she has suffered nightmares for a while, which she now realizes are premonitions, that have only gotten worse since "Elijah" was rescued. She believes that the "Elijah" they rescued is false and wants "Tsunami" for the Rising Tide; when Zelphor asks how she knows this, Kera admits she isn't certain, as "Elijah" has been blocking her from reading him. Suddenly, she stops in her tracks and begins panicking. Zelphor asks her what is wrong, and Kera gasps that she senses something dangerous. With a look of horror, she hears the telepathic screams of the Scourge.

Outside, a gigantic red tear opens in spacetime, through which the *Pestilence* emerges. In horror, Gerren attempts an emergency lightfold, but such an action can only be performed by the captain. The enormous *Pestilence* rams into the cargo ship, damaging the *Unreliable*'s dock and causing it to separate from the cargo vessel. The attack causes the cargo ship to drift towards the tear. Remembering that the original *Unreliable* managed to survive moving through a tear, Gerren neurally interfaces with the *Unreliable* and decides to enter the tear to rescue Alia and "Elijah".

On Methuselah, the plan goes as needed. Ryzen uses his telekinesis to enter the sewers and the ministry from below, where he takes out security with nanobots and bioenergenics. Ryzen installs Platinum into the security system and discovers that "Tsunami"'s location is encoded on the minister's console. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone, Amphear secures a meeting with the minister while Elijah uses his phase ability to sneak into the minister's office through the walls. Amphear starts an argument with the xenophobic minister to distract him, while Elijah manifests behind him to knock the minister unconscious. Following Platinum's guidance, the two hack the minister's console, lift the embargo, and discover messages between the minister and Regent, a high-ranking agent of the Rising Tide. Amphear decodes the messages just as security discovers Ryzen and the infiltration. Cornered upstairs, Elijah takes a risk, grabs Amphear, and phases out of the building to the street below; the shockwave destroys the office. Ryzen removes Platinum from the mainframe and escapes into the sewers, warning Lara that they need evac. A chase begins through the streets that ends as Lara pilots the *Indigo Dawn* above them, opening the rear door to allow the team to jump onto the ship. The ship sustains a few shots to the hull but manages to climb into orbit and lightfold away.

Safe in outer space, Amphear reveals that "Tsunami" is to be delivered to *Twilight* by "Agent Hadron". Knowing the station's location, Lara sets an FTL course for *Twilight*.

Meanwhile, the *Unreliable* enters the tear; the hostile energy damages its exterior shields, but the ship survives and the tear closes behind them. Gerren elegantly outmaneuvers the *Pestilence* and catches up to the damaged cargo ship, now under attack by Scourged.

On the ship, "Elijah" and Alia reactivate a lift to move the containment sphere while fending off swarms of Scourged, who mostly ignore them while trying to attack the sphere. Gerren drops a shield charge that creates a clear area of space around the cargo ship and docks the *Unreliable*.

Zelphor helps Kera into the command deck and tries to explain that the "Elijah" among them is an imposter. Discovering that Alia is still on the ship, Zelphor approaches the airlock and arms himself with weapons and power armour. He salutes the crew before entering the cargo ship, easily dispatching oncoming Scourged. Finding Alia and "Elijah" in the cargo bay, they plan to jettison the sphere out of the bay and onto the *Unreliable* while hanging onto it.

"Elijah" uses telekinesis on a piece of debris, smashing it onto the button that opens the cargo door beside them. Alia creates a strong gravity field around them that keeps them in place as the cargo door slides open. The sphere begins to move as air rushes out of the ship, and the trio let go and grab onto the sphere. The *Unreliable* moves into position to catch them, and the sphere moves through space into the *Unreliable*'s cargo bay.

With Scourge approaching, the trio fight to keep the cargo door closed; while Alia is distracted, Hadron takes the opportunity and blasts Zelphor into space, smiling cruelly as he does so. The impact of the blast destroys Zelphor's helmet and he suffocates in the vaccum of space.

With the tear closed, Gerren orders the engineers to use the Crossroad Key and open a foldhole. The process is long, and Scourge eat way at the shield sphere surrounding the ship. Alia desperately tries to retrieve Zelphor's corpse, but Hadron stops her, telling her its too late and died like a hero. Alia demands to know why he didn't help Zelphor. "Elijah" refuses to answer as the cargo bay door closes, speeding up the foldhole generation.

The foldhole finally opens in front of the *Unreliable*, unleashing bolts of energy as it rips apart spacetime; before the *Unreliable* moves through, however, the crew catch a glimpse of the *Pestilence* moving towards a field of glowing lights, revealed seconds later to be a gargantuan armada of Scourge ships, deathworms and three spires, including the *Pesilence*.

A dropship approaches to attack; from the window, Kera spots the Neo-Forerunner as it orders a deathworm to stop the *Unreliable*. Gerren engages the neural interface and weaves the ship away from the deathworm's huge jaws. The exterior cannons blast the deathworm to pieces and the *Unreliable* barely escapes into the foldhole in time.

The crew demand answers from "Elijah" as to what happened to Zelphor. "Elijah" lies and claims he was killed by Scourge, but SHAE, demonstrating independence, plays security footage of "Elijah" purposefully blasting Zelphor into space. The crew back away from "Elijah" and Alia says that he is too different to be the same Elijah, closing with "who are you?". Hadron smiles and says he is their superior before restraining them all with telekinesis. He orders the *Unreliable* set a course for *Twilight* station, revealing his true identity as a Rising Tide agent.