Chapter 11: Memories

Intermittently between using the com system to contact Bower, Payton was searching the computer archives for anything useful. Since there was no constant power, the computers were running in a limited capacity because of the temporarily generated energy source. Only the most necessary of programs were available at the security terminal. That meant that there was no search engine available so he was forced to search the countless files one by one manually. He felt as though his head was going to explode.

The thoughts and bobbing memories surfacing in his mind were driving him crazy. This banal task would at least keep his mind focused and prevent his thoughts from drifting too far. The last thing he wanted was another panic attack. Worse case scenario, he'd discover that he was afraid of the toilet or something.

The partial recollections that Payton had recovered so far made him anxious to find out more about what he had forgotten. Inexplicably, he somehow sensed that the most important things he had forgotten transpired aboard the ship and he was determined to find something that might jar another memory loose. If he could recover his memory in full then these pieces and bits of recollection would all make sense– or at least he hoped they would.

He noticed a file on security footage from the security cameras and started to search for the cameras from Storage Area he was trapped in and– there it was. Excellent, now to find what day he was looking for– and he had to stop. He had no idea what the date was. Not just the date from when he barricaded himself in the control center but now since he had awakened. Unbelievably, there was no date registered on the computer terminal either. He thought that was standard for all computers to have an internal clock and calendar. Perhaps the operating system had deemed the calendar unnecessary and had disabled it temporarily.

Whatever the reason, Payton knew searching this footage archive was going to be unfruitful. Every file had hours and hours of mindless footage. The security cameras were motion sensing, only recording when they sensed movement but still, to search through possibly years of daily footage would take forever. He was about to give up when he noticed a different folder in this directory. It was labeled: For Gallo.

Gallo.

That name was familiar but he couldn't place who it was.

Opening the folder showed him that there were four individual files from the main directory that were labeled in order. One was labeled The Beginning, the second was Experiments, next was Results and finally The End.

When Payton opened the file labeled The Beginning, he saw that it was packed with document files as though someone had been keeping daily logs. No dates marked these documents either. He clicked the log at the top of the list and it was from a man Gallo. He was ranting about being lied to and that the rest of his crew was trying to kill him.

As Payton read through a few more logs, it was clear the unfortunate man was insane. His written rantings became more and more emotional and incoherent. Gallo wrote that the Earth was gone and that the crew aboard the Elysium was all that was left of mankind. He went as far as to make claims that the crew were monsters that were trying to eat him. Payton stopped reading for a few minutes to ponder because of what Bower had reported seeing. Hadn't he described monsters that were eating humans? Payton had all but chalked up that conversation to cryogenic sleep side-effects but now he was not so sure.

The next few logs were detailed instructions by Gallo on how he had corrupted main files, deleted computer data and had crippled the ship through computer hacking. Payton was stunned.

The daily logs had drifted from the ravings of a madman to the dictation of a calculated saboteur.

The cryogenic sleep rotation had been purposely interrupted and dispersed randomly throughout the ship, starting with the top ranked personnel and the males. The life support systems had been set at such low settings that life was difficult on the ship. Most of the lighting systems and security systems had been deactivated. The armory had been completely locked down and the main computer system had been hijacked.

Son of a bitch!

Now he knew why everything was haywire. It wasn't a malfunction, it was subversion.

Who in the hell was this Gallo? It would have taken an expert to infiltrate the vast computer system and countless hours of uninterrupted devotion to accomplish such a feat as sabotaging a ship and its systems especially one as large and intricate as the Elysium. Somehow, the perpetrator had been successful.

He needed to get a hold of Bower and fast. "This is First Lieutenant Payton, if anyone can read me, please respond." Still no answer. "Bower, you read? Bower?"

Payton decided to go back to the main window of the file. The next individual security files was labeled Experiments. When he clicked open Experiments, he saw footage of himself, just his face and shoulders. He was using one of the computer cameras, facing and talking to it like he was recording a diary or something similar. He couldn't hear what he was saying. No volume? He checked the computer speakers and saw that they weren't activated. Apparently, the operating system didn't think that sound was very important either.

Turning his attention back to the footage, Payton realized how much younger he looked in the video. He could see an unshaven, exhausted and haggard version of himself. As worn out as he looked in the footage, he was undeniably younger. How much younger though, over ten years? His heart sunk. Could it really have been that long? They weren't supposed to have been underway for ten years yet. There was no way it was possible. Maybe it was the footage. Truly, it was poor quality resolution, so definite details of his face were difficult to identify. Even so, he was clearly a lot younger.

How was this possible? Had they been in deep space longer than the estimated eight years? Without the computer system being online it was impossible to tell. He couldn't even tell if the ship was still on course without being able to get to the Main Bridge.

There was a cold wet lump of trepidation in Payton's gut.

The On-screen Payton stopped talking and aimed the camera away from himself and zeroed it in on something suspended from the ceiling crane in the middle of the warehouse then zoomed in. The camera's resolution was even worse at a further distance but he could still see enough to tell what it was that was hanging.

His stomach turned and he tasted bile when he saw that it was a dead person clutched within the jaws of the crane. On-screen Payton lowered the crane slowly and kept the camera zoomed in and panning with the body as it descended. As it neared the top level of the storage area, closest to the ceiling, he saw people run from the shadows of the bay like roaches, gathering underneath the hanging corpse, leaping up to get at it. These people were wearing almost no clothing, they were pale and sickly.

Shocked, Payton put both hands over his open mouth.

The first of the sickly people caught hold of the dangling corpse's feet and hoisting itself up, began to chew the foot off. It fell and ran off with its prize held close to its chest as others tried to wrest it away.

Payton moved his hands from his mouth to his eyes but left narrow slits in his fingers so that he could continue the viewing in feign protest.

A heavy sickly, possibly pregnant, grasped one of the legs, tugging on it fiercely. The limb fell away from the rest of the corpse due to being in the advanced stages of decay. The crowd fell upon the leg, ripping and tearing off pieces of flesh with their teeth. They fought with one another over the leg meat because the On-screen Payton had raised the main corpse out of reach. It was as though he were toying with them, feeding them slowly so that they were worked into a feeding frenzy.

He paused the tape.

Payton felt like he was going to throw up. He fast-forwarded the tape for several minutes and could see that the toying went on until more of the sickly people showed up and feasted until the entire corpse was consumed. He played the tape at normal speed to watch himself slowly lowering the crane's jaws towards a pile of feeding sickly people and he dropped it in and caught one, pulling it out of the crowd while it writhed and twitched. The rest of them continued to feed, oblivious to the plight of their companion. On-screen Payton raised the crane to the highest point where it had been at the start and then re-focused the camera back onto himself.

My God.

Payton had no recollection of feeding these things back to themselves. The idea of allowing a living being, regardless of how degenerated it was, to hang until it was dead then feeding it back to its own was horrible. It was deplorable, inhuman behavior that he had done.

Payton was ashamed that he had performed such heinous crimes. If he hadn't watched it with his own eyes, he would have never believed it. Thank God no one else had viewed these recordings. Whoever had left this for Gallo, was aware of his crimes but perhaps Gallo hadn't seen the tapes yet. Payton found himself wishing that the person who had taken the time to separate out these particular recordings had met an untimely death. He felt terrible at wishing harm on a fellow human being but the fact of the matter was, if anyone else aboard the ship found these tapes, he was as good as dead or imprisoned for the rest of his life.

What am I supposed to do?

Perhaps there was a logical explanation. Maybe temporary insanity? Perhaps he had an identical twin that he had forgotten about due to cryogenic sleep?

Could these sickly beasts have caused such an affront to him that his vengeance was substantiated? Impossible. He was a wretch; a horrible and lowly human. Regardless of what wrong he had suffered, nothing, absolutely nothing excused his behavior.

Payton realized that he was going to have to keep this information secret until he could remember more details or at least explain his actions to his command.

Payton wondered what other horrors awaited him in the two folders he had yet to open: Results and The End. When he had first discovered the file marked For Gallo he had been intrigued. Now, he was a mess with fear and worry. The two unexplored files seemed to be tempting him, taunting him.

What am I supposed to do?