Fan Fiction ❯ The Nexus Files. ❯ Chapter two. Not real life pac-man ( Chapter 2 )

He sighed, trying to catch the elusive bug, between the locking bay-doors and the air-vent. The bastard kept spitting acid on the video cameras, which made the chase that much more irritating. He hated that species of bug. Why did someone have to genetically engineer a smart species of insect? They were like sending in a nuclear bomb to assassinate an ant.

“Capt’n, why not send in a bio-spray?”

He flicked his eyes up to his first mate but said nothing. Continuing to punch the console controls for the next command.

“Well I know that, sir. But it would save us losing any more expensive equipment.”

The captain brushed long green locks out of his eyes and waved a hand to the man addressing him.

“But sir, this is going to take all day at this rate. How can you enjoy this little game? It seems so primitive.”

Finally speaking the captain’s cold voice was a soft murmur. “You aren’t old enough to appreciate the value of playing pac-man in real life. Soon, I am expecting to hit a different colored fruit.”

~.~.~.~
Chapter Two. Not Real Life Pac-Man.

~By Sweetdeily.

~.~.~.~

I couldn’t help but hand it to the bastards. Our systems were officially fucked up. The techies were scrambling like crazy to keep the important systems running, but we couldn’t jump to fleet speed. Hell, we couldn’t even keep up with a freighter.

“High Councilors!” I swore, slamming my fist into the lift’s control panel. The lifts’ were down too and I’d been stuck in the small space for the past three hours. It was very cold with our temperature regulations mixed up like a Meri egg. My ear set was still working but the volume was up so loud I had a headache from the replies.

“Sir… we can’t get the lifts back up just yet. You’re going to have to wait for a few more hours.” The techie finally tells me.

“Fine. But someone send the UGF an emergency stress call to let them know why we’re running behind schedule.”

“Yes sir.” This from someone in the bridge.

I swear, when I get out of this mess I will hunt down that Nexus impersonator and personally arrest them. I fucking hate EMPs!

“Commander Alaria, sir…” Someone pipes up.

“What is it now?” I ask without much enthusiasm.

“The temperature sensors are going up the other direction now.”

I sigh. Great. If I don’t freeze to death I’m going to melt. Just great. “Don’t worry about the temperature so much. Get the ship flying, if you can. We need to get to the nearest space-port.”

“Yes sir.”

Another hour passes with various reports being blasted into my ears and me sitting in a corner of the lift, twiddling my thumbs and plotting an elaborate revenge. After another five minutes the lift begins to very, very slowly ascend.

“We’ve got the lifts moving on minimum power, sir. You should be on the bridge in two hours if the power increase goes as planned.”

I can’t really say much to that so I don’t. I slowly stand, probably not a good thing because the next second the lift zooms off at twice its normal speed. My legs cripple under me and I end up face down on the ground by the time the lift finally stops at the bridge.

“High Councilors! Sir, are you alright?”

With a fairly substantial amount of effort I pry myself off the ground, feeling the painful effects of the gravity hitting me. I can’t stand my legs shake that badly and I finally give up trying. “Would someone give me a hand stumbling over here?”

One of the private’s does that little snap they do and walks over, helping me lean on them to get up. After a few unsuccessful tries we finally manage to make it up and over to my chair. I sit in it, leaning back and trying to stretch my legs out in front of me.

~.~.~.~

Six hours later than my normally scheduled sleep cycle I finally get back to my quarters. I can sum up the last ten hours of my life with one curse word I learnt in the Delta quadrant, but I’d prefer to dream about sweet, sweet revenge than anything else. At least for two hours anyway.

“Computer, close the door. Lock the door. Bring my bed out. Turn off lights in my room alone and all equipment except for emergency phone.”

The computer takes five minutes to process my request and I flop onto my bed bonelessly.

Yes. Revenge. I will have such sweet, sweet revenge.

~.~.~.~

I wake to my alarm, feeling refreshed and a little better. This is unusual because I don’t work well with two hours of sleep. Checking the bedside clock it tells me that it is three in the afternoon on twenty-four hour time. I curse and slip from under the blanket. The system must still be screwed seven ways to Sunday.

“Commander Alaria, glad to see your sleep cycle has finally ended.” A voice cuts through my revive. It doesn’t take a genius to pick up subtle sarcasm when it’s directed at them.

“My apologies. The computer must have set my sleep cycle a little off.” My emergency vid-phone displays a picture of High Commander Chlancy’s ugly mug was glowering down on me. Now, now, I didn’t say it out-loud.

His features weren’t that bad, his nose was a little squashed into his face and his grey eyes had freckles under then that had gone brown over the last twenty years. But his personality was like sludge hovering around him. He glowered. Not just as an expression, he glowered like some people play basketball for a living. It was his hobby, his past time. If there were awards for glowering, he would have a huge cabinet of them.

“Oh stow it, Commander. Your ship has docked with the colony repair decks. Your captain was the one who set your sleep cycle back. My techies are ready to board at your permission.”

I nodded and gave the High Commander and salute. “I appreciate the help High Commander.”

Chlancy leaned back in his chair with a smug expression. “I’m in a good mood right now, Commander Alaria.”

“Very well sir.” I saluted again and went for the end-call button. I didn’t need to know how jolly he was. It wouldn’t make my day.

“Oh, before you end the call, do tell me. What was it that screwed up your A.I?”

“An electromagnetic pulse, sir.”

“Oh, who set it off?”

Oh, if it weren’t an offence punishable by hanging I would lie to him. There was no such thing as Ray Nexus. Rumors about a ghost were so childish. Still, I didn’t know the true identity of my problem, and this was all I did know about the haughty creature that had fucked my ship over. I sighed outwardly. This was going to go over well. “A man claiming to be Ray Nexus.”

Chlancy was very silent for a long time. I could almost hear the cogs working inside his brain. They made a grinding sound, I swear. Hey, it’s not slander unless it’s spoken.

“What did this man… look like?” Chlancy asks, very, very carefully.

“He had long green hair and… well, I almost mistook him for a girl at first glance.” I shrug; I’m too tired to play Nexus fantasy.

“Nothing else? Nothing of especial note about his appearance?” Chlancy asks with tension in his voice.

I watch his face carefully, seeing the excitement there. I can’t help but reflect on the rumor about how he lost his arm. Did he encounter a Nexus copy-cat? Did he encounter the legend itself? How close had he been to the assignment?

“Not…really. Except…” I pause, remembering the hidden eye.

“Except what, Commander?”

“… probably nothing… but his second eye… it was chromatic.”

Chlancy draws in a quick, sharp breath. “One red, the other gold?” He asks with a slight hitch.

I can almost feel the desire radiating from his body. It’s freaky. I would hate to be the object of such a feeling. Especially coming from Chlancy. “Yes, sir. Is there something of note there, sir?”

Chlancy laughs, and the sound grates on my nerves. Somewhere between a bird twittering and the blast of a ship’s engine when it takes off from a planet.

“When I first met her, I though her hair was short, but it was tied back at the time. But what struck me most about her… was those eyes, no emotion, no caring, just… empty pits of… of something.”

“I see, sir.” That reminded me of the imposter. I still had that blank stare on the inside of my eyelids. There was just something about those eyes that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

“Was she beautiful still? Was she radiant? It’s been twenty years, but she’s never changed… never aged. Not like me. No, I got old. I got slow, and her… she’s so viscous. If you hunt Ray Nexus, Alaria, if you hunt the legend, you must never forget that she’s viscous.”

“I see, sir.”

I was ready to puke. Who the hell wanted to be privy to Chlancy’s private fantasies? I had better things to do than sit here listening to Chlancy rave on about a man being a woman or… or whatever he was talking about. I had a pretty loose view of woman, breasts, vagina, blood and capable of bearing offspring in most cases. The Nexus imposter I’d encountered had possessed none of these things as far as I could tell; no breasts, a bulge in the pants and a sharp enough chin to suggest that extra chromosome. And the voice was obviously male. Did I need mental images of Nexus in a dress? I think not. Just because he had girly legs, didn’t make him a girl. Hell, I had small shoulders and I was pretty sure people weren’t running around with mental images of me in a sun-dress.

“You still don’t believe that Nexus is real, do you Alaria?”

“No, I do not have that view, sir.”

“You will, very soon, you will.”

“I see, sir.”

Chlancy finally seemed to get a hold of himself and leaned back in his chair, looking sated and tired. “Go, get your ship repaired, search out the infamous space pirate and bring her to justice.”

“Is that a mission sir?” I had to ask. If he said yes, I would be hard pressed to decline. Chlancy was an idiot, but he was a superior. I was duty bound to accept his orders. It pissed me off too. Who the hell wanted to chase phantoms?

“Yes.”

~.~.~.~

It took a full week for the techies to get the system running normally again, in that time we had four system-wide errors and plenty of people stuck in lifts. Some days it felt like I woke with a headache and went to bed with it still pounding away. Chlancy left my ship alone for the most part; I think it was because we were not on speaking level most of the time. Chlancy and I don’t like each other. He’s a freak. I’ve got a job to do. Our personalities don’t like each other.

The crew were supposed to be on vacation, I let half of them get on shuttles so they could go to the concert they’d all bought tickets for. It was apparently spectacular, even on the vids. I passed on watching Shard Cosmica shake her booty, sing her enchanting songs and hypnotize every man in the cosmos. I had work to do. Besides, her music was so… girly. I don’t mind opera or classics, but bouncy twinkling fountains of happiness and peace to the universe sort of got on my nerves. Or maybe it was because I’m the anti-peace. Yeah, I think if civilians ever actually found out how the UGF secured their precious peace there’d be a lot less girly songs.

Chlancy made good on his mission appointment. I was now on the Nexus squad. The laughing stock of the whole damn UGF fleet. The best I could hope for would be that my regular High Commander would pull his jurisdictional crap and get me out of the mess that Chlancy had gladly plunged me into. I sent him a few messages, but he was a busy man, who knew where he was. Mid-week I received Chlancy’s notice of assignment. I was to track down the person claiming to be Ray Nexus and bring them to justice at the hands of the UGF. Since he was wanted for the death sentence in over thirty galaxy’s dead or alive was in there somewhere. That said, the UGF wanted Nexus alive for trial if possible.

The fifth day of my ship’s repairs Chlancy came to see me in person. He walked into my office with a shit-eating grin on his face and I knew I’d been buried under another ton of mericrap.

“Commander Alaria, hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

Actually, I’d been reviewing the latest list of unregistered vehicles looking for the imposter without any luck. His physical description wasn’t turning up on any of the six search engines I had searching citizen files either. “No, of course not, sir. How can I help you?”

“Since you’re going after Nexus I thought you might want access to the Nexus files.”

“Sir, we have not yet confirmed the person I had a brush with was indeed Ray Nexus, despite his claim to be so.” I wanted to stay the hell off the radar for this assignment. If any of the other Commanders found out about this I’d never live down the taunts.

“Come, come. I think the chromatic eye clinches the argument, don’t you? Now, here’s the pass code. Please not that all Nexus information is a level three restriction.” He passed me a small grey data-chip.

I blinked. Level three was one of the highest protections you could place on data. At level four someone couldn’t access the information without the right password, at level three someone with an even higher access level had to add your identification to the register. I’d had no idea that the Nexus files were on such a high restriction. What information did they contain?

I nodded my thanks and waited till the idiot had left and then loaded the data-chip into my desk computer. I was a little curious now. The classification level explained why no one ever talked about the information they found on the Nexus cases. The screen went black and a ten digit number appeared. My original windows popped up again followed but a small dialogue box with a single question.

“Pass-code?”

I entered the numbers.

The box disappeared and a new window opened up. It was a case-file over a thousand pages long.

My mouth went dry.

“‘No one can confirm whether the Phantomonia has remained the same ship for the past three hundred years, or whether it has changed. The original information gathered on its crew and captain was sketchy at best, visual pictures, the rare overview schematics…’” I was looking at a picture of a man with black hair around his thighs. Only one eye was visible and it was a red glowing thing, almost as if in a picture, those eyes finally had life. the image was fuzzy around the edges, obviously one of those pictures taken before crystalisms.

As the page rolled down new pictures appeared. A man with light green hair around his thighs; eternally frozen like a rabbit caught in headlights. One red eye was narrowed at the picture-taker and the other was wide, golden iris rings staring eerily outward. His body was crouching around an energy sword, as if he were using it to stand. Above him the ceiling had been dissected. The caption read ‘the assault on Merima outpost.’ Merima was one of the first original planets to suffer a Nexus attack. The story was believable enough; it was within the first five years that the name Nexus had ever surfaced. Merima had been a hole ever since that attack. No one wanted to live there after its ‘super strong defensive shields’ were burst like an air bubble.

Planets that Nexus pillaged were supposedly ‘cursed’ according to the religious codes of the Inheritors. I’d never really understood religion; ever since the dawn of recorded history on Terra they’d believed in immortal beings. The Inheritors were believers in something called the House of Solar. I didn’t know much about it but the gist was supposed to be that the House of Solar were beings of atomic power, they never aged and never died. According to Inheritor mythology Ray Nexus was supposed to be a half-breed of the House of Solar. Therefore, when he raped and pillaged a city it was a divine justice and the city would be cursed.

I didn’t believe a word of that, but the superstition did seem to keep many cities in the dumps. The Nexus case file went on with more of the Inheritors belief on Nexus but I skipped to the more relevant data.

Nexus’ physical appearance was easy to tell on sight if you knew what you were looking for, some people identified him as male, others as female. There was one picture where Nexus was dressed in woman’s clothing, if the caption hadn’t of named him, I wouldn’t have picked him out of a line-up. He was bent over the body of a Terran Beta noble, a small metal dagger held in his hands. Blood had splattered his cheeks and his tongue was eternally frozen licking it off. The scene was strangely sexual. And gross. I’d read a novel once about the Terran myth of the vampyre. It had been pretty funny, but staring at the ageless figure in the photos, all the humor drained from me thoughts. People were supposed to get virus’ from drinking humanoid blood. Hell, drinking blood wasn’t very good at all.

As for age, no one was sure whether Nexus was three hundred or if it was a family. Some claimed his hair was black, others blonde. Its length never changed. The apparent age never changed. And those eyes… they never, ever changed.

I fought to find the logic in the situation, I fought to rationalize it. But it already made a kind of sick sense. He was either a god, a mythological creature or… or something else entirely. Only, I didn’t know what else.

The reason no one had ever caught him, her… it, wasn’t because he didn’t exist… it was because he was just that good. People were able to tail him, track him down, but capturing the legend… it always ended badly. There were more files on all those who had died setting up elaborate traps for him. even one file on a man who’d managed to hold him in his brig for three days before his entire ship had been destroyed in a fight with the Phantomonia.

Then at the bottom of the case-file, after I don’t know how many hours of reading, for time seemed to of just stopped while I read about this man… this… thing- I’d always believed was legend- there was a little video of him. It was thirty years old. Still new enough to have been transferred into crystalisms.

~.~.~.~

The hallway was filled with smoke from the machine guns and the lone guard was backing away from the target zone. His breath wheezed in and out of him as he mumbled prayers to his gods. From the smoke the figure stumbled out. It wasn’t the graceful, deathly vision one would have thought, but someone who nursed a bleeding stomach wound, probably a bullet shot. A genuine bullet wound. Bullests were illegal because of the internal damage they caused.

The guard began screaming and firing his weapon. Most of the shots went wild, while those that should have hit the target were repelled by one of those highly illegal force-barriers.

The man slumped slightly, coughing, his green hair was plastered to his face with sweat and when the camera zoomed in on the image the gold of his second eye peaked through the mist of green strands.

His left hand moved, pulling something onto the screen. An energy sword. One of the earlier models. It looked heavy the way that he pulled it off the ground with a pained gasp.

Then the camera went into slow motion. The man stepped to the left, moving normally despite the slowed camera. He ran at the guard, and the man had only the time to turn before the sword had severed head from shoulders. He moved at a normal pace in the slow motion, and it was thrilling.

Ray Nexus looked at the camera and threw something small at it. The picture scrambled.

~.~.~.~
I can’t really explain how I felt after seeing the Nexus files. For one, I thought it was pathetic that no-one had ever caught him despite everything we knew about him.

On top of that was amazement at the fact that the person I’d met had actually been Nexus. But this all compounded on what I had always thought of as truth. Nexus was a myth. A fairy-tale to keep little kids in-line. It couldn’t be true. How could he still look the same after all these years? And even if it was a father-to-son thing, how could they all be so completely alike in mannerisms and appearance? None of it made any scientific sense. Was he a half-god? Was he a mythological creature?

How could any of it be true and yet be a myth at the same time? And yet I’d been standing in the same room as him and breathing the same air. What was he if not human?

I had to meet that man again and find out for myself. If only so I could put my mind to rest.

~ To Be Continued…

Sweet notes: Ahh, the obsession begins. Reviews?