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chapter forty-four, Becca

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"Nova! Theo!" Nova hears Echo calling out in the distance. Nova stood to her feet wiped the sand off of her jeans and helped Theo stand up. "Let's see what crazy thing we get dragged into now" Theo groans as him and Nova start walking back towards the cabin. "We're in it" Nova says referring to skyring.

Nova and Theo arrive at the cabin and walk right in two see Gabriel looking through a bag. "Everyone on the Eligius mission got one. Becca Franko designed the mind-- I mean, memory drives to be a data retrieval system so the mothership crew could determine what happened if they returned to find a mission team dead, you know, like a-- like a airplane black box. Russell and I reverse-engineered their tech to hold an entire mind" Gabriel explains as he pulls a touch screen tablet out of his bag and looks at it in such glory. "I'm confused. What's going on?" Nova asks as Theo walks over behind Gabriel getting a good look at the laptop.

"We didn't get the man but we found this and apparently it plays memories" Hope shortly explains. Gabriel grabs a mind drive and looks down at it sadly. Echo and Nova lock eyes before looking back down at Gabriel. "Josephine?" Echo asks and Gabriel clears his throat as he twirls the drive in his hand. "Yeah..."

"I needed to make sure she was really gone." Gabriel says as he plugs the drive into the tablet and everyone watches the screen light up while words and coding clouds the screen. "Just-- just wait. It's repairing corrupted data" Gabriel states so people don't loose interest but Nova already did. "So what are the odds that Eligius III randomly chose two planets connected by anomoly stones?" Echo asks as the tablet repairs its data and Gabriel lets out an airy chuckle. "Long. I'd say it suggests that the people on Bardo descend from Eligius, as well, and if I'm right, it could mean that the species that created the stones thousands, perhaps millions of years ago, were looking for a new home, too" Gabriel explains and Nova furrows her eyebrows as she stands at the end of the table and Gabriel leans forward in his seat.

" I mean, think about it, right? No need for spaceships or-- or cryo or mind drives" Gabriel says happily and Theo chuckles softly as he looks over at Gabriel. "You- You could just explore an entire universe" Theo says understanding where Gabriel was coming from. "Exactly" Gabriel says as he snaps his fingers towards Theo who gets it.

"Not to point out the obvious, but if your friend here figured out how to operate the stone, he'd have used it to leave. He wouldn't be here playing chess with the dead" Hope states and Nova finds out the friends name is Colin she just wasn't there for that conversation. "No, no, no. Colin was a quantum physicist, a Fields Medal winner. If anyone could figure out how to--" Gabriel explains before something begins playing on the tablet. "Is that playing?" Nova asks as she rushes behind Gabriel along with the rest of the group seeing the video on the screen.

"Dr. Benson, blink if you can hear me. Dr. Benson" The women says on the video as she looks into the camera. "Becca? God, I had a crush on her" Gabriel says as he looks down at the screen happily. "Becca? Becca Pramheda?" Nova mumbles to herself as she looks down at the women. "Oh... she's actually kind of hot" Nova says as she tilts her head in curiosity as she stares at the women on the screen. The group watches the video and Becca is talking to someone they just can't see who. She explains a procedure she just performed, hint why she made the video. Becca then goes onto talk about an amazing adventure someone will be going on and speaks of the Lightbourne family a tad bit in her video.

"...He's afraid that Beta's too far from the black hole relative to the others, but if you ask me, time dilation is sexy as hell. You'll get to the future faster. Don't go anywhere" Becca says as she disappears out of sight on the video and Gabriel chuckles as he nods his head. "The black hole. Of course. That's why time is so accelerated here" Gabriel explains and Nova groans in boredom. "Is there like a pause? Fast forward button?" Nova asks as she looks over Gabriel's shoulder but him and Theo shush her very quickly as Becca comes back on the screen.

"This is gonna take a while" Echo sighs as she stands to her feet. "Who are you telling?" Nova asks before Hope steps in front of Echo. "That guy out there is gonna come home. Unless we want to wind up as guests at his picnic, I think--". "I'll take the first watch" Echo says completing ignoring Hope's statement. "I'm joining you" Nova says as she walks past Hope and walks outside with Echo.

Echo starts taking a stroll around the garden while Nova stands on the small porch of the home. Nova looks over at Echo and notices she's intrigued by something and walks over to see what's she doing. She has a flower in her hand that she picked off from somewhere in the garden. "We're gonna find him. Just got to have... faith" Nova says as she picks the grass that has grown in the garden. "I have a really hard time believing we'll find him if we have to stay here for five years" Echo says as she steps away from Nova and spots something stuck in the ground. "Look" Echo calls out and Nova throws the dead grass on the ground and turns to see what has grabbed Echo's attention. "What is it?" Nova asks as she kneels down to Echo as she retrieved the mysterious item out of the dirty.

"A bottle?" Echo questions as Nova grabs it from Echo's hands and opens the bottle seeing a rolled paper inside of it. "It's.." Nova trails off as she grabs the paper out of the bottle and tosses the bottle on the ground before opening the rolled up paper, seeing its a letter for someone. For Bellamy. From Octavia. "A letter to Bellamy from Octavia" Nova says as her and Echo rise to their feet before Hope rushes over to them snatching the paper out of Nova's hands. "Where did you get that?" Hope asks as she looks to Nova rudely. "I found it here" Echo defends as Hope scoffs, "That was not meant for you. It's my watch" Hope declares as she pushes between Echo and Nova, hitting there shoulders as she strolls away.

"Whatever" Nova says as she leaves Echo's presence and marches back inside the cabin. "Nova! This is possibly the coolest thing I've ever learned" Theo admires as he looks to Nova who has just entered the cabin. "Really? This is the coolest thing?" Nova questions before Theo rolls his eyes and looks to Echo who has entered the cabin after Nova. "The Eligius transport crashed here. Colin was the sole survivor. He found the stone the same way we did, by tracking the radio interference. Built this cabin above it" Gabriel says as he walks over to the two girls and shows them proof that's on video.

"Well, what's he doing? What's all that?" Nova asks as she points to it on the screen making Gabriel and Theo form a smile of admiration. "It's amazing. It's called a ground vibration sensor and he used a stethoscope salvaged from the wreckage of the ship" Theo states as he points to the so called stethoscope. "Why?" Echo asks. "To measure tiny fluctuations in the stone caused when the correct symbol was touched in the right order" Gabriel explains.

"That's what he's doing right now so, do we have a code?" Nova asks as she looks down at the screen slowly starting to get intrigued. "No, no, not yet. There's still millions of possible combinations, but he'll get it. I'm sure of it" Gabriel says as his and Theo sit back down and watch the video until the right code is revealed. "Just as I was getting excited he says the most unexciting things" Nova groans as she turns to see Echo looking out the window of the cabin at Hope who continues to stand outside.

"Think I should talk to her?" Echo asks as her and Nova look over at each other. "She could use a chat. I know we haven't been on the same page with her but- she lost her mother and her aunt. And she seems pretty badass" Nova jokes as she turns to look at Hope from the window before Echo leaves Nova's presence and goes outside to talk to Hope one on one.

"Here we go. The portal rises from the lake. Of course" Gabriel says as shouting is heard coming from the tablet which grabs Nova's attention. "Whew! Pen. Oh- we need a pen!" Theo shouts excitedly as he rises to his feet. Gabriel presses pause on the screen and rushes outside with Nova and Theo following. "I need a pen. He did it! I need something to write with, the charcoal, a pen, anything!" Gabriel states as him and Theo share a high five before returning into the house and once Nova and the girls enter there smiles quickly fade.

"What..." Nova whispers as she looks over at Theo who shakes his head at her. "What is this?" The man from earlier who attacked Nova in this very cabin asks. "It's okay. No one's gonna hurt you. That's a memory viewer, okay? My friend was here" Gabriel explains calmly and lightly so he doesn't scare away the man as he remembers the group could need him to get out of here. "Gabriel.." Nova groans quietly but Gabriel puts his hand up not wanting anyone to engage.

"That man just entered the code and opened the bridge. We need to rewind it so that once we see it we can open the bridge ourselves, okay? You can go home" Gabriel states and the man shakes his head with such fear and sadness in his eyes. "Too soon. I must serve my time" He states and Nova tightens her fist but keeps her distance not wanting to ruin anything at the moment.

"Okay. If you want to stay, you can stay. Just give us back--" Echo states as she slowly takes a step towards him which frightens him. "No! I serve the master. I am his shield and his sword for all mankind!" The man shouts before he throws the tablet onto the ground. "No!" Nova shouts as her and the ground rush to the ground to try and save the tablet before it feel but we're all unsuccessful.

"No" Theo says softly as Gabriel drops to his knees all the hope he had leaving his body as he seen the screen shattered on the ground.

Gabriel looks up at the crazy man and lunges towards him, grabbing his throat and pushing him up against the wall. "Gabriel wait!" Theo shouts as Gabriel sends a punch the man's way. "Do you realize what you've done?" Gabriel asks as he punches him a few more times before forcing the man too look at him. "I couldn't let you leave for all mankind! You don't understand!" The man shouts which sends a strike of rage through Gabriel and causes him to punch the man multiple times in a row.

"Stop!" Hope shouts and Gabriel sighs as he backs away from the man. The man uses this opportunity to scurry off and only Echo tries to go for him. "Don't even worry about it" Nova calls out and Echo sighs as she stops in her tracks. "Yeah, let him go. He can't help us off this planet if he's dead" Hope says as Theo pushes his hair out of his face. "Yeah, and I'd really like to go home" Theo declares as he walks over to Gabriel and pats his back knowing how upset he is.

"I'm sorry? Help us? He just destroyed our one way off this planet. Does he look like he can help us?" Echo questions as she steps towards Hope. "If he doesn't, then we're dead. We have five years to train for a jump into the middle of a fortress guarded by thousands of highly trained soldiers to rescue the people we love. By then, he'll love us. That's why he'll help us. Trust me. I've done this before" Hope explains and Nova looks over at Theo who lets out a sigh. "Five years it is" Theo mumbles as Nova crosses her arms over her chest looking back at Hope who's determined to give this man a chance.

"Five years. That's all?" Nova asks and Hope nods her head slowly. "That's all. Time moves fast here" Hope states and Nova nods her head. "Five years..." Nova sighs out as she looks around the cabin she'll be staying at.