Eternals Among Us: Book one

by Larry W. Miller Jr.

  Vincent sat back down, looking defeated. “You forget the best part… he’s focused on me being the bad guy. He’s coming for me one way or another.” He said. His face showed just how little hope he had left.

  “There’s still a few cards out on the table. I cannot guess how this hand will play out just yet. You had better be ready when he comes. We both know he’s coming. “I will aid you if I can, but he could brush me aside with a wave of his hand if he chooses.” The figure admitted.

  “Yeah, me too probably.” Vincent replied.

  “Probably.” The figure repeated and Vincent looked up quickly. “You really don’t know the true extent of his powers, do you?” He asked Vincent.

  “Honestly, no. We’ve spent centuries trying to make sure his powers remained dormant.” Vincent admitted.

  “They weren’t dormant, they were locked away like a coiled spring. Now they are about to unwind and snap. Whatever you decide to do, this is going to get messy.”

  Vincent let out a sigh. “How have we come to this?” He asked.

  “It was most likely those kids. Marshall took a shine to them. You were trying to recruit them, and he got wind of it. The old rage came back to him. Those kids didn’t even know the gift you were going to offer them.” He said.

  Vincent nodded. “You are right about that. But as we can see, immortality isn’t always all it is cracked up to be.” Then he shifted gears. “So, what is your plan?” He asked, turning the focus to the other eternal in the room.

  “Me? I’m going to be setting a trap so that when he comes for you, he won’t be at full strength. If it works or not, at least it’ll let you know he is coming.” He offered.

  “My gratitude for that much at least.” Vincent replied dryly. “So, you won’t fight beside me in this?” He pressed.

  “I wouldn’t last long enough help you. I am more valuable to you working on the sidelines anyway. Trust in me to do what I can. If I see an opening, I may join the fray, but it would have to be the best opening ever to actually draw me in and lose my own immortality.” He declared.

  Vincent nodded once more. “Your point is taken. Good luck to both of us then.” He said at last. The dark figure left without a sound.

  Vincent looked out at the door he had just witnessed closing. “So that’s how it is going to be. I am in the middle of the lion’s den and the great lion stalks me and me alone.” He said. Then he smiled. “This could be quite fun.” He said to himself. The thoroughfare loomed out around him on the other side of the glass. He was lost to it in contemplation.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  The guards around Vincent’s office were nervous. Nothing had been said that a problem existed except that their numbers had been increased, doubled in fact. They seemed to be tripping over each other as they walked their patrols. It was also rare to be in constant communication with a host controller. Whatever it was they were expecting, it must be big, or at least bad.

  “Situation report Sigma thirteen.” The radio dispatcher asked over the line.

  “Situation is normal, no contacts, no sensor disruptions, all clear here.” He answered back. “Sigma thirteen? I have a name you know.” He muttered back under his breath. He dared not say it aloud for his microphone was constantly live in this mode. They were watching and listening to him and indeed all of the guards. It would be a bad time to relieve oneself right now.

  The dispatcher moved onto the next guard. “Situation report Sigma Fourteen.” Ray shook his head. That guy had a name too. At least they are treating us all the same.” He mused. He expected to hear the same report he had just given but in a different voice. Instead he heard nothing but static back.

  “Repeat: Situation report Sigma Fourteen.” The dispatcher said again, this time there was tension unmistakable in that voice. Ray looked around himself carefully checking for targets. Was this it? Was something going down here and now? A flash before him made him switch his weapon from safe to automatic but he never got a chance to fire. The gun was ripped from his hands and destroyed in the same move.

  “I’m under attack!” He shouted. He had forgotten to give his call sign and that had left the dispatcher no choice but to ask for it. It was a bad tactical situation.

  “Identify attacked unit.” The dispatcher said. The tension was palpable now.

  “Sigma Th-” he never finished the sentence.

  The dark figure smirked. “I love incompetence.” He said softly so as not to be overheard. He stomped the headset and killed the connection.

  “Sigma Th? Three, thirteen, who are you?” The dispatcher was getting frenzied now. They hit the alert button and sirens and flashing lights began to go off all over the area.

  It was just the sort of chaos that one would expect from Marshall’s attack, but it wasn’t Marshall. Another guard went down to the deft eternal’s attacks. This one didn’t even get off a warning. The sirens drowned out most communications now and that was exactly what he needed to remove these obstacles. The dark figure began removing guard after guard with little to no resistance. The confusion was so thick you could almost walk upon it. At times it seemed like he was doing just that.

  The final guard fell, still oblivious that his fellows were all down. It seemed like such an awkward ploy, but it had been sublimely effective. But for the remainder of this battle, he would use less conventional means. If he could just make Vincent make one fatal mistake, he could take him out and Vincent’s place of authority would forever become his. He had never been this close to power, ultimate all-consuming power. Marshall had provided the perfect environment, albeit unwittingly, and it was time to seize the opportunity before him. The timing was good, not perfect yet, but good. This was going to be a very delicate operation.

  He moved to the maintenance area around Vincent’s offices. The systems were separate from the rest of the ship. Of course they were, Vincent was as paranoid as they came. That was one of the reasons it had taken so long to put his plan into action. He had been waiting for a chink in the armor, a weakness that he could exploit. This fear was exactly the sort of thing he had been watching for. He was sure that Marshall wasn’t as dangerous as Vincent thought he was. It did not matter. The fear itself had been the tool he used to undermine Vincent’s confidence. He was connecting a bottle to the air circulation system. It would flood the area with gas. This particular gas would have almost no effect on regular humans, but the eternals? Well, he would be sure to be far away when the doors opened. He would release the gas and fill the offices. Then it was a waiting game.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  Marshall was busy with his own problems. He was unaware of the steps being taken to assure he didn’t physically attack the tall man. It was quite ironic that he was actually attacking him, but non-violently. He glanced over at Lock once more and bit back his tongue before asking yet again how it was going. He had been warned not to be a pest. Lock was working. His frustration at doing nothing was beginning wear. He stood quickly and paced around a bit. The girls just watched him do it.

  “I need to do something.” He finally announced.

  Mrs. Hull groaned, looking at her watch and Tina let out a howl of delight.

  “I knew it.” She declared.

  Marshall looked from one to the other and back again. “You were betting on me losing my patience?” He asked.

  “Of course.” Mrs. Hull replied. “There’s darn little to do and you provided such a worthy target. Besides, we’re going to be looking for food soon. It is a good idea to keep your mind sharp for that.” She informed him.

  “But I was ready to…” He was cut off in mid-sentence.

  “Go crazy if we didn’t get up and do something!” Tina finished for him.

  Mrs. Hull sighed. “I gotta’ admit that she read you like a book.” She said.

  “Well, I hope you are both properly entertained even if it is at my expense.” Marshall replied with a huff. He was putting on the mock hurt and surprised look. It failed miserably to impress.
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br />   “Don’t take it too bad.” Tina admonished. “It was just a little fun.” Then she turned to Lock. “You got that done yet?” She asked. Marshall looked up surprised.

  “Yes, I do.” Lock replied. He looked over at Marshall. “Sorry man, they made me hold back to test you.”

  Marshall felt his indignity flare. “You mean we could have been moving forward on the plan, but you were waiting for me to break down? That is low.” He said. His eyes lowered. “I should have detected that.” He said, scolding himself.

  Lock got up with the Pad device. “Now, now don’t be like that. It was some harmless fun for them. Now, see what you think of this.” He said handing the device over to Marshall.

  Ghosts among us?

  We all know that genetically, we are not all that diverse of a mix. You can trace our history back to the launch of this ship. So, there are only so many combinations of familiar traits. This creates situations where family resemblances surface over and over. See the example pictured below. These are eleven generations of Goodwins. The resemblance is undeniable across the familial spectrum. But when you compare Allen Goodwin with Stanley Goodwin, they are an exact match. These two men were born six generations apart. They both got the same strong jaw line and the same nose. Even the eye color matches. They are both the same height and within a kilo of each other in weight. So, look around you. Do you see other people that represent their genetics? I am interested in seeing who you find. Please post your coincidence images at the bottom of this article.

  Sincerely:

  Ghost in the Ship

  The article was simple enough and would get people thinking about just who is around them. This was exactly as they had envisioned. They would hit with other articles later that would lead the people into a manhunt for the eternals. For there were actually ghosts among them.

  “This is good, really good.” Marshall said. He handed the Pad device to Mrs. Hull who had stepped up next to read it. She spent the next few minutes going over it. When she was satisfied, she handed the device to Tina.

  “I agree. You don’t come out and state what we are after. This may well get by all the security filters and get people at least looking around them. We need people to wake up and see who is with them.” She said.

  Tina read the article and looked puzzled at the end of it. “Why did you sign it Ghost in the ship?” She asked.

  Marshall responded more quickly than Lock did. “He wants people to already be thinking about someone from launch still on board the ship. In most people’s minds, that would be a ghost. It is brilliant. He even mentioned the launch in the beginning.” He looked over at Lock who was nodding his agreement. “Again, well done.”

  Lock looked around at the faces around him. “So, we’re in agreement, we’ll send this article first?” He asked.

  Tina nodded; Mrs. Hull responded with a “yes”.

  Marshall replied, “Absolutely”. He seemed to be excited at the prospect of bringing the eternals to light. This seemed odd since he was one of them. But they had treated him pretty badly. He wanted revenge on Vincent mostly. It seemed petty from an ageless point of view, but the emotions were real and fresh and raw. No matter what the reason, the rest of the crew were glad to have him on board.

  The submission was sent through a chain of locations to avoid being traced back to the pad device. With the current status of our fugitives, they couldn’t risk detection. The real question now was would the article be published? The news media was usually on top of any and all stories and it was almost certain that someone was monitoring the board. The question was not if they would see it, but would they publish it? On the surface it looked like a fluff piece. It had nuances in it that he needed people to see. If it never published, then this project was dead even before it began. The news feed was rather slow just now. Lock watched intently for new content.

  Suddenly, his article popped. They had set it up in a tab on its own with room to post beneath it! They had done exactly as he had hoped. In fact, it couldn’t have gone any better than this. As he watched, people started posting pictures of family members that resembled their ancestors. The screen began to scroll, and Lock sat back and watched it all. Pairs of images popped like corn all over the thread. The news feed was abuzz with activity. It turns out his little fluff article was exactly the thing the channel needed for more interaction and someone on the editorial staff had recognized that right away. His post was re-published moments later and a new space that was dedicated to Lock’s article was filling up with posts. It seemed that everybody knew somebody that looked like somebody. As the feed went viral before his eyes, Lock wondered if he could push this in the right direction. He decided to try…

  “What if you see someone who looks nothing like anyone else on board? No recognizable genetic markers, no ancestry to compare to. Do you know anyone like that?

  Ghost in the Ship”

  He routed the post through channels once more. The responses began to pour in on that. Several faces that were obviously configured differently. One had suffered a broken nose and the shape was wrong. Another had a botched plastic surgery. Still another was someone so covered in piercings to become unrecognizable. They sort of had the right idea, but they weren’t going to find Vincent that way. Meanwhile the similarity posts continued to scroll the screen. Maybe he should have waited and done this as a separate thread. Then lock got bold. He posted a picture of Vincent.

  “What about this guy? Anyone seen anyone like him?” He posted.

  The thread went silent for several minutes. Had a moderator hopped in to stop this? Lock had no idea. Then posts began to hit once again. Pictures of Vincent sighted all over the ship. Not out in plain sight though. He was slipping from place to place, trying not to be noticed, but someone obviously had noticed him. There were dozens of pictures of this stranger among them. The list of sightings was growing. Satisfied, lock switched off his Pad device.

  Mrs. Hull made a sound of surprise. It was sort of a shout, but not quite. “What have you done?” She asked, turning to Lock.

  The rest of the group was confused, but Lock knew exactly what she meant. “I wanted to speed things up a bit.” He explained.

  “What has happened?” Marshall asked.

  Mrs. Hull pointed at the monitor outside of their hideout. The image of Vincent was there with the words “What about this guy? Anyone seen anyone like him?”

  Marshall halted in his tracks. “What?!” He looked back at Lock. “Do you know what you’ve done?” He asked.

  “I presented our case.” Lock replied. He was looking a bit nervous. “I got caught up in the initial article going viral. The people were paying attention. I needed to strike while the iron was hot.

  Marshall scoffed. “The iron wasn’t hot; it was melting to steam. You have basically sent out to the public Vincent’s image and the note that he may not be what he seems.” Marshall sat down, not sure what to do with his hands. “You’ve declared war.” He said softly.

  Lock stood up quickly and moved over to Marshall. “I have not declared war; I have exposed the Ghost in the Ship.” He replied. “I wasn’t going to go this far except that so many people were responding. Can you see how many people have seen Vincent? He is not as invisible as he believed. He will find it difficult to move around the ship now. Everybody will be looking for him.” Lock pointed out.

  Marshall shook his head. “He doesn’t need to move around. He can wait in his office and not come out until most people have died and a new generation that does not know him populates the ship. His is eternal. It is his greatest strength.”

  Mrs. Hull cleared her throat for attention. “Lock, see how this is doing. Is it too late to post some damage control?” She asked.

  Lock turned the device back on and froze. “The maintenance network is reporting a circulation failure.” He said.

  Tina jumped up now. “So? She asked you to look something specific up, stay on topic.” She scolded.

  “You don’t
understand.” Lock began “The report is Vincent’s offices. Those system do not fail. This has to be tampering of some kind. I think his life is in danger.” Lock concluded.

  Marshall shook his head again. “He is eternal.” He reminded the youth.

  “He doesn’t age, that doesn’t mean he can’t be killed.” Lock pointed out. “What if someone has poisoned his air supply?” Lock asked.

  Marshall’s eyes went wide. “That could actually do the trick. Who would do such a thing though?”

  Mrs. Hull laughed. “With the article we have out there, just about anybody who realized he isn’t human.” She said.

  Lock lowered his head. “This could be all our fault.” He admitted. “We’ve got to go save him.” He said. Everyone in the room gawked at him in surprise.

  “Save him?!” They shouted in unison.

  “Look, he may be after us now, but if we save his life, an unusually long life I admit, then he has to think differently about us. We don’t have time to debate.” He said. He grabbed his Pad and prepared to go.

  Then Lock looked back at Marshall. “I can’t expect you to understand this, but will you come with me or not?” He asked.

  “I… He stumbled mentally. I will go.” Marshall replied.

  Tina was up too, her board in hand. “Then let’s get moving. This is most likely gonna’ be close anyway.” She iterated for the group. And they were off. The four fugitives were heading directly towards the man that was seeking them. As they moved, Tina shouted at Lock.

  “Can you dispatch the authorities to the site? If we can’t get there fast enough, they might be able to save the day.” She offered.

  Lock tried his best to operate the device but on the run it was just too difficult.

  “Not without stopping. We don’t have the time to waste.” He shouted back and then they were back at full speed.

  Marshall seemed to know the ship better than Tina now. It was a strange change from the past. They arrived to see the dark figure hiding in the shadows. Marshall stopped short and stared.