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Back in the wreckage of the Earth vessel, a strange, glistening pool of liquid flows through the shattered corpses until it reaches that of Richard B. Bernstein. With eerily purposeful intensity, it flows through the wounds in Bernstein's torso and through the gaping wreck of his head until it disappears from view.
For a time, only the sigh of the wind blowing through the wreckage of the spaceship can be heard. There is no apparent motion anywhere, except for dust tossed about by the wind. Then, slowly, Bernstein's body begins to twitch and then to convulse. An eldritch cry of pain and horror bursts from what is left of Bernstein's mouth, as his body is wracked by shuddering and tremors. Slowly, inexorably, the wounds begin to heal and the destroyed parts of the corpse begin to regenerate, as howl after howl of agony bursts from the corpse's mouth.
As the body recovers its integrity, its chest begins to heave, first in bone-wracking spasms and then, gradually, settling down to a simulacrum of normal breathing. The eyes, which have regrown, flicker open; we see that they are silvery orbs with no irises or pupils, glowing with an unearthly light.
Bernstein's fingers, also regenerated, but with the same strange glowing silvery color as the eyes, begin to flex and unflex rhythmically. His legs and feet also begin to flex and relax. It is as if an inhuman intelligence has taken possession of the body, reanimated it, and turned it into an instrumentality for its own purposes.
After what seems an eon of testing and familiarization, the new entity first sits up, and then stands. It gazes about it, its lips drawn thin in an expressionless face. Its mouth opens once, and a voice barely recognizable as that of Bernstein, utters a few meaningless syllables:
"Ba ... fa ... awl ... moo ... foon ..."
Gradually, it acquires greater mastery over its vocal apparatus:
"I ... exist ... I ... must ... find others ... must destroy ... others ... must find and destroy others ... this world ... not for humans ... must not let humans ... take this world ...."
The Bernstein entity looks down and finds a laser-pistol, still intact. With a weirdly fluid grace, it stoops and grasps the pistol.
"Must ... find and destroy other humans ... must not let them take this world ... "
It cocks its head, as if sniffing the breeze for clues, and then, with cold efficiency, it stalks from the wreck and follows the tracks of its former crewmates....
[OK, group, that's the way to revive a dead character, eh?]
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