Riza let out a yelp, shattering the dead silence that hung over the Sunbucks Cafe, pulling her blanket tighter to her as she heard the music start to play,
She turned on her side a bit, wrapping her blanket all the way around her now, and continuing to cry softly.
Aiden jumps up, barely keeping his balance. Three drinks had turned into ten. "What a bunch..of...flippin idiots. You think I am scared of some...bull stories and musiAHHHH SWEET MOTHER OF!" He was interrupted by a bright flash from the storm outside. Laughter erupts throughout Sunbucks as he falls back down mumbling and cursing to himself.
Sergeant Seymore Justice burst through the glass door of Sunbucks Cafe, oblivious to the mood inside. He looked haunted, as if all blood had emptied out, leaving his face an ashen vessel. Inside, the bulk of the LPI force, huddled around each other in darkened corners waiting for the ion storm to rage upon them until its fury was at last spent. Hushed voices drifted from one officer to another in a vain attempt to find some sort of comfort and assurance that all would end well. No one looked convinced.
Chief Matt Myers perked up as the doors flew open. "SEYMOAR," he bellowed. "Get in here and shut that door." His eyes narrowed. He fired up his tazer, dim blue cackling light casting dancing shadows upon the walls. "What is the meaning of this Seymore? Are you trying to give everyone here a heart attack?
Seymore collapsed into a heap, his whole body shaking. The horror of what happened only moments ago was still too fresh and raw for him. He looked up at the approaching officers. Deputy Chief Riza Williams put a warm blanket around his trembling shoulders. Officer Maggard approached with a cup of hot coffee. He took a sip, a deep breath, and tried to regain some composure. He looked at each and every officer surrounding him. Curious eyes stared back. I have some dreadful news, he said. The Harvester in Human Resources is gone.
WHAT! Myers yelled. He thrust out the tazer within inches of Seymores face. You better be joking, boy. Or that Harvester will be the least of your worries.
I wish I was, sir. Seymore started to shake even more with the tazer wielding Chief standing over him. I was walking blind down the halls of LPI office, since all power went out with the storm. I fumbled around holding close to the walls trying to find a flashlight in Maintenance. The doors must be electronically locked, because every door in the building was opened. I knew I was getting close to Maintenance, when I heard a faint whisper down the hallway.
Seymore sipped some more coffee. Reliving the moment was obviously taking its toll on him. Some of the officers asked, almost in unison, What did it say?
It was difficult to make out at first. It started off as a hoarse whisper. I almost missed it, but then it finished with a blood curdling giggle. Seymores hands trembled so violently, he could no longer hold his coffee. He quickly handed the cup back to Maggard, and continued. Then, I heard the voice more clearly. It was getting closer and I still had no flashlight. It said, The Harvest Begins.and then the evil giggle. I could hear shuffling down the halls. It was no more than a few feet in front of me. I turned to run as fast as I could but I tripped over my own feet. The voice was right on top of me. The Harvest begins with that same maniacal giggle.
I dont know how, but I somehow managed to get up from off the floor and I ran just as fast as I could. I must have hit every wall trying to get out of that building. And with every step I took, that same phrase kept pursuing me, with that same insidious giggle, The Harvest Begins...
I finally found my way out of the building and made my way here to let you all know that the Harvester is no myth. Its real. I think its coming after us now.
With that, the door to Sunbucks Caf? burst open again, with a menacing shadow standing at the threshold. In a raspy whisper, the three words everyone feared to hear were spoken, The Harvest Begins.
Officers jumped and scattered. Chaos erupted. And then the giggle. A bolt of ionic lightening lit up the sky and in the briefest of moments the face of the enemy was revealed..
.And there stood Ench, with the broadest of grins, laughing just as loud as she could.
Hull O'Brian looked into his cup, and started to speak, almost in a whisper....
"I've been in a storm, almost this bad too..."
Hull stopped talking, and continued to look into this glass...
"These Ion storms stir up a lot of things, some man made,....... some not"
"Back in 799, I was 15 and was along for the ride in a friend of the families Rhino, was going
to hauls some Boron to Leeds."
All Hull heard was some snickering....
"Must have had to much Tequila tonight.." Came a retort...
"We got caught in this Massive Ion storm just past Planet L.A. No warning, it was just on top of us
in seconds. It shut down Main power, we had no steerage, knocked us completely out of the trade lane.
We couldn't tell where we were drifting, that little Rhino was like a Kite on the Ion storms winds....."
"We drifted for days, all the while the storm raged on. Nearest we could figure, we had passed out of the California system and were half way between the California system and Magellan. We tried to conserve power/ food / water, as we figured we would have a long trip back to civilization"
" All of the sudden, a LPI patriot can be seen out of the front viewscreens. He doesn't seem to be affected by the Ion storm. He gets a tractor beam on us and slowly starts dragging us along. We tried to raise him on the voice radio, but all we got was static. Figured the ion storm was interfering with it."
" He dragged us along for what seemed like hours, when a station loomed out of the darkness. Didnt look all that well maintained, but any port in a storm... We were pulled inside of a docking port and set down inside the station. We had no idea what was going to happen, so we stayed where we were. Suddenly, from the area of our Docking port, came a rapping.. Bang! Bang! Bang!."
""Wait here" we were told, whilst the Captain went and saw who it was. He opened the comms and spoke "Who is out there?""
"Sargent Price from the LPI, open the door, its safe, you are in the docking bay of the 207th Precinct."
"Awesome" I thought, we were on a LPI station. We were saved!"
"The captain Opened the door, and there was a LPI officer in full flight suit, with his Flight Helmet still on."
"Your welcome aboard for a bit. You can make repairs and be able to get on your way. Looks like the storm will be abating here shortly."
"Thanks Officer, we will do that. By the way, where is this station located? Our Nav was all messed up due to the storm..."
Hull takes another drink, looks into the bottom of his glass, and starts to speak again. No one is talking now, but all are listening to his tale...
"Your on Chula Vista Station, halfway between the San Diego Border station and the Bretonian station in the Magellan system."
"Don't you mean the Freeport station in the Magellan system?" I asked
Sergent Price just tilted his Helmet down as if to look at me and said "Sure kid"
"I will have to ask you to confine yourselves to the cargo bay. Looks like you can be on your way in an hour or two." intoned the officer.
"Thanks, we will, give us and hour and we will be ready to go"
Hull Finished his drink, turned to the bartender and said 'Bar keep, I need another one before I go on with this tale"...
Formerly known as LPI Police Chief Hull O'Brien.
Creator of Sgt. V. Price, 207th Precinct out of Chula Vista Station
The bartender brings Hull a fresh glass of Tequila and set it down in front of him.....
The only sound in the Sunbuck's now is the howl of the Ion storm outside of the viewing glass....
The loud moaning of the solar wind is heard, the occasional bump or scratch as something hit the outside of the station, the creaking of the stations infrastructure as it bends and sways in the storms fury.....
"Now where was I?"
Formerly known as LPI Police Chief Hull O'Brien.
Creator of Sgt. V. Price, 207th Precinct out of Chula Vista Station
"Oh yeah... .we were in the landing bay of the LPI station Chula Vista, 207th Precinct"
"well, the Captain set about restoring main power and checking the Nav status, I sat around and was bored.."
" Now, I wasn't a real good kid at that age, I used to smoke Synth pot, ditch school, maybe even took a joy ride once or twice."
" I decided I was bored, so I decided to start looking around. I statrted to notice that some of the other ships in the Hangar were looking a might disused, so I started looking in them. Most of them looked like they hadn't been used in a decade. I wanted to know more so I snuck out of the hangar area and started to look around the station. Most of the lighting was emergency lights, no computer terminals seemed to be operational, but most of all, I hadn't seen another human being. not one other Officer, or support personnel. No one. The place was eerily quiet."
" I found what looked like an old notepad, so I grabbed it hoping to look thru it later"
" I continued to look around, and more of the same greeted me: nothingness. Not a living soul to be seen."
" I was starting to get a real bad feeling and hoofed it back to the landing deck. I was almost back when I slipped and hit my head on a bulkhead."
" When I looked up Sergeant Price was standing over me, still with his helmet faceplate closed."
" He started to speak to me: " You don't know when to listen, or obey do you? You had better straighten out your ways, or you will be spending a very long time here with the 207th""
" Look Sergeant , all I want to do is get back to the ship and get out of here..."
" Then that is up to you Hull O'Brian. Your soul is in balance, you can go either way..."
" What are you talking about?" I asked
" You are slow boy, aren't you? You haven't quite worked out where you are, have you? You stand in nothingness, on the precipice of the long drop, or the tough climb, and you can't work it out" Said the Sergeant
" Then let your lesson begin...." Price started to say, but the words trailed off.... like the words were dying in his throat...
" Slowly he lifted his hand to his Flight helmet, and released the faceplate and looked at me....."
" And I stared in to the face of Death"
" There was nothing in the helmet except a skull with some sort of red glow where the eyes should have been."
" Run, boy, run!" intoned the Ghoul, "Make your choice, climb or fall!"
" I mustered all the will I had and ran as fast as my feet could carry me, all the while hearing the foot falls behind me, getting closer
" Climb or fall, Choose!" Continued the rasping rattle behind me.
" I ran harder, I made it back to the landing bay when the Captain saw me coming. He started to protest when he heard the yelling behind me. He grabbed me by the collar and tossed me into the ship and slammed the hatch shut. He dump started the generators, but hadn't lifted off yet"
" Then from outside the hatch, the pounding on the hatch came... bang.. bang.... Bang!"
" Change your ways and climb, or don't and fall!"
The Captain lifted off, and mercifully the docking bay doors opened......
I don't remember much after that,I suppose I passed out.
The next thing I remember, we were in the medical bay at San Diego Border station, a patrol found us the previous day
The LPI sent down an officer to check on us and to ask what had happened to us.
I told him my story, leaving out the part about what I thought I saw.
He asked again, "Which Precinct did you say picked you up?"
" The 207th, out of Chula Vista station" I replied.
His face lost all semblance of humor and said "That's not funny."
I looked at him and was confused. "Whats the matter?"
He looked at us and replied "The 207th Precinct was indeed stationed out of Chula Vista station. It was a halfway station on the trip between the California system and the old Bretonian station in the Magellan system. That station was lost with all hand over 100 years ago In a massive Ion storm like the one you
went thru. Nothing was ever found, nor did we ever hear anything about it ever again. I think the two of you were too disoriented to really know where you were."
"And so ends my sad story of the lost Precinct, but I leave you this warning to those among us who stand in balance between good and evil.... When the good Sergeant comes banging on the outside of your precinct or ship, I would choose to climb If I were you"
And with that, Hull got up from the bar and walked over the the wall by the Viewport that looked out into outer space , and Banged on the wall....
From somewhere, some time, a ghostly knock came back... Bang... bang... bang!
Half of the assembled LPI officers must have wet themselves when the banging began, the other half started to pray
After a minute or two, people decided that it was just a coincidence that the banging had happened and that it was a darn good ghost story..
The Chief Matt Myers came up next to hull at the bar and said "Wow, you really scared the with that story, good job. It was a story right?"
"Chief, I have never lied to you, have I?"
"No Hull, never"
Hull reached into his back pocket and handed over what looked like a standard issue Police leather bound notebook.
"Open it and look at the imprint on the inside"
Matt Myers did, and all the hairs on the back of his neck stood up
On the inside cover was the laser imprinting of the name of the Officer it belonged to. It read:
"Sergeant V. Price, 207th Precinct, Chula Vista station, 698 A.S."
Formerly known as LPI Police Chief Hull O'Brien.
Creator of Sgt. V. Price, 207th Precinct out of Chula Vista Station
Ryan Cooper pushes the door open, looks around , and slowly walks to a nice quiet seat.
-Great, at least i can take a rest ..
He looks around, and admites that this place is really cosy. He gets a cafe and starts to mumble.
-Well, sending a ship to the junkyard wasn't exactly in my plans. Well, no matter now.
Drinks some coffe and takes another look around. Some officers are talking not far from him.
He's not really in a talking mood right now, he just wants to calm down a bit.
*It's not an everyday happening that I get shot out of my ship...*
As he is sitting there, he tries to recall what he did wrong.
-Ahh just forget it ... Hmm I hope noone heard that ... I should stop talking to myself.
Drinks the last drop of coffee pays the bill and heads to the door. He really wants to get some rest.
-See you ladies and gents!
As he says goodbye, he walks out of the cafe, to get some rest and relaxation.
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