It didn’t surprise her everything was written in English; since her father spoke and wrote in English. What did surprise her is how he could operate this entire complex by himself, unless these aliens helped him somehow. Perhaps his father was successful with his cloning experiments to some degree, and these alien beings were the result of it. Everything was too fragmented at this point, and she wasn’t sure what the full picture was. She decided to investigate further, when her communication device activated.
“Ms Avery, are you there?”
“Yes, Cely,” she answered, as she touched the transmitter on her helmet. ”I’m all right. I see you made it as well.”
“That is correct,” Cely responded. “I will locate your position as soon as the storm passes. I’ve suffered some damage, but I still am operable. I wish I could say the same for the ship.”
“You sound a little garbled,” Angelica answered. “Are your other systems functioning properly?”
“My vision is a little fragmented, my defense system is down, and as you can hear, my vocal system is compromised, but other than that, I’m fine.”
“Well, unless I find some Oxygen in this complex soon, I'll no longer be fine. I’m going to investigate a little further, and then I am heading towards the lower floors of the complex. Be careful, there's a lot of debris down here.”
“Affirmative, Ms Avery,” he said. “I will locate you as soon as can.”
“Roger that,” she said. “See you in a bit.”
She left the room and walked down the hallway to find a way to the lower floors. She came upon a door marked “laboratory,” only to find the room was in shambles. There were broken specimen dishes everywhere, and bits of different colored chemicals on the floor. She didn’t want to enter, in case there was a possibility of contamination. She didn’t see any computers working that would give her any insight as to what her father was working on.
Angelica left the area, and headed to a nearby stairway. As she opened the door, she aimed her light down it for protection, and kept her pistol handy. She began to breathe heavily in fear, and carefully descended down four flights of stairs, checking each floor for intruders as she kept her back to the wall. She opened the last door, and found the emergency lights on this floor were on as well. Avery edged her way down the hallway until she reached the end, which led to a hallway with piping on the walls and ceiling. Her helmet visor began to fog on her, indicating heat and condensation.
She felt the piping, the heat and steam from a broken pipe further up the hallway penetrating through her gloves. She holstered her weapon, turned on her helmet light and pulled her oxygen sensor from her pocket. To her surprise, it said there was a high level of it up ahead and in this hallway. She put her sensor away, took off her helmet, and carried it in her left arm. She pulled out her pistol again, and ducked the steam pipe by crouching under its spray.
Angelica could feel the heat and humidity of the place and she wanted to remove her suit, but her intuition told her not to. Who knew what her father created here; she had a feeling there was a correlation with the cloning and the corpses she saw earlier. She didn’t know if anybody else was down there with her, and she needed to be extra careful until Cely found her. Cely's tracking system in his memory banks was especially homed in on Angelica’s whereabouts using her unique genetic code. Once he was there, Cely was a good defense device. He could fire a pistol faster than any human she ever knew. He also had a force field barrier that sent a voltage of 100,000 volts of electricity into his aggressor, but unfortunately it was inoperable at the moment.
Angelica got past the piping which led to an open room with computer systems and viewing screens. To her amazement they were all working and operational, their color vibrating throughout the room. The main lights, however, were not working, and the place was completely empty. She walked over to the nearest computer, scanning at the viewing screen. It blinked a repeating sequence, but she didn’t quite understand it or the hieroglyphics that were written next to it.
It kept saying “Defense compromised, initiate self destruct sequence code,’ but nothing here was damaged. She was reluctant and scared, but tried to type in some numbers to see the reaction. She wasn’t going to be able to get off the planet if she wanted to anyway and if she was going to die, it might as well be here and now. Absolutely nothing happened, however, and she felt she better not mess with it any longer, so she headed towards another hallway on the other side of the room. Most of the doors were inoperative and either closed or forced open by whatever explosion that happened here. This particular door was closed and there was a green light next to it on her right within arm’s reach. She touched the light and it opened.
She entered the well lit hallway and she started to go to her right. That’s when she saw it. When it approached, she saw the shadow first; a large dark figure, the silhouette at least ten feet tall. As it rounded the corner, it noticed her as well. It was an eight feet tall hairy figure, with one of his eyes deformed along with part of his face, had fang-like teeth, huge feet, and large arms that hung to his knees, like an ape. It came towards her, she raised her gun and fired twice, but it kept coming down the hall. Angelica was so scared all she could do was run. She went to hit the door exit, and started to run through the computer room towards the hallway out, when she was intercepted by a grayish haired man in his fifties who held an unfamiliar type of gun. “You have nowhere to run!” he yelled, as the beast also entered the computer room.
She turned and faced the beast, aiming her gun at him. The wounds on him were healed, he held out his hand, and dropped the bullets on the floor in front of her. Awed by this, she dropped her helmet to the floor. “Give me the gun,” the man said. “Give it to me, or I’ll have Gorzor take it from you.”
She turned back to the man, handed him the pistol, and gazed at the many scars on his face, obviously from rough living in this complex, or from battle. His skin was rather dark for a Caucasian, and he couldn’t have been more than 5’9”. Angelica was 5’ 11’, rather tall for a woman, and if it weren’t for his companion, she felt she could've easily disarmed him.
He looked over her weapon. “A little bit of an antique, isn’t it?” he asked. “I haven’t seen any guns like this in twenty five years, and only in a museum. What’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?”
“That line is as old as I am,” she answered, sarcastically.
“And just exactly how old are you?” he asked, as he put the gun in his coat pocket. “Twenty. Twenty one?”
“I don’t think that’s any of your business!”
“I’m holding the laser so I’m making it my business!”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Why don’t you try me?”
“About one hundred and five.”
“You must be joking!” he laughed. “You can’t be that old, you’re only a human.”
“I’m very old. I was cryogenically frozen on my voyage.”
“Ah. From where?”
“I’d rather not say.” They may have worked for her father’s establishment, but just the same she didn’t want to volunteer any more specifics yet.
“Have it your way,” he said. He frowned, gesturing for Gorzar to tie her up; He grabbed her arms and put them behind her back, then started to tie them with a rope. She turned to the beast.
“Ow! Take it easy, will you?” she said. She turned to her human captor. “Is this really necessary?”
“Are you willing to tell us what you’re doing here?” he asked, staring into her hazel eyes. She just turned her head towards the ceiling in defiance. “I didn’t think so. Take her down to the committee. I want to make sure she doesn’t have any friends with her.” He nodded, and pushed her to walk back towards the door at the other side of the computer room. She turned back at him, and stared at his grotesque face.
“What happened to you?” she asked. “Did you get your face stuck in a grinding rover or what?”
“None of your business.” She gave him a cross look and the man just smiled.
“Well to answer your question, he was an unfortunate victim of Akros’ experiments,” the man said.
“Who is Akros?”
“He was the keeper of this place. Enough talk, Gorzar, get her down to the committee.”
They went down the hallway where she came from in the surface. She was pushed through the door at the far end of the room and down the hallway, unaware of who or what her welcoming committee would be.
CHAPTER TWO
When the winds died down, Cely prepared to leave the ship; and was now able to get his sensory functions working properly and locate where Ms. Avery was. From what he could ascertain, his master was located into the lower floors of the complex. There wasn't any way he could tell if there were other life forms; that part of his sensory bank was still damaged, as well as his defense mechanism. All he had was a Beretta pistol with only one extra cartridge of bullets. The armory was very limited, with only three guns, and Angelica had the other two.
Cely knew now they were marooned here and there wasn't any way to fly the ship off the planet. He knew that Angelica wouldn't survive if she couldn't find water, food, or air. He grabbed a pack containing a first aid kit; some hand held devices needed to repair his functions, some extra freeze dried food for Ms. Avery, left the destroyed vessel, and headed in the direction of the beacon.
Following the beacon for a mile and a half to the hatch, he brushed the frozen nitrous-oxide that lay on top. His computation of the surface temperature was -250º. This was way too cold for human existence without a spacesuit of some kind. Hopefully below the surface was considerably warmer.
Noticing it was dark inside when he lifted the hatch, he turned on the light on his suit, and climbed down the ladder. He pulled out his pistol, started to walk towards the right until he reached a door, and punched in the code, as he could sense the sound of footsteps behind him. He entered the numbers, and as the door opened, went into the dark control room, waiting next to the door for his pursuer. The door opened again, and he put his only arm around his follower’s neck, who was wearing a white spacesuit, an Oxygen mask and a small tank on his back. Still holding his pistol, he gripped him tightly in a headlock with the gun at his head.
“Who are you,” he asked the human, who struggled in pain.
“Malone,” the man said. “Steve Malone!”
“Where is Ms. Avery?” he asked, and squeezed tighter yet.
“Who?”
“Ms. Avery,” he answered. “She is 5’11”, has blues eyes, black hair and is wearing a silver spacesuit.”
“Let me go, and I’ll tell you!” he pleaded. He fell to the floor choking, and sat there for a moment or two, trying to catch his breath. “She’s going down to the committee. They’re supposed to meet me there.”
“Well then,” Cely said, and directed him to rise. “We don’t want to keep them waiting, do we?”
“What are you,” the man asked, as he regained his footing.
“I am an android.”
“An android?” he asked puzzled.
“Apparently, Ms. Avery is ahead of your current level of technology,” Cely remarked. “Shall we get going?”
He pointed the pistol at Malone, who walked towards the catwalk ladder. Cely scanned the room, as he analyzed the sight of the dead beings in the room and their anatomical structures from the decomposed remains. He deciphered that one was a type of insect and the others were either humans, or derivatives thereof.
As they got to the catwalk, Malone turned towards him. “Is this going to hold you?” he asked him, sarcastically.
“It will hold me just fine. I’m very light weight,” he answered. “I probably weigh less than you do. Now, get going!”
Malone laughed. “That’s good to know!” he remarked. “Maybe later, when things are a little different, I’ll play kick the can!” Cely didn’t understand what he meant, but a memory search suggested an old Earth children’s game. He determined it was another sarcastic remark.
“Very funny, Mr. Malone,” he said. “Please climb the ladder, and do not attempt to escape or I will shoot you.” He complied, and Cely followed behind him. When he reached the top, the man quickly turned to kick him, as he climbed onto the floor from the ladder. Cely grabbed his foot, threw him about three feet in the air, and he landed on his back, dazed. The android put his pistol in its holster, reached down to grab Malone, and lifted him to his feet. “Are we done playing games?”
He subserviently nodded, and started to walk down the hallway in front of them. As they ventured further, he noticed the gravity was beginning to get heavier, indicating to him that certain systems in the complex were operable. He entered another hallway, which led to a stairway he determined went down three or four flights. When Malone started down it, he ran down them faster as he went lower. Cely kept up with him, grabbed the railing as he descended to the bottom, and ran down the hallway. Cely didn't want to waste bullets, but it was obvious this human was trying to elude him. He pulled out the pistol and shot him in the foot. He screamed in pain, but continued to run until he was out of Cely’s sight.
It was no matter to him, however. Cely scanned the area and determined where he was going. His range was delayed due to the crash, and was just starting to pick up an area below the original complex where there were other human and alien life forms. The android headed for that area, followed the blood trail, and entered the bottom stairway into a piping area, which he indicated contained vaporized water steam. He started down the hallway, until he came to an open room with computers throughout.
He entered, eyed the room, and determined that Malone wasn’t in it. He walked over to the main computer which was still waiting for the self destruct code. He pulled open the compartment which was under it, pressed his finger against the metal of the computer, which opened his right index fingernail, revealing a small metal tip, and inserted it into a section of the wiring to connect to the computer.
Through this, he connected to the mainframe, allowing him to override the sequence. Within about a minute, the computer uploaded the code. “Self destruct sequence aborted,” it announced.
He then glanced over to the communication panel. He pressed the transmit button, and tried to make contact with anyone who was listening. “This is Tolarion base,” he announced. “Is there anyone there?”
There wasn’t an answer at first, but after he repeated the transmission, he received a response. “Tolarion base,” the voice answered. “This is the Starlighter. What is your status report?”
“The base has been partially destroyed,” Cely answered. “There are some survivors here, mostly human.”
“Human?” the voice questioned.
“Yes,” Cely reiterated. “There are some alien life forms here as well. There are livable conditions on the lower floors; some systems down here are functional.”
“Very well,” the voice answered. “We will be en route shortly.”
“Over and out,” Cely responded, and tried to decipher the reason for the common use of English. As far as he could tell, there was no correlation these humans had anything to do with Earth; they carried weapons that resembled laser pistols, and they were living in a complex with technology much more advanced than anything he saw on the space stations orbiting Earth. He rose from the panel and headed towards the green light next to the door on the far side of the room.
Cely touched the light, the door opened, and he walked down the hallway to his right. He heard voices in a room nearby and carefully stepped towards the open doorway. He entered and pointed his gun at the group of twenty who were in it. He could see that Ms. Avery was present, and Malone, who sat and wrapped his bleeding flesh wound with bandages. Gorzar was behind Angelica, with her hands tied behind her back. There were a couple other aliens in the room as well as the humans; one
was a five feet tall reptilian creature, green and scaly, and didn't have a tail like most reptiles, and the other was a grayish humanoid about three and a half feet tall with an over sized head, a small mouth and dark, almond shaped eyes.
“You shot me!” Malone yelled at the android.
“It was necessary,” he answered. “Please let Ms. Avery go, or I will have to take her by force.”
“You’re going to fight all of us?” Malone jested.
“I will do what ever is necessary to protect Ms. Avery.”
“Gorzar!” Malone commanded to his gigantic henchman. “Disarm that robot!”
The mutant moved from behind Angelica and towards the android, and right then she wished that his electrical force field was working properly. The only defense was a pistol he fired three times at the beast with no effect before his arm was gripped, and it was taken from his hand. He threw the weapon over to Malone, who looked it over.
“Another Berretta M9. These were used by Earth’s military,” he said. “Where did you two get these guns from?” Neither Cely nor Angelica answered, they were at a loss; and didn't expect the beast to be stronger than Cely was. He was brought next to Avery, and sat down in front of Malone.
“Are you all right, Ms. Avery?” he asked.
“Yea,” she groaned, puzzled why he gave in so easily. “I’m just peachy!”
Dimension Lapse II: Return to Doomsday (Dimension Lapse Series Book 2) Page 2