Marvel Magic Case Files

Dr. Will swiftly traversed the corridor crammed with directional bombs, crossed the engine bay's rotating, meat-grinding ramp, and pounced on the computer in front of the massive hyperspace engine. Captain Miller watched as Dr. Will rapidly opened the management software, meticulously reviewing the astonishingly complex operational logs. "Is there a problem?" Captain Miller no longer cared about Dr. Will's almost tyrannical attitude from a dozen minutes earlier—although Dr. Will's near-obsessive impulsiveness was incomprehensible, for him, nothing was more important than protecting the lives of all his crew members—he repeated once more, "Is there a problem? Can you fix it?"

"I can," Dr. Will replied confidently, displaying his professionalism, which reassured Captain Miller somewhat. However, this reassurance was limited, as the hyperspace engine standing above the cooling pool was now slowly rotating, a stark contrast to the silence they had witnessed earlier. Dr. Will said, "The confinement magnetic field is fine; it's probably the operating circuitry that's burned out. I can fix it. I need your help, Miller."

Dr. Will pointed to the wall of the spherical engine bay. The wall, divided into square sections, was the same bronze color as the hyperspace engine and bore strange symbols almost identical to those on its surface. Following Dr. Will's instructions, Captain Miller pressed down on a bronze section of the wall near the hyperspace engine's main control computer; the cold touch sent a chill down his spine. Dr. Will, panting heavily, almost frantically dug his fingernails into the wall and then forcefully pried it open. A pale green light leaked from the maintenance tunnel, and an ominous premonition once again filled Captain Miller's eyes. Even though it was just the faint light reflected from the emergency lights installed inside the maintenance tunnel illuminating the bronze-green PCBs on either side, it made Dr. Will's face look like a skull.

"I brought repair tools."

Dr. Will greeted Captain Miller and, without looking back, crawled into the long tunnel, barely wide enough for a single adult male to crawl on all fours. Before Dr. Will filled the tunnel, Captain Miller glimpsed its labyrinthine maze; the fluorescent green light draped over him like a tapestry, making the man in his blue spacesuit appear even smaller. Captain Miller didn't know if Dr. Will could find his way back without blueprints, but he decided to trust the only person who could help. Worrying was pointless; he had other tasks to complete—Pilot Steve was resting, and he would continue repairing the Lewis and Clark with Lieutenant Cooper, the search and rescue officer. Even if the Lewis and Clark couldn't re-enter the atmosphere, he wouldn't abandon his ship.

But as he turned to leave, he heard a voice.

A strangely familiar voice, a voice that once belonged to the living, emerged from the pitch-black cooling pool, liquid flames flowing from its charred body. This voice, once belonging to the living, had now returned from hell to the human world, to a realm beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of scientific and rational understanding, beyond the reach of existing empiricist dogma, to a world once again dominated by the superstition of the night, the fear of the unknown, and the monsters lurking beneath the bed.

It was as if, at that moment, Captain Miller was standing on the edge of hell, peering down. The voice called to him, fear gripped his body, his face and chest were burning from the intense heat of the flames, and his eyes were parched from the heat emanating from the charred human body before him. Captain Miller stood there, staring intently at the approaching charred body, letting the fear deep within his genes pound at him.

"You're not him!" Captain Miller shouted angrily, waving his arms. "Get out of my way!"

Then the body from hell vanished, as if it had never existed.

Dr. Will was huddled inside the maintenance tunnel, the acrid smell of burnt electronic components making him wince. He used his tools to pry open a circuit box hidden behind the cooling pipes, and as he inspected the wiring, he heard a voice—"Billy." It was a woman's voice, a voice Dr. Will knew all too well, the lips that uttered his name—and then fear gripped him as the lights dimmed. Dr. Will frantically switched on his flashlight, but the weak, flickering beam couldn't penetrate the almost supernatural darkness of the maintenance tunnel. The voice called to him again, and he recoiled in terror, scrambling to his sides. He heard his wife's voice, and he felt the hollow eye sockets staring at him, just as he had dreamt on the Lewis and Clark.

"Captain Miller!" Dr. Will shouted in the direction he had come from, "I'm in trouble!"

He frantically pounded on the flashlight, trying to get it to provide a steady light source. The heat emanating from the operating electronic components surged towards him like a desert wind, rising from the end of the maintenance tunnel. Fear and the ever-increasing temperature made him sweat profusely, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Then he saw the woman's face. She lay before him, naked, her skin glistening with water droplets. She was just like Dr. Will had seen in his dream, her playful brown curls wet, but the sweet smile was gone from her face, and her rosy cheeks would forever remain cold, for she was dead.

She returned from the world of the dead, rushing towards the faint candlelight emanating from the souls of the living.

She gazed at him with bloodshot, empty eyes. "Be with me," she said, "forever."

"Dr. Weill!"

Captain Miller's voice pulled him back to reality. Dr. Will crawled back towards the sound of Captain Miller's voice, and when he emerged from the maintenance tunnel, the waning adrenaline almost made him unable to stand. Dr. Will was deathly pale, and Captain Miller had to support him to prevent him from falling into the cooling pool.

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High concentrations of carbon dioxide may cause hallucinations.

"This isn't some damn hallucination, DJ!" Captain Miller crossed his arms and scanned the crew members on the bridge. He had already told everyone present what he had encountered, and almost everyone was astonished by what Captain Miller had seen—they were elites selected through rigorous screening, and naturally wouldn't be afraid or dependent on phenomena that their own empiricist dogma couldn't explain, like superstitious religious believers or agnostics. They would use their own wisdom to analyze and solve the problem; otherwise, Captain Miller wouldn't have summoned them to the bridge. "Doctor, you were in the maintenance tunnel; you must have heard or seen something."

Just as Dr. Will was hesitating, Dr. Peters spoke up.

"I saw it, not long after we arrived," Dr. Peters said, his voice choked with emotion. "I saw my son lying on the operating table, his leg..."

"Peters, if you don't mind, I'd say this is somewhat like shock..." Dr. Will whispered beside her, "Perhaps it's because of excessive shock, like when we had an accident." "No, no," Dr. Peters shook her head frantically, as if trying to shake off the sadness brought on by the hallucination.

"...Could it be because he saw a dead body?"

"No!" Dr. Peters shouted at Dr. Will, silencing the latter. She gritted her teeth and said, "I've seen corpses, but this is another matter!"

"She's telling the truth. I can feel the heat; it's not a hallucination." Captain Miller scanned the crew, looking them into the eyes. "Smith, have you encountered anything strange?"

"No. But I can tell you that you don't need to see it to know it's an ominous ship."

"Thank you for your scientific analysis, Mr. Smith," Dr. Will said, hands on his hips, his tone dismissive.

Lieutenant Smith charged forward and punched Dr. Will in the face, until Captain Miller and the others pulled them apart. "Breaking the rules doesn't require experts; everyone knows it comes at a price!" Smith yelled at Dr. Will, whom Dr. Peters could barely restrain. "You've killed a bunch of people, and now you want to kill us! It's a damn ship!"

"DJ!"

Dr. Peters screamed in terror. Captain Miller turned to see Lieutenant Commander DJ grabbing Smith by the chin, pressing a scalpel against his neck. Lieutenant Commander DJ whispered in Smith's ear, "You've lost control. This ship is just a pile of metal, nothing else! Do you understand?"

"DJ?"

Captain Miller approached slowly, his tone hesitant. He pointed to his neck, but the medic didn't drop the scalpel until Lieutenant Smith surrendered. Captain Miller quickly stepped forward and grabbed his shoulders, but DJ looked completely bewildered, as if unaware of what he had done.

Are you alright?

"I'm fine..." Major DJ stood there with his arms crossed, his face still filled with confusion. "I'm sorry, Miller, I seem to..." Before he could finish speaking, Lieutenant Smith, who had been restrained, lunged at Dr. Will again. Captain Miller turned around, grabbed Lieutenant Smith by the collar, and slammed him onto the control panel, sweeping the plastic boxes used to hold the blood and flesh collected on the bridge onto the deck.

"I need you to calm down, now!" Captain Miller pointed at Lieutenant Smith's head and shouted sternly, "Now!" After confirming that the latter was indeed obeying the order, he pulled Lieutenant Smith up. "Upstairs! You and Cooper need to fix the ship. There can't be any mistakes! If you make a mistake, no one will be able to return to Earth, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Lieutenant Smith said reluctantly and somewhat awkwardly. As he passed Dr. Will, he glared at the physics doctor with annoyance."

I originally wanted to continue writing, but I'm experiencing some writer's block. I also wanted to update more for you guys before the end of the year, so I just posted this.