Tomorrows - Chapter 5
BSB - No Pairing - Tomorrows - Chapter 4
And more again.
AJ woke with a start. What, huh? He raised his head and looked around. Oh yeah. He was in hell. Rolling over, AJ pushed himself upright. Absently, he scratched the back of his head, jumping slightly when his fingers skated over that damn hole in his head. He was not okay with that. And he had to pee.
Rubbing the damn hole in his chest, AJ rose and stumbled to the lavatory. Okay, now where the hell was the toilet? There was a cubbyhole in the wall that looked vaguely like a shower. And what was recognizably a sink. Hmmm. Okay this was getting urgent. There was an odd tube sticking out of the wall that distantly reminded AJ of those space toilets he’d seen on TV.
“Nu-uh. No fuckin’ way I’m stickin’ anything that vital into anything that might try to eat it or incinerate it,” he muttered. Besides, he really didn’t think that was the toilet. He looked around again. This was getting extremely urgent. He spotted an indention on the mirror above the sink. Shrugging, he touched it. Something whirred behind him. AJ jumped and spun, ending up sitting with his ass in the sink. His back hit the faucet. Cold water cascaded down his back and into his pants. Yelping, AJ struggled out of the sink.
“Smooth, Boner. Reeeeeal smooth,” he grumbled, plucking the dripping fabric away from his body. He looked toward the shower. It was gone. Huh? Puzzled, AJ stepped into the opening where the shower had been. Now there was a toilet. Weird. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, AJ went about his business. Oh, that was better. Okay, now, where had the crapper come from?
AJ went back to the mirror. Watching the toilet in the mirror, he pushed at the indention again. Smoothly, the toilet rotated away, revealing the shower. Cool. Two rooms for the price of one.
Water ran down AJ’s leg. Twisting, he put his back to the mirror to inspect the damage. Oh hell no. No way. The pants clung to his butt, vaguely transparent. Not a happenin’ deal. AJ walked back into the main room. Maybe there were some clothes since this was obviously his room. Nothing so blatant as a picture of his mom or anything, he thought with a mild pang, but it was definitely decorated in his style.
Wandering the room slowly, AJ found a slender door recessed into the wall. Okay, what’s this? He found another indention/button thingy next to it. Pushed it. The door slid open. Score! Clothes.
AJ rifled the closet. It seemed bigger inside than out. He could see clothes past the door on either side, but he couldn’t reach them and he couldn’t fit through the narrow door. Okay, so he’d settle for what was in front of him. He pulled out a pair of slick black pants. They looked interesting.
Stripping off the white pants, he stepped into the black ones. They were snug, but slid smoothly up his legs. Stepping back, AJ ran his hands down his thighs. The pants clung and hugged his legs. Turning, he tried to look at the back. Oh well, of course, he thought cynically.
The backs of the calves had holes that centered directly over those port things in his legs. Okay. He peered back in the closet. There was a long-sleeved shirt made of the same slick stuff. He pulled it over his head. It was snug too with appropriately placed holes in arms and chest. The neck was scooped and wide, well clear of the port in his head. Convenient.
AJ looked down at himself. Well, now he was all black and shiny, but still barefoot. He bent to rummage in the bottom of the closet. Combat boots? Okay then. He slid his feet into the loose boots. They clamped down on his legs. Whoa. Insta-fit. The boots were hard and heavy. Darth Vader boots. Amused now, AJ pulled another item out.
“Armor?” he murmured. “You’re shittin’ me. I have armor.” Black, slightly scuffed armor. Laughing in delight, AJ slid the clamshell style top on. He settled it onto his shoulders. It closed down, locking into place. A connector in the chest, clicked neatly into the connector in his own. It locked down too. Cool.
Disturbing, but still pretty fuckin’ wicked.
AJ picked up the other pieces of the suit, slid them on. Each one snapped, locked and otherwise fit itself neatly on his body, locking into ports where the pieces covered them. AJ flexed and twisted. Huh, this stuff was light and comfortable. Which was a good thing, since he had no clue in hell how to get this shit off. Ruach would tell him later. He was hungry too, but that would have to wait, since he didn’t even have the slightest inkling where to begin looking for that one.
Looking around, AJ decided to explore the ship. He stepped into the hall. One way was the infirmary and the other was the door Ruach had told him not to open. Okay, so infirmary for now. Forbidden door later. Boots clacking on the deck, AJ headed down the hall to the room where this had all started.
AJ poked through the cabinets, locating more white pants with the initials on them. He eyed the elevator. He wanted to see the other guys. Wasn’t sure if he should. He shook his head.
“Don’t be a pussy, Boner,” he scolded. Still holding the pants in his hand, AJ walked into the elevator. So, which button? Might as well start with number one. He pushed the first one. The doors snapped shut and the compartment shot upwards. It slid to a halt one level up. The doors opened, revealing a round, white room. AJ stepped off the lift.
There was a huge thing in the middle of the room. It had drawers? Yup, five of them, all the way around. One looked like it had been ripped open with a crowbar. Kevin’s, he thought. The one next to it stood open, but unmauled. Mine. Unexplainably nervous, AJ crept over to scrub at the fogged windows on top.
The first one was Brian. His eyes were closed and he had a slight smile on his face. He looked serene. Of course, if anyone was going to be serene about this whole shitty deal, it would be B-Rok. AJ laid the pants marked BTL on the lid. The next window was Howie’s. D looked, well, asleep. His face was relaxed and pretty much expressionless.
“Hey D,” AJ murmured, staring wide-eyed. This wasn’t pleasant. They looked far too dead. AJ didn’t even want to ponder that mental image. What if Ruach was wrong? What if they weren’t sleeping? What if they’d died in there and no one had noticed? No. Dammit, Bone, stop that. They’re fine and Ruach’ll get ‘em out. Move on. He moved around to the last closed pod. Nick.
Peering through the window, AJ noticed that Nick’s lips were blue. Brian and Howie’s had been too, but on Nick it was really obvious. Boy was just so damn fair. The kid’s eyes were scrunched shut and his mouth was open a little. He looked like he’d been frozen mid-nightmare. Shit. That would suck.
“No worries, Nicky,” he sighed, patting the glass over Nick’s face. “We’ll get you out.” He laid the last two pairs of pants on the top of the machine and headed for the door. He couldn’t stand here and look at his frozen friends anymore. It was doin’ weird things to his gut.
His need to explore squelched by this less-than-pleasant excursion, AJ went back down to the infirmary. There was a reclined chair behind the main console. He’d sit down and wait for someone else to wake up. There wasn’t much else he felt like doing. AJ settled into the chair. It came to life.
“Identify,” a warm, male voice demanded. Startled, AJ gulped.
“Ahhh, AJ McLean?” he replied, hesitantly. The chair leaned back further, tilting AJ into an almost horizontal position.
“Welcome back, Mr. McLean,” the voice said. “Preparing for immersion.” AJ squeaked. Preparing for what?! Before he could move, the chair locked down around his arms, legs and chest. Connectors snapped into his ports. Shit! Panicked, AJ tried to struggle. It didn’t work. The chair had him but good.
“Oh bloody fuckin’ HELL!” AJ shouted as the chair snapped the last interface into the back of his head. His entire body twitched and then AJ felt the world spin away.
***
AJ looked around himself. He was definitely back in the computer.
Counterpart immersion complete, the voice announced in his head. Okay, completely in the computer. AJ looked around again. Cool.
Adjusting environmental controls. What, huh? No wait! That’s not what I meant! Uhhhh, what to do.
What’s the temperature? he tried, fumbling.
19.37 degrees Celsius and falling, the voice informed him. Aww, no. No, stop, go back!
Aborting environmental adjustment. Whew. What had Ruach said? He was the counterpart so he had to be careful. Everything he thought could be taken as a command. Well, that had just been graphically illustrated. Dude.
Nick would love this, AJ thought to himself, calming again. So would Brian and Howie come to think of it. Briefly, it occurred to him to wake them. No! No way was he tryin’ that without Ruach. He’d seen the mess she had to make of Kevin’s tube and she knew what she was doin’. Nope. There had to be something more interesting around here to do.
***
A level over his head, three tubes warmed. Three consoles lit up. And three timers began a countdown to reanimation.
***
Ohh, look at this. AJ stumbled across the video log of the ship. Three thousand years of it. WHAT? THREE THOUSAND YEARS!! He scanned back to the very beginning. Okay, this was disturbing.
People in what looked like surgical scrubs had two bodies stretched out in the infirmary he was now sitting in. Oh Christ, he thought as he got a good look at a face. That was Brian. Brian was looking at the form next to him and screaming.
Audio, please, AJ thought. Brian’s voice jolted through him.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO HIM?! NICKY?! NICKY!! LEAVE HIM ALONE!! OH GOD!! NICKY!” Brian was hysterical, shouting and screaming and writhing. AJ stared at the images flashing through his brain. He focused on Nick.
The blond was facedown on one of the tables. He wasn’t conscious. A person in scrubs picked up what looked like a drill. With a sickening crunch, they drilled a hole in the back of Nick’s head. Bone fragments and blood spattered everywhere. AJ thought he might vomit. The first doctor/psycho pulled the drill away. Another jumped in to install one of those damn plugs.
Then a third cleaned up the area. They zipped something over the whole back of Nick’s head, flashing purplish light across it. It healed. Just like that. But the gore was still there. The process was repeated eight more times down the length of Nick’s spine. Brian screamed the whole time.
Kevin was dragged unconscious through the door and laid on another table. Another wet, sucking noise invaded the scene. Brian’s voice broke.
“KEVIN!! SWEET GOD WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?!” he shouted.
“FUCKIN’ HELL! ROK WHAT’VE THEY DONE TO NICK?!” AJ flinched as he recognized his own voice. Howie’s joined his as they were both dragged in the door and strapped to tables.
“AJ HELP KEVIN!” Brian was still shouting as loudly as he could. AJ watched himself thrash and flail, breaking loose before the last strap was fastened. He landed a solid blow to someone’s face before they pressed something to his arm. AJ shook as he watched himself drop limp, to the floor. Howie lunged for him. He got the same treatment. Then everyone returned their attention to Kevin.
Brian was the only one left conscious. He was strapped down and couldn’t fight back, so why bother sedating him? Not like it made a difference if he saw this right? God, AJ was going to be sick. Would’ve have been if he could’ve moved.
The docs pulled the drill out of Kevin’s head with a slurping noise. Blood sprayed. AJ shivered as some splattered Brian’s face. Brian lifted up as much as he could, leaned over the edge of the table and vomited violently. Shuddering, he heaved until there was nothing left to throw up and then retched for a few minutes more.
Right there with ya, Rok, AJ thought. As soon as he could breathe, Brian started screaming again.
The psycho-docs finished with Kevin. Turned toward his own sleeping form. AJ gagged as they drilled into his head. Christ. Fixed and staring, AJ watched as they installed the ports and interfaces on his body, cleaned him up and moved to Howie.
Brian’s voice had long since gone hoarse and raw, but he still screamed and begged and sobbed as these monsters mutilated his friends. AJ found himself profoundly grateful when they finally moved to Brian and sedated him. His voice, which was pitifully small and thready by now, finally fell silent. AJ mentally checked the real time it had taken from the beginning to the time they had drugged Brian.
Jesus Christ. Eleven hours and forty-two minutes. And Brian had watched and screamed the whole time. Holy God. AJ stared, transfixed as the people in scrubs drilled and installed and healed Brian. Then all five bodies were washed, taken upstairs and crammed in those pods. All in all, AJ was damn glad he couldn’t remember. He wondered if Brian would.
Shaking internally, AJ stopped the playback of the pods. Starting at the beginning, AJ watched again, committing it all to memory. He winced when Brian’s voice began screaming again. Shit. This was awful. But he had to see it. Had to witness it. AJ watched and cried and tried not to puke, because he had to know. And because he couldn’t leave Brian alone to sob brokenly and scream. Even three thousand years ago.
And more again.
AJ woke with a start. What, huh? He raised his head and looked around. Oh yeah. He was in hell. Rolling over, AJ pushed himself upright. Absently, he scratched the back of his head, jumping slightly when his fingers skated over that damn hole in his head. He was not okay with that. And he had to pee.
Rubbing the damn hole in his chest, AJ rose and stumbled to the lavatory. Okay, now where the hell was the toilet? There was a cubbyhole in the wall that looked vaguely like a shower. And what was recognizably a sink. Hmmm. Okay this was getting urgent. There was an odd tube sticking out of the wall that distantly reminded AJ of those space toilets he’d seen on TV.
“Nu-uh. No fuckin’ way I’m stickin’ anything that vital into anything that might try to eat it or incinerate it,” he muttered. Besides, he really didn’t think that was the toilet. He looked around again. This was getting extremely urgent. He spotted an indention on the mirror above the sink. Shrugging, he touched it. Something whirred behind him. AJ jumped and spun, ending up sitting with his ass in the sink. His back hit the faucet. Cold water cascaded down his back and into his pants. Yelping, AJ struggled out of the sink.
“Smooth, Boner. Reeeeeal smooth,” he grumbled, plucking the dripping fabric away from his body. He looked toward the shower. It was gone. Huh? Puzzled, AJ stepped into the opening where the shower had been. Now there was a toilet. Weird. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, AJ went about his business. Oh, that was better. Okay, now, where had the crapper come from?
AJ went back to the mirror. Watching the toilet in the mirror, he pushed at the indention again. Smoothly, the toilet rotated away, revealing the shower. Cool. Two rooms for the price of one.
Water ran down AJ’s leg. Twisting, he put his back to the mirror to inspect the damage. Oh hell no. No way. The pants clung to his butt, vaguely transparent. Not a happenin’ deal. AJ walked back into the main room. Maybe there were some clothes since this was obviously his room. Nothing so blatant as a picture of his mom or anything, he thought with a mild pang, but it was definitely decorated in his style.
Wandering the room slowly, AJ found a slender door recessed into the wall. Okay, what’s this? He found another indention/button thingy next to it. Pushed it. The door slid open. Score! Clothes.
AJ rifled the closet. It seemed bigger inside than out. He could see clothes past the door on either side, but he couldn’t reach them and he couldn’t fit through the narrow door. Okay, so he’d settle for what was in front of him. He pulled out a pair of slick black pants. They looked interesting.
Stripping off the white pants, he stepped into the black ones. They were snug, but slid smoothly up his legs. Stepping back, AJ ran his hands down his thighs. The pants clung and hugged his legs. Turning, he tried to look at the back. Oh well, of course, he thought cynically.
The backs of the calves had holes that centered directly over those port things in his legs. Okay. He peered back in the closet. There was a long-sleeved shirt made of the same slick stuff. He pulled it over his head. It was snug too with appropriately placed holes in arms and chest. The neck was scooped and wide, well clear of the port in his head. Convenient.
AJ looked down at himself. Well, now he was all black and shiny, but still barefoot. He bent to rummage in the bottom of the closet. Combat boots? Okay then. He slid his feet into the loose boots. They clamped down on his legs. Whoa. Insta-fit. The boots were hard and heavy. Darth Vader boots. Amused now, AJ pulled another item out.
“Armor?” he murmured. “You’re shittin’ me. I have armor.” Black, slightly scuffed armor. Laughing in delight, AJ slid the clamshell style top on. He settled it onto his shoulders. It closed down, locking into place. A connector in the chest, clicked neatly into the connector in his own. It locked down too. Cool.
Disturbing, but still pretty fuckin’ wicked.
AJ picked up the other pieces of the suit, slid them on. Each one snapped, locked and otherwise fit itself neatly on his body, locking into ports where the pieces covered them. AJ flexed and twisted. Huh, this stuff was light and comfortable. Which was a good thing, since he had no clue in hell how to get this shit off. Ruach would tell him later. He was hungry too, but that would have to wait, since he didn’t even have the slightest inkling where to begin looking for that one.
Looking around, AJ decided to explore the ship. He stepped into the hall. One way was the infirmary and the other was the door Ruach had told him not to open. Okay, so infirmary for now. Forbidden door later. Boots clacking on the deck, AJ headed down the hall to the room where this had all started.
AJ poked through the cabinets, locating more white pants with the initials on them. He eyed the elevator. He wanted to see the other guys. Wasn’t sure if he should. He shook his head.
“Don’t be a pussy, Boner,” he scolded. Still holding the pants in his hand, AJ walked into the elevator. So, which button? Might as well start with number one. He pushed the first one. The doors snapped shut and the compartment shot upwards. It slid to a halt one level up. The doors opened, revealing a round, white room. AJ stepped off the lift.
There was a huge thing in the middle of the room. It had drawers? Yup, five of them, all the way around. One looked like it had been ripped open with a crowbar. Kevin’s, he thought. The one next to it stood open, but unmauled. Mine. Unexplainably nervous, AJ crept over to scrub at the fogged windows on top.
The first one was Brian. His eyes were closed and he had a slight smile on his face. He looked serene. Of course, if anyone was going to be serene about this whole shitty deal, it would be B-Rok. AJ laid the pants marked BTL on the lid. The next window was Howie’s. D looked, well, asleep. His face was relaxed and pretty much expressionless.
“Hey D,” AJ murmured, staring wide-eyed. This wasn’t pleasant. They looked far too dead. AJ didn’t even want to ponder that mental image. What if Ruach was wrong? What if they weren’t sleeping? What if they’d died in there and no one had noticed? No. Dammit, Bone, stop that. They’re fine and Ruach’ll get ‘em out. Move on. He moved around to the last closed pod. Nick.
Peering through the window, AJ noticed that Nick’s lips were blue. Brian and Howie’s had been too, but on Nick it was really obvious. Boy was just so damn fair. The kid’s eyes were scrunched shut and his mouth was open a little. He looked like he’d been frozen mid-nightmare. Shit. That would suck.
“No worries, Nicky,” he sighed, patting the glass over Nick’s face. “We’ll get you out.” He laid the last two pairs of pants on the top of the machine and headed for the door. He couldn’t stand here and look at his frozen friends anymore. It was doin’ weird things to his gut.
His need to explore squelched by this less-than-pleasant excursion, AJ went back down to the infirmary. There was a reclined chair behind the main console. He’d sit down and wait for someone else to wake up. There wasn’t much else he felt like doing. AJ settled into the chair. It came to life.
“Identify,” a warm, male voice demanded. Startled, AJ gulped.
“Ahhh, AJ McLean?” he replied, hesitantly. The chair leaned back further, tilting AJ into an almost horizontal position.
“Welcome back, Mr. McLean,” the voice said. “Preparing for immersion.” AJ squeaked. Preparing for what?! Before he could move, the chair locked down around his arms, legs and chest. Connectors snapped into his ports. Shit! Panicked, AJ tried to struggle. It didn’t work. The chair had him but good.
“Oh bloody fuckin’ HELL!” AJ shouted as the chair snapped the last interface into the back of his head. His entire body twitched and then AJ felt the world spin away.
***
AJ looked around himself. He was definitely back in the computer.
Counterpart immersion complete, the voice announced in his head. Okay, completely in the computer. AJ looked around again. Cool.
Adjusting environmental controls. What, huh? No wait! That’s not what I meant! Uhhhh, what to do.
What’s the temperature? he tried, fumbling.
19.37 degrees Celsius and falling, the voice informed him. Aww, no. No, stop, go back!
Aborting environmental adjustment. Whew. What had Ruach said? He was the counterpart so he had to be careful. Everything he thought could be taken as a command. Well, that had just been graphically illustrated. Dude.
Nick would love this, AJ thought to himself, calming again. So would Brian and Howie come to think of it. Briefly, it occurred to him to wake them. No! No way was he tryin’ that without Ruach. He’d seen the mess she had to make of Kevin’s tube and she knew what she was doin’. Nope. There had to be something more interesting around here to do.
***
A level over his head, three tubes warmed. Three consoles lit up. And three timers began a countdown to reanimation.
***
Ohh, look at this. AJ stumbled across the video log of the ship. Three thousand years of it. WHAT? THREE THOUSAND YEARS!! He scanned back to the very beginning. Okay, this was disturbing.
People in what looked like surgical scrubs had two bodies stretched out in the infirmary he was now sitting in. Oh Christ, he thought as he got a good look at a face. That was Brian. Brian was looking at the form next to him and screaming.
Audio, please, AJ thought. Brian’s voice jolted through him.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO HIM?! NICKY?! NICKY!! LEAVE HIM ALONE!! OH GOD!! NICKY!” Brian was hysterical, shouting and screaming and writhing. AJ stared at the images flashing through his brain. He focused on Nick.
The blond was facedown on one of the tables. He wasn’t conscious. A person in scrubs picked up what looked like a drill. With a sickening crunch, they drilled a hole in the back of Nick’s head. Bone fragments and blood spattered everywhere. AJ thought he might vomit. The first doctor/psycho pulled the drill away. Another jumped in to install one of those damn plugs.
Then a third cleaned up the area. They zipped something over the whole back of Nick’s head, flashing purplish light across it. It healed. Just like that. But the gore was still there. The process was repeated eight more times down the length of Nick’s spine. Brian screamed the whole time.
Kevin was dragged unconscious through the door and laid on another table. Another wet, sucking noise invaded the scene. Brian’s voice broke.
“KEVIN!! SWEET GOD WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?!” he shouted.
“FUCKIN’ HELL! ROK WHAT’VE THEY DONE TO NICK?!” AJ flinched as he recognized his own voice. Howie’s joined his as they were both dragged in the door and strapped to tables.
“AJ HELP KEVIN!” Brian was still shouting as loudly as he could. AJ watched himself thrash and flail, breaking loose before the last strap was fastened. He landed a solid blow to someone’s face before they pressed something to his arm. AJ shook as he watched himself drop limp, to the floor. Howie lunged for him. He got the same treatment. Then everyone returned their attention to Kevin.
Brian was the only one left conscious. He was strapped down and couldn’t fight back, so why bother sedating him? Not like it made a difference if he saw this right? God, AJ was going to be sick. Would’ve have been if he could’ve moved.
The docs pulled the drill out of Kevin’s head with a slurping noise. Blood sprayed. AJ shivered as some splattered Brian’s face. Brian lifted up as much as he could, leaned over the edge of the table and vomited violently. Shuddering, he heaved until there was nothing left to throw up and then retched for a few minutes more.
Right there with ya, Rok, AJ thought. As soon as he could breathe, Brian started screaming again.
The psycho-docs finished with Kevin. Turned toward his own sleeping form. AJ gagged as they drilled into his head. Christ. Fixed and staring, AJ watched as they installed the ports and interfaces on his body, cleaned him up and moved to Howie.
Brian’s voice had long since gone hoarse and raw, but he still screamed and begged and sobbed as these monsters mutilated his friends. AJ found himself profoundly grateful when they finally moved to Brian and sedated him. His voice, which was pitifully small and thready by now, finally fell silent. AJ mentally checked the real time it had taken from the beginning to the time they had drugged Brian.
Jesus Christ. Eleven hours and forty-two minutes. And Brian had watched and screamed the whole time. Holy God. AJ stared, transfixed as the people in scrubs drilled and installed and healed Brian. Then all five bodies were washed, taken upstairs and crammed in those pods. All in all, AJ was damn glad he couldn’t remember. He wondered if Brian would.
Shaking internally, AJ stopped the playback of the pods. Starting at the beginning, AJ watched again, committing it all to memory. He winced when Brian’s voice began screaming again. Shit. This was awful. But he had to see it. Had to witness it. AJ watched and cried and tried not to puke, because he had to know. And because he couldn’t leave Brian alone to sob brokenly and scream. Even three thousand years ago.