Alien: Endymion (4th Interval)

    Jacob's heart set itself into constant, rapid pulse - adrenaline causing sweat to bead upon his skin despite the biting cold as his mind came to grips with the reality of his situation. David had loosed one of those things, one of those aliens, onto his ship - and he had done so in the cruelest of ways. He'd preyed upon Jacob's sense of duty to his crew; knowing full well that he would never have left a man or woman behind - regardless of the state of their body. It was only now that Jacob felt the full weight of horrified regret for having asked the android to help him prep and secure the bodies. Steven Allers was gone. In his place had been left another David - and something else that had remained hidden within him.

    As his mind fumbled, Jacob suddenly became aware of something in the numbing shadows of the storage bay. A sound that dragged him back to the stark reality within which he found himself. Turning his eyes ever so slowly, his gaze at last fell upon David. Standing scant inches away, the android was...singing. His cool voice a brand colder than the ice that drifted upon the air, David could barely be heard at first. However, his voice steadily gained in volume, rising ever higher as he stared into Jacob's eyes "Oh, short lived is treasured youth. I am a sailor's tomb. Yet beside me a farmer lies...". Jacob could find no words to level upon the android; he could only stare in abject confusion as his dread continue to steadily build with David's voice. Inching closer to Jacob, his lifeless eyes locked on his, David continued "Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more; men were deceivers ever; one foot in sea and one on shore; to one thing constant never...".

   There, in the frozen dark amidst the dead, Jacob could not help but feel that he was being sung his eulogy. His life's pursuits reduced to nothing more than a fleeting poem uttered in lifeless purity by a machine that wore the face of a man. Yet, he couldn't turn away or stop listening. Something in David's voice - something hidden deep within the nightmarish moment - kept his rapt attention as the android's voice grew ever louder "Then sigh not so, but let them go; and be blithe and bonny; converting all your sounds of woe into hey, nonny, nonny..."

    In those moments, somwehere between the thin strands of sanity, Jacob almost felt compelled to acompany David in what seemed a steady descent into madness. Yet, as his mind fought to remain in control, something else suddenly caught hold of his fragmented attention and drew him crashing back to the horrid situation. Over the sound of David's now echoing voice, made all the more clear by the ice-laden cold, Jacob heard the faintest of muffled rattles emanating from the distance of the corridor beyond the storage bay. It was almost too faint to discern; but it was there. A soft clatter upon the ground. The shifting of metal grating - as if something had begun to slowly and cautiously advance through the ship's connecting hall. The very corridor Jacob had traversed mere minutes ago.