Marvel Magic Case Files

Major DJ draped the fabric back over the gruesome mass of flesh and said gently, "You need to rest, Peters. We're all under immense pressure after that accident." He looked around, his brow furrowed with worry. He managed to piece together a body, but it offered little information; all he knew was that the victim had suffered greatly before death. Now, on the edge of the solar system, surrounded by the silent, cold void, the crew of the Event Horizon from seven years ago were reduced to mangled remains, and another spaceship, also from Earth, was reportedly approaching, eyeing the hyperspace engine. Under such pressure, it was no surprise that the crew suffered a mental breakdown.

Dr. Peters wiped away her tears; the cold touch of her fingers brought her back to her senses. "I'm planning to go back to the Lewis and Clark to get some psychiatric medication," she said, sniffling. "Don't worry, I'll wear my spacesuit, and First Officer Stark will help me. Cooper's repairing the skin, isn't he? Returning to the Lewis and Clark won't be dangerous."

DJ Major shrugged.

This was the best option at the moment; he only hoped their drug reserves were sufficient, enough to last them through the fog. Without those sedatives, they wouldn't last long on this terrifying space cruiser. "Don't worry, at that ship's speed, it'll take them at least another week to reach the vicinity of the Event Horizon," said First Officer Stark, returning from the engine room. "We have plenty of time to figure out what's going on on this ship."

Only the medical DJ expressed some dissatisfaction.

The temperature on Event Horizon has returned to normal, and the crew can move freely in their intravehicular activity suits. This means the previously frozen remains are thawing, and bacteria that even the low temperatures of space cannot kill are quietly multiplying. The Lewis and Clark clearly didn't have freezers for storing corpses; even on this ship, only food refrigerators were adequate. "If we can't solve the power supply problem in some areas—I mean, the cryogenic chambers—then we'll be spending the next week with stinking corpses. Believe me, no one can eat in that smell."

In addition, there are a host of other risk factors, such as disease. Before they could figure out what happened to the crew of Event Horizon, the risk of biohazards had to be taken into account. Event Horizon didn't have any sealed compartments for autopsies, and ordinary body bags were no good for the job—these body bags were the ones NASA had put in the Lewis and Clark's lockers after making worst-case scenario plans. For humanity, which couldn't yet send mass into space by other inexpensive means, any mass on a rocket had to be carefully calculated. Even the cost of sending a bottle of ordinary pure water into orbit could buy thousands of the same thing on Earth.

"Dr. Will will handle this," Captain Miller said, trying to suppress his frustration. "He knows the ship's electrical system; he'll fix it. Contact Lieutenant Cooper and Lieutenant Smith. I hope they've already repaired our ship."

"Lieutenant Cooper said the airtightness issue has been temporarily resolved, but it will still take time to inspect and secure it." First Officer Stark, wearing headphones, glanced out the porthole. Lieutenant Cooper, clad in a spacesuit, waved towards the Event Horizon, indicating he was there. "From the outside, there are no leaks. Resolving the structural issues will require a lengthy repair process. As for the equipment problems, we have no solution for now."

"We simply cannot do that here; it requires support from Earth."

Captain Miller closed his eyes and sighed deeply. They were now like ships stranded on a deserted island in the old days, with only pirates nearby to turn to for help. According to Dr. Will, the hyperspace engine was the decisive technology in the future space arms race, and whichever country wanted it would absolutely not abide by any of the treaties established by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Furthermore, the Lewis and Clark's computers contained no information about that ship, meaning they didn't even intend to comply with the most basic Registration Convention. In that case, killing them all in space seemed like a good option. After all, the existence of the Event Horizon and the Lewis and Clark was top secret; without concrete evidence, the US couldn't accuse them of taking the hyperspace engine.

"I believe NASA will do everything in its power to save us, provided we're in Earth orbit," First Officer Stark said. "If we get back into Earth orbit, I believe they won't attack us indiscriminately. If they do, they're making an enemy of the entire world!"

"Now we can only rely on this ship. Hopefully Dr. Will can repair it and then take us and the Lewis and Clark back to Earth."

"I'm not so optimistic. Do you remember the Yugoslav space station?" Major DJ suddenly joined the conversation. "It's said that during the Yugoslav Civil War, the emperor threw all the war correspondents onto the space station. Apparently, someone saw several spaceships at that spaceport and took some secret photos. The CIA got some photos, although the resolution wasn't very high. If I'm not mistaken, the ship following us was a Yugoslav spaceship."

"If that's really the case, then I don't expect the other side to abide by any outer space treaties."

When Lieutenant Cooper finished his work and returned through the airtight compartment, he found everyone, including Captain Miller, looking sullen. All those temporarily off duty were listlessly flipping through the navigation logs, trying to find the direct cause of the Event Horizon's current predicament from the badly damaged storage media. Before he could ask, Captain Miller stood up. "Get some rest, men. I'll arrange the watch schedule. Even though we still have a lot of work to do, it's important to ensure we have the mental fortitude to handle any unforeseen circumstances."

Both First Officer Stark and the dejected Dr. Peters managed only forced smiles. Once everyone else had returned to their newly tidied room, Lieutenant Cooper approached Captain Miller and asked in a low voice, "What happened?"

"It's nothing, we just fixed some navigation logs."

In the period leading up to the scheduled hyperspace voyage, the logbook showed nothing unusual; Captain Kilpark of the Event Horizon was seen speaking fluently to the camera. It's worth noting that Dr. Will, a member of Project Pegasus, was also familiar with the captain's background, having provided his name.

"I am proud of my crew, and please allow me to mention their names."

The captain, with gray hair and a gaunt face, instructed the cameraman to point the lens at the crew: "Keith Chambers, Janice Reuben, Ben Vanda, Dick Smith." As each name matched a living figure in the frame, the captain continued, "We have reached a safe distance and are preparing to activate the gravity engines to open the portal to the higher dimensions." Captain Kilpark concluded with a Latin proverb, then smiled broadly at the camera and said, "Wait for our good news. Until we meet again." The video was then obscured by a jumble of fragmented images, from which they could no longer glean any useful information. But when the pieces of flesh plastered on the walls and the body parts lying on the medical bed were given names, everyone who watched the video felt a heavy weight in their hearts.

"We need some time to rest now," Captain Miller patted Lieutenant Cooper on the shoulder. "How much longer will you and Smith need to finish the repairs?"

All I can tell you is that I will do everything in my power.

Lieutenant Cooper sighed.

The so-called repairs, on the surface, consisted of gluing together the torn skin with huge metal tape. This work was, of course, far more complex than that, involving reconnecting circuits, cutting sharp metal edges, and so on. But Lieutenant Smith's incessant nagging was relentless, and even Cooper found his patching up of the ship's surface utterly ridiculous—he couldn't help but recall Lieutenant Smith's assessment of the Event Horizon, who declared he'd rather spend an hour outside than five seconds on this cursed ship—Cooper swore he'd definitely seen Lieutenant Smith secretly praying. He couldn't understand why they needed to pray to God when they were already at the edge of the solar system.

"I'm just putting the good in the world. You know, we need confidence here."

--------

With Dr. Peters' help, the crew members who were given a break slept soundly, enjoying a peaceful, dreamless sleep. Those who refused to take sedatives, such as Major DJ (who said, "I need to stay clear-headed to get the job done"), were not so happy.

During his few hours of sleep, Major DJ tossed and turned, completely unaware of when he fell asleep or when he entered a dream. He tried to refute his dream with Freud's theory of childhood symbolism, but he had to admit that perhaps the harrowing experience before his shift had triggered the dream.

Professor Bell, that serious, pedantic, and withered teacher, re-enters the dream after decades.

DJ vaguely remembered secretly mocking the teacher's profession, thinking that nobody in the world used Latin anymore and that studying this course would only make him a teacher. He heard Professor Bell repeating the knowledge that would be covered in the exam in a soporific tone on the podium, and he could only vaguely recall that it was a Latin verb ending in bitis or eritis, or it could also end in istī or eris.

He could do nothing but slump over the desk, trying as always to draw some coolness from the sweltering classroom air. Professor Bell was still repeating the same lessons he had repeated countless times, his tone still so steady, so soporific. He heard a door open, but when he turned around, he found only himself and Professor Bell in the classroom—he remembered, he was currently in solitary confinement, and Professor Bell shouldn't be here—this horrifying discovery made him jump up immediately, and then he realized he couldn't open the window at all; the classroom door was firmly sealed shut.

"bitis and eritis are the future tense and future perfect tense of the second-person plural, while istī and eris are the future tense and future perfect tense of the second-person singular." Professor Bell was still standing behind the podium, but his head had turned unnaturally towards him. He heard Mr. Bell repeating a word over and over. The Latin word was difficult to hear, like a damaged cassette tape being played; he couldn't make out the word from that dentured mouth. "liberate tutume. Remember the indicative form of the passive voice."

He subconsciously felt that this sentence was very important, and that he had heard it somewhere before.

Then, he realized he had heard that word in the audio signal before, and he realized he was dreaming. As he realized this, icy seawater, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, had already submerged his feet, then rose at an alarming speed, reaching his neck in the blink of an eye. The powerful water pressure made it difficult for him to breathe. He couldn't explain why he was there, nor why he was having this dream.

Professor Bell remained standing behind the podium, his voice straining into his ears through the salty, sea-smelling water.

"liberate tutume ex inferis, remember."

"What happened!" First Officer Stark was the first to wake up. The dim lights and sudden drop in temperature in the lounge jolted everyone awake from their brief sleep. DJ immediately jumped out of his sleeping bag and onto the bed. Since they were due to be on duty in a few hours, everyone resting here was wearing a dark green intravehicular activity suit, and the ceiling lights in the lounge were never turned off—this was one of the unspoken rules of all space travel; all cabins had to be kept lit, even though there were no ground personnel to monitor the situation through surveillance equipment. The sudden darkness could only mean there was a problem with the power supply. After all, this was a spaceship that hadn't been maintained for a long time, so any accident was to be expected. Without any immediate contact with the bridge, First Officer Stark gave the order, "Dr. Will, you and I are going to the bridge. Captain Miller might know something. DJ, Dr. Peters, quickly put on your spacesuits."

The DJ followed orders and rushed out of the lounge, crashing into the hallway.

He noticed that Mr. Bell was staring intently at him, his eyes as cold as emptiness.

------

"This is bad, the circuitry is probably burned out. I can fix it," Dr. Will told Captain Miller as he came to the bridge from the lounge. The other listless crew members remained silent; one bad news after another had left them with no doubt that the ship harbored ill intentions towards them. Seemingly sensing the crew's resistance, Dr. Will reiterated, "The ship is safe. The hyperspace engines are confined to three magnetic fields."

Pilot Smith looked extremely tired, and when he heard Dr. Will reiterate the safety of the hyperspace engine, he couldn't help but grunt. The others were the same; Dr. Will's words didn't seem to convince everyone, especially with Justin still lying unconscious in the medical bay.

"It's not a circuit, something is consuming energy," First Officer Stark immediately corrected.

"That can only be a hyperspace engine."

Dr. Will turned and ran toward the long bridge of the Event Horizon. Captain Miller immediately gave chase, ordering the others not to approach the second isolation door to the engine room. "Take care of Justin," he said. "I don't want anyone near that damn thing. Wait for me, Doctor!"

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