//I will be posting this story in several posts to make it less intimidating to readers. We all know how scary walls of text can be. Enjoy!
It was a better haul than usual. At least two dozen of the little buggers were in the hold, ready to be dissected at Ames Research Station.
Nomads werent his usual cargo. Sebastian Smiley preferred bounty hunters. He had a strong dislike of them ever since he first saw them strutting about the Freeports on which he grew up like they owned the place. Bounty hunters and their ideas of what was right and what was wrong, telling you what you could do and what you could not do. No, he would decide for himself what was acceptable or honorable.
Now the nomads, they were blue and rather squishy. Not much to look at really. How did these little things nearly destroy mankind anyway? As his mind wandered, Sebastian hardly noticed the radiation warnings as he flew through the asteroid fields of Omega 41.
Through the omega 5 jump hole was it? Yes, that was it. He could blast through any Hessian resistance if necessary. It wasnt the pirates he was worried about. He knew the border world space well enough. It was the civilization that scared him. It was the same overregulation that the bounty hunters would have the whole Sirius sector conform to. They werent always like that, no. They were what they were supposed to be once, when they were first organized on, Huston was it?
>>WARNING! CONTAINMENT FACILITY MALFUNCTION<<
Scuzzbucket!
He had miscalculated the effect the radiation had on his ship. The radiation from the neutron star must have damaged the storage facilities.
Shaking his head, he sat back into the pilots seat. He was on a craft with at least 24 live nomads. He reached towards a small, grey switch that he had installed for such a situation. He could hear the disgusting creatures in the cargo hold. Any moment they would overrun the ship.
This is going to hurt. he said as he flipped the switch.
There was a bright flash and then everything went dark. What he had used was a special internal pulse device that should have fried the nomads' neural connections. Of course, using this device would do the same thing to the pilot. All that could be hoped for was that his brain would not be too damaged for the ship to repair.
>>EMERGENCY PROTOCOLL COMPLETE.<<
Smiley opened his eyes. Where was he going again? Meh, probably didnt matter.
Alive?
Yes.
~alive?~
"Yes, I already said that, you dwippus." he said aloud.
~what is "dwippus"?~
Sebastian started at that. It certainly was not one of his thoughts.
"What did you say?" He thought.
~...~
"I asked you a question."
He could now feel the second consciousness in his mind.
~bend to my will~
"Excuse me?"
~bend to my will~
"Hell no!" he said out loud.
This certainly was bizarre. There was something talking to him that was certainly not himself, unless he had somehow developed an acute double personality, which was unlikely.
~escape~
"The hell you will! Now, you will tell me exactly what you are!"
~...~
"Now!"
~Malgeuth~
"Now, 'Malgeuth', it is nice to know who you are, but what are you?"
Now this certainly was a shock. Everyone knew that nomad hosts had no will of their own. How could he, a human with no inclination toward mental prowess or personal willpower, not be dominated by this thing? How could he not dominate this weak willed human? No, he was the human, not the nomad. Or was he? No, wait a moment.
He had to get this looked into. He brought up the navigation computer and set a course, for Cambridge research facility. No, they would kill him. Wait, he was the human, not the nomad.
~fear~
"That's right you little twit! I am getting you removed!"
~kill you too~
"Now I am sure that the nice people at Cambridge Research will do all they can to help me."
~they will kill you too~
"Will they? They wouldn't? Would they? Well, I dunno...Screw it, I am not taking my chances with that! Wait, why am I listening to you again?"
~hostile entities~
"What?"
~hostile entities~
Smiley looked up. The bounty hunter craft were closing in. He manipulated the controls on his craft to meet the new threat. There were three of them. He quickly dispatched the one on the left of the formation.
~down~
"What was that?"
~down~
He moved his craft downward, just barely missing the firestalker missile that sailed overhead. He maneuvered his craft behind the leader of the group and destroyed the ship with a few well placed shots to the engine.
The third bounty hunter fired up his cruise engines and steered his craft away from the battle.
"Oh no you don't!"
A well placed cruise disruptor rendered the cruise engines useless, and Sebastian proceeded to destroy the third craft. As he pulled the trigger, he felt something he had never felt before. The thrill of the destruction he caused. The feeling of ecstasy as he watched the bounty hunters drift around in their escape pods. No, this wasn't him!
He tractored up the pods and set a course for the nearest Freeport. They should be able to get safe passage from there.
Sebastian Smiley lay on the bed in one of the rooms on Freeport 9. As he looked at the ceiling, he thought about how he was to communicate with the strange being that had saved his life.
~Hello, Sebbie~
Oh, great. The thing had given him a nickname.
~I can talk. I know what you think~
It had started communicating in complete sentences. Apparently, it had been inexperienced in human communication.
~you wonder why I saved your life, I cannot escape. You hold me here. We are one~
"Who says that we are one? You are a parasite!"
~I am hurt~
"Damn straight!"
~I cannot break away from your mind.~
"Pff, yeah right."
~I do not know why, but perhaps you do, Sebbie.~
"Me? I don't know anythi..." He stopped. The neural recovery program in the ship! It was only meant to repair one mind, but the nomad could have attempted to dominate him before the pulse went off. The recovery program must have been confused.
~I understand now~
"I didn't tell you anything!"
~We are one now.~
Sebastian stood up. He looked himself over and found that the nomad extended from his right wrist to the base of his skull. It was not obvious, but close examination would reveal the nomad.
Life with Malgeuth was not that difficult. Sebastian always assumed that nomads were heartless slugs bent on destruction. To find one that had, dare he say it, a sense of humor was unthinkable. What troubled him more was the idea of being ostracized by his fellow humans. Would he become an outcast, sent to live far from civilization like the cardmine addicts?
~What is Cardmnine?~
Oh, that stuff, thats what the outcasts are trying to peddle around the Sirius sector to get rich
~Why Outcasts?~
The cardmine from their planet changed them. They are seen as freaks that need the stuff. Without it they die. They peddle it around the Sirius sector, hoping others will be addicted.
~Like us?~
You could say that...Are you saying that you cant return to your nomad buddies?
~Yes. To the others, I have failed. I am dead to them now. Tell me more of this cardmine.~
It makes the host stronger and healthier for the most part. I am not an addict so I really wouldnt know
~This cardmine bond does not sound much different than our own.~
Say what?
~They need it to live, like we need each other to live~
Now hold on a second!
~this substance and these addicts, are they truly different than you or myself?~
Yeah, well I dont run around selling nomads hoping that others will be infected.
~Yes, but perhaps they are not all cardmine sellers. Perhaps they see themselves as abominations as well.~
Sebastian never thought about that. He had always been taught to hate cardmine lifeforms. He was told that they were soulless abominations striving for the corruption of humanity. Were they human? No, the cardmine destroyed any humanity left in them. Did it?
Thats it Malgeuth! No more philosophical questions until after lunch! I have enough to think about!
Dont get caught. Like he wouldnt need to get a medical checkup in the future. His mind ventured to what Malgeuth had said. You are holding me here. It had told him. Was it he and not the nomad that was to blame? Why would he voluntarily host a nomad anyway?
Well, it was kind of cool, and the nomad did provide a comfy pad between his back and the seat of his fighter. Pity he couldnt brag about it to anyone.
Hold on...Was he admitting that he actually liked having the nomad there?
The nomad was dormant at the moment. Probably sleeping off the Synth imitation beef that Sebastian had just consumed.
He mentally jabbed at the nomad. Hey, wake up!
~I am here Sebbie.~
You said that I held you here. You said that we rely on each other. I dont buy it.
~I beg your pardon?~
You heard me! In fact, I think your bluffing! I would die without you? Pheh, I dont think so!
~And so I was. Are you going to have me removed then?~
This sudden confession caught Sebastian off guard. He paused a moment.
No, I dont think so. Go back to sleep, Malgeuth.
He felt something strange, as if he was responsible for the strange nomads well being. He sat back in the seat of his fighter, shaking his head. He pulled up the navigation computer and set a course for Ames research station. Hopefully he could get an appointment with a psychiatrist of some sort.