Chapter 6: Haunting Thoughts

 

My sleep was fitful; haunted by my memory. I saw my squad lying dead, ripped apart from a force unknown. I saw them in crossfire, pinned down with no way to survive against the unseen encroaching forces. The final thing I saw before awakening was the titanic ship. I walked among its halls and corridors with geth working among it without terror. I found myself in the same room I had been changed in; empty as it had been when I had first entered it. I walked among the circular dip in the ground when it all changed. A voice entered my head, the same voice I heard when my squad fled from the husks. It spoke in its deep terrifying tone

You cannot escape us. We shall find you once more and finish your evolution. All you are is now ours. The voice echoed in my mind, reverberating through my body Defying us is futile. It will end only in destruction

As the voice spoke these words I felt myself lifted into the air as I had when I had first been cut. My body levitated only a few feet in the air when a jolt of energy filled my body and snapped my head upward, towards the top of the room. My eyes lost focus, darkening the bright room and my mind began filling with images; dead bodies on empty streets, wreckages of ships and cities, entire planets engulfed in flames; all the while the voice spoke

You shall serve us or be destroyed. There is no way to stop what is to come

I awoke with my throat hoarse, a shout filling my lungs and Daniel standing over me, hands upon my shoulders, his mouthed moved in silent words. His arms slowly fell to his side and I moved from my laying position, sitting upright. I could feel a slight tremble in my body. Only then did my ears begin to function and Daniel’s voice began to make sense.

“Jason?? Jason are you okay?? What was that?! I heard you from the helm and came as fast as I could” his eyes were steeped in concern, his voice held worry.

“I….I don’t know how to explain it… It all felt so real…”

“It has to do with that ship doesn’t it? The one you were changed in.” He spoke it as a question but the way he spoke it made it seem as though he knew

“Yeah….it felt like so much more though…” I was still coping with what I had seen. It had all been so vivid that I couldn’t think of much else.

“I see… I think I know what it was…” He averted his eyes remembering something lost. “You aren’t the only one to experience something of this sort. Trust me”

“What do you think it was? It didn’t seem like just a dream…” I wondered what it was that I had experienced that Daniel could know about

“It’s a typical post-traumatic stress disorder symptom. Flashbacks.”

“It wasn’t a flashback though! This was something different; showed things that didn’t happen.”

“What do you mean? What exactly did you see?” he seemed puzzled.

I explained to him the things I had seen behind my sleeping eyes. He listened all the while, forming connections in his mind that I could only guess at.

“I see, it sounds like just a very vivid dream, we already know nothing in your brain is controlling you.”

“I know…” My mind was running through all possibilities but it dawned on me that dwelling on it would change nothing. “So did you get any leads on that knife we found? The one on the batarian?” I was glancing around the room now, something seemed missing.

“Nothing concrete. The transports containing them were no where near the areas the raided like I said. Only a few have gone missing and none of them disappeared from the same region.” He took a seat in the bed adjacent to mine

“What about the ship? Any word on it since it vanished?” I moved the bedding and searched the surrounding area. Something was definitely missing, but I could not quite place what.

“Nothing at all, its like a ghost, if it wasn’t for you I would probably doubt it ever existed…” A pause “what are you searching for?” he said quizzically.

“Something’s missing. The pistol and camo device, and the knife too… I fell asleep with on me but no they aren’t.” I began frantically searching the bed without luck

“Calm down Jason, they are right on the night stand.” He pointed to the small stand that was more of a desk. On it was the items I had been searching for.

“How did they get there? I didn’t remove them…” My vision suddenly darkened, encompassing my world in black. As quick as it came it vanished, leaving all as it was. Yet I noticed something unusual in my vision. Small indicators, similar to those used in suit helmets, appeared in my eyes. I glanced at them and they moved with my line of sight, upon closer inspection I saw that the different indicators read Shields, and Barrier. “Daniel… I am seeing something… It’s like some sort of heads up display in my eyes…” I sat stunned, glaring as much as I could at the new addition to my vision.

“What do you mean? Like shielding readout kind of display?” He seemed as puzzled as I was

“Exactly, it also says barrier strength, does it mean biotic barrier? I haven’t been able to control them yet.” I grabbed an omni-tool I discovered on the nightstand, a slight jolt jumped between my hand and it as I activated it and proceeded with its scan function. Its holographic light ran across my entire body then displayed the 3 dimensional image as it had done before.

My body had changed again. My entire torso had been devoured by the robotics along with my arms. The area around my legs was becoming threatened by the implants. Yet I noticed that flesh appeared interwoven among my head, not meaty strands but skin combining with metal. My irises were now a slight blue hue, with less of an intense glow than they had contained but were now more machine-like. The display also showed changes along my arms, slight bumps and ridges that were not there before. I glanced down at my arms and saw two very distinct openings at the bottom of both arms, along the wrist

“What do you suppose these are?” I raised my arms palm-up to Daniel “they weren’t here when I came back”

“Let me see…” he gently took my arms in his hands, examining the two oddities with care. “These… One of them almost looks like a barrel but that makes no sense, the other one…I have no idea what either of these could be.”

I took my arms back and contemplated what he said about a barrel. How could something like that even be feasible? Let alone actually happen. I silently spoke within my own mind: If something like that had happened, how would it even control itself? Would it simply fire on command? If it did would it be a voice command or would I simply think ‘Fire’ and-

My thoughts were interrupted by a large boom in the confined quarters. Where the pillow was, there was now a mess of feathers. Smoke rose from my arm and I looked down to see one of the gaps in my arm as the source.

“What the hell was that Jason?! What did you do?!” he looked at the space the pillow once occupied with awe.

“I don’t know! I was just thinking and…” my voice trailed off as I beckoned to my arm.

“You are trying to tell me that you have a gun…grafted to your arm?! How did that even happen?!” He didn’t seem angry but rather mystified that such a thing happened

“Well Hackett said this technology adapts to what it’s exposed to right? What if it adapted to the gun and applied the change? But if that’s the case…” I had a sudden thought as to the purpose of the other opening. I quickly thought to myself ‘extend’ and a blade leaped out of my wrist. Identical in appearance to the blade the batarian had used. I twisted my wrist to get a better view and found it to be perfectly attached, molded into my body.

“Well that’s certainly an interesting change. How are you controlling it?” He gazed at the six inch blade that extended from my arm

“I think it’s from thought, it seems to just read what I want it to do and it just…happens. So it seems that I got two guns on my arm, a blade beside them, and some sort of HUD that also reads my thoughts.”

“It seems so, not the worst things that could have happened. Anyway, I was just about to come in here to get you. We have a mission and I won’t be standing to the side this time. We are going to work together.”

“What’s the mission? I am ready when you are.” I was eager to be on a mission beside him. I wanted to see what this enigmatic friend was like on the battlefield

“We found a lead on the ship.” My heart dropped as he spoke “An operative reported seeing a massive ship of a similar description in the area of a planet he was doing research on with his unit. We lost contact with the unit almost immediately after the transmission was sent.” His eyes darkened and a seemed to be fighting back emotion. “I know the leader; he’s not the kind to drop off the grid like this.”

“Then let’s get moving! I don’t want to lose my chance at finding that ship!” My mind was overcome with the possibility of catching the ship. If I could only find a way onto it I could find the voice and get this removed from my body and find answers.

“We are already on our way. Fortunately we have a stealth system on this ship based on the Normandy so it shouldn’t see us and shoot us down instantly” He seemed to relax slightly in a way that I knew was the preparation for the worst that every solider went through

“You ready for this Daniel?”

“No…I’m not. But no one really is for seeing an old friend dead.” His eyes were still in a stiff glare. I could just barely notice slight water at the rim of his glassy eyes.

“Daniel!” I stood up and placed my hands on each of his shoulders. “You do not know he’s dead. We will find him, I promise.” I stared down at his eyes as he shifted his gaze upwards towards me.

“Alright… You’re right. We will find him.” The sorrow vanished from his eyes as he stood. “Get ready Jason, we hit ground in five.”

“Yes sir!” I saluted Daniel as he marched out of the room. As soon as he was absent from the room I gathered the things from the room, the pistol, knife and cloak, even if two of the items were rendered useless I wanted to keep them on me. I tested two thoughts and my blades extended from my arms again. I began to place the cloak device but was startled to find that a replica of it was already present. “Well I guess I don’t need this anymore.” I mumbled to myself as I placed the device in my pocket beside the knife and gun strapped to my waist. Whatever would happen next I would use everything at my disposal.