An unexpected arrival Part 4

"Do it."

As Miller spoke, he felt a small portion of his soul forever darken. He closed his eyes and clenched them for several long moments, knowing what would await him when he finally opened them. And when he did... he was not disappointed.

"Captain Miller...," an intimately familiar voice said.

"S- Smitty... I...," Miller stammered.

"I know, Captain. I know," Lt. Smith said.

His flesh was scarred and burned from top to bottom, but he was still unmistakably Miller's former crewman. Behind him stood D.J. And behind them stood the Event Horizon's entire former crew. All were horribly disfigured, several missing their eyes.

"Sir, you might think a hundred years living in the Hellverse is bad, but we've spent that time in the Darkness- That Darkness," D.J. said and pointed at the whirling, spinning gravity drive. "It's worse."

"And we're grateful to be free," an older gentleman said, stepping forward from the crowd behind them.

"Captain John Kilpack, I presume?" Miller said with a raised eyebrow.

"Indeed," he said, regarding him with nonexistent eyes.

"You're not exactly free, though. Are you? I can sense that you're still tethered to the ship, somehow," Miller said.

"Well, at least now we're free to experience something besides unending agony! Vision after vision after bloody fucking vision of everyone we've ever cared about dying in the most gruesome way imaginable...," D.J. blurted out.

"I'm... sorry, D.J. Sorry I couldn't save you. Sorry it took me a hundred years to pull you back out of that thing. I can't change that. But I can change this...," Miller said with determination.

He turned and walked to the gravity drive. As he approached, he could feel the entity inside regarding him.

"Change them back," he ordered.

"She can't. This is the only way she sees them," Weir whispered, with clear condescension.

"No!" Miller bellowed and the vessel shuddered.

"You remember who they were, what they looked like. In a hundred years, you haven't forgotten. Now change them back or I'm coming in there," he threatened, glaring at the sphere with eyes that no longer knew fear.

There were no words between them. The entity inhabiting the Event Horizon had no concept of such things. But there was some sort of acknowledgement. And when Miller turned back, he stared into the eyes of his former crewmen as they were before their untimely deaths. Captain Kilpack and his crew were similarly restored. They looked at eachother with wonder.

"How did you- you know what? It doesn't even matter. What do you need from us, now?" Kilpack asked, staring down at his hands.

"We've got a wreck to salvage," Miller said.

"Thank you Captain," D.J. said, putting a hand on Miller's shoulder.

"I told you a long time ago, I'd never leave another crewman behind," Miller said.

"That you did. Now let's go salvage that wreck," D.J. said with tears streaming down his face.