The previous life of Johan Lennox





Chapter 1 - The Run

Chapter 2 - Virus

Chapter 3 - Faked Dreams

Chapter 4 - 'Newcomers'

The Run


The sun rised at Curacao. The light of the sun slowly filled the area around him with smooth dark orange shades. He checked a device mounted around his arm a last time, then he opened the cockpit of his ship. As the cockpit opens up a quiet croaking is to hear. That ship seemed to be very old. Something about seven years. Every good pilot knows that a ship, if it's older than only a few years it can mean less security than the newer ones. The hull wasn't compacted that good as it is expected from an older vessel. The atoms of the alloys began to move apart from each other and so the 'Fisher', like it was told by it's pilot, wouldn't be able to withstand too much fire. Knowing that the the shadows of the vessel slowly disappeared as the man inside it closed the cockpit and lifted his ship up. Expecting the worst when he would leave the upper atmosphere into space he activated his weapons and some other smaller devices, that looked very weird. Slowly a Kingfisher was seen, undocking from the Curacao docking ring. Right before he could undock, he already have seen a lot of LSF ships flying around infront of the docking area, searching for something. Immediately he received a call of one of these ships.


Lennox just ignored the message and shut down the comms. He was typing something into a console, one of his strange devices. Suddenly an EMP energy peak was detected by one of the LSF ships.


Static was to hear till the whole comm system of the LSF crushed. As one of the LSF ships opened fire the Debilitators on it began to explode and torn the wings apart. One by one the fighter's lights shut down.
Lennox used this moment for escaping. He initiated the cruise engines. Before doing that he took a last glance on the cockpits of the single ships. Each LSF vessel lost the energy for life support system. The ion blast killed the functions of their ships. The agents in the ships beat against the cockpits frantically trying to get oxygen to breath. But there was no hope for them. One bye one the LSF agents fell down, not able to breath any longer. After Lennox engaged cruise speed he mumbled something and headed for the Coronado jumphole.

The travel was short and quiet. It let feel Lennox a bit relieved as he reached the jumphole. He scanned it for analyzing the status of it if it would be passable. After the scans the cockpit lightened up as he initiated the jump sequence. His ship, heavily wickling inside of the cockpit, exited the jumphole after some seconds of entering. Asteroids shot into the direction of the ship. With activated shields he headed for the Barrier Gate station. He did not think about trouble with the LSF in this system and leaned back after he activated the autopilot.


The 'Fisher' entered the nebula, that reduced the range of the scanners immediately, but detected strange signals coming out of the field. "Hmm...this is no regular activity in this system." Johan pressed some buttons, then a nearly invisible shockwave, coming from his ship, appeared. Just some asteroids and small rocks were hit and made strange sounds as the shockwave hits. Then another shockwave. Lennox looked at a screen in his cockpit, seeing the shockwaves spreading. He could saw all the forms the shockwave 'collided' with. "Just asteroids...rocks...nothing suspicious." He wondered while continuing generating of the shockwaves. Then a loud beep with the message "Incoming missile" appeared on one of his screens.


He launched four flares with his countremeasure dropper. But the missile hit and the ship lost it's cruise speed.
Johan activated the weapons, six modified Flashpoints. He had still no contact on his scanners and slowly got confused.


Suddenly he saw pictures of the destruction of the ship of his parents. The new Rhino, how it blowed up with the screams of his mother and father. He dug his hands into his head, panicking, not knowing what is going on. He suddenly heard a voice in his head.


The pictures in his head switched to the incident that happened infront of Curacao. He somehow felt the pain of the LSF agents who died. Lennox began to scream when finally the voice and the pictures disappeared. His heartbeat rate was very high, his breathing very fast. Due that what happened every body parts seemed to freeze. He wasn't able to move. He was suffering in a surplus of adrenaline. He managed to grab a bottle of water to drink something. His heartbeat slowly returned to it's normal speed again. He was sweating a lot but his body functions slowly returned to normal, too. With taking a deep breath Lennox continued his flight to the Barrier Gate Station.


The docking control asked for the identification of the incoming ship.


The 'Fisher' began to deactivate the shields automatically and flew into the hangar bay, the gate behind it slowly closing. The old ship sinks down on one of the avaible landing pads and the cockpit opened. Lennox pressed some buttons to deactivate the systems. He also deactivated one of the strange devices in the cockpit.


With quick steps he headed for the bar of Barrier to get some rest.

Sounds of music and the voices of speaking persons were getting closer. Arrived at a door Lennox opened it, stepping inside a big crowded room. He was looking around if there is a familar face. But no. He wouldn't have wanted to drag others in the trouble he had anyway. He walked to the counter at the bar, signaling to have a drink. The bartender got two bottles and mixed a drink for him.
Meanwhile there were two curios persons at the landing pad where his Kingfisher stood. They nodded to each other and placed a device on it. The men in the blue uniforms quickly moved away after they placed the strange thing on the hull of Lennox' ship. The door opened as the strange men wanted to escape but there was somebody blocking the entrance.


Lennox looked up, without an expression on his face, holding a plasma gun in his hands, lifting it up to aim for the others man's head. He squeezed the trigger and unleashed a projectile of ultra hot plasma. The shot burned through the head of the poor man who wasn't able to dodge and fell down. The other strange guy pulled out his handgun, while jumping away. He was searching for cover. But he wasn't fast enough. Two well aimed shots of green matter hit his hand with the weapon. He screamed in pain after he saw that his hand have been melted away by the gun of Lennox. Johan moved closer to the injured man, still holding his weapon in his hand. The other guy was trying to get distance to but he was simply to weak. The man in the blue suit hit a wall with his back, cursing and then realizing he wouldn't have a chance. Lennox moved infront of the man, holding his weapon at the head of the panicking man. Without saying a word another projectile of the green matter ran through the man's head. The whole body immediately stopped moving.
Investigating the corpses, Lennox was searching for something. He finally found the two communicators of the the dead men. They were from the Liberty Navy and had no idea where they ran into. They had to follow him through the system.

Holding some kind of scanner in his hands Johan scanned the station for hidden accesses to the neural net. Since he had nothing to log in there he managed his way to the station core where he found the mainframe too. It was very dark inside there, some lights were flickering. The air was cold and wet. A shiver slipped down his back after he entered the unfriendly place. Looking around, he was walking to the mainfram, preparing some devices to gain access to it. He put some plugs into the interfaces and activated his device. Tons of numbers ran down on the display of the small thing in his hands. He was typing something in when suddenly the alarm was released.


He knew he had to hurry so he copied some data from the mainframe and severed the connection. Lennox began to run out of the room, heading for his ship. He opened the cockpit, no time left to remove the strange device the two Navy's placed, and jumped into his ship. Some guards arrived and opened fire on Lennox. But the cockpit was already closed and it was obvious some handguns couldn't 'hurt' the hull of a space ship.


With saying this he fired some salvos of his weapons on the docking gates. The inner station shields weren't able to resist, broke and set the hull free from the shield bubble. The Flashpoints melted some holes into the gate. Air began to run out of the station.


He brought his ship in position, preparing for crushing out of the station with his whole ship. He increased the speed, watching the gate that came closer and closer. A loud crushing sound was to hear after the ship impacted with the damaged gate and was set free to space. Inside his ship Lennox covered his ears from the very loud sounds that appeared. He saw the turrets aiming on his ship. he took over manual control and immediately turned the 'Fisher' to the direction of the Baffin jumphole and engaged cruise speed.

It was a wonderful view as Lennox exits the Barrier Nebula in Baffin. He took some time, watching the huge gas giant and the other planet in the system. He leaned back into his seat, enjoying the view, putting away his thoughts for a while. After he returned back to reality he continued his flight through the peaceful system, heading for jumphole to Tau 29. On his flight he encountered some members of the TAZ. He knew these Zoners are sometimes thinking different than others in Sirius. With not caring too much about what they said Lennox made his way to the jumphole and entered it after scanning. His cockpit lightened up and the wormhole pushed the 'Fisher' out of the end of the passage between the two jumping points. Arrived in Tau 29 Johan initialized a scan of the area around him. Nothing special.



He stretched his body after he jumped out of the Kingfisher. He looked around if there was somebody looking at him. He then searched for the device the two Navy's have placed on his ship but it was missing. Lennox grew worried because he didn't hear anything neither the scanners 'told' him something. He wondered about that as he walked inside the bar of the freeport. He shortly looked around, not noticing a woman in a bluish uniform was watching him. He ordered a drink and looked around again. he noticed the woman was staring at him all the time without an expression on her face. Johan got worried again, took his drink and left the bar.



The woman quickly stood up, following him out of the bar. But after she left the room she didn't see him any longer. She moved to a corner where she saw a shadow of somebody. Her eyes widened in fear as she wanted to look what comes after the corner. Then she suddenly was pushed against the wall. It was Lennox, holding a knife on her throat.



He pushed her to the side to edge of the corner, signing her to run away. Lennox pulled out his weapon, preparing for a fight. The grenade exploded and tore most of the stuff around apart. People dressed in black suits equipped with plasma rifles stormed in. They saw Lennox aiming them. But they didn't fire. They even lowered their guns.


The woman who was ordered to run away appeared behind Lennox, looking over his shoulder to see what was going on. Lennox finally lowered his gun, too.

After the door closed Lennox sighed and looked over to the woman who was leaning against a wall, looking offended. He stared at her shortly and then went away to the other direction of the floor, instead of going back into the bar. The young woman ran behind him to catch up and tried to get in eye contact with Lennox.


With a cold voice he finished his last sentence and continued walking. He typed something on his mobile computer around his arm when the girl tried to catch up with him again after thinking a while.


Lennox released a sigh and stopped walking again. He pulled her into the next dark corner to speak low to her.


Lennox shook his head again and released his hands of her. He then headed through the next door, the girl followed him with quick steps. Lennox undid a bag of his suit after he locked the door with a code and pulled out something that looks like a laptop, like these from earth centuries ago. But this thing looked quite different. It was equipped with the most modern communication technology and with a neural interface he never used before. He connected the bigger device with his arm-computer over a cable and started to type something in.


Lennox didn't answer. He was way too busy with analyzing the matter he just found. It was something about the Newcastle system. He stood up not realizing his new 'partner' stood behind him. He hit her chin with his shoulder hardly and turned around, frightened because he didn't expect her behind himself so close.


He didn't answer and got is stuff back together to put it back into his bag. He placed the bag back on his suit and gestured Natasha to come with him. She stood up, her giddiness was gone, and walked to Lennox.


Some of the mercenaries were still there. They hadn't left the station yet. Lennox was sure it was some kind of trap. If he would take out the guards inside then the guards outside in space wouldn't be far away from the station. He gestured to Natasha to walk to her ship to distract the guards a bit. Meanwhile he should be able to get in his ship.


Natasha stared at him after he said "my" ship. She wasn't aware it's Lennox on her side, a person she heard about in the news. He was put under arrest by some kind of data abuse but then made it to escape. She looked a bit scared at him because she also heard about the lost LSF patrol near Curacao via the Neural Net.


She suceeded and distracted the guards away from his 'Fisher'. Without a sound he opened the cockpit and pressed the button to close it after he got in quietly. The guards didn't notice anything and tried to help Natasha with her problems. In his cockpit Lennox activated all his devices and sent the same matter like he used for the LSF patrol somehow via the communication channels into the Mercenary ships. This time the ion particles just deactivated the scanners, shields, weapons, comm systems and the lights. The engines were still working but without a navigation system it would be suicide especially without a protecting shield around the ship. He took his comm device and spoke into the hangar.


With these words he sent an electrical beam, caused by an intended overheating of his Debilitators, from his ship to the the two guards. They fell down immediately and a stenght of burned leather was spreading around. The girl stood there, frightened by the seemingly dead bodies, and stared up to the cockpit of Lennox with fear, bewilderment and some kind of sadness in her eyes. But then she mobilisated her muscles and jumped into her cockpit after she opened it. Johan knew the guards were alive. They were just knocked out by the beam. But obviously Natasha didn't know it. She closed her cockpit and activated her engines. Lennox did the same with his and requested a permission for both ships to undock with using a false designation of his vessel and a different name. All he was able to hear was "Granted" so he let the Eagle move out first and then followed. Outside in space Natasha was frozen with her gaze on the drifting ships. It looked like a nightmare for her and again she thought they all would be dead. After she initialized a comm channel with Lennox she wasn't able to look at him.


Natasha just nodded and went in formation with the Kingfisher. She leant back into her seat and watched the space while the autopilot was initiated to follow Lennox. After both ships engaged cruise speed they headed for Tau 31, the Newcaslte jumphole Lennox was able to gain information about.

Virus


A cold shiver ran down her back after both ships arrived in Tau 31. The too high amount of white in the system let her feel like in the days of winter when coldness is spreading death around. She kept quiet, still busy with her thoughts about the men Lennox shot. How could he? Those guys weren't bad and probably didn't deserve to end up this way. About an hour it was quiet, nobody said anything. Lennox began to worry a bit. Though he had no interests in her but he felt odd if he wouldn't try to talk to her at least. He couldn't bear the thought he would push her into trouble that never belonged to her without saying a word.


The girl just sighed with an annoyed sound, not exactly realizing what Lennox just said about the mercenaries at the Freeport. She was too busy in sinking in her thoughts.


Natasha rubbed her forehead, making a face without an expression as she wouldn't believe him. But she wanted to go with him anyway. There would be some things for her to do in Newcastle. So why deny an 'escort'? For the rest of the journey to the jumphole to Newcastle she kept quiet, still offended that Lennox didn't gave her the wanted attention. How could she know what happened to him, why his behavior is so strange? Thoughts over thoughts are running through her head when they finally arrived at the jumphole.


But Lennox ignored it instead. He knew there is not much time left for him. He had to find the information, contained in the data stream he was able to decrypt. After entering the jumphole the vessel exited the wormhole some seconds later. Scanners confirmed their location in the Newcastle system. Johan sighed, sounding a bit relieved. He probably was close to the information he urgently needed for himself.
But at first he wanted to land on the Gateshead Station to take a break before returning to business.

Shaking his head he released a sigh. He was aware that he murdered them. He didn't feel very well about that thought though. But he also couldn't just throw away that what happened. He moved his ship in position and asked for a permission to dock. It was granted and Lennox initiated the docking sequence. Natasha already docked. He had no clue if he would see her again. He somehow began to like her even if she is a bit annoying. He saw the Eagle on a landing pad, no pilot in or around it. It must have been final. He sighed, shaking his head. He landed the 'Fisher' on a landing pad and jumped out of the cockpit. No sign about Natasha. He went out of the hangar into the bar, trying to relax this time really. He sat down on a stool and ordered a cocktail. The bartender was quick. It didn't even take a half of a minute untill he got his drink. He sipped from it and looked around. Still nothing. Why was he looking around anyway? Lennox knew she was offended, maybe even scared he could kill her. He finished his drink with a few sips and stood up. He didn't feel relaxed any longer. He actually never did in his life before. How could he believe he would be able to do so after so much years of stress? He moved back to his 'Fisher'. He was looking down on the bottom, watching his own steps.
He looked back up and suddenly noticed the girl he was all the time looking for was standing there at his ship, waiting with crossed arms. She didn't see him. She still seemed to sink in her own thoughts, not even realizing the footsteps.


She just shrugged and walked back to her ship without saying anything. Lennox rolled his eyes and opened the cockpit, having a suspicious look on Natasha for a last time. Then he jumped into the cockpit, closing it, and lifted up his vessel out into space. He completed the undock sequence and waited for Natasha's Eagle. Finally the vessel undocked too, heading to the position of Lennox' ship.


Both ships engaged the cruise engines but then suddenly something interupted their flight. Lennox tried to withdraw with his ship but the engines failed to work. A cold shiver ran down his back when he saw the planet infront of him, coming closer and closer. The Eagle was still shown like it would be in formation with his ship but Lennox only could see the engines at Natasha's ship got interupted by something too. Both of the ships were heading to the planet's surface.


Lennox activated all systems and powered his shields more than normal to survive the collision on the surface. A long smoke trail can be seen as the two ships are entering the upper atmosphere, beginning to glow because of the sudden pressure against the hull. Johan was pushed in his seat, sweating, not expecting he would survive. He had no idea what will happen with Natasha. At this last moment of being alive he felt sorry about her. He never intended to kill her that way. The two ships slowly disappeared in in the atmosphere, on a crash course with the atmoshphere. They got closer and closer. Johan closed his eyes preparing for the impact. In the Eagle Natasha was starring at the surface that got closer and closer. No sign of panic or nervousness. Just sitting in her seat with an openend mouth.


It almost threw them through their ships as the ships collided with the earth. Just a lot of crushing sounds were to hear. Lennox lost consciousness due the very hard impact and had no control about the maneuvering thrusters. The remaining 'Fisher' finally stopped moving as it crushed into a tree. The Eagle was gone. There were no signs of it.

Strange sounds were to hear. Hums were flying around like in a bad organized orchestra. Something woke him up. It was a strange lifeform that saw Lennox as some kind of a toy. A creature, not bigger than a cat, was jumping around on Johan's body. Terrified by the strange, whatever it should be, thing he punches it away, slightly annoyed but also feared. He knew that Carlisle is no place for humans yet. The temperatures were way too high, also the amounts of aggressive species on that planet. Lennox was sweating already. It wasaround 45 degrees in the remains of the Kingfisher. He looked back from the char where he still sat on, noticing the whole rear was missing. Green. Nothing more than just green he was able to see when Lennox stood up to look around. The air was filled with fog that made made breathing much more exhausting due to the high moisture in the air. He already felt like a waterfall. He knew that if he cannot find something to drink or to eat he wouldn't be able to survive this heat for very long. In addition to this he had to find Natasha. He couldn't just leave her alone in this mess of plants, trees and weird other passive organisms.

He went back into the remains of the 'Fisher', being thankful he survived though, and armed himself. Before doing so he undressed himself until the only needed clothes were laying on his skin. The thin fabric of it let him sweat a bit less but the armor would compense that anyway again. He slipped into the armor suit, closing it. He armed himself as usual with his plasma handgun and a rifle, he was able to gain from one of the mercenaries on the Freeport. Just to be sure he took also a combat knife with him in case he would have to defend himself on a short distance. It was like hell. He had no idea where he was, neither if Natasha is alive. He felt in some kind of self-pity but then started to walk into the direction where the nose of the Kingfisher headed to. She can't be so far. He began to walk over the ground, through the tall grass, not knowing what will expect him. Johan tried to keep concentrated but the more of the strange sounds he heard in this jungle the more terrified and more nervous he became. He was almost running through the thicket of the green mess, only with the thought to find Natasha and then leave the planet as quickly as possible before it would kill them.

Minutes turned up as hours, seconds as minutes. He thought he was already searching for a long time, though he just began. Finally, after an hour or two he noticed a familar smell. It was fire and smoke Johan smelled. A hopeful expression crossed his face as he noticed the possible wreck of the Eagle of Natasha. The smell came closer and closer. He was running straight towards the smell....he arrived. He looked around to find the exactly source where the smell came from. He wasn't able to believe his eyes as he saw it was only one wing of the Eagle. But if there were parts of the ship the complete vessel cannot be too far away. He looked at his portable computer around his arm. But nothing. There were too much disturbing factors in the environment.

Suddenly he heard something. It sounded like something would kind of beat against a metal wall. He tried to find the source of the sound to move into the right direction. He then managed it to get closer to the sound. He was running to the point where the source was. He sighed relieved as he saw what he saw. It really was the Eagle. He quickly searched for a possibility how to get into the ship. It was heavily damaged and all functions were shut down or destroyed. But something was wrong. After he arrived the sound stopped to appear. He began to worry but concentrated back on how to get into Natasha's ship. He pulled out something that looked like sword, just without the blade. With one end of it he tried to open the cockpit with force and finally managed it. He got into the Eagle and closed the cockpit again just to be sure nothing would have followed.

It was completely dark inside the ship but the temperature was okay. It was notable the Eagle wasn't so old like his now destroyed ship. He activated a flashlight, searching for the pilot. She wasn't in the cockpit before the ship impacted it seemed like. She must have been in the cargo hold. And there she was. Johan opened the door to the cargo hold, looking around with his flashlight. There she sat. She sat on the ground in a corner, hugging her knees while putting her head on them. She cried, obviously not thinking she would survive. She looked quite terrified as she noticed the light and almost got up because of the shock but didn't manage it. She seemed to be too weak. Lennox noticed blood on the ground. It must have been hers.


He felt relieved as he was able to hear her quiet voice. He almost ran to her, throwing himself on his knees, placing a hand on her shoulder, the other one on her hands. She looked up and stared at Lennox, not believing he was alive and even here.


She didn't release him yet. It was obvious she must have been much longer here, in consciousness, than he was. Lennox didn't really know how long he was knocked out. The last thing he can remember was the crash on the bottom with the 'Fisher'.


Lennox took her arms and removed them gently from him. He started to inspect her body for wounds. He was sure she had to be hurt because of the blood on the bottom.


The girl already stopped crying and wiped out the tears off her face, looking at Johan. Lennox found a wound at her right side. Nothing that's too bad but it still can get worse. He pulled out some bandages, preparing them. The girl looked at him, still frightened and not actually knowing what was going on. She knew she was injured but it seemed like it was something different that clouds her mind, not allowing her to think normally.
Lennox looked shortly into her eyes and then pulled up her top that he can see the wound clearly. He pressed some kind of cotton ball on the injured point of her body. Natasha pressed her teeth together as the pain ran through her nerves. She grabbed his arms, clinging to them. Smiling, Lennox removed one hand of his arms to put the bandages around her sides and the stomach. It wasn't something seious and no dirt or foreign bodies were inside of the wound. Lennox pulled her top back down and nodded at her.

She tried to stand up to show Lennox where the water and the food was. But she fell down the first time. She didn't look very good. Her hands were cold and her head was pale. Lennox moved closer to her, placing one palm on her forehead. His eyes widened after he realized she must have fever. Nothing like 0,5 degrees increased body temperature. She was almost burning so high the temperature was. Lennox stood up quickly to find the water himself. In a situation like Natasha was there shouldn't be a lack of liquid in the body. After some seconds he found the canisters and took two of them to her. He mounted a hose with a dispenser at the end on the valve of one canister and held it to Natasha's mouth that she can drink. She opened her mouth and began to suck on the dispenser, taking little sips of it. Lennox let her the canister and mounted another hose on the valve of the other box of water. He took a sip. A weird feeling came up after he tried to drink the water, then suddenly he had to cough hardly. It seemed like he swallowed himself and had problems to breath. Natasha looked worried at him, leaning forward to hits him on the back with one palm. The coughing began to cause pain. Lennox had no idea what it was and covered his mouth with one hand. Finally it stopped. He took a deep breath and looked over to Natasha with a wondering expression on his face. He then looked at his hand. His eyes widened as he saw blood on it. Now he knew why coughing hurted so much. Something seemed to be wrong with his lungs. As Natasha noticed the blood she looked at him with an opened mouth.


Suddenly Lennox stopped to talk. He seemed to be shocked by something and held both palms on his face. He realized what was going on, why Natasha has fiver and so much problems to move. He totally forgot about it. How could he forget it? Carlisle is known for it's aggressive nature.


But not only physical damages were to see. As Natasha heard what Lennox said she looked at him, like she don't want to believe him even if he is completely right. Tears ran down her cheeks. She leaned her head against her knees, cursing about what was happening. He looked at her for a short moment and then walked to the cockpit with a fast pace.


She was disturbed in her thinking by the virus that coursed through her body. She was blind for the most obvious situations and didn't really understand anything. She was panicking while crying more and more. She didn't want to end up like this. She wanted to live, to enjoy her life, fall in love, she wanted to marry, to become pregnant...all these things coursed through her head that made her more cry.
In the cockpit Lennox heard the loud crying of the poor girl and sighed while checking the communication systems. He was surprised as the computer still was able to work even if it was with low power. And the communication systems worked too. How lucky for Natasha and him. They could easily set up an emergency call and waiting for a rescue team. Though, he knew that it would be very dangerous for a rescue team to save them but they had no other possibility. His hope was small but he finally set up one.
After he finished he walked back into the cargo hold.

The crying of the girl had already stopped as she tried to stand up to follow Lennox. She was finally standing, weak but stable. As she saw Lennox coming back in she sighed relieved, letting herself glide down the wall to the bottom. She looked at him, happy he was there. She made some kind of gesture Lennox should sit down next to her. He understood and did what she intended to communicate. As he sat down Natasha leaned her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes like she would want to sleep. She was right. The only thing they could do was waiting. Waiting for help before they would die together. As the girl leaned her head against his shoulder he smiled briefly. Hours passed and still no sign of any help.

The virus already had affected their breath. Both weren't looking very well, barely able to hold themselves together.


Lennox knew he probably was completely wrong. He just wanted to make sure she was not worrying too much before the end. He laid a hand around her, feeling sorry for her that he dragged her in this case, too. Like so many others he pulled into death she was the next one. And Lennox guessed already that he will be the only survivor who would have lived with the pain alone again. The girl looked at him and Lennox at her. Staring at each other for some minutes like they would have sent messages via a higher level of communication, Natasha's eyes went wet. She could see it in Lennox' eyes that he wasn't telling the truth. She hugged him, now knowing she would end up here, in that dirty old ship. But there was something that didn't distract her from herself. The fact that she would end up with Lennox somehow made her feel happy. She couldn't explain it herself why was she feeling like that but it was obvious for her to notice Lennox realized it, too.

After another hour passed their were about to loose consciousness. Both looked horrible. Their skin was already looking like torn apart. There was silence. No sound. Natasha and Lennox tried to keep awake. Still sitting there, pressed against the wall, they were almost snuggling up with each other.

Johan didn't answer, just caressing her back as he noticed she began to close her eyes. With not so hard slaps he tried to prevent her from sleeping. It could have been very dangerous to do that while carrying such a virus in the body. His view began to blur, too but tried not to fall asleep. He looked over to Natasha and realized she just slept in. Expecting the worst, he was cursing in his mind she would be dead already. He went depressive for the probably last minutes of his life when he heard something before leaving consciousness.

Faked Dreams


The view was blurred but bright. He couldn't realize what was going on around him. Like a rainbow of colors crystal formed structures were moving infront of his eyes. At first he was wondering about the strange structures, rubbing his eyes to wipe them away, like he would have thought these were an imagination. Suddenly their form got sharper and let him feel pain in his eyes. He pressed his eyes together, rubbing them to get away the pain that was already gone for seconds. As he opened his eyes again he realized there never were these structures. Due to the contact of the oxygen with his upper layer of his eyes the pain was created like throwing salt into somebody's eyes. As he looked around with a now clear view, he realized he was lying in a bed in a white room with grey doors. A nurse came to him, smiling slightly, and sat down to his right.


The nurse tried to calm it down as Lennox tried to get up, pushing his weak body gently back into the bed as he tried to get up.

The nurse just smiled at him, nodding to somebody who was in the room, too. A door opened and a woman with black her and dark, almost black eyes stepped in, almost running to Lennox' bed. As Lennox heard the steps getting closer to his bed, he looked over and saw her. It really was Natasha. And she looked much better than before. Johan was like freezed for a moment as she saw her smiling on her face. He couldn't find any words. He thought her and himself were dead. He then smiled at her too, feeling like taking a bath in joy that let his heart beat faster. As she arrivedm, she almost jumped on his bed to hug him, releasing some tears as she pressed herself against him.
Surprised by her, Lennox pushed her a bit away gently to let himself some air to breath. Even when he was already a bit annoyed by her behavior, like when seeing somebody after ages the first time again. The girl looked at him with a smile, though different than other, ordinary smiles. He could recognize how she looked at him and what it meant to her. He just returned a smile.


Still weak due to his just ended regeneration of the destroyed cells in his body, the nurse came back into the room, waving with a hand.

Natasha looked over to the nurse and nodded. She then looked back to Lennox and smiled at him. She stood up from the bed. Almost turned his face away again, Natasha suddenly gave him a kiss on the cheek before departing. She turned around once to wave as Lennox looked at her, somewhat confused. As the door closed again he finally made it to sit up. But then suddenly his view looked like a tunnel of light.

He opened his eyes and realized it was only a dream. He was lying somewhere in a dark room on a table. It didn't feel very comfortable. He stood up, realizing some wounds inside him already healed again. He didn't feel sick any longer but he could smell that something was wrong. He walked out of the room through a door, heading for the unknown.

The smell was odd and the hull was making weird sounds, like all the other things, coming from the dark. It seemed like there were corpses lying around everywhere. The smell let him stay concerned a bit. He didn't know where he was and smelt something odd. As he walked to the next door through the dark corridors he could see some kind of prison station through the bars, he was walking along. He had to turn around immediately as the first wave of the horrible stenght reached his nose. It smelt like there happened a massacre. As he turned towards the 'prison' again he could see blood everywhere. Flies are satisfying themselves from the decomposed bodies, lying on the ground. As he opened the door towards the place where the corpses where lying. It made him feel scared to see all those bodies lying there. He thought he would be in a bad dream, nervously looking around all the time. He tried not to touch the lifeless bodies or the pools of blood. As the next door opened he couldn't see something different. Everywhere were those damned corpses. Women and men and even children were lying there in that fog of stenght. The air was thick and Lennox was barely able to breath clearly. Lights were flickering, sometimes being deactivated completely for seconds before activating again.
Something was completely wrong at that place. Everything was intact. Only the bodies seemed to were affected by something. Forcing himself to investigate those persons more close, he could see that in every body the organs were missing. Mostly the bones were 'untouched'. But the flesh looked like still being active somehow. The thought a virus was coursing around made him stand up back again to continue his walk through the hull of the yet unknown structure that could be a ship or a station.

As the amount of the dead bodies finally began to decrease and the air 'cleared up' a bit, he took a deep breath, like feeling relieved. The lights weren't flickering any longer and the stenght finally completely disappeared. As the corridors got brighter he could see space through a big window in a big room. As he entered that room, the door behind him immediately. He turned around, looking at the closed door, quickly drawing his handgun that was for some reason still sticking in the holder for it. He heard a chuckle, coming from a dark corner out of the room. Lennox aimed the man who was standing there but didn't realize more men were coming into the room through another door. As they approached behind him, Johan realized he was surrounded by those strange people. They were all wearing Outcast uniforms but didn't got a breather for cardamine. As another door directly infront of him openend up, he could see somebody in shackles. The strange man in the corner chuckled again and moved to the person, catched in the shackles. He pulled the person with him while walking towards Lennox slowly. As Johan saw the face, he gulped, looking at it. Natasha was looking at him scared. She looked like she would had been 'abused' for fun of others. He noticed her clothes were torn, like she was grabbed roughly very often. Her face was filled with pain and fear. Something in her eyes let him think the strange 'Outcasts' even raped her.
He got angry, unlucking his weapon quietly. The men chuckled all together. One of them walked towards Natasha and forced her on the ground. But before he could do anything more, a foot hit his head. The man got thrown on the ground, consciousless. The other guys stepped back a bit and drew their weapons, aiming at him. Lennox didn't move. He just stood there, like being absent. He thought about what he should do now. He then slowly moved a hand to the device around his arm, pressing two buttons before removing his hand again. The persons around him just shouted he shouldn't move. But instead of a typical retreat of the will to act against them, a smile crossed Lennox' face. The air somehow contained more ions than before. It was to see how the hairs on the men's skin began to rise due to the higher electrification. They suddenly grabbed their arms, feeling pain for some reason. Because of the closer distance to the men around him, than to the guy who was still standing where Natasha was, only these were effected by the sudden ion field. Their neurons stopped moving due to the increasing electrical energy in the air. Not being able to stand on their feet any longer, all of them fell on the ground, still twitching.

That guy just smiled and took Natasha by her arm, pulling her up again. He then held a weapon at her head, smiling at Lennox.

As Lennox finished he quickly lifted his weapon up and aimed for the head of the 'Outcast'. It was to see the guy who was holding his weapon against Natasha's head, moved a finger to fire at her. In not even a second a quiet sound of unleashed energy was to hear. A weapon flew away on the ground and it's owner, too. Natasha collapsed due to the shock. She looked behind her briefly, seeing the man lying there, dead. She then looked back at Lennox who was already on it to help her.

He kneeled down infront of her, checking if she got injured by something. Natasha just looked at him. Her face showed an expression that seemed like a mixture of pain, fear but also happiness when Lennox kneed down. For a short time both of them did nothing more than just looking at each other, like waiting until something would happen. After some time Lennox helped her up, supporting her to walk. When they went to the doors where all the men came from, who were lying daed on the ground, it was to notice the view brightened up, more and more. Like walking towards a sun, Lennox realized the sun was about to 'rise'. He could see a planet when looking outside through the window into space on the big celestial body. After some moments the uncomfortable brightness disappeared so they were able to walk without being distracted. After some time Natasha didn't show much power any longer and almost collapsed, even if being supported by Lennox. She almost pulled him down on the ground with her but he was able to stand stable. She looked up to him with tired eyes. She didn't look very healthy and seemed like needing help. Lennox kneed down again and placed one hand around her back, the other one under her legs. He slowly lifted her up, carrying Natasha in his arms.

Continueing walking somewhere, Lennox could feel she got heavier the longer she was in his arms. The corridors seemed endless for Lennox but he had to bring Natasha to somebody who could help her. He felt weak, not trained for such situations. He looked at Natasha who was still looking at him. He smiled at her slightly, gathering his last reserves of power to make it somewhere. As he continued walking a door appeared infront of him, looking like an exit to another deck. As he approached the door, the sound of machines and welding of metal was to hear. He opened the door, looking into a huge hangar that was filled with a lot Sabres and some heavier and lighter ships. All the people there were in Outcast uniforms. He gulped, searching for a possibility to get out of that place quickly.

As Johan glanced at all the Outcasts, Natasha was wondering about what is going on with him. Though, being very weak she could not see completely what was going on. But as Johan got closer to the Outcasts behind some huge containers, he felt odd. It was like a feeling they already found them. Then, seconds later a group of pilots came into the Hangar, obviously here to start from the building Lennox was on. As some cold eyes reflected the lights of where Lennox was standing, Johan's heartbeat increased and searched for a possibility to escape. But the pilot already alerted their presence around the whole Hangar. Not much time later Lennox was surrounded by a lot of Outcasts, not able to move with Natasha anywhere. She was still looking at him, making an expression that looked like she was worrying about him. She didn't care about the Outcasts, just about him and what was going on. Natasha tried to speak but was too weak. One of the Outcast suddenly began to laugh and pulled out a weapon. Following the gun with his eyes, Lennox found it held at his head some seconds later. The trigger of the gun got slowly pulled back. Lennox looked at the girl in his arms a last time.

Before Natasha was able to say anything more, the sound of unleashed energy inside the gun was to hear. Feeling the sudden heat, the heart finally stopped beating as the energy cut through Lennox' head. He fell down on the ground, on his back, covered with blood.

Like in heaven, white light was to see. Nothing more than a white colored cosmos without any stars and planets. But slowly something was to registrate. A small dot, a black small dot, appeared in the white. Not keeping the present size, the dot increased itself, growing to a now black 'background'. The a very bright light between a gap of unidentified colors in the middle of the view appeared. As the light slowly dimmed, objects in the gap were to see. The gap widened and three persons were to see, standing around the central point of the view. They looked into the gap quite worried, like there would be something. But then the black around the gap went a bit more red, like blood would flow through it. The something strange happened. The gap multiplied itself. Now the surroundings were to see through two gaps that were somehow connected with each other. It took some minutes. But after these minutes it was to realize it was not really just some kind of vision. Realizing it wasn't a dream or something else, the gaps closed and opened quickly. The gaps' 'glance' went down. It cought a body. Arms were there, legs and parts of an upper body were to see. Finally realizing what was going on, a blink was to see. As the glance wandered over the people, it catched a mirror. The gaps widened as they collected the information that was written into the light reflecting piece of glass. It was him in the mirror. It took a while until a person moved infront of his view. The person kneed down to look into the eyes of the eyes of him. It was Natasha who was lying her head on the bed, he was in. A hand of her passed over his cheek as she moved a bit closer.

Barely able to speak for now, he just looked into her eyes, tired. Still caressing his cheek softly, she smiled slightly. Lennox couldn't believe he was still alive. That Outcast directly shot him through the head. But instead of being dead, he felt a heartbeat and the warmth of Natasha's hands while lying in the bed. The others had already left them alone in the room with dimmed light, giving it a nice 'atmosphere'. Natasha tilted her head a bit, watching the wandering eyes of Johan.