Scene 29: There Is Another

The cargo bay door slides open.  Sweets tilts his head in.  His eyes slide from one side of his head to the other.  He takes a probing step into the hall.  And then walking a little further he turns to go on to the common area.  He pulls out a couple drawers from the round hologram table.  He lingers at the cupboards in the corner leading to the cockpit.

When Sweets has disappeared up the hallway that leads to the cockpit, Valory lifts the grating from the floor where she lies between the cargo hold and common area.  She replaces the floor grating and skulks after Sweets.

She peers into the hallway and he is almost to the cockpit.  Valory removes her overriding disk from her sleeve and inserts it in the console on her end.  She punches a command and the door closes in front of Sweets.  He turns and sees her.

SWEETS:  There you are, Valory.

He takes his time walking back towards her.  She punches in several more commands, first sealing the door next to him, which would have led to the crew quarters.  He ignores this apart from walking toward her a little faster.  Valory's commands conclude with sealing the door directly in front of her.

She presses one key for a panel to uncover a window.
Sweets already stands there, staring.
She presses an intercom.

VALORY:  What do you want?

SWEETS:  Is that any way to welcome back an old friend?

VALORY:  You're no friend of mine.

What have you done with Sweets?

SWEETS:  Sweeetssss.  Yes... that was his name.

What a shame you had to lose such a loyal friend.

You will encounter none better.

She thinks a moment.

VALORY:  Can you bring him back?

SWEETS:  Is that what you want?

Can you put a price on such a thing?

Is there anything that you wouldn't do?

VALORY:  I won't let you hurt the others.

SWEETS:  (demonic echo) Naturally.

VALORY:  No... I won't make any deals with you.

I can't trust you.  You won't keep your promises.

SWEETS:  Worse.  I will hold you to

any deal that you make with me.

VALORY:  If it's all the same to you,

we'll just wait here until the 

others get back.

SWEETS:  It's not... all the same to me.

You should be asking yourself, young Valory,

how I got through the cargo hold hatch.

He bites and clenches his teeth on the last word.
When Sweets opens his mouth again the black blood
blasts the glass.  Valory leaps back in terror, but amidst
the intruder's laughter finds that the window has held.

She leaps on the control console again,
closes the window, and yanks the disk.

Silence.

Next she hears turning of gears in the door
and Valory only has time to retreat behind
the table before Sweets emerges.

His body is surrounded by a black cloud that concentrated on his skin is like water refusing to drip.
On command, gaseous tendrils float toward her and she responds with a gun in hand.
The black blood hesitates and retreats into Sweets' form, who wears a beguiled face.

SWEETS:  That won't do anything.

VALORY:  Then it doesn't matter that I 

have it, other than we're still 

having this conversation.

SWEETS:  Your friends already tried it.

And now look where they are.

They have abandoned you.

VALORY:  Esben would never leave me.

SWEETS:  What do you know about

that hirsute enigma?  

She inches toward the cargo hold side

while holding her weapon with both hands.

VALORY:  I know Sweets trusted him.

SWEETS:  Trust?  No, no, no.  Trust never

comes from a Noclysis.  Admirable creatures.

They work, trade, fight.  Simple.  No pretense.

We share much in common.

VALORY:  You're trying to pass 

yourself off as my friend.
But you're not really him.

SWEETS:  We each assume the forms we must,
you and I, both.  I notice you hide your hair.
Ashamed to be human, are we?

VALORY:  Orelius wasn't clean.
It's hard to find anywhere good to wash.

SWEETS:  But it's no scarf.  You could
pretend you're an alien with that.
It's just like a second skin.

VALORY:  So what of it?

SWEETS:  So I think you can empathize
that I want another skin, too.
In answer to your original question.
I would hate to miss out on inhabiting
a single one of your crew.

Valory fires.  Sweets' chin drops to the hole in his shirt and the black blood emanates from there.  Then it pours from the mouth, turning to gas beyond the chin.  Finally, the whole of the apparition flows out from beneath his scales and Sweets drops like a discarded puppet.

She gets one step for the exit before the cloud flies to block her escape.  Turning on her heels, Valory surrenders her jacket, a boot, and the hair sock to the amorphous being grabbing for her.  Valory runs across the holographic table and through the open door on the crew quarters-side before sealing it behind her.  The black blood begins to pursue around the table, but recedes at the closed door to flow back into Sweets who rises once again.

Valory lingers at another interface when the gears in the door start turning.  Some of the freed hair falls across her face.  She completes an anti-lock-cracking command that displays a graphic of the gears spinning without attempting to find the combination that releases the seal.

VALORY:  That ought to keep you preoccupied.

She heads for engineering
after removing her last boot.

The crew hear Valory over the coms, but there is too much interference.

TULIA:  She must be in trouble.

NICODEMUS:  We got too much of 

our own to do anything about it.

Esben starts to turn back
and bumps Erimentha.

NICODEMUS:  Hey, hey, hey!  You break her concentration 

then you and I will have a problem.  She is the only thing 

protecting you.  You won't make it ten feet.  

Esben roars pitifully.

NICODEMUS:  We don't save your friend by going back.

This attack is controlled at the source.  It is the only

vulnerability we can exploit.  We can't 

realistically fight the blood.

Esben holds up the sword.

NICODEMUS:  I don't know anything about that.

ERIMENTHA:  The weapon is foreign to me as well.

TULIA:  Sweets knew it was important, at least to Esben.

AARON:  It could mean we've got something to fight

Samael with if we find him.

RUNE:  I vote we keep moving.

ERIMENTHA:  Seconded.  The pressure is

building against the barrier.

She winces first and then Ross follows.

ERIMENTHA:  Another psychic attack.  

He's pinpointing us.  Move!  Move!

They round a corner and the gravity hits them wrong.
It becomes like trying to walk up a steep incline,
but they are confronted with a smooth surface.

NICODEMUS:  This is what the suits are for.  

Engage your boots and avoid leaning 

all the way forward.

ERIMENTHA:  Will mine still work?

AARON:  You're good.  

But Esben already lost his.

Esben proceeds to climb hand over hand with ease
while making use of opening storage compartments
in the hall and grasping hand rails.

AARON:  Never mind.

Ross leads the way finding himself the lightest.
He opens a door at his feet and probes with his hand.

ROSS:  This way isn't fighting against us.

The black blood pools at what for now might as well be considered the bottom of a shaft.  Esben and Aaron work together to lift Erimentha up for a speedy retreat through their escape route.  Nicodemus, Rune and Desdine lay down fire to delay it.  Ross drops a grenade into the pool.

Erimentha hugs Aaron and envelopes a momentary personal shield.  As the explosion passes, Desdine joins Esben in lifting the both of them up.  With everyone but Desdine through the door, Ross drops a second grenade.  Desdine follows through with the explosion close behind him.

DESDINE:  Proposal… if assassination is the desired end, 

perhaps I should be allowed to cut you loose.

ROSS:  Can we afford to do without it?

RUNE:  I don't see how it could hurt.

It wouldn't be a loss to us.

TULIA:  We don't know where he 

came from to begin with.

Sending Desdine out there

alone could be asking for it.

AARON:  Then having him with us

would be equally dangerous.

But Desdine did save us once.

Go ahead.

DESDINE:  Acknowledged.

Desdine about-faces and marches up the corridor and turns a corner out of sight.  Smoke begins to come around where he disappeared.  The crew hear distant laser fire.  Further, there is an explosion and sizzling wires.  The black cloud crackles like ice and falls to the floor, solid.

Then there is a click, click and stomp.  Click, click, stomp.
With frozen gears, Desdine emerges from around the
corner once again.  He drags behind him a trophy.

DESDINE:  Report.  I believe I already encountered 

one of the heathen.  Is this one of the blasphemous 

drones that have been troubling you, master?

AARON:  Yes.  It is.  Good work, Desdine.

DESDINE:  Black blood neutralized upon 

elimination of this unit.  Larger body is retreating.

ROSS:  Samael's power must 

have a limited range.

ERIMENTHA:  But this technique is unheard of.

To be augmented by machines?

AARON:  Maybe you don't know as much

about Samael as you think you do.

NICODEMUS:  In any case, these nodes are another weakness 

to exploit now that we know what they are.

TULIA:  How do we exploit them?

You see what it did to Desdine.

ERIMENTHA:  The mist merely froze in his gears

when it died.  If we can stay at a distance while

destroying these machines I think we'll be alright.

NICODEMUS:  Sounds like a plan to me.

AARON:  What do we do about Desdine?

ROSS:  We don't really have time 

to clean him out.

RUNE:  What about your powers?

ERIMENTHA:  Blood cannot be resuscitated

once good and dead.

More of the cloud appears.

AARON:  Cover our retreat and, if you still can, 

make your way back to help Valory.

DESDINE:  Acknowledged.

Desdine fires blindly into the smoke
and is engulfed by the darkness.

Valory is working in engineering when a tool box falls, spilling everything.  She leaps from where she had been crouched and wrench in hand rounds the engine's core.  On the other side, Valory is confronted with Safe cowering in the corner.

VALORY:  Safe?  Darn it, you scared me!

He rolls to leave.

VALORY:  Oh, no you don't.  I need your help here.

The console to the sealed common area flashes green.  Sweets steps out and scans right to left.
He spies the abandoned boot on the floor leading to the left and follows that sign.  Engineering comes into view with Valory working at the mouth of the door.  He wastes no time running straight at her and she seals the door in his face, which he slams both fists against.

SWEETS:  No where to run from here.

He stretches out one hand, which disappears in the black cloud.  It penetrates the door and begins to work the gears.  Then Sweets is electrified through his contact with the blood.

On the inside, Valory has removed some power cables from the floor and wired the door.  While she can still hear Sweets being electrocuted she cradles Safe close to her for comfort.

Outside, the blood crackles and becomes stone and Sweets falls over like a statue.  She hears the thud and curious, puts Safe aside.  She goes to the door console and brings up a camera.  There, Sweets lies with a partially outstretched hand.

VALORY:  Now we got to tell the others.

The crew come to a six-way intersection, which darkness appears at the end of each hallway they are about to turn to.  Trapped, everyone circles up.  Esben roars to raise his ire and Nicodemus spins up his minigun for flourish.  Ross shares some grenades with Tulia and Rune.

Aaron takes Erimentha's hand and pulls her from the circle.

AARON:  You can do this.

ERIMENTHA:  What are you doing?

AARON:  You have to pick one and face it head on.

ERIMENTHA:  That's suicide.  I can't push

against that the whole way.

AARON:  You're the only one here who can.

I'll be right here with you.

He holds up her own hand.

AARON:  I'm not going anywhere.

NICODEMUS:  Get back in formation!

ERIMENTHA:  Form up on us!

We'll clear a path.

They run.

Erimentha is blasted through the barrier she projects ahead of her and the black blood has taken the form of flood waters at their backs in pursuit.  The pressure from the volume ahead of her become too much to push against and she slows.  The flood water is gaining.

Grenades slow the flood, but to no lasting purpose and will soon be expended.  Erimentha strains and begins to glow white over her body.  This is accompanied with the early signs of danger by way of a bloody nose.  She turns one eye to Aaron who is watching her.

VOICE:  Ask.

AARON:  Give some to me.

Erimentha senses in involuntary impulse of some energy leaving her body.  It flows into Aaron, first his fingers and then causing his hand to glow.  He feels a new warmth travel up his arm and across his collar bone and down to the other hand.

ERIMENTHA:  I can feel it.

I'll show you.

A new shield forms at their back
and the flood water breaks against it.

ERIMENTHA:  Together now.

In step, Aaron and Erimentha slowly advance up the corridor.  Once, Erimentha's foot slips and the barrier ahead falters.  Aaron holds her up by the hand and stares down nearly being speared before Esben chops away the intrusion.  This clears the way ahead just long enough for Erimentha to rejuvenate the shield.  Esben elects to stand alongside in case the barrier should fail again.

Instead, when they come to the end of the hallway at another juncture it causes a gap in the shield where the wall used to be.  Esben slices several times around the side of the shield.  The black blood initially recoiled in pain, but then summons a surge that throws him back.

Hand in hand, Erimentha pushes ahead to mostly plug off the hall to right, but another hallway to the left is clear.  Some of the black blood continues to seep through and flows toward Esben, who lies still.  It begins to flow away from him and as a deceptively gentle pool encroaches upon the other's escape through the open passage.

Esben rises, unharmed.  He slices at the ground, scattering the pool and causing it to retreat.  Questioning faces, the crew rush passed and onto the cleared path.  Esben shakes like a dog to be rid of the last of the troublesome ichor.  Then he joins the rest as Aaron collapses his shield in concert with Erimentha covering their backs as before.  Aaron lets go of her hand.

ERIMENTHA:  Thank you.

RUNE:  Where to next?

ROSS:  This way.

TULIA:  Ross?

He puts a finger to his lips.

ROSS:  We're close.

The black blood recedes out of sight.
Erimentha lowers the shield.
The lights shut off at the sound
of a heavy switch.

AARON:  Well that's just spiteful.

NICODEMUS:  Lights on.

They turn back on the spotlights in their suits.  Erimentha holds a glowing hand over her head.
The golden yellow symbols on Esben's sword continue to shine through.  Nicodemus walks down the center of the hallway at the front of the formation.  Esben does the same for them at the back.  Everyone else hugs the walls.

Rune darts his head out at the next corner and spies a large sealed door ahead.  They continue only a couple steps more when it opens, which results in everyone jumping back a pace.  Nothing happens.  They proceed and find the door opens up to a large chamber.

The center of the instillation consists of a free-floating core of rings connecting to make a sphere.
And through these various rings black blood flows in currents, which is why it is suspended.
There is a receiving bowl in case the core should need to come to rest, such as in the event it were depleted.  Power generators and conduits are built into the walls of the chamber, interconnected by catwalks, to help carry the power to the rest of the Atlas.

ERIMENTHA:  Harnessing the power of blood.  

Just like the Shadow's Heart.

ZAYD-NEIL:  Thank you for delivering it to me.

ERIMENTHA:  Where are you?

ZAYD-NEIL:  All too close, Perdeus.

He manifests eye to eye with her.  She blasts a wide energy beam in his chest, but he turns to smoke.
She falls to her knees, exhausted from fully committing to such an attack.

VALORY: (static) Can you hear me?  

Are you there?

AARON:  Valory?

VALORY: (static) Don't let the darkness

touch you.  I found a way to kill it.  Sweets-

TULIA:  Valory?  Valory, what did you find?

What about Sweets?

ZAYD-NEIL:  Star-crossed.  Doomed souls.

The stranger stands on a catwalk overhead.

ZAYD-NEIL:  I... am... your... salvation.

AARON:  Come on, Erimentha.

He helps her up.

AARON:  What is he talking about?

ERIMENTHA:  I don't know.

I don't know him.

TULIA:  What do you mean?

He's the reason why we're here.

ERIMENTHA:  Masters?

That isn't Samael.

PREVIOUS                                                                                                                                     NEXT