by Drew Bell
Chapter 5
Garth Linarr, a lanky male Callos, fumbled with his mechanic’s jumpsuit. Several sizes too large, he inherited his father’s old jumpsuit, and even despite his mother’s skillful alterations she must have thought Garth was slightly thicker in build. Garth was younger than the rest of the Callos on the hanger floor, but he was skilled beyond his years; the CLERGY vessels had only recently (two hundred years ago) added fully functioning hangers and Garth’s ancestors had been mechanics even further back. After the war against the Yau Tang, the Callos found that fully functioning hangers for warship transport was paramount; Garth’s great great grandfather was one of two mechanics who designed the hanger’s technology, the second mechanic was killed in the war. The war weaponized every aspect of the Convoy; even the Callos people still maintained a military-like vigilance in day to day life. The hangers became the focus point of the Callos military, and hundreds of Convoy members relocated to lend their aid, yet in the time of peace only a handful of descendants remained working in the hanger. Garth among them.
Garth, at 20 years of age, was barely accepted as a functioning adult in the Convoy, yet, out of necessity he skipped the last few years of his education to maintain the hangers of CLERGY 1; his father needed replacement. Garth’s father was the lead mechanic of CLERGY 1 and thus had the forty mechanics aboard the six CLERGY vessels beneath him. Garth’s father had been operating the doors to the hanger and tuning them with his electro-grafter, somehow the door lock mechanism had been too lose and Garth’s father was sucked into a crack in the hanger door by the vacuum of space. The scene had been rather gruesome; Garth’s father was plastered against the wall, his body torn and disfigured by the pull of space and the inability for Garth’s father to be fully pulled into space. Completely bypassing his peers, Garth became the lead mechanic.
Garth walked over to Lalia’s shuttle, Alvar’s shuttle had already left for CLERGY 2, which was odd because Garth hadn’t seen anyone board; had the pilot been hidden the whole time? Lalia’s ship would need a cleaning; any ship upon return needed to be checked for any extraterrestrial creatures clinging to the exterior of the ship, the Yau Tang had used it as a tactic for invasion. Garth ran his hand on the repulsors; the cool always brought him joy; that freeze represented adventure to Garth.
The hatch lowered a little slower than it should; he would need to grease it, he pulled out a holo-foil pad and quickly typed up a reminder and adhered it to the hatch’s knob. Garth approached the console and discharged some of the built-up static on the sensor, noting that the radar had some odd radiation interference which could be very problematic at high speeds. The survey suit’s tube had some steam clouding the clear view port; Garth began to talk himself through the situation:
“Crap, grab a spinnerets. Where is that loose combine wire?”
Garth tore at the metal panel beneath the survey tube, searching in vain for an exposed wire that didn’t exist. His face level with the clear window, he saw the steam ebb and flow, as though someone was breathing on the other side. Garth froze for a split second, then crawled back as quickly as possible from the tube; someone or something was in there. His eyes then caught a small holo-foil note attached to the survey tube’s face; he strained to reach the note without getting any closer to the tube.
It read:
“I apologize to whoever receives this letter, you unfortunate mechanic, but within this survey tube is potentially the greatest scientific discovery in the past two-hundred years. Be careful with this tube, in fact, in all likelihood you will need to press the ventilation button to provide oxygen to the creature kept in this tube. Please be cautious when handling this potentially dangerous creature, if at all possible maintain absolute secrecy and transport the creature safely to my lab on CLERGY 5. Only you can help me, Doctor Lalia Tarrus.”
Garth reread the letter twice, to ensure that he fully understood; Doctor Tarrus had brought a living and potentially dangerous creature unto CLERGY 1! CLERGY 1 was by far the most important of all the vessels in the CONVOY, it would have been catastrophic, and strike that could still be catastrophic if the creature had some sort of infectious disease or was an extremely invasive species. The Callos people did not have particularly effective immunodefenses, and would be vulnerable to diseases. The Callos knew they were not the only species in the universe, in fact they had encountered at least a hundred other species; some intelligent, most barely the size of a console knob, some where friendly, others were hostile. But a new species had not been discovered for several hundred years, the Callos could easily be wiped out by a disease carried by an alien species.
But it was Doctor Tarrus, Garth would blindly follow the orders of several Convoy members; the Admiral, Elioc Barras (the toughest son-of-a-bitch in the Convoy), Lerragut Paras (the most beautiful female celebrity in the Convoy), and Doctor Tarrus. Doctor Tarrus was the most influential mind in the Convoy; her invention of the Idinium Repulsors catapulted the Convoy several generations ahead in technology and had effectively cut their voyage to Phlasia by 90%. Even despite her publicized and disappointing divorce with the Admiral, Garth admired the technical genius of the Doctor; she was his personal idol.
Garth couldn’t endanger his own people. Doctor Tarrus’ work was astounding, and for her to call this creature “the greatest scientific discovery” made his decision even harder; he had to report the creature to the hanger’s manager. Garth twisted the lock to ensure the creature was secure in the tube, he grabbed the holo-foil note as evidence to present to his manager; this problem needed to be dealt with quickly, he turned quickly to leave. As his boots pounded against the metal hatch, the creature stirred inside the tube; Garth was at a crossroads, he stood simultaneously half in the ship and half out. Against his will, his eyes were magnetized back towards the tube with curiosity; perhaps if the creature didn’t look menacing he wouldn’t report it, he could take half of the credit for the discovery maybe.
He closed the hatch door behind him, and reached for a small wrench, he peered down into the steamed-up tube, but couldn’t see the creature.
“Phlasia protect me. Forgive me my stupidity, and let this thing be nice.” His voice cracked slightly, and he jumped back in fear as the tube hissed open.
The face of the tube split apart and fell to the floor, the yellow cylinder revealed an oversized survey suit with a pale smooth-faced being inside of it.
Garth prodded the creature with his wrench, not intimidated by the pale fleshy thing beneath. It too had eyes and a nose, ears and a mouth. Admittedly the brown on its head more closely resembled fur than the feathers of the Callos. The creature was also slightly shorter than Garth, but enough, Garth realized to put up a fight. Garth had a change of heart, he wanted to turn this thing in to his manager; it was significantly larger than he felt comfortable to hide. But Garth had made a mistake; if the creature had a contagious disease Garth had already been infected and opening the door would only condemn the others in the hanger.
“Oh, this was dumb. I shouldn’t have done that. What was I thinking?” He squealed in fear.
Garth began to panic, walking in quick circles and pulling at his feathers in frustration. His fascination with Doctor Tarrus’s work had proven to be fatal;
“Why did I need to be so curious?” He asked himself.
“Think, Garth, think. What can you do? How can we get out of this? Ahh!”
Garth shouted.
The creature began to wake. It let out an insidious moan.
Garth raised his wrench above his head and prepared to swing down; the creature went into a defensive position and rolled out the wrench’s path. Garth swung again, trying to connect with the creature’s head. The creature rolled into a squatting position and raised its arms and swiped its leg tripping Garth. Garth screamed for help:
“Someone, help me.” He struggled as the creature tried to cover his mouth.
Garth clenched his jaw squeezing down hard on the creature’s hand; the creature howled in
pain as Garth drew blood.
Garth squirmed to get out from beneath the creature, his leg found a foothold in the side of the pilot’s seat; he pushed off the seat throwing the creature into the console. Garth scrambled to open the hatch; the shuttle was air tight and thus sound proof, all of his concerns about contagions was gone, he wanted out.
But the creature grabbed Garth by the shoulders and threw him to the ground, Garth’s head hitting the loose half of the survey suit’s tube as he fell. Garth cringed in pain and gripped at his head; the creature straddled Garth and covered his mouth with the bleeding hand.
“Shut up!” The creature said, struggling to hold a grip over Garth’s mouth.
Garth stopped squirming.
The creature rolled off of Garth and stood at a distance.
“Wait, you understood me?” The creature asked with hands and legs trembling.
Garth crawled into a seat, one hand still clutching his bleeding head.
“Yes. Do you understand me?” Garth asked the creature, eyes wide with fear.
“I do.” The creature said calmly.
The two silently watched each other.
Garth noted that the creature was trembling in fear; it rubbed at its eyes in a curious fashion; as though Garth would disappear.
“What are you?” Garth asked.
“I am a human being.” Miles responded cautiously.
“I was told to help you. Did you want help?” Garth asked, biting his lip, sure he would regret the offer.
“I do.” Miles replied. “I would like your help very much. Please.” He added.