Ghost in the Machine

From: laura@karr.aol.com
To: john@soda.berkeley.edu
CC:
Subj: Help!

Received: From laura@karr.aol.com by soda.berkeley.edu
 Sun, 8 Oct 1995 20:36:26 PST
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 18:34:15 MST

John? It’s Laura! You gotta help me, I’m in deep trouble. I’m at the institute, I feel so strange. They’ve got me hooked up to this machine, and I’m cold, I can’t feel a thing. I’m afraid they’ll pull the plug on me, joh;owqihefp8y2er99@@oweh934yrhflknflkjsndfk

*****************************************************************

Then the message breaks off and continues for a while with several kilobytes of ASCII-trash. Attempts to mail back are futile, as the Internet connection is now offline.

The message is from Laura Sinclair, with whom the recipient (John) has extensive email communication. Six weeks ago, Laura, a psychology student with a background in computer science, left college to participate in some kind of cutting-edge research program with the Karr Research Institute located about 35 miles outside Golden, Colerado. Laura never told the investigator what kind of research she was to do there, but she was very excited about it. The investigator hasn’t heard from Laura since.

However, there is something weird going on. The email is dated around 6:30 p.m. and was sent from the Karr institute. However, according to Golden, Colorado authorities, Laura died in a climbing accident near the Institute. She was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. on the day the email was sent – a full three hours before she sent the message!

Possibilities

1 The Karr Institute, high up and isolated in the Rocky Mountains, has recently been taken over by the mi-go, who run a mining operation nearby. The Fungi from Yuggoth killed the scientists and placed their brains in control cylinders. They attached Laura’s brain to the institute’s powerful mainframe computer in order to examine this human technology. The mi-go dumped the bodies in a crevice, but accidently dropped Laura’s, which was found.

In a clear moment, Laura’s brain sent the email to John. After noticing this, the Fungi disabled all the computer’s connections to the outside world and have since left.

The dimensional shambler attacks!

Laura’s body, with its surgically removed brain, has caused a stir in some parts of the FBI. News of the body’s odd mutilation has been quietly suppressed as the authorities mount their own investigation.

2 It is a trap. An old enemy of the investigators infiltrated the harmless Karr Institute and murdered Laura. He staged a climbing accident and then wrote the mysterious email to get the investigators attention. If they take the bait, the villain will blow up the only bridge to the institute, trapping them. Then he, she, or it, summons a dimensional shambler to drag his enemies to screaming hell.

3 The Karr Institute is headed by Dr Lawrence Karr, a brilliant but unscrupulous psychologist. Karr, funded by a secret government agency, runs a research project in human-computer communications combining virtual reality technology, neuronal networks, hypnosis and certain drugs. Karr’s real goal is to establish mind control with virtual-reality enhanced hypnotic messages. He has met with success.

But something went wrong. Laura, a latent psychic, somehow merged her mind with the institute’s computer during an experiment, leaving her body dead. Karr panicked and had his brainwashed assistants stage a climbing accident in order to avoid investigation.

Laura’s mind, trapped in the computer, managed to access the email program and write a message to the investigator at 6:30 p.m. Karr noticed and turned the computer off, garbling part of the message.

Any investigation runs into a dead end - and the cover-up operation of a government project turned sour.



© Markus Huenemoerder

Period Pains

The investigator is used to occasional period pains, but never this bad. She is in absolute agony, feeling as though her insides are on fire. It started yesterday and the pain is just increasing and increasing. Intense bursts of pain alternate with incessant sharp, stabbing sensations. Unable to concentrate for any length of time and, at its worst, even unable to walk, she is finding it increasingly difficult to work. Sleep is possible (but only for short periods of time) but reading or anything that requires concentration is almost impossible. Her doctor has dismissed her complaints of higher levels of pain than usual as “Just a bit more severe than usual” and has prescribed painkillers that have no effect whatsoever.

Possibilities

1 The investigator is the victim of a devious cultist. Utilising ancient spells, she has created a non-physical manifestation of pain in the investigator which she is then tapping for her own means. She uses the psychic waves of agony to drive her attempts to summon Y’Golonac. The cessation of pain that precedes Y’Golonac’s arrival probably give the investigator great relief – until she realises what it portends.

2 The investigator has been impregnated by Shub Niggurath in its guise as the Ram of the Thousand Ewes. Nightmares soon begin, letting the investigator relive the moment of impregnation. If this doesn’t drive her to suicide, then she will soon give birth to a chitinous creature consisting of claws and fangs and little else. This creature burrows its way through the investigator’s abdomen, bursting out into the world in a spray of blood. After eviscerating the investigator, it flees to dank woodland where it grows to become a form of Dark Young.

3 During the few snatched moments of sleep the investigator’s dreams are filled with horrific images of blood and pain and unborn creatures mewling. Always waking in a cold sweat the feverous heat of her pain soon takes over. This constant swing of delirium takes its toll and the investigator finally collapses.

Rushed to hospital, she is diagnosed as suffering from a rare tropical disease extant only in certain jungles in South America. How on earth did she catch the disease?

Everything seems fine now that her malady is cured, but four weeks later the disease resurfaces and continues to do so every month. Her dreams are now tormented not only by the cries of unborns but also by a pox-marked figure dressed in a tattered robe and bearing a tattooed symbol on his forehead. Who is it and what further horror does it presage?

© Simon Taylor

Sylvia

The investigator finds a little girl on his doorstep quite late one evening, lost. She is very pretty with long curly blonde hair and dressed in an expensive dress.

Circumstances are such that the Investigator should have little choice but to allow her in and put her to bed for the night, in anticipation of sorting the problem out in the morning.

An hour after she is put to bed, the girl gets up and strips herself naked. She then proceeds to mutilate and torture herself, scattering blood around the Investigator’s home. Examples include: pulling her fingernails out, setting fire to her hair and burning herself, smashing her teeth and bones, tearing her face and ears off, putting fish-hooks into her flesh, and blinding herself or putting out an eye.

During the procedure, which is undertaken in complete silence, she is careful about the forensic evidence, trying to ensure that this is as incriminating as possible: for example, she may cut and slash (especially around the genitals), and eviscerate, herself using the Investigator’s kitchen knives, but being careful about fingerprints; similarly, she may hang herself by the heels, or even crucify herself (if she can do this without waking the Investigator) but being careful about the blood patterns.

Early the following morning, she leaves the Investigator’s house and staggers to a neighbour. She gasps out a story of torture at the Investigator’s hands and dies. The police soon arrive . . .

Possibilities

1 The little girl is a zombie, programmed and sent by an enemy of the Investigator. When she first arrives, she appears slightly cold and pale and, of course, has no pulse, although none of this is readily apparent (especially in poor light). The girl has swallowed two pints of blood which she later vomits out to provide a more horrific scene on discovery. This may not be the little girl’s blood group. (Note that there would be nothing logically wrong with the autopsy finding blood in the stomach if the girl tore or cut her tongue out.)

Inconsistencies would include a greater amount of blood than would be expected, anomalous blood-splatter patterns, and the fact that she appears actually to have been dead for four days prior to her ‘death’. However, with such an open-and -shut and disgusting case, the police are unlikely to pursue other leads unduly.

The Investigator’s previous career is suddenly under intense police scrutiny, which may well bring up previous offences and implicate other Investigators.

2 The girl really was lost and was everything she appeared to be. As she
slept, she was the victim of a spell directed at the Investigator.

Unfortunately, the Investigator is still a target.

3 The girl is a dreamer, and blundered into the dreamlands. There she attracted the attention of a minor dreamlands deity, Priebe (a god of suffering and pain), who followed her back to the waking world and, while she was still asleep, forced her to mutilate and kill herself. Her sacrifice provided enough psychic energy for the god to remain 24 hours - unless he can force someone else to do the same thing.

Following the Investigator to the police station, the god enters one of the officer’s dreams and kills him. (He may make the jailer unlock the Investigator’s cell - remember that this will be at night - and the Investigator, if he is awake, may or may not attempt to intervene or escape.)

On the third night, another officer is chosen. After five deaths, the god is strong enough to enter a conscious mind. At this stage, with complete control of a human, the killings increase rapidly as Priebe grows careless of his activities.

© Charles Ross

The Princess Claire

Something is wrong on board the Princess Claire, a luxury cruise ship. For the past eight months, three or four passengers have vanished on nearly every trip. Naturally, this cannot go on unnoticed or be allowed to continue. Enter the investigators...

The owner of the ship, Gerald Whitmore is onboard, along with his daughter Irene. Other people of note include Marcus Carlton, an acquaintance of Whitmore’s rumoured to have ties to organized crime; Sean Lyons, a wealthy young man just out of med school; and Dr. Muraki, a famed Japanese surgeon and private personal physician of Irene Whitmore. (Irene was born with a heart condition, and credits Dr. Muraki with saving her life.)

A rumour circulating among the ship’s crew is that the disappearances are the work of the ghost of the first passenger to vanish, a young woman named Iris. But if it is, then she’s been very quiet for most of this particular voyage; no one has disappeared yet. Despite this, Whitmore seems very stressed and worried.

Eventually, someone lets slip that Whitmore and his daughter were on every trip where passengers vanished.

Before this connection can be investigated, bigger problems arise. Marcus Carlton is found dead in the VIP lounge; his heart literally cut out of his chest, and taken away. Dr. Muraki performs an autopsy, and discovers that Carlton was actually strangled to death. A note is found next to the body, addressed to Irene Whitmore: “I did this for you. I am the one that truly loves you.”

Upon reading it, Irene faints, and is immediately taken to her cabin and tended to by a concerned Muraki.

Suspicion falls equally on Whitmore and Muraki; a crewman witnessed Carlton having an arguement with Whitmore, and there is a possibility of blackmail.

But Dr. Muraki obviously knows something about it, and hints that Carlton was only the first. But the doctor is quickly cleared of suspicion: he is found dead in his bed the next day. There is another note just like the first, and Irene becomes confined to bed. Sean Lyons volunteers to perform the autopsy and finds that Muraki was poisoned.

Two days after the doctor is killed, any suspicions that Whitmore is the killer seem confirmed when he is discovered in his own cabin, apparently a suicide. A final note is found, and is identical to the other two.

Possibilities

1 The disappearances had nothing to do with the murders. Sean Lyons has been quietly stalking Irene for months, and has decided to make his move.

Carlton made an unwanted pass at Irene, so Lyons strangled him in a rage and cut his heart out. He poisoned Dr. Muraki at dinner from jealousy at his spending so much time with Irene. Then he faked Whitmore’s suicide, both to take suspicion off himself, and because he felt that Whitmore was keeping him from his beloved. Lyons will be very sympathetic and comforting, but if Irene does not return his affections, he may become violent.

2 The disappearances are the victims of an organ theft ring based in a concealed operating room onboard. The idea was suggested when Irene had a heart attack during a voyage, and Dr. Muraki felt that the only way to save her was to perform an emergency transplant. He found a passenger who would be a likely donor: Iris, the young woman who vanished first. He murdered the girl and transplanted her heart into Irene. Unfortunately, Whitmore cooperated with that, and Muraki used that leverage to set up the operation. Carlton found out about it and tried to blackmail Whitmore.

Unfortunately, Whitmore was tottering on the edge of madness, tormented by guilt (and ghostly voices that only he heard). He finally snapped, and strangled Carlton. Muraki cut his heart out because it was a perfect opportunity. Whitmore then killed Muraki, knowing that the doctor would never let him stop otherwise. Then he committed suicide in order to spare his daughter from finding out about it.

3 Dr. Muraki is not dead. He was running the organ theft ring, but not for the money. Muraki is a sorcerer, and it was merely to cover up his own nefarious researches. He has finally completed his project, therefore saw no reason to maintain the charade. Carlton tried to force him to keep doing it, so Muraki hypnotised Irene into killing him and cutting out his heart. He then faked his own death, and hypnotised Sean Lyons to provide a feasible autopsy. After he had the run of the ship, he had Irene kill her father.

The notes served a dual purpose: they confused matters and amused his perverse sense of humour. If discovered before the ship docks, Muraki tries to have Irene kill the investigators. He is also very powerful and has access to very powerful spells. If Irene is somehow freed from his control, he tries to murder the girl and anyone who knows his secret, by magic if possible, but he has no objections to more physical methods.

(Inspired by Yami no Matsuei: The King of Swords.)

© Megan McKnight