The Key

by Brian Fisher

  Chapter 55

  Admiral West tentatively stepped forward into the ruined corridor. The emergency lights had started to fade; making it was dark enough that he could barely see the debris littered passageway. He walked forward, having never been there before, but knowing that he was going the right way. The voice inside his head told him so.

  He pulled his uniform jacket close about his thin body, in a futile attempt to ward off the growing cold. 'Just keep moving you worthless bag of meat.' the voice kept telling him. He didn't know why he listened to it, he just did. It had never steered him wrong anyway, so why not listen to it? The voice was always right, always there. Never question the voice.

  Steadily, he kept moving deeper into the darkness. Wasn't there someone with him? Yes, the Captain. His new aide. What was his name again? Oh yes, Captain Nom Gar. Yes, that was the man's name. He'd been with him for years, hadn't he?

  'Walk!' the voice yelled at him from inside his mind.

  "No! I must think!" Admiral West screamed into the darkness. "You must allow me to think!"

  "I must do nothing." Nom sneered at the Admiral. "You must do as I say!" he screamed as he struck the Admiral in the back of the knees, dropping him to the floor. Nom raised his fists, and hammered them down against the side of the other man's head. "You will do as I command, and nothing more!"

  "I am an Admiral." Admiral West whimpered as he curled up into a fetal position and cradled his head. He looked up at Nom in confusion as his eyes began to tear. "I am an Admiral." he cried.

  "You are nothing." Nom laughed as he pounded his boot into the back of Admiral West's head. He continued to kick long after the other man had lost consciousness, and his head snapped back and forth with each monstrous blow.

  Finally, Nom ceased his attack, and used one of his Ta'Reeth creatures to heal his victim. As much as he hated Admiral West, and what the man represented, he was of no use if he was dead. Nom waited for the Admiral's skull to knit back together, and the effects of his beating to disappear before he woke him, and continued deeper into the ruins of Olcai.

  The endless darkened corridors finally gave way to a small, dimly lit room filled with junk. After seemingly endless hours in the dark, the dim light threatened to blind the two men as they entered the room. Refuse and debris of all kinds were piled high, almost reaching the ceiling. 'What you seek is here.' the voice said, crashing into the Admiral's thoughts, throwing his own out of the way like a broken utensil.

  "What could possibly be here?" Admiral West muttered a little too loudly, fearing that Captain Gar might hear him, and cause the Captain to punish him.

  'The way out.' came the silent reply. 'What else do you think it could be, you putrid excuse for a servant?' the voice was always condescending, bordering on belligerent, but he had come to trust it, to rely on its wisdom.

  "Captain Gar, could you help me for a moment, please." Admiral West requested. He could have ordered the Captain to help, but had not, in fear of offending the man.

  It occurred to the Admiral that something was not right. Why was he concerned with offending Captain Gar? No one ranking below him deserved his attention. Only Captain Gar, and the voice, deserved his respect. Nobody else could ever be as good, or deserve his trust, like Captain Gar and the voice. This puzzled him, but he shook it off as inconsequential and continued on.

  "What can I help you with Sir?" Nom asked his puppet. He was careful to keep the sound and image of respect; otherwise, the Admiral might become wary.

  "Captain, I think that there may be something here that we can use to escape this dreadful place. I would appreciate it if you would help me find it." Admiral West said as he began to search through the debris. He wasn't at all sure what he was looking for, but the voice told him that it was here, and that was good enough for him.

  "What am I looking for Sir?" Nom asked. He knew what he would find, but there was still the need for the Admiral to think that he was the one in charge, and the one to save them.

  "I'm not sure yet. I just have this feeling that there's something here." Admiral West dug deeper into the piles of debris. He kept digging, sifting through the trash, looking for something, anything that may help him.

  Hours passed as the two men searched until finally, they found it. The Admiral stopped in his tracks when he finished clearing away a pile of discarded Cloning Pods. He stood on the bare floor, looking at a hatch. The tiny hatch lay recessed into the floor, with a mechanical latch set in the middle of it.

  Tentatively, he took hold of the latch and turned the handle. A soft click sounded beneath the floor, and the hatch popped open, revealing a ladder. 'Go down.' the voice called in the silence of the Admiral's mind.

  Following the directives of the voice, Admiral West climbed down the ladder, without looking back to see if Captain Gar was behind him. The ladder ran down a narrow shaft that was just big enough for the Admiral to squeeze through. There were no lights or sounds in the shaft, only the echoing of footsteps on the metal rungs of the ladder.

  Minutes passed ominously by as the two men descended into the darkness. They exchanged no words as they went, and none were needed. The voice was not calling out to the Admiral, but he knew it was still there, a reassuring presence in the suffocating solitude.

  After long minutes of descending the ladder, an opening appeared below the Admirals feet. It was a small hanger, just large enough to house the long-range shuttle inside it. A smile crept across Admiral West's face at the sight of a ship.

  Admiral West's eyes swept over the shuttle. It was small, barely large enough to hold two people, but it would do. A single, powerful engine protruded from the rear, marking the vessel as a long-range courier, capable of faster than light travel. There weren't many accommodations built into the shuttle, only the crew station and a small cargo hold were needed for the ship to accomplish its mission. Its lines were rather blunt, but not entirely lacking an aesthetic quality that appealed to the Admiral.

  Admiral West ran his hands over the hull of the little ship, pressing close to it, so that Captain Gar could squeeze by in the cramped hanger. He watched the Captain as he began to ready the ship for flight. The other man seemed to know what he was doing with the shuttle, as if he were intimately familiar with its design.

  "Get in the shuttle moron!" the voice screamed inside his head.

  Without hesitation, Admiral West opened the shuttle's hatch and climbed in. Finally, he would be free of the pathetic planet. Finally, he would be able to exact his revenge on Jason McWilliams.