Of Wolves and Weasels - Day 603 - Terror on Moonbase Alpha - Chapter 7, Part 2
Hey all, GoodShibe here!
So yesterday I completed Chapter 7, Part 1 of Terror on Moonbase Alpha.
If you're just joining us now, please feel free to get caught up here:
| Chapter 1 Pt 1 | Chapter 1 Pt 2 | Chapter 2 Pt 1 | Chapter 2 Pt 2 | Chapter 2 Pt 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 Pt 1 | Chapter 4 Pt 2 | Chapter 5 Pt 1 | Chapter 5 Pt 2 |
| Chapter 6 Pt 1 | Chapter 6 Pt 2 | Chapter 7 Pt 1 |
Without further ado, here's Part 2 of Chapter 7
Terror on Moonbase Alpha - Chapter 7, Part 2
The hallway leading up to Sector 4E was a crush of people, all craning to try and get a look at the thing behind the door. Word had spread fast and though there was a communications blackout in effect, the Moonbase itself had become much like the school yards of old in that regard.
Childish games of telephone ran rampant and it was all you could do to avoid being drawn into a conversation about it.
"They've sealed off the north hallway of Sector 4E" quickly became "They've trapped something in the North hallway of Sector 4E!" which became "Did you hear that we caught an alien?"
Kara felt the Commander smile as those by the door looked up, noticed him and scurried away. Even if he weren't under this mind control, getting that sort of recognition was clearly one of his favorite parts of the job.
The Commander saluted the guard by the door and peered in through the window. Kara felt an odd sensation, not unlike watching yourself live on TV, as she stared at the thick, vibrating puddle of goop.
"Sit-rep?" the Commander asked, not moving his eyes away.
"It's been doing that for the last 30 minutes or so, sir. The vibrating, I mean," a young Ensign said, eying the door warily.
"Any word on that Exobiology team? How far out are they?" he replied.
"Last report put them at least 6 hours away, that was about an hour ago."
She knew it was coming, felt the push, the command slide into place, overriding the Commander's conscious thought.
"Ensign, I need you to open the door."
"Sir?" the bewildered Ensign looked back, unsure.
"Did I stutter?" the Commander turned to the full force of his hardened gaze onto the young man.
Kara felt her mind stretch, reaching out across the gap, trying to make the jump into this fresh vessel. She felt an euphoric chill as the minds connected. This kid was named Norman and he was as scared as he'd ever been.
He was imagining all the horrible ways the Commander could die, more importantly, all the ways he could die and it would be his fault.
Kara reached out and tried to snatch one of his fears, one that seemed the most plausible. In that tableau, the Commander was being swallowed alive by puddle of goop.
She held it tight in her grasp and tried to focus on making that all that he could think of. Slowly she saw the tableau come alive in his mind.
The once-still image was now like a scene from a movie as the Commander slowly walking down the hall, warily approached the goop.
Focusing on the picture, she imagined the goop snaking out toward the Commander, leaping onto him - attacking him. She felt the young man's pulse quicken in response... and so she turned up the heat.
The goop was now covering the Commander in thick, viscous threads and the Commander screamed as his flesh bubbled and melted beneath it. Soon the flesh melted away to muscle, to bone and she added a little rattling sigh as the Commander died as a sort of cherry on top.
It was an odd experience - feeling satisfied at the Ensign's revulsion, but the effect was instantaneous. She felt herself being expelled from the Ensign's mind as the fear overtook him. From back inside the Commander's head, she watched the Ensign back away from the console.
"I'm sorry sir, I can't. We don't know what it is -- it could be dangerous, you could die."
"Ensign, I am giving you a direct order."
"I know, sir. I-I'm sorry. I really am, but I can't. If anything were to happen to you..."
Kara gasped as the next commands slid into place in the Commander's mind. She tried to grab them, to pull them out of the queue, keep them from happening -- but the Commander had already leapt on the boy and was smashing his head into the wall.
The Ensign cried out and Kara scrambled to pull that last one back, to keep him from killing the kid at the very least. She felt herself get a piece of it, felt it pulling away from her as the thought struggled to translate into action.
It was barely a second's reprieve, but it was just enough. The Ensign scrambled to his feet and ran, ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.
The Commander did not give chase, he approached the console and entered the override code.
583829191
And, with that, the heavy bulk-head door began to rise.
And that wraps up Part 2 of Chapter 7, I hope you enjoyed it!
It's 9:00AM EST and I'm sending positive vibes your way. Have a great day, my friends! Our Global Hashrate is holding at ~1030 Gigahashes per Second and our Difficulty is down from ~13638 to ~13830.
As always, I appreciate your support!
GoodShibe
Posted Sep 3, 2015, 1:04 PM UTC · edited