Chapter 10 - The Confrontation
Tsarionsilently circled around the table where Sarah McKenzie was sittingtrying unsuccessfully to unsettle her. For the last two hours he hadbeen questioning her about what she was doing in the recording fromthe Inquisitorand what she had meant by “We are thelast, beware the Leviathan”. It hadtaken him a while to recognize the gore splattered woman, especiallywith those burning eyes that bored into his very soul, but he hadeventually remembered why she had looked for familiar. It was SarahMcKenzie, the woman that had been picked up in some kind of escapenot far from Jupiter and had so captivated Commander Marcus deBenedict. But he wasn’t fooled, it was now ever so clear to himthat she had used some kind of mind control power over him so shecould… and that was pretty much as far ashe had gotten.
Soonafter he had realized who the woman in the recording was, he had hadher escorted to the room, which was normally used as a meeting, butwas more than adequate to double as an interrogation room, with a fewalterations. Wisely or not the designers of the Pilgrim’sHope hadn't considered the need for abrig as their main concern was more with designing an explorationtype vessel. The assumption being that most of the crew would beworking to the same goal and disciplinary measures, such asrestriction to quarters and loss of rations would be sufficientdeterrent and punishment for most routine offences. It had beenhoped that anything more serious wouldn’t arise, and they had onlytaken a few security personnel.
Butnow it had and Tsarion had decided to actfast, but had now been slowed down by Sarah’spoint blank refusal to talk. His patients was starting to beseverely tested as she refused to acknowledge what he knew to betrue, like so many criminals before who knew they were guilty andjust clammed up when being questioned by the authorities.
“Whoare the Watchers?” Tsarion asked for theumpteenth time. “What did you do to thecrew of the Inquisitor?”
TheMcKenzie woman sighed and replied, “Idon’t know what you’re talking about”for the equally umpteenth time.
“Whatis the Leviathan?” Tsarion asked, hisfrustration starting to show in his voice.
“Howshould I know?” the McKenzie womanreplied, testing his patience.
“Ohcome on you were on board the DSE vessel the Inquisitor,tell me what you did with its crew andhow you destroyed the vessel”
“Ihave never heard of the Inquisitor,honestly. I have no memory of anythingbefore Terra Alpha,” she said and Tsarionknew in his bones that she was lying. Sarah had had some flashes,half remembered dreams, but she really had no recollection of whathad happened to her before Terra Alpha, but she knew that this slimyodious man either didn’t or wouldn’t believe her.
Andso they had been going back and forth for just over two hours likefencing partners, one thrusting on the attack and the other parryingthe blows with blank denials. Then Tsarion lost control for a secondand slammed his fist down on the table in front of this contemptiblesiren who had woven her spell on the commander. “Iknow you were there and that you killed those people. Now TELL MEwhat happened!!” he yelled getting reallyin her face. His anger visibly boiling over.
TheMcKenzie woman closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, lookingbarely unfazed and as calm as the sea on a windless day. Tsarion wasmomentarily taken aback by her unexpected reaction. He had expectedher at least respond with yet another flat denial, or respond withequal vigor in her denials. Ideally, he would have liked her to havelet something slip, unguarded. But she had slipped into a calm,almost meditative trance like state that had thrown him. He pacedaround the table a few gathering his thoughts on how to proceed, andthen asked once more.
“Whatis the Leviathan?”
TheMcKenzie woman looked up at him and grinned almost manically at him;Tsarion had second thoughts and realized that she looked extremelypleased with herself like the proverbial cat that had got cream. Andthis worried Tsarion.
“Youfool,” she said ticking him off like anerrant school kid. “It’s not theLeviathan you have to worry about, it’sthe Grotesque.” This she said in a toneof voice that sounded equally pleased with itself and thoroughlymatching the look on her face. It could even have been like she wasrevealing some snippet of information that Tsarion should have known,but didn’t.
“W-w-what’sthe Grotesque?” he said not sure if hereally wanted to know the answer.
“Youreally want know?” she askedrhetorically, the grin on her face was getting even more wicked bythe second. “He wants to dominateeverything the universe and all will soon bow to HIS will, youfoolish little man.”
Tsarionstumbled backward and when he had regained his composure, his handfound another chair just behind him and he maneuvered it so he couldsit facing Sarah. As he did this he realized he did so not of hisown free will, but as if something or someone had compelled him to doso. Later he would remember he could feel the power of the redhaired woman in this moment for the first time.
“Good”she said almost cajoling him to sit. “Nowwe can talk properly.”
Tsariondidn’t really know what she meant by this, and was sure that hedidn’t want to know, but for the first time in several minutes herealized that her eyes were still shut. Movements after he hadconsciously realized this relatively minor detail, his eyelidssuddenly opened and gone were the bright blue iris’sthat hinted at some hidden intelligence. These were now replaced bythe red hot burning flames, or even the swirling gases that thesurface of the sun is made up of, that he had seen in the recordingover and over again. In that moment he felt in chanted by the utterimpossibility and mystery of them.
“Letme show you the true nature of the universe”the voice said creepily and moments later Tsarion felt a burningsensation in the corneas, then in the optic nerves and then theburning filled his entire consciousness. His entire body, or ratherhis entire being went numb.
Theman woke to find the world around wasn’t how he had remembered itbefore he had blacked out. Everything that surrounded it had a kindof blue hue to it and was darker than he recalled. There were nosounds that he was aware of, but he could ’hear’noises in his head like the background static of old fashionedanalogue radios. As he looked around the entire landscape was flatand there was no sun or similar illumination in the sky. In fact thesky looked almost exactly like the landscape, except lighter. Notlighter in color, more in texture if that is even possible.
Lookingfirst left and right, and then all around the man decided for noapparent reason, to head in the direction he had been facing when hewoke. He sort of walked in a straight line, but could not feel theground beneath his feet and this bothered him somewhat. As he walkedhe could see no landmarks and there was no indication, from hissurroundings that he had in fact moved a centremeter. In fact, hefelt no tiredness from his exertions whatsoever. Other than lookingdown and seeing his legs moving he had no other sense of movement.
Hethen stopped, the pointlessness of trying to get anywhere in thisnowhere place overwhelmed him and he looked around again. Seeingnothing and no one he looked upward and screamed, “WHEREAM I????” No answer came, and afterdoing so for the sixth time, he realized that no sound came from hislips.
Miseryand hopelessness consumed him now and the man dropped to the groundin a kind cross-legged sitting position. His arms rested on histhighs in a sort of forlorn gesture, and he remained there consumedby longing and emptiness for an eternity and at the same time heremained there for no time. This place was nowhere and had no time.
Notknowing what to do, why he was in this place or even where this placewas the man also realized that he knew not who he was. With a senseof futility he screamed at the sky “WHOAM I??” “WHYAM I HERE??” over and over again until heremembered that here he made no sound and there was no one to hearhim.
Aftera while, the man decided to call this place “NoWhere Land”, there was no particular needto name where his and it didn’t really give him anymore sense of NoWhere Land. But it did give him a momentary sense of purpose andachievement. The first he had done that was constructive since hehad woken in this place. He then began to try to rationalize NoWhere Land, but gave up as he could not. Nothing that he recalled ofphysics or any of the other sciences could be applied here, not thathe could recall a great deal of course.
Anindeterminate period of time passed he supposed, when he did actuallynotice something. A speck of light far away in the distance fromwhere he sat forlornly, and he thought that that made a change. Hetried to watch the speck to see if it changed or moved, but it didn’tseem to. Then it looked closer, much closer. Periodically the speckof light seemed to get closer and closer to the man.
Eventuallyit winked out, which took the man by surprise, and he was againconsumed by the black emptiness of nothing. Just as despair began totake hold in the man, the speck of light winked back on or in, theman wasn’t aware that there was a difference here. When itreappeared the speck was much closer to him, it was now in almostright in front of him and it was much larger than just a speck oflight. In fact it resembled an almost humanoid being, with no facialfeatures and no discernible hands or feet. It was just humanoid inshape, but of bright white light. The brilliance of which almostblinded the man against the dull blue hue of No Where Land.
TheLight sort of cocked its head to one side as though it was taking inthis curious interloper into No Where Land, or was it just indicatingits surprise at seeing the man there. The man, not knowing what elseto do, looked back at the Light and mimicked the gesture as if hewere trying to communicate with the Light. For some time the twobeings looked at each other, both trying to figure each other out oranticipate the others next move.
Youdon’t belong here theman heard or felt in his head at the same moment the light sort ofheld up its arm and pointed the man.
“Iknow” the man tried to respond, more bythinking than speaking as he wasn’t sure if he could make a sound.
Whatare you? Was the Light’snext query, which confused the man almost as much as No Where Land.
“Aman” the man replied not knowing whatelse to say or think “What are you?”
Whoare you? The Light responded unable orunwilling to answer the man’s query.
“Whoare you?” the man replied not knowingwhat to say.
Youdon’t belong here. The Light said more as a statement of fact than a question.
“Iknow” the man signed almost resigned tothe situation and more than a little frustrated that he wasn’t ableto answer in more detail. A word, or rather more of a name, thenformed in the man’s mind. Seconds aftera question formed as well “Who are theWatchers?”
Thosewho watch. The Light said.
“Whatis the Leviathan?” The man asked notentirely sure where that came from.
Hewho hates the Watchers. The Lightresponded. None of your concern, you donot understand.
Thelast part of that answer was certainly true in that the man did notunderstand, but he wanted to do so.
TheLight again cocked its head in the same curious fashion as before andthen reached out with its arm, which formed a kind of pointed, almostfinger like shape, at the end. The manfelt compelled to reach out his own arm and touch the Light’sextended digit like form…..
Tsarionwoke in his quarters where he had fallen asleep exhausted after hehad led the search of the debris field and the reconstruction of theonly serviceable flight data recorder. He then sat up, swung hislegs over the side of the bed and made his way to the table where thedata recorder was still on where he had left it earlier. He switchedit on and the same familiar static ridden images that it haddisplayed the night before. No change then, he thought to himself.
Butthere must have been something, as he could distinctly rememberseeing something or was it all a dream? As he considered thepossibility, he felt a chill run down the length of his spine, andthe hairs on the back of his stood on edge. For no other reason thanthis feeling, he turned and looked at the wall above his bed and thenhe collapsed on his knees looking down at his wrists utter amazement. His left wrist had been cut and he then noticed the blood on the bedand the bloodied shard of glass on the floor where must have droppedit.
Ittook several minutes for the shock to wear off and when he hadgathered at least some of his composure that’swhen the writing on the wall first registered in is deliriousconscious mind. In large bloody letters was the phrase “KIILLTHE BITCH” and Tsarion knew it waswritten in his blood. He couldn’t remember writing it nor did hehave any recollection of cutting his wrist either, but he must havedone both. He knelt there shivering with shock and wept with icytears of futility and hopelessness and issued forth a screaming ofsuch primeval ferocious savagery that it tore his eardrums apart……
Ashe felt the coldness of the water running down his cheeks Tsarionwoke screaming in a cold sweat. In those first moments of confusion,his head spun with the speed of the realizations that now floodedthrough his mind. The first thing he did was to look around hisroom, but could not see either the shard of glass or the bloodywriting on the wall. He then looked down at his wrists, and neitherhad any indication of being cut or ignored in anyway.
Thenext thing that caught his attention was the recorder on the table inthe middle of the room; he then moved over to it and sat down in thechair. Switching the recorder on he knew exactly what he would see,the same thing that he had poured over for ten straight hours the daybefore, static that revealed on the briefest of images that shed nolight on the fate of the crew of the Inquisitor,or of the vessel itself. But onethought did nag at the back of his mind; the one thought that he hadoccupied his entire off duty thoughts whether awake or otherwise. One simple phrase that he would make good on “killthe bitch!!”
Heknew now even more then he had first met her, that he had to stopSarah McKenzie before she ensured that their mission failed. She wasevil, pure evil personified and he was like an avenging angel sent ona righteous mission and he would not be stopped. Ever since he hadbeen selected as the first officer of the Pilgrim’sHope Tsarion knew that he would be prepared to even sacrifice his ownlife so they would succeed. Now he knew that he would do so, and heknew the righteousness of the task ahead.
Somesay that dreams are answers to questions that we don’tknow how to ask yet or are possibly the unconscious mind trying tofigure out what the conscious mind cannot. Both of which are closelylinked and may even be one and the same thing. One person aboard thePilgrim’sHope now knew both the question and theanswer, that person was Steven Tsarion the ships executive officer. Both of which came via a dream or series of dreams, which he did notknow. But he did know what the question was, “Whyam I here?” and the answer “Toensure the mission succeeds and thwart Sarah McKenzie’splans to prevent the success of their mission”. However, he still didn’t know what she was planning.
Onanother part of the ship, another person didn’t know the question,nor could she understand her dreams. That is assuming that they weretrying to tell her anything at all, but she did know that this waswhere she should be. This person was Sarah McKenzie, a woman whonothing of who she was or anything of her past, if she had one thatis. Possibly her dreams were her subconscious mind trying to tellher something or old memories trying to force their way to thesurface. Either way nothing Sarah could remember about her dreamsmade sense and, she wasn’t even sure she wanted them to make sense.
Itmade little difference really now, as they were travelling fasterthan any manmade object had travelled before and speeding their wayout of the Sol solar system. They had already passed Saturn andJupiter and were heading towards Uranus. Not long after that Sarahhad been told that there would be a scheduled stop to evaluate theships systems and to take navigational readings. The only reallyinteresting thing that had happened since the launch was the debrisfield they had detected, but that turned out to be hardly anything.
Fordays after the first dream, Tsarion had vivid nightmares that wentalong pretty much the same lines as the first. After the second orthird dream ended with Sarah pulling his head back and slitting histhroat just like she had done to the man on the recorder. Her eyesburning with the same smoldering gaseous way that they had done inthe first dream and on the recorder. Except that what he had seen onthe recorder hadn’t really happened, asthe only thing they could get from the recorder was static, and ithad been part of the first nightmare. This had been the strangestand longest of all the dreams that followed, from which he could onlyremember the end.
Hewould be kneeling forlornly on the floor in his quarters, blooddripping from both wrists, when he would feel a hand on the top ofhis head. The hand then pulled his head back and he would then feelthe cold hardness of bloody glass shard against the soft exposed skinof his neck. As his head was pulled up instead of the bare wall, hewould see a mirror that reflected his hopelessly lost self and thesadistically grinning Sarah McKenzie about to end his life. In theseconds before she cut into his soft throat and the vital jugularvein the words “WE ARE THE LAST, BEWARETHE LEVIATHAN” would scrawl across thereflective surface. And just as the murderous woman slit his throatshe would whisper “NOW YOUR MINE”.
Whatany of this really meant Tsarion had no idea, but as each nightpassed and after being murdered in his own quarters time after timehe knew he had to stop her plan.
Afterthe seventh night of nightmares he stopped sleeping almost altogetherand just lay there, eyes open staring at the ceiling reliving hisdeath over and over again. Inwardly he was becoming more and moretired as each night passed without the invigoration that comes withsleep, but outwardly he was able to keep his usual calm and composedself. Privately he knew that sooner or later he would snap though acombination of exhaustion and the burden of the task ahead. But thenit was his task and his burden and he would stop her. He didn’tknow when or how, just that he would and he took great comfort in theknowledge that he would stop this angel of darkness who shroudedherself in the light.
Ashe stood on the bridge during one of his shifts he could hear themadness that he was beginning to take for his real self whispering inhis ear as well known and trusted colleagues walked by him goingabout their business. “If only theyknew”it would say. The fa?ade that was the old Tsarion would nodpolitely and issue orders and recommendations as before, but his‘true’ selfwas starting to plot and plan how to get to get rid of this tricksterwho had enchanted everyone else on board.
Hewas just talking to an ensign going over some routine ship functionor other, when the voice whispered in his ear. “Overthere!” It said, and when hetried to ignore it, the voice repeated louder and louder until helooked. “There she is”it insinuated, the very tone of its voice almost explicitly sayingthat she was up to no good. Tsarion then looked, unable to ignorehis better self, and there she was as larger as life. Standingtalking to the Commander, right there on the other side of thebridge. “Should be confined toquarters or better still out of the airlock”the voice said mischievously and Tsarion visibly half nodded inagreement.
Theensign looked confused for moment as to why the executive officernodding in agreement to some minor query, and Tsarion was able to fobthe annoying woman off with relative ease. Once she had turned herback on him, Tsarion half thought about walking straight up to thatMcKenzie woman and marching her off the bridge with quip aboutcivilians on the bridge. But bit his lip and the voice told him thatit was better to wait for her to slip up. Besides the Commander hadgiven her almost free rein to go where she pleased and technicallyshe had qualified just before they had left.
Tsarionthought that now that they had left the solar system this wouldprobably be one of the least interesting parts of the journey, mostlybecause they didn’t expect to find a great deal of interest. Ifwhat they had retrieved from those ships of antiquity was accurate. He thought that this might also be a good time for to that McKenziewoman to carry out her plan too.
Justas he was pondering the possibilities of what she may do, the two ofthem slipped off the bridge and disappeared from his view. “Followthem” the voice hissed in his ear. “I - I - I…”he stuttered, but couldn’t get the words out. “Itwouldn’t be proper” Tsarion foundhimself saying, hardly believing he would put it quiet that way.
Themain cargo hold was dark, mostly because the lights were usuallyturned off unless someone was working down here, and to Tsarion itfelt a little colder than usual too. That he put down to the chillrunning down the back of his spine rather than the ambienttemperature of the cargo hold. He almost did a double take it dawnedon him where he was. Not on the bridge as he was meant to be, but inthe main cargo hold deep and he was almost crouching behind one ofthe pallets trying to hear whispered voices in the not too fardistance. “Told you to follow”he heard being hissed in his year, and instantly he recognized thevoice that had now become so familiar.
Fromwhere he was he couldn’t quite make out what was being said, but hewas sure he could recognize the voices. It was Marcus and thatMcKenzie woman, who must have been trying to worm her way even deeperinto Commander de Benedict’s affections. Just like a she-devil to use every means at her disposal to get whatshe wanted, he thought. Then he crept around the pallet to see if hecould get closer and hear what was being said.
Asthe voices became a little clearer, nonetheless less whispered hecould just about make out what was being said.
“He’sa snake,” the woman was saying, “andhe’s got it in for me. Ever since thattime on the landing platform.”
“Ican’t, I won’tbelieve it” Commander de Benedictreplied.
“Youhaven’t seen the way he looks at me. Hefollows round the room with his snake eyes, looking accusingly, likehe was making sure he kept in sight in case I did something”the McKenzie woman said, even in her whispered tone he could hear thebile and venom thrown in his direction.
Fromhis crouched vantage point, Tsarion thought he could see a look ofdisbelief or even disapproval. That made it clear the Commander wassticking up for him and fighting his corner.
“Sarah,he may not be the warmest person or the easiest to like, but I won’tbelieve Tsarion would plot against you. After all what does she haveto gain?” Commander de Benedict said ahalf shrug of his shoulders.
TheMcKenzie woman looked at Commander de Benedict for a momentconsidering the proposition put her. “Whatindeed” thevoice smirked and they both shared the in joke gleefully knowing thatonly they knew why she was here.
“Coldis right, he sends a cold shiver right down my spine,”she hissed. “Downright cold blooded ifyou ask me.”
“Steven?”Commander de Benedict queried looking right at him.
“Eh?”Tsarion replied questioningly
Commanderde Benedict had such a look of concern in his eyes as he looked athis first officer almost asking what was wrong with him. Tsarionquickly realized that he was now back on the bridge and Commander deBenedict had asked him a question. As he tried to regain hiscomposure, Commander de Benedict repeated his question.