with me.
“Play messages,” I ordered the com.
The first was from Dr. Tep. “Shalia, you have an appointment with me as of fifteen minutes ago,” he said, sounding exhausted and a bit temperamental. “Please get here as soon as possible.”
I checked the chronometer. Holy shit, I should have been in Medical an hour and a half ago. What the hell had I been doing in that bulkhead for all that time?
The second message was from Betra. His voice was almost screamy from worry. “Shalia, where are you? You didn’t make your appointment with Tep. Com me back immediately, or I’ll have Oses track you down.”
His message had been left 45 minutes ago. Surely he’d put the weapons commander on my trail well before now. Why hadn’t they found me?
I realized they hadn’t been able to find Candy either, not until they tracked her when she contacted me. Even I’m not so slow as to not figure out what was going on.
I was turning for the door, ready to run my infected ass straight to Medical before I could lose my mind as Candy had, when the floor beneath me shook. Screams and then warning claxons erupted in the corridor outside my door.
The message over the transport’s announce system came seconds later. “All Mataras, please go to your quarters immediately. Your section of the ship is not in danger. I repeat, Mataras, please go to your quarters and await instructions from your liaisons.”
I had no idea what was going on. However, I knew I had something to do with it. I thought about the computer in the bulkhead, the vid showing numbers changing. Perhaps counting down?
The order had been to stay in quarters. Screw that. I needed to be in Medical, maybe even in stasis. I ran out of my room ... and straight into Betra.
The Imdiko grabbed me, his eyes wide. “Shalia, thank the ancestors! Where have you been?”
I didn’t answer him. “What happened? What was that big jerk I felt?”
He shoved me back into my quarters. “One of the shuttle bays suffered explosive decompression when the door to space opened without warning.”
I got a really sick feeling in my gut. “How many, Betra? How many were killed?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m a liaison, so I wouldn’t have that information right away. No doubt at least a dozen or so men were working in there. Probably more. I doubt they all got away in time.”
At least a dozen lives lost. Men doing their jobs, not harming anyone. Why?
“Is the ship in danger?” I asked.
Betra sighed with obvious relief. “An emergency containment field went up seconds after the doors opened. The ship is fine. Hopefully, that also means a lot of the crew got away unscathed.”
He hugged me tight against his body, but my thoughts were riveted by what he’d said. An emergency containment field? Damn it, there had been no indication of any such thing, but I should have known there would be something like that in place in case of a rupture. I had been dormant for far too long, and this body was putting up too much of a fight for me to function at capacity.
Rage suffused me. I was too angry at my failure to even realize I wasn’t hiding my thoughts from the host anymore.
Wait a minute. I meant to write, I was so focused on the otherness inside me to realize it wasn’t me...Shalia me...thinking and furious with the invader’s failure.
I remember everything as if it was my own actions causing them. At that moment, the other was in my head, running my body, and using me. But it didn’t feel separate from me at all. It felt like it all came from me.
That scares me more than anything else. I couldn’t separate it from me at all in that moment.
Lost in the parasite’s will, I turned the rage against Betra. I yanked free of him and shoved him away. He went down, arms and legs flailing, his mouth a perfect ‘O’ of surprise. He didn’t let go of me right away, and
“Play messages,” I ordered the com.
The first was from Dr. Tep. “Shalia, you have an appointment with me as of fifteen minutes ago,” he said, sounding exhausted and a bit temperamental. “Please get here as soon as possible.”
I checked the chronometer. Holy shit, I should have been in Medical an hour and a half ago. What the hell had I been doing in that bulkhead for all that time?
The second message was from Betra. His voice was almost screamy from worry. “Shalia, where are you? You didn’t make your appointment with Tep. Com me back immediately, or I’ll have Oses track you down.”
His message had been left 45 minutes ago. Surely he’d put the weapons commander on my trail well before now. Why hadn’t they found me?
I realized they hadn’t been able to find Candy either, not until they tracked her when she contacted me. Even I’m not so slow as to not figure out what was going on.
I was turning for the door, ready to run my infected ass straight to Medical before I could lose my mind as Candy had, when the floor beneath me shook. Screams and then warning claxons erupted in the corridor outside my door.
The message over the transport’s announce system came seconds later. “All Mataras, please go to your quarters immediately. Your section of the ship is not in danger. I repeat, Mataras, please go to your quarters and await instructions from your liaisons.”
I had no idea what was going on. However, I knew I had something to do with it. I thought about the computer in the bulkhead, the vid showing numbers changing. Perhaps counting down?
The order had been to stay in quarters. Screw that. I needed to be in Medical, maybe even in stasis. I ran out of my room ... and straight into Betra.
The Imdiko grabbed me, his eyes wide. “Shalia, thank the ancestors! Where have you been?”
I didn’t answer him. “What happened? What was that big jerk I felt?”
He shoved me back into my quarters. “One of the shuttle bays suffered explosive decompression when the door to space opened without warning.”
I got a really sick feeling in my gut. “How many, Betra? How many were killed?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m a liaison, so I wouldn’t have that information right away. No doubt at least a dozen or so men were working in there. Probably more. I doubt they all got away in time.”
At least a dozen lives lost. Men doing their jobs, not harming anyone. Why?
“Is the ship in danger?” I asked.
Betra sighed with obvious relief. “An emergency containment field went up seconds after the doors opened. The ship is fine. Hopefully, that also means a lot of the crew got away unscathed.”
He hugged me tight against his body, but my thoughts were riveted by what he’d said. An emergency containment field? Damn it, there had been no indication of any such thing, but I should have known there would be something like that in place in case of a rupture. I had been dormant for far too long, and this body was putting up too much of a fight for me to function at capacity.
Rage suffused me. I was too angry at my failure to even realize I wasn’t hiding my thoughts from the host anymore.
Wait a minute. I meant to write, I was so focused on the otherness inside me to realize it wasn’t me...Shalia me...thinking and furious with the invader’s failure.
I remember everything as if it was my own actions causing them. At that moment, the other was in my head, running my body, and using me. But it didn’t feel separate from me at all. It felt like it all came from me.
That scares me more than anything else. I couldn’t separate it from me at all in that moment.
Lost in the parasite’s will, I turned the rage against Betra. I yanked free of him and shoved him away. He went down, arms and legs flailing, his mouth a perfect ‘O’ of surprise. He didn’t let go of me right away, and
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