by Kord Stone
The investigators never found the person or persons who had done it, and for a time Jason had been their prime suspect. They never explained why, but they harassed him for almost the entire year, even though he provided proof that he couldn’t have been in two places at one time.
The mere thought of it was nauseating. They were his brothers! They were triplets, in fact; he was the oldest by three minutes over Jerren and six minutes over Justin. He looked out for them and would never have hurt them let alone kill them. Most people couldn’t understand unless they had identical siblings, but his bond with his brothers was deep, and when they died it killed a very special part of his soul.
It was unfair that the authorities had spent so much time looking at him as the prime suspect. He felt it was almost as if they were deliberately letting the real killer get away. It had been a year to the day since they were murdered when he started his fateful camping trip. All he had wanted to do was get away and mourn in solitude. So he had grabbed some camping supplies and decided to try to grieve in peace. What an anniversary. He had been looking into the sky trying to figure it all out and then this happened.
Jason’s stomach gave a loud grumble and he got a cramp in his gut. Having been a S.E.R.E. survival instructor for the little time he was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington, it had prepared him for how to survive captivity. He was trained to keep going even with a lack of food and water and how to identify foliage and insects that were safe to eat. In a sterile environment like this however, he couldn’t even find a bug to eat. Then his eyes settled on the dead and honestly, a bit ripe alien laid out on the floor across from him. A single thought crept into his mind. MEAT! It only took a few seconds before he stifled his gag reflex and took a serious look at the silver disk that had managed to find its way back into his hand. “This had better work,” he said as he pressed the disk to the area behind his right ear.
The pain was worse than anything he had encountered in his entire life. It was as if his flesh were on fire. Blisters erupted all over his body then ruptured one by one as layer by layer they slowly cooked off. He could actually smell his body being seared. Just as that total agony ceased, another new feeling arose. Electrical shocks coursed throughout his body. His muscles spasmed and convulsed enough to almost snap his bones in half, followed by a compression that squeezed every ounce of air out of his lungs. He heard and felt his bones break and tear through his skin, then he felt his heart rate spike as more severe electrical jolts coursed through him. His head felt as though it were a balloon and would explode at any moment and the last coherent thought to enter his mind was, Never trust fucking aliens!
Chapter Three
It took a few seconds to figure out where he was and how he had gotten there. He appeared to be in the fourth room on the stainless steel bed. Only now that he thought of it, he realized it was probably a medical dissection table. Monitors were active on the walls where before there had been just smooth metal, and he had no recollection of getting there. All he knew was it felt as if the running of the bulls had taken place over his now immobile body. He couldn’t even move his head from side to side. The only thing he could move was his eyes. He was only able to look from side to side and blink them. Damn, now I’m paralyzed and stuck on this table and will just wither and die here.
That is when he heard a sultry voice enter his mind and say, You are not going to die.
Jason groaned, “This is not good. The voices are back. I really wish I had my medications.”
The voice in his head simply replied, You do not need medication.
“Tell that to my psychiatrist,” he retorted before he could stop himself then he cursed. “Damn, I cannot be having conversations with myself again.”
Then it struck him. “Wait a second. If I’m paralyzed, why am I feeling the pain in my body?”
You are not paralyzed, the voice replied.
“I’m not talking to you!” Jason snapped back.
There. The immobilization field has been removed. Does that help? the voice asked earnestly.
He felt as if he had been unwrapped from a very snug straitjacket, and a throbbing began to radiate throughout his body. He grimaced in pain. “Well at least I can move again.” Then a thought popped into his head. Hysterical paralysis. “Mind over matter…that makes sense,” he said with relief.
The voice gained an exasperated tone as it said, You make no sense. I removed the restraining field.
Jason worried that this was the worst the voices had ever been. They had never been this logical or persistent before. “This can’t be real!”
The voice became increasingly irritated and said, That is because I am very logical…very real…and very inside your head.
Jason couldn’t do this. Speaking to someone who was not there was psychotic, and the thought of it was building on his already pounding headache. He looked around the room and saw the dead alien lying on a kind of unzipped long body bag. A moment later a woman seemed to shimmer out of nowhere and stood in front of him. She was the most breathtakingly gorgeous woman he had ever seen. She had captivatingly blue eyes, long blonde hair, high cheekbones and full, luscious kiss-me lips. He let out a lustful groan. He didn’t know where the feeling came from, but he suddenly had an unexplained deep need to protect her. If this is a psychotic break, I don’t ever want to be sane again!
She looked at him and her deep blue eyes seemed to analyze him. “Well, I would say thank you, but since I am a manifestation of what and whom you would trust most, I have nothing to do with it.”
He couldn’t explain why but he did have the feeling as if he could trust her with his life. He looked into her beautiful gaze. “Okay, let’s say for the sake of arguing that what you’re saying is true. First off why would I need to trust you, and second why would I make you look like…” he waved a hand in her direction, “that? And how did you know what I was thinking?”
She smiled as she replied, “Your mind chose an image you are most likely to trust and confide in because we will be working together for a very long time. With us being literally bonded together, we can share our thoughts and to some extent feelings. This is the image your mind conjured to put you at ease.”
He was a little confused. “What do you mean by a long time and bonded?”
She replied, “You were chosen to be the new commander for this ship, and when you attached the disk to your head, my neural network bonded with yours.”
Jason stared doubtfully at her and said, “I don’t know about you but I don’t feel any different, aside from the feeling I just had my ass handed to me by an Albatron…wait what the hell is an Albatron?”
He saw her crack a smile and she said, “An Albatron was a very large beast whose grip could crush bones into powder after its electrical charge incapacitated and charred its victim. They have been extinct for almost fifty-seven thousand years now, ever since their star went nova.”
Jason just stared at her and asked, “How the hell would I know that name?”
She simply stated, “You know it because they are a part of my memory. You do not have a complete link with me or the database yet, but when you do, you will have access to all my knowledge and will be able to experience everything I have.”
A little irritated, he asked, “Wasn’t there a less painful way to accomplish this bonding?”
She gave him a quizzical look. “The bonding is usually painless. I have done this twelve times now and this is a first for me.”
She walked over to a monitor on the wall and consulted it for a moment.
She sighed. “Ah, this is different.”
“What’s different?”
She looked at him and said, “Well…you see the last time I bonded with a host was over fifteen thousand linear years ago.” She pointed to the deceased alien. “Elgon over there was the last full blood Lantin on Earth, although your people now refer to them as Atlanteans. The population on Earth back then was much less than now, and the energ
y flowing through their bodies we call enerxia…roughly translated…was a lot stronger. Some of the more evolved humanoids had powers and abilities that do not usually exist anymore. Training was required to harness and control their abilities. That training gave them a balance to the energy.” She smiled at him. “It looks as if you have some of that energy. Your body appears to be evolved enough, but the lack of training and use of the energy over time caused a buildup and when we bonded, it triggered a feedback effect. That would account for the added discomfort.”
Jason was undeniably irritated now and snapped, “Discomfort my ass! I have never experienced that much pain in my entire life…altogether.”
She looked at him with concern etched on her face. “Wait here for a second.” Then she disappeared.
“As if I could do anything else stuck on this ship,” he muttered.
I heard that, she admonished with a chuckle.
A few minutes later she reappeared. “This is without a doubt the strangest thing I have ever encountered. It took me a minute to connect with the pain receptors in your brain and…uh…that pain you experienced was, for the most part, mine.”
Astounded, Jason said, “What do you mean yours?”
She grimaced and continued. “Well the burning sensation you experienced was when my host died over one hundred and ninety thousand years ago in what we now refer to as the fire pit of Nerroth. The electrocution and crushing you felt was the result of an Albatron attack about sixty thousand years ago. I died from both of those attacks… Well the host died. I was recovered and after being reintegrated with the ship, I bonded with a new host. When we bonded, the feedback effect connected with my memories and you actually relived those events. I can recall very well how those felt, and I am truly sorry you had to experience them.”
He looked at her with astonishment. “What about the other feelings I had?”
She seemed to appraise him a moment. “The heart racing and headache were a result of my bonding with your brain. It reconnected a lot of the neural pathways resulting in an energy overload of sorts. It caused your heart rate to spike, in turn raising your blood pressure and a surge in neural activity. I am actually very surprised you survived the ordeal.”
He shook his head painfully. “After what I felt, I’m surprised as well! Actually I’m astounded that my mind isn’t broken like before, or maybe it is.” He looked around the room doubtfully.
She took a closer look at him as if doing an x-ray and stated emphatically, “Your mind was never broken. Archaic leach work is what you were exposed to. Your trauma in the military caused a few unused neural pathways to connect and in doing so it opened your perception to other stimuli. We call them multiphasic neural associations. The doctors on Earth had no clue what they were dealing with so they treated the symptoms and not the cause. And in doing so labeled you schizophrenic,” She took a deeper look and then shuddered. “No wonder!”
“What?”
“I saw what they did to you with the electroconvulsive therapy. In your case, it only built the energy up more. In true cases of schizophrenia it can work, but in your case the energy was just absorbed. I saw what they were going to do next, a partial frontal lobotomy.”
He looked at her dumbfounded. “They were not going to do that!”
She replied, “The human brain works a lot like a radio or a computer and the electrical impulses are like a data stream being transmitted. Less evolved minds do not block this, I peered through your memories and I heard the thoughts of people around you. With the way your mind is, you may not have been able to read their thoughts, but you may have been aware of their motives. You had an appointment next week for a skin cancer removal, correct?”
“Yes, but not a lobotomy!”
She stared directly into his eyes and calmly said, “The prosecutor in your brothers’ murder case convinced a federal judge to order an injunction against you. The judge forged the other tribunal members’ names and issued the order. The VA hospital was not even in the loop, and they made it look like the VA had outsourced your procedure to expedite your care. The medical staff at the surgical center, believing you were a murderer and dangerous, was going along with the order to get you in for the procedure for the safety of staff and the citizenry.
“The skin cancer they said was to be removed is nonexistent. They used your supposed mental impairment to make you the scapegoat so they could close the case. The prosecutor wanted the public to believe he was looking out for their safety, despite the fact he had no clues who killed them.” She paused a moment then muttered to herself, “That could be why we had to come so far back…” The last statement was almost inaudible.
Jason looked at her with stunned disbelief and asked, “After seeing what’s in my head how can you trust me?”
His statement drew her attention back and she peered deep into his eyes. “You are forgetting I am bonded with you. I see and know how your brothers’ deaths affected you and I know your innermost feelings.” She paused a second. “No, it is not unjust to punish the evil person who murdered your brothers, but you will have to wait for justice.”
His irritation peaked and he barked out, “Wait? I’ve been waiting for a year now. Why do I have to wait… Uh…what do you know that I don’t?”
She said, “I do not know if this is the right time to tell you.” She took another deep look at him and said, “No…it is definitely not the time to tell you. You will have to trust me. I can guarantee you one thing though. You will be able to have justice by the one-year mark of your brothers’ deaths if you so choose.” she said with a smirk.
He thought about what she was saying, then her words sank in. “Uh…that was three or four days ago.”
She just smiled at him and replied, “Actually, the end of that day is one hour and fifty minutes from now…not that time matters much in here.”
Jason looked down at his watch and said, “What is that supposed to mean?”
Her grin widened as she replied, “This is a time ship and as you just noticed on your watch, time is not moving at the moment.”
His head was reeling and something that had been nagging at the back of his mind suddenly came forward. “That’s why. I initially thought an EMP from the crash caused my watch to stop, but the digital display would have gone blank if it had been that. It only just dawned on me.”
She just laughed and said, “You are correct.”
Chapter Four
She looked intently at him and said, “I think it is about time for formal introductions. My official designation is an Artificial Lifeform Integrated Synaptic Escort or A.L.I.S.E.”
Jason thought about it a moment then replied, “Alise?”
She had a momentarily glazed look, then she told him, “You may call me Alise if you wish or you can choose another name.”
Jason looked at her for a moment before he instinctively held his hand out to say, “’It’s nice to meet you, Alise. My name is Jason Stone.”
He was about to retract his hand, realizing a projection couldn’t grasp it, when she took a hold of his hand, gave him a smile and said, “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Jason.”
“What?” He looked down at their joined hands. “I thought you were a projection or apparition in my head or something.”
Alise just smiled at him. “Well I am that, but within the bounds of this ship I can also maintain a solid form. The ship can create a lifelike body within the confines of this vessel. I can project my consciousness into it to assist with the operation and maintenance of the ship.”
Jason thought about that for a second then asked, “What about off the ship?”
“Well, that is another story altogether. I am bonded to your nervous system so while you are off this ship I can either remain in the body the ship provides, and stay on board or I can upload to the binding disk and tag along with you and see the sights as it were.”
Jason stared at her a moment and nodded in understanding, “Okay, now for the difficult q
uestions. Why me? What exactly is this ship’s purpose? And what am I supposed to do now?”
Alise replied, “First, as to why you.” She pointed to the dead guy across the room, “Elgon there chose you as his replacement, and after seeing what you were in store for, I think it is a good thing he did.”
He couldn’t argue with her on that point. He remembered seeing patients who had undergone that procedure, but in their cases they had been ultra-violent schizophrenics. It was hard to comprehend that was going to happen to him. He didn’t know how the prosecutor and judge could have managed to have the order followed to lobotomize him with the legal system as it was, but for some reason he believed Alise.
She continued. “Elgon was dying rapidly and he made a snap decision. You see there were five possibilities for a replacement commander currently still alive. Besides you there was your father…your half brother or one of your two nephews. Your father is married, and in the past, bonding with a married person had ended very badly. Not to mention it is forbidden, so he was disqualified, as was your half brother—”
Jason interrupted. “You bonded with a married host before?”
She shook her head and explained, “No that happened on another ship a very long time ago. It was forbidden before that, but they ignored the rules. I am not even sure there are any other ships in existence anymore. There were five ships that I knew of and we could contact each other but only if we were in the same phase at the same time. It has been over forty thousand years and we have had no contact with any of the other ships.”
He nodded, following her explanation.
She continued. “As I was saying about your brother. Marriage notwithstanding, he was a close second, but he is a little too into the…‘wacky weed’ I believe you call it. Which is fine for medicinal purposes but he seemed to like it on a recreational basis, and that tends to result in a lack of initiative and focus. Your two nephews are both too young to understand or perform the duties required of the position, not to mention they were following in your brother’s footsteps.”
