Chapter Seventeen

Med-level One resembled any other hospital wing, laid out in a mundane spectacle of cracked linoleum, beige walls and buzzing sodium lights.

After being called up, a young Triage nurse led Mego to an office and took out a syringe.

"Nice ink." The Nurse said, noticing the Nightingale tattoo.

"Thanks,"

"Why a Bird?"

“The leaves represent the nine sorceresses of Avalon. And...I like Nightingales."

"It must have been painful."

"I couldn’t feel anything.” Mego said. It was a tone that was more matter-of-fact than boastful. “Especially in this arm.”

"Sounds like a challenge."

To her dismay, the Nurse found her words to be somewhat prophetic. Despite her best efforts, the needle would not break the surface of the skin, let alone penetrate the vein. Every time she pushed the tip of the syringe, it would bend back on itself. Flustered, she discarded the broken needle and called over a Senior. The Sister's first try was to drain blood from the arm, but the needle tip snapped.

"Unbelievable," She said. "The skin is like Granite. Has it always been this way?"

"It's felt kinda heavy in the last month," Mego said calmly.

"I'll try the other arm." The Sister said. Things went much more smoothly as the blood filled the sample tube, with little to no hindrance. "I don't know what happened, but this one seems to be more compliant. In all my years, I have never seen the like." The senior nurse sealed the puncture wound with a cotton ball. "Alright, off you pop."

Mego left the ward and noticed two young women wearing pale blue flight suits. They sported the kind of hairstyle last seen in a budget Dystopian movie from the eighties..

"Nice tats." One of the girls said, in passing.

Mego stopped. "Excuse me?"

“The ink, I like it."

"Oh," Mego said. "I thought you said something else."

The cockney girl was twenty-something, thick-set with a blood-red buzz-cut. Mego noticed four clean striations down the side of one cheek, indicating the girl had been injected with Jackal pheromones to help her see in the dark.

Mego had read about the 'Light-housing' practised in the clinics of the Potsdamer Platz. Rich kids would obsess about becoming 'Augmentals', tech-angels that surpassed the flesh. It was legal like Botox, and equally repellent.

"Name's Kimmy," The girl said. "This is Rascal." The other girl was plain by comparison, wore gold mirror Aviator sunglasses and was less keen on conversation. "Just arrived?"

"Something like that."

"In uniform already. What's that all about?"

"It's a long story." Mego said.

Kimmy gave this new girl a good eye.

"You’ve got a look about you." She said. “Angry and lost.”

"I'm flattered, but no thanks."

"Ha. Nah, we're part of a collective, based under the showers and somewhere in between. We're looking to bolster our ranks, if you know what I mean."

"Some kind of rhyming collective? I'll pass."

"Us girls gotta stick together. Come by and check us out. We've got a life you wouldn't believe. Not to mention the respect of being with the Neo-Nine.”

"What the hell is the Neo-Nine?"

"Some call us a gang, but we’re more of a group with common interests. We run the lower levels; no one gets in our way, not even the higher-ups."

"We run the lower levels; no one gets in our way," Mego said, slightly amused. "You sound like a musical about cartoon Rats. I thought the whole point of being here was that everyone sticks together."

"Even so," Kimmy said, drawing herself up to her full height. "It might be worth your while in the long run. Never know who is watching. Our wolf den has many eyes, and the pack is everywhere."

"Are you threatening me or looking to sell a Dog?"

Kimmy smiled and backed away.

"Think about it." She said. "A smart mouth will only get you so far. When you pick a side, make sure it's the right one."

The pair of them disappeared into the ward, leaving Mego to wonder what had just happened.

***

Med-Level Two was a grim area, mainly reserved for the 'manic’ types, who could not adjust to being around the vacuum of space.

‘The Stare’ was similar to 'Call of the Void', but in some cases, a lot worse, since once the infinite darkness got under your skin, it never left.

Some of the extreme cases of ‘Cosmic Dementia ’ were unreal:

Case 1: A Flying Officer named Casper Durchdenwald was convinced a mountain was pursuing him. No matter how far he travelled, it was always on the edge of a city, in any random part of the world. Regardless of what country he ended up in, the locals would always answer: “See the Cat with the broken eyes.”

Case 2: A girl who lost an arm after summoning a bear had the limb replaced with a metal prosthetic. Eventually, she mastered this gift and could summon different types of bears at various times of day.

Case 3: A man thought a Magic-Eye poster was trying to communicate with him. The poster turned out to be of a Victorian woman named ‘Hilda Scarlet Newsome’, who had been waiting in a Railway station for over a century. Every time he looked, the image would change in sequence, until the woman held up a sign begging him to release her from her ‘Prison’.

Mego had enough crazy stories to keep the shrinks in Mansions, but kept quiet. She wasn’t about to join any kind of biscuit farm.

***

Pausing in the doorway of the office. Mego suddenly felt an overwhelming surge of sensations grip her. The interior of the Psych-Eval room was like every other surgery she had visited.

A screen half-revealed a tan examination table in the right-hand corner. On the left side were a desk and a filing cabinet. The physician, Dr Black, was a ruddy-faced gentleman with half-moon glasses already peering at her file on a blue, translucent slate.

"Please take a seat." He said. “This is merely a preliminary examination to see if you are suitable for active duty. Although judging by your attire, I see you've already jumped the queue."

Mego sat in the padded chair.

"It was my Mother's idea.” She said. “Her rank is Low Commander."

"Having a parent here will not help you, Cadet. If anything, the presumed favouritism will isolate you from your peers."

"I think that has already started."

"Then you have a mountain to climb." The Physician said. "Even though this is back to front, I can still perform an examination. I must ask you, do you have a history of mental illness? Bear in mind that I have all your medical history on file, and liars make me nervous."

"I have been slightly depressed, but never violent." Mego said. She considered discussing the voice in her head, but shut it down since it almost certainly would have led to an instant fail. "I can taste colours and sawdust, ash.”

“Makes sense since you’re a heavy smoker.”

“ I feel like I’m in some kind of Psychosphere."

"We try not to use the word 'Psycho' around here, Cadet." The Doctor said. "It spooks the natives." He tapped his slate. "Word has it that you smashed a two-way mirror with a chair. A chair bolted to the floor. Nothing has been confirmed, with all video evidence scrubbed." He placed the slate on the desk. "Usually, rumours with no basis usually do not require such heavy-handedness."

"I honestly don't remember."

"Something like that is not easily forgotten. You are either lying or dissociative; neither will work well in your favour." He scanned his slate again. "At this point, you’d go through a rigorous testing procedure to root out any propensity for violence. As luck would have it, you have a note from your Mother, so I guess we can skip all that." The Physician got to his feet.

"Roll up your sleeves." He said. Mego did as ordered.. "No track or slash marks. Good, good. Alright, you can roll them down." The Physician lifted his slate back up. "Have you had any vivid dreams of late?"

“Dreams?”

The last thing Mego remembered about delivering a pizza was standing on a hexagon looking down into a black pool. Focusing on the shaving mirror, she caught half her reflection; eyes looking at eyes, staring at one another.

***

::: Mego remembers being secured to a large metal table. There are no visible restraints, but a paralytic or psychic inhibitor locks down every limb. Only her eyes move, darting from one end to the other. She sees a laboratory. A big bank of lights hangs down directly above her. She recognises these lights, the kind used in every operating theatre. Two large, bulbous heads with almond-shaped eyes eclipse the light, one on either side. They continue to speak in a language similar to that of the crickets..

Panicking, Mego wonders what kind of surgery she will be party to. The intense fear increases as she sees a massive metal probe draw into view above her chest. The wash of dread gives way to something darker, more abyssal. She can feel it strengthening, changing from within and breaking the bonds of paralysis. Whatever has formed inside her is starting to take over.

Despite all the despair, she has somehow created an Avatar, and it is very angry.

A strange voice speaks inside her head, watery like a babbling stream. One of the Aliens has made contact.

"We mean you no harm.” It says. “We only want to collect."

The Avatar’s voice resonates with barely contained fury.

"You have no right to kidnap or take without consent. We are not dead meat to be shipped."

"You are cattle, just like your leaders promised us. When you are older, you will come to realise."

"Idiots!" The Avatar replies. "I am already ancient!"

Mego bolts upright and grips the alien on the left by its slim neck. With a wet snap, the creature flops to the floor. The Avatar breaks off the probe and stabs the other Alien in the forehead—blue blood gouts across her face like squid ink. A third being is trying to escape on short stubby legs, but the Avatar plucks out the syringe and hurls it like a throwing dagger. The alien goes down quickly. The Avatar batters the large head against the door pad, but realises it is a handprint scanner.

Groaning with impatience, the Avatar slaps the Alien's limp hand against the pad, opening the door. By this point, the all-chrome ship is in full-blown panic mode; small creatures scramble from all sides. Mounting the free-floating staircase, the Avatar follows a curved hallway to the right. Mego slowly regained consciousness.

"How am I doing this?" She thinks.

"You're not," The voice replies. "You're just a passenger."

"Passenger? What?”

“You will never access this power until you get on my level."

"How do I..?"

"Sleep now in the Crypt."

Mego returns to a state of hibernation, and her Avatar continues to stalk the halls. She hears a blood-curdling scream ring out behind double doors. The Avatar grabs the guard, smashes its head against the wall and slaps its limp hand against the scanner.

The double doors slide open, revealing another surgery in prep.

A thin red laser beam is boring a hole into the side of a middle-aged man. Incensed, the Avatar throat-chops another guard and throws its lifeless body at the laser. The beam spins, slicing the surgeon and taking the front half of its head clean off.

The Avatar approaches the man, who looks at Mego in confusion.

"Impossible." He says. "How?"

“Can you walk?"

The man swings his legs off the slab and nods.

The Avatar walks off without looking back. Bracing himself against a wall, the man spits a wad of black Goo.

"Hey," He says, but his words come out rasped and feathery.

The man is surprised by how unfazed the girl seems, almost as if she is making her way to class. The Avatar descends another chrome-coloured staircase. The path leads to large double doors. She meets with what appears to be the captain, seated on a black throne.

The alien angrily wields a short sword with gaps in the blade. The Avatar tears the blade from its hand and thrusts it through the Alien's torso. With a single stroke, she disembowels the creature, slams its head against a retinal scanner and throws the body into a darkened room.

They come to a vast cargo bay filled with rows upon rows of Airliners, ships and cars. The walls are dotted with an infinite number of Cryogenic pods, disappearing into the far horizon. There is a mile-high pile of dead animal carcasses, horribly mutilated and left to decay.

The Avatar ignores the smell and looks around.

“What is that gas?” The man asks.

“B-13.” The Avatar replies.

"All those people. Everyone who went missing."

"They can't be helped, now."

Entering the control room, a chrome probe with three coloured lights stretches from the ceiling. The Avatar grabs the metallic spine attached, pulling it toward her.

"Return this man or find more of these.” She says, dangling the Alien Captain like an old coat. The probe gives out an indignant hiss. The Avatar is having none of it. "I will invade your planet single-handed."

Suddenly, a vortex shimmers, revealing a warehouse with large wooden crates. The number '11' is printed in large letters.

"I know that place," The Man says. "It’s forbidden to go there.”

"Doesn’t matter." The Avatar says. "Go now."

The old man tentatively approaches the opening. Taking a deep breath, he steps through the membrane of the portal, which ripples out. Once in, the portal closes up like an aperture and disappears. The Avatar turned to the lights with a hollow expression.

"You and I are going to have a little talk." ::::

***

Realising she had been silent for a few seconds, Mego finally spoke.

"No dreams," She said. "Not that I know of."

The Physician carefully appraised her for any tells that might suggest she was lying. He sat back satisfied.

"Seeing how the esteemed Low Commander has sought to bypass regulation, I can only take her word that you are mentally capable. Congratulations, you have passed with flying colours. Not that I had anything to do with it, but what do I know?" He stood up, and they shook hands. "Good luck, Cadet."

Mego nodded and left without saying another word.