MIND SHARDS (Revised 12/11/23)

The short range radio transceiver in Dahl's glasses crackled and she froze on the metal stair rail like a snake hanging from a vine. She listened intently, praying Moss was out there in dark somewhere. Static crackled again, but Dahl couldn't pull a voice out of the noise. No one's there, she thought. Just static discharge coming off the hull, or maybe it was just an artifact of her desperate need to hear another living voice.

The sound of Dahl inching along the handrail spread through the darkness and she imagined hungry things turned in her direction. Shambling footsteps reached her ears. They found me, she thought. But the footsteps faded as quickly as they came. Silence coiled around Dahl's heart, turning her veins to ice. Whatever was out there had stopped. The thought that some unknown creature was approaching pushed Dahl towards the next compartment. Without considering what lay before her or what she was leaving behind. She forgot about making noise. She wanted out of the compartment. And the faster the better.

Dahl's heart punched the inside of her chest. Something was wrong. Her air tank was empty.

She gasped for air, grabbed her 02 meter on her sidewalk and found herself hanging by one hand. The 02 generator had switched off. Dahl⁹ turned it on, but she was out of air. Her head swirled, sweat ran from her palms. She grabbed the hanging bar with her free hand and struggled to hold on. She had already fallen off once. If Dahl fell again, she would need time to rest and gather her failing strength.

Dahl waited for a set of grotesquely twisted claws to reach out of the darkness.and yank her down,as I tear her to pieces. But nothing cam. Maybe she was alone; maybe she wasn't. Structural instability, she reasoned. It's just the wreckage settling. There's nothing out there. It's all in my head. Darkness and exhaustion clouded her judgement. She prayed she was right, hoping Moss was out there searching for them. But the sound she was certain she heard had come from behind her. Whatever was back there wasn't Moss. He was pinned down. The sound came again. A shambling gate drawing closer.

Dahl slipped through the hatch directly above the dead bio-raptor that had blocked her way for precious hours. How long could Lockspur hold on before his injuries became fatal? She couldn't think like that. She had to push on. Dahl had waited for the beast to succumb to its injuries before daring to move on. All the while, it cries threatening to attract other, less helpless raptors. She thought of nothing but Lockspur laying pinned helplessly in the dark with only a few matches to keep him company. Why had she left him? He had no way of defending himself. He couldn't even move?

She pushed away the negative thoughts of what may have already happened to Lockspur. Shimmying down the twisted handrail to its lowest point, Dahl lowered her feet into the unknown, drew in a calming deep breath and wondered, how far is the drop? The floor was nowhere in sight. She closed her eyes, released her grip and fell into the empty green void.

The invisible ground rushed up and two things happened at once. The air exploded from Dahl's lungs and Lockspur stumbled further into the compartment behind her. They missed each other by a few shorr feet and a split second of bad luck.

Lockspur fell against the mound of debris Dahl used to hide from the bio-raptor. Sweat poured down his filthy forehead, burning his already bloodshot and swollen eyes. The sound of his labored breathing came like a panting dog. He desperately wanted a drink of cool, clean water. His burning mouth felt like sandpaper. And the dhard of steel sticking out of his guts was hot agony. Lockspur's throat was raw, and to he needed to urinate. No way, I'm keeping what little moisture I have left inside me, he thought. Exasperated and out of breath, he mustered all his remaining strength and called out, "Dahl!"

A hoarse voice vibrated through the darkness, and Dahl's headset crackled again. Only this time, she heard the voice not just as static in her headset, but from the compartment behind her. Lockspur's in there, she thought. I left him behind. She jumped up, lunging for the hanging handrail. It was no use. It was ten feet above her head. "God dammit!" she screamed.

She looked around, straining to see through the oppressive darkness, trying to ensure nothing was in the compartment with her. Buy no matter what she did, all her efforts went in vain. The darkness was too thick to penetrate.

Dahl knew calling out was a bad idea, but she had already made too much noise, what could a little more noise hurt. "Carlos, is that you?" she called out.

"I'm here."

"Shit. Shit shit." she roared.

Lockspur wanted to call out for her to be quiet, but he didn't have the strength. 

Dahl had to get back to Lockspur. She had to help him get out alive. She peered up at the only piece of remaining handrail in shock. The lower half of the staircase and its handrail had torn off in the collapse. The remainder of the stair case hung, suspended in the darkness, ten feet above her head. She couldn't jump to reach it. There was no way back. Carlos was on his own.

The new compartment was bigger. Dahl looked around the giant space, searching for any large objects to stack on top of one another. There was nothing; the room was an empty storage compartment. 

"Fuck." Dahl grumbled in an angry tone as her transceiver crackled again. But this time, she could make out a familiar voice. "Carlos, how did you get here?" she asked, half in disbelief and half relieved to hear his very much alive voice. Dahl had to fight back tears of relief and guilt.

"Dahl." Lockspur said, garbled voice sounding in her ears. "I dug my arm out and I'm coming to you."

"How are you here,"

"I was laying on your glasses." he replied. "They don't work for shit, but I can see well enough to stumble into a raptor. Fell on my ass a few times and bounced off everything between here and there. But I made it."

"Are you ok?"

"I'm a mess." Lockspur said, leaning against a filing cabinet for support. He was exhausted and freezing cold.

As Dahl frantically tried to get back to Lockspur, he explained how he found her glasses and dug himself out. She missed most of the tale and failed to get to him.

"Just wait there. I'll be over in a minute."

"There's no way you're going to climb between compartments without my help." she said, still jumping up, trying to grab the handrail. "God dammit, something could have killed you."

"Doubtful." he said. "Everything behind us is either dead or dying. Besides, I needed to get moving. If I dont get to the auto-doc soon, im never getting out of here." he said, laboring to catch his breath.

"Don't say that."

The throbbing pain in his guts had come back and it sapped his strength. "I thought I heard screaming." he added, struggling to pull his heavy armor over his useless arm. The Herculean effort took everything he had left. He barely got it off before losing the rest of his strength and collapsing into an awkward squat. "It sounded..." his voice trailed off as if he didn't want to finish.

"Like what?." Dahl asked.

"Familiar." he answered. "You know the story. The one nobody wanted to believe. I left some stuff out. Stuff I knew was… was... beyond belief."

"Like what?" Dahl asked. What she had heard of that day sounded preposterous. How could anything be more rediculous?

"She didn't just step out of the darkness." he answered, pulling his limp forearm up and propping it high on his chest. "There was something in the darkness before she came out. I'm certain it was a xenomorph."

"No one has seen a xenomorph in decades." Dahl said.

"Maybe not. But it was big and black and definitely not human."

Dahl said nothing. It was obvious he believed the story, and nothing that she said would change his mind. Either way, she couldn't worry about that right now, because there was something unnatural out there in the darkness and if it was a xenomorph, it would be a bad idea to let their guard down, or, give their positions away.

"Dahl." Lockspur said, causing her to jump out of her thoughts.

She heard the weariness in his voice and knew his condition had worsened. She searched the giant room, moving too fast and making too much noise. But she didn't care. If I only waited another minute, she thought. With every crashing step, she gave away her position, and Lockspur heard her efforts as if she were in the same room.

"Calm down," he blared, working his way around the pile until a large grayish mass came into view. He froze, studying the slick, leathery hide that covered the mound. And now there's a raptor, he thought. "Dahl, there's a raptor in here." he whispered into the darkness. "It's under the stairwell."

"It's dead." she replied, wishing she had warned him about the carcass before he stumbled across it in the dark.

"Are you certain?" he asked, staring at it from behind. Even in the grainy green light, he thought he could see the creature's upper body expanding and contracting as if it were alive. "Because I could swear it's still breathing."

"It's just the screwed up glasses playing tricks on you. It's dead. I had to step on it to get in here."

The mound twitched. It's just muscle tremors, he thought. It's dead; Dahl said it's dead. A second later, a colossal head turned to look at him. The creature's dripping snout was inches away from the end of Lockspur's nose. Its hot breath stank of blood and entrails and Lockspur fought back the overwhelming urge to wretch. The confused creature couldn't locate him. He was too close. But it could still smell him. It knew something was close.

A second raptor sat atop the fresh, half-eaten carcass. It was dining on the warm remains of its now dead brethren and Carlos- wearing failing glasses - had just stumbled right up to it. If he moved 3 inches in any direction, the raptor would spot him. The pain in his arm and stomach were bright; his reactions were slow and his legs were about to buckle.

Something reached out from behind, grabbed the back of his shirt, and hoisted him upward with ease. A 230 pound man hung in mid-air, hanging a half an inch above the floor like a rag doll left on a hook. A large object whizzed by his ear and bounced off the far wall. The raptor turned to the sound and, in an instant, whatever had seized Lockspur from behind, jerked him out of the creature's line of sight. The giant raptor turned back to nothing. Its fresh prey vanished. It returned to its meal.

"Carlos, I'm coming back to get you." Dahl whispered, hearing something heavy crash against the wall between them. She knew Lockspur hadn't thrown it. He was too weak. She hoped it was not his lifeless corpse hitting the wall.

"No." he stammered, as a strange calm seemed to steal the previous fear in his wavering voice. "I'm fine for now. Go on ahead. Scout out the next compartments. Then, come back and get me when you find an exit."

"Are you sure?" Dahl asked, preparing to disregard his request and go get Lockspur, no matter what the consequences may be.

"Yes. Go." he said. "I'll be fine."

He dangled helplessly before the giant beast that had pulled him to safety, peering into its brilliant chrome eyes without a care in the world. "I hope you're having a good time?" he said to the creature. "Because so far, this mission has sucked." Lockspur adjusted his shirt as the creature set him back on his feet. "Care to explain what the fuck you're doing here?"

"You're not afraid of me." The creature said with a decidedly Aussie accent. It studied him for a moment and then sat him down. "And just who are you, little man?"

"Christ, Lilith." Lockspur said, grimacing and waving away her bad breath. "What have you been eating?" 

The creature receded into the shadows and a moment later, a tall, pale-skinned brunette stepped out in its place. Lilith Hemmingford's skin was so white Lockspur's glasses blurred out, causing him to rip them off and rub his eyes in pain. "Chinga Tu madre. Dial it back a few notches before everything in here spots you."

Lilith smiled politely and nodded. The glare receded and the crackling green of his night vision glasses returned. He put them on again. "Even the things without eyes?" Lilith asked, smiling ever so politely.

"Especially the things without eyes," he replied, wondering why Lilith Hemmingford behaving oddly. "What's your deal, Lilith? Is this shit funny to you."

Lilith studied him for a moment and said, "I take it from your attempts at familial banter, you think we know each other?"

"Are you shitting me, right now.?" Lockspur blared, and then coughed up a gob of clotted blood. "Wait. Its you. You're the contact. I came to meet." He added, mind connecting to dots. "You fucking bitch. You sent me here knowing this was going to happen to me. And you didnt warn me." Lockspur laughed, coughed up another handful of blood and grabbed the wavering pipe sticking out of his abdomen. "How about I yank this out stuff right up your ass?"

"You came to meet me." Lilith asked, interrupting him. "Who sent you, little man?"

"For the record.. This kind of shit wouldn't keep happening if you'd just stop messing with time."

"I do not mess with time."

"Oh really, Then explain why you sent me here."

"I would imagine for something more than just witty banter about what you'd like to do to my ass."

"You know, I always hoped I'd get the chance to tell you, you're a pain in the ass." he said, walking over to the wall, placing his back against it, and sliding into a sitting position as he steadied the pipe protruding from his guts. "I guess this is my chance." He held out his forearm and showed her an oozing, pusy boil. "I suppose this is for you."

"Charming, I sent myself a STD." Lilith said, watching him remove a jagged chunk of debris from his cargo pocket.

Lockspur frowned up at Lilith and said, "Get fucking real, bruja. Ive been in stasis for months." He placed the tip of the debris on the meaty part of his forearm at the edge of the red welt and pushed the tip in deep. A 1 inch cut burst apart and oozing pus trickled down his forearm. He threw the hunk of jagged steel away and jammed his thumb into the open wound. He winced as the skin parted. He dug around, trying to find what lay concealed inside. Two shiney pea sized chunks of crystal popped out of the opening. He unsiccessfully tried cleaning them off on his dirty, sweat covered shirt. Then thrust them at Lilith. "Here, take it."

"Its broken," Lilith said, inspecting the shimmering objects. The information on this crystal is corrupt. There could be significant loss of data.

Sorry" Lockspur replied, rolling his eyes. "Someone thought it might be a good idea to throw a freighter on it."

"In the future I hope you're not filled with so many expenses."

"And I hope in the future, when think about sending me here, you go fuck yourself."

"You seem to fixated on me and sex. Are we together in the future?"

He scowled at her and saidJust eat it."Just eat it So you can pay up. You owe me."

Lilith sneered at the bloody, pus covered shards and said, "What's on it?"

"How the fuck should I know." Lockspur replied, gesturing for her to put the capsule in her mouth. "You loaded the damn thing."

Lilith rolled her eyes and glared at him.

"All I know is that I supposed to give this to whoever I met." Lockspur explained, holding out the broken shard. "So… Judging from your clueless reaction, I assume your alter ego thought you'd need the memories inside this."

"I gave this to you." Lilith said, staring at the tiny objects in his fingers. She took it and studied it closely.

Here and I thought you were an intelligent woman"

"You are trying my patience, little man."

"Bruja, if I weren't 5 minutes from the grave, the only tying going on here would be me, trying to put my foot up your ass." Lockspur replied, head lolling against the wall as he almost passed out. A spreading puddle of blood slowly formed beneath him. As he teetered on the edge of life, Lilith lifted his chin."

"What is it?" she asked again.

"Memory shard." Lockspur explained, pointing for her to hold it up and look more closely. She studied it and to her amazement, saw hazy, moving images floating in the tiny crystal. "If you ingest it, you should gain whatever memories are inside."

"The matrix inside is broken," Lilith said, swallowing the capsule without hesitation. Except for a few seconds of foggy staring, Lilith showed no I'll effect. She held out her hand and said, "I'm glad to see you made it, Carlos." He grabbed her hand and she lifted him off the floor with a surprising gentleness.

"This is your idea of making it? My guts are being held in by a pipe. My arm is crushed and even if I can get to the auto-doc before my time runs out. It still cant cure terminak cancer." he said, holding her arm to keep himself upright. He pulled his shirt up and revealed a 3/4-inch pipe protruding from his abdomen. A piece of bloody intestine protruded from the cut beside it. "I believe you said you could help."

"She," Lilith clarified. "She said, I could help. But she never said if I would help."

"I see you as big of a pain in the ass as she is." Lockspur replied. "So, are you going to help or not?"

"I shall. But be forewarned, you wont like what I do, and there will be consequences."

"Aren't there always."

"As you wish." Lilith said, gesturing for Lockspur to lay doen. "You will need to lay down."

He groaned and a glut of blood exploded out of his mouth. And to his horror, Lilith bared a mouthful of pure white teeth that turned into triangular barbs. She sank the shark-like teeth deep into the fleshy meat of her own forearm and tore a chunk out. Blood burst from the wound, pouring onto Lockspur's injury. He screamed in pain as if she had poured liquid metal into his leaking guts. He puked a geyser of steaming blood into the air. Only this time, the blood splattered the floor and then ran back to him in red streams that faded through his ash colored skin. She knelt down beside him, smiled at him and without warning, tore the pipe from his quivering belly.

Lockspur screamed in agony, clutched the bloody hole and spewed a half dozen indiscernible spanish expletives. He looked up at Lilith with tears streaming down his face and said, "Thanks, that's loads better."

"Funny. You don't look better, Carlos." she said, staring at his injuries with a scowl. She knew giving him more of her blood was a bad idea, but a contract had been made and the bill had come due. So she reopened her forearm and poured more blood on his stomach.

Lockspur shuddered and moaned. "You could have told me someone was going to drop a freighter on my ass."

"Would have still come." she asked.

He scowled.

"This is bigger than either of us. To big to leave to chance. I could not risk you would not come."

Why you bribed me with bullshit claims of curing my ills."

"Do you think so little of me that you believe I would intentionally deceive you?"

"Why are you here?" he asked, placing his forearm back in the makeshift sling and cinching it tight. "Why send us here if you were coming yourself?"

"I did not come here from Sol Lucia. I came here from my home. Long before your ancestors crawled out of the sea." she answered, staring up through the open hatch above them with a scowl.

"You are the Dark Athena."

"I am not..." Lilith said, pausing to collect her thoughts. "And no matter how many memory shards I ingest, I will never become her. The Dark Athena is not yet born, but her coming is very soon. I believe your Lilith- the Lilith from your time- thought embuing me with her memories would draw me to her cause. Lilith- your Lilith- wants me to do something almost unimaginable..." Lilith paused. "Something that will forever alter every life in this galaxy. From the very first, to the very last. And she left me no choice. What you gave me is dangerous in ways she never considered. And in completing your mission, you've irreparably altered both hers and my time streams forever. And thanks to her meddling, neither she nor I will ever reach our intended futures. She broke our path. We are untethered from space time. We no longer have a beginning or an end. Thanks to the efforts of the two you we now live in a paradox that threatens all of space and time. You have no idea what you have done. What you have done to me... to us all."

"What was in that shard?" Lockspur said, looking up at her. "You're not making any sense."

"I underestimated her willingness to change everything. But like falling dominoes, she ran headlong into certain disaster. What happened before must not be allowed to happen again."

Lockspur did not understand. "What happened? What are you talking about?"

"No one should be allowed to play God." Lilith said, turning back to Lockspur. "My future self sent you here because the Lord Marshal targeted someone the Riddick will care for in the future. Ironically, all she had to do to prevent all of this was to not send any if you."

"You're admitting you made a mistake?"

"I made no such mistake. The mistake was hers, not mine."

"Well," Lockspur said and laughed. "That settles it. You are Lilith Hemmingford."

"I had not expected the lengths to which she would go to protect the Riddick. Zhylaw has sent many of his agents here to abduct her. And in doing so, he too, threatens the very existence of time. To forces of nature playing at being God's."

The blood dripping from Lockspur's arm slowed, stopped, and then reversed its flow. He watched the mascerated boil heal with a glazed over interest. Lockspur held up his hand and asked, "How many fingers do you see?"

"Five," she answered, gently taking hold of his shaking hand and placing it on his chest.

"Me ,too," he said, closing his eyes. "Me, too."

The gaping hole torn out of Lilith's fore arm had vanished without a trace. She looked down, saw the bit of intestine sticking out of Lockspur's belly disappear back inside his stomach, and said, "Your injuries will take a few days to completely heal, Carlos. I have fullfilled the bargain you and your employer struck on my behalf. I suggest you do not get hurt again. I owe you no further payment."

"So kind," he said, holding his stomach in pain.

"Was it kind when the two of you conspired to this to me? Did I ask you to come here? Let us not forget. I have her memories. And is more than apparent, you would have done anything to anyone to end your suffering. So do not act as though I have wronged you." She stood up, turned to walk away and then turned back. "You should rest here for the next few hours. My blood will heal you quickly. Although, I strongly suggest you refrain from sustaining any further injuries. There is only so much damage my blood can repair at one time. And do not fear. When my little friends are done with you, they will leave you in peace. Unless your intents are nefarious, then they will leave you in pieces."

Lockspur pushed himself up on his elbows. Most of his pain in his arm had faded to a dull roar. But his belly still felt like someone had made him swallow razorblades and then knotted his inards. He smiled weakly, tried rather unsuccessfully to set up and then lay back down. "I'll be down here, taking a nap and waiting to hear what happens next."

"What happens next is you stay there until the pain passes." she said, turning her head slightly as if listening to something far off in the darkness. "Do not get up or move until someone comes for you."

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Much." she replied with a smile. "But that's your fault. You turned me into Lilith Hemmingford."

"And what about our slimy friend in the other room?"

"Her," Lilith said. "All the raptors here are female." He just stared at her, close to collapse. "Don't worry about the creature, it will do as I tell it."

"Does it know that?"

"Zhylaw injured it when he sent his horde back in time. But I can heal it and its brethren. And when I do, they will follow me." she said, turning to leave him in the dark.

"But how do you know that?"

"Because I know her as well as I know myself."

"Hey," he said, before she could run off. "You don't have any water, do you?"

"I do. But sadly, you have an intestinal injury and drinking water could kill you." she said, patting him on the shoulder. "You don't want sepsis, do you?"

"Lilith," he blurted, grabbing her hand to prevent her from leaving. "Be careful. You're not alone." His voice faded as he fell asleep. "I heard…"

"I know," she said, placing his hand on his chest again "I heard it too."

A scream erupted from somewhere deep in the ship. Dahl cried out in horror and Lilith leapt upward, transforming into the beast as she grabbed the steel railing and bounded through the hatch into the pitch black beyond.

Lockspur jerked to life, looking after her as his glazed eyes drooped. "What's Sepsis?" He asked, head falling back softly as injury and weakness took him down.

He lay alone in the black, breathing shallow but steady as the things Lilith put inside him repaired his injuries and erased all memory of their meeting. Mercifully, the pain was gone.