Anomalous Elements Temporary Investigation Facility, Leningrad, USSR - January, 1983
'Vremennyy ob"yekt po issledovaniyu anomal'nykh elementov'
The place was a converted prison that seemed to constantly be under some form of repairs; an old man was in his cell, one of the few non enhanced individuals who were being held there, not that there were many at that point, but they were becoming problematic, it was a cold and unforgiving place. The man was no one important in life but saw himself becoming much more important in death, he was Captain Haarstad, a commercial ship captain with decades of experience and one of the few unlucky survivors of the Hail Mary.
The room was bare of anything apart from the fundamentals and even then they were not very high quality, the entire place felt like it was some last-time solution to a new problem, Captain Haarstad looked at his only book of the week, all he could do was curl into his not-so-hot sheets and wait, he had no idea why they were even holding him, not like he was some big shot that knew what was happening.
He heard muffled screams in the corridor, sometimes they did happen. He was always unsure of what exactly that meant, if it was any regular prison that would be easy to figure out but here... Here it was different, all he could do was sit and wait. He did that for a while before he heard the bars being moved on his door. From there two officers walk, a woman and a man. Accompanied by two guards, the woman looked at him, waiting for him to speak.
He slowly got up, all he could do to ease his pain as he looked at them, the man ordered something to the soldier; he brought a strange portable heater and placed it on the side. They spoke something; he did not speak Russian. He sighed, the woman looked at him and then at his file “Ogden Haarstad” she spoke, then continued in accented Norwegian.
“Born in Norway, migrated to America when young, captain of several ships and lastly captain of the ship formerly known as Hail Mary” she looked at him, he narrowed his eyes for a second.
“That is me” he responded back in his native tongue.
She kept looking at the documents for a few moments and gave a smile “Mister Haarstad, we understand that you might be frustrated and fearful with this situation, we understand that this might be a lot” she gave a smile, he was not impressed, he leaned on the chair.
“so what do you really want to keep me here? In this place? Not like I am alive, am I?” He looked at her, she looked back
“True... In fact you are officially dead” she checks his documents again “We want to know about the travel of the Hail Mary... everything” she looked at him, now with a serious expression, he observed her fake niceness disappear, she looked at him now with a focused aura. He knew that there was not much he could do there... They would get the info weather he wanted to share it or not.
He looks at the wall for a second, at one of the old stains, he then looked back at her “I don't have all the info... but you know the international expedition after the detection of the strange elements on the biosphere? It was traced down to something in the South Pacific... Eventually someone connected to the meteorite theory” he tapped his foot on the floor a bit.
The woman started taking notes , she was looking quite calm there “We are aware of that... so... where did you find the meteorite piece?”
“Not in the ocean... The man who hired us and is probably now on the bottom of the sea... Harry Monroe... He was a British entrepreneur... he did some calculations and grabed a team, he found the meteorite on one of the Andean mountains, it seems, I don't know the details, he is dead and I was not there...” he tapped his foot a bit more
She took some notes, looking at the documents and then at the man once more, she spoke something he did not understand to one of the soldiers who gave her a clear glass with a small glistening rock “This is a small fragment of the meteorite, we are studying it right now. What do you know about the rock?”
He shrugged and looked at the rock for a second “Its a pretty rock for sure, could be radioactive, I don't trust glowy things... We were just transporting it Miss?” he looked at her, she had not given him a name so far.
“Alexeeva” she said and took more notes, he shrugged “So... why a transport ship and not something more... scientific or governmental?”
“He was a rich man and wanted the glory of finding it and delivering it for a large sum of money. He hired the Hail Mary because he wanted it to be as fast as possible to transport, he hired us by invoice when we were in Santiago... He had not even arrived yet, we were paid to wait and to transport whatever they brought as fast as possible to New York, we were in Santiago.” He looked at the wall once more, remembering.
“What happened then?”
“I don't know, we just waited and a truck came with the meteorite on it. He boarded the ship and refused to leave until we reached New York; we moved fast...” He let out a frustrated sound “Mister Monroe was ... very anxious all the way there, fearful and I noticed he always had a gun with him... he was paying a lot... I started finding it a bit strange... Before I could figure out anything it happened...”
“Before you give me the details, can you describe the Hail Mary for the record” she was getting ready to take some notes as well, he sighed “It was a commercial transport ship, not huge, nothing too fancy, was fast, I guess that's why he wanted it... to be as fast as possible... The ship had just 50 crewmembers, we were for fast cargo as well...”
She took note “now... Tell me... what happened in the Gulf of Mexico before the Revolutionary Guard arrived?”
Gulf of Mexico , Commercial Transportation Ship Hail Mary - October, 1982
The ship was rocking gently against the waves, captain Haarstad was checking the instruments there the best he could. They had a few good days still to the port but the behavior of Mister Monroe was giving him the creeps. He should confront him eventually. Especially the bit of him always carrying a weapon.
“Merry, I will check the cargo” he said walking out in his usual small limp, he walked fast towards the cargo hold, the corridors were small and smelled of fish and rust, he walked towards the hold, it was their largest hold, was specially padded for this event as well. He arrived at the hatch and saw Billy, one of the crew, he seemed nervous.
“Billy... what are you doing here?”
The boy, young one, was begining in the industry, he immediately started trying to divert “uh... yeah the boys... uh... Im just here, how are you boss?” he clearly forced a smile
Ogden looked at him and sighed, he moved and pushed the boy out of the way “What is going on?” he said and opened the hatch, there he sees five other of his men scraping the big glowing rock of the meteorite a bit into smaller pieces, he sighed and took a deep breath
“WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE?” he screams at them there, the five there scramble to adjust
“B-BOSS!” someone blurts out in some fearful voice “We ... uh... we were , checking it... uh...”
He groaned and walked to them, looking at the hammer and the box they were collecting small parts of the material, he snapped it from their hands “I will ask one time and you imbeciles better answer truthfully! What were you doing here??”
One of the boys looks at him “we... were grabbing the piece... it’s a very nice rock and... well we wanted a bit, not like the big boss will miss it, its several tons!” He seemed to try and defend himself, The captain groaned with the stupidity he was seeing there “ARE YOU ALL INSANE? WE DON'T KNOW IF THIS THING IS SAFE! IT COULD BE HELLISHLY RADIOACTIVE!” he screamed at them at the top of his lungs, “GIVE ME ALL THE ROCK YOU COLLECTED!”
The boys all scramble a bit, mentioning radiation made them a bit queasy; they all hand their small samples of rock each, he was relieved, they could be doing something really stupid in his view at least, he grabbed all the rock and placed it on the same box that he confiscated “Everyone hit the shower now and clean your clothes!”
They all scrambled out; he waited for them to be away before he looked at the rock a bit more, was difficult to really blame them, it was a pretty thing, it had a yellow golden glow to it that seemed almost ethereal, seemed to emit some sort of aura even in well lit environments, but here, it was pretty clear as the light flowed through the dimly lit room. He knew that this kind of glow could be dangerous. Mister Harry had assured them that the Geiger counters were normal, so he would believe it for now... The rock did give him a mix of foreboding and wonder sensations however.
He moved calmly to the corner to check if everything was in place, all the clamps seemed to be working, the entire room was made water tight for some reason and Mister Harry had forbidden any water even close to it. He did not understand why but he was not paid to question much. He moved out and made sure to lock the room properly this time.
“Stupid boys” he was mumbling to himself as he walked out towards the captain's cabin. He opened one of his secure drawers, he places it to the side of his trusted old revolver and a few bullets, locking it again. He would figure out what to do to it once they arrived. Now he had duties to attend to.
The sun was starting to settle, he was in the tower checking the instruments when the radio came in “Abnormal storm... abnormal! All ships hai-” the radio died , he rushed with his first mate to grab it “Repeat, what storm? Sky is clear here! Repeat” his mate looked at him “what could possibly be...” and then... out of nowhere, came deep intense clouds and lightning like it was some sort of strange spell, he felt a chill down his spine as the ship started to rock back and forth, he moved “Get everyone ready... I don like how this is feeling” he really did not, he rushed to check the engines, his mate went to the radio calling everyone for duty.
Harry met him halfway , he was nervous, more so than usual, he had his gun on his side, unlocked, Ogden grumpily pressed him “What are you doing?” He looked around “you need full power ahead! Now, we need to get out of this now!” he seemed almost deranged. Ogden pushed him to the side “Get out of here! And move go to your room and keep out of the way!” he said and rushed to the engine room, the ship started rocking more and more and started almost shaking, he arrived at the engine room, looking at the engine mate there, Orson.
“Capta'in the engine is workin at a higher rate, its quite strange, where that hellish storm cam from?” he seemed confused
Ogden moved out, grabbing and starting to release a few pipes “I dont know Orson... Keep the engine running” he tossed the engine flow key to him “If you need release all the pressure, but keep the engine live!” he rushed to start to try and stabilize then he heard shooting.
“What the fuck!” Orson was a bit scared
“Stay here! I will check this out!” he rushed out, more shots were fired. Had the employer gone mad? No... those were rifle shots, he picked up the pace as he could, turned into a corner and went to his quarters to grab his revolver. Lightning light was coming from the ship windows now, he moved to his quarters, more shots, there were screams, other shots.
He fumbled into the drawer, grabbing his gun, locking the box again, it felt like the right thing to do. All seven shots were there, he grabbed his radio to his mate “What is going on??” he said as he heard shooting on the other side “Not sure captain! Some people boarded us!”
Boarded them? In that hellish storm? what the hell was going on. He was careful, moving towards the front of the ship, moving with care, keeping the gun in his hand, he sees one of the invaders, large man, tactical gear, he waited for him to move away before Ogden moves once more, he needed a better position, more shots, the soldier turns his back to ogden and then he shoots.
The man falls face first with blood pouring into the floor, the Captain moved to him and grabbed his gun, checking the cartridge before moving out, there was another firefight, he went to the outer door, seeing a few men shooting at his mate on the tower he started blasting at them with his rifle.
He was not very good with it but was able to take a couple of them down before they turns to shoot him, he closes the door and rushes out, one of the bullets grazes him on the shoulder “HELL!” he groans going towards the top of the quarters. He moved as quietly as he could which, he knew was not very much, he was not a soldier, never was one, he stumbles into a table as he sees a man coming on the corner.
For a second he thought he was dead then Harry appeared, his relief was instantaneous, his lift arm had a wound in it “Captain!” he seemed relieved “We need to strap the meteorite to the ocean and then... leave! He cannot have it!”.
The man fell to the ground when Ogden punched him full strength, pulling him up again before he could recover making him drop his pistol, pressing him against the wall “YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS YOU PIECE OF SHIT? TELL ME NOW! WHAT IS GOING ON AND YOU BET YOUR HELL ASS THAT I AM NOT GOING TO ABANDON MY CREW! WHO THE HELL IS 'HE'!”
Harry bumbled a bit, he looked around and then looked back at the man staring daggers at him “H-his name is Faust... He is- Was my partner in the research... He came in with many funds, well... something was wrong I knew it... And now he wants the meteorite we... cannot let him have it! He wants me alive...” He looked around “We need to go now... he will kill everyone here! Please!”
He looked at the groveling man in front of him and let him go, he scrambled to get his pistol back and they walked slowly “So... What is going on... really?”
“Faust must have found me somehow... Well... he must have paid someone to get the info... I was being fast not too discreet... ” he sighed heavily looking around
“And why do you think he will let you live? He wants the meteorite no? isn't it about money? ” he looked at the man in a glance as he shook his head
“That thing is the most important item in human history... I am one of the few people in the world who knows even a little about its properties... he... Wants it and wants me..”
They walked a bit more when they heard some running and shooting on the corridors, coming on the corner Billy , full of blood and extremely scared , the captain advanced onto him and pulled him behind turning on the corner and shooting already, he is able to get one of them and injures the other, who tries to go to shelter but the rocking of the ship makes so he could not rech in time before Harry shoots him.
Billy was quite affected, he looked at them “What should... I do... Captain...” he seemed terrified
“Lets move on boy!” he said, practically pulling the boy with him, he changed his rifle by one of the men on the ground and kept going.
“Where to?” asked harry, very fearful as well
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