Carol Soames
Dr. Carol Soames was an American scientist who worked on the Phoenix Project for Lloyd J. Brinkstone. When the experiment went wrong, she was eaten and her mind absorbed by Charlie. Like her colleague Dr. Gordon Shelley, Dr. Soames' will was sufficient to occasionally to assert dominance over Charlie's consciousness and take over the shark's body, using its shapeshifting abilities to transform its body into her own. In this manner, was the second Brinkstone scientist encountered by the group of castaways that found themselves aboard the rig.
She attempted to warn Paul Latham and Mark about Charlie before running away. Rochelle found Charlie floating inside the shark aquarium, beginning to transform from Soames back into its true form. Still partially resembling Dr. Soames, it attacked Rochelle, although she was able to escape. Dr. Soames' mind regained control and she changed back, but then encountered Alex Rinaldo. Her efforts to warn him of Charlie fell on deaf ears, and the sex-crazed Alex tried to have his way with her. When her clothes came off with parts of her skin attached, Alex panicked and stabbed Soames in the breast and fled. When he returned with Paul and the others, Soames was gone.
The shock of "dying" again caused Soames' mental state to collapse, and her mind never again resurfaced the way Shelley sometimes did, but became irrevocably trapped in the shark's body. She was was set free when Paul and Linda Warner killed Charlie's original body by overdosing it with heroin injections, granting Soames and the others the release of death.
Comments
- Dr. Soames is one of the only characters whose role is the same in Proteus was it was in Slimer, albeit with some minor changes. In Proteus, Christine sees her run by, and after being found by the group, she's made to return with them to the lab. Alex interrogates her. Fighting off the reemergence of Charlie's consciousness, Soames tells the group something of the Proteus Project and Leonard Brinkstone's reasons for funding it. As she becomes more bestial, Alex attempts to restrain her, but she throws him through a window and runs away before Charlie can reassert itself and transform her body back into its own.
