Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 6: The Voice

 A corpse lay on a table in the middle of a lab, its head opened up as if it was an orange, only the mouth left intact. Landau observed an operative, connecting multiple plugs and needles to the dead body, they tangled and wrapped before connecting to a console. The peculiarities and existence of this, secretly kept, device were known only to the two men inside the room.

Tom had learned a lot about Daemien Verau and of his intentions. What fascinated him was that a selfish man was about to end his life in a selfless way, no matter how horrible. There must have been someone else, someone who brought the poor man to the place he was today. What puppet master could use such twisted method to achieve his goals?

If Daemien had not been stopped, harm to the mission would have been great. Had one of the eight engines been damaged, even slightly, the lack of propulsion would have prevented the ship from reaching its maximum velocity and it would have resulted in additional two or three hundred years of travel to the destination point. Since they were accelerating for the last forty years, taking a stop for the repairs was not an option. Even if it was, Nautilus had not enough fuel to start the acceleration for the second time. In the worst case, if Nautilus got stuck in the void, they could use the jump-gate to escape the emptiness of space, but it was a move of high risk, low reward, a move of last resort, never tested on a ship his massive.

Landau rarely used the device, but a special case like this required additional effort. If a body after death remained intact, it could bring the subject back to life for a short period of time. The procedure could be performed to a subject only once, since the resurrection effect giving current, flowing through the body, fried all neural connections in a few minutes, making the subject brain dead. This process was called the body reanimation - it was widely used by spy agencies back in the solar system.

When body was ready and the agent had left the room, Tom approached the console and turned the device on.

Daemiens body shook violently, he awoke and said, "What in the world is going on, why can't I see a damn thing?"

"Where do you think you are?" Landau asked.

"How should I know? I was walking. I bumped into someone and passed out."

"You did not pass out Mr. Daemien."

"Huh?."

"You died."

"What?" A long pause passed before Daemien digested the information and identified his physical condition. "YOU! YOU GODLESS ANIMALS! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU FILTH THE PURITY OF MY SOUL?!!" he screamed out. Daemien's body jerked on the table. Readings on the console went over the roof.

"Stop! Just stop this. I need you to listen," Landau attempted to reason with him.

"WHY SHOULD I LISTEN?! My GOD will punish you for this atrocity!"

"Your god—" Tom paused. "—tell me about him."

"I am not telling you anything! What the hell do you expect?" He sounded amused. "Daemien is not talking to anyone, least not with the ones who work for the scum."

"You should talk. I could leave you laying here for as long as this ship exists, half here, half there. Imagine it lasted forever." Landau bluffed, the device could keep Daemien alive for at least a few more minutes, he needed to get information, and fast. In a calm voice Tom continued, "Since we now understand each other I will ask you some questions, in turn you are going to give me the answers and only then I will let you leave."

Daemien took a moment of thought a replied silently, his teeth clenching, " A knife in your throat would fit you well." He paused. "Ask."

"Tell me about your god."

"He is the ultimate being, he knows everything, he is everywhere."

"How did he speak to you?"

"I heard his voice."

"What did it tell you?"

"The truth, he told me everything about our 'little mission'. Boy, oh boy you all are so wrong to believe in that Navigator."

"Good, I have one last question and then you can leave."

Daemien did not object.

"When did you hear it for the first time?"

"Remember that blackout in the city about two years ago? The one the lights went out. It began afterwards, God replied to my prayers a few weeks after it happened," Daemien sighed, "May I go now?"

"Yes."

"Before I go I wanted to tell you something."

The monitor showed that there were about ten seconds left before the life support systems shut down.

"I am anxious to hear it."

"This ship is not a salvation for humanity, YOU MONSTERS DO NOT DESERVE TO BE—"

Landau turned off the device manually.

He called back his agent and asked him to stitch up the body, highly unlikely, but perhaps even Daemian had people who would come to his funeral.

Finally, Tom had some insight into the strengths of his opponent.

He had totally forgotten about the blackout. Ermac had said that systems were shut down temporarily due to incredibly powerful magnetic storm passing the ship. Relation between these two events was highly probable.

It was time to contact Ermac again to get some details on the incident and visit people Cyrus had told him about.