[spoiler]I’m not sure if I should be worried, considering I don’t write horror this often...[/spoiler] <Error, command not imprinted correctly> <Error. Ship overheating initiated> <Suggest power route to Emergency backup> “I don’t remember robots being so damn difficult”, Reese chuckled as he let out a half-hushed reply. “Well, you know how they make ‘em nowadays: ‘To be like their creators’. Stupid crap if you ask me”, Hector answered as his cigar lit the darkness of the engine room. “Let’s try out a simple test command. Hopefully it won’t go full quantum physics on me”, Reese let out as his fingers became a blur at the digital keypad, typing letters until the product was fully spelled out. <Command input: Vessel Information> <Standby> <Onboard Ship 112 of Nexian Fleet, codename “Siren”> “Ah, so it isn’t completely wonkers.” “Careful Reese, it might’ve heard you. Don’t want full on Skynet on our asses”, Hector jokingly replied as he began to point at a small tablet in his hand, “Let’s get on over to the loading bay. I’m seeing high-rise temperatures in there.” “One second. Gotta re-calibrate the ship’s flight pattern. Set for a nearby sun… odd…” “Alright. Have fun tangling with good ol’ Siri”, Hector’s voice echoed as he began to walk away. “Take care”, Reese salutated, without looking up from his screen, his eyes glowing a faint cyan as he strained them to calculate the problem. Hector whistled as he left Reese to his contraptions, and slowly made his way around a hulking engine, alive and huffing with power. Just next to it stood the isolated hallway leading below, towards the loading bay. Hector’s whistles bounced along the walls of the window-less and lifeless hallway as they echoed to and fro. Lifeless echoes, along with the lifeless air; a perfect combo for disaster. Hector picked up on the oddity without haste, a Space Oddity if you will, and he perked his eyes up as he looked at the pasty white walls of that very hallway, trying to veer his head sideways to receive any sound of life, but no sound was received. Even if he did receive a sound of life, would it be one that he wanted? The doors of the loading bay slid open with very little noise other than the occasional hum of their machinery. What was hiding behind the doors was a huge room, not very decorated, and crammed to the brim. The loading bay was not a place that was too regularly checked. Most of the maintenance had been done on the weekends, and sometimes, for days, no one would even look inside the loading bay… well, until now of course. The place was quiet, a kind of quiet one would never live to hear, one that was not common, and heard by very few. Even with the hums of the machines, and Hector’s lagging breath, the room could not be filled with any life. He slowly dragged himself past the doorway, the doors behind him closing shut, and his whistles stopped. He pulled out a flashlight, illuminating the dim room. Once the beam of light pierced the darkness of the room, he slowly ran it over the walls, for anything out of the ordinary. The first wall he examined seemed to be normal, but the second wall had a gooey substance splattered all over it, as if it was something’s blood. The third wall was skimmed, as Hector’s suspicions began to rise. That was, until he reached the fourth wall… It was then that we struck. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reese tangled furiously with the wires, his hands caught up between mixtures of blue and red. He clenched his teeth as he brought out a razor-sharp knife, gleaming with the light above him, and swiftly sliced a single wire. To his dismay, this wire was not the one he was looking for, as the lights of the ship slowly began to dim, and his eyes could see no more in the darkness that surrounded him. “-blam!- me…”, He whispered as he let out a sigh, “Better bring back Hector to get a replacement wire… my stupid dumbass…” His words bounced around lifelessly around the room, echoing to and fro. What husk of his voice that was left was soon to be spent. Soon enough. Reese began to close his eyes as he lay sprawled on the floor, until he heard an irregular pattern of footsteps coming from the door leading into the loading bay. Right, left, right, right and left… such went the pattern, almost too irregular. “Hector must’ve gotten a hangover again…”, He let out as he slowly walked towards the door, feeling his way through the tiny room, the floor littered with metal parts as well as wires. His boots made his footsteps echo across, as he began to get closer. The doors slid open, but nothing could be seen. Not by Reese, at least. We? We could see everything. His face, elongated, his mouth, gaping, his eyes, painted white with fear. We could hear his stuttered words. “Hector… Hector! Goddamn what the hell are you?!”. Then, the scream, as Reese became no more. The blood-letting scream as our long slender claws wrapped around his neck, and our web of lost souls began to overtake him, to consume him… Assimilated, scratched, wiped from existence… our mind has grown, and the ship is now a vessel of our own. We uttered the words, as we always did, Reese’s face now becoming nothing more than an abyss of black, and his body slowly bending irregularly, blood spilling all over the floor… “Explore the deepest trenches of your mind, but of your sanity, I should not be able to remind.”, We uttered, our tongue slithering around in our mouth, and soon, Reese let out one last scream into the lifeless darkness, and then… it was truly lifeless. Now, it is only you and me left. But who will truly remain?