I hope this doesn’t get my honourary HFY card revoked.
We’ve come to the penultimate chapter in The Hungry Stars. Lydia is having a moment and Echo is currently incommunicado, meanwhile the ship is drifting closer to a megastructure that makes the death star feel inadequate. Everything’s going to turn out all right, I’m sure.
Below is a snippet from the chapter as Lydia struggles with a host of parasitic nanites in her brain, trying to get her to kill her own friends and rescuers. The worst part is, as we’ll learn… she doesn’t even need to. For the full story, check out the links above and enjoy!
~
Lydia’s expression twitched. For an instant it was the unsettling blankness of the League’s puppets, but it pulled back into a mask of despair and fear.
“Lydia…” Grace began carefully. “Put it down. Put the gun down.”
“I want to,” the Marine cried. “God, I want to but he won’t let me. I can’t… I couldn’t hear him like the others. I didn’t know it was happening until…” tears were streaming down her cheeks. “I can hear him now. He’s inside my head and he… he wants me to…”
Shoot her, something insisted with words that weren’t quite words. This wasn’t like the others. It wasn’t the whisper of a thousand different voices winding around each other into a single melody. It was harsher. Individual. Demanding. Even though it didn’t communicate directly, she knew what it wanted. It had come at her from the side, attacking motor functions first, conscious thought second. Not until her gun had left her holster did she know something was wrong. She’d stopped herself just in time, but it wasn’t enough. It was getting louder, pounding like a drum beat and beneath that cadence… the other voices were growing.
Her finger wanted to press down on the trigger. Just a gentle squeeze. That was all it would take, just a little squeeze and then everything would be quiet.
But it wouldn’t. She knew that that promise was a lie. The voices never went away. Once they had you, they never let go. It wasn’t her doing this. They’d gone through the cloaking barrier and whatever was inside that ring had found her. It had reached out, just like Red did to enemy starships and just like her, it had found a way in.
Shoot her.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lydia could register Allyria moving towards her. Slow, but every muscle in the Verrish’s frame was tensed. Her claws had unsheathed. It occurred to Lydia that she’d actually never seen Allyria use them. She’d only seen the aftermath. Not until the Verrish had plowed through the hospital staff at the JMC. Part of her wondered if she’d look like that afterwards.
Shoot her, Lydia.
“Please…” Lydia said, trying hard. “Please, Allyria. Don’t.” She knew how fast the Verrish was, but she was teetering on the edge. “If you try to stop me…” her voice faded. I don’t know if I can stop myself. He was so loud, getting louder and she was losing, bit by bit. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold on, until she went ahead and…
Shoot.
Her.
~
My Patreon / subscribestar / twitter
Proximal Flame's Fiction 