A Voice in the Dark
By Anime Angel ^0^
Melfina awoke sometime the next evening. She had been keeping pretty good track of time, so she had figured she had slept most of the day. She wondered briefly if everything had been a bad dream...a nightmare.
But what she saw was not the happy face of Jim coming to wake her up in the morning, nor the hungry face of Aisha. There was no goofy Gene, and no serious Suzuka. Gilliam was not sitting beside her on the bed. It was all just as it had been before she had fallen asleep: small room, rich furniture, and emptiness.
Overcome by a sudden feeling of anxiety, Melfina collapsed once more onto her bed, wondering if this was to be her new home.
*****
"GENE! SLOW THE HELL DOWN!" Aisha screamed at the top of her lungs as Gene sped down the empty road. He was in a hurry, she knew, but she was being thrown about like a cheap piece of cloth! She was relieved when their car stopped in front of a large gate. No one hesitated to get out.
"Wait here with the car, Jim. If it gets ugly I'm gonna need some backup."
Jim saluted at Gene's usual orders. "You got it." Then, "I should have been driving in the first place."
Aisha followed closely as Gene made his way to a speaker at the far end of the gate. It looked as if it were brand new, and according to the story Jim told her, it probably was.
"Oh no...not you again..." Aisha jumped as the speaker crackled to life. Immediately, Gene ripped the thing off of the wall. The voice continued to complain all the way to the ground.
"Damn thing..." he muttered. "AISHA!"
The Ctarl Ctarl knew her cue. Outstretching her claws as far as possible, she began to slowly pry open the gate that lay in front of them. It began to bend and twist, until finally it fell in a heap onto the ground.
All three made their way swiftly into the building. Once they had gotten passed the main gate, it was all a simple journey. The building was not that complicated, and in fact there was one main hall leading to every room there. The whole design made it easier for the three intruders to make their way farther and farther inward.
Unfortunately, some security guards disagreed with the intruders' breaking and entering. With a few quick swipes from Suzuka, however, they were easily taken care of.
"Over here, Gene." Suzuka pulled him and Aisha over to a map hanging on the wall. It was a blueprint of the building, and it seemed to have been hung there for their convenience.
"HEY!" Aisha yelled, spotting the name 'Disona' in one of the rooms. "THAT MUST BE THAT GUYS PLACE!"
"Very good, Aisha, glad you figured that out so quick," Gene said sarcastically, heading up the hall.
"Well at least I NOTICED IT!" Aisha retorted.
Though it seemed a little strange that the building was not flowing with security guards by now, the three continued until they were at the office labeled 'Disona Cant'. Gene cautiously opened the door, but they did not find Melfina. In fact, forming three neat rows in the middle of the large room, was a brigade of security guards, all armed with heavy weapons. These weren't the regular old security guards either, and Gene could tell they had been trained.
"It's a trap...dang," he muttered.
"Look who's being OBSERVANT NOW!" Aisha snapped. Once again, she outstretched her claws for the fight she knew was soon to follow.
*****
"Hm...your friends were causing a little bit of trouble at the main office, I see."
Melfina drew back in disgust as Cant began to come nearer. She was sitting in another room now, and much like the other one, it was richly furnished.
"I didn't think that they'd be coming after you, but it looks like I may have miscalculated." He smiled menacingly. "Of course, it is all taken care of."
Melfina shuddered. "What do you mean 'taken care of'?"
"Well, once I heard that your friends had so rudely entered my building without permission, I had the security force put together a little team. Your friends should be just about finished off."
Melfina's eyes widened. "No..."
"Yes. But you will have to forget about hem for now. Right now we are going to take a look at my new ship."
A feeling of dread washed over Melfina, but not for Gene and the others. She knew that they would somehow make it out all right. The dread was for what she was to be used for: to complete this disgusting man's collection. To navigate his ship.
As Cant and his men led her into the chamber holding the ship, she stared straight ahead, not even moving when the exact duplicate of the Outlaw Star slowly rose before her. She didn't care about it. In fact, she hated it. It may have looked like the ship she knew and loved, but it wasn't. And inside there would be no Gene. No Jim. No Gilliam. Only Cant.
"Well my dear..." Cant seemed to watch Melfina intently as his men led her up into the main room of the ship.
Everything was exactly the same as the Outlaw Star. The color, the seats, everything.
"Now, I heard that you have to....um...strip down to the skin in order to navigate..." Cant watched her, waiting for any sign of movement. She was surprised that he didn't know what to do. But she hadn't seen and researchers or anything either.
Instead of answering his implied order, she just stood still. He looked confused for a moment, but then smiled slyly.
"Well, I figured it wouldn't be easy. I see we will need some way to persuade you?"
Suddenly, a hatch in the ship opened. The computer, who sounded almost exactly like Gilliam, came to life as soon as the unknown man entered. Melfina had been wrong; in through the hatch came Cant's main research/scientist. He was small and thin, with pure white hair and a slim face. At first one would think of him as a nice old man, but Melfina knew that in those gray blue eyes was evil.
"I see you are having some trouble..." The scientist's voice was smooth, and yet at the same time it was forceful. "You know, in order to navigate this ship, the girl needs to get into the navigation chamber..." He left everything unfinished, and his voice trailed off.
Cant's face was turning red with anger. "Yes I know," he tried to say calmly. "BUT THE GIRL WON'T BUDGE! We need a way to get her in there! We can't do it by force, she has to get in that tube thing by herself!" He glared at her menacingly, and she turned away.
"Hmmm, well I once knew a man with her internal coding, but of course now he is dead..." The scientist seemed to be thinking out loud. "Of course, you could always lower her into the chamber. It does everything from there.
With sudden realization, Cant ordered his men to do so. "OF COURSE!" he practically yelled.
Melfina felt herself being lifted into the air. Like an animal, they dragged her over to the entrance of the navigational tube that she was so used to being in. They pushed her onto the platform. Immediately she felt herself being pulled downward, and then up, like so many times before. Only, when she entered the navigation tube, she did not feel safe. She felt exposed, staring out into the faces of these strange men. Immediately she felt her face becoming warm. It was just like the time when Harry McDougall had decided to take a peek at her, but the difference was that Gene was not there to stop them.
The faces behind the glass began to come closer, and she saw Mr. Cant smile with pleasure. The scientist who had entered the ship earlier sat down in the captain's seat, a place Gene would normally have been sitting in. With a jolt, Melfina felt the computer accessing her mind.
"Okay, Mr. Cant, everything seems ready if you would like to see how it all works..." Again, his words left a question hanging in the air.
"All right then. I think I will." With one last, triumphant grin, Mr. Cant took the place of the scientist. As he began pushing different buttons, Melfina couldn't help but think that he was the new Gene in her life, now.
*****
"MREEEEEEEEOOWWWWWWWWW!" Aisha screamed as she launched herself at one of the men standing before her. Her claws were now drawn, and in her eyes held the rage only her friends were so used to.
But Aisha wasn't the only one ready. With one swift hand motion, Suzuka's deadly wooden sword was drawn. She too picked out one of the men, and with lightning speed took him down.
"Ah, so ya wanna mess with me, eh?" Gene pointed his antique gun at the security guard before him. "Then you gotta be prepared to DIE!" The gunshot shook the room, surprising the trio's opponents.
"DAMMIT GENE LEMME DO MY WORK!" Aisha yelled, shoving her victim into the wall.
"THEN LEMME DO MINE!" Gene yelled back, firing another shot into the wall.
Suddenly another shot rang out in the room. It was much quieter than all the others, and instead of a guard falling, it was Aisha who fell.
"Aisha!" Gene, forgetting about what he was doing, ran to her side. There, protruding out of her arm was a large needle. "Wha...? Poison?" But then he noticed Aisha's chest: it was slowly and methodically rising, and she was softly snoring. "Tranquilizer..." No sooner had he said the words, when he felt a needle enter his own arm. Everything seemed to swim before his eyes as he slowly sank to the floor. The last thing he realized was that Suzuka was doing th same.
*****
Jim had heard the gunshots in the building, but didn't move. He had not received any sort of communication from Gene, so he figured everything was going well....until the gunshots ceased. Everything suddenly became deadly silent, and a feeling of dread began to make its way through his body.
"Gene?" No answer came from the speaker he held. "ANIKI! Come IN!" Still, only silence greeted the boy. "ANIKI--" Without warning a large hand clamped itself over Jim's mouth. Instinctively, the boy bit down as hard he could.
"YOU LITTLE--" The man grabbed hold of Jim as he tried desperately to get out of the vehicle. "YOU DREW BLOOD YOU RAT!" And with that said, the man knocked Jim over the head, silencing his cries.
*****
"I SAID ACCESS THE MEMORY!"
Melfina winced as Mr. Cant began to bang on the glass of her 'enclosure'. The disgusting man had tried t get her to make the ship run, but with no prevail. She simply refused to make it go. Not only did she strongly dislike this man, but she had promised herself a long time ago that she would never run a ship for anyone except Gene and the true crew of the Outlaw Star. This man, this monster, would never get her to run the ship. At least, that's what she told herself.
"Isn't there ANYWAY that we could MAKE her!!!???" Mr. Cant's face was now a bright shade of red, as he scremed in the scientist's face.
"Technically, no. There is no way I know of to force her to run the ship. Psychologically..."
"Whaddya mean 'psychologically'?"
The scientist didn't answer. Instead, he handed the bewildered Mr. Cant a message board. The screen on it flickered to life, and Mr. Cant began to read. Slowly, a look of understanding crossed his eyes, eliminating all shades of anger that were there before. "You can rest for now, deary." Melfina cringed at the evil in his voice. "We have a little surprise for you."
To be continued...
*ooooooooO I liked this chapter better. Okay okay, I know what you are all thinkin'...'she's acting like a fan who's just read this thing!' Well...the truth is....I DO IT ALL THE TIME! I try and view my fics as through the eyes of a fan. It makes em seem....more....um....got any ideas?