Chapter Twelve: Blank Slate

I fell into a trance with my eyes fixated on the overhead light above, lying on my back on the cold slab that served as my bed. It was silent. Peaceful in its own way. I couldn’t conjure much to thought over everything I had dreamed recently. I slowly turned my head to the side to see who was babysitting my cell this time, and my eyes fell upon the lieutenant. She had been standing at the front of the glass window, staring in with the same look of disgust she had for me since the beginning. I studied her face more, examining every curve and feature as realization was slowly dawning on me. The lieutenant’s eyes gave it away. 

“You’re Damsel.” I spoke.

Dame said nothing in reply, only turning her back to me and marching away. She radioed for Jeremy to take over her post while she was away and instructed him not to converse with me. As I already knew from before, she could handle my presence for a short period of time. It was odd to me. I compared the sixteen-year-old Dame to the Dame she was now, and I knew there had to have been a reason for the familiarity I felt with her. She didn’t look much different aside from the slight difference in her height. There were so many questions I wanted to ask her about Desley, but I felt I wouldn’t get too far into that conversation. 

I was glad to be seeing Jeremy again though. I didn’t think that would happen with the incident I caused in the mess hall. According to Abigail, the shock charge in my head put me in a coma for two weeks. I had hoped that in two weeks time I would be in a different place rather than constantly waking up in a cell. My face still carried remnants of the beatings the crew had given me before I turned the tables on Shane. The hallucination I had; I was bothered by the haunting image of a darkened Desley standing above me. Perhaps, it could have been me all along. I didn’t know anymore now than I did when I first saw light. What am I?

“She’s having memories.” Dame directed her gaze to Abigail as they, the captain, Shane, and a few other high ranking officers stood around a clear table in the captain’s quarters. 

“Didn’t we already cover this, Lieutenant Blaire?” Abigail folded her arms behind her back.

“Subject 42 isn’t just having memories. They’re specific memories.” Dame corrected her.

The captain looked between the two females and asked, “What do you mean by specific memories, Lieutenant?”

Dame closed her eyes for a moment when she hesitated to answer, but then she spoke. “Subject 42 knows my name. She recognizes my face, and that’s not something Eden can simply engineer. If it was, she’d know who I am long before this point.”

“What are you suggesting then?” A colonel asked, who was a tall man of Russian decent not much older than Dame. 

“She’s suggesting that Subject 42 is not a clone of Desley but rather Desley resurrected. Am I right, Lieutenant?” Abigail cut in. 

Dame looked to Abigail. “Yes, you are right. There is no other explanation for this. If Subject 42 is the real Desley Morgan, we need to dispose of her immediately before her abilities grow to the point where we’ll have no way of stopping her.” She looked to the captain. “We only got lucky the first time. We can’t risk a second time, not that we’d survive even an attempted Teras Exert. 

“Let me remind everyone in this meeting that Subject 42 was designed by Eden’s most intelligent. With all of the technology available to them and what they’ve done in the past, is Subject 42 having an advanced, implemented memory core really beyond the realm of possibility? Eden has files and archives on every single deceased and living savant.” Abigail countered Dame’s statement. “And with Lieutenant Blaire’s past relationship with Desley Morgan, it comes as no surprise that memories of the lieutenant would be installed in Subject 42’s memory core to make her as close to the real Desley as possible.”

“It’s clear that the real reason behind Eden’s creation of Subject 42 is to use her for their Genesis machine. We don’t know what it does. We don’t know what their intentions are. What we do know is that it obviously requires an unlimited power source via Subject 42.” The colonel spoke again. 

“Or the real Desley Morgan, which is more the reason why we need to terminate.” Dame reasoned. “Either way, she’s dangerous and we can’t let her fall into Eden’s possession again.” 

“I can testify to the dangerous part.” Shane raised his hand, his dominant hand encased in a brace. 

Dame shot a glare at Shane for his reckless actions two weeks ago. “Plus, Abigail, didn’t you put a fallback measurement in place in the event of something like this? If Subject 42’s power spiked, I mean.” 

Abigail nodded. “I did, which is the second reason for this meeting with the captain.”

The captain nodded, standing at the head of the table. “It appears we might have one of Eden’s agents on board the ship. I ordered an explosive charge to be placed in the back of 42’s head, and it was replaced with a shock charge. Still effective, however.” 

“How did this happen?” Dame inquired. 

“Someone must have switched out the charges during preparation.” Abigail answered.

“Maybe it was you since you want 42 alive so much.” Dame sneered. 

“What’s the real reason you want 42 dead so much? I think I know.” Abigail threw it back.

“I want her dead because she poses as a threat to the rest of humanity!” Dame was raising her voice.

Abigail leaned toward Dame over the table. “You can keep fronting all you want, but I know the real reason why, Dame. It’s been so obvious every time you have to stand there and look at her.” She smirked. “Tell me, how bad does it hurt?”

“Enough!” The captain shouted. “I will not have such childish nonsense in my quarters!”

Dame had so much more to say to Abigail, but she stifled her thoughts in respect of her superiors. The colonel and his company appeared uncomfortable from Abigail’s taunting, expecting the lieutenant to erupt in anger as she had done before. An awkward silence fell upon the table between the commanding officers and their captain, the captain leaving the head of the table to circle around his crew. 

“Real or not real, Subject 42’s importance in this mission is dire to the recovery of the human race. I had my doubts having a savant on board this ship, especially one with such emotional connection, but you have proved to be a valuable asset in this cause, Lieutenant Dame. I have come to the conclusion that the more we have on our side fighting against Eden, the better. This is the same with 42. As long as we control her, we have all the fire power we need to sink Eden once and for all.” The captain started drawing his conclusions.

“I still think it is important to find out if we’re dealing with the real Desley or just a clone. It could mean all the difference.” Dame suggested. “Clones can’t be perfect copies of their counterpart.”

“I will schedule a memory test after the meeting, Lieutenant.” Abigail offered. 

The captain continued. “As for having one of Eden’s agents on board, Colonel Malcolm, you and your boys will see to an investigation. Subject 42 is not to know about the nonexistence of an explosive charge. Leading her to believe that we’re still capable of taking her head off will give us the leverage we need in order for her cooperation.” He looked at Shane. “As long as there will no longer be any inhumane behavior among the crew.” 

Shane nodded. “Yes, Captain.” 

“You are dismissed from this meeting.”

I checked out my face in the glass’ reflection. Jeremy sat quietly in his chair, his comic book plastered to his face once again with his rifle at his side. Granted, it had been a couple weeks, but my face still showed traces of the beating I had endured. It was mainly light bruising by now. Every time I dreamed of Desley, I’d forget about how small my cell was for a while. Every dream was answering questions about everything one image at a time. Looking down at my hands, I was feeling the power in my veins. In the back of my mind, I knew what I was capable of. As it was apparent a couple weeks back, I could understand why everyone was so afraid of me. I’d keep repeating this to myself. 

Jeremy turned a page in his comic book. I stood there and watched the boy, feeling a sense of familiarity with him as well. I felt that it was all connected. These dreams were leading me somewhere. It wasn’t any place that was physical though. They were leading me to a sense of understanding I didn’t have before. I was understanding myself through Desley’s eyes even if I wasn’t sure what I was yet. Even more, I didn’t feel as weak as I had been. I didn’t know if that was going to be a good thing or a bad thing. Did it have to be a bad thing though? If I was painted as a monster, did it mean I’d only be able to use these abilities for destruction? 

“Can I ask you something?” I asked Jeremy.

The boy seemingly ignored me.

“There isn’t anyone nearby that I can feel, so you can talk to me.”

Jeremy shook his head and kept his nose in his comic.

“Don’t be like that, Jerry.” 

Jeremy pulled his eyes away from his comic to glance at me, mild surprise written on his face. “How do you know that?”

“Know what?”

“No one has ever called me Jerry besides the lieutenant.”

I shrugged at him. “I don’t know. I’m just finding myself knowing things lately.”

Jeremy didn’t say anything for a few seconds before, “I’m not suppose to talk to you. Lieutenant’s orders.”

“Dame isn’t here, Jerry.” I pushed a little. “I just wanted to know what your deal is with her. She seems like such a b***h.” 

Jeremy shook his head. “She really isn’t. She’s just…she’s been through a lot. I imagine seeing a copy of the person who took her family away can be quite unnerving.” Jeremy placed his comic under his seat. “She’s been very caring of me since the start. I don’t know why. Part of me thinks that everyone had a choice to either cut themselves off from humanity or embrace it now more than ever, and Dame took that chance with me.”

I leaned on my arms against the glass. “You like her a lot, don’t you?” 

“I do. I mean, she saved my life. Dame was the one who found me under the rubble. She’s my first memory, and she’s stuck by me since then. I didn’t have any family that I could remember, but I had her.” Jeremy smiled, getting lost in his memories. 

I nodded my head to him. Like Desley, I couldn’t see the soft side in Dame. The only thing that was evident was her snotty behavior advancing into the mean, glaring woman she was now. Perhaps, I didn’t understand her quite yet. I didn’t think it as possibility given my situation. If I’m the image of someone who took everything from her, there’d be no reason to be nice to me. I knew there was a layer underneath the hard exterior she put out that held what she was really feeling. I just couldn’t see it yet. 

“She’s a savant, right?”

Jeremy took a deep breath. “She is, but her power is very limited anymore.”

“How do you mean?”

“I wasn’t around when it happened, but I guess she tried to do something that was beyond her capability.” Jeremy picked up his rifle and set it in his lap. “I don’t know. It was like time travel or somethin’. She thought she could push past the cap just enough to reverse everything, but it backfired on her. She’s good with short distances, but if she has to make a portal for long distance, she gets brain hemorrhages. Like, bad ones.” 

I was curious about this, but I felt bad at the same time. “What was she trying to reverse?”

“The Teras Exert.” Jeremy answered. 

“What’s the Teras Exert?” That was a new term for me. 

“The Monster’s Influence.” Dame cut in at the end of the corridor, arms crossed and eyes stern. 

Jeremy jumped out of his chair and nearly dropped his rifle. Her sudden appearance startled me as well, causing me to take a step back from the glass. Dame began marching towards us, Jeremy exploding with excuses and statements to cover for his disobedience. I couldn’t manage saying a single thought. All I could focus on was the distinct anger on her face, which made Dame look like she was on a war path. As soon as I realized her path was leading her directly to me, I started backing up more. Dame ignored Jeremy’s excuses completely. A portal appeared and opened a temporary hole in the glass, Dame stepping through it while taking her handgun from the holster on her thigh. I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid of accidentally hurting her, but I didn’t want her to shoot me either. 

I started putting my hands up in case she discharged her gun, but it only made the woman rush to close the gap. My legs touched the side of my metal slab. I couldn’t jump away from Dame, her hand lashing out to grab me by the collar of my shirt. With tremendous force, Dame slammed me down on the slab, my legs hanging over the edge. In an instant, the woman shoved the barrel of her gun against my forehead. I had been gripping her arm in an attempt to pull her hand off of me, but she was putting her weight on my chest to make sure I wasn’t going anywhere. I saw Jeremy behind her on the other side of the glass. I could tell by the shock on his face that this wasn’t something common for Dame to do. 

Fear was swelling up inside me once again, breaking out into a cold sweat. Dame’s eyes were intense with a cold green. I could see the hate come through on her face as her thumb cocked the hammer on the back of her gun. Jeremy started pleading with Dame to desist. It didn’t appear that the woman had been receiving anything, her focus entirely zeroed in on my face and the fright that was spilling from me. I knew she was here to kill me. Put a bullet in my head, and all of their problems would be solved. As I gripped her arm, however, I was beginning to feel something else in her that had provoked such a reaction. 

“Let me make this very clear, 42.” Dame finally spoke. “You are to not talk to Jeremy. Don’t speak to him. Don’t look at him. Don’t even think about him. Even if he speaks to you, you are not to say a damn word back to him. Do you hear me?” Dame was burrowing the barrel into my head. “Or next time, I really will kill you.” 

As threatening as Dame appeared, and as much as I was fearing for my life on the verge of pissing myself, something else came over me. It was a similar feeling like before in the cafeteria. It only became my primary concern because, again, I didn’t want to accidentally hurt Dame. As brutal as this woman had been, I didn’t quite get why I was so against hurting her. She deserved it, didn’t she? Did she deserve it like Shane had? Coming in here and shoving a gun in my face to scare me? Was she like Shane? Was she like what Jeremy said? No matter the answer to that question, I always came back to not wanting to hurt her. I didn’t want to hurt Jeremy either. However, something in me was showing its roots again and coming to the surface. 

“You won’t shoot me.” I smirked at her. “If you wanted to shoot me, you would have done so several times before when you had every opportunity.”

“And you’re confident in this?” Dame asked, moving her index over the trigger. 

“Lieutenant, just let it go!” Jeremy shouted. 

“Do it, then. Pull the trigger. I can see right now that you won’t do it. Not with him standing there.” My fear turned into something else I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t going to let me be intimidated. 

Dame looked back for a second at Jeremy. When she turned her head back to me, she uncocked the hammer of her gun and started pulling the barrel away from my forehead. The woman didn’t say anything, and it was foolish of me to think that I initially won the bluffing contest. That’s when Dame took her gun and backhanded me across the temple with it. She knocked me for a loop, falling over to my side as she immediately grabbed my arms and wrestled them behind my back, working the cuffs over my wrists. 

After she got the cuffs tightly around my wrists, Dame leaned forward and hissed in my ear. “Who do you think it was who killed you the first time?”

The dark feelings subsided in me as Dame yanked me off the slab and shoved me through the portal. Jeremy watched in silence as Dame followed behind me, wrapping her fingers around the base of the cuffs. As the woman commanded Jeremy that he would not be posted at the cell again, I couldn’t help but let her words rummage through my mind. What did she mean? I knew something had to have happened to Desley for my existence to be valid. Was it possible that Lieutenant Damsel Elizabeth Blaire was the savior of the human race…and Desley Morgan’s demise? Suddenly, things stopped making sense again. 

Dame informed me that Abigail wanted to perform another test on me. She kept the details to herself though. I felt like a child in trouble with their parents with how the lieutenant was walking me through the ship with hand gripping the cuffs to guide me and the other pressing a gun to the back of my head, into the public eye for the first time in two weeks. Traveling down the hallways, I noticed some of the crew had scrambled to get out of the way. Instead of being greeted and looked upon with hateful gazes and scorning eyes as I was use to, I was seeing more fear and caution in the crew members. I thought I would have been satisfied with the results. A part of me was. Deep down though I didn’t want to be seen as a dangerous person. A monster. Something for them to live in fear of. Despite everything, I wanted a chance to prove to them that I wasn’t that person. 

We passed by Shane when we were approaching the cafeteria. I wondered what had become of him since waking up, and I could vaguely remember what happened when I lost control over myself. It came back to me in bits and pieces when I saw his hand in a brace. He carried the same hateful look for me as Dame did, only I gave him a reason for it. The memory played back in my mind. Standing before Shane amongst a mob. Twisting his fingers. Snapping his hand backwards. The fright on his face. What bothered me was how much I enjoyed it. I felt reluctant to accept it was me who was doing it. I had no control over what I was doing. That’s what I wanted to believe. 

Dame marched me to the level of the ship where I knew Abigail’s lab was. This was all routine for me. There were guards stationed outside of the woman’s lab, Dame shoving me past them without saying so much as a word. Something was in the air that was telling me this wasn’t the same routine. This wasn’t a study or a normal experiment. The lab assistants all became alert, dropping their tasks to watch the lieutenant steer me towards the section of the lab I was most familiar with, the same chair that welcomed me each time. However, this time the chair was seated upright. Abigail had been waiting there, a cigarette hanging loosely from her lips. Feet shuffling across the tile, through the glass entrance of the test section, it didn’t take long for me to realize the familiarity with Abigail. I had only seen her briefly in my dreams. Hell, her name was a dead giveaway. 

With Abigail’s other assistants scattering out of the area, Dame stopped me beside the chair, and I could feel the cuffs loosen around my wrists as she took them off. Afterwards, Dame ordered me to stand still as she came around front, gun barrel fixed on my head. She commanded me to take a seat but slowly. No sudden movements. No tricks. No funny business. If anything so much as rolled off a table, she’d unload her entire magazine into my head. She wouldn’t hesitate, but I wasn’t sure if I believed her. I did as I was told though. 

As Abigail called two of her assistants back in, Dame stood in front of me, keeping her aim locked between my eyes. The assistants went to work to make sure I was restrained properly as I had been before. I could hear their nervous thoughts and feel the tension coming off of them. I wanted to reassure them that I wasn’t going to make an attempt at harming them, but I was conscious of how Dame might react. So, I kept silent. I tried not to make any eye contact with the woman the entire time. With Dame standing in such a brightly lit area, there was a detail about her that was different than the version of her in my dreams. I could only catch beef glimpses, but I could see that there were certain portions of the lieutenant’s neck that had been discolored. There were parallel marks, and I was curious what the cause of them was since it wasn’t consistent with what I dreamt. 

“That’ll be all for now, Lieutenant.” Abigail dismissed Dame as she came to my side. 

Dame lowered her gun and slid it back into its holster, stepping away from the chair to let the head scientist do her job. The assistants were quick enough to leave the area again as well, which caused Dame to roll her eyes. I wanted to chuckle at the accuracy, but I knew I was in no position for it. 

“Desley, do you know why you’re in here this time?” Abigail asked. 

I thought about it for a moment, going with the first explanation I could conjure. “I did something bad in the cafeteria. You want answers, I imagine.” 

Abigail shook her head. “Not at all. We already received an explanation for that incident, and I apologize for that kind of treatment from the crew.” She paused. “No, you’re here because you seem to be knowledgeable of certain things. I just want to be clear on how you know them.”

“Like what?”

“Like the lieutenant’s name. How do you know that her name is Damsel, Desley?” 

I leaned my head back into the chair. “I’ve been having dreams about her. About others. About Desley Morgan.”

“Do you see Desley Morgan in these dreams or do you see everything through Desley Morgan?” Abigail was taking notes on a clipboard. 

“I see everything through Desley Morgan. I see some things that Desley isn’t there for. Like, conversations between you and Hector.” 

Abigail ceased writing for a moment. I watched as her eyes became lost in a single tread of ink on the paper. Dame had observed this, too, looking back and forth between Abigail and I. You could hear a pin drop in the lab. With the exception of the humming sound coming from the computers and the blips of the monitors, everyone was in total silence. Suspense, I imagined, was in the nerves of every person present both outside of the domed section as well as inside. 

Abigail lowered her clipboard and looked to Dame. “I have to admit, Lieutenant, I’m intrigued.”

“Can we stop acting like what I’ve been saying is nonsense now?” Dame responded back. 

Abigail left the dome section of the lab without muttering a word. I was uncomfortable being left alone with Dame, especially with the hostility she exhibited earlier. My fingers gripped the armrest, rubbing against the underside to release the tension in micro-doses. Dame kept her hand on her gun and was working on burning a hole through my head with her gaze. I kept my head slightly turned away from her. I couldn’t begin to describe the relief I felt when I heard the glass doors slide open and Abigail’s footsteps coming near me again. The head scientist stood in front of me with a rectangular device in her hands. She held it up, and I could see that the device had a screen that displayed Dogma’s insignia on it, the word “Dogma” with an angel’s wing overlapping the “m” and the “a.” 

“What’s really going on here?” I asked Abigail. 

The head scientist gave me a calm smile and said, “When Eden’s leader created you, it was no surprise to us that he would make you as close to the original Desley Morgan as possible, which includes an implanted memory core. So, when you woke up, I figured already you would know things about the world without having ever been exposed to it before the Teras Exert and the people who were involved with the original. Being close in DNA and neurological structure, I also figured you would display telekinetic abilities with close to the same magnitude to that of Desley Morgan. Eden would need that quality to achieve their goals. However, no matter how close to the original Eden can make you, you’re still a clone. Clones are a blank slate with no pre-dispositioned personalities. Memories can be forged, but feelings and intentions are strictly attached to a developed conscience. The fact that you know things beyond Eden’s knowledge and are starting to show likeness to Desley Morgan’s personality traits is starting to raise concerns.”

“So, are you saying I might be the real Desley Morgan and my dreams are actually memories?” I was trying to understand. 

Abigail nodded her head but shrugged. “Well, the lieutenant over there thinks this of you. I’m intrigued, but I’m not entirely convinced yet. That’s what this test is for.” 

The screen on the device Abigail was holding switched to a familiar face I had seen in my dreams. It was a woman in a uniform I hadn’t seen before, but I knew her smile. It was warm, and it filled my heart with joy…but anguish, too. 

“What I want you to do, Desley, is name the people I show you. A first name will do.” Abigail directed. 

I nodded my head to her. “That’s Penelope Morgan.” 

The image changed to a man with dark hair and glass sitting on a thin face. He looked about the same age as Penelope. My heart stirred in unease. 

“Daniel Morgan.”

The next image was of an older man. Glasses. Light brown hair but messy. Stubble on his face. 

“Hector Adolf Kinsley.”

The following image was obvious. It was just a picture of Abigail when she was younger. 

“You, ma’am. Abigail Richards. Everyone called you Abby.”

There was a picture of a boy that followed. He was an oriental with a serious expression. His face also made me feel uneasy. 

“Daisuke Yamato.” 

After Daisuke was a picture of another oriental with similarities. He was clearly older though, and he was in a security uniform I recalled from the dreams. I could see Dame turn her head away at the boy’s picture. 

“Takashi Yamato. Daisuke’s older brother. Dame’s bodyguard.”

There was a girl with dark hair and colored highlights in the next picture. The pictures reminded me of mugshots. Clearly, they were taken from a file. The girl in this picture had glazed eyes and pale skin, and the feeling of anguish enforced itself when I saw the gleeful smile upon her face. 

“Dahlia Carlyle.” 

A blonde boy was in the next picture. His hair was short, and he had a look of mischief about him. 

“Donald O’Connor.” 

The Dame I was familiar with was after Donald. As I suspected, the marks on her neck were not present in the earlier profile of her. There was a feeling I had about it, but I wasn’t sure what that feeling was just yet.

“Damsel Elizabeth Blaire. Everyone calls her Dame since she never revealed her real name to the others.” I said. “She made Desley Morgan promise not to tell.”

Dame scoffed in the background.

“Let’s just get to the final picture.” Abigail pressed forward. 

The slide moved onto the final picture. When his face came up, I felt a pain strike my chest and head. The ache was small at first, but it started growing the longer I stared at his face. He was a dark haired boy. His eyes were blue like a robin’s egg, and his face radiated innocence in its purest form. The youngest of the savants presented to me. I knew his name, but I couldn’t say it. 

Abigail took notice. “Desley, what’s the name of the boy in this picture?”

I swallowed hard, the aching in my chest conjoining with the ache in my head. Images of him flashed through my eyes. His smile. His laugh. His head tilt. My palms were sweating. 

“42, are you listening?” Abigail pressed. 

Dame started to approach the scientist. “Something’s not right.”

A mixture of voices blared in my head as I tried to keep focus. I knew his name. Why couldn’t I say it? I saw another flash of images. The boy was holding a puppy. He was holding a younger Dame’s hand, then he was running to me. All of the savants were dancing. 

“Dor…” I started to say.

The collage continued. There was so much love present in every image and every glimpse I was getting of the boy and the other savants. I saw jellyfish. He was petting a small shark. There was a whale. Dame and I standing together. Fire. A space of crowded people. Lips. Hector scolding. Markus angry. Standing among stars. Someone holding my hand. 

“Dor…Do…” I kept trying to say his name.

“You can’t keep running forever.”

“Humans as a species are disappointing.”

“But, that’s not what I want.”

There was rubble. Rain falling. A reporter. Confusion. Anguish. Shame. Self loathing. Hate. Hate. Hate. A computer. A truth. A lie. Daniel Morgan. Hector Kinsley. Eden. Cops. Gunfire. Subject 23. So much destruction. The streets stained in blood. People screaming. Strangulation. A loving touch. An explosion of light. It all came back to his smile.

“Do you even know what you want?”

“Do you even know what happiness is?”

“Is that what you fear, father?”

“You’re more like him than you know.”

“Do…For…Dori…Da…” I groaned in pain, hanging my head as I felt like it was going to explode at any minute. 

The floor began to quake. The device Abigail was holding cracked across the screen. The other assistants started to panic and clear the lab. Dame thought about drawing her gun, but instead, she charged towards Abigail and commanded her to take cover. Abigail had been unresponsive for a second, caught up in my reaction to the last picture that she hadn’t noticed what was taking place. The glass entrance to the test section began to split. Dame shouted in Abigail’s ear to get her attention. 

The lights flickered on and off. I knew this feeling. I could see blood dripping from my nose and onto my pants, and the images kept coming with an array of emotions I hadn’t felt. I couldn’t handle all of it. I couldn’t control myself. I had my eyes squeezed shut from the unbearable throbbing in my head. The montage of voices and screaming was slowly being replaced by a single, high pitched ringing. I wanted it to stop. In my head, I was begging for it to stop. What did all of this mean? What was I suppose to do with any of this?

When the ringing’s intensity reached its peak, it silenced. The images that had paraded themselves through my mind at a rapid pace all stopped and narrowed down to one scene. The lighting was dim. I was standing on a beach with red sand and looking up towards the sky at a marvelous stream of lights leaving into the distance. 

“Desley…”

I opened my eyes, and the entire test section exploded just as Dame and Abigail escaped. The shockwave still caught them though, blowing the two across the lab with some of the other assistants. The tiles on the floor were uplifted and sprayed through the air. Glass rained down. The lab equipment was launched into the surrounding walls. Assistants screamed as they covered their heads and hoped it wasn’t their doom. The shockwave rattled the entire ship, knocking out all of the power. 

I reached unconsciousness again, a final image of Daniel fading out in my mind. 

“Father…”