Madeline, as if nothing had happened,
placed both hands on the table
and leaned forward slightly—
into the camera,
in her full cold, corporate, predatory presence.
Her voice was soft.
Dangerously soft.
“So?
What news?
What are you going to delight me with today?”
Blindy wiped his mouth with the back of his hand,
about to greet her,
say something smart,
or at least something coherent—
but his brain flipped into emotional harakiri mode.
Every thought suddenly went sideways:
Why was Bob holding her by the waist?
And how the hell did he dare kiss her?
What about Blindy?
Wasn't there… something…
at least a hint…
something between them?..Truth is—there was nothing.
At all.
Zero.
But Blindy had invented the whole drama himself,
inflated it, believed it,
and now suffered like the tragic hero of a third-rate space soap opera.
He already opened his mouth—
just about to say this absolute bullshit out loud…
But Zeros saved the galaxy from that humiliation.
He cut in—hard, direct, completely in his style:
“We have your glass shit.
Where do we deliver it?”
Silence filled the room—
that thick, dead kind,
where even the ventilation seemed to sigh and go: Nah… you’re on your own here.
Madeline tilted her head slightly,
her eyes narrowing.
“Hm… not bad.
So the locals have been eliminated…”
Blindy—still red from jealousy, methane, shame, and vomiting—
jumped into the conversation with full puffed-up pride,
like he actually had a shot at becoming her husband:
“While you was… y’know…
busy with that dumbfuck Bob…
we—I mean—
Zeros—had to cleanse the planet of those Skoto-fuckings.”
Phoenix corrected him quietly, without emotion,
like a schoolteacher:
“Skotophagos, Captain…”
Blindy lifted his chin proudly:
“You know what—fuck it—payment doubles!
We didn’t just get your thing,
we cleaned up your mess too!
We even made a fucking mini-star…”
To even Phoenix’s surprise,
Zeros stayed silent.
Absolute silence.
He just stood there, staring forward,
letting Blindy run the negotiation—
apparently so utterly indifferent
he decided to see
how far this idiot could go
before getting himself killed.
But Madeline…
…acted like she hadn’t heard a single word Blindy said.
Not about Bob.
Not about “doubling the payment.”
Not about the Skotophagos.
Not about the cleanup.
Not about the danger.
Not about the mini-star.
Not even about the fact
that Blindy currently smelled like volcanic ass.
She repeated the only question that actually mattered to her—
this time colder:
“So?
ANSWER.
Are the locals exterminated?”
The silence turned so icy
even the cleaning bots stopped buzzing
and quietly rolled off to the sides.
Blindy glanced at Zeros like: Why the hell are you quiet, dumbass? Say something!
Zeros stepped forward.
His voice—flat, like the barrel of a gun.
“Listen.
I don’t give a fuck about your business.
Don’t give a fuck if you wanted those glass assholes wiped out.
Don’t give a fuck about your goals, strategies, or your corporate bullshit. But don’t you dare fuck with us—”
He shot a glance at Blindy, snorted.
“—with me. Don’t you dare fuck with me. If you don’t want your Bob turned into minced meat for those Skotophagos you’re growing in your labs—tell us where to deliver the cargo.
And we finish the contract.”
Madeline straightened up,
like her spine was made of titanium.
She picked up a small mirror,
and in complete silence began powdering her cheeks,
as if this was just another ordinary business Tuesday.
Her voice turned honey-smooth:
“‘You WERE growing.’
Those were my father’s operations. Tom Crooks.
Remember?
You came to rescue me under his orders…
and destroyed the fleet of my future husband.”
She sighed sweetly.
Like recalling a vacation.
“When I ‘replaced’ my father,
I shut down all those genetic engineering projects.”
She began applying lipstick—slowly, deliberately.
“When Bob marries me
and I take Macrohard under my wing,
I’ll shut down their mutant and cyborg divisions too.We are technology corporations.
We are meant to build the future.”
Click. The mirror snapped shut. Her eyes turned cold. Cutting.
“Hm…
I see you boys have lost your taste for total annihilation.
Starting to think strategically.
Fine. Be that way.
I’ll deal with the Virtix myself.”
She smiled—dangerous, inspired.
“Yes… yes…
We’ll offer them a technological future.
Make them ‘civilized.’
Lift them into space.
Build cities for them.Why stain our hands with alien blood,
when we can crawl into their economy?
Hook them on progress…
and make them debtors…
Long-term contracts are
far more profitable than genocide.”
She turned cold again, businesslike—
like she was discussing office chair shipments.
“And you two—
deliver the cargo to Terra.
Then send a message to my accounting department.
You’ll receive payment next quarter.
With a bonus.”
Her gaze froze over.
“And don’t ever call me directly again.”
The hologram died. Silence fell over the ship so deep
it felt like somewhere far away
a star had gone supernova—
and the sound somehow made it through vacuum
and into the guts of Z-P-N-E-S.
Blindy swallowed,
leaning against the wall,
and exhaled weakly, broken:
“Z-Zeros… fuck…
I think I love her even more now…”
He swallowed hard.
“Shame… she don’t love me…”
His next words came sharp, venomous:
“And she cheats on me—
with some idiot named BOB HATCH?!
Fucking hate ‘im—!”
Zeros didn’t even turn his head. Just said, evenly:
“Phoenix, you heard her. Set course for Terra.”
Only then did he look at Blindy—a long, empty stare,
like a scanner identifying a malfunction.
“And you.
Stop whining like a pig.
Maybe if I were like you—
a sweaty, stinking piece of meat…
maybe I could’ve loved her too.”
He paused for a second. Like choosing which truth was less disgusting.
“You know…
she was honest.
Fucked up—
BUT HONEST.She spoke straight.
No fear.
No lies.
No excuses.
Just… what she is.”
He looked away, like that was already too sentimental.
“I don’t kill people like that.
I hate people like that.”
Phoenix spoke calmly,
like a train conductor of the universe:
“The ship is entering hyperspace.
The journey is long.”
A brief delay followed—just enough to feel intentional, almost… pleased:
“BUT… thanks to full synchronization with the darkatron core…
I will shorten the route. You’ll see. You won’t even have time to get bored.”
Outside the ship, the first glow of a hyper-rift flickered—
and space itself seemed to exhale.