Prepare to Embrace
My latest story modified, take a look, leave constructive criticism please.
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I looked out into the starry night as my small containment chamber hurtled through space at speeds unfathomable. I think I recognize a small twinkle of the Sol system in the distance, and I long for it. Oh...if only....Yet, here I was and here it seems I will stay. I asked myself. Where am I headed? Where am I going.
"This is Ridiculous!" I scream. But my body continues to increase the speeds. Dials being turned, lights flashing, knobs being adjusted, buttons pushed, it all takes a matter of seconds. I watch hopelessly as my own hands adjust the navigational computer to an unknown coordinate.
"ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: 12389 AD" the computer beeps in its slow, repetitive monotone voice. It proceeds to flash a series of lights as my hands press the Enter key and the computer again beeps "CONFIRMED COORDINATES (5678923, -2345126, 896245) ON THE GALACTIC GRID. SETTING COURSE-PLEASE WAIT-"
"Abort!" I yell as a final defense to the machine working mindlessly.
A small light beeps, before the computer beeps again in its slow monotone voice, "VOICE RECOGNITION INITIATED-ABORTING COURSE FOR COORDINATES (5678923, -2345126, 896245) ON GALACTIC GRID. AWAITING FURTHER COMMANDS"
I sigh in relief. Before continuing, "Set orbital around the stellar X-JI39 in the Zeta Centauri system." Whatever monster has its hold around me, I have no way to stop it. I can only assume that my body will override my verbal order before long and will reset the coordinates. I will work hard against whatever thing tries to stop me, but I know it won't last long. I had heard of supply run captains for the Supply Corps going mad, but nothing of this nature. I see my hand that I no longer feel, it might as well be a wild animal, that cold and now white appendange moves out of the corner of my eye.
It reaches for the jettison pilot switch, and I strain my mind to think of some way to stop it. Suddenly, I feel a small twinge on the edge of my awareness.
I recognize the twinge faintly, and I realize that I am feeling my index finger again. I concentrate all my mind on the rest of my hand, and arm, and soon I have working control of it again. I regain control of my hand just in time to avoid being jettisoned into the stellar X-JI39. I sigh once more, and again feel my hand going numb, and before long I can no longer feel my hand or my arm. I feel a numbness at the base of my neck, and only by continually concentrating on it can I fight off the dark cold that has become my body. "Argh!" I scream in frustration.
But it is useless as the mindless pollution to my body reaches up my spinal cord and into my brain. I 'feel' the thoughts. EMBRACE. GIVE IT UP. 'no!' I think with all my mind. PLEASE I DO NOT WANT TO HARM YOUR MIND. EMBRACE ME. 'why?-' BECAUSE YOU WANT TO SERVE ME. PLEASE. It calls me again. I refuse. It begs with me for a couple moments that fade into an eternity of waiting. For years it seems we argue. I remind it that it tried to kill me a little while ago. It says it was trying to save me from my ship. "How could shooting me into the dark vacuum of space help me?" I yell out loud. It remains silent for a brief time, before it finally says, exhausted, I CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO GIVE YOU A CHOICE IN THE MATTER. IT GETS TO A POINT WHERE FEELINGS HAVE TO GET HURT. I'M SORRY, JEREMY. Nobody has called me that in a long time, memories go flooding through what I still control of my brain. Yet if haunts me, like an unkown phantom...it cannot be good if he has already found a way into my deepest memories. Suddenly it leaves for a second. I have full control of my body again. I stand up to stretch from the strange seizure. It is strange that he just left, perhaps, he, or it, would not be able to take hold of that last shred of my brain. Suddenly it seizes my whole again while my defences are down. This time my head falls prey and my mind fades into the void of the conciousness. What punishment this is! To watch as the Kyiir, so I learn its name is, uses my body to destroy my closest friends and sentence them to the same punishment. Some fall easily, others put up more of a fight than I could, but I am unable to do anything about it.
Twenty Years later...
Finally I collapse on my hands and knees. A gray, bleak, crater-strewn planet is underneath me. I feel the ground beneath me, I finally can feel all the scars, hot air, and clothes, everything in and on my body. My fingertips are so sensitive, but I can do whatever I want now. I am free, at last. But gone are all my friends. As it leaves me I feel the far-off, nightmary thoughts, YOU WERE TOO DANGEROUS IT IS BETTER JUST TO LEAVE YOU HERE...ALONE. And it is gone, I will never feel, or hear it again. Never! I look around, wherever I am, I will work to get home. I look for my spaceship, but it is gone! I laugh myself to sleep out of spite watching the stars fly by in my tiny containment chamber of oxygen and stone at speeds unfathomable...
This post has been edited by Charon : 22 November 2005 - 10:39 AM