Archive of Our Own

“Commander, Shepard.” Joker’s voice came over the intercom. “You may want to see this.”

Shepard sighed and set he glass back down on the table. It was fine earth made whiskey and he was loath to give it up. “What is it, Joker?” He replied, tired. It had been a long day and he just wanted to sit her with his drink and maybe get some sleep tonight.

“I really think you need to come see this.” The pilot sounded tense, very unlike the easy going man Shepard had come to know.

“Very well, I will be there in a minute.” It was beginning to look like his night off was not going to happen after all. Straightening his uniform, Shepard headed back to work.

On the bridge, Shepard found more people than normal, all staring in awe at the image on the pilot’s screen. It was a dreadnaught, easily as large as the Destiny Ascension. There was no doubt that it was Asari in origin, no one else had ever managed to create a ship this large. Though to the best of his knowledge, they had not built another as large as this. Not outside of legends and ghost stories.

“What are we looking at, Joker.” Shepard demanded. “And why does it look like an Asari dreadnaught? Is there something they forgot to tell us?” If the Asari were creating new dreadnaughts without telling the Alliance, things were worse than even he had thought.

“Don’t you recognize it?” Kaidan said, his voice filled with wonder. “This is the Lucen Ascendant.”

Shepard gave his friend a long considering look. “Have you lost your mind, Kaidan?” He asked, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of his voice. “You want me to believe this is the ghost ship of kid’s stories? You all brought me up here to play a practical joke on me?” He looked around the room and saw the rapt frightened faces of his crew, the soft whoosh of the doors told him even more had come to the bridge to see for themselves. If someone was playing a joke, it was on a lot of people.

“John,” Kaidan started, but a sharp look from the commander reminded him that now was not the time for familiarity. “I mean. . . Commander,” Kaidan started again. “There is almost no doubt that this is the Lucen Ascendant. You can even see the remains of the name and call numbers on the side.” He gestured toward the little screen in front of him. “There is more,” he added. “We already did a scan and it looks like they have an artifact on board; something pretty old by the looks of it. Can’t tell a lot about it, but it is in a cargo hold on the far side. What do you want to do?”

Liara spoke up from behind him. “Commander, I can go take a look at the artifact and see if it has any value.”

“I will take a team and Liara to analyze it.” Shepard said, surprising himself. He did not believe in ghost ships and certainly not the Lucen Ascendant, he didn’t know what this was, but he knew it was not what it appeared and this was probably a really bad idea.

~*~

Oddly, the landing bay doors were open when Shepard and his small landing team approached. They continued to try to raise anyone by all know communications channels, but the com stayed silent until Joker’s voice crackled over the speakers. The four in the shuttle had been so intent on looking for any signs of life on the mysterious ship they all started and jumped. “There really is no sign of life on there, Commander.” Joker announced. “No radiation either. It looks like life support is operational and most systems should still work, just no one home.”

“I am starting to like this even less,” Shepard mumbled under his breath. Giant-ass ship in the middle of deep space, no crew, and no obvious signs of damage, what wasn't there to love? Of course, the Lucen was easily as large as the Destiny and there could be damage somewhere they just had not looked yet. Though Joker was thorough and if he had not seen it, it probably was not there.

The air lock closed without incident cycling through its procedures as if it had not been sitting open for hundreds of years. The mechanical parts seemed unaffected by centuries of disuse. The lights came on as well and the soft hum of the room re-pressurizing could be heard clearly. It seemed the mechanical systems were just fine.

“I want everyone to keep their suits and masks on until we can get a better idea of what happened here. We are not picking up an obvious pathogen, but we do not need to bring anything back to the Normandy other than that artifact.” Tali’Zorah gave an abbreviated snort.

“I am sure I do not have to tell that to a Quarian twice.” Shepard said dryly.

The shuttle doors opened and they stepped out onto the bay deck. They may be the first living things to set foot here in centuries. It was a strange thought, and not one Shepard cared to dwell on. This was absurd in many ways and he did not wish to drag out this mission.

“Liara,” Shepard barked, slightly muffled by the mask. “Take us to the artifact so we can get back to the Normandy.”

“Of course,” The Asari said calmly, though her eyes shone brightly. She was much more excited than she dared let on. She was actually standing on the legendary Lucen Ascendant. It was one of her peoples’ greatest creations, presumed lost and destroyed. It had been centuries since the ship had been heard from, and was almost unbelievable to her that she was now standing on it. Every child on the Alliance planets knew the story of how the Lucen Ascendant had just vanished. It had never been seen or heard from again. There was never a distress call or any other message ever found. If they could unravel this, she would be the first of her race to know these secrets.

The bay where they disembarked was cavernous. It looked like it could hold the Normandy and 4 or 5 more ships her size with ease. The lights were dim, but still working, which seemed odd to Shepard; surely they would have to have been replaced sometime in the last few centuries and a small tickle of paranoia crawled up his spine. Just to reassure himself, he glanced at Kaidan. His sensitive lover would feel it first if something was not right. He was not comforted, Kaidan had a look of tense expectation on his face, like he expected something to jump out of a corner any second. He was beginning to wish he had not brought him along.

“Stay alert. I am starting to think we may not be alone.” He commanded as Liara took the lead, following the signal on her pad; the artifact was buried deep in the ship. “We will stay together and keep our masks on until we can be certain the life support systems are working.”

The team moved slowly through the huge bay, hearing nothing but the sounds of their footsteps and the hiss of the air circulation. It certainly sounded like it was working, but Shepard had no intention of taking off the mask just yet. The sliding double doors swooshed open as they approached, actually making Liara and Kaidan jump at the sudden noise. The team stepped into the hall.

It was industrial blue and white with harsh lights that brought out every scuff and smudge on the walls. A deep red stripe ran down the sides of the walkway, obviously as some kind of way to identify which of the undoubtedly countless bays it connected to. The passage of countless feet had worn the flooring thin in places revealing a dull metallic surface underneath. A faint buzzing sound came from one of the lamps and it began to flicker unsteadily making the walls seem to pulse with the failing light.

“Keep moving.” Shepard ordered as all four of his teammates stopped. A feeling of unease was starting to grow in the back of his mind, and he saw it mirrored on Kaidan’s face. Liara was so intent on seeing the ship, she seemed unphased by it, or perhaps she did not feel it. Or maybe there was nothing to feel and he was just uncomfortable in a centuries old floating tomb. There was no way to tell what Tali’Zorah was thinking, the face shield of her enviro-suit prevented any stay facial expressions form getting out, but her posture was unusually tense.

The corridor snaked on, leading them deeper into the massive ship, periodically the lights would dim or flicker and one door hissed and opened briefly as they passed, but closed it self just as quickly. No lights were on and nothing could be seen inside.

“We need to go left, Commander.” Liara broke the silence. The corridor seemed to stretch on forever in front of them and doors lined the walls on either side, but which one would lead them in the direction they needed to go? Touching the control pads did nothing; the doors remained inert and solidly closed. Even ones that had opened earlier now refused to budge.

“Tali,” Shepard called to the quarian as he made his way back toward the small group. “Can you get one of these open? We need to find a plan or map of this place. It looks like we could wonder for days and still not find what we are looking for.”

“Yes, Commander,” The voice behind the mask replied. She chose a door at random and placed her hand on the pad beside it. The tech looked old, but that did not make it any harder for her open it. The moment her hand touched the pad the lights in the hall dimmed dramatically and a faint buzzing sound filled her ears making her feel faint.

“What the hell?” She heard Kaidan breathe behind her as she jerked her hand back from the device.

“The pad may have a short in it,” Tali said, trying to convince herself that was what just happened. As soon as her hand was removed from the device the lights had steadied and come back to full power and the buzzing stopped. Now she was left with a faint humming in her ears, low, like something you can almost hear.

“Try the next one; I don’t need you getting fried on some door lock on a ghost ship.” Shepard said dryly.

“I am sure it is fine now,” Tali insisted, but moved to the next door none the less. Touching the pad gingerly did not cause the lights to dim, but the humming became louder as she worked on the device. She was surprised to find it in such good condition considering how old it was. As she worked, she could hear Kaidan shuffling his feet behind her. He seemed nervous.

“There is something not right here,” the young man mumbled to himself. “OK. Door’s broke, I think we should go.” His tone was sharp and uncharacteristically agitated. Shepard reached out and laid his hand on Kaidan's shoulder. Dark eyes, filled with an anxiety he had not expected to see, met his blue ones. It was almost enough to cause him to call it off and take them all back to the Normandy. Kaidan was not a fearful man, but what he saw in his lover's eyes was something very close to fear.

As if to prove him wrong, the door hissed open and showed them a long straight hall, leading in exactly the right direction. To add to their good luck, a control room with large windows was just to their right. It was certain that there would be a map of the ship on the computers in there.

“You were saying, Kaidan?” Tali asked archly and walked through the door into the new hall. Her momentary feelings of unease where gone. It was an electrical malfunction only; it was absurd for her to think anything else. The door to the control room slid open without any trouble as the door behind them closed. Did the lights go off in the hall again just as it was closing? Were all the lights using occupancy sensors of some kind? Most were not that sensitive, it would take minutes or longer to shut off once someone left an area. Surely it was her imagination.

Multi-colored lights winked and blinked from the panels. Nothing looked familiar to Tali. She had seen plenty of Asari tech, everyone had, but this was not typical at all. She flipped couple of switches and poked a couple buttons, but the screens remained stubbornly blank.

“Can you make this work?” Shepard’s voice sounded loud in the little room. She noticed the commander too seemed more tense than normal. Maybe there was something strange here; only Liara seemed more in awe than nervous. Of course, it was not every day you got to walk around on the most famous ghost ship in the galaxy.

“Of course, Commander.” Tali assured him with a confidence she was not feeling, and started to look at the equipment in earnest. A set of lights blinked green and amber next to the largest screen and she approached it first. A couple of switches were next to the lights, but nothing was labeled. Frustrated, she reached for the top switch and felt a slight tingle as her fingers came in contact with the metal peg and she snatched her hand back just as the blank screen became filled with static and blurry images. he had not thrown the switch. She saw movement, a lot of movement, a large number of people was crowded together, but the image was too unclear to make out details. She could not tell what part of the ship this was showing.

“Commander,” she tried to keep her voice calm, but a slightly shrill note crept into it despite her efforts. She glanced back at the alarmed faces of her companions, they had not seen the screen, she was blocking it. “We may not be alone after all.” She turned back to the screen; the image had resolved and clearly showed the bay where the shuttle was now parked. There were no crowds of people.

“What are you seeing, Tali,” Kaidan asked concerned as he leaned closer to her to look at the scene. “It looks empty, and Joker would have contacted us if any stray life signs had turned up.”

Tali stood there, unable to answer. She was certain that she was seeing movement before.

“Just a mistake, maybe a trick of the static.” She tried to ignore the growing feelings of something not right as she continued to search for the computer with the information they wanted. But was it not odd, with all the bays on this ship that the camera was on the one they chose? Or did their entrance trigger it somehow? Maybe that was it. It was simply a security routine; it noticed the unauthorized vehicle and displayed it here in the security room. That was a perfectly logical explanation. No one was looking at the monitor as the bay doors cycled open and closed again behind the shuttle.

It took almost half an hour, but finally they found a layout map of the ship. A few more minutes and it was loaded onto Liara’s pad and they headed back out of the security room. The camera had continued to cycle to different parts of the ship while Tali worked and occasionally she thought she saw brief flashes of movement. A cup being moved in a mess hall, a door slide shut in a hallway, but every time she looked closer there were nothing.

The biggest find was the display of the ship’s life support systems. It showed no signs of deterioration. The air, heat, and circulation systems were all functioning with in normal ranges. Despite this, Kaidan struggled to stand still. This place had him almost completely unnerved. He could not explain it; it just gave off the feeling of wrong somehow. The flickering lights and odd shadows on the monitors were not helping. He did not see what got Tali’s attention, but as she had focused on the strange ancient technology, he had caught himself looking at the screen again and again. Sometimes nothing would be showing, just a solid black, but it was not empty, the faint swirls of light that swam to the surface and then receded had him more than a little alarmed, but every time he opened his mouth to say anything, the screen switched back to a typical hall or room or storeroom. He wanted to tell Shepard to abandon the mission, but he held his tongue.

The hallway was not much better, and it was not long before they realized that the map was either incorrect, or they were not where they thought they were. Door appeared and halls branched off where none were shown and a major spilt in the hall they were in was not there at all. Frustrated, Shepard had Liara put it away; maybe once they were closer to the artifact they would be able to use it. He hoped they did not need it to get back to their shuttle, if so they were going to have a long trip back.

“Should have brought bread crumbs,” Kaidan mumbled as he came up beside the Commander. “I don’t know how we are going to find our way back.” He tried to keep his tone light, but the anxiety was there. Liara assured them that her pad was recording their route; they would have no trouble finding their way back, even without a good map of the ship.

“What is eating you?” Shepard was not sure what had come over Kaidan. Normally the other man was dependable and solid, but he had been jumping at shadows ever since they got on the ship and it was adding to his own anxiety. Despite his attempts to keep some distance between them when working, he was worried and was beginning to wonder in the L2 had finally done some damage.

“There is something not right here, John” Kaidan insisted, not caring that he used his commander’s name. “I have never been anywhere that felt so wrong, and I have been a lot places that could be called not right.” He looked at the worried expression on John’s face, realizing what the man must be thinking. “This has nothing to do with the implant.”

“We need to get it checked out anyway as soon as we get back to the Normandy.” John put a friendly hand on his shoulder and gave him one of his rare boyish smiles. “Just humor me, Kaidan.”

“Commander,” Liara’s voice came back down the hall to the two men. They had stopped walking and not realized the others were so far ahead. “The signal indicates that the artifact is ahead of us still, which way should we go?” She gestured in front of them. The hallway curved around to the right and left with both ways blocked by more closed doors. 4 smaller doors lined the curved wall in front of them. Tali reached for the control panel on the door to the right as Kaidan and the Commander reached the intersection. The lights flickered violently and for a moment the four were plunged into darkness.

“Tali!” Shepard called out, alarmed that this one had malfunctioned and actually harmed her.

“Here, Commander.” The calm voice replied from his right. “Give me a moment.” The lights stuttered and returned, but did not seem as bright this time. A sickly greenish cast covered everything. “This one is not going to open.” The Quarian announced, walking to the left door.

After what was probably only minutes, but felt like an hour, she turned from the second door as well. “This one is not operational as well. Both of these look like they were intentionally damaged to prevent them from being used.”

“If anything on the map can be trusted,” Liara spoke up. “These are crew quarters. It would not be stored in here. We need to find a way around.”

“Since the map cannot be trusted," Shepard said. "We will take a look in these rooms, while we are here.” He looked at the four shut doors. "If we do not find anything useful in here we will go back and try to find another way. Surely there is more than one way there in a ship this size.”

“Don’t call me Shirley.” Kaidan smirked, earning a stifled snort of laughter from Shepard and confused looks from Tali and Liara.

“Will any of these open?” The Commander asked, trying to keep things from degenerating.

“I’ll try.” Tali said serenely. Kaidan opened his mouth, but a stern look from Shepard forced him to mutter under his breath. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

“Do you have any hobbies other than watching movies?” Liara asked, certain that she at least knew where that one came from. Surprisingly, Kaidan’s face flushed slightly and she saw him and the Commander studiously not looking at each other. “Very interesting.” She wondered if they thought no one would figure that out.

The first door slid open, giving Kaidan a chance to escape the now uncomfortable conversation. Inside was certainly the quarters of a crew member, neatly stacked items sat on the shelf and a tightly made bed was visible from the hall. The next two were the same. It was the last one that got everyone’s attention. Inside was a mess, everything was pulled from the shelves and walls, the bed clothes hung in a tangled mess dragging on the floor. It looked like a struggle had taken place here.

“And that just makes me feel so much better about this place,” Kaidan muttered as the lights slowly warmed and flickered on in the rooms.

Liara cautiously entered the first room, scanning it for any possible exits or doorways that might lead into the next hallway. “Nothing, Commander,” she said after seeing nothing of note in the orderly chamber.

Tali entered the second room, stopping just inside the door to examine the books on the neat small desk. It was nearly identical to the first, no pictures of family or loved ones, not posters or notes taped to the bare white walls. Even the books were standard issue technical manuals. There was no sign that anyone had actually lived in here. Approaching the closet she hesitantly slid the door aside. There were clothes in here, but these too were only standard uniforms, nothing to indicate who lived here. This was more disturbing to her than the dismantled room.

Kaidan took the third undisturbed room, but entered hesitantly, crouching slightly like he expected an attack. “Don’t think of face huggers. Don’t think of face huggers.” John heard him muttering to himself. Leave it to Kaidan to make a spooky situation worse, he thought as he stepped into the final room, surveying the damage. It was completely wrecked, it looked like several people had gone through and thrown everything they could find around the room.

Outside in the hall, the lights gave one last violent flash and went dark, but the lights in the room stayed lit. Frowning, he headed back to the hall to check on his team when the door slammed shut with a loud snick.

“What the hell?” He tried the pad, nothing. It behaved as if it had no power at all. Maybe it was on the same circuits as the lights. He would have to wait for Tali to fix them. He refused to allow it to unnerve him yet. It was perfectly logical that a ship that had been abandoned as long as the Lucen would have electrical problems.

He stepped over a pile of books on the floor and made his way to the closet. It had been emptied of all its clothing and a large bag sat on the floor stuffed randomly with items. Had the occupant been trying to pack to leave? Had they known there was a problem with the ship? If so, why had no one else done the same? The other three rooms looked orderly. It also did not explain the destruction in the rest of the room. There was sloppy packing and then there was this. He lifted a random notebook from the floor and a read the cover. In neat block lettering he read “THE LAST WILL AND TESTIMENT OF RANDOLPH P EVERETT”. He thought that was an unfortunate name, and not very Asari. Had there been non-Asari crew on this ship? Not too unlikely considering.

He flipped open the cover and the same neat hand had written, “I do not trust the computers, so I have to write this here. It is the computers that are out to kill us. No one will listen to me, but it is true. I swear it!” The exclamation mark had been drawn over multiple times and was had almost torn through the page.

“I, Randolph P. Everett, being of once sound mind and still sound body do hereby bequeath…” John stopped reading. The computers were out to get him. The poor man had obviously succumbed to some kind of mental illness, that was why his room looked like this. At least that made it less creepy. Poor guy was mad; it wasn’t some kind of attack or violence. Just the doings of someone who was no longer tethered to reality. What was taking Tali so long to fix the door?

Stepping back over the piles of debris he went to the door and tried the pad again. Still nothing. He banged on it with his gloved fist, but no answer. Maybe they were sound proofed better than the Normandy. He and Kaidan knew all about the poor sound proofing in the crew quarters. The walls did look pretty thick. He was sure she was working on it.

A scraping noise behind him made John whirl around. Everything was still. He had been certain he heard something moving, he looked around the room harder. Nothing seemed to be any more out of place than before. Maybe he had jarred a pile of books loose and they had just started to slide. John went to pick up the notebook again.

Where was it? He was certain he had placed it on the desk, but now it was not there. That must have been what he heard, the notebook had fallen to the floor. But it was not lying on the piles of clothing and books near the desk. A strange feeling of alarm started to fill him. He fought to control it, there was no reason he should feel this nervous. It was just a notebook. He must have only thought he had placed it there. He scanned the room quickly, but saw no sign of it until he looked at the bed. He had not gone anywhere near the bed, but there it was, sitting right in the middle of the bare mattress.

He knew the bed had nothing on it when he came in because he had noted how new the mattress looked, the stripes still sharp blue and white, no signs of spills or tears or any of the normal wear and tear you expect from that kind of furniture. But now, right in the center was the green note book with the big block lettering.

There was no way he had put it there, he had not gone to that side of the room at all yet. Still trying to find the rational explanation for the relocated notebook, John heard the noise again. This time it was clearer, and was more of a dry scaly sound, like a snake dragging it belly across an aquarium floor. It had come from his left, by the closet, but once again, no signs of anything moving when he looked.

Annoyed at his own response, Shepard stomped back over to the small nook and dragged the bag out and tossed it to the middle of the floor. Was there something living in the bag? Had some strange lizard survived all this time against all odds in a duffle bag in the middle of an abandoned ship? It seemed as far-fetched as anything he had seen on a movie, but something had moved.

As he turned to open the bag, he froze. Sitting on the desk, where he had put it, was the notebook. But now it was red. Hadn’t it been green before? He glanced to the bed, maybe there were two, maybe the man had suffered from hypergraphia and wrote lots of copies of the weird will. The notebook was not there; instead where it had been was a large red stain. It looked like blood and it was spreading. As Shepard looked on, horrified, the stain became a puddle which began to slowly expand until long sticky threads ran down the sides of the mattress and pattered on the tangled sheets where they cascaded onto the floor.

“What the hell,” Shepard forgot about the bag again as he slowly edged toward the strange bleeding bed. Surely it was not actually blood, maybe something was leaking in a room above. He glanced up; the ceiling was as white and unmarked as before. He looked all around the bare white expanse above him until the lights once again began to flicker with a dull humming sound; combined with the slithering sound he had heard earlier the effect was extremely unsettling. He looked around the room again, he needed to make sure he kept up with the notebook and the duffle, but as the lights flickered and faded, strobing like a dance club, he became aware of something new. A face peered at him from the once unblemished ceiling, its mouth wide and cavernous. It was almost featureless as if it pressed through a membrane, only the mouth was clear. Every time the lights turned off and came back on it was a little bit closer to him, just as the scaly sound seemed to get closer with it. He backed himself up toward the door and slapped ineffectually against the pad. Nothing happened. The door remained stubbornly shut.

Closer and closer it came as his heart rate climbed higher and higher, spiraling up exponentially. He had not even though to draw his weapon, something told him this could not be stopped by something as simple as a gun. The face moved down, now a misty outline sliding closer to him as he stood frozen against the locked door. Finally, Shepard closed his eyes, expecting to feel the thing touch him any moment. The feeling of blind terror growing higher and higher until all he could feel was the pounding of his own heart.

The door behind him gave a lurch and slid to the side, leaving him to stumble backwards, grabbing at the wall for balance. His team stood, frozen looking at his pale sweat streaked face and shaking hands.

“The door has a short in it, Commander,” Tali tried to keep her voice normal despite being unnerved by her commanding officers appearance. “It must be tied into the same system as the lights,” she continued. “When I tried to bypass the door controls it made the lights in the hall go crazy. However, it did also unlock the door to the next hall.” She gestured to the now open corridor to her right.

Struggling to regain his composure, Shepard just nodded.

“What the hell, John?” Kaidan was at his side. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s in there? “He had his gun pointed nervously at the darkened doorway.

“Nothing is in there.” John said firmly, straightening himself. From where he stood the now steady lights fell on the unmade bed. There was no stain, blood or otherwise on its surface. “Nothing at all.” He insisted.

“Commander…” Liara started, but he cut her off. “There is nothing useful to this mission in that room, we will move on.” He said in a firm voice. Already he was telling himself that he had imagined everything he had seen in the room, not that he was going back in there to look for the notebook.

The hall wrapped around leading them closer and closer to the storage room with the mystery artifact. Liara still walked in the lead, data pad held in front of her marking the location of the item. She showed no signs that anything was amiss at all, she had not been affected by any of the strange happenings. Tali walked beside him, her posture tense. She seemed to be starting to feel that something was not quite right here. Kaidan came up behind, but he was getting more and more nervous the closer they got to their destination. It was getting to the point where Shepard was starting to think he was going to have to send the Kaidan back to the shuttle for his own good.

The doors were all shut along this hall as well and as they walked cautiously past Shepard could not help but feel unseen eyes on them. He was not a man given to flights of fancy, so the feeling was especially unwelcome.

“The artifact is through here,” Liara stopped in front of another nondescript door. “Almost there.” She said cheerfully. This entire mission had been exciting for the Asari and she hardly even made a noise when all the lights went out again.

The small team waited, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, the lights did not return. Then the soft hum and hiss of the air circulation system halted. A deep rattling bang echoed from the vents followed by softer thumps. It sounded like footsteps deep within the ship. Before they could fully process this strange turn, the sound of the doors along the hallway opening and closing filled the small space. From some of the rooms they could clearly hear the sounds of people talking, some crying, and one screaming. Thankfully the last one was quickly cut off by the door sliding closed again.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds, before Shepard could even fumble his flashlight into his now shaking hand it all stopped and an eerie silence surrounded them.

“Uhm, Commander?” Liara sounded hesitant for the first time since boarding this bizarre ship. “I think something is standing in front of me.” Her voice was slightly breathless but before he could respond the lights came back on in a blinding flash, leaving them squinting and wiping at their now streaming eyes, Liara gave a startled shriek. All four of them stood blinking in disbelief at what they were seeing.

Several of the doors were still open and the scenes in the rooms could not have been staged more effectively to invoke horror. A small dining hall, chairs tipped over still sat with food on the plates. An office showed paper strewn across the floor and the words “THEY ARE COMING FOR US.” scrawled on the wall in black marker. Another room had obviously been used by some of the crew to attempt to hide from whatever was stalking them, food, blankets, water and medical kits were stacked in less than orderly piles up to the ceiling. It looked like it had done the occupants no good in the end, blood splattered the sides of the boxes, pooled on the tiles, and more than one set of bloody foot prints lead from the room into the hall, trails of smeared blood following after.

“How did we not see the blood on the floor before?” Kaidan asked, trying to put together a rational explanation. Was it not there before, or is it not there now?” He bent and ran his finger through a streak near his feet; it came away wet. Quickly, he wiped his hand on his leg and swallowed hard. “Yeah, I think it is real now.”

Liara had not said a word yet, she stayed frozen, staring at the large bloody footprints and spreading pool at her feet. Apparently, she had not been wrong about something being right in front of her. Any closer and she would have had to have touched it.

The air began to move again with a shuddering of vents and a moan that sounded almost like the word “go”.

“The thing in the vents has the right idea,” Kaidan’s olive skinned face had a distinctly green look to it. “We need to go.”

“We are right here,” Liara did not sound as enthusiastic as earlier. “There is no reason to leave the artifact here when it is only feet from us.”

“I hope this thing is worth the trouble.” Tali’s voice, softer than usual.

The storage room was not as large as Shepard had expected. It looked more like an office supply closet than somewhere you would keep an ancient and valuable artifact. There were signs of a struggle in here as well, boxes tipped over, their contents vomited onto the shiny floor. Some boxes had been tossed carelessly as a child’s building blocks, blocking the way to the deepest parts of the room, but Liara just crawled right over them while she stared and the glowing pad in her hand.

“It is in one of these.” She gestured to the shelf, still stacked high with whatever was in these cardboard and plastic containers. Some were labeled, indicating files on personnel; others seemed to be shipping and receiving manifests. One was clearly full of decorations for something. Shiny tinsel and brightly colored paper.

“Can you no narrow it down anymore?” Shepard sighed. He wanted to get his team out of here as quickly as possible.

“No, Sir,” The Asari insisted. “It is somewhere on this set of shelves, the tracking is only accurate to a couple of feet.”

Kaidan did not approach the shelves; he stood with his back to his tree companions. “You guys hurry and look, I’ll keep an eye on our creepy hallway here.”

Shepard, Liara, and Tali each reached for a box. The one john grabbed was a dusty old cardboard box, the kind used to store paper files. He pulled off the lid, balancing the box on his knee and promptly dropped both the box and the lid. Sitting on top of a stack of yellowed and almost disintegrated papers was the notebook. Its green cover with the large block lettering “THE LAST WILL AND TESTIMENT OF RANDOLPH P EVERETT”. He was certain it had been blue at one point, and red at another.

“Commander?” Tali questioned as she opened up a plastic tub full of cables and wires.

“I think this thing is following me,” he said. “It was in the crewman’s quarters, the ones that had been trashed, but now it is here as well.”

Liara paused in her search of yet another box. This was her second one and neither held anything more interesting than staff memos and one shipping manifest. “Commander,” She stood and brushed her hands off against her thighs. “That is a very unlikely scenario. Surely this is an additional copy.” Felling foolish, Shepard agreed.

“This place is starting to get to me I think,” he gave a dry chuckle. “Let’s just find what we came for and get back to the Normandy.” The other two turned back to searching the shelves for their mysterious artifact, but john could not help himself, he had to know what was in the notebook. He was embarrassed to see that his hands shook slightly as he pulled the thin paper book out of the box and flipped its cover open.

If this was not the same notebook, it was an exact duplicate; even the heavily drawn exclamation mark was the same. He flipped to the back of the book, the writing had become less legible and the writing more scattered.

“The ship is haunted, it is in the computers.” Started the final page. “The captain says it is a disease and is collecting everyone who is showing symptoms for quarantine. He doesn’t understand. This is not a pathogen; it is something bigger, something to do with the artifact they brought on board just last week. I do not know what they plan to do with the people they are taking; right now I think they are in one of the flight bays. My neighbors are gone already; all three of three of them were affected early on. How I am not, I do not know.” He turned the page.

“It makes you think you are going mad, the voices, the visions, and now it is affecting the electrical systems. I think we are all going to die. The rumor is that the captain will open the air lock where the ‘infected’ are being kept and purge the ship of this madness, but I know it won’t work.”

Shepard closed the notebook. “We may have a problem here,” he started to say, but was cut off by Tali’s terrified shriek.

“It tore my suit!” She was grasping at her wrist, desperate to keep the suits environment sealed. Frantically, she hurried to seal to tear. Kaidan appeared at their side, looked rapidly around trying to assess if there was a threat.

“What tore it, Tali?” Shepard asked, not seeing anything sharp anywhere near.

“I don’t know,” She sounded shaken and breathless. “I was reaching for that small box and suddenly there was something shiny right by my arm, it cut my suit and was gone.” He pried her fingers away from the left arm and began to look for the damage, but Liara gave a gasp and several boxes tumbled to the floor. “Commander!”

Still kneeling next to Tali, Shepard turned to face the new threat and heard the click of Kaidan’s gun as he armed it. “Liara!” He called out. “What happened? Are you all right?” There was no answer, but rapid breathing could be heard behind the jumble of boxes.

Slowly Shepard stood, moving toward where Liara had been.

“No! Stay back.” Her voice sounded panicked and high pitched. “Don’t come any closer!” Liara moved slowly back from under the mess, eyes wide. “Commander!” She called again, looking right at him. “Kaidan? Tali? Where are you? There is something in here.”

Kaidan froze, going pale. “Liara, what are you seeing?” He tried to sound calm. “The Commander and I are standing right in front of you.”

“You cannot fool me,” the Asari hissed, an uncharacteristic look of anger crossed her face. “What have you done with them?”

“Kaidan, she is armed, stay back.” Shepard reached out and placed his hand on Kaidan’s tense arm. “It is the artifact. That is what I was about to say. This journal that has been following me around on this ship is a description of the last days of the crew here. It seems the artifact has some kind of hallucinogenic affect. We need to stay together and get out of here.”

“You want to keep it for your own.” Liara was standing again. “You cannot have it.” She lunged forward, grabbing at something only she could see, pulling her weapon at the same time. Both Shepard and Kaidan made a grab for it at the same time, but she pulled the trigger before either could reach her over the spilled boxes. A sharp cry from Tali behind them made all three of them freeze.

“Tali?” Shepard could not afford to take his eyes off of Liara. “Tali, are you OK?”

“Commander?” Her voice sounded weak. “I think I’ve been hit.” A sharp glance toward Kaidan showed him that Liara was not going to be causing any more problems. He was advancing on the stunned Asari slowly and deliberately.

Tali had already closed the hole in her suit by the time he got to her side, but the bubbling sound of her breathing told him that they were not going to have much time.

“Time to go. We need to get out of here now.” A dull clank echoed in the room and suddenly it felt smaller and darker than before.

“Was that the door?” Tali asked. “How could it make that sound?”

“The same way the walls are making that sound.” Kaidan replied and all four froze. Even the still terrified Liara. It was quiet at first, but slowly grew in volume, the sound of breathing, like a large animal in a cave. It came from everywhere and nowhere all at once, surrounding them.

Shadows began to collect in the corners and became trails of black running down the walls like thick blood, as they reached the floor; they ran like rivers, sliding through cracks and across tiles only to climb shelves and boxes like tentacles of some unholy monster. It was then that the room began to distort and twist. Shepard was reminded of a fun house he had gone to as a child, the room had been full of mirrors, each distorted in a different and alarming way. The effect made it impossible to know which way he was going and he had ended up so lost his mother had to come in and find him. How old had he been? 4? 5? His mother was not here to lead him out this time.

Kaidan suddenly dropped his gun and covered his ears; going to his knees he kept saying “No, no more. No more.” Over and over. The breathing was getting louder and now the light began to flicker alarmingly. If they went out altogether he was sure he would have pandemonium on his hands. Liara broke free of his hold and scrambled away from him, still obviously seeing something he could not.

He looked to Tali; she struggled to get back to her feet, clutching her chest.

“Commander,” she said hesitantly. “I realize it is the artifact causing this, but right now I am not sure what is real and what is not.”

“I know, Tali.” Shepard tried to reassure her while his mind continued to tell him that the room was distorting and filling up with the blood/tentacle things. “You need to keep it together a little longer, OK. We both do. We will get you back to the Normandy and get you to the medics.”

“Yes, Commander.” She replied, sounding a little more firm. “Is the face in the wall real, or is that in my head too?”

John realized it was a mistake as soon as he started to turn his head to look where Tali was facing, but like seeing an accident on the highway, he could not stop himself from looking. The shelves behind him were now bare except for a single box. It looked plain, nondescript. It was a simple metal box with a single latch where a key would go. Behind it, the wall had twisted and deformed until it resembled a face, the face he had seen in the crew quarters, but much larger this time. It opened its gaping mouth and a sound like a hurricane tore through the tiny room. Words rode the imaginary wind, whipping by faster than thought, none of them sounded like any language he had heard before.

Liara and Kaidan had both huddled up on the floor amidst the boxes and black tendrils, and now Tali was down again as well, the sound echoing and growing in the storeroom until the pressure of it made Shepard feel sick with it. A tickle made him tentatively reach up and wipe his lip, he knew he would find blood there when he looked and he was not disappointed.

“That’s it.” He demanded. “Everyone get up.” He roughly pulled Kaidan’s hands from his ears and was alarmed to see blood running down the side of his lover’s face. The look of blank non-recognition was even worse.

Feeling that there was no time to waste on sentimentality, he did the same with Liara, roughly dragging both to their feet. “Grab Liara,” he looked the dazed Kaidan directly in the eyes, pointing to the dramatically swaying Asari. “We are getting out of here.”

Whether the other man heard him he did not know. He turned to help Tali from the floor, but found her already on her feet and staggering to the now closed door. The howling and verbal barrage continued unabated as he followed the Quarian. She was working with the pad rapidly, taking tools from her belt to poke and prod, putting them back and trying with new ones.

“It is not working, Commander.” The panic was back in her voice. “I cannot get it to respond at all.” The room gave a violent lurch is three directions at once and Shepard felt his stomach heave and roil.

“Then we will do this my way,” he said as firmly as he could, pulling Tali back from the pad, the Quarian simply slumped against the wall, not resisting at all. Closing his eyes to block out the wildly heaving room, John struck the black pad with his boot. Feeling it give he did it again, and again until a snap and a sizzling noise accompanied by the smell of ozone made him open his eyes. For a second he thought all he had managed to do was start an electrical fire, but with a puff of grey smoke the pad gave up and the door slide open.

A abruptly as it had started, the noise and visual hallucinations stopped. Cooler air from out in the hall flowed in and the lights steadied. There were no flowing tendrils of blood, no facing howling its eternal rage from the wall and no little grey box.

Shepard wrapped his arms around Tali as she slid slowly down the wall and stumbled out in to the now too bright hallway and stood blinking at what he saw. The mess from before was just the beginning. Scorch marks scared the walls and doors opened and closed seemingly at random.

Kaidan, with Liara in tow, came to a halt just behind him. Staring open mouthed at the scene. No one moved for long moments until a bubbling gasp from Tali, reminded John that he still held her against him. Gently, he placed her on the floor.

“Tali, we are going to get you back to the Normandy now,” he said softly. “Just hang in there a little longer.” He urged as he looked around for a way to carry her more easily.

“Commander,” her voice was barely more than a whisper. “Don’t leave me here.”

“Of course not, Tali,” he assured her. “I just need to find something so we can get you back to the shuttle. I’ll just…” He stopped. Tali lay still upon the floor in front of him, her chest had ceased to rise and fall, the sickening sound of a chest wound had stopped. She was dead.

Liara gave a terrible shriek, curling herself into a tight ball against the wall. “I didn’t mean to. I swear I didn’t mean to.” She said it over and over as if chanting it as a mantra would make it better.

“Liara,” Shepard barked. “You remember how to get us out of here?” They would have to deal with what happened later. There would be no later if they did not get off this ship.

The Asari still looked stunned and not a little sick, but she nodded, her usual calm demeanor was no longer evident. “It is still on my pad.” She said, fumbling for the device and not finding it. “I must have dropped back there,” she made to turn to retrieve her lost gadget, but immediately thought better of it.

“Leave it.” Shepard ordered. “We will figure it out.” They set off down the hall, more slowly than the y came in now that they were dragging Tali’s body. Nothing looked the same as it had on their way in. Every door they passed held a new horror. A tableau of pain and death staged just for them.

Some were people who had tried to escape the tide of madness and fear by locking themselves away, only to succumb anyway. One crew member had peeled the flesh from her own hands and drawn strange symbols on the walls of the office they found her in. Another lay across her desk, eyes wide and unseeing, frozen in time after someone had wrapped a length of cable around her neck and choked the life from her.

Messages in a strange script covered the walls and floors. Some had gone mad and attacked those around them, other had turned on themselves. Everywhere the damage was obvious. It seemed that none of the crew had been able to completely resist the effects of the innocuous looking little box, or more exactly, whatever it contained.

The three stumbled almost blindly down the ship's corridors, now turned a house of horrors. The lights continued to blink and stutter, doors opened and closed with no one touching them, nothing looked familiar with the crazy strobing lights and the shadows of horrors past.

"If they all killed each other," Liara suddenly spoke up. "Who cleaned up the mess? It was not like this when we came through."

"Who says it was cleaned up?" Kaidan answered. "Are we sure this is the illusion and not what we saw coming the other way?"

"Your point is valid." The Asari agreed. "But it makes no sense that it would even try. If it did not want us taking the box, why did it hide this until we made it all the way to the store room?"

"Maybe it was fucking bored?" Shepard butted in, silencing them with his uncharacteristic profanity. "We can debate why all we want once we are safely back on the Normandy."

The corridor open back up into the familiar hall they first found when coming out of the hangar.

"I do not know how we got here," Liara stumbled to a halt, causing Shepard and Kaidan to pile up behind her, trying not to knock the Asari down. "This is not how we came the first time, but I am certain this is the right one." The deep red stripe lined the sides of the hall with the hangar bay number marked on it.

"Don't care how we got here, I just care that we get out of here." Kaidan nudged her forward while keeping an eye behind him. He could not shake the feeling that they were not alone and he was not about to let them get this far just to get ambushed by some creepy crawly from an ancient's nightmare.

Shepard was at the door to the hangar by the time they caught up to him. He was just about to put his hand to the pad when he hesitated. "It cannot be this easy." he finally said. "It is just going to let us waltz out of here with nothing more than the creep show in the halls?"

"What are you saying, Commander?" Liara asked.

"I'm saying that before we open this door, we need to know what is on the other side."

"The command room had a monitor showing this bay." Liara said. "Kaidan and I can go back to the room and check and let you know if it is safe to open the door."

"I do not like the idea of us not staying together." He gave an anxious look over at Kaidan.

"It makes sense," the younger man insisted. "If we all go, we will have no way of knowing if it is still safe by the time we get back here. If we go, check it out, radio you to tell you it is safe then we can open the door."

The commander hesitated. The idea was sound in theory, but wasn't that how the story always went in the stories? It made more sense to split up and the monster always came and got them. He shook his head hard. What was he thinking? This was no movie. This was real life. The plan made sense.

"Of course." he admitted. "I will wait here for your word."

Time seemed to pass slowly, and it took all his self-control to keep from checking on them every couple of minutes, but John held back and waited for their call.

"Commander." Liara’s voice came through the radio. "It is safe to open the door now." Relieved to hear from his crew members Shepard almost reached for the panel, but that little voice in his head that had been telling him this was bad idea started screaming at him to stop.

"Liara," John spoke into the radio. "Say again."

"It is safe to open the door now. Kaidan and I will be back momentarily." The reply came, heavy with static. Something was not right; he could not put his finger on it.

"Before I do that, ask Kaidan something for me." He waited for the response it came, but was even more garbled than the last.

"What would that be, Sir?"

"Ask him what my favorite drink is." He had to think of something there was no way whatever was on this ship would know. The static on the radio became louder and the voice underneath was no longer Tali's. The words that came through were not in a language he understood.

"I knew this was a bad idea." Shepard snarled as pushed away from the wall. "We will just have to take our chances with whatever is on the other side of that door. Now it knows that we are worried about it, so there will be something there whether we look or not." He grumbled to himself, wondering if voicing his concern would make it more real. It seems like the old rules were not going to apply here.

He had only made it a few steps down the corridor toward the command room before the radio squawked back to life.

"Commander," Liara said. "It looks like we have a problem. The airlock is open. Kaidan and I are trying to close it now so you can open the door."

"I sure hope this is really you this time, Liara." Shepard said warily. "I'll ask again. Have Kaidan tell me what my favorite drink is." He heard a rustle as the radio was handed to Kaidan.

"Have you lost your mind, John?" Kaidan's voice came through strong and clear. "You like that god awful whiskey from Earth. The one that tastes like burnt toast and trees. And if you can't remember that, you need to get checked out as soon as we get back."

Shepard laughed a genuine laugh. "No, I did not need reminding. You guys just get the air lock problem fixed and them we can get back."

"The air lock is closed, Commander." Liara cut in. "However, I do not believe that the life support systems are fully functional in there any longer."

"Thank you, Liara.' Shepard said, meaning it. "You two get back here and I will have the shuttle ready to go."

"Yes, Commander." The radio went silent. He fumbled his mask back on and took a deep breath of the recycled air. At least he knew it was safe.

With some hesitation, he reached out to the pad again. "Time to fish or cut bait." He said to himself as he placed his hand on the control and the door hissed open to on the empty and silent bay. Only their shuttle sat in the middle of the hangar. No hordes of crazed ancient Asari, not demons swirling out of mist, no crazy twisted walls, just a silent ghost ship hangar. He never would have thought that would be a relief.

He walked carefully through the now too large room. He was keenly aware that whatever had opened to doors before, could do so again at any time. Every tap or pop made him freezes and look wildly around, heart pounding hard enough to make him feel nauseated. He gently dragged Tali’s body along with him. She had asked not to be left behind.

Shepard just focused on the getting to the shuttle, one foot in front of the other, but like in a nightmare, it did not seem to be getting any closer. The more he walked, the further it seemed to be. He began to feel sweat trickle down his back. Surely it should feel cold in here; instead it was getting hotter and hotter. He lay Tali down and straightened his aching back. He was only a few meters from the door.

The sound of weapon’s fire echoed down the hall. Kaidan! Leaving Tali where she lay, he unholstered his own weapon. He heard a cry and another shot. Slowly, he made his way to the doorway, just in time to see bright blue lightning bolts of energy tear into Liara as if she were no more than a child’s doll. Bright blood splattered the walls in all directions almost instantly, a Rorschach in red. Horribly, the thing turned to face him, blood dripping from his distorted mouth lined with rows of shark’s teeth. It seemed too large for his jaws, bulging grotesquely. His eyes were black and crazed. “Kaidan?” Shepard whispered in a voice so small it seemed to be absorbed by the very walls

Shepard aimed his gun at the creature Kaidan had become. This had to be another trick, a game by the thing that inhabited this place. How had it gotten so bad, so fast? “Kaidan! Snap out of it. Don’t do this.” He pleaded, heedless of the desperate high pitched whine in his voice. “Don’t make me do this; we can fix this back on the Normandy.”

With no more warning, the beast launched itself at him, grotesque distorted jaws snapping at his face and throat. He was out of time and options, he fired. In the end, he had fired 5 times; striking Kaidan each time causing his body to jerk and twitch in a horrifying parody of a dance before it fell to the floor, blue light crackled from its body and Kaidan lay in a spreading pool of blood lifeless eyes turned toward John accusingly. Horrified, Shepard dropped his gun and staggered backwards. He had just killed Kaidan. His Kaidan.

Then it came, the heavy clang of the bay doors opening, it was the only warning he had before the vacuum of space pulled him from the Lucen Ascendant.
~*~
Commander Shepard felt his whole body jerk as if waking from a dream where he was falling.

"Commander?" It was Joker. "Sir? What should we do?" He gestured to the image on the screen, but he gave his commanding officer a worried look.

"Not a God damn thing." Shepard snarled. "We never saw it. Plot a course to get us as far away from this thing as we can as fast as we can."

He stalked from the bridge. Whatever was on that ship did not want them there and he was more than happy to leave it the hell alone.