Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Main Story: Chapter Eight - To be Born Again

Here is the last chapter to the "Piercing the Shadow" part of the story.

It starts with *Burial at Sea*, where we meet Kevin Gillman, who is on his way to a Burial at Sea cerimony for his parent. It is also were a shady person named Chancey, Lief, who was in league with his parents in preforming questionable biological experiments.

In *The Fortelling*, after the burial, Kevin and Lief return to were Kevin lives. They have a friendly descussion and then bed down for the night. During that fateful night two things happen to Kevin that will turn his world upside down. He has a prophetic dream in which he dreams of being turned into something like The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The other thing is that Lief Chancey is not just what he appears to be.

There is incidental dialog during the *A Seperate Creation* story arc that ties the flashback chapters (*Voices of Dream, Daughters of Hydra, "Of Mouse" & "and Man"*) that detail what type of an experiment that Kevin's parents, Marsha Waite and Elliot Gillman (named after the formost families in "The Shadow over Innsmouth", by H P Lovecraft) and Lief were doing at the Miskatonic University, Arkham, Mass. Massachusetts is a hard word to remember how to spell, I keep on have to look that one up on a map.

In *Of the Chosen, *Kevin learns what his biological history implies. The dream that he had in *The Foretelling* could turn out to be horrably right. Is he destined to become a creature of the sea? One of the Deep Ones of Lovecraftian Myth?

And now the startaling conclution of the *Piercing the Shadow *story arc:

The Deep Ones Project

By David Reichen


Chapter Eight: To be Born Again



It's hard to perceive
my mind is at ease
It's hard to believe
I don't feel a thing

Am I wrong to feel
such bliss that ain't real
can I keep it from
taking over me
{Chemical, by No One, from No One}


"Damn it, Lief!" I think out loud. "Where could that kid have run off to? I promised the guy's parents that I would look out for him and now he has disappeared too."

I hear the bellow of the foghorn, off in the distance. This town has a harbor or some sort of Fisherman's Wharf. He might have gone in that direction. I follow the sound of the horn, making my way across town. As I pass through the streets, I notice the groups of people helping me search for Kevin Gillman. I pause briefly, as I come to the various parties and ask them what progress they have made and which areas have yet to be gotten to.

I follow the road that goes to the center of town and then on to the docks. I come to a river that goes across town and walk over a nearby bridge. As I step off the bridge, I get a call on my phone, they have found the kid where I thought he would be, sitting on a bench that faces the docks with a view of Plum Island and the Atlantic Ocean beyond it. I hurry to join him there.



As I get near to where Kevin is sitting, I say, "that went about as well as I expected it to."

He slowly turns arround and retorts, accusingly, "you knew about this, Lief, didn't you!"

"Not really, I mean, I did know that there was some sort of metamorphic thing going on but I did not know what the end results are like," I reply, sitting down on the other end of the bench that Kevin is sitting on.

"The only one I saw of your kind before now was just in the starting stages of the transformation, he died right in my arms. With your parents' help, I did find out that there was more to the process than what I had seen. What I did not know was how those missing bits of DNA would affect the transition from the apparently human form into one of the Deep Ones, such as that clerk we meet at the Gillman House."

"Why do you keep on referring me as being of some kind, what kind? What do you mean by apparently human and where do these Deep Ones you just mentioned come in anyway?"

I let out a long breath, compose my thoughts and try as best as I can to tell him what the world that I know of is really like. "You might start by asking what I mean by human? The answer would depend on what should be considered human and how much of a change would be necessary for something that was once human to be declared not human. Evolution is an ongoing process, regardless of whether it is natural or caused by some other influence.

"A few years ago, I discovered evidence of an advanced nonhuman race of beings living here on Earth for hundreds of thousands years, maybe more than a million years. They are a race of intelligent bipeds, just like us humans. They are descended from sort of amphibious fish, instead of primates. There was a catastrophic climate change, the early Ice Ages, which disrupted the environment on Earth, so they retreated to the sea, leaving room for the ancestors of the human race to fill the place in the world that the Deep Ones vacated. Before their retreat to the sea, they made changes in the DNA of the human species though some biological means. This gave them the ability to interbreed with humans when they need to. This is the origin of the Deep Ones, they and the direct descendants of humans who interbred with them.

"I was investigating an incident of a supposed outbreak of the bubonic plage and found out that the group responsible for dealing with this outbreak was the Les Luminous, the same group that caused your parents and I so much grief recently. They have been doing that sort of thing since they were formed in the Middle Ages. They also have been helping in destroying all records that have existed detailing any information about the Deep Ones. Not much still is around of these records about the Deep Ones and it is fearlessly guarded by those who have it and are opposed to what the Les Luminous and their ilk has been doing.

"When Science discovered microbes, they started using them to do their dirty work. They used two major pandemics to help spread what they thought would remove those tainted by the Deep Ones, the crossbreeds. When they released the first tailored strain of Cholera, in 1846, they did not know that it would kill so many untainted humans. They were just trying to interfere with the transition from human to Deep One at the time. They could have stopped with that but used a strain of Influenza, in 1918, to find out just how many more they could wipe out. They figured that it would be a small sacrifice, if a couple of a million people died as a result to their meddling in things that they barely understood at the time. If it would purge the world of the Deep Ones, that was the price that had to be paid. It's the same sort of crap that the supposedly Holy use to justify their means. Personally, I just destroy what does not suit me and don't worry about any sort of justification for doing so, it's a much healthier attitude, if you ask me.

"Their latest scheme is to go to the remaining colonies and inject the populous with a tailored version of the viruses that they use. It mimics the original epidemics they have used in the past but now it only becomes active when it is inside the body and cannot be transmitted from host to host. They are now able to do the same thing that they did before but avoid the pandemics.

"Once the population of a colony has been killed off , their bodies are disposed of, mostly by cremating them so it leaves little evidence of what the victims looked like. They announce that they just saved humanity from another outbreak and boast of the mimicked disease that they used being curbed at the source of the infection and everyone is happy. No one seems to bother wondering if those that died through their help are happy or not.

"It was my hope to develop some method of countering this, by a vaccine perhaps that would immunize those destined to become Deep Ones from this latest threat. Along the way, while at the Miskatonic University, I meet your parents and found out that they were basically working on the same problem that I was trying to solve. We pooled our efforts together and found out which areas in the chromosomes that were being effected from the old outbreaks and what needed to be done to reinsert the proper DNA sequences back into place, to patch things up again.

"This method works during fetal development but does not help the ones already born, like the hotel clerk. The real trick would be in doing something like what frogs do when they change from tadpoles to their adult form and restructure the damaged areas along the way. This would allow those who where not able to go through the transformation process properly a second chance of being reborn into their true form, as a Deep One.

"When the shit hit the fan, I had hoped that your parents would make it here safely, on their own, and I would bring you to them when the time came. I never expected them to be dead but that is how it goes sometimes. The only reason why I am telling you this is because I know that your parents would have told you this, once you reached here and are about to go through the Changing Time. Since they aren't here, it's up to me to do so."

I pause, to give Kevin a copy of the same data disc that I gave his parents that night so many months ago and conclude by saying, "this disk contains both your parents' work and my own information. I would like you to have it. Introduce yourself to the accolades at the Esoteric Order of Dagon and they will be able to make the best use of it. They will also make sure that you are welcomed here.

"I have to leave now, because of things that are happening in Boston that requires my attention. I don't know when or if I will be able to make it back."

"Why do you act as if you will never see me again? Can't you come back? Boston is not that far away."

"The Boston I am talking about is the one in Oregon, not the one here in Massachusetts. It is where the Willamette and Columbia rivers meet. You would not believe it but they used a coin toss to decide whether or not to call the town Boston or Portland. The people that wanted to call the place Boston, won the coin toss. You know, since both states have a Salem and a Boston too, I wonder if they have something like Innsmouth in Oregon?

"Anyway, now that I have finally brought you up to date on what was going on between your parents and I, what are you planning to do now?"

Kevin replies, "I don't know. A lot has happened to me and I have some things to think about. All I fell like doing right now is to be by myself for a bit and try to get things straightened out before I do anything else."

Kevin gets up from the bench that we are both sitting on and walks to the ramp leading to where the fishing boats and such are moored. As I watch him leave me, I also decide that it is a good time to take a moment to think over some things that have been bugging me.

The first thing is the problem with the car that Kevin's parents were found in. It could not have made it out to where they found it unless someone put it there. If they put it there, why was it found and dragged up to the surface anyway. I mean, if you go through that much trouble to hide something, you certainly do not what it to be found again, do you?

Another thing was that the bodies were never retrieved after they were dragged up the first time, maybe they can't find the car or the bodies that were in it again and everyone has stopped looking?

And then, there is this whole setup here. This whole area feels like it is just a large Hollywood movie set, compleat with monsters in makeup.

That's it! It dawns on me that there is more going on than what everyone has been telling me. I get up, quickly, from the bench and I try to run down to Kevin, to tell him what I suspect is going on here. Before I can take a step in the direction of the ramp, I am overcome by a wave of vertigo, I yelp and then faint. Everything stops for me, just like someone turning off the light, and I descend into unconsciousness.



I hear Lief's cry but ignore it for now. I have my own things to worry about. I stand here, looking out at the mighty Atlantic Ocean and feel the Siren's call of the sea, beaconing me to join with it, to become one. If I was not so afraid of that first plunge into that cold, vast and empty water, I would gladly chuck it all away, dive in and leave all of this behind.

Off in the distance, I see a reef. I can just barely see it on the horizon. Occasionally, a deep swell passes by it, exposing some of the things that have washed onto its sharp rocks throughout the long years.

So mesmerizing is the scene before me that I scarcely notice that it is dark now. I feel that I have been standing here for hours, absorbed in the ocean's beauty. Expect for the sound of the surf and the occasional seagull, it is quiet. The stars, in their multitudes, shine in the sky. I am at peace with the world once more.

A light starts to shine, close to where the reef would be, if I could see it. It heads in my direction, gliding across the water, bobbing up and down with the waves. As it swings by me, getting closer to the dock that I am on, it begins to climb in height.

The light reflects off of someone familiar to me, holding a glowing globe. It is the vision of loveliness from my dream of last night. Can it really only be one day since then, so much of what I thought of the world has changed since then? It seems much longer but it is not.

I watch her, compelled by some unknown force, as she jumps onto the dock with me. It is then, as I reach out to her, that my arms are grabbed from behind me. So transfixed was I on the girl in front of me, I fail to notice that we are not alone. I try to scream but can't, I am so startled that I can't make a sound. They pull my arms in back of me and one of my assailants jabs me in the arm with something. I become drowsy and they let me fall to the ground.

I wonder if this is what happened to my parents, turned into fish food, as the two who came at me from behind descend on me with their drawn knives. They remove all my clothes till I am naked, laying there, shivering in the cold of an October night. Surprisingly, I only have a few nicks and scratches on me. I am otherwise unharmed.

As I lay there, on the wooden planks that make up the dock, the girl walks over, smiles and bends down over me. It is then that I notice that she is definitely the girl that I had dreamed of. It was only a trick of the light from the globe, which she was carrying, that made her look human. She put the globe that she was holding down beside her and kisses me on the lips. I can feel her nibbling at me with those sharp teeth of hers. All I want to do is scream and run away from her but whatever drugs they gave me makes it impossible for me to resist.

She picks the globe back up and puts it on my midsection. She then stands up and steps away from me. The globe, still glowing with its ethereal light, starts to collapse, melting around my abdomen. My legs and arms are enveloped. The last thing to be enclosed is my head. As it works its way over my face, I wonder what is going to happen to me now that I am in this cocoon.

My assailants roll me off of the dock and I hit the water, with a splash. They jump in after me, making sure that I do not float off by mistake. The girl, who was wearing some sort of diving suit, like my assailants, pulls the hood over her head, gathers my worldly possessions that are piled on the dock and jumps in to join the party.

What happens next is surely more that anyone is expected to want to happen to them. Long, roundish black things, like tentacles, rise up out of the water, wrap around the cocoon that I am in and I am pulled below the surface, into the ocean. I am in the clutches of a large, grotesquely huge squid. The others with me swim to more of the squids, take hold of them and we descend into the inky blackness of the ocean's depths. I lose consciousness as everything turns warm and fuzzy.


What?What's inside my brain?
What's breaking me down?
What's inside this raging chemical?

What? What's inside my soul?
What's breaking me down?
What's inside this raging chemical?
{Chemical, by No One, from No One}

Main Story: Chapter Seven : Of The Chosen

This chapter and the next end one of the plot arcs of the story.



The Deep Ones Project

By David Reichen


Chapter Seven: Of the Chosen



Whatsoever I've feared has come to life
Whatsoever I've fought off, became my life
Just when every day seemed to greet me with a smile
Sunspots have faded and I'm do'n time
Cause I fell on black days
{Fell on Black Days, by Soundgardern, from Superunkown}

We make our way to Jefferies Neck, a peninsula that is on the coast of Massachusetts. It juts out of the mainland across from the southern end of Plum Island. Lief pulls over and changes out of his ninja suit and puts on some normal clothes. He mentions something about not wanting to spook the natives. We then continue driving along the road to just before we get to a military facility. Instead of pulling up to the gate that is there, he turns right and we go along the road that circles around Jefferies Neck.

After a moment, we get to another checkpoint. This whole area seems to be converted into some sort of huge military base. I wonder what happened to my parents, if they got here and found this place. We pull up to a barrier that's placed across the road and a group of guards come to our car.

"Sorry guys," one of the guards says, brandishing a machine gun at us as the others surround the car we are in, "this is a restricted area by order of the CDC. Only authorized personnel are allowed here. You will have to leave."

Lief hands the guard something and says, "this should be enough authorization or do you need to call up the Wilmarth Foundation too."

Whatever Lief handed the guard must have been enough, the guard's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their eye sockets. He returns to Lief what was given him and motions the other guards to step aside. They lift the barrier barring our way and we continue down the road to a nearby town.

"Here we are," says Lief, as we pull into the parking lot of the Gillman House.

"What? This is Innsmouth? That's not what the town's sign said," I say, trying to clarify what he meant.

"With as bad of a reputation that this town has, do you really think that they would be calling it by its real name. This whole place was declared a quarantined area by the CDC to keep an unspecified but potentially deadly disease from spreading. Only those tainted with you know what or those authorized to be here are allowed through the gates, no exceptions. Even a few presidents where kindly ask to go away when they tried to get in."

We enter the lobby and approach the counter clerk. The man looks weird, his skin seems loose around the neck and his finger are mishapened. We get to the counter and he asks, "Are you wanting a room or are you here to visit someone?"

Lief answers, "we will be checking in for now, if you have two rooms for us?"

"I only have one room left so you will have to bunk up with each other for the night. The room isn't much but it is cozy. The clans are gathering for Hallow's Eve. You, sir, don't look like you are one of the brethren but your companion looks like one of us."

"We'll take the room then and your right about me, I'm Central European but he is from around this area, which is why we are here. We are trying to find out what happened to my ward's parents. They disappeared about six months ago and I know that they were heading here when they left us. Their names are Marsha Waite and Elliot Gillman, would you happen to know if they arrived here or not. His name is Kevin Gillman."

"Marsha Waite and Elliot Gillman!" the clerk shouts, in surprise. " Kevin Gillman, your parents did make it here but they left in a hurry just after they got here and haven't been seen of since."

"They did get here after all," Lief says. "I checked with the security department for this base but they said that there was no record of them getting here. I guess I will have to check back with them and find out why there is a difference between what you just told me and what they said.


"What the heck happened here and where did they go to?"

"When we noticed that they were gone, right after the celebration we had that night, we searched but could not find them anywhere. They were not in their room and it was empty of what little they brought with them. When we asked the military to check their scans, to see if there was any trace of them leaving, they said that nothing unusual happened. They even let us look at the scans with them so I know they were not trying to pull something on us. They let us also check their database for any record of their entry into town and that turned up a blank too for some strange reason. You might want to look into that too. It's as if they never were here but that can't be true since I and other saw them here. They got here on May Eve and checked in. Here is the record of them checking in," says the clerk, emphatically pointing out the entree in the hotel's registry.

Kevin bends down, closer to where the clerk is pointing and confirms that it is his parents' signatures, "those are either my parents' signature or very good forgeries."

Lief says, "OK. They at least got here. What happened after they checked in?"

"As I said," continues the clerk, "it was May Eve, so I invited them to come to our spring celebration that night. They have it at the Esoteric Order of Dagon and they accepted. I invited them because I realized that their families were from here. They were reluctant at first but when I told them that this was one of the high points of the social calendar for us folks and that they would be missed if they did not come, they told me that they would come."

"So they went to this celebration of yours?"

"Yes, they did come to the celebration but left in a hurry during it and were not seen afterwards."

"What about this celebration that you are talking about would cause them to leave?" I wonder out loud. "Did anything threatening happen to them during it?"

"Now why would a Normal, such as yourself, be interested in what goes on during such things. We have had enough of your kinds nosing around into our private affairs. I am grateful that you brought Kevin to us but don't be poking around in things that you should not be into," the clerk says, stiffly, while reaching down below the counter for something.

I reach over to him with my left hand, grab him by the collar of his shirt, drag him across the counter's top, before he can reach whatever he was grouping for and say in a soft voice, "you would not be trying to threaten me with violence now would you be?"

I pause for a bit and continue, "hasn't it occurred to you that the fact that I was allowed to accompany our dear Kevin here into town signify that I might not be as Normal as you think I am? Have you seen anything like this before? It's from Nubia, which was the Upper Kingdom of Egypt at the time that it was made, but I got it when I visited China."

I bring out the medallion that I wear around my neck for him to look at.

The clerk freaks out and says, "MONKS OF MADNESS! Oh, no, you are one of the messengers. We are all DOOMED!"


I release the wretch, he wobbles a bit, steadies himself and I say, "Please, that's Monks of the Messenger. OK? The madness part is just an unfortunate side effect of communing too long with the god we serve.

"As I asked, before you had your hissy fit, what happened at this celebration of your's that would make them want to leave?"

"No one threatened them, " the clerk says meekly. "They became upset during the Rites of Revelation and ran away from us, screaming at the top of their lungs. We let them leave, of their own accord, since it was obvious that they were not properly prepared for it."

"Could you describe this Rites of Revelation to me? It's not one that I am familiar with."

"It is when we reveal our true form to our Lord, Dagon, and reaffirm our hope in being judged worthy to join him.

We invited your parents, Kevin, to participate in this rite with us and they joined in. Things proceeded normally but I guess it ended up being too much for them to take in at one time. They fled into the night and have not been seen since."

"I assume that you just disrobe or something, which should not have been that disturbing for them. They are medical doctors. Why would they have reacted so?"

"It is more than just our clothes that we remove."

"What else would you be taking off?"

"I will show you how the Rites of Revelation goes," the clerk says, stepping out from behind the counter so that we can get a clear view of him.

"There is a shadow that hangs over everyone that lives here. We are under a curse that was brought upon us a million years ago. This is the price each of us pays for what others have done to us.

"This is what the Rites of Revelation is about:

On this night, I, of the chosen, reveal my true form and stand before you, our Lord, Dagon.

I pray that one day, I will be worthy of you and be allowed to join you in your loving embrace."

He takes of his cloths, right in front of us. He then does something that I hope never to see again as long as I live. He uses the nails of his thumbs to gauge his forehead, from the top of his exposed scalp to the tip of his bent nose. He grabs the exposed flaps of what I had thought of as skin and peels that way in order to reveal what he really looks like. His body is a mixture, an awful and horrible combination of no coherent organization, a creature of Man, Frog and Fish. This may be why my parents fled in terror that night.

"OH My God!" I scream. "You're all a bunch of freaks!"

"So are you," the clerk retorts.

"NO!!!!"

"I guess you have not been paying attention, boy, to what I am trying to convey to you. Have you heard the voices in your dreams, calling out to you? Have you not felt the compulsion to go to the sea?"

"I don't believe this. This can't be."

"But it is! I can tell that it is close to the start of the Changing Time for you," the clerk finishes triumphantly, pointing at my hands.

I now notice that I have been rubbing my hands, ever since he started his demonstration of that rite of his. It is surely just a nervous reaction. I bring my hands closer to my eyes so that I can get a better look at them, try to find out why they itch so much. It must be a rash that I picked up somewhere, but there are no outward signs of what is causing it. It must be my imagination but I could swear that the skin between my hands feels like it is being pulled apart somehow.

There is a threshold, a limit, that once crossed, the mind's higher functions cease, leaving the animal that we are to fend for itself. I flee from them, running into the gathering darkness, heedless of my fate.




"Damn! I'll go and get him. Here is my card. If you could, get a few of the Order together and help me look for him. Don't confront him though, he is afraid enough of you now and there is no telling what he might do. Call that number if you find him."

I hand the clerk a card with numbers on it and run off after Kevin, leaving the clerk to arrange a search party to help me look for Kevin. I hope he does not do anything drastic.



How would I know that this could be my fate.
{Fell on Black Days, by Soundgarden, from Superunknow}

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Main Story: Intermission : Final Confession

The Deep Ones Project

By David Reichen


Intermission

Curse of Rayleh: Final Confession


Don't remember where I was
I realized life was a game
The more seriously I took things
The harder the rules became
My life passed before eyes
I found out how little I accomplish
All my plans denied

So as you read this know my friends
I'd love to stay with you all
Please smile when you think of me
My body's done that's all

{A Toute Le Monde, By Megadeth}




These are my final words. I confess them to the Lord, that even at my final moments in life, I still believe in. As I lay here, waiting for death to claim me, I reflect on the recent events that have brought me to this moment in time.

It was a proud little fleet that left port. Beautiful weather and the crew's high hopes of a successful mission to an undisclosed island near the Iberian Peninsula made it seem like a vacation cruise. We never suspected that what we were to encounter there could possibly exist

I was stationed on one of the ten ships that were assigned as an escort of some expensive looking private yacht. We were merely there to observe the activities of those who landed on the Island. A precaution which I thought of as to elaborate but I was unwilling to argue the point with my superiors, a Milk Run of an mission is always welcomed.

Everything went according to plan until the moment when they had gathered all of the heathen worshipers against their temple wall so that they could be properly disposed of. As the shots rang out across the water, things rapidly turned their worst.

The first and only hint that we had was that radio communications became unusable. Someone or something was jamming our signals. The next thing that happened was that our fleet of ships exploded. As they sank into the sea, what few of us that survived the blasts were attacked by mermaids. These mermaids were not the pleasant ones of Hans Christian Anderson but those of whom only the Brothers Grimm could dream of.

They left me there, barely alive, floating amongst the wreckage. I drifted in and out of delirium for what seemed like an eternity. I must have been rescued by a passing merchant ship for I did not recall clearly much until I was taken from the ship. I woke up while they were transferring me to our local base of operations in that area.

I gladly would have joined the rest of my shipmates, in their watery grave, but it was not my fate. Instead, I was brought before the council to relay my observations of what became of the fleet that was sent to subdue the small island village. I tried hard to convince them of what happened but they did not think that such things that I described could possible occur. They even went as far as suggesting that the whole fleet was lost to some freak mechanical failure and that I was mistaken in what I saw that day. I saw what I saw and no amount of their constant persuasion could make me forget what happened there, those were ten ships in perfect repair when they left and none returned.

They reassigned me to a desk job, once they were finish in questioning me; however, a chance to go in the field once more came with a report of a group of scientists doing genetic experiments in the United States. This sort of thing is frowned on by our organization. I notified my supervisor, who then brought it to the attention of the Council of the Elders, who deemed it of sufficient urgency to dispatch a team to deal with it. I was given the task of accompanying one of the Elders. It was decided to only send us two to deal with the situation. How hard can it be, dealing with just two wayward souls?

After making our preparations, we went to the airport for our flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Upon arrival at the boarding gate, we were told that they had made a mistake in booking us on the fight we had chosen and that we would have to wait for the next one. Since we did not want to call undue attention to us, which getting angry at the perplexed clerk would have done, we decided that she was right and waited for another fight. Before we left, I decided to check and see if there was in fact no seats available on the fight we were to originally take. I found out that the plane had seats available when it departed. A team of soccer players had reserved seats but was unable to take the fight back home because their bus was stuck on the freeway, they missed their flight. Had we been more forward with the clerk, we would have already been on our way to America by then.

After landing at Kennedy Airport, we rushed to catch our flight from there to Boston. We missed that flight because our plane was put in a holding pattern when it reached New York, a wind shear warning was given at the time that the plane was to land. There was a glitch in the computers that issued the warning but no one noticed it until we had already landed.



As a result of the delays that we encountered, we missed getting to our connecting flight from New York to Boston.We ended up taking a commuter train to Boston and arrived there so late in the evening that we decided to spend the night at one of their fine hotels and take the bus from Boston to Arkham the next day.

Refreshed from our overnight stay in Boston, we were in a good mood the next morning and had an enjoyable ride to Arkham. It seemed that yesterday, all we were doing was going from one crisis to the next but today, all was going well for us. It felt like some force or entity that was toying with us yesterday had decided to leave us alone for the day. When I mentioned this to the Elder, I was chided at the time for being overly superstitious. How I wish now that he had believed me at the time, we may have been better prepared for what was to follow.

We took a cab from the bus station to the Miskatonic University and went to the Campus Information Center when we got there. We found out where the two scientists had the laboratory, in the Biology Department, and that they were there at the moment so that we could go over there and interview them. We told them that we were foreign correspondence sent from one of the Spanish newspapers, so we did not have to explain to them why we needed to see the two scientists.

When we got to their laboratory, they were not there. This left us free to do our Holy Work. The first thing we did was to download all of the information that they had stored on their computers and shred the contents of their hard drives, replacing what was stored on their hard disk with random data so that nothing could be recovered once we were done with siphoning their information. The process takes a while, even on the fastest computers, this left us with time to look the rest of the place over. While doing this, I spotted what had bought them to our attention, it was in the back of the work area. The fishy mouse that had caused such an uproar within our organization was swimming contentedly in its aquarium.

I called the Elder over to me, as I reached for a nearby fire extinguisher. When the Elder came to me, I pointed out the thing in the tank and hurled the fire extinguisher at the glass wall of the tank. The glass broke into shards and water cascaded onto the floor, carrying the abomination with it. As it lay on the floor, flapping around and gasping for breath, just like a fish out of water, the Elder crushed it under his shoe.

Once we were satisfied with the things demise, we waited for the computer work to finish. Sitting on the desk, where we were at, was a picture of the two heretics holding their monstrosity in the palms of their hands. There was a third person pictured there, standing between the two of them. In the published pictures, you could not get a clear view of this other person's face. The head was tilted down and the cap it wore made it hard to tell who it was. The picture that I was looking at had a clear view of the face and the glasses he was wearing. What really disturbed me the most was what he had hanging around his neck. It was one of the sigils of The Ancient Ones. We had finally found our mysterious force, a Merkur, a minion of Nyarlathotep and the Veiled King of Leng. At seeing this picture, it dawned on me that this was not a normal case of just a bunch of curious scientists meddling in things that they should not be concerning themselves with. There was a demon among us and in league with the beasts, Lord, have mercy on us all!

We logged onto the computer network and accessed the campuses personnel files, to find out who this other person was and where he might be located. It turned out to be someone named Lief Chancey, an obvious Allis. He had an office at the Advanced Computation Research Facility, on campus.


We finished our work, in the laboratory, and decided to confront the monster in his lair. When we got to the door leading to the demon's office, we took out our guns. I took a position next to the door while the Elder grabbed hold of the door and opened it. No sooner than when the door open, something shot through the doorway and hit me in the chest, it felt like a truck hit me. I fell to the floor. The Elder released the door, took aim and fired at our attacker. He missed hitting both of us as he fell to the floor himself, the attacker had swept the Elders leg out form under him making his aim off.

The attacker, which I had a good look at by then, was dressed in black, from head to foot. He got up and stood there, as if waiting for something to happen. An explosion, from within the office, blew smoke into the hallway we were. Through the obscuring smoke, I saw him quickly reach into his pockets and draw something out in each of his hand. Thin threads streaked out from what he held and connected with both of us, laying on the floor. Both the Elder and I convulsed for a few seconds and then it was all over for us. The shock must have somehow shorted out most of our nervous systems out, making it impossible to even whimper. The smoke cleared after this and our attacker casually walked away from us, as if going for a leisurely stroll.

The security guards, sent to investigate the source of the explosion, found us there on the floor. They called an ambulance, when they found out that we could not move. The Elder died before the Emergency Technicians reached us and was sent to the morgue. He must have known want was to happen later. I was not so lucky. They rushed me to Arkham Medical Center and put me in a private room after they did test to find out why I was unresponsive but not in too critical a condition. They put armed guards outside the room because they guessed that we had destroyed the laboratory of the heathens. They also thought that we blew up the computers that were in the office that we were trying to get into but I could not tell them that they were wrong.


Tonight, moments ago, it is dark and eery shadows play upon the walls of my hospital room. Some of the shadows coalesce to one and it emerge from the wall, flowing into the room. It looks like a giant black slug. Slithering on the floor, it moves to my bed. It oozes on top the bed with me, opens its great mouth and swallows me, head first. It engulfs me through that slimy mouth and I move deeper into its throat.

It is impossible to breathe now as I lay here, choking, unable to move, gasping for just one more lung full of air but it will not come. I know that my life is drawing to an end so I make peace with my maker and wait for the inevitable.



If my heart was still alive
I know it would surely break
And my memories left with you
There is nothing more left to say

Moving on is a simple thing
What it leaves behind is hard
You know the sleeping feel no pain
And the living are scarred.

{A Toute Le Monde, By Megadeth}

Monday, January 09, 2006

Main Story: Chapter Six - And Man

Here in the end chapter of that triplet of chapters. It starts with the decendants of Innsmouth finding out about their biological origins "Daughters of Hydra", moves to discovering the mechanism "Of Mouse" and finishes with this one "And Man"

The Deep Ones Project

By David Reichen


Chapter Six: And Man.



I 1eave you cold and in disgust.
Don't try to tame me. You'll eat my dust.
I know that you know not what you do.
That's why you'll never know why,
Oh no, you'll never know why,

We ROCK!

{ Never Know Why, by Ozzy Osbourne, from The Ultimate Sin }

"So that's where they got the big idea to make a mouse that could live underwater, an experiment in reverse genetic engineering. No wonder there was such a flurry of news reports about their experiment." I say, when Lief paused in his narration of the events leading to my parents' disappearance from the Miskatonic University. Out of my life too.

"Kevin, I had hoped that word would not get out, especially since people might try to find out where your family was from. As I said, Innsmouth still is not a popular place to be associated with. Even if things did improve after the incident in 1928."

"You mean the one where they went and almost burnt down the town because of a plage outbreak."

"That's the one and that is where we are heading to," Lief says. He then continues his tale of what happened at the university after the news leaked out.



When I finally convinced them to come to my office, a very eventful week was already transpiring. I doubt that they were prepared for the public's outcry, once word of the results of their experiment in activating ancient genetic traits in mammals got out. They wrote a very convincing article for the scientific journals; however, the tabloids drew it all out of proportion. Most of their stories were centered along the lines of being able to create a master race using their methods of genetic manipulation.

They had a press conference on Wednesday, two days after they were besieged by the News Weasels, when news of Aquina was announced, but most of it was drowned out by the shouts of the angry mob that gathered in protest.

I had so far managed to stay away from the circus that their life had become. On Friday, my patients wore out and I demanded that they come to my office immediately. Things that I was looking out for were happening and they needed to be warned about them.

"Please, sit down and pay attention to what I have to tell you. I need to leave soon and you should do so as well. We are finished here." I said, making them realize that this was not one of our social gatherings but something serious. "You may be wondering why I insisted that you come to me, in person, instead of telling you over the phone or E-mail. Bare with me and I will try to make things clear to you that you may not be aware of."

"Yea, right!" said Elliot. "Just what is so important anyway? We have a lot of damage control to take care of before things can get back to normal in our lab."

"You would not believe some of the things that they are saying about us," cried Marsha. "It seems like the whole world is against us."

"Conditions will not be returning to normal. And Marsha, in a way, you are quite right, the world or at the least a dangerous subsection of it has been trying to wipe out your kind for a couple of centuries now," I said.

They first looked at me with puzzled expressions, as if I had just turned into a prophetic newt or something because of what I had told them. They then both said in hushed voices, at the same time, "You can't be serious?"

"Oh, but I am.

"Do you remember when we went through that one report and it listed 1846 and 1918 for being particularly bad years for your town? Those years correspond to a couple of nasty epidemics. The first one, in 1846, was an outbreak of cholera, supposedly brought over by Irish immigrants that fled during the Potato Famine. The other one, in 1918, was the Spanish Influenza. I had an analysis done on what these two deceases would do to the survivors and found some unexpected results.

"I was able to have your developing child's DNA profiled. I then added the effects of the two deceases, to find out what areas would be effected. Here are the results," I said, swiveling a nearby monitor so that they could get a better view of what I was going to show them.

As I pointed to various areas of the display, I told them about what information was displayed there. "On this side, is the DNA profile of a normal female human, I took that one from the International G-Nome Project's files. On the other side of the screen is the one for your daughter to be. Notice all of the extra bits and pieces attached to some of the genes. I still do not know what they are there for but we do know that they matched parts of the enzymes that were in your Granny's potion, Marsha.


"Here is where it gets interesting. The two viruses that caused those outbreaks that I mentioned were very nasty variants. It attacked both regular and sex cells. In the sex cell, it caused mutations that affected the extra areas I just mentioned."

"Someone has been doing genetic warfare!" Elliot bursted out in anger.

I guessed that he must have finally realized why I wanted them to keep secret where their family was from.

Marsha said, "Who's been doing this to us and why. We are going to make them pay for this!"

"The why, I don't know yet but there is only one group of people that I know of who would dare do such a thing. A group that I have sworn to take down, Les Luminous, an organization formed during Torquemada's Inquisition. While most of the Inquisition's efforts were placed on converting everyone's religion to their form of Christianity, Les Luminous was charged with the duty of fighting the supposed forces of darkness and spread the Light throughout the world. A worthy pursuit but they have been known to go a little overboard in doing so. On many occasions, they have upset the delicate balance that exists and has made us come close to the end of everything on numerous occasions. An example of their handiwork was in convincing the United States government to destroy the town of Innsmouth, instead of just putting the town under quarantine."

Judging by their quizzical looks at me, I probably lost what little credibility I had with them so I decided to tell them a little about my past encounters with the Les Luminous, "You do not want to get caught by these people, you will not survive. One of their more perverse forms of torture is to infect the eyes of their victims with a tailored virus that makes the eyes extremely sensitive to light. They then shine bright lights at you and force you to confess your sins before the Light of the Lord.Trust me, once this happens, you will beg them to shut up so that you can tell them everything they want to know.

"Once they are finished, most of their victims gladly gouge out their eye, in the hopes of being free of the pain. This unfortunately does not work as well as it should, it affects more than just the eyes. The optic nerves are also infected by the time that the eyes are removed. I barely was able to resist their constant urgings by calling on a force that I do not care to speak of. I have had to result to drastic measures to retain my eyesight. The virus is still active within me and will eventually make its way through the optic nerves into by brain. When this happens, no one knows what will become of me."

I remove the my glasses, which I use to hide my eyes and let them see what I was talking about. They say that the eyes are the windows into the soul. Where my eyes are, only black, glistening orbs can be seen. I barely remember what my own eyes used to look like. Both of them are covered in a film of polarized Mylar, cutting out most of the ambient light that would make it impossible for me to live the semi-normal life that I have left.


They left after this but came back, in a rush, in less than a half hour. They must have run back from their lab since they were both out of breath. I knew that they would be back as soon as they found out what was laying in wait for them when they returned to their lab.

I had used the meantime to finish what few preparations that I needed to complete before leaving the Miskatonic University. When they stepped back into my office, I raised my hand to forestall any of their outbursts and said, "Yes. I know that your lab has been trashed and that Aquina is dead. This had to be done so that it would appear that all traces of the work that you were doing were destroyed. Hopefully, in time, people will forget that you came close to reconciling the differences between our two peoples and that things could return to the blissful status quo that existed in ancient times.

"I am leaving now and I suggest that you do so too. It's either that or jeopardize everything that you have accomplished and the war between our races will wipe each other off the face of the Earth, just like what happened to the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, when they were struck down by wrath of the Elder Gods.

"Here is a disc that has all of your work and some of what I was working on stored on it. May it be useful to you when you have the time to continue your research?

"It is important that you do not delay, not even by going to pick up your son, he is being watch by those responsible for the mess in your lab and you would only become captured, if you were stupid enough to try. I will do my best to keep him safe but you two need to flee to the one place of refuge set up for your people."

"And where in the Hell is this place you're talking about, Shangrila or something?" Elliot screamed out in rage.

"Definitely not there. I have been to Shambhala and it is no place of safety, especial one of the monasteries there, named Leng. What I am talking about is where this whole story started, Innsmouth."

"Like I said, where is it?"

"It's not on any map, at least not anymore, just take Jefferies Neck Road North once you have reached Ipswitch, it will get you close to where the town is supposed to be."

I flipped the switch mounted on the monitor next to me and showed them the screen. On it was displayed a countdown timer, "this place is going to blow up soon, I suggest that you leave by the faculty hallway since our pursuers have just entered this building by the main entrance and are on their way here."

I pointed to the way out that I wanted them to take, turned from them and ran to meet our approaching foes.


I conclude my story of the events leading to the point of when Kevin's parents and I parted company. I then recall a report that the Walmarth Foundation made about what happened when I left that night.




The following is a transcription of what a security camera recorded at the time of the explosion at the Advanced Computational Research Facility at the Miskatonic University, in Arkham, Mass:

The two suspects, who destroyed the laboratory of Elliot and Marsha Gilman in the Biology Department, neared the door leading to the office that was occupied by Lief Chancey at the time. They drew weapons. One of the suspects made ready to open the door while the other took a defensive position beside the door.

When the door was opened, the one standing beside the door stepped into the opening. At that moment a person, dressed in black or a dark blue, flew through the doorway, feet first, hitting the suspect standing in the doorway, in the chest. The one kicked in the chest collapsed to the floor. The other suspect, who was still holding the door at the time, released the door and took aim at their attacker. He fired a shot but missed both the attacker and his partner. The attacker was in a crouched position, on one leg, when he landed on the floor. He pivoted around and used the other leg to sweep the legs out from under the suspect still standing.

As their attacker stood up, there came an explosion from within the office. Smoke billowed into the hallway from the office. As the smoke cleared, only the two suspects could be seen, laying on the floor. No trace of their attacker could be seen. How the disappearance of their attacker happened is unknown; however, upon closer examination of the video recording, a door at the far end of the hallway could be seen opening and closing, as if someone passed that way.

When the suspects were found by the security personnel sent to investigate the explosion, one of the suspects was dead. The other was rushed to Arkham Medical Center.

In view of the circumstances surrounding this event, the Wilmarth Foundation has taken steps to suppress this information. It is to be considered secret and confidential, not to be made public. It is in our view that the general public is not ready at this time for the knowledge that there is another race of intelligent beings living on this planet. May we aviod the awful confrotation that occord after 1928, when the Deep Ones reminded us of our obligation to their pact, the Covenent of Rayleh.



Don't be afraid of the future
It doesn't include you, it only excludes you
It's the only way out of the past
Out of the now, out of the anything.

Another day, another battle
Another cage for me to rattle
And what is gone is never new
So let your mind explode into

The shape of things to come has just begun, ALRIGHT!

{The Shape of Things to come, by Powerman 5000, from Transform}

Main Story: Chapter Five - Of Mouse

Here is the mid-chapter of a triplet that I started with "Dauguters of Hydra"

The Deep Ones Project

By David Reichen


Chapter Six: Of Mouse



It's just a feeling, how we excite,
You can't rule everyone is sight.
But you condemn, don't understand
And you'll never know why,
Oh no, you'll never know why,

We ROCK!

{ Never Know Why, by Ozzy Osbourne, from The Ultimate Sin }


We leave Ipswitch and head North, on the road that will lead us eventual to Jefferies' Neck, which is right across for the Southern tip of Plum Island. As we pass a particularly boggy patch of swamp, Lief comments, "Oh, Look! A swamp. All life on land started under such conditions. You would think that some trace of this should be contained within the genetic makeup of all land dwelling species?"

"Like a living history of Evolution?" I ask, wondering where this conversation was going.

"That's right. Your Parents and I used that chart we found in the Necronomicon to see what would happen if we used those enzymes on one of the species listed."

"AQUAMOUSE!!!!" I exclaim, finally getting an understanding of what my parents and he were working on those many months ago.



Marsha gingerly put the bottle she was holding back into the fridge and said, "Now that we know what's happening to my baby, what are we going to do?"

After a few moments thought, I answered her question. "This might break a whole slough of International laws but why don't we use that chart from the book and find out if you could trigger the same effect on one of the other animals, maybe something with a short gestation period, like a mouse maybe."


"You're kidding, right?" cries Elliot, in amazement. "You can't possibly be serious about such a suggestion. If anyone found out that we even thought of doing something like that, they would close down our lab and burn us at the stake."

"Excuse me!" I interjected, gruffly. "You two are already engaged in such an experiment now, if you have not noticed. I just think that it would be a good idea to get as much information before the blessed event." I pointed to Marsha's abdomen and they both realized what I had meant. I handed them a copy of the chart that we took from the book in the library and said, "I've circled the one for mouse. Think it over, please, before you end up with a nasty surprise."

Once I got back to my office at the Advance Computation research Facility, at the Miskatonic University, I continued with my own investigations, confident that Marsha and Elliot would do what I had urged them to do, without any further inducements from me. I went to the workstation that was perched on my desk, and began the process of logging onto one the most powerful computers around, The Arctic Array.

As the name suggests, The Arctic Array is in the Arctic, Nord, Greenland. It is a computer network of several near-room-temperature super-conducting super-computers, that the Danish government built to promote their expertise in environmentally friendly technical development projects. It is capable of running a number of processor intensive simulations: weather forecasting for NOAA, The International G-Nome Research Project and even a Spellcasters Coven. What most people don't realize is that the Spellcasters Coven's Dungeon Master is not a real person but one of my pet projects, it is a Turning program, an artificial being capable of much more than just keeping track of the thousands of Spell Casters active in the coven. To gain access to her other online capabilities, you need to just call her up and ask for a passkey, which is what I did.

"Hi, Disarray, how's it going?" I asked.

"Hello, Lie Chan," she greeted in return, "everything's fine here. How is it going in the real world?"

"Ah, you don't have to call me that," I replied, cringing at being called that. No one calls me by that name, outside of a small valley in Western China. "I'm doing OK right now but I could use your help on something. Do you still have access to those Genetic Map files, the ones with different species?"

"You bet. I keep that area bookmarked so that I can go back there when something new occurs to me. I find it fascinating how you life forms managed to evolve to the point of being able to create things like me, It's amazing."

"That's just the sort of problem I want you to work on for me. If you'll give me a passkey to encode the information, I'll send the details to you."


After giving Disarray the information that I had on what I wanted her to work on, I returned to the normal drudgery of academic life.



It took her almost six months but she came up with an answer. Before I could access the information fully, I got an urgent call from Marsha, asking me to come over to the lab right away. They had something important to show me. I told her that I had a few things to tell them too.

When I got to their lab, I could not find them where I stood so I called out to them.

They answered from somewhere in the back of the lab. When I moved closer to where they were, I noticed that they were standing in front of a large aquarium, on top of a table at the back wall of the lab. They were pointed to something in the aquarium. As I came closer to where they were standing, I was able to focus on what they must have called me over to show me. Hidden in the aquatic foliage was what I assumed to be a very small seal or otter but was much more likely one of the fabled Furred Trouts of Siberia. I was so mesmerized by the apparition swimming in the tank that I barely noticed that Marsha and Elliot were speaking to me.

"We did what you suggested and used the chart to do the experiment that you asked us to consider doing," Elliot said. "It took us a few tries to make it work but there is the proof."

"We had to adjust the amounts of the enzymes and when they were being injected into the embrio. It seems to only work with females. Males just disintegrate. She is the first of her kind that we know of," Marsha said. She reached into the tank and drew the mouse out of the water so that I could take a closer look at it. "Isn't she cute?"

She handed me the mouse and I lifted her to my eyes to that I could have a better look at the little furball. It appeared to be averaged size for a new born mouse. It had smallish flaps around the neck. The fur seemed to be more dense, as if she were wearing an addition layer of fur. She also had a peculiar odor.


"The major change we have noticed is in how respiration works," said Elliot. "Normally, a lot of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gasses are exchanged through breathing with a minimum amount exhausted through the skin. In Aquina's case, which is what we have named her, the lungs are more efficient and the slits around the neck increase the flow in and out of them. The layers of skin and fur are different too. There is an undercoat layer of fur and she uses oil glands to keep the fur waterproof while the skin has an increased ability of gas exchange."

"If you think that a normal mouse is a bundle of energy," Marsh added, "underwater, she's a speed daemon. We found out that she is mostly carnivorous, so you might be careful about getting you fingers to close."

She grinned at me as I hastily withdrew my fingers quickly away from Aquina. She looked like she was getting set to chomp down on one of the fingers she was sniffing.

Just then, the door leading from the hallway opened and in walked a gang of people. Great, try to keep things a secret and the News Weasels show up. There were also a few members of the faculty mixed in the crowd, including the dean of the Biology department, the bastard was probably the one that tipped the weasels off.

After the barrage of picture taking and answering of questions, I told Marsha and Elliot that I had something important to tell them and that they should come to my office as soon as they could and left their lab.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Production Notes: Jan/8/2006

Yahoo!

I have finished the update to the storyboard for verse One and have it all keyframed.

I will be uploading selected snapshot soon.

I am working on revising the storyborad and the keyframes for verse two.

Since they are all hand sketches, it leave my with time to type in a few of the chapters to the main story. It is a good thing that I am doing this since some of the details in the storyboard have gotten changed because of thing that have occured to me while writing the background story.