Remember Me?

Posted on 20 Sep 2015 @ 6:11am by First Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen & Nevedno Loz

2,698 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: ISS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD01; 0700 Hours

[ON]

"F*cking monster."

Of all the monsters aboard the ship, including himself, this was the monster that Nevedno despised the most, and though he had practically spat the statement with months of pent up fury behind it she still did not hear his words. He had watched Tuula's work over the months. Watching her torture and test so many subjects. There was a roiling madness behind his eyes as he awaited his opportunity for vengeance and though he could have attacked her at any time there was a method to his madness. He wanted to wait for the right time and deliver to her the right punishment.

And the right time was now. Fifty-three. He knew of her exploits and he knew of all the tests she had done. At The-Place-With-No-Name there had been fifty-three test subjects. Himself, his concocted offspring, and the various subjects that Those-Who-Changed-Me had used in an attempt to graft his unique organ onto other races had all added up to fifty-three. The suffering had ended there and so the suffering would end here, too. She was just like Those-Who-Changed-Him and so she would need to be punished accordingly. He had been driven mad and so he would drive her mad. But for now he watched his prey. Allowing her a few more moments of blissful ignorance.

As she looked through a microscope at one of her samples, Tuula knew she was on the verge of a breakthrough. And it was all thanks to the tissue samples from number thirty-seven. While test subjects had been harder to come by on the ISS Galileo, the Captain had been generous enough to allow her to experiment on a prisoner from time to time. And the results had been promising; using Akkadian tissue and a bit of genetic engineering, she had achieved some preliminary results.

Slowly and carefully, she stood up from her desk, utilizing her exoskeleton for support, and walked, painfully, towards the replicator. As she returned to her work with a cup of coffee in hand, she felt a shiver run down her spine. A strange, uneasy feeling came over her, though she quickly dismissed it as probably nothing. She had spent enough time surrounded by death and torture to be unfazed by these sort of feelings.

"Computer," Nevedno started. Lovely, lovely computer, he continued in thought. How lovely that you acknowledge me. A sort of smile started to form across his face. It's an awful shame I have to erase your memory daily. I would hate for them to stop me from my duties. But for now you will be most helpful. Nevedno twisted his head with a bit of a crack before continuing, "Computer, shut off all lighting for ten seconds and reboot all computers," he spoke aloud, though only the computer could hear his perpetually lonely voice. In the months he had been aboard the ISS Galileo Nevedno had slithered his way deep into the ship's computer. It now would do his every bidding.

As ordered the lights turned off, enveloping the room in darkness as all the computers rebooted. A second later and the glow of freshly awoken computers was all that there was for light. The toothy grin in Nevedno's mouth alone could almost light the room with the glimmer in his eyes. He was practically drooling with anticipation, so eager to show the doctor that you didn't need tools to torture or sever. Her mind would know soon enough.

"Computer, re-activate lighting," called out Tuula with a sigh. One of the most frustrating things about the ISS Galileo was the occasional brownouts which the overpowered tactical systems caused. And always at the worst times as well. After a few seconds, Tuula pressed her comm badge. "Sickbay to engineering--"

A few seconds later and the lights came back on, returning the room to normal, though Nevedno knew it was in fact far from normal. The only indication anything had happened was the newly restarted computers throughout the room.

"Never mind." Tuula sighed and leaned over the microscope again, relieved that the power outage didn't cause her to lose any precious research.

She was always looking in that microscope. Peering down to the smallest possible levels. Violating her subjects on a molecular level. Even after death she had tortured the very essence of her victims. He could almost sense their souls under that scope of hers. What if the souls could speak to her, he had questioned himself when most ingenious idea struck him. He walked over to one of Tuula's many racks of slides and samples, grabbing a random one from the shelving.

"Test Subject Fifteen. James Jones." He was a human. And a telepath. Another one of her vain attempts at finding some special circumstance that would allow herself freedom from her condition, she had thought his rarity would somehow give her the results she had wanted. Wrong. But now he would give exactly the results that Nevedno had wanted. He grabbed the finest tipped writing implement he could find and scrawled across the slide 'Remember Me?' and then jabbed it under the microscope, the other slide quickly knocked out onto the table.

Tuula sighed as her petri dish went out of focus. As she adjusted the magnification on her microscope, however, she saw black marks. Zooming out, she could see text. "Remember me?" she asked as she pulled away, looking at the label on the petri dish. "What the hell, how did this get here?"

Moments later, after he could see the look in Tuula's eyes change as she read the writing and the memory no doubt came back to her Nevedno turned his attention back to the computer. With words only shared between himself and the machine he spoke "Replay Log 'T fifteen dash three', one minute and twenty-two seconds to one minute and thirty seconds."

An incomprehensible screech of agony and some barbaric tool in operation plays on the speaker.

"Computer, pause playback!" shouted Tuula, immediately recognizing the sounds of her experiments. She let out a hint of a smile upon hearing the playback. The sounds of the laser scalpel melting flesh, the screams of the test subject... the memories of the feeling of power she had, able to inflict pain at will. It was an arousing feeling, but she had no time for pleasure at the moment. Her research came first.

Tuula tapped her comm badge. "Sickbay to Operations, is there some sort of computer glitch that I'm not aware of?"

"Not that I'm aware of, Liz," one of the Operations Officers replied back to the hail in a condescending tone. "Hold on. Let me do a reboot for you." A second later and the power was shut off once more, computers going dormant before awakening. "Call me back in a minute and let me know if that helps. Ops out."

Damn, Nevendo thought to himself. All these thoughts of severing and he had forgotten the first and most important part. Severing Tuula from the outside world. "Computer, disable all communications to and from the room and lock the door, code 'Victor Tango Three Seven'." Trapped, just like her experiments, he thought with a grin. Let's see if she has the mental fortitude to handle what her subjects couldn't.

Tuula looked around the room. Something didn't feel quite right; she felt as though she were being watched. But there was no one there. Scanning the room, she reached down towards a small bulge on her hip, making sure her hand phaser was there. But there was no one there. "Hmmmm," she muttered before getting back to work.

Oh! A phaser! How much Nevedno had slipped in his eagerness to rile up the monster. No matter, though. It wouldn't help her. He decided to let Tuula keep her sidearm. As secure as she must have felt with it it would do her no good.

He grabbed two sharp ice picks that where laying on a table, shuddering at the thought of what they could have been used for. He relished in the brief creeping sensation. How normal this monster seemed to make him feel. He was almost afraid of Tuula, but he knew why. It was because she was exactly like Those-Who-Changed-Me. The fear changed to anger as he walked over towards Tuula who had sat herself back down at her station.

Right behind her now Nevedno leaned in close. He took a moment to examine her down to her pores, smelling the scent of her body. There was no fear. No sweat or any indication of tension. Heartless. He then ran his left hand slowly down her left arm, stopping at the wrist where he grasped ahold of it firmly, doing his best to keep it from moving. He quickly, with great pressure, scrawled 'remember me?' on the lower part of her palm with the writing implement and then dropped it. Then he quickly retrieved the picks between his right hand fingers and plunged them into the spots where the Akkadian had bit her, pulling back immediately after as though it where a bite. He then leaped back to ensure no errant swings could hit him.

"Agh!" exclaimed Tuula as she felt the picks in her arm. But looking around, she couldn't see what caused her injury. "What the hell!" she exclaimed as she stood up, pain shooting down her spine and into her legs as the blood ran down her arm.

She didn't know what was happening, but as she saw the text scrawled on her hand, she knew that there was someone in here with her. Perhaps someone from her past... though she had thought that all her loose ends had been taken care of with her laser scalpel.

Retreating, with a towel in hand to clean up the blood, she tapped he comm badge. "Sickbay to security!" she exclaimed.

Nothing.

"Damn," she muttered as she headed for the door.

Not today Nevedno thought to himself. The door was locked but he was growing tired of the games. He was ready to go in for the kill. Figuratively... probably. He'd just have to see where things took him. He walked up behind Tuula and hastily yanked at anything that looked like a connection to the exoskeleton she donned. Time for some paralysis.

After disconnecting as much as he could he then wrapped his arms around her as tight as she could, bringing her to the ground and pinning her arms to her sides. "Computer, play audio file November Lima Thirty-seven." The customized file Nevedno had made immediately started playing. Voices of all her subjects as either they or her stated their name and subject number for her logs. He grabbed hold of one of the picks and with each name he put a one inch long deep gash in her forearm.

"Subject one. Janey Jones," a blubbering human spoke. Gouge

"Subject two. T'Naran," A male Vulcan spoke calmly. Tear

Tuula was helpless as she thrashed around on the floor. With her exoskeleton disconnected, there was little she could do to resist whatever was going on. As the computer played the recordings and gashes appeared on her arms, there was nothing she could do. She tried to resist, but instead she felt a heavy weight on top of her. She tried to scream, but it felt as though a hand was pressing against her mouth. She felt so vulnerable, and powerless.

She hated it.

All this research, all her experiments, they were all so that she would never feel so vulnerable and powerless again. And she had made progress; her exoskeleton had given her some partial mobility. But now, on the floor, being attacked by invisible assailants, the rage built up inside her until it exploded.

As she resisted, one of her arms managed to free itself from whatever was holding it in place. With it, she reached for a nearby medcart and pulled on it hard, toppling its contents -- hyposprays, surgical instruments, on top of whatever it was which was attacking her.

"Subject seven," was all Nevedno could hear before the cart came crashing down on him. The instruments slashed and gashed across his body, cutting, poking, and prodding. There was a flash of shock as he was reminded of what had happened to him. There was a wild fury building inside of him, but he had to keep his calm. He tried as best he could to hold on, maybe get a few more cuts in, but his blood was now dripping down upon her and his grasp had weakened. Each drip counting down how much time he had left before he had to get away. "Just one more," he shouted at himself, urging his damaged body to continue.

Tuula screamed in pain as she felt her skin being cut into. Like wrestling with an invisible assailant, she tried desperately to free herself, when out of the corner of her eye she spotted a laser scalpel on the floor next to her. With a sudden, violent motion, she reached over for it, freeing her arm and grabbing the improvised weapon.

Pressing a button to activate it, she swung the laser scalpel through the air, back and forth, trying desperately to get whatever it was which was attacking her away.

With the swing of the scalpel her attacker was removed with decidedly un-surgical precision. Like cutting blindly at some unseen ailment Nevedno was amputated from her body with a wild shout, a deep gash forming on his chest. He could do no more than recoil from her, getting up hastily and trying to mend the incision with whatever medical device had been laying around, most likely something that had already landed on him.

Finally free, Tuula reached around to her back and frantically reconnected her exoskeleton. She could see blood on the ground; blood that wasn't hers. Quickly, she stood up and backed into a corner, looking around the room, holding her laser scalpel in front of her and waving it back and forth. "I know you're here, whoever you are," she called out. "I'm giving you ten seconds to leave my sickbay before I take action."

Nevedno grasped at some medical equipment. He was multiple arm lengths away from his victim to no longer be. As he patched himself up, his presence still a mere figment, he couldn't help but wait for Tuula's offer of action. What could she possibly do? Flail around like some lunatic? He waited eagerly as he tended to his wounds. Maybe the silent aftermath would be more maddening to her than the attack itself. He grinned in anticipation. Ten...

Not seeing the door open, she knew her assailant was still inside with her. With her laser scalpel in one hand, Tuula stumbled towards the medical supply closet with the other and grabbed a gas mask. The small oxygen cylinder built in would give her a few minutes of air, but that was all she needed. Holding it over her face with one hand, she darted towards a tank of anasthetic gas and slashed at it with her laser scalpel.

WHOOSH!

The highly pressurized gas from the tank knocked her back, and she quickly struggled to strap on the gas mask as the anasthetic filled the room, knowing that this invisible man would have to either get some supplemental oxygen or flee with a matter of seconds, otherwise he would go unconscious.

Damn it all! There wasn't enough time to flee. In his already injured state the gas had quickly brought Nevedno to a near immobile state. He staggered over to an undisturbed corner of the room and attempted to tuck himself away. As his eyes slowly closed all he could see was bright lights and an operating table. Medical implements and a sadistic operator. It all looked so familiar...

END

First Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen
Chief Medical Officer
ISS Galileo

Nevedno Loz
ISS Galileo
[PNPC played by Jynn]

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