The melting screams of the Assath man had begun a panic in the previously confused but docile crowd. Pushing and shoving to get past each other, people fled from the walkway with reckless haste.
Logan stood as an island among the chaos, brows furrowed, looking at the charred pile of bones upon the pedestal. The sensation he had felt was gone now; nothing took its place as he desperately searched for any indication of other threats.
"Logan, we should go," Lilith pulled at his arm as the crowds began to thin. The wail of an alien siren grew louder in the distance.
Emily moved next to him and cast her own eyes upon the burnt remains before turning to Logan as well. "Lilith is right, we should move."
Despite the urge to investigate, he knew they were right. They had already stayed too long. He nodded to the two women, and they turned and began finding their way back to the Apollo. The delay in leaving had allowed much of the crowd to thin out ahead of them.
The train back to their Starport was crowded. Logan stood with Lilith pressed against him tightly as Emily stood at his back, her firm butt pressed into him as she looked out the window at the city speeding by almost too fast to observe. He looked at Lilith, her face a mix of silent worry and fear. Logan put a hand on her waist and squeezed her reassuringly which pulled her from her thoughts and seemed to calm her.
Lilith's warm smile reassured Logan in return. 'We'll figure this out,' he said to her, no one around them hearing their wordless communication.
'I hope so. Skye was small compared to the population of this planet. If it happens here...,' Lilith visibly shuddered at the thought.
Logan was deeply worried about the implications as well. The toll Skye had taken on them was not something they had really discussed but it was something plainly visible on their faces now that the threat had reemerged. Crawling from street to street in the face of mangled bodies that were trying to eat anyone they encountered was more than anyone should have had to witness.
Leaving the train, Logan and Lilith walked hand in hand while Emily stuck close to Lilith's side. Turning from the crowded main area, the side passage to their lift was relatively quiet. Only two other ships were moored on their side of the Starport, leaving them almost alone as they stepped out into the corridor.
A flurry of small to medium shuttles regularly landed and departed at the main pads but it seemed like larger vessels almost never came to this sector of the planet. This added to the relative comfort and quietness they felt.
Once back aboard the Apollo the three of them made their way to the comfort of the lounge and sat quietly until Emily spoke first. "What the fuck was that?"
"The nanomachines are already here," Logan said plainly. "That melting was the same that I saw from the heavily changed one once it died. The charred remains were identical to those on Skye and Bendraar."
"If it's here then can it be everywhere?" Lilith asked, thinking out loud.
There was a pause as they all thought before Logan answered. "No. As far as I can tell there haven't been any mass outbreaks of murders or people eating each other anywhere else."
"Given their complexity, and the strange things he was shouting I think we can assume that the nanomachines are capable of more than turning people into flesh-eating zombies," Lilith said.
"None of this makes sense. Did we cause it somehow?" Emily asked worriedly.
Logan shook his head slowly and gave her a reassuring smile. "I highly doubt it. Things on Bendraar happened before I discovered the body of the man I was trying to find. The job that took me to Skye, even though it was an excuse, ended with me being bitten by someone who had already been infected days before I got there."
"So, it was already here then. It's likely on other planets as well if we think about the distances involved," Lilith observed.
"What's the point of it all then? Terrans on Skye ate each other and now Assath shout and scream then melt?" Emily looked confused. None of it made much sense, the chaos of it all seemed random.
Rubbing the side of his head Logan looked at them for a few moments before saying what was on his mind. "I think the answer is in my mind somewhere, that reoccurring dream I had when I was first infected holds some answers."
"You haven't had it in a while, right?" Lilith inquired, placing a hand on his back comfortingly.
"No," Logan answered.
"Let's eat something and worry about some of this tomorrow. We won't be doing ourselves any favors by getting worked up tonight," As Lilith spoke, dawn was already on the horizon. They had yet to find any kind of natural rhythm on a planet that was awake at all hours regardless of the sun's position.
Taking the advice, they headed to the kitchen to make a quick meal. Emily had purchased some provisions early in their day to help contribute, which everyone was thankful for. To their surprise she had bought some good quality items, including real meat from some form of livestock animal the Assath were fond of.
Some time was spent finding out how to cook using the new ingredients but between the three of them they managed to cook something up. Logan watched Emily slowly sear the meat with a hungry look in her eye, like a woman who hadn't eaten in days.
"When was the last time you actually ate real meat?" Logan asked curiously of the hungry looking woman.
Emily paused lost in thought, the sizzling of the meat filling the air with mouthwatering smells. "Two years ago for my birthday, I had a real steak that the guys had bought me..." A sad expression passed over her face like a dark cloud in front of the sun before she shook it off.
"I'm sorry," Logan said. Except for two men, the rest of the people she had served with were now dead.
She smiled at him quietly and returned her attention to the meat in front of her. It was an interesting shade of blue and pink that made them a little uneasy. Alien food was new to them, but they were curious to try it.
Lilith had chopped up some of the vegetables Emily had bought and was getting ready to boil them, they all looked a little like potatoes despite being completely different from each other in colour and texture. They apparently didn't need much seasoning and had natural flavors that were brought out just by boiling them.
With the food eventually cooked as best they could tell; they moved to the dining room and cautiously tried a few bites. The food was quite good for a first attempt, Emily ate her meat slowly savoring each bite with a look of contentment on her face.
"So much better than synth meat." She sighed happily.
"I'm a big fan of fresh meat too, though I tend to like mine hard and attached to one person in particular," Lilith said with a straight face, cutting up a piece of food.
Emily snorted and almost spit her food out. "You would have fit in pretty well with the other Marines Lilith, especially with a mouth like that."
"I'm sure they all would have appreciated my mouth quite a bit," She continued in her deadpan tone.
Emily laughed out loud at that, and the mood shifted in the room to being more lighthearted and warmer. The slight gloom that had hung over them disappeared. Logan pushed many thoughts from his mind and just focused on the now.
With dinner behind them, Logan felt spent. After a short shower he collapsed on the bed as sleep began to pull at him. Lilith crawled in next to him and curled up, resting her head on his chest. Entwining her long legs with his she wiggled around till she was comfortable. Her naked body brought him comfort and Logan eagerly held her close. Worries of the day mattered little now, there were problems to deal with but for now he had all he needed. Logan wondered if he would marry her someday as he slipped into sleep.
Almost as if in an instant, the feeling of closing his eyes only to open them again and be greeted by his familiar inner world was both confusing and welcoming, tiredness no longer held him, and he breathed easy as the vast grasslands around him shifted gently in a gentle wind. Logan preferred the trees, the endless grass and water had their own charms, but the forest called to him the most.
Shifting at high speed, the world sped around him in a blur. Over the flat expanse of grass, rolling hills, and vast lakes Logan arrived in a small, wooded clearing. Tall green trees rustled under the moonlight and a brook bubbled gently to one side, silver water reflecting the light and looking almost ethereal. Little green fireflies drifted among the trees lazily, their light outshone only by Lilith's purple radiance.
Blue-gold swirls drifted into view on his right, Emily's light had moved closer and was maybe 20 feet from him now. Lilith's still hovered easily within arm's reach.
Stepping from the platform beneath him Logan made his way to the small brook, his bare feet padding softly against the short grass of the forest. The water emerged from a tiered fountain of natural stone, two clear pools holding the water before it descended to the ground and flowed slowly off into the forest.
'I have to remember,' Logan thought to himself. The harsh and alien words came back to him as clearly as if they had just been spoken, he was not supposed to remember yet. That's what the voice had said before throwing him from the dream.
He tried for what seemed like an hour to clear his mind and remember that dream, but nothing came. Logan tried to remember a different memory but still nothing came other than his normal recollection. Sighing in frustration he sat next to the beautiful water and ran his fingers across its surface, the liquid was cold but felt refreshing.
Logan got the feeling this place wasn't going to be useful for what he was trying to accomplish. Its nature still eluded him. Time passed differently here, he could see his connection to Lilith and Emily, even pull them here, and yet it offered no answers.
Maybe it was only as it seemed and nothing else. He began to feel tiredness creep back on him. Logan thought of his efforts at controlling his abilities and something sprung to mind, the burst of energy he had released that had killed that foul man on Skye was something the nanomachines had tried to warn him he wasn't ready for.
Not like a sentient being would do, more like a warning light. He was limited in some ways by the biological nature of his body, raw energy was likely too much for his body to handle even with modifications. On the other hand, his body naturally produced energy in a form that it was very used to. Electricity.
Sleep took him again with that thought still swirling around his mind.
