Spartackus
Zorack narrating:
It was an extreme decision. Radical.
I shouldn't have agreed. What the hell! Angel had very easily accessed the ship's security systems. Spartackus' artificial intelligence, Iron, had recognized DNA readings in its system. The blood of the descendants of the House of Igneous still ran in her veins.
Nobody there said anything. And everyone looked silent and thoughtful.
It didn't matter what place it was. The ship's sensors under Iron's guidance selected the main capitals on the planet. They were always the same sad scenes wherever I went. The virus had spread extremely easily through the planet's atmosphere ... There were millions of infected people. The streets still showed a few healthy people and terrible images of broken and destroyed markets and shops. It was chaos. Traffic-accidents. Fights. It was hysteria, running, and clashes between groups of survivors.
And it was going to get worse ...
I sighed without looking at Angel who was staring at the panel screen in the control room reflected in the air. I knew those scenes well. I had experienced the terror of those people. My world ... what was left of my world was only memories of the glory and power of the Edrians in the Zairon system.
Those people ... The dead ... Humans couldn't even assess what was yet to happen. They wouldn't have time to incinerate the bodies of the corpses. And then ... Once again I was going to watch what I hated the most.
Ghost spirits. The dead would rise again under Ravenack. Bodies without souls or will or even a conscience. Without any memory of what they had been when alive. They would be little more than animals and hunting. They would pursue the survivors who would be the new hosts of K'Aldriants. New inexhaustible bags of fresh blood.
They were just dead brains with no decoded electrical impulses, no living neurons, or even nerve synapses. It was an irreversible condition after the virus penetrated the organism and reached the nervous system. And yet it was not necessary for bodies that moved without their own lives. They were now part of collective and alien consciousness.
-Bitch who gave birth! - Spike was the first to break the oppressive silence. - That's right ... It's a slut, isn't it? They don't even look like damn zombies ... My old men ... They traveled ...
I looked at the silent boy. Zombies? I could laugh. They were fast and the missing brain was replaced by symbiosis with those deadly creatures. There was a name for those things ...
Yorumanis.
A slow Yorumani?
A complete fool and demented as the girl had seen in those films was ...
That was the joke of the century.
They were not slow, they were not stupid, nor were they easy to be deceived. I think what he hated most about his appearances were the faces with deformed expressions and the unhappy, totally white eyes. Besides being cannibals to each other, they were still strong. And the smell ...
-Do you understand the meaning of invasion and pandemic now? - I asked dryly.
Angel kept quiet. She hadn't said anything. Even with her breathing slightly agitated, she kept quiet. Just in case I kept the hell bomb in case the girl had another one of that shortness of breath attacks. Her coldness and indifference to the scenes were only apparent.
-This is not a fuck... fucking zombie apocalypse! Those things...
Max looked at me in silent warning to keep me silent. My bad mood was visible with that kid who was next to Angel. Infernal boy. I ignored the silent warning from my colleague and first imediat, tormented by that human's jealousy.
-And it will get harder, kid. - I replied shrugging sarcastically. - You still haven't seen what they do. How they hunt prey after they find it. They are relentless and difficult to be deceived. The few humans who will survive this holocaust will live to curse the day that Ravenack arrived on the planet. These freaks feed on fresh blood from their hosts and...
- Shut up! You want to shut up! Angel's scream echoed loudly, drawing everyone's attention for a fleeting instant.
And it didn't take long for the ship's warning lights to flash on top of the walls triggered by the temperature detectors. The armchair furthest from us ...
What the fuck! Fire?!
Max and I reacted at the same time: my colleague was running to activate Iron's defense mechanisms while cursing I raised my hand, absorbing the moisture from the air to create and release the ice crystals. A trail of ice left its way quickly on the path that I aimed across the floor to the chair. The fire only took a little longer and lost life surrounded by the brilliant crystals that extinguished it.
-That's not a goddamn zombie apocalypse, Spike! - Angel yelled louder and beside himself.
I was able to capture the state of her emotions in turmoil and it was not the fear of images that seemed to flicker with failures before they finally disappeared.
-But Angel ...- I heard Spike reply.
-They are decomposing forms of flesh that give birth to various demons, with worms and demonic creatures gliding over their bodies. They are creatures hidden by the shadows. -Angel stared at his friend with his eyes radiating totally blue energy. - A bloody shadow army ...
Curse! She was losing control quite easily. I tried to get closer and stepped back, letting the girl vent the fury that fed her in the blast when several small objects on the panel furthest from us as tools seemed to create life and flew in different directions.
-Good, Angel! - Spike complained this time with humility!
-They're dead. All dead, Spike! Nobody survived that. They killed everyone! All representatives of the seven Towers ... My family ... It is the end of the world. It was just like ...- Her final words stuck in her throat as her eyes widened, first expressing disbelief and then glowing with despair and pain.
I saw the girl running away as if demons were chasing her and I turned around towards Joshua furious as I measured him from top to bottom in disgust.
-Satisfied now? What were you waiting for by showing her all this?
Joshua was the usual cold science officer who didn't even seem to have feelings. Of course, I, too, had not forgotten the damned Zorckans who plagued my ship.
-The mind control they did on her mind can be easily broken. - He watched with all coldness. - Actually, from what I could see, the girl's reactions are more of a very normal emotional block in situations of stress and anguish and ...
Joshua fell silent the moment my fist hit him in the chin and if Max didn't have the initiative to push him away, he wouldn't even know what my reaction would be. I was burning furiously.
-Let's go! We all need to keep a cool head here. It's happening again and it won't be pretty. Until we can fix the temporal probability generator ...
I howled possessed. Stuck! I was stuck in space-time, but at least it wasn't a hell of time looping as kalael faced. Hellish ordeal. Damn time-space. If only there were some time-travel devices there ... Ah, they had been banned. He always had a spare and it wouldn't be enough. Not for the number of members of the ship's crew.
I couldn't use them without telling everyone who I was. A gargoyle. I illegally sold the time to whoever made the best offer. My unknown life in the Confederation involved very questionable and illegal activities. A space-time dealer ... I must confess that having acquired some skills after years as a host of those things was very useful. Mind control ...
What about Angel ....
She remembers! Remember everything?
- I'm going after the girl! - I declared dryly adjusting my clothes and then tied my hair with a strip close to the nape of the neck. - It will be safer for you not to try to make new disclosures without consulting me.
Speaking that, I turned my back without looking at anyone. I had a small arsonist to find and I didn't know what to expect.
How much did she know?
How much could such a young child remember?
Maybe I was in too much trouble.
If she remembered ...
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Imperius Ship
Somewhere in the past
Earth Quadrant
Unknown coordinates.
-Help! Where's a damn glass of alcohol here? I was abducted! There is no more pandemic. Ended? My mask ...
A Confederation captain sometimes ends up rescuing victims of abductions. It seems inevitable. Sometimes there were very rare reports about humans who were illegally trafficked into space.
I was an Urodelano ... My name brought respect among members of the Academy and even among my colleagues. Even so, the captain of another ship that worked in space patrol - time showed total disrespect for all this.
The only thing that crossed my mind was that the human had finally flipped into a hysterical crisis. It is not every day that you discover that you have been abducted by creatures you never thought existed.
-Kassandra, how about we fix this wound on your arm first?
Much less after the intervention of a certain Gargoyle, I had managed to escape a time loop.
- Really absent?
-Just try to calm down! - I spoke out loud to both of us. -You are safe now.
I had already lost track of how many times that scene had been repeated in an irritating sequence. He knew everything he did not intend to do. Imperius wouldn't leave the quadrant until I could verify the damage done by that creature that was an aberration of the most biting science and technology we knew. A clone of a hybrid ...
I looked at the human, trying not to remember that this time would be different. I would not even allow my old comrade from the Academy to come to Imperius and would take care to be very clear to my best friend that the human female belonged to me. Nor would Brunzac dare to defy the laws of our people after that.
-Usually ... they usually call me ...
Catty. Personally, I called it another way. It was hell that she didn't remember anything.
-Come on, little one! - I spoke calmly, trying to contain her outbreak penalized. - You are incredibly lucky to have escaped from Gargoyles.
And a certain Zorack is in big trouble as soon as he can locate it in the temporal space conjecture.
We both were there from another time. Traveling to the past ... The problem of traveling back in time is inevitably to repair our mistakes and try to fix them. The fact of being a creature of Urodelos did not make me different from the rest of the universe.
-Hey. That hurts! - I heard the complaints and muffled complaints of the resigned human.
"It was a bad cut and its temperature is high," I mumbled, very aware of it.
Have I ever said that Urodelans have certain slightly exotic eating habits? Like any cold-blooded creature, I was very fond of a liquid diet. Blood. And something else. The heat ... The body temperature of warm-blooded creatures could leave a urodelan feeling euphoric when absorbed in high doses. I think it would be tantamount to saying almost drunk from what Catty had already told me over and over again that we had lived those miserable three days over and over again.
-I really was ... you ... you know. Hell of the devil! Want to explain to me how I managed to be abducted? Do you know how many people there are on the planet? I can't believe I was so unlucky and ...
I rolled my eyes patiently and cursing Zogart like a wretch. I crossed my arms even more calmly. It would probably kill a certain Edrian.
-Yes, I read thoughts! - I replied before she even asked that.- Now I could understand perfectly the meaning of the words: beautiful, sexy, and healed.
When I got my hands on Zogart ...
My eyes at that point shone dark and the color of my skin made me all green. Urodelans could always change the color of the coat according to their will or need. Except on small occasions and like now. I looked bleakly at the color of my arm and the greenish tinge.
-No, I don't always get that green. I usually prefer neutral blue or maybe red for fighting. - I started to explain many things. - Only you can easily get me excited.
Catty looked at me with fantastic frightened eyes.
-How ... how do you know ...?
How did I know? I shook my head ruefully. Of course, she didn't know.
I carefully approached her more knowing the inevitable. Catty had lost a lot of blood in that deep cut and was probably in space for some time and without food. She was going to pass out.
-A
She looked at me dizzily.
-What?
-Two! This time I am prepared as soon as I collapse unconscious - I spoke in an unflattering way.
- Fall down? Now, that! - My little one put her hands on her waist and stared at me with sparkling eyes.
-I never ... never again ...
-Three! - I said sighing and supported Catty the moment she staggered out of balance and with her head spinning in the clouds. At least that time would be different.
Resigned and without grumbling, I now held the valuable cargo against me by lifting it with ease. I needed to warm it up and provide food.
And after that, I discovered that in space-time Zorack was trying to capture a hybrid of K'Aldriants.