Derelict

By THE Xenomorph

I own only the character of Vile.

Star Trek Voyager is © Paramount

Aliens vs Predator is © Fox

The door

I was floating.

In nothingness.

I was floating in nothingness? I stopped, if such a thing were possible. I'd been here before and recently at that. Twice in such a short time. I laughed before I saw him. It wasn't the one who raised us, it was the one he had warned us all about. The one that came for everything.

The Black Warrior stood before me at a door. It stared at me with an intent I could only ever dream to hope to imagine. I shuddered, but not from fear. I felt my body further away and the door came closer. I heard the Doctor panic and shout for me keep fighting. The Black Warrior gestured to the door. I stepped back, I had a reason to live didn't I? Friends and people to call allies, people who needed my protection.

The Warrior did not like my retreat and he lunged forward, grabbing me by the neck and slamming me into a floor that came from nowhere. If I didn't know any better I'd have sworn my shoulder had just broken, but I did know better. I roared and clawed at the warrior's arms to get him off of me. It worked, but only because the warrior threw me and I landed just short of the door.

I sprang to my feet faster than the Warrior could move to me and I had launched myself in his direction the same moment he launched towards me. We met in mid air, a tangle of claws and metal. We slashed and bit and smashed each other as we tumbled. I managed to separate us be pushing him away with my feet. I flew back for what seemed like ages and looked down to see Tuvok handing Naomi something while she cried.

What happened? Why am I here again?"

"He wished for you to have this Ms Wildman." Tuvok's solid and sincere voice caused my mind to flash in pain. Then I saw what he had handed her. It was orange and doll shaped and I could have sworn it winked at me.

That thing. I remembered it. The doll from the holodeck.

The Black Warrior was at me again, this time holding my neck as it effortlessly drug me to the door. I was halfway in the door before I heard the Doctor scream at Tom to grab one of the tools to start my heart again. I was dying and The Black Warrior was taking me.

I looked down again to see Naomi still crying into her mother's arms. Neelix was there as well, helping to comfort her. Naomi was upset because I was dying? Then I saw Tom's face as he tried to bring e back. I felt the passion as he screamed at me. Funny, we'd never really talked much and I'd always considered hims a jerk.

My head slid past the door.

"I like this place. I want IT."

My hands shot out from the darkness, not the clawed monstrosities I had always held, but my human hands. The pulled me out slightly, enough that the Black Warrior had to reach behind and pull me in. I heard the door start to close and I knew only one thing could stop it. My tail lashed out and pushed the door back open. This time my claws shot out and pulled me out with ease. I almost swam out of the blackness of the Warrior's realm and when I looked back to face him he merely stood in the door and nodded before it closed once again.

(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8 )(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)

Captain's Log: Supplemental. Vile has remained unconscious for almost a week, with his condition deteriorating at a frighteningly steady pace. Tom and the Doctor have pulled him from the brink twice now with Tom receiving a nasty burn to his hands as a thank you for the second time. Naomi is taking Vile's condition hard and is refusing to let go of the doll he replicated for her. I find the thin unsettling, but apparently he thought it would be a decent "goodbye" gift. I don't intend for it to be that though...

Janeway had just finished her log when Chakotay chimed in on the com. "Captain, could you please come to the holodeck."

"I'll be right there, is this about Vile?" She asked, something in Chakotay's voice was off.

"You're gonna need to see it to believe it." Chakotay said.

Janeway hurried to the holodeck, but she made sure to alert Tuvok that something seemed off. The astute vulcan made a point to have several crew meet her there. They arrived almost as she did.

"I'm going in first, if I don't come back out or respond to communications after five minutes shut the thing down." She ordered.

"Yes ma'am." One of the ensigns said.

Janeway entered. It was dark at first, then the doors closed and Janeway saw what Chakotay meant. Before her stood several figures of earth's mythology and there was something undeniably lifelike about them, something more that mad it obvious that they weren't just holograms. Spring heeled Jack, Thor, Zeus and the Monkey King were among them.

"Captain, I'd like you meet the strange digital lifeforms we picked up from Vile's ship." Chakotay wasn't smiling as he would normally be doing. "They have some troubling information."

A tall one without a face and arms and legs of equal prportion to that of Vile's stepped forward. It's voice seemed like a gentle hiss of air. "We apologize for 'stowing' away', but the intent to destroy the previous vessel was clear to us."

"No apology needed for that, but why wait so long to reveal yourselves?" Janeway asked, awe and wonder overtaking her.

"We do not normally even do this organic." A being using the image of Anubis spoke.

"No, we do not." The tall one spoke, Janeway noted that what she assumed to be a suit at first now seemed to be a part of the creature's body. "We come to you now because we know one of yours is dying because of one of ours."

"Vile." Janeway's awe dropped away to her captaining instincts. "What happened?"

"Subroutine 52-K decided to become it's own being." Anubis explained.

Thor continued, "We exist primarily as data."

"Each program adding to the whole." Zeus finished.

"The glitches Vile reported." Chakotay explained.

"Yes, we knew the danger the mutations represented, but this new one confused us." The tall pale one added. "We decided in the end he was no threat."

"And this rogue program?" Janeway asked.

"It is against our coding to delete or allow the deletion of our own coding." Thor said.

Janeway took a deep breath. "And what do we call you?

"This form is called 'Slenderman'." The Slenderman said.

"But what's your name?" Janeway asked.

"We have no names, merely program lines." Anubis spoke up and looked off in a direction. "Systems show the mutation is awake and stressed."

"The doll." Slenderman began to explain.

"The doll will have to wait my crew-member is..." Janeway was cut off by the comm.

"Captain Vile is awake and rampaging through the halls to your location." Tuvok informed her.

"Is anyone hurt?" Janeway asked, knowing full well he could be in a horrible state of mind.

"No captain, merely alarmed." Tuvok said.

"He's focused." Chakotay realized.

"Outcome; one hundred percent chance." Anubis spoke up.

"For what?" Janeway asked.

"The death of the mutation." Anubis said flatly.

"Like hell." Janeway growled as the doors flew open.

"Where is IT?!" Vile screamed a very human scream, droplets of his blood dripping from his ears. He looked directly to the Slenderman. "Where is IT?!"

"Your prey has been given to the girl you intended it to be a gift for." Slenderman spoke.

"You're rogue program's in the doll?" Janeway snapped her attention back to the lifeform.

"Yes." It said flatly. "Reintegration is impossible and the only way to save the life form known as Naomi Wildman is to destroy the doll."

"Warning." Zeus stood. "Doll has accessed a series of programs and schematics, it is attempting to make a new body."

"Computer locate Naomi Wildman." Vile snapped.

"You need to rest." Janeway ordered.

"Naomi Wildman is in cargo bay one." The computer chimed.

"Get to sickbay." Janeway ordered as the lights flickered in the holodeck and the lifeforms vanished.

"I'm already dead Janeway." Vile panted, "I won't let this thing take an innocent life..." Then he was gone and Chakotay walked over to the spot where his blood pooled.

"Tuvok." Janeway activated the com. "Send security to Cargo bay one to retrieve Naomi, she's in danger. Whatever Vile needs, give him."

"Captain." Chakotay touched the blood. "Something's not right."

"He's dying Chakotay." Janeway admitted, "I'm not surprised, but we'd better clean it all up."