The next day passed by uneventfully.

Both Uriel and Zion were mostly quiet, one monitoring the ship while the other ran light simulations to prevent himself from getting stiff.

'It feels weird,' he thought, staring at the dark space through the front window. 'I guess I'm just not used to peaceful moments anymore.'

Compared to the past few months, where everything that could've gone wrong had gone wrong, this all felt… unusual, almost like the calm before the storm.

'There's only twenty-nine hours left,' he thought, tapping his armrest. 'Then I'll have to investigate as much as I can, as fast as I can.'

'Is there any way you can help me with that, Uriel?'

[It's possible,] Uriel replied, its voice low. [My database contains records of countless planets.]

It paused for a moment. [Even a handful of precise datapoints should be enough to determine its composition and predict the presence of herbs and mineral deposits.]

Zion smirked while nodding. "That's good, that's really good."

Normal crews either hired researchers to go along with them or brought back raw data for the Mercenary Guild that they had to decipher themselves.

But thanks to Uriel, he could almost completely skip those steps.

[There's always a possibility that something new shows up,] Uriel mentioned. [The universe is vast. Too vast for even us to know everything.]

'I understand that,' Zion nodded. 'Still, that scenario is rare, right?'

[Affirmative.]

Zion leaned back in his chair, letting out a quiet breath with a broad smile on his face.

"Should we already make up a plan o—"

[Hold on, Host,] Uriel interrupted, its tone shifting slightly.

Zion paused mid-sentence. "What is it?"

There was a short moment of silence as Uriel focused deeply.

[I'm detecting something unusual in front of us,] it finally said.

Zion straightened in his seat immediately. "Unusual how?"

The stars ahead of the ship flickered faintly, though the dark space remained silent and empty.

For a moment, nothing seemed different.

As Zion squinted his eyes, he finally noticed strange ripples distorting the light unnaturally in the distance.

"That's… not normal," he said, scratching his head.

A second of silence fell between them.

Zion suddenly stopped scratching his head, his hand slowly lowering as his mouth opened. "It couldn't be…"

A new set of warnings popped up on several different holograms around him. Each displayed different sets of data that were far from ordinary.

"A tide?" he said, standing up.

[Affirmative,] Uriel responded immediately. [A large-scale space tide just formed in front of us. I'll be changing directions immediately.]

Zion nodded, his heart pounding.

As the ship slowly turned sideways, he heard the loud humming from the thrusters while they powered on.

"Do you have any idea what its danger rating could be?" he asked, walking to a side window.

[Not yet,] Uriel answered. [It hasn't fully formed yet. Though it seems to be around a three right now.]

"A three?" Zion repeated, his expression darkening.

Space storms were generally classified on a scale from one to ten. A level one was the weakest, while a level ten rivaled the destructive power of a black hole.

'A tide is practically a natural destruction machine,' he thought, staring out the window. 'Their tearing force rips through ships like paper, and they form unpredictably too.'

"Let's hope it doesn't grow larger too fast," he mumbled. "If we get caught up in that… we'll be ripped to shreds in seconds."

[We were in time. We should be able to avoid it completely,] Uriel said, its voice calm, as if trying to ease Zion's worries. [However, we'll suffer at least a one-day delay, as we'll need to go around the storm.]

Zion remained silent for a moment, then turned away from the side window.

"That's fine," he responded, his voice low. "The other mercenaries will experience the same... If they weren't already caught by the tide."

Time passed slowly as the ship continued its adjusted trajectory, drifting along the outer edge of the space tide.

From this distance, the storm looked almost unreal.

The distortion twisted the stars behind it into warped streaks, as if space itself was being torn apart. Any light that touched its edges disappeared without a trace.

Zion stood near the side window, arms crossed, silently watching.

[Its intensity is still increasing, though at a relatively stable rate.]

Zion nodded slowly.

Just as he was about to say something, a chime echoed through the control room.

His head snapped up. "What now?"

[Host,] it said, its voice tightening just a fraction. [Another vessel has appeared on long-range sensors.]

Zion turned to look at the holograms. "Is it another mercenary?"

[Unclear,] Uriel replied. [There's no transponder signal nearby, only its energy signature.]

A large map opened up in the control room, a faint red dot moving slowly far to their left.

Zion leaned closer. "That's… really close to the tide."

[Affirmative,] Uriel said. [If it continues on this trajectory, it won't be long before it enters the tide.]

"Damn…" he muttered, staring through the side window.

The room fell silent for a moment, the implications clear. But what could they do? The other ship didn't have a way to communicate with them.

All they could do was slowly watch as the dot moved closer, mile by mile, toward the edge of the tide.

For a brief moment, it seemed like the ship slowed down.

Then, it vanished off the radar entirely.

"Feels bad," Zion mumbled, sucking in some cold air.

[I'll be using more fuel to propel us forward,] Uriel's voice came through, breaking the silence. [I'd prefer staying outside of the possible debris.]

Zion nodded, waving his hand to signal Uriel to go ahead.

The ship's engines hummed louder as it accelerated, steadily pulling them farther away from the storm's reach.

Zion went back to his seat, his eyes still locked on the distortion beside them.

'Space always sucks,' he thought, shaking his head. 'I just hope that was the only crew caught up in the tide.'

But knowing how randomly these tides appeared and how large they were… Zion doubted that was the case.

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