HELIUM-3

Chapter 08

POV: Danny

Total darkness lasted only ten seconds before the emergency lights flickered on, bathing the module in blood-red light.

Jun was gone, leaving behind only traces of glowing blue crystals on the floor—footprints leading toward the main hallway.

"Raj, fix those comms," I ordered, wiping the blue blood running from my nose onto my sleeve. "Alyssa, check the oxygen tanks. Lena—"

She was already walking away.

"I'm going after Jun."

“Wait.” I coughed. “Lena—”

But she was already gone.

Raj worked frantically at the comm panel, his fingers trembling over the exposed circuits.

“He sabotaged everything methodically,” Raj muttered, removing a charred panel. “But he left openings... almost like he *wanted* us to fix it.”

Alyssa coughed beside me, her infected arm now wrapped in makeshift bandages. Blue splotches had already started to appear beneath her skin.

“Why the hell would he do that?”

Raj inserted a new chip with a sharp click.

“Because the experiment needs observers. Kovac wouldn’t invest years into this just to let us die in silence.”

Seconds of silence.

“Why?” Alyssa hugged her knees to her chest. “Why would he do something like this to us?”

Shaking, I could only stare ahead. The music had slowed its rhythm, but it still thundered in my ears.

“Danny.”

I looked at her.

“He always treated you so well. Spoke about you with such pride. I can understand him doing this to us. I mean—it’s not right, but... You? As our leader?”

I couldn’t respond. My last conversation with Kovac came rushing back…

. . .

FIVE YEARS AGO

"You know why I'm here?"

"To play some dumb game of chess?" I asked, annoyed.

I shook my head, fists clenched on my lap. I could still smell the smoke and chemicals in my hair, even weeks later.

Kovac leaned forward, sliding a photo across the table. My mom smiled in it, her brown hair tied in a messy ponytail, her eyes—my eyes—full of life.

“She worked for me, you know. At the chemical recycling plant.” His voice was soft, almost gentle. “One of the best techs I ever had.”

“She died because your safety protocols were shit,” I said, anger rising like acid in my throat.

Kovac didn’t get offended. Instead, he nodded.

“Yes. And I’ll carry that with me to the day I die.” He flipped another photo: this time, the smoldering ruins of the factory. “But you... you survived. Three days buried under that wreckage. The doctors said it was impossible.”

I shrank in my chair. The memories were hazy. Darkness, pain, and then... the lights. The red lights only I could see, showing me where the supports were weak—where I could escape.

“You saw things in there, didn’t you?”  

Kovac lowered his voice. “Things no one else could see.”

My silence was answer enough.

He opened a drawer and pulled out a blue folder stamped with red letters: NCEA.

. . .

The panel spat sparks before a green light blinked on.

“I’ve got it! Secondary channel active!” Raj started typing furiously. “If I can just hack the relay satellite…”

Alyssa was still watching me, apparently too exhausted for any sarcastic quips or curses.

“Commander?”

Tears streamed freely down my face. A lamb to the slaughter—that’s what Kovac had seen in me. A very special lamb.

I looked at our hacker, more tears falling from my cheeks.

“I’ll be right back.”

Then I stood and walked off, never looking back.

. . .

I found Lena in the supply lab, her body stiff before a wall covered in handwritten chemical formulas.

“What is this?” My voice echoed in the cramped space.

She didn’t turn. Her voice was placid and cold, completely unlike the last time we’d spoken alone:

“Everything we know about Helium-3.”

I stepped closer and saw her notebook open on the counter. Its pages were filled with meticulous notes:

"Day 23: The crystals respond to Danny’s DNA in a unique way. Kovac believes his exposure to Droven pollution created a genetic compatibility.”

My hands closed the pages.

“So... you are a traitor.”

Still serious, she finally looked at me.

“I’m not a traitor, Daniel.”

“You were studying us like lab rats.”

“I was trying to find a cure!” She stepped closer. “You think I enjoy watching you die? Now please, give me back my journal.”

I laughed bitterly.

“If you’re not a traitor, then I have every right to keep reading.”

“Daniel—”

“It’s Commander, Lena. Commander. Show some respect."

She stepped back.

“You’re not yourself.”

“No. OU’RE not yourself. Now stay there, quiet, while I read this. You’re not allowed to leave.”

Pale, looking both offended and terrified, Lena obeyed. I flipped through the pages until I found:

"Emergency Protocol: If the mutation reaches Stage 3, administer AZ-7 Injector only to Danny. The others are beyond saving.”

You wretched...

I shoved Lena into the shelves, knocking over bottles.

“What’s AZ-7?”

She gasped.

“Please—”

“WHAT IS IT?”

“The experimental antidote. We only have one dose.”

“Where is it?”

Her eyes flicked toward a compartment beneath the counter. When I crouched, I saw the injector filled with a glowing blue liquid, the same color as Helium-3.

“You lied to me!” My scream triggered the sprinkler system. “While everyone’s dying, this is what you were hiding?”

Water mixed with my blue blood streamed across the floor. Lena tried to touch my face.

“Danny, please... Kovac programmed your body with those toxins. You’re the only one who can survive the transformation!”

A terrifying silence filled the lab.

“What did you say?”

Lena backed away.

“You’re telling me... that accident?”

Raj interrupted over the radio:

“Danny, I’ve got a connection with—”

Static.

Then a voice that wasn’t Raj:

"Helix-7, this is Earth Command. We need confirmation of H3-Alpha sample status.”

. . .

We ran to the control room. Raj lay slumped over the console, a blue crystal shard embedded in his back. Alyssa was trying to stop the bleeding while typing one-handed.

“Raj!” I shouted, examining his wound. Was this it for him?

“They want the transformation data,” she coughed, her arm now completely blue.

On screen, a NCEA officer we’d never seen before spoke calmly:

"Repeat: Abort mission and return with the H3-Alpha sample. Commander Kovac insists that—”

I smashed the transmission with my fist.

“They want us to bring this crap back to Earth. They don’t care about us.”

Lena looked down the dark hallway.

“What about Jun? Where is he?”

That’s when we heard it—a sound of crystals shattering, coming from the storage bay.

Alyssa quickly pulled out the crystallized shards from Raj, making a tourniquet.

“We have to check it out!” Lena shouted. We all ran after her.

And when we got there...

We saw Jun—or what used to be Jun—completely disfigured. His crystallized limbs were scattered like someone had smashed a glass plate on the floor.

Blue blood oozed everywhere. The same eerie blue glow evaporated in the chamber.

The music returned, louder than ever.

Alyssa collapsed, sobbing. Raj, pale as a corpse, joined her, holding her close.

Lena, in shock, came up to me and, making sure the others didn’t see, showed me the injector.

“Take it,” she whispered, panic in her eyes. “You’re the only one who can bring the truth back to Earth.”

“What?”

“This isn’t the main plan. We’re test subjects. Kovac wants bombs.”

The music is deafening now. I can barely hear her:

“Go back to Earth. Tell them. Tell them about Helium-3.”