Chapter Ten
Sophia, Jack and Richard, quickly made their way into the sleep chamber, after hearing Simone screaming. Once there, they discovered Callum and Simone, hovering over Max’s body.
“What the fuck happened here?” asked Jack.
No one could answer him. The entire crew was in a state of shock and panic.
“Where is he?” Callum asked Jack, referring to Drellic.
Jack didn’t answer. He just stared lifelessly at Max, who was still secured into his sleeping bag. He was only exposed from the neck up. Blood continued to trickle from his throat and clump together, as it floated into the compartment. Tears streamed down Sophia’s face as she held a towel to Max’s throat to stop the bleeding.
“Did he fucking do this?!” she screamed at Callum.
“Keep your voice down!” Simone whispered.
“No!” Sophia yelled. “He fucking killed Max! This fucker’s dead!” she sobbed, as she pulled a long knife from a utility closet.
Simone grabbed her, as she lunged for the tunnel passage, leading to the medical station.
“Let me go!” she screamed.
“You don’t understand! If you attack him you’ll die!” Simone yelled back.
Suddenly, a powerful rush of air, accompanied by a large dark blur, emerged from the tunnel passage. Sophia was forcefully pushed back against the far wall, and once she slammed into it, Drellic appeared in front of her with his hand around her throat.
“Your friend is wise to protect you from me,” he said.
Sophia’s face was turning bright red, as she gasped for air.
“Are you going to calm down now?” he asked her. “Or would you like another, more lethal demonstration of my strength?”
Sophia struggled to shake her head and beg for her life. Richard fearfully looked on, as Sophia was beginning to fall unconscious. His rage was apparent and Callum was giving him a look of disapproval, as if to say, don’t do anything stupid.
Richard simply ignored him and saw an opportunity to sneak quietly out of the room, while Drellic had his back to him. He made his way up through the tunnel passage and into the destroyed medical station. There, he opened up one of the cabinets and located a small metal syringe-like device, designed to administer a sedative, via injection. He grabbed it and turned around to head back to the lower deck. But before he could make it back to the tunnel passage, he was met by Drellic, who once again entered in the form of a fast moving blur. Drellic quickly got a hold of the sedative and pressed the device firmly against Richard’s neck.
“It seems to me that you need this more than I do,” Drellic whispered, as Richard passed out.
A few hours later, Richard awoke in the aft most compartment of the ship, where he had made love to Sophia, a few nights earlier. After his eyes adjusted, he saw that the rest of the crew had been placed in the room with him. The five of them were tied to one another with safety harnesses from the cockpit and were hovering just a few inches above the floor.
Callum, Simone, Jack and Sophia were unconscious. Richard tried to get a hold of something, but was too weak to move a muscle. A minute or so later, the others began to wake up.
“Is everyone OK?” Richard asked, as looked Sophia over. She was groggy like the others and had a rash around her neck, from Drellic’s grip.
“I’m fine,” she said reassuringly.
Jack crawled towards the hatch. He attempted to open it, but found that it was locked from the outside.
“Are we locked in here?” Simone asked.
“Looks that way,” Callum answered. “Looks like your boyfriend’s calling the shots now.”
“Fuck you,” Simone snapped. The others looked confused by Callum’s statement and Jack gave Simone a suspicious look.
“What’s he talking about, ma’am?” he asked her.
“Go on. Tell them,” Callum said to Simone. “Tell them all about the shit storm you and Mandrake brought down on us.”
All eyes were now on Simone, as the tension in the room was becoming unbearable.
As Simone did her best to explain the situation to the rest of the crew, Drellic was studying the various control consoles in the ship’s cockpit. Although he had spent the last three months learning everything he could about the ship and its crew, he knew he would have a considerable amount of trouble getting to his destination on his own. He wanted so desperately to keep the crew confined until landing, but he also knew that if he ever wanted to see his home again, he would have to release at least two of his prisoners.
As Drellic made his way to the locked rear compartment, Simone was being mercilessly badgered by the rest of the crew. Jack was leading the discussion.
“So after everything you saw, you still sent us out here to find this guy and bring him home with us?” Jack asked Simone, with hostility. “Let me tell you something. After everything I’ve seen, you are delusional if you think we’re ever going to get back.”
“Like I’ve told you a thousand times,” Simone began. “We had every reason to assume he would no longer be a threat. His age, his mental state, his physical condition...”
“Are all things you knew nothing about!” Jack screamed.
“We had to try. We had to know,” Simone insisted. “How can you not see that? The fact that this man is still alive, is nothing short of a miracle. The things he can tell us about the past are invaluable. He was alive during a time period that according to modern science, couldn’t have existed. We had to pursue this.”
“And look where it’s gotten us,” Callum said to Simone. “One of us is dead. We’re stuck out here at this guy’s mercy. You even said it yourself, Simone. You said that he could threaten our entire race, if he’s allowed to land with us.”
“So what are you saying now?” Simone asked him.
“It’s obvious that he’s just as powerful now, as he was before he was locked up on Charon,” Callum answered. “He can’t be allowed to land with us. We need to take him out.”
Richard scoffed. “And how the hell do you propose we do that?” he asked Callum.
“That underground structure on Charon told us a couple things,” Callum answered.
“That’s right. He’s not invincible. He needs a pressurized environment with oxygen and normal temperatures. The same as we do,” Jack said, as he nodded in agreement.
“We have to flush him out into space,” said Callum.
“That’s ridiculous,” Simone snapped.
“Do you have a better idea?” Sophia asked her.
“Well, we can’t just trick him into going into the airlock. He’s much too smart for that,” Simone answered.
“There has to be a way,” said Callum.
Suddenly, the crew heard a loud clang, indicating that the hatch was being unlocked from the outside. Drellic slowly opened the hatch and glided into the room, with authority. He looked over the crew, to see that they were still tied up and mildly disoriented from the sedative. He then reached down towards Simone and untied her from the others.
“This one claims to be the leader,” Drellic said to Simone, while pointing to Callum. “But he seems to take orders from you, just as well as he leads. You’re coming with me.”
Drellic then untied Callum and said, “And so are you.” Drellic then motioned for Callum and Simone to leave the room ahead of him. After they exited, Drellic sealed and locked the hatch behind him, leaving Richard, Sophia and Jack, still trapped in the rear compartment.
Drellic forced Callum and Simone into the cockpit and instructed them to assume their normal positions.
“She’s not the one you want,” Callum said, referring to Simone. “She’s not a pilot, an engineer or a technician of any kind. She’s of no use to you.”
Callum was doing his best to appear cold and decisive, but Drellic was all too aware of his feelings for Simone.
“I think she’s exactly the one I want,” Drellic said. “Her presence ensures that you will do
exactly what I say, when I say it.”
Drellic then grabbed Simone by the throat and squeezed with incredible force. Callum immediately panicked.
“Stop!” he yelled. “What do you want?!”
Drellic then promptly released her and allowed her to catch her breath.
“That’s what I thought,” he said to Callum.
“Just tell me what you want,” he pleaded.
Drellic smiled and replied, “I want to go home.”
“Fine,” Callum replied. “We’ll take you home. Everything’s going to be fine.” “
I see you’re still having trouble communicating with your superiors,” Drellic boasted.
“It was you? You sabotaged the com system?” Callum asked.
“I didn’t care for your conversations,” Drellic answered. “They seemed disturbingly mindless, as did the people you were communicating with. I don’t want you being distracted by those simpletons, any longer. The only person you need to be listening to is me.”
Callum looked back at Simone, who was still recovering from her near death experience, her long red hair covering her face, as she cried. She rubbed her neck, which was now bright red from Drellic’s hand, and looked into Callum’s eyes for some glimmer of hope.
“It’s going to be alright,” he said reassuringly, as he gave Drellic a respectful nod. “We expect to arrive home in one hundred and fifty days, sir,” he nervously told Drellic.
Drellic laughed and replied, “But to me that is a mere blink of an eye.”
Hades was about a month away from passing by Jupiter. There was still a long road ahead before reaching Earth, and although Drellic had his watchful eye on the crew at all times, a plan to remove him from the ship was already being set into motion. The crew later learned that Max had been murdered after he had eavesdropped on Callum and Simone’s private conversation about Drellic’s true identity.
In a panic, Max had attempted to find Drellic and sedate him, just as Richard had. Drellic simply wasn’t as forgiving with Max, as he had been with Richard. On January 4th 2028, Drellic gave the crew permission to load Max’s body into the airlock and send it out into space. No words were spoken on his behalf, as Drellic did not allow it. It was a powerful message that gave the five remaining crew members, a vivid idea of what was yet to come.
The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three Page 12