Chapter 71: Sepulcher
There was darkness.
An unbelievable amount of darkness.
More pitch-black than the shadows of night.
Significantly gloomier than a graveyard painted with tar after dusk on a new moon, no stars, and cloudy skies.
Hollow of all light and significance.
It was akin to the unfeeling feeling of being unconscious.
And this unconsciousness was what one particular person was experiencing, of whom was dreaming of this ebony-filled rest.
However, like all dreams, there always comes a time when the sleeping becomes awake.
And then there was pain. Kay felt pain. Pain wracking his body at an unimaginable degree. As though hundreds of needles was stabbing through his carapace and injecting several kinds of numbing chemicals into his veins. His eyes could not open, since he could feel something covering them. Something metal? Kay also couldn't move his arms, legs, or wings. Metal shackles restrained his movement, and he could feel that he was enveloped by a cool liquid that flowed around him. There was an apparatus that was attached to his mouth and nose, which at least enabled him to breathe freely.
Kay was beginning to understand that physical strength alone could not break him from his hold, whatever it may have been. It was then that he decided to use his psionic powers to feel around himself from his liquid confinement. He felt outwards with his mind and tugged at everything. He avoided tugging at the needles in his arms, or at the apparatus that was on his face. With his psionic reach pushing outwards and touching everything, he could feel... a cold-pod type enclosure that he was inside of. Was it a cold pod? Kay didn't know if it was or not.
Reaching further outwards, extending beyond the fluid-filled tube that Kay was trapped in, he could feel that he was within a secluded room, filled with all kinds of medical equipment. Kay could feel the presence of two... no... three people in this room. Commander Kralluf and Commander Guik was in front of Kay, while Commander Faddoh was in their field of awareness. Kay was unable to detect the robotic commander known as Faddoh, but he could still sense him from outside of the confines of his containment, despite the fact that he lacked a biological brain. However, Kay was able to eavesdrop on their conversation as he was becoming conscious.
"Hmm. Can't we just kill him now?" Kralluf asked.
"No. Not yet. I need to perform several more tests before I abandon the specimen. Despite gaining so much data and research, I can scarcely believe that he had so much power within his own body." Faddoh sighed.
"Faddoh, we cannot hold him here any longer. Gollog and Pallax expects a body to turn up once the secret weapon has been activated. We are already coming close to our deadline." Guik said.
"Grah! I need to call Gollog." Faddoh growled.
"Why?" Kralluf asked.
"I need to have more time! The activation of the secret weapon must be postponed for at least another eight days!" Faddoh shouted.
It was just dawning on Kay that a length of time had passed between his infiltration of the capitol fortress and... wherever he was at that moment of time. Worse still, he can't sense his swarm. Another distressing detail that Kay had only realized just then. But even so, It would appear to Kay that that Gollog's secret weapon had not been activated, and that Kay's zerg swarm was still safe.
"Sir. The ENO field sensors are picking up something." Another voice called out.
"Huh? ... Does that mean we have an intruder in here?" Kralluf asked.
"That is impossible. My dark mausoleum cannot possibly be breached by a zerg organism." Guik added.
"No no, it's not an intruder. The ENO field sensors is picking up signals from the bio-stasis tank." The other voice called out.
"Hmm." Metallic tapping sounds could be heard in Kay's confined space. Kay froze. "It would appear as though Sleepy-head is finally awake."
"WHAT?! SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?!" Kralluf yelled frantically.
"You shouldn't be worried, Kralluf. Put your hammer down. Kay! If you can hear me inside there, then let me be the first to inform you that there are several explosives lining your bio-stasis tank! If you do something that we don't like, such as making your own way out of your confinement, then the explosives will vaporize you!"
"... I think we should still be worried." Kralluf said, his voice more distant than before.
"Faddoh, what kind of explosives have you decided to use?" Guik asked.
"Oh, just some decommissioned particle warheads." Faddoh replied nonchalantly.
"THAT'S IT! I'M OUTTA HERE!" Kralluf roared. His running footsteps eventually faded to nothing in the distance.
"Faddoh, you should have warned me that you would be using explosives to contain your specimen." Guik said.
"Oh don't fret, my sweety! It's just a necessary precaution to contain a dangerous monstrosity, whom of which wouldn't hesitate to mutilate our bodies with diseases and injuries when given the chance." Faddoh said in a comforting tone.
Kay thought that Faddoh's announcement about the explosives was strange, because Kay couldn't feel for any bombs that was close to his current location. Kay could only assume that the bombs were somehow hidden, or that Faddoh had bluffed about the bombs. But for the benefit of the doubt, Kay remained still and refrained from acting against his captors' wishes.
"You know more than I do that my mausoleum cannot contain an explosion of that magnitude." Guik warned.
"The warheads I acquired were decommissioned because their explosive yield was too low. Sure, your mausoleum might suffer some structural instability, but the damage will not be enough to destabilize your maze or your inner-space facility." Faddoh further reassured.
"Even so, I would have wanted your permission first before you had installed anything that might destroy my facility, or harm its personnel." Guik chided.
"That's nothing but fiddle-faddle, Guik! Everybody knows that when it comes to the zerg organisms, you can only kill them with overkill. In fact, much of my research of these creatures had lead me to believe that the only efficient method of thoroughly killing these monsters is to destroy each of their brains, hearts, and livers. If Kralluf was still here, I bet that he might laugh at me and say that using his hammer-axe would be sufficient enough. Well, I would educate him by saying that even if the brain and the liver is destroyed, the heart would still pump blood through its body, and quickly scab over any fatal wounds. Depending on the damage done to the body, such as a clean decapitation for example, the blood could create a massive clot that could form a puss-like bubble filled with blood, which would form and regrow a new head within itself! Now if the brain was left alone, while the heart and liver is removed from a zerg organism's body, the brain would still be able to produce electrical signals. There are several kinds of bacteria that would be activated from the removal of the heart and liver, which would begin to reform the remaining organs into replacing the missing organs, via cellular redistribution. The muscles could reconstitute themselves as a new heart, while whatever remaining hepatocytes that still cling within the intestines would grow in size and become the zerg organism's new liver. And if the liver is the last remaining vital organ in the body, then there is a chance that it could grow a parasitic embryo that would feed on the corpse around itself, becoming bigger in size until it grows large enough to take on the role of its dead parent. Although it is to be noted that this biological behavior is only witnessed in the reviving razor fiends, but I wouldn't put it past the zerg to allow such an evolutionary adaptation be exclusive to those brutish beasts alone. But ah! I had no idea that such organisms even existed until their discovery! To surpass death by such leaps and bounds would be... Hmm? Guik? GUIK? Where did you go? You there. Can you tell me where Commander Guik had went?"
"She disappeared from my sight, sir. She used her light-screen mesh, and I think she left afterwards." The other voice said.
"Oh... Well... Do you know when she had left?" Faddoh asked.
"To be honest, I wasn't paying attention, sir." The other voice reported.
"Bah, you're useless! ... Well... Other than surveying the dangerous zerg organism in the bio-stasis tank, that is." Faddoh said.
"Uh... Yes sir." The other voice replied.
"Well, at least you are doing a good job. What's you're name again, ensign?" Faddoh asked.
"Ensign Gadral, sir."
"Well Ensign gadral, I have to tell you a small bit of advice before I leave you to do your business. Don't have children unless you're prepared to have them in the first place. It's the kind of advice that everyone should know. Some people might even call it 'common sense.' Hah, well considering the age that we live in, we're going to have to produce a lot of kids after the zerg are wiped away! Anyway, I think I shall go about on some other projects that need my attention. Make sure that our specimen doesn't leave his bio-stasis tank!"
"Sir, yes sir."
Kay sighed as he heard small collisions of metallic clanking began near him, which then dwindled to a soundless nothing. After yapping for so long, crushing silence finally manifested after Faddoh's departure.
...
...
...
...
...
And a crushing silence it was.
But Kay had no intention of letting this absence of activity bore himself to death, or allow some other factor to somehow end his life. He decided to make his own fun.
Gadral sighed for the umpteenth time as he sat in his chair and monitored the patient known by the Golden Star Empire as the Bug-man Beast-master. For six days he had been watching over this monster with diligent attention and with loyal dedication, yet he felt as though he couldn't keep his guard down for even a second. He was somewhat worried about being within the Pyramidal Guard Division's immortal mausoleum, since he had heard a few rumors regarding the maze that contained Gollog's most hated enemies. Apparently, if there was a criminal that wasn't deserving enough to be sentenced to death, the immortal emperor would somehow curse them with immortality and sentence them to live out their eternally lengthened lives within the mausoleum. There, hidden within the dark mausoleum, there was a supposed maze where its prisoners were trapped in, which is also where the shadow assassins of the Pyramidal Guard Division hunts and tortures the prisoners as a means to practice their craft. Or at least that was how the rumors went.
Worse still, the shadow assassins teemed within the Pyramidal Guard Division's mausoleum. Several seemed to have a preference for being completely invisible, even within their own mausoleum facility. There was a few times that he recounted a shadow assassin appearing right behind himself and asked him if he had the proper clearance to be in their facility. He could swear that they interrogate him incessantly because they think it's fun, have nothing to do, or think that he was cute. Or perhaps all three! The pyramidal Guard shadow assassins were purportedly known to seek out any disloyal soldiers in Gollog's empire and 'remove' them, usually by unassuming accidents that they had orchestrated to claim their lives. It was because of their dedication as Gollog's shadows that many nonaligned gilanian settlements become quickly conquered. Political subterfuge was a dangerous weapon against Gollog's enemies. However, such subterfuge was supposedly immune to the zerg swarm. Any technology, or even an ability, that could detect the invisible shadow assassins were enough to warrant a death from their blades. And it was obvious to everyone that the zerg needed to be dead in order for him to continue using his shadow assassins to inquire about his empire's loyalty and vanquish his enemies.
He would gladly pray for the day this terrible war ended, but Gadral would only do so in the silence of his own mind.
'Gadral'.
Gadral suddenly looked up. He saw that nothing was there. He looked left and right, but still found nothing. He paused for several seconds, but he shrugged his shoulders and continued surveying the monitor that was in front of him.
'Gadral.'
He looked around again. "... Uh... Um... Is... Is anybody here?" Gadral waited many more seconds for a reply, but he had received none in turn. He turned his eyes back to the monitor before him, noting that there was no changes to Kay's condition. Apart from Kay finally being awake, that is.
'Gadral.'
He sighed. "Alright. Whoever is calling me out, I want you to show yourself right now. This isn't funny anymore."
'I am visible to you right now.'
"I still can't see you, so you're going to have to turn off your light-screen mesh. I don't want to feel around for you and end up touching your tail accidentally." Gadral huffed.
'I'm in the bio-stasis thingy, you jackass.'
Gadral paused for several seconds and slowly looked toward the bio-stasis tank that Kay was stored in. Alas, all he saw was the floating form of a contained zerg commander. He looked at the monitor again and saw no further changes. He huffed slightly. "... I think this job might be getting to me."
'Ugh. If you keep this up, I am going to give you a daymare.'
"Daymare?" Gadral replied to the invisible voice.
'Yeah, a daymare. It's like a nightmare, except you receive horrible images in your brain while you're awake.'
Gadral scoffed and shook his head. "I'm not listening to a figment of my imagination. After my shift, I'm going to schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist." But before Gadral's day could continue in its usual monotonous manner, a zergling's paw slowly inched itself over Gadral's monitor, while bladed dorsal limbs that inched higher into Gadral's vision. When he finally noticed the glowing pair of eyes peering back at him, Gadral yelped and shifted backwards in his seat, falling down in a split second of sudden panic. When he got up from the floor and aimed his pistol, he saw that there was no zergling in his presence. He checked behind the monitor in case the zergling had ducked behind his workstation, but he found no trace or evidence of a zerg organism. "... Wh-wh-what?"
'Want one more? Just ignore me again and I'll give you another.'
"What in the hell was that? ... Was that..." Gadral said, as he looked around for the zergling that was supposedly in the same room as him. But when he found no traces of it, he slowly looked at the bio-stasis tank that Kay was occupying. "... Was that really you?"
'To reward your credulity, I'm giving you another daymare. Can you tell me what the hydralisk is whispering into your left ear?'
Gadral turned to his left and saw the scything claws of a hydralisk gently caressing his left arm. Turning further to his left, he could see the sharp teeth and mandibles coming so close to the side of his head that he could almost feel its hot breath. It made his own breath shorten, but he dared not bleat his own surprise again. "... Whuhuhhh..."
'Can't you feel him? So close to your face, so near your vital organs that he could just cherry-pick all the best bits at his leisure.' The hydralisk neared Gadral ever so slightly, a thin tongue coming out to slowly lap at the bare scales of his face. 'Ooh, I think he wants to chase you around! Care to play in this little game of his?'
"... Th... This is not real... This is NOT real..." Gadral stammered, almost shaking.
'The mind makes it real, Gadral. I can make it so real for you that you would wake up in cold sweats every time you wake up, or this can become as pleasant and as intimate as your darkest fantasy. Although, I wouldn't want to go there, since you're ARE working for the bastard emperor that is my enemy.' The hydralisk's scythes circled around Gadral's torso, gently compressing his chest into a snug hug. A soft hiss emanated from the hydralisk, his breath smelling like raw meat and stale blood.
"Nn... Not real. Stop this. Please." Gadral whined meekly, feeling weak and helpless in that moment.
'But of course, it doesn't have to be this way.' The hydralisk's scythes retracted after it had finished hugging the panicking Gadral. 'Ideally, we could be allies sharing a common goal.'
Gadral slowly turned around to look behind himself. Sure enough, he couldn't find a hydralisk. Not one claw of a scythe, or the dangerously strong mandibles and teeth that could rip chunks of flesh from a person's body. He had heard from Faddoh that the hydralisks had an impressive bite force that could easily break, crush, and splinter bone. He hurriedly began scratching his scaly left cheek, and frantically tried to rid himself of the frightening memory. "Huhuhuhuh~..." He shivered uncomfortably.
'Here is what I am thinking here, Gadral. You help me out of this bio-stasis thingy, and I won't rip your face off. In fact, if you denounce your loyalty to Gollog and his Golden Star Empire, then I will let you live to a ripe and happy old age! You could marry, have beautiful kids, and maintain a wealthy job that is more satisfying than the shitty monitoring position you have been tasked for. Hell, I might even let you have a punch at Gollog's stupid face! ... But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kay, a commander of the zerg swarm.'
Gadral shook his head and sighed, but felt defeated. He didn't want to invite further anger from the bug-man beast-master "Okay... Okay, uh... My name is... Wait, how do you already know my name?"
'I was awake when Commander Faddoh asked for your name. But I can also read your mind and find out your name that way.'
Gadral paused, but then shook his head and sighed again. "I... I really should report this to Commander Faddoh..."
'Whoa whoa whoa hey hey no! If you do that, then I won't have anyone to talk to! I won't even have your company anymore! That, and I think Faddoh will take several brain samples from your head for analysis, if you so much as tell him that I have been telepathically talking to you.'
Gadral paused again. Knowing full well of Faddoh's enthusiastic approach on even the littlest details, he would want to analyze Gadral with every painstaking method and procedure at his disposal. He would definitely dislike using a catheter for some of the tests. Gadral shook his head and sat onto his chair again. "Uh... Then again, maybe not."
'Now THAT is a smart decision! Perhaps I won't kill you once I escape?'
Gadral immediately turned to the bio-stasis tank in surprise. "Escape?!"
'Yeah man! I have no intention on remaining here any longer than I need to. I think it's been, like what, six days that I have been stuck here? Anyway, the first thing I need to do is get out of this bio-stasis thing... y? ... Don't move, and act natural.'
"Uh..." Gadral muttered.
'Don't 'uh' me, you jackass! There's a shadow assassin coming into this room! Fucking act like nothing is happening!'
With nothing else to go on, he quickly began staring at his monitor. Everything seemed okay for the most part, but he felt as though there was a pit growing in his stomach. He could feel his heart rate heighten steadily, but he tried keeping his breathing slow and calm. He couldn't hear any footsteps, or see anyone enter the room from his peripheral vision. He waited and waited and waited, but he heard nothing. It was an ingratiating wait, and he didn't know how long it would last.
A sudden plopping sound disturbed him, making him look toward the disturbance in a startled jump. It was a plastic box. "Hello, little man."
Gadral sighed. "Oh... You..." He slowly reached for the plastic box and inspected it. The voice that had talked to him had no owner that Gadral could see, but he knew the softness of the voice very well. After opening the plastic box, he could see steam coming out of its confines, which filled his nose with a plethora of aromas that was both intoxicating and pleasant. His eyes lightened up. "Sauce-cooked krell chunklets. Fried skraken mushrooms. ... And boiled freshwater weeds?"
"With a slight sprinkling of fireroot shavings on the side." The bodiless voice said to Gadral.
Gadral was hesitant to dig into his lunch. He knew better than to start eating when in the presence of a shadow assassin. And he knew the voice of the person before him. Not her name, but Gadral knew her well enough that she happened to be the kindest shadow assassin out of all of the others in the Pyramidal Guard Division. Unlike some of the other shadow assassins, this one has a tendency to remain invisible and politely talk, rather than jump-scare him and interrogate him incessantly. And he also knows that she had a temperament that could get dangerously out of hand if he didn't treat her right. He set his food down and calmly turned to where the voice had emanated from. "What's the occasion?"
"It has came to my attention that my sisters have been less than salubrious to your position, as of late." The voice said.
Gadral shook his head. "I wouldn't blame them. They just wanted to test my loyalty to Gollog and his empire. That, or they were bored and wanted to have a laugh at my expense. Considering the kind of rumored shit that I hear you shadows normally get away with, it's no surprise to me that a copper jacket like me gets a chance to roam the unrestricted parts of your mausoleum."
"And I don't need to be the one to remind you that making theories on how our division functions is a punishable offense."
Gadral nodded. "Right. What kind of offense was that again?"
"A week within the maze of the immortal mausoleum."
Gadral sighed and nodded. "Sounds about right."
"Is something troubling you?"
Gadral shrugged his shoulders as he hanged his head. "Eh... I guess you could say that doing this bug-man beast-master monitor job is starting to wear me down. Work related stress and all that."
'Don't think I didn't notice that hidden barb about me, Gadral.'
"Forget about what I said." Gadral said, huffing and glaring at the contained zerg commander.
"Actually, I can request for your reassignment with our superiors. Or perhaps have them schedule another soldier to take over some of your shifts?"
Gadral looked between the soft feminine voice and the telepathic zerg organism. Apparently, the soft-voiced shadow assassin was oblivious to Kay's telepathic voice. That, or she didn't catch on that Kay was active. "... Uh... No thank you. You don't have to vouch for me."
"Then shall I take back the food I had brought for you? Or would you prefer eating dried vaph meat strips, bugmeal rations, and powdered egg packets?" The soft voice said, sounding almost teasing.
Gadral glared at the air in front of him before sighing in defeat. "I can handle making a report to my superiors. All I have to do is be confident when I address them about my current position. If I successfully convince them to reassess my position, then I can have another officer help cover my shift. Might even get an assistant out of it."
'What?! Noooo! We were just getting to know each other!'
Gadral sighed, and reached for his meal. "But I want to do it when the conditions are right. In the meantime, I think I'll accept this gift you have graciously given to me, and thank you for putting up with me."
"... Then I will leave you to your own company. My sisters will become suspicious if I don't return soon. They can become quite jealous... Goodbye."
Gadral sighed, even when he was left alone once more. The scent of the meal in front of him was quite delightful to his senses, even as the aroma of expensive food had filled the entire room. He grabbed a metal fork that resided within the plastic box and began eating its contents. The tastes were wonderfully flavorful with each and every bite he took. Even the fireroot shavings added a certain 'zing' that further played across his tongue. However, a minute had passed before his meal was interrupted.
'... So uh... She seems like she might have a crush on you.' Kay announced to Gadral.
Gadral nearly choked on his food. "Uh! ... Um... Don't talk to me while I'm eating please."
'As much as I would love to eat with you, I don't have that same privilege.'
Gadral scoffed. "Well, it's a good thing that you're stuck in there, and I'm out here, enjoying my sauce-fried krell chunklets." He said, taking a bite of a dripping piece of meat.
'Then enjoy what creep tastes like, you fuck.'
Gadral instantly gagged, spitting out disgusting purple jelly from his lips. After having a coughing fit for eight seconds, he noticed the small puddle of dull violet sludge rippled madly as he expelled it onto the floor. He took note that the substance he had nearly ingested tasted similarly to a slime mold, mixed with metals and old water, and was disgustingly viscous. "OH BLAGHAGHUAHOAGH~! WHAT IS THIS?!"
'Creep, you idiot. The only substance that is a staple food source for all zerg organisms, both mobile and immobile. Maybe you should stop antagonizing your prisoner when he has the ability to send disturbing images and sensations into your mind?'
He swished his mouth with his own spit and spat out whatever foul-tasting pieces of food that clung to his tongue. "Blegh! You eat this stuff?!"
'I don't. But to be fair, I think I just absorb it through my carapace instead? I know that the other zerg organisms can absorb it through their carapace too, though I don't think they mind the taste at all. Not only that, the aftertaste becomes about three times worse, and you get permanent bad breath since the creep can flow into your gums and floss themselves between your teeth.'
Gadral raised his hand toward Kay and sighed. "I don't need to know everything about you or your monsters. Can I just eat in peace, please?"
'Depends. Will you let me out?'
Gadral carefully took a bite of a boiled freshwater weed bundle. "Considering that you have plagued me with terrible visions, and have been a thorn to Golden Star's side, I'm weighing my options."
'Sigh... And this is what I get for trying to make friends...'
"To be honest, you shouldn't be making friends with me. I don't need that kind of trouble in my life." Gadral said, taking another careful bite of his lunch. This time, it was a fried skraken mushroom.
'Well I guess fate has decided that we don't have that luxury! You're stuck with me until I can find a way to get out of here. You have your fancy food and your comfortable desk job. Me though? I'm a fucking lab rat, and I'm mad about it.'
"Uh... Rat?" Gadral asked, confused.
'Or a science vaph, or whatever the fuck kind of metaphor that fits my situation. In case you don't know already, I'm mad, and I fucking want the Golden Star Empire to disperse. I say let its people be free to choose their own decisions! The zerg would be better off leaving this planet and escaping Kiln's prison system once and for all.'
"..." Gadral paused for several seconds.
'... Hey, I felt that. ... Do you have some resentment against the Golden Star Empire?'
"Uh... No?" Gadral lied.
'You're worried about blurting out your hate against them, because you're inside of the facility that the shadow assassins of the Pyramidal Guard Division are stationed in. Don't bother lying to me, because I can already read your mind.'
"..." Gadral leaned back in his seat and sighed, eating one last sauce-fried krell chunklet and finishing the gift that the cloaked shadow assassin had given him.
'And not giving me answers just paints a broader picture to me than what you think you'd be letting on. Listen. I understand being in your position.'
Gadral huffed, turning away from Kay. "You understand nothing. Leave me alone."
'I know what it's like to be at the top of your profession, only to be made a mockery of and decreased in rank so low that you no longer matter. It feels as though you no longer belong to the world. Before I had ever came here, I too was an assassin of sorts as well.'
Gadral turned back to Kay and raised his eyebrow. "... Really?"
'Yes really! You see, before my fall, I was what you could have called a shadow assassin of my species. But when I was with the terrans, the faction I used to belong with, we were called ghosts. We were people that would become invisible, use sniper rifles to take down dangerous monsters and other targets, and could call down explosives that could raze entire armies with every launch of a nuclear missile. Hell, we can become infiltration agents much like your shadow assassins!'
"... So what happened?"
'I'm not too sure... I think I was selected to become part of a project that got me hooked on some kind of performance-enhancing drug. I was told that this drug was supposed to further expand my mental abilities. Before then, I know that all I could do was send telepathic messages to the other ghosts in my unit. After I had taken a hit of that stuff, I and my other ghost brothers and sisters were renamed spectres ever since. But once I breathed in that mist... Terrazine, I think it's called... I started remembering gruesome details about a past that I was not familiar with. My superiors saw that as a danger to their power, so they tried to contain us on some kind of volcanic planet that also doubled as our prison. So... There's that to consider.'
Gadral sighed and shook his head. "Are you trying to convince me to get on your side or something?"
'Well you're either on my side and have a chance to survive, or you're going to live in a dead world. Do you know that Gollog's secret weapon is going to kill everyone on Kiln, including my zerg?'
"... So that's what this secret weapon does?" Gadral said, feeling his heart tighten with sudden realization.
'I'm afraid so. We only have two more days until Gollog's secret weapon fires, and I'm getting the impression that there will be several gilanians that's going to be caught in its range of effect. Might even include this place too. But if I can stop Gollog before then... Well... That's all up to you, really.'
A/N: Duuude, Deadpool 2 is coming out next week. :D