Lotus

'Also dead,' said Thomas checking down on another still corpse that lay motionless on the cold steel floor.

'Also dead,' said Talon, attempting to sound as knowledge as the rest as he stooped down to check the pulse of an off white body that stared blankly at the ceiling. Cass and Thomas only raised an eye brow as Talon stood away from the body he was checking, the chest of which was clearly ripped open.

'Let's get going, we should know the ominous space station exploration drill by now,' Cass ordered, and the little motley crew made their way to the doors of the shuttle bay. Aside from the occasional gruesome corpse, everything seemed normal. Old and abandoned but normal. There were no scorch marks on the walls from blasters, no bullet riddled doors or spark fizzling lights.

'Look at this,' said Cass as they approached the door.

'What's that?' asked Jade, peering closer at the strange symbol that was painted in pink on the steel door.

'A lotus flower,' explained Thomas, 'It's a plant that was mostly extinct on Earth. There a few in the gardens on the Dwarf but only in the containment chambers.'

'Keeping with the theme of karma, then,' Cass remarked as she punched the open door switch, greeting them with a long corridor that blinked into life as the lights flickered on.

'I didn't enjoy it either, if that's what you are wondering,' said Thomas as he followed alongside Cass.

'No?' Cass said, wincing still from the memory of the kiss.

'I don't swing that way,' he explained quietly.

'Oh?' said Cass, raising a smirk.

'No, not that way either. I don't swing at all. So, if it helps we can have first impressions again.'

Cass laughed softly, '"First impressions"? Okay, Plisken.'

'Guys!' called Jade from behind them, 'There's a terminal over here.'

'The Kelvin Research Facility,' said Cass as she read over the login screen on the terminal, a soft blue back ground with white text. 'I've never heard of it.'

'That symbol doesn't look familiar either,' said Jade, tapping the bottom corner of the screen where an unfamiliar insignia slowly pulsated.

'I don't suppose hacking can do me any harm, karma wise right now,' said Cass as she dove into the terminal's code. 'Tanaka, I don't suppose I can use you as a mouth piece, can I?'

'Wha -?' Tanaka barely had time to say before Cass grabbed a hold of his light bee and twisted two small wires around either end of it.

'Steady on, Cass,' Jamie tried to say but Cass had already thrown Tanaka's light bee back into the air.

'The information probably won't display on screen but why don't we create our own screen? Or speaker, in this case.'

'I hope you know I don't appreciate this?' said Tanaka, unamused.

'Query: What is the purpose of this station?'

'Kelvin Research Station was moved to the co-ordinates 65 mark 34 mark zz alpha phi gamma for the purpose of researching Anomaly ZZ-4,' Tanaka replied in a cold and unfeeling voice, the words sounding as if they forced themselves out of his mouth.

'Oh, I do not appreciate this,' said Tanaka again, this time with words under his own control.

'Query,' said Jade, 'What is Anomaly ZZ-4?'

'Anomaly ZZ-4 is a spacial anomaly, Type X. ZZ-4 designated Codename: Endless Knot. Further information is restricted on this terminal.'

'Doesn't tell use much,' admitted Jade.

'Looks like we will have to go deeper then,' said Thomas.