The Numinous

by Michie, Tristan

  My baby boy, why? No!

  Markus still couldn't move, he was in shock; he didn't know what to do. He shouted to her to stop, but the more he tried the worse she became. Christopher’s eyes, had turned black like Louise' had; there was blood everywhere.

  “Stop, please, MAKE IT STOP!” Markus shouted.

  With that, James Hortons voice came over the ships tannoy.

  “This is James Horton of the Numinous. Markus, Louise and anyone else that's out there and can hear this; please make your way to the Bridge. There is something here you need to see, please head back as soon as you can.”

  “Let me show you...”

  Markus fell to the floor, he felt exhausted. The room was empty again, there was no sign of Christopher, Louise or any sign anything he had just witnessed had ever happened.

  He slowly got himself to his feet, the battery on the flash light was getting low, the beam getting dimmer. His body felt wrecked, he'd just witnessed the violent murder of his Son at the hands of Louise. All he could think about was finding her and killing her, Markus' mind had been fragile before, now it was nigh on shattered.

  She'll pay for this, she'll fucking pay; the twisted bitch!

  He started making his way up the stairs, all fear that had previously consumed Markus had gone; replaced by a paranoid, hate filled rage. His only thought was the death of Louise, drag her up to the Bridge by her hair and cut her up in front of James.

  Fuck it, kill that bastard too. Who put him in charge anyway?

  Somewhere, deep in the depths of Markus' mind a tiny voice tried to speak out, tried it's best to tell Markus to stop. But it went unheard, nothing could shout over the voice which now resided in his head, the voice of insanity.

  12

  Louise opened her eyes, her head was splitting. It took a few minutes for her vision to clear, she lay on the floor desperately trying to remember what had happened. She tried to move but her body screamed out in pain; she hurt everywhere, no longer was the pain confined to her head. She felt as though her insides had been cut free, as though they were just laying in her chest cavity; no longer in any kind of working order, just sat there doing the absolute minimum they could. She stared at the ceiling as her eyes slowly began to focus, she was cold; she hadn't noticed before but her broken body was trembling. And then she remembered.

  Edward.

  Her heart jumped at the memory, Edward was lying in his Stasis chamber dead and by the looks of it had been that way for a while. She attempted to sit up, she felt as though she was burning; her body a blazing inferno – the pain was beyond agonising. Slowly with tears running down her face she managed to sit up against the nearest Stasis chamber, she noticed her hands; they were covered in dry blood.

  My nose, it bled everywhere.

  She sat against the chamber until the pain started to subside, all the while trying to remember what had happened to her; slowly her memories started to return.

  My God, there was something in that room with me.

  The thought of whatever it had been sent a chill through her and brought the feeling of terror right back into her; where it nestled deep in her very being.

  I need to see Edward, he can't be dead; he can't.

  Very slowly she tried to stand, using the Stasis chamber as a support. Her body was wracked in pain but she fought through it and was finally up on her feet. Louise noticed the floor, a large pool of blood circled where her body had lain. She felt faint at the sight, quickly grabbing the Stasis chamber before she found her self back on the floor.

  Jesus, did all that come from my nose? There's so much, too much.

  She got herself back up, just to be away from the blood; pain shot through her body like poison. She began to sway, desperately she tried to clear her mind but images of Edwards writhing dead body were lodged in her consciousness.

  No, I can't take it, can't take the pain.

  Vomit shot from her mouth onto the floor, mixing with her slowly drying blood. The pain was too much and she slid back into the puddle of blood and vomit.

  Unconsciousness swiftly took her.

  Louise woke up with the sound of James' voice in her head.

  Was James here?

  She tried to call for him, her throat dry and sore; a faint croak is all that escaped her mouth.

  The ComSpeak, he must have been on the ComSpeak.

  Slowly she lifted her wrist and looked at her watch, it had been two hours since she had left Engineering with Markus.

  “I should have been back ages ago.” She said to herself in a quiet, hoarse voice.

  Louise got herself to her feet again, leaning against the Stasis chamber until the pain subsided; her stomach felt like it was full of razor blades.

  The Stasis chamber she was leant against was Edwards, she realised this as she slowly turned to face it. To her sadness Edward was inside and he was dead, she hadn't noticed before but he looked different; different in the sense that something was missing but she couldn't work out what it was. She looked at him, distress in her eyes.

  He was my friend, how can he be dead. Did I imagine all of it?

  She softly sobbed over his chamber, her tears ran down the viewing window. She stayed that way for several minutes.

  I need to get to the bridge.

  She gave Edward one last look, gave his body a gentle wave and tried to walk out of the room. Every step she took sent waves of pain surging through her body, she cried in pain.

  I'm dying. Why? What's happened to me?

  Back in the room behind, peaceful in his resting place, Edwards body started to disappear; Two minutes later he was gone, without a trace.

  Louise concentrated on her feet, forcing each one to move in turn. She didn't know how much longer she could cope with it.

  Maybe I won't have to for much longer.

  Eventually she made it back to the stairwell, she had dragged herself back, tears streaming down her face, every step agonising; but she had made it. As she sat down on the stairs, she noticed she still had the personal log in her hand.

  How the hell have I clung onto this? Why hadn't I noticed I was carrying it?

  “HEY!” The sudden voice startled her, she dropped the log on the floor where it opened itself up.

  Markus was standing in the corner amongst the shadows, she hadn't even seen him there.

  “You don't look so good Louise.” He said, his voice sounded strange.

  “Markus? I......I......found Edward....” The words struggled to leave her throat.

  “So where is he then?” Markus answered, he sounded on edge; stressed.

  “He's.................dead.” She quietly answered.

  Markus fell silent, he stared at her from his corner. Louise noticed his hands clenched into fists. He was shaking.

  “My Son is dead, did you know that Louise?” Markus said out of nowhere.

  She tried to speak but her voice had given up, she felt frightened. Not too long ago she was trying to reassure Markus, trying to make him feel better. Something had happened to him, there was a definite hostility around him.

  Markus, please leave me.

  “I just asked you a question.” He barked at her.

  “No.” It was the only work she could force out.

  “Of course you didn't, I mean; it's not like you killed him is it?” The words were spat out, he was getting angry.

  He's blaming me.

  He walked over to her, she tried to back away up the stairs.

  “You can't get out of this one Louise, we're all gonna die in this forsaken place anyway!”

  He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her off the stairs where she crashed to the floor, knocking the log into the wall. It started to play.

  “I've been awake now for a few hours, there's only a few of us up. I thought the night shift had about forty people. Haven't been able to find Jerry anywhere. I've spent the last hour or so checking temperatures around the ship, the joys of Science personnel! Everything seems OK, yet thing
s just aren't right. The times have all changed on the ship, the date is...”

  “You will suffer for what you have done Louise.” His voice sounded remarkably calm. “There's no sign of James anywhere around here, what did you do to him?”

  Markus grabbed her hair again and pulled her on her feet, she tried to scream but her throat felt so broken nothing would come out. She was terrified, she was going to die here, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Markus punched her in the stomach hard, she bent over in agony; the wind forced out of her. As she gasped for air Markus brought her face down on his knee, she felt her nose crunch under the force. The tears from her eyes mixed with the blood and mucus from her nose, she could feel darkness creeping in around her.

  “Is 2079, that's years ago! I've heard some of the others talk about an 'Anomaly', whatever that is. Gonna keep my ear to the ground.”

  Markus threw her back to the floor.

  Please leave me, please. I've done nothing wrong, please.

  He watched her try and crawl away from him, struggling and gasping for air. She was suffering and he liked it. The insane rage had fully taken over his faculties now, Markus had left; only to be replaced by a monster.

  He walked over to her and kicked her hard in the chest, a smile on his face. She felt her ribs crack under the force, now she really did struggle to breath. The pain was unbelievable, she tasted blood in her mouth. She rolled over onto her back to try and defend herself, holding her hands out in front of her. Markus just looked down at her, her pathetic form writhing and crawling around on the floor.

  “You deserve this, you've had it coming the moment you laid your filthy hands on him!” The hate in his voice was frightening.

  He took her left hand, gently stroking it. Looking into her eyes as he did, the terror in them, the absolute fear behind them made the tiny voice in Markus' head scream again.

  “NO, NO, NO” It screamed at him, but as before it went unheard; Markus appeared to be lost in the grip of madness.

  With one quick, fluid movement he snapped the fingers on Louise' hand; finally she was able to scream with pain.

  “SHUT UP!” He shouted at her. “SHUT UP!”

  “Me again, it's been a couple days since my last recording but something is definitely amiss. Today I spoke to Markus about the funny date thing, he was confused as well.”

  Hearing his name on the log made Markus stop his barrage of pain for a moment.

  She knew Markus?

  “It seems all the systems on board the ship have reset themselves to 2079. He suggest the anomaly we passed through must of interfered with the systems some how. Stranger still, some of the crew have gone missing, and I mean missing. It's like they were never here!”

  Markus glanced down at Louise' bloodied and broken body and for a moment was free from the insanity that had devoured him.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck! What have I done, Louise please. I'm sorry. Shit, shit!”

  Louise lay on the ground looking at him, his face had changed; he looked and sounded like Markus again. Tears were rolling down his face, hands over his mouth.

  “I'm sorry.” Was all he could say.

  He crouched down beside her, looking at the damage he had caused to her already frail body. He stroked her hair and wiped away her tears as best he could. She was a mess, her face bruised and bloodied, her nose crushed, her lips split. Occasionally she would cough, blood would splash from her mouth.

  All of a sudden Markus fell backwards as a wave of pain unlike anything he had ever felt before washed over his body, blood ran down his face; from his nose and ears, even his eyes. His clothes were turning red as his body rapidly started to split apart. He screamed a scream the like Louise had never heard before. And then silence. Slowly, and much to Louise' absolute shock, Markus began to vanish, like his body was dissolving into nothing. Seconds later he was gone.

  Louise lay on the floor in crippling pain, with one thought running through her head, again and again...

  It's like they were never there...

  13

  Louise must have passed out, she woke with a jolt. She had been dreaming or was it memories? She'd been on the Numinous checking the vital stats of some of the crew members in Stasis, one of the chambers had contained Edward. She remembered he was sick, he wasn't to be woken for night shift duty. Edward was to stay in Stasis until they had reached Alpha Centauri, hopefully by then the infection would be clear. They needed him in good health; he was one of the senior scientists on the ship. Other memories were vague, strange atmospheres aboard the ship, cold spots and people going missing. She remembered that part quite well, one of the Stasis chambers had started its waking procedure; seemingly on its own but the crew member within had vanished. There was no sign of him anywhere, they had the whole night shift out looking for him; calling for his return on the ships tannoy system but there was no sign of him. They even checked the airlocks and escape pods in case he had actually left the ship, but there was nothing. She remembered the whole incident had created a weird atmosphere, people were becoming paranoid; especially with talk of this so called anomaly.

  Did this actually happen?

  Louise lay motionless on the floor, too scared to move; although she knew she would have to sooner or later. She needed to meet up with James.

  But Markus said he wasn't about.

  She dismissed her thoughts, Louise didn't care for much Markus had said, he had been in the grip of madness at the end.

  He wanted to kill me.

  Gingerly she moved her legs, she was going to try and sit up against the wall. The pain was phenomenal, her chest especially; her ribcage had almost been caved in due to Markus' kick. She remembered the pain, the fear. She thought she was dead.

  Maybe I am?

  Slowly she sat herself up and looked towards the stairs.

  I need to get up them somehow.

  The ship started to get darker again, all around her the shadows started to creep in. The power was starting to fail, soon the lights will be off; shortly followed by life support.

  A few feet away from her the personal log lay on the floor, in the struggle it had been kicked about all over the floor. She remembered how it had been playing in the background when Markus set upon her, it would seem Sally Worthing had known Markus before all this happened. She wondered what he was like back then.

  A scientist? He had remembered nothing about his role on this ship.

  She reached out to grab the log with her right hand, her left was now swollen and useless; most of her fingers had been snapped. The thought of it made her want to be sick.

  How could everything have gone so bad?

  She felt tears running down her face, she didn't want to cry; she couldn't take the pain the effort of crying would bring. She grasped the log and checked it over, it all seemed in one piece. Her eyes were drawn to the stairs again, she had to make it up there.

  Very slowly she got to her feet, the pain was intense, and leant against the wall. She tried to call out.

  “James, are you up there?” But her voice was weak, if he was upstairs he'd never hear her.

  Louise staggered across the floor until she reached the hand rail, she placed the log under her left arm and proceeded to drag herself up the stairs.

  It had taken her nearly twenty minutes to reach the top, by which point she was exhausted. The door to the bridge was open and from where she was stood she could see the captains chair.

  There, I need to get there.

  She walked the twenty metre distance, each step felt like it could be her last, every painful breath her final exhalation. She collapsed in the chair, almost unable to breath; her body physically exhausted. Her nose had started to bleed again and her head had a strange stabbing sensation running through it; quite unlike the previous headaches she had suffered. She closed her eyes. Memories began to form again; more people had started to go missing aboard the Numinous. There had been Forty of them when they began the night shift, they ended it
was just Twenty Two. She remembered the panicked faces, people were scared; something had gone very wrong. People don't just disappear like that. It had been decided by those that were left that a full waking procedure should be put into action. Everyone aboard the ship had to be made aware of what was happening.

  The view from the captains seat was beautiful, they were orbiting Alpha Centauri Bb; slowly approaching the dark side of the planet. The sunlight from Alpha Centauri B still prevailed and lit up the bridge, although it was slowly losing the fight. For now, it was the most beautiful thing Louise had ever seen.

  Earth needs to be told what is happening out here.

  She looked around the screens surrounding the Captains chair, until she found what she was looking for; the communications network. According to the stats on the screen it was still functioning and able to send and receive transmissions. She was about to send a message out when she noticed the crew roster was open on another screen.

  James must of found his Authorisation code.

  She stared at the screen in front of her for what seemed like an age, occasionally selecting different options and updating the information on-screen. Her heart was beating quickly, she couldn't quite comprehend what she was seeing.

  Display all crew members...

  Current crew:

  1: Louise Sims (Stasis Engineer)

  End report...

  how can I be all that's left?

  A memory from the personal log jumped to the front of her mind.

  It's like they were never there...

  She looked at the personal log; starting the last entry recorded.

  “Me again. Everyone has been taken out of Stasis, well nearly everyone; some are sick so are staying in their chambers. Lots of people have gone missing on the ship, it's strange; people are just vanishing. The weirdest part though, and if I’m honest, it really scares me; from what I’ve heard even their crew reports are gone from the computers. It's like they were never on this ship with us. It's been decided we'll return to Earth, we can't send them a message about what's going on though as we are still at speed of light travel; messes up the signal or something, but we are only a few days from Alpha Centauri now. Some people are freaking out about the anomaly though, especially mixed up with the time and date changing. The current year according to the Numinous is before this mission even started; I'm not sure if the ship had even been built then? That woman from Stasis, what's her name? Louise somebody or other? She says it's around the same time we first got the signal. Weird huh? I don't know what is going on around this place, I'll just be glad to get home; but my guess would be we've somehow gone back in time! I've heard it said, travelling this fast can slow down time, so why not? Hahaha! Though thinking about it, that doesn't explain the disappearances! Anyway, we are all due to go back into Stasis soon for the journey home, with any luck my next recording will be sent from the Earths orbit!”