Lost Empire

Chapter 6

 Derrick looked at the readings, pausing only a second, he pressed the start button, at first it wasn't too bad. Suddenly it was like the full opening of a huge set of flood gates. Derrick opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out, reaching up he tried to pull the head set off, no dice it only increased the feeling that his head was going to split open. Oh shit Derrick thought when he felt the blood begin to seep from his nose, you've really done it this time you're dead!

"Derrick," Shelby said a moment later, "I am reading dangerous levels of serotonin and adrenaline increasing exponentially." The hologram of Shelby appeared next to the jerking, shaking and bleeding form of Derrick. "DERRICK!"

Shelby immediately cut into the program that was pouring through the head set. Searching Shelby couldn't find an exact way to shut it down without extreme damage to Derrick's mind. Entering the program she began to look for an internal cut off switch, how could you have been so irresponsible Derrick, Shelby thought as she began to switch off more and more of the program. Coming out she began to get near death readings coming from Derrick. Immediately after disconnecting him, she moved him to the as of yet unused medical bay. Entering his mind again Shelby began to desperately search for Derrick.

*"Derrick, where are you? You have to fight this! Without you this fleet is nothing! Derrick you have to fight come back to me!"* Shelby was screaming in Derrick's mind.

Finally she found Derrick curled into a ball in the far recesses of his mind. *"Derrick! At last! You have to come out."* Shelby thought.

*"NO!"* Derrick shouted back at her, *"I've finally done it, I disregarded every safe guard, every possible avenue of escape, no, I've killed myself this time."*

Shelby's face grew softer as she tipped Derrick's face to look into her eyes. *"No Derrick you are the most brilliant human I have ever met, your name sake would have been so proud of you. You should have had me helping you that way everything could have been checked twice as much, I've disengaged almost all the program, it is safer."*

A strange look came into his eyes as Derrick started to recite, *"You used the synapse based, impulse jump to bridge the gap between human and machine?"*

Shocked a moment Shelby could only shake her head, *"Yes Derrick, though I can't maintain it nearly as long as the thought bridge I use to communicate with you all the time. This is due to the amount of stress your mind would experience."*

*"I see where I made my mistake though it appears that it might be a while before I can attempt this again. I appear to have gained 3/4 of your library, interesting I have been going about things the long way."* Derrick thought still in a trance like state.

*"Come Derrick, we need to escape soon I can feel the bridge weakening,"* Shelby said.

Derrick only nodded as he took Shelby's hand, god he thought her hands are so soft, prompting a giggle from Shelby.

Though they were coming out, Shelby was also monitoring his readings in the Med bay, they were dangerously low. His beta and alpha waves were almost non-existent, though his theta waves were sky rocketing due to their link. Even those were beginning to decline. Derrick still wasn't sure from everything he felt this was going to be another failed attempt. Shelby could feel Derrick's resistance but still tried to keep him moving forward.

Minutes later a very weak Derrick opened his eyes shocked that he was still alive, but how? For all intents and purposes he had overloaded the total capacity of his brain, he literally crammed far too much in it. Barely able to turn his head he saw Shelby standing next to the bio-bed.