A New Age

Not long after he saw an elevator, the lights were still on so he assumed it was still in working order. The elevator moved as if it had just been built yet the creature told Zack that the ship was abandoned for centuries. Nothing was making sense, the creature pretty much dragged him to the ship and now it was nowhere to be found. Thoughts of betrayal kept bombarding his mind, which was already filled notions that this was a giant set up. The elevator stopped at a circular room. In the middle of the room was a single chair, the type one sees in many space travel movies. It looked like an executive chair but it didn't contain leather or mesh, instead it had a material that Zack couldn't identify. Unable to control the urge, he sat down and was immediately in heaven. The sponge like material began to mold itself to the contours of Zack's body, providing extra padding for the lower region of his back.

"Welcome back Captain" boomed out from the walls around him. Startled he jumped out the chair trying to find the owner of the voice. In a gentle almost serene tone it spoke again, "I've been awakened after five hundred and thirty years. The last captain died after we crash landed on this planet."

"Uhh" was the only thing Zack could manage to get out.

"Specimen 4X2A3 was found in massive amounts inside your body. I took the liberty of removing and storing it back into its container in the store room."

"Wait what!?"

"Specimen 4X2A3 broke out of its container a century ago. I was running very low on resources so it used you in an attempt to infect the ship and take control. The specimen is known to cause vivid hallucinations, prey on weaknesses and take over the host's body under the pretense of giving the host eternal life. Zack couldn't believe how stupid he had been, he of all people knew that no one was to be trusted yet he put all his faith into something he barely knew. The specimen had full confidence the ship had used up all its resources and was dead, the only reason Zack was still alive was because the ship had a few days left of power.

Dejected, Zack asked, "So what happens now?"

"The ship is in your hands. You decide what to do." He lived his entire life on the orders of others, this was the first time he had been given full freedom. The ship was his and he was responsible for it. Reluctantly Zack accepted the responsibility since he in the end sparked the entire event.

After the heavy burden evened out Zack remembered what the creature had promised him, greatness beyond comprehension. "What about the things in the tubes downstairs?" He still held onto a tiny glimmer of hope that he could escape death. Zack's family was riddled with health problems consisting of weak bones, diabetes, cholesterol issues as well as an early onset of heart attacks. At best, Zack would be taking eight pills a day for the rest of his short life and he knew that. "Since you took care of the parasite problem inside me, is there anything else you can do to fix me up?" To his surprise the AI informed him that he was cured of all ailments he had. The lower back pain he felt was just the aftermath of what the AI called intensive surgery. His frail bones were injected with a serum known as B7 which made them nearly incredibly sturdy and his skin was laced with a substance that made it able to withstand a the impact from a small pistol.

Upon hearing this Zack was ecstatic but it was short lived. Although he was in peak health his days were still numbered. The only thing Zack wanted in life was a life with no expiration date. It turned out that even the light years advanced race that invented the ship couldn't beat the reaper.

Just then he remembered the parasite saying that it was able to adapt to death and it could possibly live without end. "So is there any way that you could take whatever gives it that ability and put it in me also?" he asked with hopes soaring. The AI confirmed his theory and explained to him that the original owners wanted the same thing that he did. The only problem was that the energy required to pull such a feat was astronomical. The AI had to map the entire genome of the specimen and then identify which genes interact with each other to produce such an effect. Afterwards it needed to figure out a way to extract it and make it transferable. The AI estimated that it would take 10 years to finalize the prototype that the original owners built ages ago. Although bleak Zack didn't lose hope since it was still a possibility.

The AI walked him through the rest of the ship including what was the crew quarters, the mess hall, the rec rooms, the observatory and the manufacturing station. Everything besides the manufacturing station had a ghostly presence. The beds in the crew quarters remained unmade and half eaten plates littered the mess hall. The ship showed no signs of life force, it was as if the crew had disappeared rather than expired.

Zack stopped the tour at the manufacturing station, where he spent the rest of his time. The only thing manufactured at this station was crewmembers. The control panel was a ten inch tablet with a myriad of species hardcoded into it, the latest addition being humans. The sole purpose of the machine was to make robots that looked like the species chosen. Curiosity took over as he selected the human template. Suddenly a 3D hologram was projected in front of him, rotating much like the character creation screens in RPGs. There were options to change the gender, the length of hair, the texture of the hair as well as the pupil size when it was dilated. The entire ordeal caused his hands to tremble, this was playing god.

He walked out the room constantly looking back at the station. Sitting in the command center he pondered his next move, there was no way he could return to his normal life even if he wanted to. The AI asked if he would like to fill the ship with a crew. He laughed at the idea of it, "A slime thing practically made me his bitch and you want me to be captain." The AI assured him that the parasite was one of the deadlier organisms that was stored on the ship and that it was remarkable that he survived that long. "Okay so you got a name or I just call you AI?" The AI, it turned out, actually had a name, Zenith.

Zack resumed his thought trail as he planned an outline for events to come. "Captain, what shall be the next course of action?"

He reclined in his chair and took a deep breath, "I got nothing Zenith"

"I don't follow Captain" she replied with a hint of confusion barely audible with her speech programming.

"I've been following the plans of others my entire life, I never had a chance to come up with one."

He took the elevator up to the captain's cabin and threw himself onto the bed, the mattress soft as clouds. The temperature automatically adjusted a cool 68 degrees while the mattress began to adjust to the contours of his body. "It's too much to take in at once. You have to give me some time to make sense of all this. For now I'm just going to get some rest and hopefully I'll have a plan of action when I wake."

"Understood" Zenith replied before dimming the lights to a misty dark blue. Suddenly from inside the walls came sounds of a light rain shower with subtle drips to ease Zack's quiet descent into tranquil slumber.

Zack woke well rested, something that was a rarity in his life. The first thing he noticed was the lack of pain and then the absence of a headache, the two basic signs he was awake. He made his way into the bathroom, something he hadn't seen during his initial tour, and groggily started his morning ritual. It was after his zombie-like brushing session when he noticed the distinct changes on his face. The bags under his eyes were drastically reduced and the popped pimples marks were also gone. "What the shit" he mumbled, still partly asleep. He opened the shower door and took a cold shower to kick himself awake. Out of the shower he noticed his slight hunchback was gone, not only that but it seemed he had what was known to be a perfect posture. The only time he saw a perfect posture was in the books, not even physiotherapists had a perfect posture. Praising his good fortune he went down to the kitchen.

The new improvements boosted his mood so much that Zack decided to pick up exercising once again. As he made his way down to the gym Zenith gave him an option to go into the transformation chamber. Not seeing the downside Zack took option A and followed her directions to the floor below, back to the cargo area where the egg shaped pods were. The space pod theory was a total bust. Instead of traveling the pods were designed to change the body type of a person. The basic idea was in line to the super soldier serum but with no customizable options. The pod would detect your race and put you in peak condition for that species, so a human couldn't become 10 feet tall with stingers for arms.

Zack stepped into the pod took a deep breath as the door closed, effectively trapping him inside. A needle pricked his finger and took a sample of his blood. A holographic screen appeared in front of his eyes indicating various stats about his body afterwards. A few seconds later it displayed arrows and more stats, this time the stats were either greatly increased or greatly reduced. According to the numbers, Zack was shit. He scored low on every single category besides one, tongue length, which was the average size. The peak human height was listed at 6'3, 10 inches taller than his current state. Just wanting the screen to disappear he quickly pressed the proceed button. A pink smoke began to take over in the pod followed by sense of drowsiness and causing him to black out moments after.

Zack woke up back in the captain's cabin. Passing it all off as a vivid dream he began his morning ritual. It was then that he realized that was not looking at himself in the mirror. What Zack saw in the mirror was a look only comic book character could pull off. Zack knew it was him since he had the same face, the hair, two crooked vampire like teeth but it was too good to be true. Everything else was changed, there wasn't a shred of fat on his body....anywhere. To make matters even more surreal, the body was extremely vascular. Veins were decorating his arms like Christmas decorations.

Holy shit, he thought as nothing else came to mind. Several moments passed before he was convinced that it was his own body.

"Captain, the ship is in dire need of resources and fuel" Zenith interrupted.

"Umm, I still have no idea on what to do. What fuel do the ship need?"

"The first priority is getting main power back online since all power cells are depleted. The backup power will only last for six months according to recent tests. After some of the main power cells are back-online, I can get the maintenance droids activated. The droids can work on the systems that need repairs. In order to do this you need a crew for the ship in order to return to space. After that the ship is yours to command captain."

This was where Zack had begun to worry. "That all seems fine but uhh why do we need a crew? Can't we just take off to space and get the droids to be the crew?"

"The power cells have been damaged do the outbreak." Zack knew exactly which outbreak she was talking about. "If you have the mechanical expertise to fix the cells, there is no need for the crew."

Still reluctant to take on a crew he eventually agreed as there were no other options. "How many crewmembers do you need and what jobs do you need them for?"

"We need a minimum of three crewmembers to take off into space. As stated before the main priority is the power cells. I would recommend two electrical engineers to speed up the process and a doctor. The medical facilities nearly used all their resources on fixing your ailments and abnormalities. They will be unable to function soon unless we gather enough resources."

Zack sighed, relieved that it was only three members. The only problem remained on how he was going to recruit them. He had zero social skills not to mention the trust issues. Even if he overcame those obstacles he still had no idea on how to convince people that he wasn't insane let alone take them along with him.

"Is there a problem Captain" Zenith questioned.

"Yea, how is anybody going to believe that I'm in charge of an alien ship and that they are being recruited?"

"That is taken care of. You have an appointment with Dr. Amanda Frasier at noon. I have uploaded the directions to your phone. She was a medical practitioner before she lost her credibility. She believes that aliens had abducted her and probed her for various means. She may have other contacts that may be interested. I advise starting there."

"Oh thank you Zenith" Zack let out. He felt as if a huge boulder had been lifted off his shoulders but in place of it a slightly smaller boulder had been placed. "Zenith umm the probing and abducting, uhh you know is that uhh is that true?"

"There are some species in the universe that study other life forms, scientists you may call them. Yes, some instances are true however in Dr. Frasier's case, it was merely a false memory."

"How do you know?"

"Aliens, as you call them, experiment in pairs. Probing is more myth than fact, the technique is only used when there is a problem with the diagnostics machine. In addition, Dr. Frasier stated that she was in a room with 9 aliens, a truly improbable number. It was a false memory."

"Oh" Zack responded. He thought it was best to leave that detail out when he met the doctor today.

"You're phone will retain a stable connection to the ship no matter where you are in the city. A step into the outskirts and we will lose connection. The ship is undetectable currently but sometime within this month your government may pick up on the residual signals. I cannot stress how important this meeting is Captain."

Fuck. He was starting to feel the weight of what he signed up for.

"If you wish to make the appointment you should leave now" she reminded him.

Before he left a thought pounded his mind. He was still considered missing in the real world and he kind of liked it that way. A fresh start seemed like something he needed... "Zenith the last thing I need you to do is change his fingerprints and give me a new identity. I don't want to go back to my original life, we should just start with a blank slate."

"Your ID is waiting for you Captain. Your fingerprints are already changed captain, it was impossible to add the second layer of skin while preserving the fingerprints."

"Wow uhh cool. Yea so I'll get to the meeting then." Zack was not accustomed to such efficiency, it would take a while for it all to sink in.

As he exited through the door he was presented a tunnel, something he hadn't seen on his way in. As he followed through the tunnel he heard faint sounds that resembling jackhammers and then traffic. Luckily the tunnel didn't branch out into different pathways that would've made the commute impossible. Finally at the end of the tunnel was a ladder heading towards civilization. The wooden ladder although worn was sturdy enough to climb to the top of the dried up well.

You have got to be shitting me. Zack was in one of the community's camping areas, he was dumbfounded at the fact that nobody had discovered the ship yet. Zack quickly exited the park and hailed a cab, the office was a good while away. Zack simply handed the phone to the cabbie and the guy instantly knew where he was headed. He turned on the meter and Zack was on his way.

Dr. Frasier's office was more of a house than anything. The house looked stable but that was it, paint was chipping off the walls, windows were cracked and the garden was more of a jungle than anything. Apprehensively he walked to the front door and rang the bell, half expecting a horror scene from the looks of the premises. He waited a few moments before ringing the bell again. Zack almost gave up on the fifth ring when finally an elderly woman answered. The 5'4 woman appeared to be in her mid-50 and judging from the hotel bath robe she was wearing it didn't look like she was doing well in any aspect. Her hair was gave the term "bad hair day" a brand new meaning as her wiry blonde hair went all over the place. If she straightened it out it would've probably reached the lower part of back.

She had some type of animal slippers on but it was hard to make out the creature as they were well past their prime. Zack couldn't believe that this was once a respected doctor. One thing that kept Zack's attention were her marvelous blue eyes. They seemed almost like cybernetic contacts, a shade of icy blue that seemed to encase an entire galaxy.

"May I help you?" She asked breaking him out of the Trance. He suddenly realized that he had been staring for a while and hadn't even introduced himself.

Slightly embarrassed he braved on. "Yea I had the appointment today."

"You're my 2:30?" She looked in disbelief. "It doesn't seem like anything is wrong with you. What's the problem?"

Zack didn't feel comfortable outing himself as a lunatic outdoors so he asked if they could bring the meeting inside. Although reluctant Dr. Frasier did let him in. The house was a mess, if one could call it that. All the furniture had been moved out except for two wooden dining chairs, chairs that were barely holding up. The floor boards were cracked, some were missing all together. It looked like a house that was headed down foreclosure.

They took seats on the two worn out chairs when she started the conversation. "As you can see I haven't been taking in clients." Zack almost felt sorry for her. "In your email you stated that you had a personal story to share, something that included visitors?"

"I actually did but I'm not really sure if you would believe me." He nervously chuckled, still uncomfortable with the situation.

"It's okay, it's hard for everyone the first time. Now tell me what's going on." She had a calm demeanor only further proving her experience in the subject.

Zack went retold his experience from the beginning earning Dr. Frasier's full attention. After he shared his experiences Dr. Frasier sat in shock as she was trying to wrap her head around the situation.

"There's no way. That doesn't agree with ANY of my findings." She finally came to the conclusion that I was just a sci-fi nutcase who watched a bit too many movies.

"I knew you weren't going to believe me. This was a complete waste of time." Zack had no options left other than to leave. It was hopeless to talk to this woman any further.

"This ship you keep referring to. Would you be able to show it to me?"

"I thought I was just a sci-fi nutcase." He shot back. Zack was slightly annoyed that the one person who was supposed to believe him pretty much threw him to the curb.

"Maybe it was a bit harsh but you pretty much stated that all my years of work have gone down the drain. All those papers I submitted, my books, all worthless. You have to understand why I'm a bit skeptical about all this." She was obviously in a terrible position, possibly more than Zack.

Attempting to acknowledge the doctor's point of view he agreed to take her to the ship. If she attempted anything he would simply tell Zenith to put her in a containment cell with all the other specimens.

"Do you want to wear something or are you going like that?" His attempt at a joke backfired completely when she stated that she was wearing the only pieces of clothing she had left. Her ex-husband apparently had a better lawyer and took everything.

Like before he hailed a cab and gave the park's address. He didn't bother looking at the doctor since he already knew what she was thinking. Taking her to a park wasn't doing anything to prove his testimony. Once at the park he found the dried up well and the ladder still inside.