Chapter 6: The Eternal Watchman’s Prison

Hanson came through the door, carrying two mugs of coffee. David sat there, just staring at her. If he didn’t know better he’d say he had feelings for Diane. He sat there for two days straight.

“Here, it’s still hot.” Hanson said, handing David a mug.

He gratefully took it and took a sip.

“Thanks.” Was all David said.

“Any change yet?” Hanson asked him as he took a seat next to David.

“No. Same as always. She still mumbles in her sleep. I have been recording her since this started.” David told him.

“That’s just creepy.” Hanson replied, pulling a face.

“Do you know what she has being mumbling all this time?”

“You mean that strange language she has being talking in her sleep?”

“Yes, at first I thought it was just pure nonsense, but when I played back the recordings I cross referenced those words through earth’s language database. It’s Latin, all of it.”

Decker took a large swig from his mug.

“You said she was well read. Perhaps Latin was one of her subjects at the university?” He asked.

“No. Latin as a spoken language is dead for almost six thousand years. She knows a smattering, for scientific purposes. The way she has being speaking suggests fluency. She was never fluent.” David concluded.

“Okay professor, then what do you think is happening to her?”

“I have no idea. I just hope it stops soon.” He said looking at her again. Decker stood up.

“David your shift is over. Get some rest. I’ll ask Bracus to take over.” David whipped around in his seat.

“Wait, Bracus is back?” he asked.

“Yes he is, just came in this morning.”

“I’ll have a chat with him as soon as I’m able. I need some sleep first.” He said trying to stifle a huge yawn. He got up from his chair and as soon as he did, he heard a loud thud behind him.

“David!” Hanson yelled. David whipped around and saw Diane lying on the floor, the skull next to her limp form.

“Let’s get her to the medical facility.” Hanson said.

He walked out the door and saw the whole team waiting for him in the corridor. Strange that how a crisis can bring people together.

“How is she.” Allegra asked David.

“She is fine Mr. Allegra. Her vitals are stable. Seems a week like this did not wear her out a bit.”

David turned to Bracus.

“And where have you been Bracus?” David asked him, his tone of voice had a sharp edge to it.

Bracus just gave him his trademark grin. Bastard.

“I had to report to the president in person. Information regarding this matter is too sensitive to be sent via electronic means.” He said as a matter-of-factually.

“What was there to report Bracus? We hardly found anything. Besides Diane passing out, there wasn’t anything newsworthy.” Allegra stormed at Bracus.

A shrill scream cut through the air. It came from Diane’s room, David was the first to respond as he dashed to her room, the rest of the crew hot on his heels. They all found her huddled in the darkest corner of the room, trembling.

“What’s wrong Diane? What happened?” David asked her gently, touching her shoulder in reassurance.

“Oh all those people!” She shuddered.

“What people?” Bracus asked, his interest suddenly piqued. He walked past Jason and shoved David out of the way.

He brusquely grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her towards the light. She screamed.

“Leave her alone!” David yelled and ran to Diane’s defence, but Jason and Allegra held him back. He was confused at first.

“Look at her eyes professor.” Bracus ordered David.

“Wars! Horrid Wars!” Diane yelled and struggled to break free from Bracus’ grip but he held her fast, holding her face by the jaw so that David could inspect her eyes. They were as black as night. Seemingly absorbing light as opposed to reflecting it.

“David look!” Jason rasped.

David looked to where he pointed and he drew his breath sharply. A mug floated in the air. As did small objects inside the room. A coaster here. A picture frame there.

“Is she doing this?” David asked Jason.

“Well I’m not doing it.” He said in a hushed voice.

“WAR! WAR! WAR! ” She kept yelling. She broke free of Bracus, whipped around and grabbed his face. She forced him to look into her eyes.

“What do you see?” She hissed, spittle forming at the corners of her mouth.

He struggled to break free from her grasp. Hard to imagine that her small frame was more powerful than his. Her eyes flickered, like a television screen, and images appeared in her eyes. He ceased to struggle. And he lost himself in those pits of black, as he relived Diane’s whole experience. The destruction of Mars. Remus’ last stand against the creators. All of it, Bracus groaned. All he saw was death. And then some. Her eyes were filled with nuclear fire and, for a moment he felt himself burning. Like the people of the past, he felt his flesh burn. Bracus screamed in agony as imaginary flames consumed him. Then Diane released him. He fell to his knees, smoke coming from his eyes and mouth while he retched. David and the others rushed towards him, lifting him up and laying him on Diane’s bed.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, so sorry!” she sobbed, backing away from the group.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Allegra asked her, his hand on his sidearm.

David and Jason tended to Bracus while Allegra and Hanson closed in on Diane, attempting to restrain her.

“Wait! Leave her be!” Bracus choked between laboured breaths.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes damn you.” he rasped.

David slowly walked over towards Diane.

“What happened Diane? What did you see?” David asked her.

She looked at David, as if seeing him for the first time.

“I will not die. I will be the eternal messenger. The watchman. The rearguard.” She said.

“She is not coherent. It seems whatever she saw in her vision has altered her state of mind.” David told the group.

“Not only that but she is a psyon now. I have heard of these spontaneous transformations but these are rare. I think whatever happened to her is related to that skull she was holding.” Jason offered.

“You don’t say.” Bracus sarcastically sneered. Jason just continued unfazed.

“We need to get her to Earth. We have to test her.” He concluded.

“I agree. The things we saw are...” Bracus’ sentence trailed off. He was clearly shaken.

“All of us, we need to get back to earth. This place gives me the creeps.” Hanson visibly shook as he uttered those words.

“What about all my research material here?” David moaned.

“We take it all with us. We can analyze all the material at the state labs.” Bracus said.

---

She just lay there, mumbling incoherently, staring at the roof of her cell. Occasionally her eyes blacked over and the same images repeated themselves, over and over, as if her brain was stuck in a continuous loop.

“How long has she been like this?”

“Since the jump back home. Kept on yelling for a while then just stopped.” David said.

George stared at Diane at length. What kind of catastrophe could have made her go off the deep end like this? He looked at David’s reactions to his colleague’s affliction. This was more than professional concern.

“I have a meeting to attend so stay as long as you like David. If you feel you can help her then you are welcome to pool your knowledge with the other researchers.” George offered.

He laid a hand on David’s shoulder and left him there to his own thoughts. He got up from his chair and walked over to the pane of glass separating them. He let his finger trace the path from one end of the window pane to the other side of it.

What could have happened to you, he thought.

“How long have you been here?” Bracus asked him upon entering the room.

David looked up at him and asked him sweetly:

“Are you happy now? You have got what you wanted. She was an innocent bystander in your little quest, and if anything happens to her there will be hell to pay.” He said between grit teeth.

Bracus just smiled at him with that annoying mile of his.

“We are returning to Mars in a week’s time.” Was all he said and joined George outside the hallway.

For the next couple of days, he would visit her. She was always the same. Never got better or worse. Sometimes it would seem that through the fog of her war-torn visions, she sometimes broke through, as though recognizing him for a second, eyes as clear as day. As quickly as the recovery would seem, as quickly it disappeared, leaving him as disappointed as the last day of their departure drew closer by the hour. He wished that he could just take her and leave. Go anywhere, any place...anywhere but here. Seeing her caged and bound in this padded cell of a never-ending, bleached whiteness, damn near broke his heart. Not because he loved her or anything, but that thought to him was as alien as the ruins on Mars. That such a brilliant mind was reduced to an unintelligible mush. Love? He scoffed at the very notion.

It was seven in the morning. Everyone assembled in the main foyer of the statehouse, the main residence of the president. Hanson and Allegra seemed to have gotten on pretty well, as they seemed to be in a deep discussion. The fact that Jason stood aloof wasn’t lost on him. He seemed to be entertaining himself by floating some kind of coin between his hands.

I swear I’ll never get used to that, he thought.

He walked over to him. As soon as Jason spotted him he quickly caught the coin and hurriedly stuffed it into his pocket.

“What was that?” David asked. Jason just stared at him with an unconvincing blank look on his face.

“The coin?” David urged.

“It’s nothing. A keepsake from my days at the academy that’s all.” He said, seemingly avoiding eye contact with him. He couldn’t understand why he had to be evasive, but he let it go albeit reluctantly.

“Good morning everyone. I trust you are all ready for departure?” George asked the group upon entering. Everyone nodded in the affirmative.

“How is Diane doing?” George asked David softly, pulling him away from the group.

David just shook his head in the negative.

“That bad?” George asked. David just nodded.

Seeing Diane lying in that cell, bound in the throes of reliving the post-apocalyptic agony over and over again was more than he could bear. No one deserves that kind of end for themselves, especially someone as soft and kind as her. He heard some whispers in the wards of strange occurrences involving her in the last couple of days. Patients monitoring equipment failing. Random objects floating around then suddenly falling. Even a slight tremor in the hospital was attributed to her, although the area has been known to be on a fault line. All baseless rumours. The Masters at the academy came to inspect her and they could not find the slightest whiff of psyonic resonance from her since the Mars incident. All she does all day is murmur the word “War” and her eyes flickering like a broken television of old.

“I’m sure the doctors are doing all they can for her. The academy also cleared her of any psyonic elements that could have remained. It’s all up to her to find her way back from this backlash.” George told David, trying to sound reassuring.

David forced a smile onto his rugged features, hoping George was right. In the days before she had the accident, he had grown quite fond of her. As they boarded the shuttle, one thought stuck in his mind. Why her? After jumping to Mars, something was off from the get-go. No patrol craft was seen near the supply station. No radio chatter between pilots and no active IFFs. Bracus, who was piloting, drew out a long whistle and looked at Decker and Argo. Communication blackout only meant one thing. An attack was underway. Wordlessly Decker and Jason quickly grabbed rifles from the shuttle’s supply cabinet. David and Blanco’s eyes just widened in surprise but said nothing. Something dangerous was afoot and better to stay out of the way.

After loading ammunition into the rifles Decker looked at Jason with disdain as Jason activated his psyonic armour and fit his breather. It was not lost on Jason as he slung the rifle over his slender, yet muscular shoulder. The suit he wore was figure-hugging and, as he explained it, amplifies his psyonic talents. The trim was pulsing with an eerie blue light. Decker hated the damn thing, but besides Bracus there was no one else on this shuttle that was combat qualified besides them.

“Hope you know how to use that thing.” Decker said to Jason, motioning at his rifle. “No hocus pocus pal. You see something that does not belong, you blast it, not pray at it. You got it?”

Jason just shrugged his shoulders and stood near the exit hatch. Blanco swallowed hard. He trained soldiers for combat. Never thinking that he would ever be in a firefight, the prospect scared the crap out of him. He took out his sidearm and stood next to Jason and Decker, fitting his own breathing apparatus. His hand was shaking and Jason pretended not to notice.

Bracus set the shuttle down in the supply hanger as it has the widest field of view and lots of cover. Bracus got out of the pilot’s chair, grabbed his rifle from the cabinet and fit his breathing mask. He hadn’t felt this kind of excitement since the great revolt. His combat skills were honed to perfection over centuries of wars and rebellions and to him it was as easy as breathing through this damned mask.

Bodies were everywhere. Clones were dead and the human staff just seemed to have vanished into thin air. Upon closer inspection of the clone corpses, no signs of struggle were to be found. No blood. No broken bones. It was like they just keeled over and died where they stood. Bracus experienced a slight pang of disappointment, as the prospect of combat excited him, but he cautioned himself against over-eagerness. After an hour-long sweep of the base, everyone gathered in front of the dig site entrance as this was the last place they haven’t checked out yet.

Bracus covering both Jason, Decker and Blanco, opened the hatchway. None of the familiar humming of the power generators was heard and the entire room was covered in darkness. In unison, they switched on their flashlights and silently entered. Scanning every mound of ancient junk, looking around every corner and behind every desk, no clues to this massacre were to be found.

“Well this is...weird. Clone bodies everywhere, no trace of the killer and all the human staff just vanished. What the hell Bracus? Thought only these guys knew and us. Who else can gain access and just off everyone?” Decker asked.

Even Bracus was stumped. With George, he always had full disclosure. If anyone else knew it has to be that George was a little less truthful with him.

“Notify Earth we were under attack. Hundred percent casualties.” He grunted at Jason and he walked off towards the entrance. His flashlight caught something above the door and scanned it with the light. It was a message painted in blood red. One by one the others joined him and directed their beams above the door.

It read: God creates Man.

“We need to review all the security recordings.” Jason offered.

“This could be the start of another rebellion.” Blanco said, a tinge of fear lacing his voice.

Bracus hoped he was wrong.