Lee Carter awoke to pain. Her head throbbed from the pummeling she had received from the evil truck driver, and every muscle in her back ached from lying on the cold, hard floor for she didn't know how long. She tried levering herself up on an elbow, but found her hands tied securely behind her back.
She opened her eyes to darkness. Only the faintest glimmer of light from the crack under the door shone in the chamber in which she found herself, an unused storage room by the looks of it. The air was chill and clammy, like a damp basement, forcing an involuntary shiver up her spine.
Footsteps echoed outside the door, and presently locks were disengaged and it creaked open on rusted hinges letting in a flood of sea-green light. Two burly men entered her prison and each grabbing a shoulder, hoisted her off the dank floor and led her away.
They passed through a maze of metal-lined corridors, most of which were only dimly-lit, but several had small portholes high on the rounded walls. Outside, Carter could only see murky blue-green, as though they were at the bottom of the ocean. No, not the ocean -- the bottom of Blue Lake! she realized with a sudden flash of insight. Maybe there is a connection between the mysterious disappearances and the brain sucking lake monster after all...
The two ruffians finally deposited Carter in another chamber, roughly shoving her through the door so that she fell forward. She was able to twist her body though so that her shoulder took the brunt of the impact. Rolling over so she faced her captors, she prepared to give them a good tongue lashing, but the chamber's hatch slammed shut, sealing her inside all alone.
No-- not alone! Carter took a moment to survey her new surroundings and discovered that the room was filled with slabs, and each slab held a body! She was in some kind of morgue! Carter felt irrational fear begin to well up from the core of her being like strangling vines threatening to close off her breathing, when she spotted one particular face among the dozens.
"Sam!" she gasped. She was about to rush over to her missing friend when the chamber's hatch squealed open again and the ruffians threw in another victim.
West staggered and ricocheted off Carter's back, then righted himself and tried to regain his dignity. Then he spotted the slab and body that Carter was staring at and a triumphant smile grew on his lips. "See?" he said. "I told you I'd find your friend!"
Carter spun and faced West, teeth bared, nostrils flaring and fire leaping from her eyes. West took an apprehensive step backwards. "I sense you're upset about something..."
"Upset?!?" cried Carter. "If my hands weren't tied I'd rip your head off and dropkick it into the next millennium, you colossal ignoramus! Then I'd chop you up into little tiny pieces and feed them to the voles in that motel you took me to, you inexcusable charlatan! I'd throw you naked to the Nausicaans at the Salty Spittoon! I'd... I'd..." Carter was momentarily at a loss, but evil inspiration struck her. Her eyes narrowed and her next threat dripped with venom. "I'll unleash Max on your ass, you walking dead man."
"Oh I'd like to see that," said a new voice from the open doorway.
Carter and West turned as one at the intrusion, curtailing their discussion. The owner of the voice stepped through the hatch and into the dim light. Carter's lips curled in disgust, her eyes wrathful and hard. "I might have known I'd find you at the bottom of this. The galaxy's most nefarious villain, Vincent Kelly."
"Commander," acknowledged Kelly politely. "Always a pleasure to see you."
"The pleasure is all yours, I assure you."
Kelly ignored the comeback and proceeded on to West. "And the meddlesome Mr. West, once again poking his nose where it doesn't belong and getting in way over his head."
"That supposed to be some sort of 'bottom-of-the-lake' joke?"
"You know this guy?" asked Carter of West.
West shrugged. "We go way back, Vinny an' me..."
"Figures," said Carter, not the least surprised that a scoundrel like West should know a criminal like Kelly.
"Yes," said Vince Kelly. "This is a real family reunion, isn't it. Me and my old buddy West, the lovely Commander Carter and Lieutenant Beckett."
At the mention of Sam's name, Carter suddenly remembered why they were all here. "What have you done with Sam, you fiend?" she demanded.
"Same thing I've done to all these other people," --Kelly waved his hand expansively at the dozens of motionless forms lying about-- "the same thing I've done to countless others, and the same thing I'm going to do to you! I've stolen their minds!" He smiled evilly and strolled over to a bank of cabinets along the wall and opened the first. Inside were hundreds of small, glowing spheres, pulsing in steady rhythms with an inner light. Selecting one, he withdrew it and held it up before Carter's eyes. "Behold!" he said, insufferably pleased with his diabolical achievement. "This is Sam Beckett!"
Carter could only stare in horror. Vince Kelly, clearly enjoying playing the part of supervillain, continued his exposition. "All that she is, her essence, everything that makes her a unique personality -- her soul, if you will -- is stored in this tiny living crystal. All that is left in her body--" he indicated the still form lying on its slab "--is just enough neural energy to maintain her autonomic functions. Can't have all these people dying, after all," he finished, a sinister smirk twisting his features.
"You just make sure they wash up on the shore where the townspeople of Lake Town are sure to find them," said West, picking up the narrative thread, "ridding you of the necessity of killing them, while fueling the local legends of a brain-sucking lake monster, providing you with the perfect cover. Diabolically brilliant."
"Thank you," replied Vince Kelly. "But things are getting a little hot around here for my new... 'employer'. We'll be relocating to a safer hideout." Even as Kelly said that, workmen entered the chamber carrying antigravs. Working silently and quickly, they attached the devices to the cabinets containing the stolen life crystals and began hauling them out.
"You can't run far or fast enough, Kelly!" said Carter, straining against her binds. "I'll hunt you down for what you've done!" To herself though, she wondered who this mysterious 'employer' of Kelly's was. Perhaps the evil didn't end with Vincent Kelly. How deep did it go? Ridding the universe of Kelly might not even solve the problem. No matter. She'd peal back the layers of this conspiracy until she got to the rotten core.
"You won't be doing any hunting, Commander," replied Kelly, the very essence of self-assurance. "For you see, your bodies will also shortly be found washed up on the shores of Blue Lake. Dead, I'm afraid. You've been worthy opponents, but I am the victor here." He motioned to the two goons standing guard at the door, who immediately jumped to action. Grabbing hold of the prisoners' arms, they led them from the chamber. "Farewell," said Kelly.
West cast a look back and smiled at Kelly. "Be seeing you," he said.
As the hatch closed behind them, Vince Kelly said, "Not likely."
back to TOC