1...A Story Just For You.

" 'We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we were never ment to venture far' H.P. Lovecraft." Said the Dog with a pink mustache.

The sudden noise of his paw hitting the hanging white board brought me back form my day dream. The dog seemed unfamiliar but somehow, I knew he was my professor maybe it was the dyed bright pick mustache, or something else.

I was in a place, I don't remember comming to, an unfinished room with exposed bricks and small rocks in place of concert linking the craked faded white and red bricks together,

that brick wall almost seem to dissolve into the ascending dark shade where the ceiling should be, uncountable number of bright yellow eyes staring back like predators discerning if what it's watching is a quick meal or not.

In my hand sits a cold drink of sprawling water.

"we aren't allowed to have drinks in class." I remember.

Professor Armstrong had made it very clear that if we ever brought anything that even loosely could be categorized as food or drink, we would become a live demo on how a tazer affects the human body.

And yet there is a half finished drink in my hand the ice half melted indicating it had been something since I had brought into class, sitting in the first row it's impossible for him to not notice, yet he is hasn't done anything to indicate he had noticed.

A sudden realization came over me, I bent down and pinced my leg, the pain wasn't there, I could feel the touch the sensation of the pince even my brain was prepared for the signal from my pain receptors that told it to fell pain, but it never came.

I was dreaming.

I walked out of the class disregarding the protest form my professor who's voice was slowly turning from a commanding middle age man to a quiet but equally commanding bark of a dog.

As I step outside the day turned to night, the countless rows of identical buildings of the campus repeated infinity until it fell out of sight, separated from my building by a simple field of dead white grass that twinkled in the moonlight, was another identical building.

A plasend deam that ensures a goodnights rest.

But, for me it's a nightmare, somehow something inside me knows, maybe it's because of the scarlet moonlight, a mirror reflection of vibrant red blood, or the swarm of yellow eyes cloaked by the abnormally dark Shadows following me.

I know sooner or later something is comming, maybe it's going to be lights again, or the giant talking pelican with scissors for a beak.

I didn't have to keep guessing, before my mind could process anything my nightmare fuel showed up, unlike the others he wasn't terrifying in the least.

In the pale corridors of my campus, dimly lit by scarlet moonlight stood a seemingly normal man, unmoving, unbreathing, standing just far enough for the moonlight to illuminate only his legs, the shadow of the pillers the support the upper flows wrapping around his upper body like a blanket of darkness.

He was a seemingly normal man, even his cloths that I could see were Normal, brown pants and sneakers that I had seen countless strangers that passed me in the streets wear, maybe that was the idea, to fit in, or maybe I am paranoid, this is a dream after all.

I tried to ignore him, I tried to walk past him, but as I took my first step his eyes started to glow red like the moonlight and a primordial fear emerged for deep with me, I could feel my heartbeats shake my entire body. I know fear, I have felt it every waking night I have spent off earth. Every night my mind would conjecture up unsightly abomination to torment itself, I had grown accustomed to it, I could tell the difference between genuine fear, terror and that fake one your mind would make you feel when you hit the ground after falling in a dream.

It was the same as when I would miss a step going down the stairs and my whole life fleshes before my eyes before my leg finally hits the ground.

In that moment my body wanted to run. run until I as as far away form this man as possible, but I knew and somehow he knew that I knew, that I would not get far.

My eyes were open wide to make sure I could respond to his smallest movements, he was still as a rock and menacing as my forth grade Math teacher.

We were the only ones in the corridor, I have never been alone in my dreams there is always someone around, even when I am being chased by my nightmares there is always something. But not this time, it was silent even the wooden floorboards wouldn't dare creak.

He was just standing there looking at me like how I would emagine a cat would react to seeing the worlds biggest ball of yarn. I was even afraid to to move, much less run, who am I kidding? Its a deam, I would probably keep running in the same spot.

The man raised his hand, it comming into the moonlight, yet the hand still engulfed is a cloud of darkness, hand outstretched he puts two of fingers together and makes a snapping motion, two dear like antlers teared it's way out of his eye sockets and neon blue liquid starts oozing out from the wounds.

He doesn't react , he snapped his fingers again and I felt something pull my eyelids shut, my vision went black, slowly the darkness becomes more clear and refined and until I recognized the darkness of my closed eyes.

I was awake.

A sense of sharp pain like piercing needles and freezing cold permeated throughout my whole body, even through my thick suite I could feel the cold.

" Is he awake?" A voice with a digital edge asked someone.

I feel a cold finger on left my eye lid and it was forced open, I could barely make out a few mechanical fingers as they shone a bright light in my eyes that make my pupil dilate.

"Yes." another voice replys.

I try to open my eyes and quickly find out how bad of a idea that was as the light enters my eyes with the same sensation as a knife stabing into them. I try squinting to adjust to the bright light, and it doesn't take long for me to make out two humanoid androids staring back at me with a expressionless face.

"Status report." I said trying to pull myself up from my cryo pod.

The androids neither respond or acknowledge my command, turning around in unison and they walk away and exited my room, like I am not even here.

A sound similar to a bell ringing catches my attention and I instinctively turn my head in the direction of the sound. To my left is hard wooden table on it, sits a pink taddy bear, a gift from my friend, connected to it is gray power cable and the word recording is flashing in its eyes, next to it sits my black phone that is currently updating its reports.

I pick it up in a swift motion almost falling of my pod in the process, only saved by my frozen leg that is still partially frozen in ice. I don't waste anytime and start skimming through the crew vital and pod reports, a sense of relief washes over me as I see all they're vital signs flashing green and the pod reports showing no errors.

I start viewing the system logs to determine how many personnel have been awaken so far. Everyone expect me and the actring head Administrator was not only awake but had been for quite sometime now. I hurriedly pulled up the back logs.

We had landed on planet Ziuxion thirty-five day ago, during that time on border A.I. and automatons had not only set up site- 9 but also had established a seven kilometers perimeter around the base, that was constantly being monitored by bots that was designed to imitated the planets natural flora and animals.

The reports shows twenty fake A.I. and 2 true A.I. were sent with is for maintenance people and it was the true AI that made the decision of setting up the site before waking the personnel.

The usual protocol for research ships was to have the crew fully awake during landing, this achieved by acclamating the crew in low orbit, yet for some reason that was protocol was bypassed by the ture A.I., even the wake order of the crew is not according to standard protocol.

But that aside I as the second in command have a job to do.

I exit the pod and try to walk my legs aren't damaged according to the scans, but walking isn't easy, it's like trying to walk while drunk, I bet a child could walk better.

I stagger my way to the door my destination, Med Bay, its better to get checked by a professional just in case. I type in my code and the panel fleshes red, thinking I made a mistake I type it in carefully double checking just in case but the red flash appears again frustrating me, I type it in again but this time I pay attention to the red text that flashes.

'Access Restricted.' is flashing on the screen, according to the layout of the base my personal quarters is right next to the walkway going into the bioengineering lab, my security clearance in at the very least 3 levels higher, not to mention, I have access to the entire base, it's impossible for me to be locked out Unless, it's a system glitch.

I send a report to Alice one of the ture A.I., and lay down on my bed, I pull out the laptop from the table next to my bed and start looking for the reports from the other research sites, it doesn't take much time to find what I'm looking for.

My mailbox was full of questions from the head Administrator form every ship asking, why we descended during the acclamation period, every mail more furious than the last, but with every letter I could see the anger fade and genuine concern take its place, some outright begging me to respond in anyway.

On the fifteenth day letters stopped because one of the on board ture A.I. Alice had responded to most of they're questions, it seemed that the life support systems suffered some problems due a rough solar flare and the co2 levels sipked, so due to the planet having a atmosphere suitable for human habitation the decision for a emergency landing was made.

The doors to my room slide open and squatting down next to my doors access panel was Darwin, the control panel pryed open with exposed wires in both hand, a multi tool between his teeth and a ear to ear grin plastered across his face, knowing he has made Alice's maintenance work just that much harder.

" Proud of yourself, are you?" I said.

Hearing that just made his grin even bigger.

" Maybe." He said jumbling the wires and throwing them inside and covering it with the now broken planel. " The doc said she needs a blood sample for everyone, so I came to get ya, unless you ain't afraid of needles no more."

I gave him an annoyed look and he chuckled.

" Same old ha? Let's go I some work to do on the L.S. systems, just fixed our oxygen system to use some form the atmosphere and the new calibration dates gonna be a pain."

He grabbed my the hands and threw one of my hand over his shoulder to help me walk.

"By the way, why were you and the cap under ice for so long?" He said concerned. " Did something malfunction or did the brain parasites form GA-33 finally get ya?"

"Not sure." I said." Nothing is wrong with me physically or with the pods hardware, but I had dream while in there, that unusual, maybe the software had some abnormalities or maybe something happen due to the co2 spike, you know brain not ready for defrost."

He shrugged his shoulders. " Half the guys thought you two were in a coma or dead, heck some even wanted to just bust in there to see if that was the case."

" That might have been a good idea." I said sarcastically.

"Maybe, ha ha!" He chuckled." Almost forgot, Max wanted me to tell you that site-1 ceased all activities for some reason."

Site-1 was the first site stablished on the surface of the Ziuxio.Unlike us, this planet was they're first research mission outside our Galaxy.

"When did they decide to go silent?" I asked.

" It's unclear but the last transmission was sent to Ark-9 when it was entering the solar system." The smile he had on his face dissappear and as he pushed away a loc of his blond hair I could see a silent terror in embedded in his deep blue eyes. " Whatever that transmission contained, it landed it in level five security."

"I am hoping that Alice and the other true AI was smart and 'intelligence' enough to sent a team there to gather intel." I said slapping the back of his head to brake his trance.

It was clear that he had somehow gotten a hold of the transmissions contents through some, less then legal means and what was in there had shook him.

"Yeah, a team was sent there, we are the closest after all." He said punching my shoulders as payback. " Alice said something about a nuke, but I was too zoned out to remember."

"Meguill told me they had an active nuclear armament on site, I thought he was just overexaggerateing the fact that they had a working nuclear reactor."

"Anyhow we are here." Darwin said.

The white corridors had an ended, replaced by a green walls lit by green florescent lights indicating that this was the place where medical personnel where located.

The med-bay was mostly empty, except for the few that were looking at there phone and most likely playing games to pass the time.

Most of the didn't react when me and Darwin entered, only acknowledging us by giving a slight hand wave.

" Finally decided to wake up did you sleepy head?" Said Margaret Rhodes removing the curtains from one of the beds.

" He, somehow managed to the caused the access panel to his room to glitch, I had to pic the lock to get in." Said Darwin.

"Honestly." Margaret said sighing. " You have to stop running from anything involving needles."

" The idiot has the balls to fight a infected unarmed but can't stand to get an injection." Said Darwin.

" I was running on pure adrenaline back then, can't you make it fast doc?!" I said.

" Relax I only need a little bit of blood." Margaret said.

I managed to somehow keep myself composed through the ordeal, but Margaret lied when she said a 'little bit of blood.'

" See, it wasn't that hard." Darwin said.

" How the hell is the entire syringe a little?!" I said.

Before Margaret could answer an unknown voice cut her off.

" Umm, are any of Victoria Blue by any chance?"

A young boy wearing a combat exoskeleton had entered the med-bay when we were distracted.

The black exoskeleton of the metal suit was heavily dented and the vertical neon blue stripes that adorned the suit were nearly faded.

" He went to the storage bay sometime ago, you're welcome to wait here if you want, he should be back any second now." Margaret Said.

" Aren't you one of the guys that was sent to contact site-1?" Asked Darwin.

" Yeah.. I am an.... ai....a engineer yeah that right a engineer, Ambros Ludwig." The boy said.

" Darwin Marsh head of Life Support and guy with the white hair is the site Director."

" You're Kay Newbery then?" Ambros said.

" last I checked? " I said sarcastically.

Ambros looked me over carefully, clearly debating something. When he was done he opened his suite and took a diary that didn't have our logo where it should have and gave me a very scared look.

The book was small and lether bound, surely someones personal item and not the mass-produced ones that we use here.

"Don't let anyone else but you read this. And.... Make sure you come find me when you verify this." Abros said. His voice becoming more fearful with every world.

I held up my hand to grab it, and a soon as it was in my hand he grabbed it with both of his hands, his eyes met mind and I could feel his brown eyes staring into my soul.

" Everything happened for a reason sir, don't ignore the signs."

" Ok." I replied no knowing what to do.

[ Every personnel with level 3 or above report to Battle closet ] A voice with a digital edge boomed over the site intercoms.

" What's a battle closet." I said to one in particular.

Darwin gave a low chuckle, trying to hide it form me by covering his mouth with his hand.

" God dammit!" Margaret said frustrated. " How, just how?!"

" Magic." Darwin said with Proud smile." I remember you said something about two hundred credits, if a certain something happen."

" Fine."

Margaret reluctantly pulled out her phone form her back pocket and transferred the credits, giving Darwin a death stare the whole time.

" I am hopeing that you're done, because we both need to go." Darwin said.

" Yeah, Ambros right? You wait here, I will let Victoria know you are here." Margaret said.

Ambros nodded and sat down in one of the empty beds.

" You need a hand or ?"

" I can walk now, let's go."

I put the leather dairy in the pocket inside my coat, somehow I got the feeling I might lose it otherwise. We made our way to the 'Battle Closet', Darwin was unusually quite for some reason, the opposite was true for Margaret it was hard to make her stop.

" Soooooo, is it actually empty in there or what?" Margaret said tapping my head like a watermelon.

" What?" I said confused.

" You seriously don't remember?" Margaret said sighing. " The Queen said she tried to infect you the first time she saw you in the cave. Not only that, she had made it very clear that she had successfully introduced a live parasite into your nervous system when she had control over Eric, that begs the question, do you have a brain. "

" No clue to be honest, not the brain part." I fumbled. "I was under it's control for 12 hours, but when Zack made me fall a sleep by basically shooting we with a tranquilizer I somehow woke up not under its control."

" That makes no sense. I know the tranquilizer didn't cause you to get disinfected, I tested it."

" What I don't get is why that fact they pulled us out, we had that entire situation under control in less than an hour."

"You're lucky you aren't in some lab getting tested on why you somehow managed to brake free." Darwin scoffed. "As for why we were pulled, before humans that parasite only controlled the minor predators in the swamps and it wasn't just acting on the survival instincts the species possessed, when it found us it wasn't just intelligent it was also sentient, we weren't equipped to handle that and it was infecting us for months before we figured it out."

" You're right, it deliberately located and infected people that had access to security personnel who could alter the detection equipment and scanners, we wouldn't figure it out." Margaret said.

" Just let it go already. We are light-years away form the planet." I said.

" Look Kay." Margaret said sighing. " For You it's been a year because you were awake on the orbital starship with the other 'former' infected, but for most of us, it's barely been a few weeks for others days at max. So naturally we're all looking for answers."

" You can give any answers later, because Kay you need to get a hold of the situation before it gets worse." Darwin said punching in the code to open the meeting room.