Friday, April 8, 2011

Chapter 30

30: Daniel looked horror struck by Chadwick's story.  "What's wrong, Daniel?" asked Bill.
  "He's telling the truth.  The Nocent travelled here on a spacecraft called the Riven.  Rend was a convicted felon aboard the ship.  The Sypraxian body does look like water in its natural state, but we can form into any shape we choose.  We can even imitate colors by bending light.  The Collective imprison felons by freezing them and keeping them in a box.  When the Riven crashed into the lake, the machine that was keeping Rend frozen must have broken, allowing him to thaw and escape.  What did you say about the chips?"
  "Rend was implanting these chips into the backs of people's hands.  He said it would give them super-human powers or something."
  Daniel thought about this for a moment.  "This must have been the plan all along.  I never told you this, but just before the Nocent were about make their trip to Earth aboard the Riven, they slaughtered every one of the Collective.  They wanted to use our liquid bodies as fuel for the trip.  The computer aboard the Riven is called the Core Zone.  It can be run using the Sypraxian body as energy."
  Mina was terrified.  "They killed all of the Collective?"
  "Yes, but they failed to take into account our spirits.  You see, the Core Zone has an artificial intelligence which our spirits were able to basically stow away with during the trip to Earth.  Along the way, we befriended the on board computer who then sabotaged the Nocent's life support systems.  She opened a hatch which sucked out every one of the Nocent into the coldness of space, killing them.  All that was left of them were their Syproid glands, which are basically their brains.  That is the main difference between the Nocent and the Collective is the absence of the Syproid gland in the Collective.  This brain of theirs is only the size and shape of a dime."
  "So they're completely made of liquid except for this little dime-shaped brain?" asked Jeffrey.
  "Yes.  I believe that when Rend thawed out, he collected all the Syproid glands aboard the Riven and took them with him intending to give them new bodies.  That's why he kidnapped Sandy and used her to advertise the Nocent's intent to implant these 'chips' to give you super-human strength."
  Bill seemed to make a connection in his head.  "So that was probably Rend in the bathtub as both my wife and the blood.  He must have had her tied up somewhere and just retrieved her after Kenn and I left the house.  That's why the police didn't find anything when they got there.  No wonder she looked so lifeless on TV.  That was Rend."
  "Which explains his red aura that I saw," said Mina thoughtfully.
  "What Rend failed to take into account was the Scathing, the Sypraxian virus that was laying dormant in each one of those Syproid glands.  The Defectors who had the chip implanted fell prey to this virus and died.  Now they've started coming back to life and each of them is still quite contagious with the Scathing.  The Revenant could spread the virus."

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