Robert Walker - Titanic 2012

“You don’t understand, it… it uses its hosts… humans. It—”

“Now it’s an it and not a microcosmic creature?”

“I’m trying to tell you that it gets into the brainstem and the brain, working through the spinal column; it has evolved and it’s sophisticated in its pretense of being like you and me—human.”

“Human in appearance—aboard, among us?” David scratched at his neck, his legs firmly apart, rocking on his heels.”

“So you see, I can’t trust anyone.”

“No one? No one but me, you mean?” He stared into her eyes, searching for any trace of madness.

“If this thing—now in human form—if it knew all that I know, I’d be a target for assassination.” She dropped her gaze and shook her head, holding back tears.

“So you want a fellow target?” David took hold of her shoulders, demanding an answer.

She returned her gaze to him. “I need someone I can tell all this to, David. It’s tearing me apart.”

He stared long and hard at her and finally whispered, “Just how serious are you about your… this belief in this journal of yours, Kelly?”

“Deadly serious.”

He raised his hands in defeat. “A disease-carrying creature spawning death from stem to stern on Titanic in 1912, and now here with us in 2012 aboard Scorpio ? Kelly, it’s impossible to imagine, and now this thing—whatever it is—is hitching a ride back to Titanic for what possible purpose?”

“Harvesting its young. That’s the supposition.”

“Sheeeze. The supposition these many decades according to whom? How can you trust words in a 100-year-old book? It’s fiction.”

“Look, I’ve done research surrounding a number of mysterious deaths that came about in various communities from Newfoundland to Boston and New York in the intervening years. Bodies found with the same result… an identical appearance as those found on Titanic . Look at these documents I’ve uncovered; look at the photos.” She spread additional materials over her desk for his consideration.

Ingles studied the photos in silence for a moment, thinking anything can be photo shopped nowadays, especially with Quasarnet-Adobe2012. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” he finally muttered, staring at the condition of several completely brown, leather-skinned, desiccated bodies. While curiously enthralled by the unusual death photos, he asked, “Aren’t these simply shots of petrified mummies?”

She said in his ear, “Each of them drained of bone marrow, spinal fluid, every ounce of moisture, all gone. Know of any disease that does this to a person gone missing a mere twenty-four hours?”

He shook his head. “I refuse to believe this—” he stabbed a finger at the photo— “drove Smith and crew to-to—” David could not say the words.

“There was only one recourse left them—to sink Titanic because the disease carrier had in essence begun to spawn more of its kind all over the ship.”

“Spawn more of its kind—the carrier—do you realize how incredibly insane all this sounds, Kelly? No matter this… this evidence, these photos. If you so much as whisper a word of it, you’ll never see the inside of Titanic .”

“David, you don’t get it—someone on board this ship—is the descendent of the carrier, and its—his or her—reason for being here is to bring up from Titanic its only progeny.”

“Progeny?” he repeated, his brow scrunched, telegraphing his disbelief.

“Its spawn… its god damned eggs.”

“Eggs? Spawn?”

“For God’s sake, man, I am talking about the resurgence of this parasitic organism we know nothing about. Kane, Forbes, and the others may be in search of treasures in the holds, but this thing… this virulent parasite, it wants its children, and eventually it wants to take over the Earth.”

“I can’t believe—”

“Believe it! It has the potential to wipe out the human race, Dave.”

She put a finger to his lips, as a passing crewman lingered just outside the compartment as if to take note of their banter. They let him pass before going on. “For all we know whoever that was passing by, he could be the…”

“You’re saying it has survived for over a hundred years. Is he some sort of vampire?” David was on the verge of laughter—again.

“It replenishes itself; it infiltrates the host body, uses it up in slow increments, until it chooses another host, when the earlier host is used up, the corpse left in a state of absolute exsanguination and dehydration.”

“Sang—what?”

“All the blood gone—along with—”

“All bodily fluid, you say.”

“Declan says so, yes, and-and the ME’s who worked on these bodies say so, too, David. This is not some fairytale.” She held up the current day victims. “All liquids drained—down to the spinal fluid. Look, David, I’ve seen such a victim at the Boston ME’s office. Not even the ME could believe what he was looking at.”

“How did you get access to the ME’s?”

“Made it my business to get chummy with a guy in the ME’s office.”

He stood and paced the few feet he had to work with. “Man, I can’t believe this.”

“I’m sure you’d prefer to have remained ignorant of it, but I have to trust someone.”

“Thanks… thanks a lot,” he replied in a sarcastic tone.

“You can’t not help me, Dave; bodies have cropped up—like I’ve said—from Canada to New York in enough numbers and in such a mysterious condition that yeah, the authorities and the CDC have taken notice. They just don’t know what they’re dealing with.”

“What notice did they take? I mean when you showed them the journal?”

She hesitated answering. He pushed for a reply. She finally dropped her gaze and said, “I dared not share the journal with them.”

He paced. “This is so bizarre… . unbelievably ahh… ahh—”

“X-Files, I know!”

“More like The Fringe.”

“David, I know it’s a terrible shock, and a great deal to take in at once; you need to read the journal.”

He leaned against a wall as if seeking something solid.

“Will you please assure me that I can count on you to watch my back?”

“You intend to combat this thing alone?”

“Oh God, finally… you finally acknowledge there is a threat.”

“Just… just answer the question.”

“Once I determine who on board is the carrier, I’m prepared to kill it.”

“With what? How?”

“An experimental weapon.”

“Experimental? You don’t have a clue then, do you?”

“Not entirely, no. But I know from Declan’s journal that it can’t stand cold. Still, I admit, liquid Freon is not always at hand.” She indicated a canister of Freon in her duffle bag, and he examined it.

“This is the same stuff used by dermatologists to kill ring worms under the skin.”

“That’s right. Manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.”

“It’d take you some time to get this operational and pointed.” It came in a canister with a puncturing tube to insert in the spray head, much like WD-40 oil but there was no using this stuff without inserting the tube. A person could be overpowered before she got the thing working. “You might do better with mace,” he offered.

“Whatever we use, I can’t do this alone.”

“We now is it?”

“Yes, we! David, I need you desperately.”

“In another context, I’d take that as a wonderful thing but this… . Kelly, why me, why burden me with this?”

“From infancy, I’ve learned to read people, and I get nothing but positive vibes coming from you, and you look me in the eyes when you speak.”

“That’s it?”

“I’m a student of body language, the unspoken gesture; I find you sincere and easy to read.”