Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Perfect Ones

*Edited on: 10/31/2010*


I was a lieutenant then, just stationed on the ship. The captain was terrible, and very strange, his beard was two strings from the corners of his mouth and a goatee. He flogged us himself for the smallest thing, even just bringing his food five minutes late. Simply put, he was sadistic. However, or maybe because of that, I wanted my own ship, just like in all the dime novels. It didn't have to be fancy, but I wanted one anyway. I can't think of anyone who doesn't, besides Davis, but he was always kinda strange. He never seemed to care if he moved around in the system, didn't seem to care about much at all, except what he did in the lab. But good things happened to him, seemingly without any drive from him. However, my skill or luck, however you want it, at climbing the ranks was not very good at that time, so I had been a lieutenant for quite a while. Ironically enough, my rise started with my fall. My fall from grace within the navy. You see, I destroyed a ship of theirs when they thought it needed no destroying. They were wrong, of course, but they were still mad at me. Whatever it was, she was key. I think she was pregnant. I'm not quite sure, but I think she was. But that doesn't matter. Anyway, whatever it was, she was the first one to go.  She was sleeping in a hammock on a walkway over a storage area, her choice, not ours. We never checked those much, the storage areas. One night, myself and some others were walking along when we heard screams from the walkway. We looked in and saw her there, awake and looking extremely disoriented and -I don't know- frazzled? Frankly, she looked terrified. I asked what was wrong and she said it was just a nightmare. We continued our rounds for a while, and found a part of the corridor that had yellow blood-like stuff on the floor and a bit of the walls. The rest of the group went through, though not without curios looks, and continued on. I stayed back, suspicious. I went back along the corridor to the storage room to see if anything had happened. I looked in. She wasn't there. Her hammock had some of the yellow stuff from the hall, but nothing else was there. I looked over the railing and saw a flash of yellow and black legs. Alien insectoid legs. I called the rest of my squad and told them to meet me at the captains office. They never came. At one point I thought I heard screams. I called them again. There was no response. I went into the captains quarters by myself. The captain was sitting at his desk, looking concerned. I coughed a little to get his attention, he asked me what it was. I responded with a rather full report of the events of the evening, omitting only the legs. The captain ordered us all to shuttles and readied the self-destruct. He stayed in the launching bay control and opened the doors to let us all out. We flew out into the darkness of space.
*  *  *  *
The captain sat back in his chair and waited for the end. Suddenly, Lieutenant Davis burst out from behind him. The captain whirled around. Davis had a gun.
     "What are you doing here?! The ship is going to explode, you idiot!" the captan yelled at him.
     The lieutenant only replied, "Exactly, Sir. They all want it dead. My precious creature! That which I worked so hard to create, and they wish it dead, along with you."
     "W-wha-?" The captain stammered. "What are you talking about!?"
    "O, nothing sir," scornfully, "They all knew. They only wanted you out of the way. They didn't care about this ship, or any of the inhabitants. They only wanted you dead."
     " I cannot accept that, you insubordinate fool!"
     "O, but you must. I can't do this without you 'Captain'."
     "And if I refuse?"
     "Did I ever say I needed cooperation?"
     "..."
      Davis smiled evilly, "Just as I thought. No, I just need your access, your life matters not."
     "Then why not just kill me now?" The captain was getting exasperated.
     "Ever heard of meat on the hoof, "Captain'? I simply don't want to lug you around, though I will if I must"
     "Why did you have to kill all those people though?"
     "Why? To make it convincing, that was all."
     "But... All those people," the captain sounded a little shaken.
     "Tarina, the pregnant woman, she was the carrier, that's why she died first-"
     All this time, the captain had been bringing his cat-of-nine-tails out from behind his back. He chose this moment to swing. Davis ducked, but was nocked off balance. The captain swung again, but Davis shot, first. The captain looked at the bloody stump that was all that was left of his left hand, then he fell, almost screaming from agony. Davis then tore off some pipe insulation from one of the steam ducts. He thrust the captain's stump into it, cauterizing the wound. The captain only screamed all the more.
     Davis put his face right next to the captain's and hissed, "My precious creature tears its way out, then eats the host. The host is the lucky one, though, for once the host is eaten, her brain is fused with the creature into a completely new being. An unstoppable being. A perfectly unique being mutated from its original form by the thoughts at the time of bonding. Commanded only by its whims and loyalties, and very slightly influenced by its previous life. O, they can also survive space. So, if you wish to help me, I will be generous, and let one of them eat you. Does that sound fair?"
     "You're utterly insane! How do you expect me to go along with this?" The captain was outraged, and only partially from the pain.
     "You seem to misunderstand. I'm giving you the chance to become a Perfect One, though you certainly don't deserve it."

5 comments:

Xanthurian said...

Yes, its kinda abrupt, but I ran out of ideas. I think this is some of my best writing on this blog at the moment.

Would this work for NaNoWriMo even though I started it before Nov. 1?

Reogan said...

No.

Also, I've yet to read the revision. I'll return soon enough.

Xanthurian said...

That is saddening...

Reogan said...

Very intriguing. The identity of the narrator gets a bit confusing at some point.I also believe it bad for to write an ellipsis in quotes. It would be better to simply state that there was no response. Or something similar.

A well-done revision, though. Now I'm gaining much more interest. More?

Riley said...

nice, I want to hear more!!!