Chapter 11 - Naggarok
The giant craft exited hyperspace, getting a view of the unusual vessel nearby, the familiar growths all over the sides. The admiral picks up the PA.
Admiral: "By order of Galactic Councilman Risseau, the Taiidan Imperials have aligned themselves with the beast. We are to repair their derelict vessel and escort it into hyperspace."
The vessel remains dark and silent, suddenly flickering to life.
Qu'jet sleeps silently in the cockpit of his Triikor Custom, the reclining chair set all the way back, suddenly awakened by the comm.
Listening he feels something in the pit of his stomach, a hybrid of fear, anger, and the sense of impeding doom.
What have we done...we have allied with this beast, perhaps thrown in our lot to be damned after everything else is destroyed.
He gets up and sets the chair to default alignment.
'Why do you not like me?'
He hears the voice loud and clear within the confines of his mind. Calling...as if familiar.
'Why? WHyyyyyYYYYY???' the voice hissed in its slurred accent.
The beast. What was wrong with him? Medication did not work. Perhaps reasoning with this beast would work.
"Who are you beast?" he thought.
'I am the Beast. Why do you fear what you do not know?'
"What I do not know? All I know is of the eternal damnation those that bind with you must endure."
'What is this damnation you speak of?' asked the beast in an inquisitive manner.
'I aaam perfection...order to chaosss...the frailness, the imperfection that you are, like the builders of this ship, I am one with them. They are me and I am theeem...perhaaaaps I shoullld show you?' spoke the beast in a soothing voice, or what it tried to convey in a pittance of a soothing voice. Its voice was hoarse...malicious.
"Umm...NO! I AM NOT GOING INTO THE BOWELS OF YOUR SHIP SO I CAN BE INFECTED!" he replied in defiance. He would not be infected! He was not stupid!
'Who saaaaaays you have choooice? No thiiiink I caaaannnott do what I want?' ended the beast.
Suddenly Qu'jet felt sick, nauseous. The last statement of the beast struck a chord through his nerves, sending a chill through his spine. He perceived a pulling sensation. First he felt he was pulled in one direction. Then another...suddenly he felt as if he was pulled from one point to another, as if transcending space to be pulled from one spot to another a distance away, then he saw blackness.
And he was falling...
He hit the ground, the crack of bone resounding and echoing it seemed.
He lay on the floor, recollecting himself, feeling the side of his jaw, he felt the thick texture, of blood and wiped it off. Suddenly the wound began to heal itself.
Wiping it off of on his pants he reached into his mouth and plucked out a shattered molar, dropping it onto the floor, blood collecting in his mouth, the salty sanguine taste was slightly repulsing. He spat out the blood and wiped his mouth off and thought no more of it.
Above him a iris opened, a bright light, almost like the light one saw at death; such a light shone down on his features, he looked up and could see but absolute brightness.
'Ittttt isssss I...Beast…' called a voice, the voice echoing through the halls and back.
'....do youuuu not wonder who I am? Or how I came to bee? Or do you not care, and wish to slay me?'
He looked up, looking through the light, seeing he was in a giant, airy, seemingly "public" space.
"YOU INFECT OTHERS AGAINST YOUR OWN WILL! YOU BIND THOSE AROUND YOU! YOU MAKE SLAVES OF THE FREE, BIND THE UNBOUND, AND TWIST THEIR SONG!"
'....I bring perfecccttion...' hissed the voice, sinister and odious.
"YOU ARE NOT PERFECT! YOU ARE A DESTROYER! YOU CAME FROM HYPERSPACE AND SLEW THE INHABITANTS OF THIS SHIP!"
'I DID NOT SLAY THEM!' hissed the beast, in a angry voice. 'I AM THEM! THEY ARE ME! WE ARE ONE!'
He recoiled from the anger of the voice...it was very angry. Maybe...
"Who are you? What did you come from?"
'I aam from outside...I was once a nothing, a non-life, I could not think...I could not say...I could only do as Outside wanteddd...The Progenitors, the origin-parts, built thesee destroyeers, destroyed whole worlds, attacked Outside, my origin-part. I attackedddd the Progenitor-Naggarok, I took one mind...and I saw all. I wanttttted to see the ligggggght, I saw the light of perfection, and brought the rest under my fffffoold....I only wish to bring the others underrr the fold of perfecccction...'
Suddenly he understood the driving force. It desired to expand its mind, by taking those of others....by force or not. But why did it spare him? To play with? Maybe...but he had a couple questions first.
"You are not perfect! You kill with no remorse, is that perfection!"
The Beast stopped to consider this.
'All must see the light of perfection...order to chaos...you are in chaoss...you are not perfect....you Taiidan fight each other...you have Republic, and Imperial, and Kushan, and Kadeshi. And you call your selves perfect? We are united, as one body, many minds as one, one body, one soul.'
'The little Kiith Somtaaw is weak. Their flicker selves are inferior. They do not understand. Your other-friendselves do under stand. They ally with us. Hence you are with us...do you wonder why you are not infected? Look at your shoe...you have already been touched by my essence...'
Qu'jet looked up with a perplexed expression, then looked down at his shoe, coated with beast nanobots.
"Oh...what the hell?"
'YOU DO SEE!' boomed the beast.
'Now you realize you are different. You always have been different, Qu'jet, descendant of the Dus'rak family line!
He stood shocked. How did the beast know his name, more or less his last name, the name of his family "clan". The beast soon answered its own question.
'How do I know? Because you were me.....'
'The Progenitors tried to leave this ship when it was infected. Hundreds more like this ship everywhere, waiting to be found. This ship, launch people. One people launch to Hiigara. One people-self is your origin part.'
'You are me...your origin-part was partially tainted, but strong...hence we are one, always been one. I know your thoughts. I know you wish to slay me. You cannot. You are a tiny flicker-self. I cannot bind you to me. Only you can bind yourself to me.
But it does not mean I cannot destroy you...'ended the Beast.
Qu'jet looked about, his mind working going through a state of shock.
Was this true? Was he really a alien, a descendant of a ancient race of butchers? Could he trust this beast? Was he telling the truth?
He looked about the confines of the reddened structure...
It said it could not bind me...
He walked across the atrium, the bright light burning before fading, touching the red growth on the wall to no avail. It was mortifying...
No shit, this is weird...
He looked around, and noted a weird thing, that resembled a infected palm tree in the center of the room. He walked towards it, then in another direction.
He heard a faint...scream?
He turned around and looked at the floor and gasped.
What the hell was that thing!!!!
He could see it...a mold, of a life form, humanoid. It reached out towards an unseen object with a outstretched hand, the mouth open in an eternal scream. It looked like the infection had gotten to him before he could get up, his body turned into the sludge around him, the sludge had turned into a mold all around him. It was…disturbing. He could make out a good number of facial expressions, then suddenly backed away in fright.
Help...
He turned around, and looked at the floor. They were everywhere. People in all stages of positions, most fallen on the floor and reaching out to something, all had fallen...growths everywhere. It was scary.
"I'VE SEEN ENOUGH BEAST! LET ME OUT OF HERE! OR I WILL FORCE MYSELF OUT!"
'Fine. Have it your way then.' said the beast in an angry "very-well-then" manner.
And he woke up in his craft.
It was like, like a dream almost. He checked his mouth. No blood...the molar had regrown. His shoe, clean...his hand showed a red glop, which began sizzling and burning...then remaining inert. He scooped off the remnants of that...thing into a empty bottle that formerly held water, then checked the rest of himself for beast nanos or growths.
Nothing. He got up and headed out to the bio-lab. There was someone he needed to see...
Walking down the corridors of the Flytrap he looked for Bio-Lab 1. Yar'jeem sat in Bio-Lab 1, looking and admiring all the nice shiny toys, genetic resequencer, chromosomal analyser, electrodes, genetic analysis scanners, and other rich fancy toys.
He walked in on her while she patted a transmission electron microscope, coughing ever so slightly and standing patiently near the door, his thoughts pre occupied.
She turned around, running a hand through her auburn hair and watching him quizzically.
"Yes?"
He took several steps forward.
"You are Scientist Yar'jeem, biogenetist, correct? I have..."
Takes out the bottle and walks towards the TEM, getting out a special vaccum containment petri slide, taking a transfer bag, wrapping it around the bottle, then opening the bottle, and transferring the material to the petri dish, and covering it.
"I have some...anomalous materials that need analysis. You were working on research onto the beast, correct?"
"Yes, I was....what is that in the dish?"
"Look."
She looked into the microscope and gasped, then flicked a few switches, at home with her machines.
The screen next to him flashed, and a simple genome analysis was begun.
The screen displayed a unusual genetic structure, then began cross analysis. It was…unhuman. Most of the genetic tags were "unknown".
A interlaced quadruple helix was displayed, along with countless unknown nucleotides. She hummed to herself and began tapping the keyboard, running some analyses and so forth, Qu'jet tapping his foot...bored to death...so…complex was all this. He decided to leave and return later.
"Uhh...call me when you have an analysis complete."
She nods.
"Wait...where'd you get this sample from? The cells are inert, like they're dead. Yet the genetic material is still present. How is this possible?"
He walks out, not revealing any answers.
He knew from rudimentary biology that lifeforms and their genetic makeup was contained within DNA, constructed in a double-helix. There were several chemical nucleotides, and nitrogen bases. There was adenine and thymine, guanine and cytosine. These were put in unique orders as per species. But, this organism did not have just these four different chemical components. It had a quadruple interlaced helix...nearly impossible. A few hundred different bases...unthinkable! This was one of the greatest discoveries that could ever be imagined!
Also one of the deadliest...he thought.
Walking down the halls he walked up to a lift and went to the bridge.
Emerging he looked about the giant command center, the heart of this giant mothership. Looking around for the Ready Room he spotted it, stopping in his tracks as Councilman Risseau left, his flowing robes moving across the floor, the councilman stepping into the lift and going down.
He enters the ready room to see the Admiral sitting silently.
"Qu'jet, the councilman is quite...adamant. An Imperialist fleet is arriving soon. They will commence repairs on the Naggarok. We are to proceed to a set of coordinates, all the way on the other side of the galaxy. The man's orders..."
Suddenly he walked out angrily, looking about the bridge with the expression of a deranged psycho, looking around and seeing the Councilman's quarters, the door anyways. He runs in and opens the door.
All is silent. Looking around he turns on a light and looks at the desktop comm unit; left on. Perusing the transcripts he listens, the admiral ordering hyperspace to a set of coordinates.
He runs outside...