ZYON
From the moment I stepped onto this hovercraft, something became different.
I am fascinated by the sensation I'm feeling, as though the machine is alive and trying to talk to me in a language that I should understand by instinct.
I'm leaning against the left side of the aircraft. My hands are cuffed behind me and my cheek is resting against the padded interior frame. Arlene is opposite me. Her back against the wall her black hair is a scattered half ponytail with the errand strands frizzy from the altitude.
Our captor whom Arlene referred to as an enforcer is on the seat directly behind the cockpit.
Arlene is riling him up. He doesn't notice her discreetly picking at the locks of her cuffs. I don't know what her plan is but I know I have to help.
The electronic pulsing of the control system of the aircraft communicates to me, mixing together with the vibration of the spinning rotors.
The message:
Hovers in front of my face.
This is the third time I'm seeing it. I attempt to decipher what these things constantly popping up are.
Somewhere between almost being ripped apart by the animatrons and our capture, I came to the conclusion that being in this body is like controlling an avatar in a VR game. I just have to figure out what cool features and perks come along with it.
Okay let's see what you can do Zyon. I 'Select'
I stare at 'connect' what will I be connecting too? I wonder, hesitating.
There are bad things in this world, like that guy I saw in my hallucination. I'm calling it a hallucination because that's all it could have been. But it also felt like a warning.
What if he was able to speak to me through a connection like this?
What's the worst that could happen? I ask myself. You're already in a bad position. It couldn't get any worse than this. I muster determination and before I can change my mind I 'Select'
I wait, nothing happens.
What a drag,
I sigh in resignation. If only I had a handy skill like lock picking.
As if on cue, energy flows through me, as though I've touched a live wire. My vision changes, thousands of invisible wavelengths become visible to me. They dance through the air in string form. Wispy and blue and undulating as if they have a pulse.
My holographic vision now reads:
It's like I've remotely hijacked the control system of the entire aircraft. I just know I can control it if I wish to.
I'm distracted by the enforcer who questions me, I answer him while messing around with the settings options hovering in front of me.
I turn off comms. The pilot doesn't notice anything amiss. How can he? All he has access too are buttons and levers and switches.
I'm inside the very mainframe and essence of the control system.
Without thinking I try to test the steering of the craft a little bit. I overdo it and we lurch a bit.
I grit my teeth, and look at the pilot warily who is staring at the control stick with an odd expression. I learn my lesson, understanding the system requires a delicate touch since I'm still new and unfamiliar.
The enforcer scans my face with his device while I try to concentrate harder, telling the aircraft what I want is like talking to a wild beast in English. I have to suggest it in a way that it will understand and not misinterpret. This machine used to be a weapon of destruction, a warfare ship. It has merely been collapsed into a mere shadow of its former self.
"It is like I can feel it, it's almost alive," I murmur,
Just a little to the left let's see if I can steer you a bit…
We bank suddenly to the left as if I've yanked on the control stick physically. The pilot struggles to right us. The alarms on the aircraft start to blare and flash red as the pilot fights with the control stick. Arlene and the enforcer are thrown toward me since they're on the right side of the aircraft.
I'm stuck trying to gain control but the noise is too much for my head.
I've ordered the aircraft to go left and it will keep banking left until we crash.
"He's a symbiote!" Someone screams, I think it's the enforcer.
An overpowering dizziness washes over me as though I've physically overexerted myself. Something wet and warm drips from my nose.
Arlene takes advantage of the chaos, moving fast she frees herself from her cuffs and closes the space between her and the enforcer. She jams the heel of her palm into his nose and he howls in pain.
He's close to the door and isn't wearing a seatbelt. One forceful kick to his side from her sends him flying out of the hovercraft.
Arlene almost falls herself but holds on for dear life to one of the seats.
"Are you the one doing this?" She yells at me over the howling alarms that.
"I think so!" I scream back.
"Steady us then! I need to get rid of that damn pilot,"
My mind cooperates with her plan and I manipulate the control sick until we're on the right course. The pilot doesn't know what's going on behind him until Arlene smashes a spare helmet against his face. Snapping his neck to an angle that should've killed a normal man.
But it's no human. His neck slowly turns from its unnatural angle and one of his eyes blinks repeatedly and then stops.
Arlene's eyes widen, "A droid!" She gasps and tries with the helmet again. Bashing repeatedly.
I'm still cuffed and on the floor, I can't do much to help. I scan the options in front of me, there's nothing for kill unwanted robopilots!
The pilot has unbuckled his belt and is standing up, I scoot forward my eyes searching for the keys to the cuffs, praying they fell off the enforcer before Arlene ejected him.
Eject!
'Eject pilot'
I think wildly,
Appears,
'Select'
I feel it before it happens within a split second. The pilot isn't fully out of his chair, Arlene is still using both her hands to bring her assault weapon down on his head.
"Arlene get away from his chair!"
I scream, luckily she hears me and springs back just as the eject control activates and the roof flies open and the pilot and chair are expunged out into the heavens.