I don't believe in ghosts - Part 3
08 Jun 2019Zinnsei
Commander's Personal Log, 27 APR 3305."Step away from the console, Commander", I heard a voice exclaim. But not just any voice. His voice.
I took a step back and started to turn around.
"Be careful now, Commander. We wouldn't want an accident, now would we?" he said musingly.
I completed my turn and found myself staring down the muzzle of a shiny metal barrel and at the end of it was Leonard.
"You!" I exclaimed. "But why in the Void would you..." and that's as far as I got before he smacked me across the face with his sidearm.
"You wouldn't even begin to understand, so don't get started with the questions. This is bigger than you could ever imagine and you're just a little fish in a very large pond. Step away from the console!" This time he was addressing Ensign Foster, who slowly got up and backed away.
"Verity. Engage Thrusters". Leonard spoke in a commanding voice to the room and to my amazement Verity, responded.
"Thrusters engaged, Mr. Bradshaw."
I slowly shook my head as the ship came to a complete stop, dead in space.
"But of course it's you. Anyone else we would have found. We combed over every part of the ship, but you were of course hiding in plain sight." I spat at him, the spittle drifting past his face in a lazy line.
"As the old saying goes..." he admitted and turned to the bridge crew.
"Get up and walk over here. Slowly".
They all got out of their seats and started moving.
"Why couldn't you just get with the program, Commander?" he asked me, looking almost disappointed.
"What program are you talking about, Leonard?! What program? The last 24 months have been nothing but pain and black holes in my memory. Do me the favor of clearing some of that up, at least."
He smiled and turned towards the bridge crew, now assembled on a line at the bulkhead.
"Gladly," he said plainly and pulled the trigger in rapid succession. My crew members dropped like flies.
Well. They didn't actually drop as much as flopped around, anchored to the floor in their magnetic boots. The silence stretched out while Leonard appraised me, a slight grin playing at the edge of his lips.
"So, Commander. You feel duped, right? I should point out that I wasn't turned - I wasn't bought or persuaded to betray you. My agenda has been the same since before I came aboard the Zemt."
I could barely wrap my head around it.
"But that's almost two years ago. Leonard... what is your endgame? What is the purpose?"
"Rest assured, Commander. I won't be telling you the grand scheme of things. It's simply too large for you to fathom, but I will tell you that you stumbled across something that you shouldn't have and you became an annoying insect to a rather powerful party. I was tasked with keeping an eye on you for as long as needed. For that, I needed to be a part of your crew and be very close to you."
"Did you even fight the Thargoids for those past few months?" I asked, a dryness creeping into my mouth.
"Oh yes. Plausible deniability and all that. I did actually come to visit you at the hospital, a few times. You were... taken out of commission, let's leave it at that, but I had a good long chat with our mutual friends and were given specific orders. If it's any solace to you, you were never going to return from this journey."
His sidearm started trailing towards me.
"The short matter is that Sag A* became your biggest mistake and it did cost you your life."
What happened next, happened very fast. During his speech, I had slouched a little and quietly switched off my magnetic boots and now I shot forward and upwards while curling into a ball. The discharge of the sidearm was deafening and I could almost feel the payload zipping past my feet. I head it ricochet off the bulkhead and zing down the hallway. Leonard was fast. Inhumanly fast. His arm shot up and grabbed me. With enormous force, he launched me towards the canopy and I felt something give inside me as I collided with the hardened surface. The canopy cracked under the force of the impact and I started drifting towards the deck. Leonard came around to the console nearest me and chuckled slightly.
"You can fight but you'll lose, Commander. I was made for one purpose and that, you're about to find out. Acutely."
He grabbed me by the throat and pulled me in close.
"There's no shame in screaming."
With that said, he crushed my shoulder, snapping what felt like every piece of bone. I saw something in his eyes while he applied more and more pressure to my devastated shoulder; something that glittered behind his pupils. Something not human.
It was like looking at an amalgamation of a known quantity. It was Leonard, but it was not. It wore his face, but only skin deep. Yet still I knew that this was the man I had - moments before - in a crisis to boot, seen and interacted with. There was no sign of this.. thing before. It was like a possession having rapidly stolen away the man I knew.
My suit gave way under Leonard's inhuman strength and blood started seeping from the points where his fingers were digging into my body. I could no longer hold back the roar of agony that had been locked in my throat and I could see that it brought him pleasure to hear.
"I see you have noticed, Commander". He said, halting his increasing pressure on my shoulder which was now mostly destroyed. "There's more to this one than meets the eye." He grinned showing rows of teeth that were too white. They hadn't been that white before - and there was something else. They were slightly elongated and seemed to lengthen while I was looking at them.
"What are you?" I moaned, trying to bite back the burning pain in my had-been-shoulder.
"Something... new." He said, a rattle in his voice now. "They made me better."
This is when I lost consciousness.