Carlos Benitez D.I.D

[Carlos_Benitez]

A few days passed, and Carlos continued his duties, but remained ill-at-ease. After patrolling Gamma, Carlos caught sight of an unidentified vessel. He pursued the ship and forced it to stop.
It was a badly beaten Titan, possibly modified by some wannabe engineer. It had nomad weapons, and it's perfect hull appeared to have been mutilated under the preface of "customisation".
For some reason, Carlos felt furious. Mutilation of our technology, splicing it with alien equipment. It was all Carlos could do not to open fire on the ship, an affront his people.
Still, Carlos let it pass.

Carlos ended his patrol and setting his ship down at the Villa Hangar, he made his way to his office. It seemed there where a mountain of administrative issues that needed to be seen to, and that only added to his state of mental fatigue.
A knock came from the door.
"Who the hell is it!" he barked.
The pale face of Alandra appeared at the door.
"It's me dad..." she said, cautiously. Carlos' harsh and agressive tone and expression diddn't change.
"What the hell do you want?" he barked at her.
"I wanted to see if you where ok, dad. You've been acting strangely..."
It was as if Carlos was not even aware of her presence, mistaking her for some messenger boy.
"So...that fool has screwed up again has he? He will not get in the way of our plans..." the delusional commander shouted.
"Dad...you're scaring me..." Alandra walked up to Carlos' desk, and touched his face as he sat, staring rigid at the door.
Suddenly, he snapped out of his hallucination.
"A.A! I wasn't expecting a visit. How are you?" Carlos said, trying to hide his exhaustion.
"Worried dad." she said "What's up with you?"
Carlos looked at her, puzzled. "I don't know what you mean" he answered.
"You've been having weird turns dad. Senor Gentle contacted me and asked me to check up on you."
Carlos' eyes filled with fury again. "Gentle is no friend of ours..." he barked.
"Friend enough to care about your well-being, clearly" she retaliated.
Carlos diddn't like the idea of having to accept Gentle was anything more than a backstabbing opportunist with no concern for anyone other than himself. He shifted the subject away from old friends and his mental health.
"How's your mother?" he asked.
"Annoyed that she never sees you" she snapped.
"I don't know what she expects from me, AA." he said. "I hope she doesn't expect a relationship. We never where together, and we never will be."
A.A cut in to avoid the uncomfortable subject of the circumstances of her birth being brought into the conversation.
"Dad...see a doctor. Please."
She turned, and made her way out of the room, her eyes a little red.

Carlos sat back in his chair, and once again he cleared his mind.
The voice...was still there, still whispering.
Carlos began the conversation.
"What are you?" he snapped.
"We are you" the voice replied. Carlos diddn't believe it.
"You are not part of me." he said firmly. "You don't belong here"
"Perhaps you don't know yourself as well as you'd like to think..." the voice retorted. "We are the part of you that lusts for power, the part of you that drives you towards leadership. We are the drive behind your achievements, and we have come forth to help you during this dark time".
The voice was soothing, comforting. Carlos felt his hostility towards it melt away. The voice continued to speak.
"The Council of Elders will be re-opened. This is not what we had hoped for, but we can bend this to our advantage."
Carlos felt himself agreeing.
"We will use our seat on the Council as a platform from which our influence can spread. They may have turned their back on us, but we are strong enough to bring them all to see our point of view".
Carlos agreed again.
"We will look after you, but for the moment you must rest."

For the first time in what seemed like weeks, Carlos fell into a deep sleep.

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