Flux Runners

by William Joseph Roberts

  May 26th, 2176 / Mid Afternoon (Betty time)

  “A

  lright, back it up a little more!” Andy shouted.

  “What?” Fergus leaned out of the drivers’ door; his hand cupped to his ear.

  “Dammit Andy, you don’t have to shout,” Trae yelled.

  “But he can’t hear me,” Andy said.

  “Then take off your damned helmet,” Trae said with a frustrated laugh.

  “But … What about the radiation?”

  “It’s still early, dipshit. Rad levels haven’t gotten bad yet,” Trae said “Fine, you know what, never mind. You just stay in there and I’ll take off mine, so I don’t have to listen to you shouting in my ear.” Trae removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his face. He took a deep breath and immediately coughed, gagged and evacuated his stomach onto the dusty sand. He took another cautious breath. “I hope the entire planet doesn’t smell like a fermented high school locker room.”

  “Stinks, don’t it?” Fergus chuckled. “It honestly reminds me of a week-old jockstrap after summer football camp.”

  Trae glared back at Fergus. “No, it doesn’t stink in the slightest. Smells like fields of wildflowers and sunshine.”

  Fergus breathed deep, then sighed. “Ah, the memories.”

  “Seriously? Sometimes you make me question your sanity,” Trae said. He snorted and spit. “Just park it there and let’s see what it does. We can move it again later if we need to.” Trae walked over to the driver’s side of the transport. “Hey Andy, you might want to move out of the way!”

  “Oh yeah, that might be good, hu?” Andy scuttled to the side.

  “Fire it up Ferg,” Trae said.

  “This is gonna be fun.” Fergus sat back into the driver’s seat and flipped a series of switches on the main console.

  “Clear,” Fergus shouted out the open door.

  “Clear,” Trae replied.

  “Fire in the hole!”

  The high-pitched whir of turbines buffeted their eardrums. Dust billowed into the air as the transport’s primary thrusters spooled up to a steady-state idle. Trae replaced his helmet then motioned to Fergus and Andy to do the same.

  “Radio check. You two got me,” Trae transmitted.

  “Check,” Andy responded with a thumbs up.

  “Breaker breaker one-nine,” Fergus said. “Any other old cooters out there got their ears on, come on back now. I got ya loud and clear good buddy. Fergus slammed the driver’s door on the transport. “You copy me out there?”

  “Yup, loud and clear Ferg,” Trae said. “Change your pitch to zero degrees then take her to full thrust.”

  “Copy that, moving to zero degrees pitch,” Fergus said.

  “Hey,” Andy broke into the chatter. “Don’t you think we should anchor the transport?”

  “Naw, Lazarus should be plenty heavy in this gravity,” Trae said.

  “Nothing at all to worry about,” Fergus added.

  “Nope,” Trae agreed. “At least we hope. Alright Ferg, go to full power then start bringing the thrusters down slowly.”

  “Gotcha, gotcha…” Fergus said.

  Trae waved his hands in the air. “Hold up, wait.”

  “Der...Okay,” Fergus said. “I thought you just said go.”

  “I did, just one second.” Trae walked to the rear of the transport and slapped Andy in the back of the head. “Andy! You dumbass! Get away from the back corner of the transport.” Trae turned and walked back to the driver’s door. “When those thrusters go to full throttle, you could get sucked into the jet wash.”

  “Oh shit, hang on.” Andy trudged through the fine dust away from the transport.

  “Ok Ferg, clear!” Trae shouted over the noise of the turbines.

  “Copy that. Clear,” Fergus said. “Thrusters coming up.”

  The cyclic resonance of the turbines increased. Trae instinctively covered his ears, only to find his helmet in the way.

  “It feels like my ears are bleeding,” Andy shouted across the comms.

  “That’s because they probably are,” Trae admitted. “Now suck it up buttercup. Ferg, start rotating them down slowly. Give the jet blast time to carry the dust away.”

  “Ten-four, good buddy,” Fergus said. “Coming down one degree every ten seconds.”

  The sky darkened in the early morning light of the alien planet. Fine powdered sand roiled away over the top of the dune.

  “Keep it coming, Ferg,” Trae said. “I can see the top section. It’s a set of doors, alright.”

  The thrusters dropped slowly as the dust cloud expanded, tripling in size.

  “How’s it look back there?” Fergus hung out of the drivers' door looking backward to get a better view.

  “I think It’s working,” Andy said, unsure.

  “Like a champ,” Trae responded. “If the doors run the length of this cliff line then they are massive.”

  “Coming the rest of the way down,” Fergus said.

  “Gopherit,” Trae replied. “Max it out at forty-five degrees.”

  “Copy that,” Fergus responded.

  The ground behind the transport exploded once again in a cloud of dust that raced away over the top of the cliff face.

  “That’s it, Ferg,” Trae said. “Shut it down. I can see the base of the door, now.”

  The small turbines whined to a stop. Trae’s ears continued to ring with a high-pitched shriek. Dust hovered in the air beyond the ridge of the cliff like a massive storm cloud breaching the horizon.

  Fergus leapt from the cab and smiled. “Well ain’t that just pretty. Didn’t think we could polish a turd so well.”

  Trae removed his helmet. “Well alrighty then. I didn’t expect to sandblast the door, but sure, why the hell not.”

  “Hey,” Andy transmitted. “What’s that over there?” Andy wandered into the newly made trench and kicked away sand away from something buried in the dune.

  “What did you find?” Trae asked as he approached, Fergus following close behind. Andy picked up a smooth, white object from the sand, and held it out for Trae to see.

  “Oh, sweet! A skull!” Fergus snatched it from Andy’s hand.

  “Doesn’t look human, that’s for sure,” Trae said in a solemn tone.

  “I got it!” Fergus poured sand from the skull and shook it clear. “It’s an alien!”

  “Well no shit, Sherlock,” Andy sarcastically mumbled.

  “I heard that,” Fergus said, glaring up at Andy.

  Trae took the skull from Fergus and turned it over in his hands. “Look at the canines,” he pointed out. “And check out this short snout. Maybe something cat or dog like?”

  Andy removed his helmet and knelt in the sand. “Looks like there’s more of them over here.” He excavated what looked like a leg bone, then a series of vertebrae and two more skulls from the sand.

  “What the hell?” Trae puzzled over the scene as Fergus began to dig.

  “Hey look, I found another skull!” Fergus cheered as he held the bleach white object triumphantly above his head. “Oh shit, and another.” He tucked the skulls under his left arm. “I got it! We can mount them to Lazarus!”

  “No.”

  “Aww, come on. It’ll look cool,” Fergus pleaded.

  “Well, maybe one,” Trae held up a finger.

  “Sweet,” Fergus said with giddy excitement as he continued to dig. “I call dibs on the rest of them.”

  Trae kicked the base of the massive door, which echoed with a hollow metallic thump. He examined the odd surface texture of the material. “I can’t tell if this is pitting or just from the sandblast job we did to it,” he mumbled to himself. He picked at the imperfections on the shiny gray-green surface of the door. “It sure as hell isn’t any kind of steel alloy that I’ve ever seen before.” He poked at a piece of scale that clung to the surface. His gloved finger penetrated the paper-thin surface of the massive door. “Oh shit. Hey Ferg, come take a look at this.”

  “What?” Fergus
looked up from his excavation. “Look what you did. You done went and broke it. Cap is gonna be pissed off at you ...”

  “Here,” Andy said, handing Trae a large white stone. “Go all Trae the barbarian and open it up. I’ll go get the flashlights.”

  “Hey, snag me a bag or something while you’re at it,” Fergus shouted over his shoulder.

  “Get it your damn self,” Andy said.

  Trae tossed the large stone in the air to test the weight. “Barbarian it is.” He swung the stone in a wide, whirlwind arch striking the door with a gong-like reverberation. Sections of the gray-green metal crumbled beneath the powerful strikes. “That should be big enough to climb through.” He tossed the now chipped stone over his shoulder and peered into the darkness beyond the portal. He gagged. “Man, that stinks.” He stepped closer to the opening and sniffed again. “Whew…Hey Ferg, I think I figured out where you left your high school gym socks.”

  Fergus stacked the skulls into a neat little pyramid of sorts, placing Andy’s helmet on the top of the pile. “It can’t smell any worse than it already does. Hell, I think I’m starting to get used to it, honestly.”

  “No, you're not, you brain dead retard. You still have your helmet on.” Trae laughed and spat. “Trust me, it’s worse than what we have been breathing.” He stepped away from the opening and coughed. “It’s dead air, man. No telling how long this place has been sealed up.”

  “Hell, send Andy in then,” Fergus said jokingly. “He’d make a pretty good canary.”

  “I’m not so sure that it’s safe. It could be like an old mine and full of poisonous or explosive gas.”

  Andy jogged up to the pair, snatching his helmet from the pile of skulls. “Awesome, you got it open.” He handed Trae a flashlight then peered into the opening.

  Trae replaced his helmet. The hiss of pressurization began as the helmet locked into the collar seal. “Seal your helmet and go to your own air supply, just in case there’s more than stale air in there.”

  “Will do.” Andy his helmet and clicked it shut. Seals hissed and expanded as his suit pressurized. “Alright. Got it,” he said with a thumbs up.

  Trae peered through the opening as Andy slid through ahead of him. “See anything in there?”

  “Yeah, the darkness.”

  “Oh, haha, asshole,” Trae said. “Anything else?”

  “I can see a wall to the left on this side of the door. Maybe more like a support bulkhead than a wall, but nothing in front of me or toward my right,” Andy said.

  “Cap might have been right then,” Fergus said.

  Trae leaned into the opening and flashed his light around. “If this complex was an ancient starport, maybe this is a massive repair hangar like they have back in Atlanta.”

  “Yup,” Fergus said. “I’d be willing to bet that you’re right.”

  “Hey Trae,” Andy called. “Do you think it’s safe to go deeper?”

  “I don’t see why not. Just keep an eye open,” Trae said as he ducked and sidestepped through the opening.

  “You guys have fun,” Fergus shouted. “I’m just going to stay out here and play with my new friends. I think I’ll name them Moe, Larry, Curly and Hank.”

  “You do that Ferg,” Trae said. “Wait. Why Hank?”

  “Just because,” Fergus said.

  “Hey while you’re out here playing tea party with your new friends, tie us into the transmitter on Lazarus.”

  “Sure,” Fergus said. “I’ll get right on that.”

  Trae swung his light from side to side. The black nothingness around them absorbed their minuscule light beams.

  “I think those are roof supports,” Andy said. He swung his light to illuminate the massive pillar to the left of the opening. “Hard to tell for sure though. Can’t see the top of the thing. My light doesn’t reach that far.”

  Trae panned the light around, examining the structure. “It would make sense. And if that support pillar went all the way to the top of the cliff, it would be roughly eight stories tall. So then if that’s the case, then this way,” he flashed the beam of his light down the length of the door, “could run the full distance of the cliff face. Hell, that’s a few hundred yards.”

  Andy disappeared around the side of the massive support. “Looks like there’s a storage bay of some sort over this way.”

  “Alright boys and girls, I’ve got the ship on the horn,” Fergus said, chiming in over the suit comms.

  “Got you loud and clear, Ferg,” Wes responded.

  “Okay, good,” Trae said. “You picking me up, Wes?”

  “Loud and clear.”

  “Awesome,” Trae said. “Looks like Cap may have been right. This is some sort of hangar. We aren’t too deep in yet, but just rough guessing that we could fit both ships in here with room to spare if we can get the doors open ...”

  “Trae, over here,” Andy abruptly interrupted.

  “Over where? All I see is black,” Trae said.

  “Around the corner,” Andy said. “I found some strange looking containers on what I guess would be pallets. I mean, it doesn’t look like anything we have ever used, but that’s what the set up looks like.”

  “Oh sweet, salvage,” Ferg cheered. “Hey, I’ll give you guys some of the skulls if you let me in on the take.”

  “No, Ferg,” Trae grumbled.

  “No thanks Ferg,” Andy said in an annoyed tone. “Oh, what the hell is this? Oh, man. That’s just gross looking.”

  Trae stopped, panning his light in the direction Andy had went.”What the hell is what?”

  “Watch your step when you come around the corner, Trae. The floor is wet and slick with some kind of pinkish slime stuff.”

  “I copy on the pink slime, Andy,” Trae said. “You copy all of that Geek? Andy gets dibs on those pallets near the pink slime. He can come back and mark them later.”

  “I copy,” Wes said. “That’s at least some good news for a change. I’ve got Andy down for the main share. Just give me a count later.”

  Trae laughed. “Don’t count it good yet. There’s no telling what that slime might be without testing it. The water might not be potable, and the containers may just be empty.”

  “Seriously,” Fergus said.”Why do you always have to be such a negative Nancy?”

  “I don’t see you in here looking for body snatchers or anything.”

  “Um...Trae,” Andy said, whispering into the suit comms. “Still got your gun on you?”

  “Yea,” Trae said curiously. “Why?”

  Andy’s breath shuddered as he whispered into the helmet mic. “We are not alone…”

  “Don’t worry Andy. There aren’t any sandworms down here to gobble you up,” Fergus said.

  “Ferg, clear the line.” Trae drew his pistol and continued slowly around the corner. “What do you mean Andy? Please be very clear and very specific about what you are seeing.”

  “I mean I am looking at something that is looking right back at me. Doesn’t seem to like it when the light is shined directly on it, but it isn’t moving. It’s just crouched behind one of those pallets loaded with barrels.”

  Trae rounded the corner and spotted the stack of containers on pallets that Andy had mentioned. He aimed the beam of his flashlight downward. Iridescent hues of blue and purple glimmered across the pink surface of the vicious looking ooze. It spread out in a shallow puddle, approximately three feet across at the base of the containers.

  “I’m at the slime, Andy,” Trae said. “I’m continuing in your direction.”

  “What does it look like,” Wes asked.

  “It kinda looks like a cat or maybe a lemur in the face. Four fingers on the hand that I can see. It has really short black fur that sorta has this red tint when I shine the light at it. It has a really long tail that’s holding onto the containers above its head.”

  “Christ,” Trae murmured to himself. “I hate to tell ya this Andy, but I think you are having your first alien encounter.”

  Ferg
us laugh. “Get ready to squeal boy! You gonna get probed!”

  “What the hell,” Wes said excitedly. “Why does that sound so familiar? I’ve heard that description from somewhere before.”

  “Cool it! All of you,” Trae ordered. “Are there any more of them, Andy?”

  “Not that I can see. Just this one that’s still staring at me and sniffing the air.”

  “Okay, slowly back your way out. I’m on my way to you.”

  “Oh shit, it’s moving. It’s standing up. Looks like it’s nearly as tall as I am and wearing a skirt or kilt or something around its waist.”

  “Dammit! I know this,” Wes said. “What the hell. There’s no connection. Dammit! There’s no net connection here! Oh my god what do I do, I have no net, how the hell can I look anything up?”

  “Well no shit Sherlock,” Fergus said. “We aren’t exactly near-Earth anymore, now are we?”

  “T...T...Trae,” Andy stuttered. “I think it heard you. It’s looking back in your direction. I can see your light coming this way. I think it just pulled a knife from its belt.”

  “Get back here, Andy. Run! Move it!” Trae began to run toward Andy.

  “Trae,” Andy said. “It’s on the move! It just took off and hauled ass back into the darkness.”

  C asraownan soft padded forward through the Underdark labyrinth. He held his spear close and at the ready. Ahead in the darkness, movement flickered and glowed within his dark vision. Around the edge of a great pillar ahead, he could make out the long muscular tail of a Kaowla. A ravenous beast of chorded muscles and vicious teeth. Casraownan let out a long, even exhale as he raised his spear to strike. One silent step in front of another, he stalked his quarry. Slowly, silent. Breathe in, slowly silent, breathe out.

  The cavernous labyrinth suddenly resonated with a turbulent squall that buffeted his ears. He dropped his spear yowling in agony. The Kaowla sprinted away into the darkness at the start of the noise. The intensity increased, growing louder and higher in pitch.

  Casraownan doubled over to the dusty labyrinth floor. His arms wrapped tightly around his head. His entire world dissolved at that moment. All that existed melted aways and became nothing to the enormity of the chaos that invaded his mind. He reached deep within and held on. The pain became everything. He was still alive if the pain existed. He yowled a sordid howl that could only have manifest itself amid the chaos that engulfed and absorbed him. Then there was nothing.