This is my entry to the Inspired By Images Of Eve Competition 2. More details and links to all entrants can be found at Starfleet Comms
I force myself to relax; the machine will record the memories as required…
Neural recorder activated: 02/7659.01
My earliest memories of space travel were from the holidays to the nearby planets that my parents used take me on as a child. That is just a distant memory now tainted by war, pirate attacks and the destruction that followed, the destruction that stole my innocence and provided me with one goal, revenge for a childhood ripped away and an innocence lost.
This world and the others like it are all the same, a breeding ground for the nightmares that haunt my dreams, huge black shapes tearing at the edge of my vision, almost seen, never realized, however I digress…
A young teenage girl is standing at the window of her room at the shelter and staring out at the space port watching ships mainly Amarr, Caldari of all shapes and sizes escape into the black, wishing beyond hope that she too could free herself from this nightmarish world and find the peaceful calm of the black as well. Thoughts of death her constant companion, revenge and a longing for the black keeping death balanced on the razors edge.
Watching the reflection in the window a lonely tear rolls down my left cheek, for the tortured girl in the memories, all the while the storm rages within…
The sun breaks from behind the clouds, its warm glow slowly drying out the rain, today is a good day, its graduation day. The training craft flying a perfect star formation overhead, the roar deafening as a young woman studies the certificate in her hands, so focused she hears nothing, friends nearby laughing and celebrating don’t see the determination and rage that slowly builds. She masks the rage and joins her friends in celebrating, after all it’s not everyday you graduate from the Caldari Navy Academy
That was a good day, one of the best in my life, a crooked smile forms on my lips as I remember what was and what think of could have been…
The ship cuts a crimson arc as the warp engines disengage, the pilot chatting with others in the area, finds a friendly corporation to join. What was taught at the academy forgotten, her past buried, skills and knowledge growing with help from friends. Wars come and go...the nightmares return, the rage builds, worlds seem to be collapsing…
I look down, blood seeping from my fist as the finger nails bite deep into the flesh, knuckles white with rage, relax….
Destination a research station, information provided from a source says that there is a ship, a faction ship, the stuff of childhood rumors, which could be what I’m looking for. Research in various libraries and it is confirmed a ship called a Nightmare exists. Bidding farewell to my corporation friends, a plan formulates, a new corporation is born.
Nightmare Inc - this corporation is my salvation, a means to an end, a strange calm settles over me finally I am home, in time I know retribution shall be mine and it will be my Nightmare in their Dreams.
***
A primal scream rips over the audio circuits a woman strains against the restraints, the pain unbearable, slowly she sinks back into the chair; a drug induced nightmarish oblivion waiting.
Monitoring staff looked up in shock as the scream shattered the silence and alarm warbles fill the facility, the inbuilt fail safes in the neural recorders were designed to prevent Synaptic Fusion Psychoses from occurring. The medibot finally manages to sedate the figure in the chair, alarms sound with its screen indicating that dangerously high levels of suppressants were required. Staff rushed to the now limp sweat covered figure in the chair, blood seeping from wounds where the restraints have bitten into the skin. Frantically they tug at the restraints...
***
The dream is shattered, its with a strange detachment I listen as the screams echo into silence, unconsciousness has finally taken him, you traitorous bastard I think, removing my thumbs from his eye sockets, blood and interocular fluid dripping onto the floor. Absently wiping my thumbs on his Caldari Navy tunic, my thoughts turn to recent events.
They had infiltrated Nightmare Inc, the assassin had failed , the rage that had been dormant for so long now returning, I set about hunting these bastards down now there is only one left.
I look down at the sweat and blood covered eyeless face staring at me, I still need that name, wake up you bastard I think as a syringe materializes from my jacket, the virus it contains cost a battleship and four crew members their lives however it will be worth it. The name will be mine at least that I know, the price is not for me to pay as a slow and most painful death awaits him, if he’s lucky it will drive him insane first.
Caxack
Caxack
Neural recorder deactivated: 02/7894.06
***
The figure is finally free of the restraints and staff members remove the limp body. A memory wipe is discussed….
***
Thumbing the replay button on the holo projector I watch the scene replay again in every exacting detail from the centre surveillance tapes, the tapes that have taken years to aquire. A simmering rage like a caged monster lurks just below the surface, they did this to me, striking out with my left fist the holo projector explodes, fragments biting deep into my flesh, blood running down my fingers, I flick my fingers and watch a flotilla of little crimson tear drops arcing through the air in formation before gravity takes over and the crash to the floor . Memories have started to resurface...
The comms unit burst into life, drawing me back into reality, it is an old friend from times forgotten, an interesting offer, a quote from another age comes to mind …Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.
Golden plumes refract off the Taranis’s hull and a dazzling array of colour explodes into the black as the warp engines disengage and the sub-light engines take over…Gallente Space, the perfect hiding spot, a new beginning waits thanks to an old friend....
.
