A/N: Because, dancinglemur, I totally meant it when I said I would write this. Rated for language.
Summary: When I was a kid my overactive imagination never suggested that I'd be a night watchman for a top-secret government agency, spending the night with a possibly hostile refrigerated alien robot who was breathing and awake and maybe I was just being paranoid.
I recommend that you read this at night, without any lights on, in dead silence. Preferably home alone, but if everyone else is asleep that works too.
Nine o'clock and the last of the technicians had left. The noise of the day had ended and I kicked my feet up, leaning back in my comfortable chair, settling in for the night shift. It wasn't my first night watch in my time at Sector Seven… I had hung around outside the gates, wandered the halls, even watched over the Cube once or twice. Not so much as a glimmer there; a pity, because I'd been hoping for something spectacular. But I'd never guarded NBE-1 before. I'd come prepared, armed with coffee, magazine, and AK-47.
I'd seen the Ice Man before—everyone had—but I'd never been alone with it in such close quarters. So far it wasn't too bad. The alien machine just stood there, supported by metal scaffolding, locked in place by ice. The entire room was frigid, so I was bundled up in a down jacket and gloves. Aside from my reading light the room was darkened, reducing the Ice Man to a huge shadowy blob. The controls were right next to me so that I could light the room if I had to.
I settled down to read about Brad and Angelina. The night was starting out just fine, in my opinion.
That was when I noticed it.
During the day, the NBE-1 hangar was filled with noise. Voices over the intercom, machines hissing and clanging, readouts beeping, scientists babbling… it all built into a cacophony of sound over which nothing else could be heard. Now, however, the technicians were all gone and the machines were off. There was complete and utter silence. But the longer I listened to the white noise in my ears, the more I came to realize that it wasn't silent at all. There was a noise, so subtle that it snuck up on me, gradually making itself known. It was like a breeze coming from somewhere, a puff of wind passing over sharp rocks… or ice. It rose and fell—at its high point it was like the faint echo of a distant scream; at its lowest, like a voice so soft and low that I just barely couldn't make out the words. Though sometimes it did seem to form words that I couldn't understand. It was eerie… the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I realized just what it reminded me of.
It sounded like… breathing.
The question of whether or not giant extraterrestrial robots needed to breathe was irrelevant, because the sound was coming from NBE-1.
Ten o'clock and I was thoroughly creeped out. Brangelina didn't seem half as interesting now. More enthralling was listening to an alien voice murmuring words I couldn't understand and could hardly hear. More important was wondering whether he was awake in there. I couldn't imagine being frozen alive, awake but stuck, scarcely able to breathe (or, well, whatever), barely able to speak and only then in slow, indistinct slurs. When he got unfrozen… if, IF he got unfrozen… God, that thing would probably be pissed off as hell. I knew I would be.
Eleven o'clock and I was convinced that I had seen something move. He'd twitched. I'd seen something flicker out of the corner of my eye. I prowled around the room with my flashlight casting jagged shadows on the Ice Man. Nothing there. No one there. It was just my overactive imagination running away with me.
Of course, when I was a kid my overactive imagination never suggested that I'd be a night watchman for a top-secret government agency, spending the night with a possibly hostile refrigerated alien robot who was breathing and awake and maybe I was just being paranoid.
Twelve o'clock and I still couldn't figure it out. He was saying something, damn it all, and it didn't sound like "take me to your leader" or "all your base are belong to us" or "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue."
And the breathing or air-recycling or whatever it was was driving me slowly insane. I could only compare it to being stuck in a pitch-black room with Darth Vader. Only not as dark and four times as big.
One o'clock and I wondered whether or not anyone was looking for him. The thought of a fleet of NBE-1 clones gave me the shivers.
One-thirty and my supervisor called to check up on me.
"I'm never doing this again," I vowed, and he laughed.
"Now you see why people don't usually volunteer to babysit the Ice Man."
Two o'clock and the Ice Man was staring at me. The light from my flashlight had passed over his face and lit up his red eyes, or whatever the mechanical equivalent was. When I lowered the beam the eyes dimmed to dark. A trick of the light, I thought, but I tried it again just in case.
When I lowered the light this time, the eyes glowed still.
NBE-1 was awake in there. He was awake and aware of everything that we did to him. He was awake and he was staring. Right. At. Me.
"Cut it out," I said, and my voice startled even me. By the time it stopped echoing the eyes were dim again. I stayed on edge. This was more than eerie… this was fucking terrifying.
Three o'clock and I thought I'd figured out a few words.
"Ahh-Spock." I wondered if he'd been getting broadcasts of Star Trek and recalled those crazy theories that sci-fi nuts had: if an alien species saw our fictional movies and T.V. shows, would they think they were actually historical broadcasts or something?
"Stars—" something. Whatever that meant. All my theories for the second syllable made no sense. Then again, I guess it didn't have to. If he wanted ice cream he was as close as it got.
Something about eggs being gone. Again, I was on shaky ground with that one.
And I could have sworn that he mentioned "Brother." The vision of the Ice Man's twin chilled me and I tried to forget it.
Perhaps most disturbing, considering what was right next door: "Cube."
Four o'clock and I couldn't stand the dark anymore, so I turned on the lights. NBE-1 stood innocently, frozen, eyes dark... but still whispering. I did five circuits of the room.
Five o'clock and my torment was almost over.
God, just let it end. Just this once, can't you speed time up for me? For me? Please, just make him stop!
Six o'clock and the machines roared to life and scientists babbled their way into the hangar. I heaved a sigh of relief as they drowned out his incessant murmurs. The day guards took up their posts, some grinning at me knowingly. How many of them had heard the Ice Man talk? The sergeant patted me on the shoulder.
"Now you see why no one ever does that more than once."
I didn't care where they put me as long as I never had to spend another night like that. And I sure as hell didn't want to be anywhere nearby when that monster got out of the ice…
A/N: Because, admit it, you'd be scared too. XD