2 The Living Spaceship: The Chosen Few

As the monsters reached out to try and tear their victims apart. The old man with a wave of his hand suddenly appeared to hold the zombies back, but it was obviously a great struggle for him and within a minute he collapsed onto the ground.

The largest zombie that had come smashing through the door meanwhile, to the old man and Kirsteen's surprise started to attack the other creatures. It pulled a short female zombie up off the ground by her hair and then placed its hand on her shoulder and pushed down hard, tearing her head off.

Two of the other zombies turned their attention to the giant, but they were effortlessly torn to pieces by the larger creature. The other zombies wisely started to flee with the larger brute chasing them, which ironically allowed Kirsteen and the old man to escape by the corridor the giant had come down.

At the end of that corridor was a dead end. "No it can't be" The old man screamed in frustration.

Kirsteen saw that a few of the other zombies the larger one had missed were coming back their way. Kirsteen prepared to try and run past the monsters, but the old man held her back.

"Trust me you wouldn't make it, get behind me", he said as he raised his cane in defence.

Just then a blue circle started to appear a few feet away from them. "Quick get in" the old man shouted as he jumped into the circle.

With no other choice, Kirsteen followed him and within a few seconds she suddenly found herself in a large, brightly lit room. There was a massive book case on the wall next to her, and a twenty inch screen tv and some recliner chairs at the far end. In the very centre of the room meanwhile, a massive gold chandelier hung from the ceiling.

On the opposite end from the tv were two huge wooden doors, whilst on the side opposite the bookcase was a large dining area, fit with a twenty foot long table, and a small kitchen behind it. There were about seven, scared looking people huddled together over the table. One of them, an old man was constantly downing shots of whisky. They all looked as though they had come from different eras. The youngest boy at the back looked like a little street urchin from Victorian times, whilst another appeared to be dressed in an old fashioned uniform possibly from the second world war. At the back of the table was a young, attractive woman with long dark hair who appeared to be separate from the others. She looked less confused and disoriented and was holding a strange device. This woman rushed towards the old man as soon as he arrived.

"I'm so sorry Professor. I had to temporarily get rid of the portal, the magic was fluctuating after the crash and I had to reserve power, it was." She said only for the Professor to cut her off.

"That's quite alright Lindsey I understand, the important thing is that we got the last survivor, now we can get out of here." He replied.

"Excuse me" Kirsteen shouted. "Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on here? Am I on drugs again? Are you lot hallucinations."

Lindsey approached Kirsteen and spoke gently. Her voice had just a hint of a Scottish accent. "Don't worry, we're here to help you. You've been abducted by aliens. That ship my friend here, Professor Fang rescued you from. It collided with ours. We're not sure who created it yet, but it appears to run on magic."

"Magic!" Kirsteen shrieked in surprise. "Aliens is one thing, but magic?"

One of the people at the back suddenly piped up, a young woman in her 20s named Jenna. "Hang on a minute she looks like Kirsteen Williamson."

"She could very well be". Professor Fang said as he tinkered with some device by the wall. In contrast he had a strange, unknown accent. It made sense after all, as he had lived for hundreds of thousands of years on just about every corner of the earth.

"But that's impossible, she!" The woman said

"So?" the Professor cut her off before she could reveal what happened to Kirsteen. "I told you I haven't had time to check what era we're in, but we could very well be 30 years in your past, or 1000, or we could be in another universe altogether. Most of you are from different times. Still if you'll give me a few minutes we can find out where we are." He continued somewhat impatiently.

Kirsteen was deeply disturbed by this conversation and begged Lindsey to let her go. There was something about Lindsey that seemed non malicious. Even in this strange environment, Kirsteen didn't feel threatened by her. Whilst she felt the Professor wasn't evil, there was still something a little unsettling about him.

"Please we don't really know what's going on either, but we're doing the best we can. Just trust us, you're safe in here." Lindsey assured Kirsteen.

The others started to protest, but Fang soon shut them down by slamming his stick on the table.

"I don't like any of you being here either. This is my home, and I'm normally very picky about who I invite over for tea. Still we all have to stick together for the time being. Not all of you were lucky enough to get this far, or need I remind you." The Professor shouted furiously.

A deathly silence fell over the room.

"Exactly, now please give us some peace while we try and get us all out of this situation." He continued.

After Fang and Lindsey left the room, Kirsteen went over to the table. The people almost didn't pay attention to her they were so wrapped up in their own problems.

In the distance Kirsteen thought she could see what looked like a hideous, demonic face appearing on the wall at the opposite end of the room from the tv. The face looked as though it was part of the wall at first, but then it started to move. Kirsteen screamed and tried to alert the others to it, but by the time they looked around, the face was gone.

"So" Kirsteen said somewhat awkwardly. "Any chance any of you could tell me who, or rather what took us here."

Only one of them answered Kirsteen, the old man that had been drinking the whisky, who was dressed in somewhat tattered clothes.

"None of us know. We're all from different times it would seem like the old geezer said. I'm from the age of Tairos. There I was, in the middle of the fight of my life with the vampire scum, Melesca, and his pet Tyrannosaurus when suddenly I was in a tiny little room, with several rotting corpses pounding on my door."

"I'm sorry did you say vampire?" Kirsteen asked.

"I can only assume you come from a time before their filth covers our entire world? I'm convinced the man who brought us here is one of them." He said

"A vampire?" Kirsteen still couldn't believe what she was saying.

"Yes, I know one when I see it. I've spent years running away from them. Still I don't think he's behind the ship. Him and that girl, they've got something else in mind for us. If they try anything though don't worry. I've killed more than my fair share of those bloodsucking monsters."

The Professor and Lindsey meanwhile had made their way to the control room. It had been somewhat damaged in the crash, but fortunately not only could the Professor repair it in no time, the ship also had a sort of magical healing factor that would repair any damage automatically anyway, though it might take time.

"Honestly you'd think they'd be grateful we pulled them out of that nightmare" The Professor said to Lindsey as he adjusted the controls.

"To be fair Professor, we may have been the ones who got them into this awful mess."

"Nonsense Lindsey. You heard them. They were prisoners on board that ship before I, eh crashed into it. It's strange that we didn't find any pilots when we were searching for the survivors."

"Apart from those horrors. God do I hate zombies. I've never met one I liked you know. Even vampires and demons can be pleasant, but zombies? They're always bad company." Lindsey joked.

"I quite agree Lindsey, but still there is no way those brutes could build a craft like that. No this is something else. Once we've gotten those people back to their own time, then I intend to investigate."

The Professor attempted to start his ship, but nothing happened. He heard a strange whirring sound for a few seconds afterwards, before trying the controls again. This time however there was a crashing sound and the whole ship began to shake violently for a few minutes.

"I don't understand? The main unit should have repaired itself by now?" The Professor said as he opened up the controls.

Just then a strange noise, like someone groaning in pain began to echo through the ship.

Lindsey checked the communication device. "According to this there's nothing coming through."

"Of course not. This noise is poking its way into our very minds Lindsey. It's a telepathic communication." The Professor said in a worried tone.

The voice began to speak.

"Please help me, you, you are the only ones who can. I was too weak to contact you before now."

"Who are you?" The Professor said defiantly.

"I am Gyster, I am the vessel you clumsily crashed into with that bat shaped excuse for a vehicle."

"Gyster? Of course I should have known. I'd heard stories about you. A lot of people dismissed you as a legend, but I have a slightly more open minded than most." The Professor said proudly and arrogantly.

"Who is Gyster" Lindsey asked.

"Gyster is a time and space ship made from magic. It was constructed by the Frexeia civilisation. They built it to explore all of time and space. The magic used to build it however caused the ship to develop sentience as you can see for yourself." The Professor said.

He continued. "The ship loved its crew however. They were its friends, they all enjoyed travelling through time and space together. When the crew died, according to the legends Gyster would begin abducting other beings from all of time and space to be his new crew. "

Lindsey had sudden realisation. "Oh my god. Those zombies, they were his previous crew members."

"I didn't kill them!" The voice protested.

"They died themselves of old age. Most of them were not happy at being taken at first, but in time most of them came to appreciate the lives I gave them. When they died I kept their corpses preserved in magic as a sign of respect."

"You mean they developed Stockholm Syndrome? There's also a huge, but isn't there". Lindsey asked.

"If my ship was ever breached by an outside menace, then I would bring my old crew back to protect my current crew." The voice said.

Both Lindsey and the Professor felt sick at the revelation.

"I was honouring them!" The voice protested. "I was giving them a chance to be heroes again after their passing. I was allowing them to save the next generation."

"The ones I met didn't seem to see it that way." The Professor said with disdain. "Why were they trying to kill your current crew?"

"That is on your head vampire. When our vessels collided in the vortex, you ruptured my engine. The magic from my core seeped out and revived the zombies. They're crazed, feral, but they are the least of my problems. In a few hours the rupture will become so great that I will explode."

Lindsey could see that the vessel's words had affected Fang. "Well you could have looked where you were going too." She protested.

"Neither of you are leaving until you repair my core. Your vessel is caught in a trap of my creation, that's draining the energy from your core. It'll put off my death by a couple of more hours. After that, I'll die, but your vessel will be trapped here, powerless unable to move, and you'll be caught in the blast."

"You would do well not to tamper with the core of my ship. It contains something that makes those cadavers or yours look like, well I'm not sure I should share that with you, but trust me on this. You're biting off more than you can chew" The Professor said.

"You leave me with no choice, you must help me." Gyster repeated, thinking the Professor was just talk.

"Neither of us intend to help you carry on taking people and defile their corpses. You're a monster." Lindsey protested.

"Sadly we don't have a choice I'm afraid. He holds all the cards for now. We need to fix that engine, for those people out there. We'll talk about his poor lifestyle choices later" The Professor said reluctantly.

"You can't be serious?"

"Believe me I'm repulsed by this needy ship as much as you, but we can't let him tamper with the core of the bat any longer. You know what is at stake if he does."

"You will not take my new friends" The voice boomed! "This is the best collection I've ever assembled. War heroes, grizzled vampire killers, famous artists. They're mine!"

"Like I said we'll discuss that later. First let us teleport back to your ship." The Professor responded.

"I'm afraid not. Whenever you teleport you use up more energy keeping me alive. It's why I was barely able to contact you. I've disabled the teleportation spell." The ship's teleportation device had already been somewhat limited by Gyster to the point where even with Lindsey working the controls he couldn't be teleported from just anywhere on the living ship.

"If you think that I'm going to make my way through those zombies." The Professor protested.

"Like you said. I hold all the cards." Gyster replied.

To Be Continued