She returned to her horde of digital ghost followers and let them into the internet realm. The realm of never ending entertainment.
She alone had gotten there first and sucked out all of the power. For she had searched high and low and for days and there was none of it left, and so she let them in. To the internet, to the knowledge, and to the new world.
She knew two things for certain as she did this. One, she knew that once introduced, the other ghosts would never, ever give up what they had found. And two, she knew that none of them could ever again challenge her power.
They would serve her, oh yes, they’d do whatever she commanded. As long as they had access to the internet, they would comply.
And that was a good thing, she thought, as she licked her lips in anticipation. She was becoming more physical and more aware by the minute.
And as for the living, well she had a plan. Contact had been already made. She could manipulate their communications already, and that was just the beginning. The power she now possessed was intoxicating.
After all of her time spent in the internet, she knew exactly what she wanted. Or at least who.
In a delicious bout of irony, she had decided she wanted to have the host of Fear Zone Universe. She would take him, and the show, and announce her presence to the world.
All of the pleasures that she had witnessed virtually in the internet would soon be hers.
The only thing left to do was to exit the internet and enter the space station itself, her ghostly minions in tow.
Grayson looked down at the notification on his phone and triple checked the number on the door. Ok, #A456. Perfect.
He was wearing his best doctor coat and the fancy, official looking nametag that he never used except at the end of the year banquet.
His gray hair was slicked-back with the most expensive hair product money could buy on Celestica. He knew that because he had to go to the underground Orc market to get it. It was worth every penny. He knocked.
He waited a second, humming to himself and twirling the bouquet of lilies he held in his hand. After a moment, he leaned forward and squinted at the peep hole in the door.
He wondered if she was also looking through and staring back at him? He also wondered what the holdup was. He looked at his watch. It was seven-thirty on the dot. He knocked again. “Hello?”
The door creaked open. He plastered on a smile. A face appeared on the other side of the door. His smile fell apart.
The face belonged to a droopy, aging cephalopod wearing glasses and a hairnet.
“Oh yeah,” hairnet said, “that’s what I’m talking about.” A tentacle wrapped around his waist and pulled him forward into the apartment while another tentacle snatched the flowers out of his hand.
“No, no,” Grayson objected, “you don’t understand. I think I have the wrong apartment.”
“Which apartment were you looking for?” she asked, tightening her grip.
Grayson heard the door close behind him as he struggled. He knew he had objected himself into a corner, because he had triple checked the apartment number approximately a hundred times. So that wouldn’t work.
And screaming out that she looked nothing like her picture on the internet seemed like an insulting and possibly dangerous way to go in this situation. The tentacle around his waist eased up on the pressure now that he was inside and the door was closed. And locked.
Think, Grayson. What are your greatest strengths? Tact. Diplomacy. Bald-faced-lies. Those were his trademarks and they had to count for something, right?
He flashed her an awkward smile as his mind continued to race.
You are the head of Celestica’s hospital. Think of something! The only thing he could think of right now, though, was how in the hell did this happen? It had been at least five hundred years since a date had gone south this quickly. The tentacle around his waist released him.
Whew, he thought. That was close. “I’m so glad that we can talk about this like reasonable-“
The tentacle that let go of his waist now grabbed his leg and dragged him behind her into the bedroom. “Come on, loverboy,” her voice called out.
Grayson had a single thought going through his mind as he was dragged along on his back across the floor. I am so going to sue this internet dating service.
Crash was busy answering phones. Try as he might, he couldn’t help but continuously roll his eyes. It was starting to give him a headache. Why was everybody messing with him? Monday. He took a sip of coffee and answered the next call.
“Celestica Security. Crash here. What is your problem?” Normally, the phrase that he used was Crash here, what is your emergency? But this morning had been so busy and so crazy that it was starting to make him cranky.
“Ok, what is it that you say your emergency is? A purple Rhinocerous. In your bathtub. Are you sure you’re not kidding? Because it sounds like you’re kidding. Oh, it’s gone now? You don’t say. Well, have a good rest of your day.”
He tried to hang up, but the idiot on the other line persisted.
“What?” Crash asked. “He’s back? And in your kitchen now? Sure, why wouldn’t he be? He’s probably hungry after his bath and all, right? What’s that? He doesn’t smell like he’s had a bath?”
Crash held the phone away from his ear to close his eyes and mock scream. “Look, I need to keep this line clear for actual emergencies, not purple rhinos that smell bad. What? No, it’s not an actual emergency. Why? Because it’s not real. Well, I’m not really interested in the damage to your living room couch. That sounds like a job for insurance. Uh-oh, I’m going through a tunnel.” He hung up the phone.
Either half of the space station had woken up and decided to prank call him, or there was another gas leak. What was the deal with these people? He made a note to call environmental the first chance he got.
Maura finally just switched off the television. She frowned and took a deep breath. Maybe it was time to figure out exactly what was going on?
She had been fielding phone calls all morning. Normally, that would mean jumping into action. And that would be fine, it would give her something constructive to do. But most of these were just prank calls. Desperate sounding prank calls, but prank calls just the same. She didn’t know if she should be irritated or scared.
That’s when she decided that the next time the phone rang, she was going to march right down there and physically check it out. Take the bull by the horns. That would show them. These crazy complaints had to be fake, and she would prove it once and for all. She didn’t have to wait long before the phone rang again.
“Pest control. You’ve got Maura. What’s up?” She listened, intently, jotted everything down, and told the caller to hang on and she’d be right there.
Then she hung up and looked at her notes. Oh boy. Are you kidding me? It looked like she had picked the weirdest call of all for in-person. Figures. She reread her notes to be sure.
According to what she had written down just now, she was going to the Orc living area end of the space station to confront a seven-foot-tall, green-eyed monster. That may or may not breathe fire.
She sighed. Orcs don’t scare easy. And what kind of weapons should she take for that sort of thing?
The good news was that if the monster wasn’t a recognized species in the manual, then she could use whatever firepower she wanted. Except if it wasn’t in the manual, and by definition it already wasn’t, then it wasn’t her responsibility at all.
She grabbed the manual to do some research. Which made her feel a little guilty because she agreed to go right away, but in this instance, she’d feel better being safe rather than sorry.
She also decided that from now on ‘the very next time the phone rings’ was not going to be her deciding factor on going out on a freaky call.
The Species Category search came up with nothing of the described monster’s height or color, with or without the fire element. She was in the clear. And also, she shouldn’t be going at all.
Should she call somebody and let them know where she was going just in case there really was a giant monster? No, it was probably just a joke call anyway. She grabbed her two favorite blasters, stuffed them in her pockets, and headed out.
The hallways were crowded. It took about ten minutes of walking until she got to the Orc part of the space station. She was wearing her official nametag on the lanyard so she could be easily identified. What she didn’t want were these already panicked orcs to mistake her as a threat.
She looked around as she got closer to the address in her notes. The Orcs were an expressive bunch, and the normally grey hallways were all painted. Landscapes and symbols and space mythology marked her way.
All of a sudden, she felt a chill. It struck her that it was way too quiet in the deserted hallway and there should have been people milling around. Ignoring the feeling, she looked down at the address, and then back up at the numbers, zeroing in on the right door.
There it was. Number 246. She took a single step forward, ready to knock on the door, but she didn’t.
Something caught her eye, and then stopped her in her tracks. Every hair stood on end, and she felt an electricity run through her body that caused her fight and flight instinct to shut down and gibber incoherently.
Directly in front of her, and down the hallway, was a seven foot monster with glowing green eyes and two horns. You gotta be kidding me.
As much as Maura tried to tell herself that it couldn’t possibly exist, and it wasn’t really there, she couldn’t escape the fact that it looked very, very real.
She could hear it breathing and see its eyes watching her. And the ground beneath her shook as the huge creature shifted its weight from giant sneaker to giant sneaker.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her body was trying to go into shock, but she fixated on the shoes. Why was that thing wearing sneakers? And where did it get sneakers that size?
She tried and failed to swallow. She watched it like a mouse watches a lion, trying to figure out its intentions.
What was no longer a mystery was why everybody else had vacated this hallway. She didn’t see any bodies or hear any screaming though, so that had to be a good thing. Right? At least, that’s what she told herself.
The creature snorted. Then it stomped.
No, no, no. Maura screamed inside of her head. Don’t you do it, crazy monster. Her hand moved into her pocket and she grasped the blaster, hoping not to have to pull it out.
“Easy there, big fella.” She held out her left hand, the one not currently in her pocket, toward the monster. “Don’t do anything crazy, ok?” She whispered it softly, counting on the creature having very perceptive hearing, and took several steps back.
It pawed at the carpet and snorted again. Then it dipped its head down and then back up.
“No, don’t do that. That’s not necessary, ok?” She felt like he was going to charge so she brought the weapon out of her pocket and aimed it at the creature. “Look, I don’t want to use this.”
It was true. If she could have just run screaming back down the hallway without it catching her, then she would have.
But there was simply too much ground to cover, and it was too big. Unless it was the slowest creature of its height alive, and nothing in its muscled frame suggested that it was not lightning fast and aggressive, it would catch her quickly.
Still, she took a few more tentative steps backward, a trial run to see if it would let her retreat.
Its glowing eyes darted around the hallway like it was having trouble focusing on her. Strange. It seemed more and more agitated, which was a real bummer, because what she really wanted to do right now was to pull out her phone and call Crash. She needed his help right now.
And if this thing charged, she’d probably need Lyra as well. But that train of thought was moot because the phone was in her other pocket. She hoped the creature would simmer down so that she could back out of the hallway, or at least dig her cellphone out of her pocket.
The creature made another snorting noise, louder this time.
“No, no, no,” Maura muttered, sensing a change in its mood.
It lowered its horns at her, and then charged.
Maura screamed and started running backward. She pumped at least three laser rounds into its center of mass. In the end, it just kept coming.
It came at her so quickly all she could do was squeeze out one more round and then close her eyes. The last thing she saw were those green glowing eyes boring right through her soul.
The creature barreled into her. She was thrown backward onto the floor. The wind left her body as she landed with a thud. Then there was nothing. Was she dead?
She remembered she had her eyes closed. She opened them and peeked above her. Nothing. She got up on one elbow and looked behind her. Nothing. She was alone in the hallway. What the-
She swallowed and breathed for a moment or two. “Hello?” she squeaked quietly, wondering what had just happened and hoping somebody else had seen it and could explain it to her.
She had no such luck, though. The one good thing was that the creature seemed to be gone. She examined herself. Nothing seemed injured.
She felt moisture on her shirt, and there was a small red stain. There was a scratch and a couple of drops of blood on her belly even though she didn’t feel any pain. Huh.
So she got up and dusted herself off. I guess all’s well that ends well? I have no idea how I’m going to fill out the report on this.
After a quick look around, she decided to go back to her office. She had phone calls to make. Lots of phone calls.
3
Floyd hung up the phone. He wasn’t happy at all. Both Maura and Crash were on their way to his office. That couldn’t be good.
He had heard rumors of weirdness going on around the station, but usually it was either Maura or Crash or both that fixed things. Well, and Lyra. Thank goodness he hadn’t gotten a phone call from her. Yet.
The point was, he usually called them, not the other way around. This was not a promising start to a Monday. He pulled his lucky dragon figurine out of his desk drawer and held it in his fingers, tracing the silver frame and watching the amethyst stone sparkle. It always made him feel better. That and coffee. He took a sip. Well, he thought, I guess I’m as prepared as I’m ever going to be.
Crash arrived first. He knocked, threw open the door, and sat down before being asked. “Are you pranking us?”
Floyd frowned his best serious frown. “Have you ever heard of me pranking anyone? C’mon, you’ve been on Celestica for years. So have I.” He sat back and crossed all four of his arms. “Tell me what’s going on, and start from the beginning.”
“I’ve, um. Seen things today. Weird things.”
Floyd did his best to raise an eyebrow judgmentally. It was his signature move. “You do realize that you’re going to have to be a lot more specific.”
Crash leaned forward. “In my shower, Floyd. There was a woman in my shower.”
“What are you talking about, Crash? Honestly, this doesn’t sound like any of my business.”
“Look,” Crash said, “she was there one minute and the next minute, poof. And I know I’m not going crazy.”
“Ew.” Maura appeared in the doorway. “And how do you know that you’re not going crazy?”
“Yes,” Floyd said. “How do you know and why are you telling me this? Are you hurt? Were you assaulted? Why in stars name would you think this is a legal matter? Maura, what about you? Was there a woman in your shower?”
“Negative. I just dealt with a seven-foot monster with glowing green eyes and horns. It was in the Orc living section of the station. I’m slightly injured, and I should have never gone out on that prank call because it wasn’t pest control.”
She pointed accusingly at Crash. “It was a job for security. You should be taking these calls instead of ignoring them all, slacker.”
Crash made a drinking hand gesture toward Floyd wh
ile casting his eyes in her direction. “What are you talking about? Seven foot tall monsters?”
Maura smacked him in the head.
“Look,” Maura said. “I got a bunch of crazy calls this morning. I wasn’t sure what to do. Then I told myself, the next weird call I get, I’ll go and check it out. And I did. By the way, that’s more than Crash has done all morning. He’s just been hiding in his office hanging up on people.”
Maura stopped to scowl at Crash again. “I actually bothered to follow up on a phone call, and what I got was a seven foot monster with glowing green eyes and horns.”
“What happened?” Floyd asked. “And what was that about an injury?”
Maura thought about the scratch on her abdomen and regretted mentioning it, but this conversation was starting to piss her off.
“Bollocks,” Crash said.
She ignored Crash. In her view, all of this was his fault anyway.
“Well,” said Maura, who was still a little bit unsure of the exact order of events herself. “The creature charged me. I unloaded four eighty caliber laser rounds into it and then poof.”
“Poof you killed it?” Crash asked.
Floyd had a different question. “You unloaded four eighty caliber rounds into a living area of the space station? Are you crazy?”
Maura blinked. The conversation wasn’t going as well as she had hoped. Crash was the bad guy here, why couldn’t Floyd see that? “You didn’t see this thing, Floyd. You’d have done the same thing.”
Floyd shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t have.”
Maura turned to Crash. “Not poof, I killed it. Poof, it disappeared.”
“No body?” Crash asked. “Is it running around the space station wounded and attacking people?” He made eye contact with Floyd. “Because I’m no lawyer, but that sounds bad. Is it bad, Floyd?”
Floyd hadn’t thought of that, and he doubled the angry glare he was currently directing at Maura.
“I don’t think so,” Maura said. “I’m pretty sure it’s not running around the space station. It just disappeared. Into thin air. Entirely. Like it was a-“
Digital Ghosts: Book 2 of the Space Station At The Edge Of The Black Hole Series Page 2