John’s SciFi Space Short Story

Possessed

Part 3

To avoid arousing suspicion, Gabriel had to fly the antiquated and inefficient modes of transportation humanity used, much to her frustration. Life would be much easier for her if she could use her god-given abilities, but rules were rules. She now sat in a starship headed for Euphrates, the planet where the incident had occurred. To be more precise, the deed happened on a space station orbiting the planet, but she could only access the station via the planet, hence her interim destination.

Passengers surrounded her, oblivious to her as they remained focused on their own selfish desires. She could eavesdrop on their thoughts if she wanted, but her superiors frowned upon such an unnecessary abuse of power and invasion of privacy unless it related to her case, so she refrained from her inquisitive tendency. Instead, she sat back and enjoyed the flight, which took nine hours through the hyperspace corridor. The day humanity discovered hyperspace travel was a windfall for the seven. They no longer needed to disguise their methods with such secrecy.

Gabriel woke with a start. She didn’t normally nap, but the boredom got the better of her. Still, she became inquisitive over what had woken her and noticed they had exited hyperspace and neared Euphrates. Scanning the aether, she sensed a disturbance intensifying as they drew closer to the planet. Her defenses snapped into place, her reflexive instinct reacting to the detection. A terrible force had encroached on this region of space.

***

I must escape, Cain thought, for a reason that confounded him. Despite suspecting himself being the most sought person in the galaxy, he had little reason to leave the station yet, considering it was virtually empty, making it the safest place to hide. But an insatiable urge filled him with the demand to leave.

Most vessels docked to Babylon were freighters and unsuitable for Cain’s purposes, but a sports cruiser stood idle further out on the docking arm. It seemed to satisfy whatever controlled him, so Cain headed toward Babylon’s commercial terminal. His stomach rumbled as he strolled, but nothing would divert his will from its destination. He just hoped they stocked food aboard the yacht.

He met no one as he traversed the corridors, an eerie sensation given the station’s population. Whatever was in him couldn’t have killed everyone, could it? Concern welled within his consciousness as he sensed the parasite gaining hold of his body and mind, discarding any semblance of identity Cain had. Panic made him unable to devise a plan to countermand the demands of the creature living within him. Cain’s only hope was to find a cache within his brain to secrete himself until the squatter left him, hopefully with him still alive.

Cain entered the commercial terminal departure concourse, where he spotted several people busy scuffling to board any transport leaving Babylon. As he neared them, a few spied him and stared in disgust and fear, backing away from him to give Cain unimpeded access to his destination.

One man, fuming with rage, lunged for Cain, only for the creature to unleash the same blue lightning, striking the man dead. He plunged to the deck, convulsing in his death throes.

On reaching the boarding tunnel for the space cruiser, Cain stepped through with a casual stride and onboard.

“Hey, you can’t come here,” a burly man said, his voice gruff and posture threatening. “This is a private yacht.”

“I’m borrowing it,” came from Cain’s mouth, despite using his energy to stay silent.

“Over my death body.”

“If you insist.”

Blue flame bridged the gap between them. The man was dead within seconds. Now the only person on board, Cain encountered no further resistance as he headed to the bridge. Activating the controls, he undocked from the space station and powered the drives, heading on a trajectory away from Euphrates to an unknown destination.

***

To be continued…