Unwavering Will

It did not take long for Alexis to get a hold of herself. After five minutes passed, she pushed herself from Matt's embrace. With a deep breath and slow exhale, she became composed again. She decided to read all of the documents as well to really understand the situation. He let her start first while he watched over her and investigated the room some more.

Matt discovered that the door was unable to be opened. The spaces around the door were filled in with something. He wondered if it was related to the shoebox. He checked the windows and discovered the same thing. It seemed that this room was isolated from the rest of the simulation. He heaved a sigh of relief. At least the AI didn't overhear anything.

"Matt, something doesn't make sense in these documents. The parasite only reacted to various stimuli. In animal tests, it would only protect and enhance the host. There were also no known signs of it reproducing. This particular sample was used in various experiments over the years and it never showed any reactions other than autonomous function."

Matt stared at her for a while and didn't answer. Alexis looked up and pushes back the extensions that fell in front of her face. Seeing the dumbfounded look from Matt made her frown.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You're handling this a lot better than I expected."

"Sigh… I can't say I'm not confused and scared. But don't forget that I am not a weak person. You can't even imagine the things I have had to capture or kill on this ship."

"Speaking of which, the other day, I overheard Dr. Lisinger mention something about searching for a patient zero. Do you have any idea about who that could be?"

"There are so many strange creatures in the lower decks it could be anything or anyone. We just clean up their mess."

Matt sat next to Alexis and she laid her head on his shoulder. She had decided not to hide the secrets of the ship from him. The main reason was because she felt like he could handle it without panicking. Most of the crewmen were unaware that alien life existed beyond some microorganisms. Seeing how forthcoming she was being, Matt started to explain a few things.

"Since I became aware of the parasite, I acquired… powers." Alexis lifted her head and looked into Matt's eyes.

"The dreams?"

"That's right. I have been giving you good dreams ever since I got that ability. Also, I had the ability to send my thoughts to another person."

"Ah, my skirmish. That's why it felt like you were right there with me." Alexis said with a face of realization. Matt nodded and continued.

"That's right. I saw you were struggling and wanted to help you. I was then able to send a few thoughts into your head."

Alexis looked down and Matt interpreted as shame or disappointment that she didn't win on her own skill. But contrary to his expectation, she looked back up with a beaming smile. She seemed to come up with something but didn't share it with him. Matt continued to explain some of his other powers. He switched their conversation over to telepathy for a short duration to show her his ability. He explained how his body held the ability to become very healthy and fit, the parasite only unlocked it for him.

Hypnosis was a difficult and touchy subject to explain. He told her that he had the ability to influence people's thoughts and decisions with hypnosis but it wouldn't control their mind. Alexis wondered if she had been hypnotized by him before and he was honest about it. However, he assured her that it was only during the time that he was extremely paranoid. Once he began to trust and love her, he never used it on her again.

"Well, I did use it on you earlier to help you calm down but it didn't work. I'm kind of glad it didn't too. That means you are sitting here calmly with me without my influence."

Alexis sighed at the thought of having been manipulated before. She didn't like it. No one would like being told they were a victim of any kind of mind control. However, as an experienced officer, she understood where he was coming from and probably would have done the same thing. The next thing Matt told her about was the parasites reproduction.

"Essentially, I could implant this into someone else's body and they would become like me."

"You've not done that to anyone, have you!?"

"No, I didn't plan on ever doing it. Well, that's not necessarily true…" Matt tapered off and looked away. Alexis already figured it out based on his expressions.

"So, you were going to do it to me. If you did, then what would happen to me? To our baby?"

"It would most likely improve your health and you may even get some similar abilities to me. I don't really know since I've never done it before. I really wanted to have you by my side no matter what, otherwise I never would have even thought about it. This was before I realized I loved you and shouldn't force you down a path like this."

The two of them stayed quiet for a while so Matt decided to start reading the documents himself. He discovered that the documents were actually three sets of documents. The first one was his medical chart. When he was three, he had an accident and fell. This caused his head to be severely injured with major bleeding into the brain. This would normally be a mortal wound but his parents wouldn't give up easily.

The medical chart references one of the other papers which documented the ten-year long study of the specimen. The origins of the parasite were from an ancient derelict discovered in space. At first, the Federation thought it was just an asteroid, but discovered it to be a space ship made with what seemed to be living cells stronger than any metal. This 'space metal' would soon become the basis to the most destructive suits ever created.

The ship contained two unidentifiable bodies of alien creatures. One seemed to be the pilot while the other was dead in their quarters. The creatures were described as humanoid in shape. The Federation began to study and repurpose this derelict and even discovered a method to stimulate reproduction in the space metal. However, that was only a reference in this document since the main subject of this document was the tests on various animals using this leech-like creature.

Matt was astounded at the different things that the Federation allowed. Eventually, they discovered that the parasite was symbiotic. It would enhance and protect the host from many injuries, even brain damage. The paper was written in a way to turn this creature into medicine by discovering the mechanism of its protective properties.

However, this is where the final document led. It was an observation log of Matthew as a child after receiving the implantation. In order to include a failsafe, the parasite was equipped with a kill switch. This kill switch could only be activated with both his parent's biometric imprints. The observation and logs they completed showed normal function without any abnormal tendencies. Just as they were going to return to their normal research, the logs stopped.

Matt reviewed all of the documents once more and looked carefully at each photograph. It had been over an hour since they first entered the simulation and the alarm outside signaled their two-hour use time was approaching. Matt started to clean everything up and placed all of the documents in the box. Once the lid was closed with everything inside, the data stream seemed to change again and the simulation returned to normal. He opened it out of curiosity and the documents were fragmented images again.

Alexis had been sitting quietly on the bed the whole time lost in thought. Matt let her be for as long as possible, but the last fifteen minutes were coming up and he didn't want to alarm anyone for no reason. He went over to shake her out of her stupor, but she suddenly looked up at him with conviction in her eyes. She stood up and stepped forward toward Matt holding her stomach.

"I want to help you from now on. You are going to tell me everything that happens and everything you're thinking." Alexis tapped her head as if suggesting she meant by using telepathy. Matt opened a channel with her at her gesture.

{There can't be any more secrets, okay? We will get through this together and live out our lives with our child safely and comfortably. Your parents sacrificed their lives because of this thing, and I don't want to put our child through the same thing. We will deal with this efficiently and precisely.} Alexis transmitted.

{One more thing. I want you to implant me with the parasite.}