Heritage (Under Revision)

Chapter 44: Ethan

A week had passed since the battle that nearly cost us our lives. Elena and I now found ourselves on the United Docking Station Olympus, the primary hub for all high priority personnel. The Apollo suffered major damage during the large skirmish we faced.

I step out of the shower – the first shower I’ve been able to enjoy in months – and stare at myself in mirror. I look into my own eyes and feel the tears well up as they did before. I can’t stand to look at myself in the mirror any more. I’m trying so hard to carry everything on my shoulders.

I try to divert my mind by picking up my straight razor, a gift from my father years ago, and shaving the small amount of stubble on my face.

I bring the blade to my neck and place the blade on my skin. But before I’m able to shave, my mind starts to churn a multitude of thoughts.

It’s so simple for me to just end the suffering right now. Why not? It’ll be easy. I think to myself, pondering the gravity of such an action.

I see a shape forming in the mirror as I drift off in to my thoughts. I squint my eyes as the figure comes into clarity. My eyes become wider as I recognize the character, instantly dropping my razor.

“You...why...?” I say in a stutter.

The figure laughs sinisterly and moves closer to the mirror, a dark wiry grin spreading across its face.

“What’s a matter my darling Ethan? Not happy to see me? That just makes me all sad, I think I may cry. Did you really think I’d forget all about you? You honestly think that just because you’ve been cured that I’d ever leave you? Ha! You’re mine Ethan, one way or another, you’re mine,” She says, the grin becoming wider, bearing her dark, sharpened teeth.

I shake my head “No... you aren’t real...you’re just in my head. Leave me alone...leave me alone,” I respond, backing away from the mirror, clenching the sides of my head with both hands.

“I’m very real Ethan. You will never be rid of me. Not until you have no mind left to think with. Then, I’ll take you away with me and I’ll finally have that which I’ve always desired. My wonderful...loving...Ethan Blake,”

The words feel like nails on a chalkboard from the twisted voice that she has and I can’t help but hold my hands on my ears as I back into the bathroom wall and slide to the floor in a seating position.

“You aren’t real! You’re just in my head! In my head! Leave me alone! Leave...me...alone!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

The bathroom door slides open and I feel the dark presence instantly disappear as Elena comes in and grabs me in an embrace. All I can do is sit there in her arms, rocking and shaking, trying to wrap my head around the event that just transpired.

“It’s alright Ethan...I’m here...I’m here. Tell me what happened,” Elena says to me in a calm, gentle tone.

I stare up at her, wrapping her hands in my trembling hands, tears running down my face. “She was here Elena...Little Katie...she was here. She still haunts me, even now,” I respond, my voice shaky.

“Ethan, listen to me,”

“She just won’t go away,”

“Ethan, please,”

“She’ll never let me be,”

“Listen Ethan,”

“Not until she has me,”

“Ethan!” Elena yells, tearing me from my babbling.

I stare at her, my eyes darting to multiple points on her face from sheer paranoia.

She takes my face in her hands and kisses my forehead. “It’ll be alright Ethan. Please, please let this go Ethan. Let go of the guilt and the pain. What happened to her wasn’t your fault,”

“But it was my fault Elena. I could’ve done something to help her Elena. I should have,”

“What could you have done Ethan? She was a test subject signed over to the government by parents who didn’t want her. Interfering with their research at that time would have warranted you to be shot. Our politics were very corrupt during the Evolution Wars. All they were worried about was advancing and finding new technology to catch up with the Sekrid. They just didn’t care. But what really matters in the end, is that you cared. She knew that Ethan, she knew. The real Katie knew,”

“Then why am I still haunted so much?”

“Because that isn’t her. That’s what her body was twisted into. She became something completely different, simply feeding off the memories Katie had of you to play with your mind. You have to let go of the dark before you can see the light Ethan. If you don’t, you’ll only fall further away. You have to climb towards that thread of light shining down,”

After that statement from Elena, everything went silent for a while. She just held me in her arms, never letting me go.

The next morning, I awoke feeling in a different state of mind. Though I couldn’t bring myself to respond to her, Elena’s words had an effect on me. It seemed to give me a renewed sense of hope with the whole situation. It’s funny how no matter how dark my life may feel at any given moment, that Elena always finds a way to pull me out of the hole I’m cowering in.

I walk down the halls of the command station, marveling at the structure, as this the first time I’ve truly had to dock here. I allow myself to daydream a bit, letting my mind wander and relax.

As my brain trails off into thoughts of Earth and finally having some rest and relaxation, a familiar voice breaks through my thought processes. I stop mid-walk as I realize who’s speaking to me. A wide grin crosses my face as I quickly turn around.

“Dad! Hey!” Leon yells as he trots himself to me.

Without hesitation, he gives me a hug that lasts for a few moments before he releases me and looks at me with his token Blake grin.

“Leon, what are you doing here? I thought you were still deployed,” I say to him, surprise in my voice.

“Yeah we were. But they pulled us off planet, had another job for us to do. This was the closest station near our position that we could prep at,”

“Ah, excellent. Wait...are those Lieutenant bars on your uniform?” I ask confused.

Leon smiles once more and looks down at his uniform jacket. “Yep they are dad. You didn’t hear? I was promoted not too long ago. I think my captain is trying to turn me into a Mustang,” Leon explains. I pat him on the shoulder and smile back.

“Well, I’m sure you earned it son. Wear those bars well, I know you’re aware of the responsibilities,”

“That I am dad,” Leon says nodding his head.

“So, have you visited your mother yet?” I ask.

“Yeah just a minute before I saw you. She had some things to do though, so unfortunately the conversation what kept short,” Leon answers.

“That’s alright though. At least both of us know you’re alive now. A minute talking to you is good enough for me son,”

“Yeah I know dad. I’m just happy I got a chance to see both of you. Hey, by any chance, have you heard anything from Stells? She hasn’t answered her com this past week and usually she’s glued to it since we hardly get to speak,” Leon asks, worry in his voice.

“Hm...no, I haven’t Leon. Maybe she’s just cramming for exams. Those instructors take their job seriously over there so Stella has to be at the top of her game,”

Leon gains an unsatisfied look “Yeah, that’s true. I guess I’ll just have to keep trying. Anyway, I have to get to a briefing dad. So, I guess I’ll see ya when I see ya,” Leon says wrapping up the conversation. He gives me another quick hug and then continues his way down the hall.

Though it was quite disappointing that I couldn’t speak with my son more, that wasn’t the most pressing matter on my mind. It felt somewhat selfish diverting my mind from my son the moment he left, but the night before gave me a sudden epiphany.

I realized that I was tired of the torment and that in order to be rid of it the best place to start would be where it began. I quickly walk down the halls, avoiding all personnel contact.

I come to the tech hall where various personnel can come to contact loved ones on their time off. Conveniently enough, all rooms are empty as business has been moving quickly on the station since things have escalated.

I enter into the back most room and close and lock the door.

I turn on the windowpane thin monitor and type away on the plasma screen keyboard, quickly traversing through the things I want. I work my way in to the government mainframe, science division.

I only have a few minutes before their people find the intruder and lock me out.

I quickly swipe around the different programs until I come across one word typed in red...Occult.

What is a subject like that doing in the Science Division? I think to myself.

I open the file and begin to scroll through.

My mouth drops as I read the documents within. Paganism, Satanism, Catholicism, Christianity, every religion imaginable is panned out throughout the entire folder.

Within each religion is specifically detailed lists of deities, demons, and artifacts that relate to each respective religion. The documents however, all seem to point to inconclusive testing and most of the artifacts with said religions could not be recovered.

But whilst scanning through I find another folder named Argalia. My confusion only grows as I click the file to discover a Sekrid religion which worships the giant creature known as Crinza, the world eater.

The file details that every so many thousands of years this creature comes forth and turns every planet it touches into a hollow shell of what it formerly was.

But...the most interesting part I found within this file was what this creature did to the population. It tells that the people become infected with a parasite dropped from the monster that causes the victims to become feral and filled with rage.

On the physical side, it causes them to develop a rough, almost scaled, green skin, pitch black eyes, rows of razor teeth and elongated nails that act as claws.

The file tells me that the effects are varied between species which was found out through various testing, humans becoming the most primal as we aren’t as evolved as the other species tested.

Everything I was reading made it all so clear and chronicled details that exactly matched what all of us experienced on the Zeus.

I sit back for a moment and take everything in. I shake my head in disbelief. The moment passes quickly though as continue my reading. I scroll down and finally reach a set of documents appropriately titled “Katie”.

My heart begins to beat hard and fast as anger wells up within me and I begin to read.

The documents show that their resource of gaining these parasites was the source of the infection.

My eyes grow wide “They...they captured it?” I say to myself scrolling down even more.

I scan across the numerous photos of the creature and stare in terror at its size. The specs given on it, reveal that it is a massive creature, larger than anything I’ve ever seen that lives.

The data states that it even has its own micro atmosphere with a gravitational pull. It doesn’t breathe oxygen and only lives to destroy life on planets to sustain its own being.

The scientists took the parasites from Crinza’s body and genetically modified them to their own will and began testing on people. In fact, they created the Orphans for Science program that little Katie was a part of for the very reason of testing these parasites.

Reading those things made me sick to my stomach.

The diary entries of the file reports that Katie was different somehow, her genome reacted differently to the parasite and somehow, cooperated with it, allowing the parasite to use more than just her basic instincts, but tap into her memories, intellectual feelings, and advanced brain functions turning her into the perfect host for the parasite.

It didn’t however, explain my spiritual sightings of her unless...they weren’t spiritual sightings. With that thought, the screen locks up and a blinking red “Unauthorized Access!” shows on the screen. I immediately turn off the system and walk out of the room, walking down the hall, contemplating everything I have just discovered.

I walk out of the tech hall and run into just who I’m looking for, Elena. She bumps into me due to the fact that she was studying some paperwork as she usually does. She stumbles back and looks up at me.

“Ethan? Everything alright?” She asks me most likely noticing the baffled expression painting my face.

“Come with me, I need to talk to you, now,” I respond. Elena looks at me with bewilderment in her eyes and before she can open her mouth to reply I take her by the hand and pull her away.

“Ethan...where are we going?” Elena asks without receiving a response.

I pull her into an empty lab room, closing and locking the door behind me and pulling the blinds down in front of the large display window that allows various experiments to be viewed from a safe distance.

I turn around and face Elena who, by this point, is completely confused.

“Have you ever heard of the Sekrid legend of Crinza?” I ask.

“You mean the same Crinza from Dante’s old book?” Elena responds quizzically.

“Exactly,”

“Yeah, why?”

“They found it Elena,”

“Found what?”

“Crinza, they found it,”

“What do you mean Ethan? That monster is a myth. There’s no way they could have,”

“I would’ve said the same thing if I didn’t know any better, but I do, and I’m telling you, they found it,”

“How do you know?” Elena says utterly confused.

“I discovered that I needed to find the source of all the infection, Katie, my hallucinations, everything. So, I went into one of the computer rooms and worked my way into the science division of the government,”

“What did you find?”

“I’m getting to that. I found an odd file marked Occult in there. It displayed various religions on our Earth with artifacts and specific deities mentioned. All of this was completely inconclusive to them. However, there was a file name for Argalia in there. It detailed the religion based on Crinza and detailed the creature itself. Those parasites that are included in the infection, they come from that. They had photos of the thing and all,”

“That’s...insane...what else did you discover?” Elena asks, shocked.

“Well apparently, they took these parasites, genetically altered them and started testing on humans. Those experiments were the whole reason for the Orphans for Science program. That’s why little Katie was sucked into this. Katie was different though. Her DNA seemed to co-operate perfectly with the parasite, thus giving the parasite more access to her brain and turning into what she was,”

“That’s just sick...how could anyone do those things to those poor children. That’s unforgivable. But...how does that explain you seeing her all the time?”

“I asked myself the same question once I got locked out. This is just my theory. Katie was the original host for this parasite, which multiplied and spread the infection to other hosts, including me. Correct?”

“Yes?”

“Well my theory is that she is the hive-mind for everything else. It’s like the parasite somehow fused with her mind and created a link between every other host of the parasite. But somehow, I think she made my infection different, more related to the original parasite meaning--”

“A closer link to the hivemind,”

“Precisely,”

“She wanted you to be the new master host of everything. She saw how strong you were using Katie’s memories and picked you as the perfect host. But why is it still lingering? You were cured a long time ago,”

“Something was left behind Elena, something I can’t quite place my finger on yet,”

“Mr. Blake,” an unfamiliar voice says.

I turn my head towards the doorway to see a man in a black suit, holding his hands behind his back, holding a slight grin on his face.

“Can I help you?” I respond raising an eyebrow.

“Actually, I believe you can General. Please have a seat,” The man says to both Elena and I while motioning to a table with chairs on each side.

“I think we’ll pass on that; the Commander and I have some things to attend to,” I respond whilst beginning to walk towards the door.

The man steps in front of me as I reach for the keypad that opens the door.

He smiles at me, “Please General, I wasn’t asking,” he says to me with obvious smugness in his voice.

I narrow my eyes and glare at him for a moment before giving in and taking a seat at the table he originally waved his hand towards.

Elena joins me and the man in black sits down opposite us.

“So, who are you might I ask?” I say questioning.

“Who I am is none of your concern General Blake. So, for now, you can call me Mr. Angel,” He responds giving another smirk and removing his shades.

“Oh really? And why should we call you that?”

“Well, just as angels are the protectors of humans, I’m the protector of certain...information. Information you just had access to less than a half an hour ago,”

“So, what is it you want then?” Elena asks interjecting into the conversation.

Mr. Angel chuckles a bit “What do you think Commander? Here’s how it’s going to be, that information doesn’t exist, do you understand?”

“Hmph, a little late for that isn’t it?” I respond.

Mr. Angel closes his eyes and breathes an annoyed sigh and then looks at both of us with more serious eyes.

“Then let me put it in a way your soldier-boy mind can get. Either you never saw that information or my people are going to cut off your heads and throw you on a deserted planet somewhere and then claim you went MIA. Don’t suppose it’d be all bad though, you’d get a nice little memorial and a fifteen-gun salute each. It’d be real touching,” He says threatening us.

I tilt my head at him and smile “Do you honestly I can’t go through you, and your people like they’re toilet paper?”

“Well since you put it that way General, I will rephrase again, you will say nothing and act on nothing or I will go after your precious little boy Leon. Oh, and what’s his little girlfriend’s name? That’s right, Stella. How does that suit you?”

“Repeat that,” I say calmly through my teeth.

Mr. Angel smiles once more “I said I’m going to kill your son if you don’t do as I say,” He repeats, smiling even wider.

I don’t think, I simply react, snatching him from his chair and planting him against a wall, one hand around his throat, the other, holding a pistol to his temple. He shows no fear, only focuses on me more intently.

“You honestly think killing me will bring this to an end? Please Ethan, grow up. You know another one just like me will come along. Only this time, he’ll be Mr. Satan and make everyone disappear. You’re getting nowhere with this,” He says to me making an infuriating, but true point.

I think for a moment, then drop my gun and release him.

Mr. Angel clears his throat and fixes his tie. “That’s better. I’ll take my leave now. Please don’t make me come back, that would just be so unfortunate for us all,” Mr. Angel says with a returning smugness to his voice.

He takes his leave and all I can do is stand there gritting my teeth.

Elena walks over to me and places a hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry honey, we’ll find a way put a stop to all of this,”

“How do we though?” I ask.

Elena smiles at me “You forget Ethan, you’re married to a former Raven Agent. Who still has connections on the inside,”

I smile back at her “I love you...”