Treacherous

After just a few minutes of opening files that looked like they’d be of interest Bell had to quit. The files were starting to add up, even dragged onto the additional screens.

Bell sighed, “Okay, this is bad.” She moved away from Riddick and dragged a chair closer, taking a seat beside him. “You start on that monitor, I’ll start on this one,” she indicated the two monitors that framed the main one. “And I’ll meet you in the middle.”

Silence fell, both reading. After long minutes Bell pulled back. “Well, this won’t work.”

Riddick looked at her from the screen he’d been staring at.

“This is what you were wondering about. What the Mongers and the Militia have worked out. And I don’t think I even understand it all.”

He sat back. “Start reading.”

Bell huffed. It wasn’t that easy. There were diagrams, charts, drawings. Whatever. She’d summarize it and then they could go over the rest.

“From what I can see this is the most diabolical scheme anyone could’ve come up with. Whoever discovered and engineered it was a genius.”

She leaned closer to the screen.

“Okay. First a mineral of some sort was discovered in the Underverse. It isn’t on any of the element charts, but was given the name ‘tabun’.” She had no idea if she was pronouncing that right. “When the mineral was processed it generated a chemical that was considered a nerve agent. It’s referred to as ethyl N-tabun. At high doses it’s fatal, the victims dying of asphyxiation caused by the nervous and respiratory systems shutting down simultaneously. Smaller, controlled exposure only causes hallucinations and muscle contractions.”

She looked at Riddick to see he was watching her, his expression as deadpan as always. She continued.

“Then a replica of a multi-toxin discovered in a marine snail was studied. Researchers were, and still are studying it. They’ve developed an analgesic for chronic pain that is non-addictive. Quite a prize there. It harnessed several of the poison’s traits while bypassing a few, such as paralysis, respiratory failure, and severe digestive problems. A new derivative was created for this. It exploits the conotoxin that causes muscle spasms and insensitivity to pain.”

Bell shook her head, “As if these two chemicals aren’t bad enough, the Mongers are inserting them into the thyroid gland where they work together and with the body’s natural production of the hormone triiodothyronine. This hormone, T3, is what increases your metabolism, helps to synthesize proteins and controls levels of adrenaline. The insertion also blocks the production of tyrosine. Tyrosine is basically a depressant and seems to affect a little bit of everything. Without it the body becomes pale due to not having enough melanin, and has lower ‘stress hormones’. It reduces the flight-or-fight response, affects attention span and heart rate, and also lowers adrenaline production.

“They make a human stronger, afraid of nothing, unable to feel pain, and controllable. Plus an unexplained side-affect of the tabun, that mineral from the Underverse, is that it makes the person feel drawn to deposits of the raw mineral. Throw in some mind-fucking while they’re in the conversion and you get a nice little killer Necromonger that believes in furthering the cause. They can’t feel pain or much fear, have a low metabolism, but high adrenaline. Basically an easily controlled force that’s cheap to maintain.”

“Where’s the mineral?”

She nodded. He was thinking ahead. The mineral had to be here, within these ships. She followed a few links and came to a sort of inventory. “Uh, right here. Tons of it. Largest deposits are on this Basilica Ship, but it looks like there’s some on every ship.”

“Some chemicals and a magic act,” he concluded. “I’m disappointed.”

Bell rolled her eyes, “You would rather they drive humans to extinction?”

He shrugged, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly, “We’re not human.”

“Close enough, and most of our people are destroyed already.”

He fell silent and Bell returned to her studying. “Wow,” she whispered after a few minutes. “I should’ve proposed,” she teased. “You’re loaded.”

“I’m what?’

“Mongers might believe that this ‘verse is just a rotten step before the next one, but they know what currency is. Lists how much they’ve taken from every planet they invaded. Gotta pay to keep this boat afloat, I guess.”

“They’re thieves?” He sat up to ask this, looking at the information on her screen.

Bell glanced sideways at him as his face got closer. “I don’t think they see it as stealing. Prolly more like supporting the cause. The dead don’t need money, after all.”

It was difficult to add up the numbers that filled pages and pages of tallies. A few million U.D.s here. Several lists totaling hundreds of thousands each over there. Not counting the material goods, necessities that the Mongers had stowed away, from water to fine art.

“Keep digging. Find me something else.”

More information was what she was looking for. If he wanted to count up his new riches he could do that on his own. And she didn’t see Riddick as a person focused on money. Money made things easier, sure, but it wasn’t everything, especially to a guy that had spent most of his life just trying to stay alive.

“There’s a file here.” She was silent as she read over some of the pages displayed. “Hmm, that makes sense. Militia doesn’t need money, huh?”

“So what are they getting?”

He’d been thinking the same thing she’d been. If Militia was providing this poison to the Mongers, what were they getting out of the deal?

“Ring side seats and a get-out-of-jail-free card.” She read a bit more and then sat back in disgust. “These are copies of some of the correspondences. The messages from the UDMC never come out and say who the Mongers should go after next, but they subtly list problems they’re having in certain areas.”

“Sounds like Militia.”

Bell got lost in her reading. Once she looked over to share something with Riddick to find he wasn’t there. Strange, she hadn’t felt him leave. She smiled at the thought. She hadn’t felt him leave? Shaking her head at her own strange thinking she went back to investigating.

Through most of what she found in the computer she felt like she wasn’t getting the whole story. Obviously it was expected that whoever was looking through this information would already know most of the truth.

A list of the ‘Quasi Deads’ was there, and the ‘Lesser Deads’. Riddick hadn’t mentioned Lesser Deads. The ‘Deads’ were on life-support. Some of them were truly almost dead, only their brainwaves holding steady while their bodies seemed to be dying.

Beings called ‘Lensors’ appeared to be half technology, and half human, but only after they received an injury to their face that couldn’t be healed.

The Necromongers had a hierarchy. From the lowest techs and mechanics in the bowels of the ship all the way up to the Commanders and the Lord Marshal himself. Soldiers were in the highest demand, but when a person wasn’t suited for that there were many other jobs to fill. From the numbers she was seeing there were at least five Mongers that weren’t soldiers for every one that was.