.3
"Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world."
- B.G., 4.12
CEC Executive Council chamber, Titan Station
The hand of a grim, elderly looking woman reached out across the boardroom table to activate a transcript recorder, then came to rest beside an ornately carved marble ashtray. Tucked between the frail, aging twigs of her hand was a smoldering cigarette.
"Investigation Committee Hearing, under EarthGov Domestic Security Section C019.216... Interview number 6 of detainee #1544C-55613, on the matter of the USG Ishimura Communications Repair Assignment."
Her pristine, white uniform was highly decorated, and a silver identification tag over her breast identified her position as a high-ranking Senior Administration Counselor of the CEC. The woman's dark brown eyes, pitted in crow's feet, were all that stood out in contrast to her pallid skin and striking silver hair, which made her appear tall and frigid as an iceberg parting the ocean of those gathered in the boardroom along with her. She glanced around the room at her associates, an assembled audience of various officials, scientists and medical practitioners between EarthGov and the CEC - along with a few prying eyes from the Church of Unitology.
"Let's get started."
Her dark eyes swept the room until they came to rest upon the unfortunate subject of her interrogation, slouched before her in a chair on the opposite side of the table.
"State your name, and your former position."
The rather exhausted and disheveled looking man she was addressing was restrained by a metal collar and handcuffs, guarded closely by two armed security personnel on either side. The man glanced uneasily around the room through heavy, sunken eyes, appearing to be completely out of it as he fought against the effects of chemical sedation. The room's foreboding decorum faded in and out of his vision; dark grey metal walls with red trim and Marker symbols etched in silver, and a large, blown glass and steel ceiling structure depicting iconic symbolatry of Michael Altman, supported by pillars of pure black onyx carved into highly detailed Marker simulacra. It's macabre made the environment appear more like the inside of a Unitology rectory than an executive boardroom, and it haunted him with reminders of the horrible nightmares he had been having lately.
"...Isaac Clarke. Senior Systems... Engineer."
He struggled even harder to speak as his eyes rolled, and he licked weakly at his dried, cracked lips as his voice bounced off the cold steel walls lifelessly. A long silence enveloped the room before the old woman replied to him.
"Mr. Clarke, we'd like to discuss a little more about the aberrations that occurred in the execution of your duty, as a member of the repair team dispatched to the USG Ishimura."
Isaac stared dazedly at the Counselor while she proceeded to withdraw a pair of horn-rimmed glasses from the pocket of her vest and mount them upon the bridge of her nose. Her glare fell to a short stack of papers neatly piled in front of her, and she briefly thumbed through them before she looked back up.
"Tell us about what happened aboard the Ishimura."
"What do you... want to know?"
"Let's start with a headcount."
Isaac suspired in distress. Between the forcibly administered memory suppressing drugs and his own desperate desire to forget his most disastrous assignment with the CEC, it was really difficult to recall his deceased crew mates.
"I don't remember... I mean..."
The old woman quickly jotted something down on the top sheet of her paper stack.
"Nevermind. What did you find when you got there?"
"What? ... Problems."
A small, sideways grin slipped across her face, amused by the underlying contempt she heard in his otherwise deadpan voice.
"We know. How about expanding on that, please?"
Isaac felt sick to his stomach, and he hugged his arms around himself. The old woman failed to acknowledge his obvious physical discomfort.
"Everyone..."
"The crew, you mean?"
Her query triggered a flashing vision of long, sharp teeth and the putrid scent of blood in Isaac's mind, and for the moment he did not answer her. Watching the reddened sclera of his eyes as they shot back and forth in a chemically induced frenzy, She probed him again for an answer.
"You're talking about the 'necromorphs', isn't that right? Isn't that what you called them? So, what else did you find?"
Unsatisfied by his dead silence, she relentlessly obliged him.
"Tell us what you found aboard that ship, Isaac."
In spite of his desire to avoid the subject, he knew there was nothing he could do but submit; he had already come to understand her ability to make things much more miserable for him.
"... The Marker."
She parroted his response with a haunting enthusiasm.
"The Marker..."
A brief, quiet murmur arose from a few around the table, but none of them dared to interrupt the Counselor.
"Well, stepping back a moment... although you seem to be having difficulties at the present, you have in previous sessions been able to talk to us at great length about your Kellion teammates..."
Her eyes met his and stopped, appearing like frozen steel pinpoints planted into a blanket of snow.
"... Specifically, Kendra Daniels."
When he heard her name, Isaac felt even less inclined to continue.
"You've told us that you believe she was part of some plan to abduct the Marker from Aegis7, and that she even tried to kill you. Do you remember any of that?"
Cloudy as he was about many of the details regarding his treacherous former co-worker, Isaac would never forget the resentment he carried for what she had tried to do to him - no matter how thoroughly these mad scientists wiped his brain clean with their drugs and experiments.
"Fuck her. Kendra... was the goddamn, criminal here... not me."
The Counselor raised her hand to interrupt him, and extinguished her cigarette in the ashtray next to her with a condescending tone.
"Please. Just, indulge us."
"I don't know... I don't know!... She was, she was working for the Earth Defense Force, or, oh, who the fuck knows!"
The Counselor noticed how his anger toward Kendra was powerful enough to invoke almost immediate lucidity in his character, despite the considerable grade of tranquilizer they had him strapped under.
"And you stopped her, didn't you, Isaac?"
His eyes finally paused in their rolling to glare darkly upon her.
"I couldn't let her leave with it."
"Hmm. So your response to this was to seize control of the Aegis7 mining facility for yourself, extract the Marker from the hangar without proper authorization, and then destroy this holy relic?"
Isaac scoffed under his breath as his eyelids fell.
"You're off your fucking shit. That Marker's no holy relic..."
The Counselor scribbled down another note.
"The Red Marker may have been man-made, but it was divine instruction that made it what it is. Nonetheless, what happened to Daniels during the mission? Can you at least tell us that?"
Recalling Kendra's incredibly grueling death as the Hive Mind had effortlessly smashed her into paste right in front of him, Isaac did not have the heart to explain it. The Counselor gleaned over his deeply troubled expression as he stared at the table, then folded her hands before her.
"A lot happened there, Isaac. We know."
"It didn't happen like that, if that's what you're saying. I didn't kill her."
Her cold, besmirching grin was taunting him.
"I wasn't suggesting that. Do you remember anything about Captain Zach Hammond? Do you think he had anything to do with her plan to remove the Marker from Aegis7?"
Isaac weakly shook his head.
"I didn't really have the chance to ask him... What with him being... mauled to death, and all."
"You touched the Marker. Didn't you, Isaac?"
His heart began to pound. She was right, but a direct admission would have the most dire consequences for him - he knew it. So, he refused to answer. To his surprise, the Counselor just dismissed it.
"Let's move on..."
She stopped on one of the pages in front of her as she thumbed through them.
"... Nicole Brennan. This name has also come up several times in your depositions. I believe you've told us that the two of you were engaged, is that right?"
Isaac frowned darkly at her. Failing to see the relevance of her question he suspected that she was overstepping her professional boundaries, and instead seeking to satisfy her own sadistic desire to inflict further emotional pain upon him. He turned away, fixing his gaze upon one of the bright, distant stars he could see outside the windows of the room, trying to ignore her.
"She was assigned to the Ishimura's medical team, and was stationed there at the time you volunteered for the repair assignment, or so we understand."
The Counselor eyed Isaac with vulturous intent. When he failed to respond, she leaned back.
"Mr. Clarke... it's a proven fact that extended exposure to the Marker generally results in the development of severe psychological disorders. One of the most prominent of these disorders is the undesired tendency to experience very lucid and convincing hallucinations."
As his eyes remained fixed on the stars outside, the Counselor withdrew a small microchip from her pocket and inserted it into the transcript device on the table. The holomonitor blinked to life, projecting the contents of the chip onto its screen, and she began to scroll through a list of documents. As she did so, she tapped the impeccably manicured nails of her fingers across the table in a way that seemed like tiny little scalpels to Isaac, chipping away at his patience.
"We've retrieved all of your RIG's journals, dated from the time of your departure aboard the Kellion until after you were rescued by the Credence. You're a rather prolific journalist, I must say."
A chuckle escaped her lips.
"We'd like to share a few with you. To refresh your memory."
Until now, Isaac had completely forgotten all about the journal entries he had recorded, and it frightened him that the Counselor might seek to use his own words against him. He started to shrivel as she played back one of the audio journals, which filled the room with a crude, static recording of his own voice, sounding hurried, almost manic.
"Nicole keeps on saying 'Make us whole again'. Same thing Dr. Kyne was saying, same thing Harris was saying... what does it mean? It concerns me. But, Nicole is alive, and that's all that matters."
He looked down, trying desperately to recall having spoken those words. The Counselor watched him eagerly while she pulled up another journal recording.
"I don't know where Nicole went, but she said I need to restore power to the bridges."
As the recording came to an abrupt end, the Counselor dismissed the holoscreen.
"You claim that Nicole was still alive, and in fact attempting to assist you. Do I have this right?"
Isaac sensed the old woman's strategy: she was cornering him, purposely taking advantage and manipulating him with her questions. But he didn't have what it took to prove her wrong, so he could only respond with the truth.
"... Yes."
The Counselor retrieved a slim, gold cigarette case from her vest and opened it, pulling out another cigarette. She then ignited it, and tucking her free arm underneath her elbow she leaned forward and took a deep drag of it. The smoke emanating from her nostrils as she spoke cast her in an eerily draconic light.
"Mr. Clarke, we appreciate that you have been most forthcoming and honest."
She slowly tapped the cigarette against the side of the ashtray, taking the moment to stage him.
"However, your statements - like all of the other key subjects - are contradictory, to say the least."
The Counselor activated another file on the transcript device. This time it was surveillance camera footage from within a hospital room. It documented Isaac just after his having been rescued by the USM Credence - he was clearly distraught, screaming and lashing out violently at a team of medical personnel who were seeking to subdue him.
"No, NO!... she... IT'S a monster... They're all fucking monsters... fucking killers! You can't go in there - you don't fucking get it, you're all gonna DIE! No, you can't..."
Unable to believe what he was seeing, Isaac just stared at the disturbing imagery. The Counselor eventually stopped the video playback.
"This was taken just hours after your rescue. You repeatedly claimed that your dead girlfriend was on the shuttle with you, and that she attacked you. But what they found aboard that shuttle does not suggest that at all, Mr Clarke. There was no evidence of Ms. Brennan, nor of any necromorph creature as you describe. They did however, find a whole lot of damage that could have only been caused by something - or someone - inside the cabin. You were the only one there."
Isaac shook his head, silently refuting her proposal.
No. It didn't make sense. Why would he have purposely sabotaged his only means of getting home? She was lying. She had to be.
"Furthermore, you also told us that the Marker... along with the entire planet of Aegis7... was destroyed. But I assure you that Aegis7 still exists. Nothing of the sort of devastation as you describe has occurred there."
He finally looked up.
"What?"
"You were mistaken. The only thing we can be certain of about you, Mr. Clarke, is that you are very lucky that the Credence found you."
He shook his head.
"What about the Ishimura? What happened to it?"
The Counselor raised a taunting eyebrow at him.
"That is classified information."
"Classified?"
"We also lost contact with the USM Valor - a missing EarthGov patrol vessel which was known to have been in the same sector as the Ishimura, right around the time you and the Kellion crew were aboard it. Maybe you know something about that."
The Counselor sucked on her cigarette while taking great delight in Isaac's distress. Like so many memories of this traumatic period, the tragedy of the USM Valor had also slipped his mind, but now he remembered the EarthGov warship that had found itself the next target of the Marker's inescapable alien scourge.
"You have to stop this. You can't go back there... you're going to kill everyone."
The Counselor's wrinkled, powdery face flushed a little darker.
"With all due respect, we'll decide the appropriate measures to take. We don't need your sanction."
The suppressing smoke of her cigarette encased her face in its shroud, obscuring his vision of everyone else around her.
"You have to understand that your judgment has been severely impaired as a result of your contact with the Marker. This situation has consumed a great deal of time and resources. Civilization is at stake here, and we cannot stop such a massive operation just because of what you claim happened - which, ultimately, cannot be corroborated."
Isaac glared at her, his voice rising with anger.
"Severely impaired? You're... are you fucking kidding me?"
"Calm down, Mr. Clarke."
Isaac couldn't breathe. He started panting, and feeling suffocated by the restraining collar he was wearing, he began pulling at it.
"People are dying out there... You're talking about civilization... but you're KILLING all of us!"
Despite his rising temper, the Counselor remained unmoved.
"Stand down, Isaac. Before you get yourself into trouble again."
He bared his teeth threateningly at her, trying to wrench the collar off and continuing to shout as the two guards at his sides grabbed for him. Stamping out her cigarette impatiently, the Counselor barked at him.
"Mr. Clarke, I say it is the Council's decision to declare you unfit for release. Indefinitely."
When she said this Isaac's eyes shot up in terror, and he immediately stopped struggling. He knew what this meant in the Counselor's tongue.
"What? No... no! Please, please, don't do that!"
She shrugged heartlessly.
"We have no choice. We simply cannot trust you anymore. It's best that you remain in our custody permanently."
Feeling increasingly condemned by each word she spoke, tears began to roll from his wide, dilated eyes.
"Please... don't do this to me... please! I, I have a life..."
"Isaac, your life ended the moment you stepped aboard the Ishimura. You know that as well as I do."
The old woman signaled silently to the two guards. Suddenly Isaac felt their hands upon him, grabbing him by the arms and forcing him out of the chair. Finally he exploded, and he started to swing wildly at them. As they fell back he turned on the Counselor, and in the few seconds he knew he had before they could restrain him again, Isaac lurched toward the table and swung at her. He managed to knock over the stack of papers in front of her, which was as close as he got before one of the guards finally seized him.
"You fucking bitch! Do you know how many people suffered a fate worse than death for your Marker?! I saw it with my own eyes... I had to kill them with my own bare hands!"
The Counselor just stared at him, unfazed even as her papers flew everywhere in front of her, and her fellow colleagues began to get uproarious. She simply watched with a cold, unfeeling smirk as one the guards elbowed Isaac in the gut, sending him to his knees, and bound his hands in cuffs. Prompted by her outraged peers, the Counselor finally dismissed the guards.
"Get him out of here."
The guards pulled Isaac from the room, and the Counselor listened to his frantic pleading as it prevailed over the angry babbling of her peers. Once they had dragged him out and closed the chamber doors, the Counselor turned to one of the medical practitioners sitting next to her.
"Dr. Yasmin, I would very much like to know if you have any input on what has just happened here."
The young doctor Samara Yasmin, Isaac's primary care physician in Titan Memorial, was at a loss for words. Having bore witness to the scenario that had just transpired, the intensity of Isaac's outburst had thoroughly shocked her.
"I... I, don't understand. I've never seen... I mean, he hasn't been this hostile in a while."
Samara turned to the Counselor, but the woman's burning glare was impossible to make direct eye contact with. She immediately looked back down.
"I'll... I will run some more tests first thing in the morning, Madam. He'll cool off in stasis for the night. We'll get to the bottom of this."
After some further discussion around the room, the Counselor finally adjourned the meeting with a motion of continuance. After a few minutes everyone had dispersed from the room, leaving only two people behind. One was the Counselor herself, and the other was another member of the Titan Memorial medical staff - Dr. Alex Werren, an older gentleman clearly with years of experience beyond Yasmin. He too appeared to be quite rattled by the situation, but when his eyes met with the Counselor's, the stout, copper-bearded man simply nodded. The Counselor responded to his silent motion with a small, dry grin.
"Alex, considering the severity of Isaac's case, I think it's time you took over. I believe Isaac is a little over her head."