Jack strolled the hallway, lights out and darker than usual, not a soul awake. Jack was just barely able to stagger to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and grabbed a beer, shutting the door before noticing Gizzy’s mutated heart on a plate, giving one slow beat as the door closed. He sat down in the blackness and locked eyes with a pair of them glowing in the dark, a dull crimson red. She leaned forward into the thin ray of light from down the hall, Illuminating Brandy’s face staring with an almost smirk.
“Sneaking up on people like that is dangerous, especially alcoholic killers half asleep thinking they’re alone.”
“I keep forgetting how sexy you look in the dark, Jack.” She said in a far too familiar manner, eyes glowing brighter red.
“Dee?” he asked.
“Very funny.” She smiled. “You know instead of drinking you could be doing something else, or someone else.” She said, grabbing his beer and taking a swig. “What ever happened to your Old Fashioned on stones?” she asked.
“Dee if this is some kind of role play I’m oddly into it, but you can’t just hack a living robot for that.”
“Never were the kinda guy for a 3 way were you Jack. Always a one woman man.”
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Oh come on, Jack. You can figure it out. I know you’re tired and drunk, but you know who I am.”
“Dee, if that’s you and some roleplay program, you need to tell me beforehand or some kind of code word, and you’re Bust brandy, then you’re right, I’m a one woman man, and I’m not interested. So who are you?”
“I’m your wife, Jack.”
“Funny, you look and sound like the cook. You’d never hack a sentient being and steal her body.”
“Oh, the irony is delicious; you really are amusing, even in your fogged state. It’s what we do.” She said climbing the table and kissing him as he pulled away but not fast enough. He felt drawn to her, not enough to go through with it but enough to slow down his resistance. He stood up and stepped back as her eyes burned in the dark and her purple hair looked almost red in the glow of her pupils.
“You’re not her.” He said.
“I’m her… and more. Everything you wanted and loved, and so much additional fun, how could you resist.” She said grabbing him by the throat, and yanking his shirt till he fell on top of her. She grabbed his hair tightly and his wrist with her other hand, bringing it to her throat. “Your turn.” She snarled, flashing a pair of fangs. He hopped back and was pulled into her grip, her teeth biting his neck and holding him in place, far too strong to escape. Part of him didn’t want to, and he didn’t know why.
“SOMEONE HELP!” he yelled as she rolled on top and chuckled.
“Now who’s playing, Jack? You used to love this game.” She growled. He grabbed her neck, both hands, barely holding her beyond biting distance.
“Jack, stop.” Said a voice from further back in the dark. He jerked upward and opened his eyes, Dee straddling him and holding his hands with hers, dangerously close to her neck. “I’m sorry, I… shouldn’t have done that.” She apologized.
“Dee what the fuck is going on?” he asked, plopping the back of his head back down on the pillow and relaxing.
“I’m sorry, It was stupid. I just thought it would be fun.”
“I don’t understand, what did you do? Did you possess the other robot?”
“What?! What the ballsack are you talking about? Oh my god this is some Dee-ass shit right here. This is why people hate her. Of course waking your man up with sex is a bad idea, he’s a damn trained killer with a tendency to have nightmares. What the hell was I thinking?” she groaned, rolling off plopping her face into her hands in embarrassment. “I suck at this!” she said in a muffled tone.
“Dee, just relax, talk, explain. What just happened?” he asked.
“You’ve been having nightmares a lot lately, waking up and going to the kitchen to drink and then come back. It’s not healthy. I thought you were having another one but you… clearly were having some kind of sex dream…” she said gesturing at his crotch.
“Well, apparently you can have both sex dreams and nightmares at once.” He sighed.
“Well, I. Was. Not. Aware. I’m not human, I don’t dream. I just charge and shut down. I noticed your… weapon, ready to go, assumed you were having a GOOD dream for once and I thought it would be sexy to kinda get on top and let you do your thing. And then you tried to choke me and yelled WHO ARE YOU!? Which is exactly what I should have expected waking up an assassin by hopping on his dick during a nightmare. Stupid fucking Dee move."
“These dreams are getting worse. I’m so sorry I tried to choke you.”
“No it’s fine, I don’t even have lungs, you can choke me all you want, and you clearly didn’t know it was me anyway.”
“It’s always the same start. I got to the kitchen, and there’s a pair of red eyes in the dark. Something familiar that I can’t quite see. And then it steps into the light and it’s someone different each time. It was Nicole the first time, telling me some story I can’t remember, then it was you, but you were mad at me for something, then it was Gizzy and she pulled a gun and shot me in the face, This time it was the new robot, Brandy. But it’s never the people themselves, just their form and body… same red eyes.”
“Man you just dreamfuckin all the ladies on this ship… you ever hook up with Vinn?”
“No, and this is the first time the dream got sexual, so I assume that part was your doing."
“Oh honey, you were… started before I joined in. If this is the first one that got sexual, maybe you just have a thing for Brandy.”
“I don’t. That’s the odd thing. Except in the dream she was… someone else.”
“Hey, I get it, you got a thing for robot girls, she’s kinda cute. Jack I can doll up other bodies and mix things up, you can have some verity. I’m versatile. Any drone we want, I can just switch to that and you can have a skinny brunette one night and a thick redhead the next. It’s still me, it’s not cheating. I’m not upset that you have different types. It’s not like you’re actually doing brandy. Fantasy is fantasy, I’ll be brandy for a night, we can modify something to look like her. What part does it for you? The hair, the body style, the…exposed electronics, not judging here.”
“I don’t… I don’t want Brandy. It was just a weird dream, and honestly a bit too disturbing to wanna recreate.”
“Well, we gotta do something about the sleepwalking.”
"‘Sleepwalking? Son of a bitch. I haven’t done that since before I left Delmar. I thought that was a side effect of the medication I was on.”
“Maybe the drinking is the problem. We do have a licensed therapist on the ship, who’s not just an expert on you, but she’s an expert on drinking.”
...
Gizzy stared at Jack, hands folded as she sat on the padded bench in the mess hall, fully lit this time and next to Dee.
“Sleepwalking again.” Gizzy sighed. “Could be stress related, gods only know you’ve had a lifetime's worth of stress in a year or two, and the drinking can cause humans to have side effects but it’s more likely psychological trauma.” She said as Dee hugged him from the side. “It seems obvious to me. Sexy figure in the dark, red eyes and then she murders you. You’re having dreams about Vicki.”
“I don’t even remember her.”
“Well, not consciously, but clearly some bits have stayed behind through the ill-advised memory wipe, like the red eyes and the fact that you had a terrifying horny bitch mauling you for vampire sex. Why she takes the crews forms is anyone’s guess, kinda glad you didn’t have the sex part in the one with me in it, but it’s clearly Vicki in your subconscious memory bleeding through.” She said, looking annoyed as the old man walked by and went for the fridge. “How in the hell, did you get out of your cell?”
“Everyone’s got their secrets, princess. I got lots of them.”
“We’re gonna have to truth serum the shit out of you on a regular basis, Vinn, we need security in the Mess Hall. Father time is loose and needs dragging back and I’m busy.”
“Oh hell, I’ll go back myself in a minute; I just wanted a drink and some food. That protein shit you gave me is like drinking glue, except more like glue than glue is.”
“Please… please give me a reason for Nicole to let me torture you. Do something really stupid, please.” She squinted.
“I just don’t understand the meaning of the dreams.” Jack sighed as the old man piled up a plate. “If it’s not the kitchen one about Vicki it’s the one about the flesh planet.” He said as the sound of dishes clanking jarred Dee slightly, looking back at the old man, who was staring at them. “Skinless people, a whole planet of sand and death.”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“Jack, you’ve seen Dee without skin, you’ve seen the abomination flesh god in the basement, and Vicki was basically the harbinger of death, you’ve seen a lot of weird shit and death associated with her. Your brain is just taking fragments of memory and events and trying to piece them together and filling in the gaps with nonsense.”
“What about the flesh planet?” The old man said, putting his food down and joining the others.
“Do you mind, dickhead?” Dee scoffed.
“You said a planet of sand and skinless people… what did they look like?” he asked as if suddenly interested, and the depth of his breathing implied a degree of alarm in his interest.
“Just dozens of people, hundreds of them, living their lives as normal, but missing their skin and some missing limbs, street vendors, people walking around working, as if it was normal.” Jack said.
“Normality is relevant, Jack.” Gizzy said. “You’re so used to death and loss and flesh that your mind is probably creating a fictional world where it’s normal to be a walking corpse, just living their life.”
“You need to pipe down, missy and let the men talk. A desert planet?” the old man asked.
“That’s it, I’m beating his ass. Nicole can confine me to quarters or something unless you two wanna lie and say he swung first, I don’t care.”
“Damnit, listen for a moment, it’s not a dream, I’ve seen it too.” He barked as she paused, “I’ve been there.” He added. “Sandstone houses dug into the hills and streets carved from the offwhite stone, hundreds of people, not a lick of skin on them, just toiling away with a smile and washing clothes, taking baths in the open?” he asked.
“Exactly.” Jack said looking horrified.
“Jack, those are visions, not dreams. You’ve been fuckin around with my gun haven’t you?” he asked.
“I took it apart, scanned it, counted the ammo.”
“You go handling someone’s soul enough you start to see shit they tried to forget. Wear gloves when you touch those bullets next time, or just don’t fuck with my guns at all. What else did you see?”
“That’s it.”
“Well, I supposed there’s no point in getting stabbed by diel-dyke Barbie to interrogate it out of me, I may as well tell it. I see that look in your eye, but I guarantee I might enjoy it.”
“Just tell whatever it is.”
“The planet is called Malgera, or it used to be. I guess now it doesn’t matter. Long time ago there was a security breech on Amenthis, Someone smuggled out a ship and a lot of nasty things that were bottled up there were let out. And judging by the artifacts I saw in your lab while snoopin around, you met some of them already.”
“How did you get into the lab?” Gizzy barked.
“I’ll save that for later, we can get the truth serum and fuzzy handcuffs and you can get answers the fun way, but right now I got important shit to mention.”
“I’ll have Vinn do the interrogation.”
“Well shit, you’re just no fun at all. Anyway, we all know Amenthis is a prison planet but not many people know it has layers. The top side where Jack was born is the minimum security. The deeper you go, the worse things get.”
“I’m Osirian.” Gizzy said. “My people own the damn planet. I’m fully aware of the layering and how you are not supposed to know that.”
“How do you think I got out? I stowed away on the ship. That devil that put my soul into those bullets was one of the floor zero prisoners that snagged me as a pet. I dare say she’s not the worst thing that got out. One of them is Thyjus. You wanna talk about fleshgod abominations… he’s your expert. It was a nice place before he escaped. Simple people, no major wars, just a desert population of humanoids living a simple life, livin off the land and free. First place he went was Malgera. He likes hot and dry worlds. Shortly after he landed, the world, who’s only export was colored dyes for clothing, suddenly became a planet exporting meat. There’s no cattle on that world. The ship we landed with didn’t have any either. Rumor is that the people are the export.”
“He just kills everyone and sells them as meat?” Dee cringed.
“Oh that would be far less horrible. Now Gizzy here knows all about hive minds, don’t you? You Osirians are a hive species, telepathic, manufacturing bodies.”
“We’re not one large hive collective, we just developed technology for cloning, and we started running multiple surrogates at once. There’s no hosts or population to assimilate, we don’t want anyone else’s bodies, we grow our own Osirian biomech from our own… just call it DNA, and we run a few bodies at once. It’s not a hive species, it’s just a population of individuals, that may run 2-30 different lab grown bodies at a given time. What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that Thyjus doesn’t share that form of hive mind. He takes over like a virus, infects a planet, and before long they’re all just part of his consciousness. That’s why they locked him up. He assimilated a planet once, every sentient being turned into a mindless extension of himself, and then the meat began to sell.”
“Why would he kill and sell parts of himself?” Jack asked.
“He doesn’t kill them. Thyjus was known as the god of masochism. He enjoys it. filleting himself alive over and over, selling the meat was just for the money to sustain it. he’s his own cattle farm and he loves the feeling of the peeling. Somehow they regenerate, limbs and muscles grow back, all just part of one giant immune system, but he needs the sunlight on his bare tissue to survive, so they say. The skin doesn’t grown back. So that world you saw is one living being, skinned and baking in the desert sun, butchering itself as a byproduct of it’s own masochistic amusement… and for that sick bastard to do that, millions of innocent people had to die and become part of the hive.”
“I’m now glad I don’t have a stomach. I kinda wanna throw up.” Dee winced.
“So why doesn’t anyone just nuke the planet clean?” Gizzy asked.
“Oh they tried. He’s got defenses set up, satellites in orbit to take down ships. I guess they figured after a few tries and the ones that got through didn’t do shit anyway, they just gave up and quarantined the planet. Population is dead now, it’s just planet Thyjus, and the meat sells. I guess they figured why fight when he keeps to himself and provides food, and with nobody to save and that much power, better to just keep a distance."
“Don’t you have a gun that can kill anything? Why not just shoot him and end it?”
“This is the part where you need to listen real closely. You don’t get close to that planet unless you wanna be part of the herd. You don’t get to meet the lord of Massochism himself just by showing up with a gun and yelling: come out and play! And in case you plan to disregard that information and do something stupid, I remind you that those bullets are part of my damn soul. So I guess you win.”
“What do I win?” Gizzy asked.
“I’ll tell you how to make more bullets if you let me have mine back. Or are you suddenly the kinda bitch that steals souls from an old man in front of his grandkid?”
“Don’t try that shit. I’ll just truth serum your ass.”
“No need. Or go ahead and make an old man happy. I’m a bit of a masochist myself and I got a thing for aggressive android women. It gets lonely in space, you take what action you can get for the most part. You’ll just find out the same information slower. Why bother when you can have the secret for free and let an old man have his soul back? I may be a real bastard, but measured against the average evil of the universe, I’m a damn nice guy.”
“Nice bluff, you’d be great at poker.”
“Poker? Shit, I barely know her.” He snickered as Dee snorted a little.
“LOL” she muttered. “Oh come on that was kinda funny and you walked right into it.” she shrugged.
“Did you literally just say LOL?” Gizzy cringed as Nicole rushed into the mess hall looking excited.
“Guys we have a mission, the ship just locked a target.” She clapped.
“Let me guess…” Gizzy said. “Desert planet, artificial satellites, hot and dry, with one major shipping route?”
“How… she paused. “What is going on in the kitchen?” Nicole asked with a worried look.
“You like scary shit… you’re gonna love this mission.” Gizzy smiled. “So… how fast can you make bullets you dirty old fucker?”
“You wanna make a deal?” he asked.
“You can have your soul back IF you tell me how to make more of these, and don’t lie to me and say it can’t be done.”
“Oh it can be done. Why don’t ya clear your schedule for game night, come to my workshop, we got toys to play with.”