groin. You pull them all free and Vanessa stirs slightly, before letting out a
groan, bringing a relieved smile to your face.
“I was having the most wonderful dream.” Vanessa murmurs, smiling
broadly. Her gaze flicks from your face to your surroundings and her eyes
widen, her smile vanishing. “What the fuck?!”
“I don’t know.” You reply earnestly. “But I do know we don’t want to
be in here.” You help her to her feet and she reaches for her blaster, hers
still in her holster.
“For once I agree entirely.” She replies, gazing up at the tendril
covered reactor core. You move towards the heavy bulkhead door and
punch the control. They rumble slowly open and you both squeeze through
the gap, thankful to be out of the reactor chamber. As you move into the
service corridor which links the habitation section with the engine section,
you find that the tendrils aren’t confined to the reactor chamber.
“I’m starting to feel like we’ve been swallowed alive.” Vanessa
comments, looking down the long passageway, the blood red tendrils
covering the walls, floor and ceiling giving the impression of being inside the throat of some vast leviathan.
“I don’t think you’re too far from the truth.” You reply, as you begin to
make your way down the tendril covered corridor which seems to stretch on
forever. “I think whatever this organism is, it seems to feed on sexual
energy, putting erotic visions into our minds while slowly draining the life
from us. I’m surprised it overcame you though.”
“I’m a biomechanical android, remember.” She tells you testily. “I may
be an artificial life form, but I’m still a life form.”
“Point taken.” You reply, nearing the bulkhead door to the Magellan’s
habitation section. Suddenly, an unearthly bellow echoes down the corridor
from behind you and the tendrils suddenly become a writhing mass around
you. They lash at your bodies, trying to wrap around your limbs.
Make a dash for the door before the tendrils overcome you
Tell Vanessa to shoot the mass of tendrils
“Shoot them!” You shout at Vanessa.
“Where?” She replies, the corridor filled with flailing tendrils
“Anywhere!” You tell her. “You can’t miss!” She fires intermittently
into the walls and floor of the corridor. An otherworldly cry echoes from the
reactor chamber and the thrashing tendrils stop, the corridor suddenly still
again. You dash for the bulkhead door, quickly squeezing through the gap as
it slowly slides open and emerging into a familiar location. You are standing
in the crew lounge you had entered earlier, though now there is a thick layer
of dust and grime over everything and all the cryo-tubes stand empty and
unused. You realise that you must have been under the thrall of the
organism from the moment you stepped into this room and never saw the
real interior, just the construct it had formed in your mind. You move
towards the door leading to the corridor back to the Eclipse.
“Wait!” Vanessa calls out from behind you. You turn to find her
standing there with her blaster levelled at your head.
“What the fuck?!” You exclaim, your eyes widening.
“Get out of the way!” She yells at you. She fires, the shot sizzling over
your head. You turn to see tendrils hanging down from a vent above the
door quickly retracting out of sight.
“Thanks.” You tell her, glancing nervously up at the vent as you move
quickly through the door and into the dusty corridor beyond.
“What now?” Vanessa asks.
Head back to the Eclipse and destroy the Magellan from space
Head to the bridge and activate the Magellan’s self-destruct
“The sooner we’re off this fucking ship, the better.” You tell Vanessa.
“We’ll destroy the Magellan from space.” Vanessa nods her agreement and
you hurry towards the airlock.
Moments later, you slip into your seat and retract the docking tube,
manoeuvring away from the infested old vessel. When you are at a safe
distance, you swing the ship around.
“Lock on to the engine section.” You tell her. “We’ll shoot a load it
won’t like.”
“Locked on.” Vanessa confirms.
“Open fire.” You watch with satisfaction as plasma energy bolts streak
across space, impacting on the hull of the Magellan’s engine section. There
is a blinding flash of light as the reactor is breached and the entire aft
section of the ancient vessel explodes, sending the forward section tumbling
through space to smash into a nearby wreck of a bulk freighter.
“I’m no longer reading any life signs.” Vanessa comments, studying the
instruments in front of her.
“Good.” You reply grimly, watching as glowing debris from the
obliterated wreck streaks away in all directions like sparks from a firework.
“Think we’ll get a bonus for this?” Vanessa asks with a raised eyebrow.
“I doubt it.” You chuckle, “But we’ll be claiming salvage rights on all
these ships.” You drop a buoy registering your claim and flash a grin at
Vanessa. “We’re going to be rich Vanessa, very rich.”
Continue
“We’ll head to the bridge and set the self-destruct.” You tell her. “We won’t have the codes, so you’ll have to try to interface with the ship’s
computer.”
“No problem.” Vanessa replies as you both stride purposefully towards
the bridge.
The door slides open and you scan the banks of dusty consoles.
Vanessa is way ahead of you and sits down at the engineering station. As she
connects remotely with the computer, she sits stock still, her eyes glowing
blue.
“Connecting…” She tells you, her voice strangely emotionless as her
computer mind takes over. “Connected. Accessing secure command
functions. Firewall in place. Breaching. Firewall breached. Accessing self-
destruct sequence. Setting self-destruct. Countdown?” Vanessa’s head
twists stiffly towards you, her shining blue pupiless eyes gazing up at you.
“Five minutes.” You tell her.
“Self-destruct countdown set for five minutes.” She confirms.
“Activating.”
“WARNING! SELF DESTRUCT SYSTEM ACTIVATED.” The ship’s
computer booms out across the bridge. “YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO
REACH MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE.”
“Time to leave.” You tell Vanessa, tugging at her arm. The blue glow in
her eyes fades and she blinks as she disconnects from the engineering
station. She gets to her feet and you hurry back down the corridor towards
the airlock leading to the Eclipse.
As you near the airlock, you slide to a halt.
“Shit.” You murmur, as you realise that the tendrils have snaked down
the corridor from the crew lounge and writhe around the airlock door, your
route back to your ship now blocked. Vanessa pushes past you and advances
towards them.
“What are you doing?” You ask, grasping her arm.
“If they take me, they’ll drag me back towards the reactor chamber.”
She replies. “You should have a clear run to the airlock.”
“No!” You tell her.
“I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself. There must
be another way.”
“I’m all ears.” Vanessa smiles grimly. You can tell in her eyes that she has already made up her mind. You frantically try to think of an alternative,
wondering if there is enough time to abort the self-destruct. If there isn’t,
you’ll both die. You notice some pipes running along the ceiling of the
corridor and wonder what they are. It might be something harmless like
water or something like gas that will turn the whole corridor into an inferno,
burning the tendrils and both of you. You ask yourself whether you are
willing to gamble your own life to save the “life” of an android.
Let Vanessa sacrifice herself
Go back to the bridge and abort the self destruct
Tell Vanessa to shoot the pipes in the ceiling
“Shoot the pipes!” You tell Vanessa, pointing to the ceiling. She turns to you quizzically before shrugging and firing at the pipes above the writhing
red tendrils. The pipes rupture and liquid showers down onto them. Your
shoulders slump as you realise it must just be a water pipe.
“Look!” Vanessa points excitedly. Vapour rises from the tendrils and
their movement becomes sluggish before stopping all together.
“It’s a coolant pipe!” You grin. “It’s frozen them solid.” Vanessa again
takes aim and fires, the tendrils shattering like porcelain. You hear a
booming roar of fury echoing down the corridors of the ancient vessel as
you hurry towards the airlock.
Moments later, you slide into your seats in the Eclipse’s cockpit and
hurriedly disengage the docking clamps and retract the docking tube.
“Less than a minute until detonation.” Vanessa tells you.
“It’s going to be tight.” You reply as you manoeuvre the ship away
from the Magellan, threading it through the various broken hulls and pieces
of wreckage.
“Kind of makes you wonder why we didn’t allow ourselves a longer
countdown.” Vanessa comments wryly. You grit your teeth and accelerate
weaving through the debris, a bead of sweat running down your forehead as
you concentrate.
“Three… Two… One…” Vanessa whispers beside you. A flash reflects
off the battered hull of a huge wreck ahead and a moment later the ship is
buffeted by the shockwave of the nuclear detonation, nearly shaking you
both from your seats. You swing the ship around and head back towards the
Magellan, but find only particles and tiny pieces of debris, the infested old
ship utterly destroyed.
“Think we’ll get a bonus for this?” Vanessa asks with a raised eyebrow.
“I doubt it.” You chuckle, “But we’ll be claiming salvage rights on all
these ships.” You drop a buoy registering your claim and flash a grin at
Vanessa. “We’re going to be rich Vanessa, very rich.”
Continue
You lower your eyes, scarcely believing it has come to this. Vanessa smiles sadly, leaning into you and pressing her lips to yours. You kiss
tenderly for a moment before she pulls away.
“Please don’t.” You tell her, the words catching in your throat.
“There’s no other way.” She tells you. “Ultimately, you’re a life form
and I’m a machine. I’m expendable.”
“You’re not expendable.” You tell her weakly.
“Let me do this for you.” She smiles. “I’ve got to do this.” With that
she turns and walks towards the thrashing tendrils. With one last longing
look over her shoulder, she steps into the writhing mass which quickly wrap
around her limbs, pulling her from her feet and dragging her down the
corridor towards the crew lounge. She doesn’t make a sound as she is pulled
away from you, disappearing swiftly into the darkness at the far end of the
long passageway. Feeling wracked with guilt, you step into the airlock and
board the Eclipse.
Sliding into your seat in the cockpit, you quickly disengage docking
clamps and manoeuvre away from the hulking vessel. You have just about
reached a safe distance when you see the flash of the detonation reflected
in the pieces of debris tumbling through space all around you. You brace
yourself and a moment later the ship shakes violently as the shockwave
buffets the vessel. After it passes, you swing the ship around, but the
Magellan has been utterly destroyed.
“Vanessa, I’m sorry.” You whisper, choking back the tears and trying to
keep your mind occupied with the ship’s readouts.
With the organism destroyed, its influence over this part of space is
ended and you soon leave the graveyard of disabled ships behind. With a
heavy heart, you plot a course for Omega station and take the Eclipse back
into hyperspace.
Continue
“I’m not going to lose you.” You tell her firmly. “We’ll go back to the bridge and abort the self destruct. Give ourselves some time to figure this
out.”
Vanessa nods and you hurry back along the corridor towards the
bridge.
You move towards the computer console, the timer reading 0:57 until
detonation.
“Quickly!” You urge Vanessa.
“I can read.” She snaps, her eyes glowing blue as she connects to the
ship’s computer. You watch nervously as the timer continues to countdown.
At 0:21, Vanessa’s eyes return to their usual appearance and she turns
towards you.
“I’m sorry, there’s too many firewalls in place.” She tells you. “I can’t
get through them all in time.”
You glance at the countdown, now reading 0:12 and reach out,
grasping her hand and squeezing it, your eyes meeting hers as you prepare
yourself for the end.
“You always were an arsehole, Trent.” Vanessa smiles sadly, leaning
forward and kissing you tenderly just as the counter reaches zero and the
Magellan is consumed by a huge nuclear detonation, your bodies vaporised
instantly.
THE END
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
“Run!” You shout at Vanessa, charging for the door through the mass of writhing tendrils, thrashing around you like a thousand sightless red
snakes. You duck and jump over them, making it to the door. As you jab your
finger on the door open button, Vanessa screams out behind you and you
turn just as one wraps around her ankle, tripping her up. She falls, sprawling
to the floor, her blaster flying from her hand to be quickly buried among the
vine-like tendrils. As Vanessa tries to pull the tendrils from her ankle, more
wrap around her, lashing around her arms and pinning her to the floor.
“Trent!” She cries out, looking up at you, helpless.
Try to find the blaster and free Vanessa
It’s too late for her. Abandon Vanessa
Without the blaster, you’ll be overcome too. There’s nothing you can do for her now.
“I’m sorry Vanessa.” You tell her, genuine anguish in your voice as you
step through the door.
“No Trent!” She implores you desperately. “Please! Don’t leave me!
I…” Her last sentence is cut abruptly short as the door slides shut behind
you. You stand there for a moment, the guilt weighing heavily on you before
finally taking in your surroundings
. You are standing in the crew lounge you
had entered earlier, though now there is a thick layer of dust and grime over
everything and all the cryo-tubes stand empty and unused. You realise that
you must have been under the thrall of the organism from the moment you
stepped into this room and never saw the real interior, just the construct it
had formed in your mind. You look around, looking for tendrils, but see
none. Breathing a sigh of relief, you step towards the door to the corridor
leading back to the Eclipse. You never spot the thin tendrils hanging, lying in wait from a vent just above the door. As you reach the door, they reach
down, wrapping tightly around your throat and lifting you from the floor.
You scream soundlessly as the tendrils choke the life from you, your hands
clawing futilely at the red strands constricting around your neck, your legs
flailing uselessly in the air. Within a few moments, your body hangs limp, the
latest victim of the parasitic creature infesting the Magellan.
THE END
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
You stumble across the tendril covered deck and reach the bulkhead door. With one last rueful look at Vanessa’s prone form, you remind yourself
that ultimately she is just a machine and not worth risking your life for. You
punch the door open button and the heavy, armoured doors rumble slowly
open. You squeeze through the gap and begin to run down the corridor. The
tendrils have covered the service corridor too, the long passageway
transformed into a blood-red mass of vines. You stumble through them, the
narrow corridor seeming to continue forever. You hear an unearthly roar
behind you and the tendrils suddenly come to life, writhing around you and
lashing at your body as you sprint down the corridor. The tendrils wrap
around you, pulling you back. As you struggle to free yourself, more and
more wrap around your legs and arms. With a cry of anguish, you are pulled
from your feet, more tendrils wrapping around you and dragging you back
towards the reactor chamber. You find yourself just a few paces from
Lure of the Sirens: A Sci Fi Choose Your Own Erotic Story Page 25