U.S.S.A Alice

Chapter 9 Voyage of the damned

As soon as the maglev reached deck 33, I ran towards the lab to find out what was happening. what had caused Dr. Morrison to freak out and start attacking people? When I got to the lab, the guard wasn't there, was he inside? As I entered the lab I saw the security guard try to apprehend Dr. Morrison. The doctor rampaged through the laboratory, knocking specimens and lab equipment respectively onto the floor, he seemed as though he were possessed. "No, no, no! I have to get rid of it, all of them. None of these should be here, none of these things should exist!"  All I could do was stand there and watch as his sanity progressively deteriorated, why was this happening?- "Dr. please calm down, I'm trying to help you, you need to calm down." The guard tried to reason with him, to no avail.

"This is all a...a mistake, there's no time left. I have to destroy them, all of them." Dr. Morrison began to pick up a large wrench, and as he lifted it, the guard made a dash for him. Before the guard could react fast enough, Morrison bashed his faceplate in. Knocking the guard to the ground, he began beating him viciously with the improvised weapon. The guard begged him to stop while he was on the ground as Morrison was beating him to a pulp, then he stopped and walked over to the alien instrument. He began shaking as he stared at it. In a possible moment of lucidity, he looked back at us, the fear in his eyes gave it all away. "I'm so sorry, but I had to, I don't want to die."  He raised the wrench above his head to hit it with as much force as possible, there was nothing we could do to stop him. Only watch. Two guards rushed in and pointed their handguns at him.- "Drop the wrench Dr. Now!" He hesitated for a moment then cocked his arms back like he was about to swing a bat. Bang! A gunshot thundered throughout the room, hitting Morrison in the arm before he could finish his swing. The two security guards ran up to him and restrained him.

"Noo! What have you done?  The things it showed me, they need to be destroyed."  He sounded distraught as they put the cuffs on him - "The hell has gotten into you? Go check if he's still breathing."  The older guard said to the other. The guard looked at the one that Dr. Morrison had just beaten near to death.- "His vitals say he's still alive, his heartbeat is slow but steady. Hey, I'm going to call you some help okay, just hang in there with me."  He said crouching over him. - "I didn't want to do that, he tried to stop me, but I couldn't let him." He sounded genuinely remorseful, he was even crying.- "Save that shit for the captain in the brig." - "You don't understand, we are all going to die. This is a voyage of the damned! You hear me!"  Those words hit me hard, what did he mean by all that? What had it shown him?                          

We only worked for half the day after the whole ordeal, In the next couple of days since the incident, we found out what the artifact that made Dr. Morrison lose his mind and go on a psychotic rampage was. Lilith was right, it was an instrument, but we had little idea of what kind until now. When Morrison took it out of its case and exposed it to darkwave, it activated and played a pre-recorded song. Apparently, he was overwhelmed and left distraught, not only by the tune of the song but by the images and other stimuli it had traumatized him with. It was just sheer sensory overload and it broke him. He can't tell us what he experienced as he is being sedated for the remainder of the voyage, what horror had it shown him that it would drive a calm man like him to madness?

Things had calmed down since then, which is good but some strange things have been happening since the whole trip began. Even Damien has been feeling uneasy as the days have gone by, we've only seen each other here and there. I've even met some of his co-workers, they're an interesting bunch, to say the least, especially Lola and Tobey. Tyson was staring at me a lot, maybe he liked me or something. He was very polite to me, though he was also staring at Damien, just differently. Damien told me that they'd had a rocky work relationship, always butting heads, especially during team exercises. I personally find that to be strange as I've always known Damien to be easy to get along with and I've always seen him work well with others. Some people just don't get along I guess. 

It's been five days since we boarded the Umbra, it's been everything I've ever imagined and more. Damien just seems like he wants to get off as soon as he can, they have been making him patrol the lower decks a lot, especially deck 13. I went down there once and never again. The place makes me shiver just thinking about it. I was already finished getting ready, he was running a bit late, which was unusual for him. As I was standing in front of the mirror, brushing my hair again, trying to fix any imperfections. I heard several footsteps on the other side of my door. "Great, it's not opening again"  When I got to the door it swiftly opened revealing a tall dark figure. 

"Jesus! There you are. Tall dark and scary, where were you, and why are you still wearing your armor" His just appearing so suddenly scared the hell out of me, and I wasn't happy that he was 10 minutes late. - "I'm sorry for scaring you like that, the door didn't seem to be working." His shoulders slumped when he said that. I leaned over on my desk just to avoid standing awkwardly as we were talking.- "That's okay, stuff like lab equipment and doors have been acting up all week now, I have no idea why."  I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for his answer to my question.- "Huh? Oh yeah, sorry I'm just more comfortable in my armor when I'm out."  Something seemed off about him like he was spooked by something. I walked up to him and carefully lifted his large green helmet, after admiring his pale face for a moment I asked him what was wrong.- "I thought I saw someone or something down in deck 13, they looked like a black mist or fog so I thought they were an intruder but then when I turned the corner...there was no one there, except for this black liquid, I know it sounds silly but something about it just unsettled me..."  I interrupted him with a deep kiss, I felt like he could use it.- "It's ok, it's dark and spooky as hell down there, your mind was probably just playing tricks on you."- He looked down then back up at me. "Yeah, you're probably right." 

It was day six now, this was to be the most exciting day on the Umbra. First, the Ebony arrives here with the largest, strangest most intact artifact I...anyone had ever found, other than the Umbra itself. Then we traveled on a tram to the secret entrance to deck 33s lab. The passageway through the secret entrance to the lab was a pretty strange experience; the eerie atmosphere of the place with how pitch black it was with only the green luminescent lights to illuminate it put me on edge, as I'm sure it did for everyone as well. I had called Damien in secret to tell him about what was brought aboard, I tried as best as I could to keep it as quiet as possible. I don't think anyone noticed me talking to someone I shouldn't have while in a secret place like this. We all stopped at a large security door. Dr. Murray put in a code and then a biometric scan, the door went through a whole opening cycle, then it separated into hidden sections above and below. Revealing the bright white lab ahead of us, the light was almost blinding to my poor eyes. "Come on everyone, we have a long day ahead of us and important work to do."  Connor seemed different when the monolith came aboard, he was more intense than ever before, and he seemed almost obsessed with it. The lab was already prepped for its arrival when we got inside, there were researchers in full PPE everywhere. I gazed up at the monolith, admiring its bizarre visage. "It's beautiful isn't it Alice?" I looked over at him.- "I suppose so, in its own way." 

We spent hours studying what made it tick, the samples and data we took suggested that it didn't conform to all the natural laws of our reality. But other than the faint radioactive aura it emitted, it was practically inert. What was its purpose and how could we activate it? Lilith had gone down a few decks to retrieve some repaired tools that the fabricator couldn't fix on its own. As I was looking through the data we were collecting, the readings coming from the monolith increased exponentially. It was activating; everyone turned to face It. The machinery around the monolith began spinning and a black liquid substance emanated from it, Connor along with other researchers were in the test chamber with it.- "Alice what's happening?"  I looked back at the screen, the clock had turned to 6:00 PM. - "It's turning on. Connor get out of there!"  He just stood there in awe as It started shaking itself and the lab violently, while everyone else got out. A portal or something opened up right in front of him, he just stared into it, warping the space of the chamber inside "My God, It's beautiful."  Then in an instant it...absorbed him. Before any of us could process what had happened. The monolith sent out a massive shockwave. What had we done wrong?