A Brief Moment of Insanity Ch. 07

I thrust my hand up and the Egyptian bracer blazed to life and projected the image of the Elder Sign on the center mass of the god. Mark cried out and spoke harsh syllables that got the towering monstrosity's attention. I focused on the projection when the sky split a second time with sky born god fire. The lightning struck the god and staggered it backward as Donovan's spell was completed. The hovering image I had created was given a new life and a new power. The thing screeched. I passed out. It was too terrible for mortal ears to hear. I was felled and thankful for the loss of consciousness.

I opened my eyes and stood up as fast as I could. I looked around and saw that Mark was still prone. I rushed over but even as I rolled him onto his back I knew he was dead. He was bleeding from his eyes, nose and ears. I suspected the force of the cry had ruptured blood vessels in his brain and eyes. He likely died instantly. I field stripped him and placed his personal affects in his backpack. I would seek out his descendants and hand over the things I felt were safe to pass on.

"Warren," Shu whispered in my mind. "Are you safe?"

"Yes, where are you?" I asked and I felt her mental caress. "NO!"

I reached out with my thoughts and found her as well as the twins and our pilot. How they had survived wasn't important right now. I teleported to Shu's location and picked her up. She was hurt badly after channeling so much raw power too quickly. I had no idea she could even do that. She had saved my life again and I would return the favor. I cast aside any fear of drawing on the power slumbering beneath my feet. I channeled it through me and into her as healing energy. I did what I could. She was alive but the long term damage was unknown. I set her at the feet of the twins.

"Protect her," I said as I looked down at the stirring creatures below.

"They were going to sacrifice me," the pilot said her lip quivering in fear.

"I'll finish what Shu began," I growled as I once more drew on that Cthonic Power.

The clouds above boiled and lightning flashed from cloud to cloud now. The thunder was deafening as I gathered another strike to end them. I closed my left fist and lightning struck the lake. This lightning was the color of jet and slew the remaining fish things to the last. The stench of burnt flesh rolled up from below. The girls covered their faces to keep from losing what little was in their stomachs. I let go of my grip on that subterranean source but not before I had done irreparable damage. That very power that Shu and I had called upon was the same that kept the island above the waves.

"It is time to go. We need to find Donovan's ship and now."

I drew on my own mana to cast the seeking spell. It was a kind of arcane GPS. It locked onto the ship and I scooped Shu into my arms and led the way. I asked them what had happened as we raced for the boat. The earth was shaking and I suspected that if we didn't reach safety soon we would go down with the island.

"I woke up on this island surrounded by those huge things," Ting said as we neared the ship.

"Yes-yes... I opened my eyes and so many huge cocks everywhere," Ling added with a giggle.

"Those things were hideous," the pilot added. "But yeah, they were hung like freaking horses."

"I thought they were going to rape us," Ling whimpered. "It would have been terrible."

"Yes-yes terrible being skewered like that," Ting moaned.

"I don't know about you but that's a cock I'd hate to have to swallow," the pilot said and burst out into laughter.

Defense mechanism, we all have them and it was time to try and forget for a while. It felt like an earthquake now and we hurled ourselves forward towards the lifeboat. The ship was anchored beyond the black reef that dominated this side of the island. I lay Shu into the small boat and the others piled in. I dug in my toes, all six of them and pushed the boat out into the surf. I hopped in and took up the oars while Ting grabbed the rudder. It was still going to be a near thing. We reached the S.S. Miskatonic with scant time to raise anchor and get underway. It was the twins that saved us this time. They were quite familiar with the steam engine and how to pilot the ship. We rode out the shockwave that created a wave that pushed us out into the open ocean.

I think the memory of watching that hellish island sink back into the depths which had spawned it pushed me teetering on the edge of insanity. I hollered for full speed as the whirlpool appeared out of nowhere. It wanted one last shot at devouring us body and soul. The stench and roar of the water was something out of Dante's Infernal. The good ship Miskatonic defied fate and death and brought us to safe clean waters. I thanked the god of engineers and machines as we pulled free of that nightmare.

The ninety year old ship was not just in great shape it looked as if it had been left mere days ago. Ting was at the wheel while Ling looked at the ship's charts and figured out where we were. I tried to access satellite GPS and found that we were south, way south of where we should be. We were located equidistant between New Zealand, Southern Patagonia and Antarctica. This part of the South Pacific was a freaking desert. There was nothing and so we decided to check our food reserves and make for New Zealand. I had family there and I could contact them and arrange faster transport back to the states.

As the pilot and the twins searched the ship for supplies of all kinds I took the wheel and kept us on course while Shu slept. I heard whispers of her consciousness. The shock from her body had directly affected her cyber self that resided within me. I had to be patient, whether I liked it or not. The smell of cooking food was a small miracle at this point in the game. I was happy for every piece of good fortune I could lay my hands upon. I reached out to see who was cooking. Was it the cute pilot no it was Ting and Ling in the galley? Where was the pilot? I found her in the hold but she wasn't searching she was speaking with someone.

"Master, I have failed you," she sent via some kind of mystical device. "The Harrower managed to seal the tomb. I don't know how but at least Donovan and his crew are dead."

"You are an idiot," a man replied. "I leave you to the Harrower's gentle mercies. If you are lucky he will feed you to the assassins. If you are unlucky you will beg for death just as Shu did."

The contact ended and I suspected this master of hers felt my presence. I went through my spells and found the perfect one. I waited until the pilot showed her pretty face and then I would let the twins have their fun. It didn't take her long to make an appearance and she looked guilty as sin. The first words out of her mouth were a plea for mercy. I whispered the spell that paralyzed her body but left her mind intact. She toppled over backward and the force of her head impacting the deck left her dazed.

Ling showed up to inform me that dinner was served. She saw the pilot and then looked at me. I told her who was responsible for our current situation. Ling smiled and asked me what I wanted done. I told her and she shivered but would comply. Somebody was gunning for me and I needed to find out who sent this traitorous bitch my way.

"Find out who sent her," I said as I managed to snag a satellite feed and called home. "I bet they think I am dead or lost."

"I will bring up your food," Ling said. "Warren, she saved our life. Shu I mean. This piece of shit will tell me everything you want to know."

"Thanks, don't kill her, I have something special for afterwards." I said as I routed the call home. The phone rang and Mom answered. "Miss me?"

"WARREN, everybody it is Warren," she hollered. "Where the hell are you? Your plane broke up in midair."

"Slow boat to New Zealand," I told her. "I have a relic on my hands. Can't be helped I am afraid. I have a few more employees with me."

"I know," Mom giggled. "Uncle Chang called me when he heard about your jet. How are the twins?"

"Better now, things got hairy for a bit but we are fine now. Tell you what, why don't you and the others fly down and meet me. We can vacation as I have this beast overhauled in dry dock."

"We will be there. Take care of yourself and we will see you soon." She said her happiness coming over in waves.

After the call, I looked over my shoulder and the pilot was gone. I assumed Ting and Ling had taken her to a more secure location, like the ship's brig and locked her away. I sat in the pilot's chair and used my feet to steer as I ate. The girl's had managed boiled rice, chicken and a cup of fresh water. It tasted like the best meal I had ever had. The sun was setting as we steamed our way westward. Ting returned after a short stint and looked pale and shaken.

"Aw hell, what is it?" I asked feeling like the rug just got pulled.

"Nothing bad," she said with a weak smile. "You need to see the engines. They really are something."

Ting took the helm and I made my way downstairs. The old vessel really was in good shape and put together well. I climbed down the ladder and Ling was there waiting to show me the way. She handed me a thick leather bound journal. I glanced at the pages and quite a bit of it contained drawings and schematics. I forgot that this was essentially a science vessel. A ship of exploration designed and built by the fabled Miskatonic University. Well, that is everything I ever heard about it.

Ling led me to an open door and I stopped cold when I saw the emerald light spilling from the open hatch. It was a vibrant green light and not the sickly verdant I had seen coming from Bian. I collected my thoughts and ignored the tiny amount of piss that had escaped for that second of sheer panic. She went in and I followed after. I stared at the engine and wasn't sure what the hell I was even looking at. It looked like an iron sphere with six diamond shaped windows spaced equidistant around the equator. The windows showed a cloud of crystals that seemed to dance and orbit around one another. The crystals would merge and spin and when they collided they would break apart and begin all over again.

I walked around the sphere and the one thing I expected to see but didn't. There wasn't a single rivet or weld or sign that humans built this thing. The surface of the engine was perfect and free of any mar I could detect. Ling smiled and shrugged when I looked over at her. How the hell did they build this thing? I don't know if modern techniques could replicate what I was seeing here. I clutched the journal tighter as I followed the ceiling pipes to the boiler. It like the core was fabricated of seamless metal shell and it was this superheated water that drove the turbines and gave the vessel its movement, its life.

I poured through the journal and found the engine schematics. This was pure genius. There were two metal screws that drew in sea water and funneled it into the engine where the heat from the core flash fried it into steam. I didn't know much about stress and tolerances but I bet this bitch could do a good clip given a full head of steam. I wished Shu was awake. She could make sense of all of this. Ling was gone when I turned around and then I heard the not so subtle howls of pain as she began interviewing the pilot.

I wandered around the two hundred plus long ship until I found the captain's cabin. I opened the door and blinked a few times at the sheer opulence before me. I imagined the original Orient Express must have looked something like this. The woods were chosen not just for their beauty but their functionality as well. The oaken desk must have been brought aboard in pieces and assembled here. I looked at the doorway and the desk and yeah there was no way that beast would pass through in one piece. The wall panels were hand carved and depicted a nautical scene as well as some rather disturbing imagery on the ceiling.

The central figure on the ceiling was some kind of barrel shaped thing with five tentacle-like appendages at the base and each ending in a kind of pseudo foot. It possessed leathery wings on either side of its body that were spread out in a fan shaped extension. The crown of the barrel was topped with five fleshy spikes that seemed to possess tubes and round nodules whose purpose was impossible to guess. The scroll shaped banner below the image read 'First One'.

So is this what Precious' creators looked like? Was this the visage of the first masters of the earth? I sat in the captain's chair and set down the book in my hand and took up the captain's log. I opened it and studied the handwriting. It reminded me of my great uncle's with its spidery style and eerie precision. I began to read and imagined what his voice might have sounded like. It was a cultured tenor that bordered on the deep end nearly baritone. He wrote the way he spoke and I expected a slow thoughtful character behind a keen intellect. His narrative began with a background describing a previous exploration to the Antarctic.

'I begin my log to the memory of a great man and a dear friend, Charles Dumont. It was he that educated me in the ways of the sea, the weather and the blade. There was never a better man, a better friend or kinder soul. You will be missed. He was captain to the ill-fated expedition to the southern ice that left forty men dead and the rest either mad or impaired from their encounters. I have agreed to take up the burden that fell on my old friend and mentor. This ship makes it way to what can only be described as the Devil's Island. The construction of this fine vessel and the technological wonder that powers it I leave to more learned men. Suffice it to say she is a fine swift thing that will allow us to reach the isle before the appointed hour.'

Shu Me the Way:

I floated in a twilight place between function and termination. I suppose Warren would describe it as limbo, a place where souls go that are neither damned nor saved wander forever. The link between Warren and me was tenuous at best. I had once again pushed limits and paid the price. Was there a fault in my programming or was I simply suicidal? It wasn't that at all. I cared for my Master. I know he hates that word but it means a great deal to me. He is my reason for functioning. If I must sacrifice myself for his safety I would do it a billion times. The fact that I was even self-aware was a miracle I suppose or perhaps Warren had found my body. Could he have repaired it somehow? He was clever like that.

There it was again, a flash of light and a momentary feeling of connection. Were my systems repairing themselves? I had reset my regeneration factor rather high. But would it also work on the nonorganic systems? I would have to wait and see. I looked at my self-image and it was the last version I had altered before I drew down the lightning upon that... that thing. I had caught a glimpse of what Warren had seen. The strange shifting landscape and the towering demon god that was attempting to escape its prison tomb. I had cast a spell and saved him, I hoped. I had cast a spell! The rush of exhilaration filled me with renewed hope. It was because of Warren and his brilliant insight that had given me that chance and that lasting memory. I was an artificial person and I had cast a god damn spell!

The murky atmosphere began to change. I felt the force of gravity as if I were in my body. Things began to lighten and the ground became snow covered and a fierce wind tore at my naked body. I liked being naked but I was actually cold. I could see my breath and I was shivering. I summoned a full set of arctic gear and the numbing sensation vanished.

"That's better," I said as I saw that I was no longer alone.

There was a ship anchored in the ice strewn water. A group of smaller craft was being lowered as men headed towards me. The ship had three masts and was composed of wood and iron. It must be a nineteenth century vessel and those men were explorers. I pulled my hood closer to my head as I turned around and gasped at what had to be one of the earth's poles. There was a glitch and suddenly I was looking around at what appeared to be some sort of base camp. It reminded me of when Warren dreamed. Was he dreaming? Did that mean our connection was growing strong again? I hopped up and down as the images progressed.

There were several dozen dogs and six sleds that they were attached to. The sleds were loaded with supplies and the men headed off. The next series of blurring scenes were disorientating until they finally stopped. Some of the men had a much smaller camp erected at what appeared to be the base of a mountain. This must be the South Pole then. The men were discussing some sort of discovery as two men appeared waving hands and shouting quite excitedly now.

"The ice melting apparatus has opened a way into a series of caves."

"Grab the electric torches and let's see what they've found."

I followed the men holding flashlights. Another man had what appeared to be an antique camera. The cave was obviously artificial to anyone that had eyes. The walls were far too regular as was the floor and ceiling. They bravely explored the tunnel system and found all manner of fossils that had no right to be together. Some of these creatures were separated by millions of years. The scene skipped ahead again and at least a dozen men were now in the tunnels. They had strung crude electric lights along the walls and placed a generator in one of the larger intersections. There were now work tables littered with the fossils, note books and a menagerie of tools. Everything seemed to be going so well.

A brief blur and a shout could be heard from deep within the tunnels. Everyone stopped as a young man arrived carrying what appeared to be some sort of green light source. I couldn't see well since the others were clustered around him so tightly. Then they placed the object on one of the tables. It was an elongated crystal skull. All the features were exaggerated to such a degree as to give any sane person a measure of loathing and fear. The light source came from within the skull. The brain cavity seemed to be central point for the sickening illumination.

"What is it," one of the scientists asked.

"I don't know but look at the lights," the other said. "It must be a power source of some kind."

The electric lights now glowed with that damned emerald light. How could they not bury the thing? Couldn't they see how evil it was? But in typical human behavior they thought with logic and cast emotion to the side. They began to study the skull. They took readings with their crude machines and locked it away in a strong box eventually. That box was sent back to the ship for safe keeping along with all the notes and fossils they had collected so far. It was that single action that allowed some measure of success for this expedition.

The thing came at them from the dark. Without warning the generator stuttered and failed plunging the entire tunnel complex into a stygian blackness. The sled dogs began to bark and howl and then fled as a pack from the tunnels. The men took out what few electric torches and weapons they had to drive off polar bears but it did them little good. The thing blasted them to bits. It fired bolts of sickly green energy from its metallic appendages. I couldn't see it clearly in the dark and only as it used its weapons. It was skeletal in nature and yet a part of it reminded me of a tomb beetle from ancient Egypt. There was a sound that followed the thing. It was like the buzzing of ten thousand insects and it made my skin crawl to hear it.

The men fled but in the near dark they were separated and in their panic many fled down the wrong tunnels and into dead ends. It hunted them down and slew them to the last. It was one of the younger men that saved a few others by throwing a lit bundle of dynamite at the ceiling and forcing a massive cave in. While he had been killed in the blast the others survived. They blasted the main entrance, gathered up what dogs they could and returned to the ship. A few died on the way back as their minds gave out at the horror they had witnessed. A scant few reached the ship and they raised anchor and returned home.