The Heart of Darkness (part 6)

Posted on Wed Nov 12th, 2014 @ 3:17pm by Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Commander Orin ch’Valri & Lieutenant Jensen Foster
Edited on on Wed Nov 12th, 2014 @ 3:27pm

913 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: What Dreams May Come
Location: The Edborn

[An excerpt from Part 5]

The recording was badly echoing with static, but the fitful panting breaths of a woman could still be heard. Then some shuffling like they were attempting to get in between a couple of tight bulkheads. "I find it hard to believe that the microphone can't pick up my heartbeat," a female voice said with a whisper, "so to whomever finds this, I apologise. I desperately need to hide, but I also have to tie down the log recorders. No doubt they'll send other rescue ships. I do doubt they'll find anyone left alive."

[CONTINUED from part 5]

Suddenly a crash ripped through the small and inadequate speaker and the recording went dead. About a second later, it clicked back on with the same female crew member's voice, even quieter and strained than before. "He almost caught me, I have to turn this down and do what I have to do. He can't find me... he just can't." the disembodied voice said, the lowered voice breaking into a soft sob. "The... the computer core's backup matrix is not far from here, and I have to reach it in order to lock down the data pathways. Diron, if you per chance get to hear this, please know I did this for you... I love you." The recording stopped again.

The others expected that to be the end; Jensen knew better, that there was more to come. Another second passed and the device clicked again to a scream. "Get off, get off, get off!" the woman screamed, and then yelled out in pain.

"Awww... you tripped." said a mocking voice everyone recognised as the same person as on the vid recording they watched before. "No-one leaves here."

"No... please... Get away!!" she screamed.

"No-one lives." he continued in his silky but raspy voice, the volume increasing over the speaker signifying the perpetrator getting ever closer to his victim. It almost sounded like he was smiling, like this was funny to him. "I can take away the pain, little girl --"

"Please, I'm begging you... please." she begged a little less hysterical. "Please, no!" she pleaded.

"Take it away so that all that it left, is the dream. Just the dream, for dreaming is all we have, and all we will ever need." And then came the final scream and the sickening thud, crunch and splash. A few seconds went by of nothing, though the device was still recording, until, "A gift." the male's voice exclaimed as some tapping was heard as he picked it up. "How kind. Perhaps this was her dream, the nightmare of false hope..." it laughed as the recording was then abruptly shut off.

~~~~

Shuddering and feeling tears wetting his own face, Jensen gasped. He'd never experienced a memory so intensely. He found that he was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall. Gasping still, he whispered, "He killed her."

The flood of thoughts and emotions coming from Jensen were almost palpable, the effects of the message recorded by the random crew members probably still located on one of the upper levels playing with Cattmor's own mental state. She clenched her jaw trying, unsuccessfully to block it all out. "Yes he did." she said softly, looking down having to close her eyes. She lifted up her hands to cradle her head but of course only made it so far, and the impulsion to rip off the helmet was almost too strong to ignore. "If your spidey-sense instincts picked that up," she said looking to Orin's form, "that is why I want out of here." she said turning around and thumping both fists in extreme frustration into the already broken terminal.

Orin paused slightly. He was still facing down as he felt the whole away mission had gone to hell and back. This was far from what he was used to and he was too set in his old ways to change how he felt and thought. "If there is one thing I did however pick up on, with the help of Lieutenant DeViro, was to know when someone was in my head." He said as he positioned his helmet to face Rylie before continuing. "I know you can tell how I feel and I did my own homework on your species. I know how you can look into peoples minds, and not only take in their emotions and thoughts, but also view imagines of memories. So, at what point during your sightseeing did you think all of this would affect me? There is nothing here I haven't seen before. All this empathic and telepathy crap is all new to me and for the last 25 years of my life I have mistaken those feelings for instinct and I have used those instincts as a soldier, not an explorer. You can't stop me from thinking how I think, just like I can't stop you from popping into my head and removing what you wish, but in any case, you're forgetting one thing. What you see is exactly that, your interpretation of those events. I lived them and I know why things were done a certain way. Doesn't mean I wanted those conclusions, it just means that in the stir of the moment that was all that was left."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Orin ch'Valri
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Jensen Foster
Chief Medical Officer

 

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