Harbinger

by Stephen Christiansen

  Eric turned and ran. Despite the queasiness he ran. Despite the fact that he was still hurt from his fall, he ran. Despite the fact that his muscles were still sore, that he was out of breath and that he hadn’t eaten in a long time, he ran. Even though he knew that he couldn’t outrun these creatures, that he couldn’t outdistance them, that he doubted that he had five minutes left in his life, he ran. Despite the fact that his mind was screaming at him that everything was futile, that he was just delaying the inevitable, Eric ran.

  He hadn’t a clue how the idea came to his mind, or why. It would be useless anyway, but it was the one shot, the only shot he had left, and beyond this, even if it did work, it was still a mystery on how he was going to survive much longer. Yet, the moment Eric saw that the ledge had slightly collapsed on his left creating a ramp like structure, he turned and ran up it.

  Eric’s feet kicked over small rocks and dirt as he ran up the incline and once he was at the top, he started to run through the trees. He doubted that the hovercraft would be able to fit between the large flora, and even if it could find space, it could eventually become stuck.

  A quick look back only confirmed what he had hoped. The hovercraft had come up the incline, but had stopped just outside the forest. They weren’t going to pursue him, at least not on that thing.

  However, he immediately caught sight of something that he wasn’t expecting to see. The hovercraft was empty. The two squid faced aliens were gone. The only question was, where could they…

  Eric’s running came to a complete and abrupt halt as his body hit something. Immediately he collapsed to the ground. The sudden and immediate stop had sent him to the forest floor hard.

  For one moment, he lay there, trying to catch his breath. He had done this too many times and his body simply couldn’t take it anymore. He just wanted to lay there and let the aliens catch him. He just wanted to give up and let it all end. All he had to do was keep his eyes closed and wait.

  Yet it was out of curiosity that made him open his eyes. He hadn’t hit a tree, or anything solid. He was sure that he had hit a person or some form of humanoid. He just wanted to know who or what…

  It was them. He had hit them. Somehow they had moved from behind him to in front of him. Had they used some form of molecular teleporter? Had they been able to run faster than him? It didn’t matter. He was never going to to know. They reached for him.

  “Errrcccc, wvvvk up …” Their words echoed in his head.

  “Weeeevvv gottt yoooo…”

  They were trying to tell him something.

  ‘Yes, yes I know you’ve got me.’ Eric’s thoughts ran through his mind.

  “Reeeelx.”

  ‘No, no, I’m not going to relax. No, I’m going to fight until my last breath, I have to…’

  They reached out and grabbed him. He could feel their rubbery skin. He could feel their cold...

  Chapter: 49

  Eric woke with a start.

  He found himself immersed in a cool, thick liquid, like some kind of goo. Wires were attached to pads that covered his body. An air tube was shoved down his throat and the immediate acknowledgement of its placement started to make him gag.

  Eric immediately went into panic. His arms and legs thrashed about as he tried to find a way out of the container that he was placed in. His sudden movements splashed out the ooze as his hands found the side of the tub and pulled himself up.

  He gagged and coughed and his stomach churned as his body started to reject the tube. His inner muscles squeezed and he stopped breathing. His hands went to the tube and as they did, he let loose of the sides and his body dropped back into the ooze. His body re-submerged.

  He could feel several arms reach into the ooze and try to pull his thrashing body out of the tub. He could hear voices trying to talk to him.

  “Relax. Try to relax.”

  He was able to see so many people now that his vision was coming into view. Through the ooze Eric could see several figures, more like white blobs silhouetted against a bright background. It was them! These were the indigenous species on this planet! They had caught him! They were going to dissect him! With increased vigor, Eric tried to ignore the breathing tube and started to push the arms away.

  “It’s ok. Try to relax. We are here to help.”

  Memories started to flood back into Eric’s mind as if some cloud was starting to be lifted. The last words he remembered hearing started to come back to him.

  ‘You’ll be disoriented when you wake up. It’s all part of the process of the psych test.’

  Eric relaxed a little more as he realized that the doctors were trying to help him out of the container. As the removed his breathing tube, he felt sick and was sure that he was going to lose his last meal. Then he remembered.

  ‘You need to fast for twenty four hours prior to the psych test. You’ll feel sick and nauseous when it’s over. We’ve had too many individuals losing their previous meal and we find that it’s best to do the test on an empty stomach.’

  Still, he wasn’t going to give those watching over him the satisfaction of watching him lose what little integrity he had left.

  Eric let the doctors help him out of the tub. His body was trembling with shock. He felt his blood run cold. His head throbbed.

  He let his eyes scan the room to re-familiarize himself with his surroundings. The area seemed very sterile with its white walls. There were a few computers with their lights blinking off to one side where the leads of the wires that were stuck to his body were plugged into, but even these seemed sterile. The computers were covered in a white plastic as if to keep them from being contaminated by some parasite. The men and women that were helping him only helped complete the feel with their white outfits, their blue gloves, and their white masks.

  As he was being toweled off, Eric couldn’t help but notice that there was one individual that wasn’t wearing all white with blue gloves. On the contrary he was wearing a military dress uniform complete with medals on his chest and more than a few stars on his shoulder. Even in his state of confusion and shock, Erick was still able to identify this individual as a high ranking general. Question was why were the Space Marines involved in all of this?

  “Who…?” Eric didn’t know if he had seen this general before and was still foggy about his short term memories or if this top brass had come in later.

  The general seemed to ignore him at first and reached for a print out. Eric could only guess that it was a report of what had happened to him in the tub and the analysis of the data that was collected from all of the wires that were being disconnected from him. The general seemed to give an obligatory and cursory glance at the report before giving a slight “hmmm”. After a few moments, the general folded report, put it in his back pocket and finally answered Eric.

  “Eric Langley, I am General Daniel Baker of the Space Marine Corp. As overseer of this mission it is my duty to inform you that you have passed your psych evaluation.”

  Eric blinked several times. A lot of what the general said didn’t make sense. What did he mean when he said “...duty to inform you…”? Did that mean that he really didn’t want to inform him of the results? And if it was his duty, then who was he reporting to? And, since when was the Space Marine Corp overseeing psych tests for long space travel for terraforming missions? And what did he mean when he said “psych evaluation”?

  “You...you mean to tell me that this was all just a dream?”

  The general shook his head. “No. It was a culmination of various memories of individuals that had gone on different missions. All of it was real, at least at some point in time, just not all at once. It was meant to see how you would respond had any of it had been real, how you would respond to stress, life and death situations, and where your breaking point would be. In the great scheme of things, it was meant to see if you were psychologically ready to actually have a long cryo sleep, how you deal with the physical and mental stress from such a sleep, and how you would deal with actual
ly being off of Earth. All of this is vital to the mission. I’m sure you can understand that these missions are far too important to leave in the hands of individuals that are going to cave-in or melt down at the first sign of danger or the first time they look upon an alien species or planet. You wouldn’t want one of your teammates going AWOL or even going postal while you were on a mission, would you?”

  Eric had to shake his head at that. He could see the general’s point. However, the stress of the situations had been so real, he actually believed that he had been there. Anger welled up in Eric’s stomach.

  “The Harbinger...it was never real, was it?”

  “No, it was never a real ship. The Harbinger is the program that you experienced.”

  “Then it was all a lie? I never really went through it? Is this some sick twisted joke that you get your jollies off of? You like to watch people’s reactions to implanted memories?” Eric’s tone had a bite to it. His words were dripping with sarcasm and anger.

  “I see that you are upset. Most people are when they come out of their psych test. You want to take a swing at me? You won’t be the first, and probably won’t be the last.”

  Eric wanted nothing better than to cross the room and slug the general. But two things crossed his mind. The first was that his body was still in shock from all that had happened. It was still reacting to everything that his brain had processed and had believed that everything had been real. He was still in shock and was having problems walking. There was no way that he could fight anyone at this time and expect to win.

  The other thing that crossed his mind was that this might still be part of the psych test. He had to watch everything he did and said if he wanted to be on the real flight that was leaving for Phoebe.

  He shook his head. Despite the rage that was coursing through his body, it wasn’t worth it. If he wanted to leave this poor, miserable excuse of a planet, he needed to be careful. He needed this trip.

  “It’s just the effects of the test. I’m sure it will pass.”

  “Good. Good. That’s a very good sign. Very few individuals can push aside the emotional stress that they have been pushed to and come back to be rational.”

  Eric sat a moment to take it all in. Then he looked back at the general.

  “You set me up for failure, didn’t you? I really had no way of completing that in a positive manner. It was just to set me up for failure, to see what I would do under impossible odds that I could never succeed in.”

  “Don’t look at it like that. Consider this a realization of a worst case scenario. You know, we can use a man like you.”

  Eric had to nod his head. His suspicions were correct, he was still being tested.

  “Any questions before we finish the paperwork and get you going?”

  Eric thought a moment. “What was inside A42213 or is it in A42214? It must have been important if someone wanted to kill to keep it a secret. Did you ever find out?”

  General Baker gave him a curious look and then shrugged.

  “I don’t know anything about these containers. I’m not privy to what you have seen or witnessed.”

  Eric had to wonder about that. This was a top brass, yet he didn’t know a thing about what stress factors were being subjected to his potential personnel. And, if the containers were that important, wouldn’t someone higher up be notified? Either the general was completely ignorant of the situation and wasn’t being a very good example of someone in his position or he was lying, possibly to cover up something top secret or militarily embarrassing.

  “Well, did anyone find out who killed Cleo or Peter or Denise? Was it Vincent or Richard? And what about the engineer that was discovered?”

  The general shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. None of these events took place together; they have been taken from memories of others who have seen various events at various times. However, I assure you that if there had been anyone who had been harmed illegally than it has already been taken care of. Again, I’m not privy to what you have seen, so I’m not aware of these people or what has or has not transpired.”

  Again there was that deniability. This general was good and Eric doubted that he would get any information from him. It would just be best to take the information that he had received and the situation that he had gone through and make the best of it.

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  General Baker excused himself and left the room. Eric would need some time to gather his wits and his gear before he was shipped out. Until then, there was something that needed to be done.

  As soon as he had gone down the sterile corridor, the general looked over his shoulder to make sure that no one was following him. With his satisfaction sated, he turned to his right and found the door that he was looking for. A keypad at the side of the door marked this as a locked room, meant for those who were authorized for its access. Its placement in the middle of a common hall had only left the impression that it was some type of storage room. Daniel knew better. The general punched in his security code of A42213 and waited for the “click” to let him know that the door was unlocked before proceeding inside.

  The room inside could have passed as any other storage room. There were shelves along the sides of the walls and many were set up in the middle of the room. The light that illuminated the area was dim, as if it were only there as a minor necessity to be used briefly and then to be turned off. Even the small size of the room offered nothing more than a space for storage.

  Besides the shelving, the room seemed to be empty and the shadows of the improper lighting only added to the emptiness. At first glance, anyone else would have probably walked out seeing nothing of importance. But, again, General Baker knew better.

  “Is he ready?”

  The voice seemed to come out of nowhere but its source materialized as the man stepped out of the shadows. His slicked back, black raven hair and deep dark eyes showed mystery, his gait showed confidence and his suit showed power and wealth.

  “Yes, I believe so. I’ll put down that he has passed his psych eval.”

  “Does he suspect?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “And the Harbinger?”

  “He bought the story that it had never existed.”

  “And what about Cerius III ?”

  “No, I’m sure he doesn’t remember a thing.”

  “And did you find out what happened to the shipment?”

  “It looks like they were attacked by a war party of Dagons, although I wasn’t able to discern what had caused the initial warp core failure.”

  The general sensed that the man seemed disappointed and he wondered what repercussions would happen in the wake of not fetching the vital piece of information that he was after. He had to think of some good news, and fast.

  “We have a new shipment going out. It’s already on board.”

  “Good. It looks like we have the last of our crew then. I’ll notify the Star Chaser that they are cleared to depart as soon as he arrives.”

  Daniel didn’t know this man’s real name, he had only wanted to be referred to as Mister Smith, but he was sure that this man had enough wealth and power, probably from one of those mega-corporations, to influence an individual of authority further up the chain of command. How far up he had often wondered, but then again, maybe he really didn’t want to know.

  “Was there anything else general?”

  The question from the suit brought Daniel out of his reverie.

  “No, nothing else.”

  “Then you are dismissed. Its best you return as quickly as you can. We don’t want you being missed now, do we?”

  Daniel had to consider that. Was this suit trying to threaten him? Was he insinuating that he could make him disappear and end up being “missed”? There seemed to be that kind of condescending tone in his voice. He wondered if he should take the necessary precautions and deal with the suit here and now, on his
own, in this closet, before anyone realized what had happened. The Mister “Smith” would be the one who would be “missed”. However, Daniel had to wonder how high this whole operation went.

  The general gave the man one last consideration before giving a nod. Then, without any further thought, he turned and left the closet. It was only then did his mind begin to wonder how the “suit” got into the storage room in the first place.

  “Sir. General Baker, there you are, sir.”

  The sudden voice and the announcement of his name brought Daniel’s attention to the intersection of the hallways. There he saw one of the lieutenants in his command under him come to attention and give the proper salute. If his memory had served him correctly, he had been a fine junior officer. It would be a waste to have to lose him if he had seen or heard too much. With any luck he might be able to salvage the situation. He returned the salute and continued with the conversation in hopes that he wouldn’t be questioned about the storage room behind him.