Susan convulsed as the parasitic Cybermite dug into her temple and began burrowing into her flesh. I rushed to her aid, attempting to sonic the little creature, but this merely caused Sue to cry out in pain. Undeterred, I tried to rip it from her scalp, but it's tiny limbs had dug in too deeply. Nothing was working, and with every second wasted, it grew closer to total domination. I didn't know how long exactly it would be until Susan was beyond saving, but I knew it would be quick. I focussed on slowing my breathing, if I was to have any hope I needed to be calm and collected. If I couldn't physically remove the creature, then I'd just have to stop it from taking control. I knew it suppressed emotions, perhaps I could use that to my advantage? If Susan had a sufficiently strong emotional reaction, it might just overload the device in time.
I began to speak to her, urging her to remember, to feel. She had been so angry with me for keeping secrets, for lying to her. I tried to tap into that feeling, as much as it hurt me to say it.
"Susan. I lied to you. I was selfish. I kept secrets from you. Remember your passion. Remember how it felt as I betrayed your trust."
I sniffled and croaked my way through my words, struggling to contain my guilt.
"Because of me... because I couldn't bare to tell you... you ended up here. At the mercy of a cybernetic monster. I caused the pain you're in. I'm responsible, for all of this!"
I couldn't help my outburst. I'd kept so many secrets for so long, and caused harm because if it, once I began to pour out my heart I couldn't stop. But looking at Susan, it wasn't having any effect. The creature was still drilling away into her head. I frowned as I stopped my speech. Was I wrong to think making Susan feel would help her endure? Was I already too late? No. I refused to believe we were out of time. Maybe it was my approach. Anger is very much a base emotion. A primal, superficial, reactionary force almost as much a survival instinct as an emotion. Susan needed something deeper, more complex, more powerful. Something like sorrow, or love.
"Susan, please hear me." I continued, taking her hands in mine. "I can't bear to lose you. Please, you mean too much to me. Fight this! I know you can!"
I paused to collect my thoughts.
"I can't lose you. Not again. Remember I told you, about the forgotten invasion? You gave me so much hope, and courage then. You believed in me when I couldn't even believe in myself. I only managed to keep fighting because you were by my side. You trusted me without question, and gave me the strength to endure."
For just a second, I saw a flicker of something cross her face. I pressed my advantage.
"But you died. When we stood up and saved the world, you died. Ran through with an alien blade. I held you in my arms as you slipped away." Tears were streaming down my face, but I continued. The Cybermite seemed to increase the pitch of its humming drill, as if it had to exert a greater force on Susan.
"But tine reset, and only I remembered it. I still feel the warmth of your lifeblood on my hands, in my fitful nightmares. Whenever I look at you, I see the wound, I picture your death as vividly as when I first witnessed it. That's why I couldn't bare to tell you. That's why I kept my secrets, and I've been distant. I just couldn't put you in that situation again. I swore that I'd never lose you again."
Susan's eyes were open again, her face lined with pain but with a steely edge to her brow. Her eyes were also watering.
"Susan. It took the destruction of our entire society for us to admit our feelings for each other. I've loved you for a long time, but I didn't have the courage to tell you, until both our lives were threatened. It tends to kind of puts things in perspective. After the invasion, I put my doubts aside and asked you out. I love you, Susan, and I know you care for me too. Focus on that. I know you can do it."
"Shut up you fool. You talk too much, it'll get you in trouble some day." Susan said, pulling me close for a deep passionate kiss. As we interlocked, I felt something small tumblr down our arms and hit the floor with a metallic clang. Slowly, eventually, we pulled apart and smiled to each other.
"Is it gone?" Sue asked me, while feeling her temple.
"Dead as my ambitions as a country singer." I retorted, while poking the Cyber mite with my foot. "You blew its tiny little circuits with your emotional response."
"More than a feeling..." She mused.
"That's the power of love!" I completed.
"When we get out of this, we have to watch Back to the Future again."
"Which one?"
"Why choose when we can marathon?"
"I could kiss you Susan."
"Let's save that for when we're out of an alien spaceship though yeah? Priorities."
I turned back to the controls, looking for a way to overload the power banks of the Cyber-Ship.
"Hmm. Looks like I could trick the engines into firing off a warp pulse. This close to a gravity well should result in a hyperspace implosion. Minimal damage to the surrounding environment but a total obliteration of this vessel. And about half the facility above. The other half will be purged by incredibly hot gasses resulting from the pulse. Exhaust fumes, basically."
"What about the other scientists?" Susan asked, concerned. "Can they be saved?"
"Unfortunately not. You only pulled through because the Cybermite hadn't fully converted you. Plus I'm so devilishly handsome." I flashed her a brief smile.
"You keep telling yourself that." She joked back. "How long will it take to trigger this pulse thing? And more importantly, how long will it take us to get away?"
"Hard to say. About ten minutes, I'd say. I can rig up a countdown to give us some time to get away, but we'd want to be quick nonetheless."
"Right. I'll have a poke around, see if I can't find anything that might help us deal with the legless prick."
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