by Alex Guerra
Alex Guerra
Copyrighted Material
Galactic Forge Copyright © 2018 by Alex Guerra
Book design and layout copyright © 2018 by Alex Guerra
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Alex Guerra.
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Galactic Forge
Alex Guerra
For Mom and Dad, for always showing their love and support throughout my life.
For Jeff, for your generosity and opening my eyes to an exciting opportunity.
For Kris, whose patience and diligence helped me hone my craft.
To all of you, my deepest thanks.
ONE
An explosion lit up the nearby field and shook the ground like a magnitude six earthquake.
Driving in my old, faded, gray Chevy, I swerved to the side of the road and into a nearby ditch. Banging my head against the wheel, the crash sent my tools flying out of the truck bed, landing in a cacophony of metal on metal.
The object fell from the eastern sky, slamming like a fireball into the forest near my home. It obliterated treetops as it came in, raining fiery limbs all around me.
This wasn't supposed to be how tonight went.
Smoke rose in the distance, high into the clouds. Yellow light erupted in the middle of the small clearing—fire burning, dancing like tribal pyres.
The deafening sound of the detonation brought back memories of the two tours I’d taken in Afghanistan, causing me to momentarily feel as if I was in the desert again.
Pushing the truck door open and falling onto the grass, I pulled myself back up, while my head continued to spin.
Newly felled trees now littered the forest floor, strewn about by the falling object, creating a brand-new path. The enormity of it made me wonder, was it a plane—a meteor? I could hardly hope to guess.
A new sensation was tugging at me, something more than curiosity now. Stepping towards the smoldering crash site, edging my way through the debris and getting up close to it, I froze.
A downed aircraft. That’s what this was.
This wasn’t like anything from any documentaries or movies I watched before. There weren’t any discernible markings on its fuselage that I could make out, or any flags marking a country of origin.
Was this an experimental prototype of some sort? No, this was something else—something different.
Worried whether the pilot was still alive, I looked for a way to get in, but the entire craft appeared to be carved out of a huge chunk of obsidian with no apparent door into the fuselage. It looked hopeless; I circled the craft twice with no resolution. Feeling for the phone in my pocket and pulling it out, I tried to call for emergency services.
Before I could place the call, a tugging feeling inched me towards the vessel, causing me to drop my phone into the dirt. The more I struggled against the phenomenon, the tighter it gripped me.
Without controlling it, my hand reached out on its own, hovering just over the surface. Even with an inch between myself and the vessel, the heat coming off it was enough to cause discomfort. Another prod at my mind forced my hand to make a splayed-out, turning motion over the hull. The immediate area over where I made the motion began emanating mechanical clicks and whining sounds, yet, I was not physically touching it. Instinctively, I began to step back but something beyond held me in place.
The mirror-like obsidian fuselage, once unblemished, formed divots and cracks. A hissing pop came from within as the outlines of a hatch formed. The spot lifted itself out from the vessel and slid to the side with a swish. Light came from the interior and I stepped forward just enough to peer inside the portal. Dim lights greeted me from within the small vessel which smelled odd—a mixture of old, musty air and antiseptic spray. As the door slid away and a seat glided back towards me slowly, the hairs on my neck stood up. The seat got closer, just enough to find a pale figure.
“Nope! Uh-uh, no way!” I gasped, trying desperately to move away, but finding myself frozen in place. Perhaps it was fear that gripped me, although it felt like something deeper, making it impossible for me to flee. But whatever the case, this thing was not human. That much I knew for sure.
The seat turned towards me, revealing the pilot. Guessing from its current position, it looked to be only an inch or two shorter than myself with pale, sickly skin and half-open, milky blue eyes on a head, lolled to the side. Lying motionless, with multiple wounds visible through its uniform, the creature was dead, or at least it looked dead.
“H-hello?” I asked, hesitantly. Despite wanting to run away, I had no physical control over my own body. Instead, I felt my arm reach towards the entity, giving it a tentative prod.
It didn’t move.
Bringing my head inside the craft once again, my nose inches from the dead pilot, I looked around at the arrangement of buttons and lights flickering. It was a relatively small ship with room for one or two more passengers, but this thing was alone.
Beginning to bug out over this new situation, but before losing my shit completely, a calm wave washed over me. It was unexplainable, but I suddenly felt relaxed, and maybe even a little sedated.
Taking some deep breaths, I reevaluated the situation. Once again, my hand was involuntarily pulled, causing my palm to raise up at eye level to the being. A squirming and cracking sound began emanating from him, but despite the absurdity of the situation, I remained calm. It made no sense under the current conditions, but then again, neither did having zero physical control over my own body.
A pinpoint formed in the center of the creature’s forehead and widened suddenly, resulting in a dark liquid pouring out into my hand. Unable to pull my hand away, a crystal pushed through the hole landing into the pool of dark liquid with a wet plop. A glowing white crystal covered in goop now strobed in my palm.
There was a sudden connection with the object, a strange familiarity as I slowly regained control of my hand and arm. Bringing it closer to my face to further examine it, a pulsing sensation ran over me in time with the strobing of the crystal.
Danger. Run. The urgent message rushed through my mind in a voice that was not my own. Confusion enveloped me as I continued to clutch the crystal tightly in my hand. Was I going crazy? Had I actually heard a voice or a thought? Or had the stress of the situation driven me over the edge to my breaking point?
My head was swimming as I clutched the crystal tightly in my hand. Finally regaining full control of my body, I quickly backed away from the vessel. The crystal in my hand strobed with an eerie white hue. A red dot formed overhead, its size growing every second, illuminating the surrounding areas in its glow. Was it another ship?
Escape. Enemy. The signal came again, this time a little clearer. The words were conceptual in nature and not something I heard out loud. The voice was speaking directly into my mind, originating from the crystal it seemed. Another tugging sensation washed over me, prodding me to move away from the light, which grew bigger by the second.
The message was clear; trouble was coming. I had no clue what this thing was, why I was
in danger or where I was going. The only thing I knew for sure was that something was guiding me and at the moment, I didn’t have time to question it.
*****
Run. Fast. The words pulsed in my brain with urgency. Adrenaline coursed through me feverishly as I ran through the forest that were my hunting grounds for the last decade. Only now, I was the one being hunted. Bad intentions lurched from behind me, growling and firing wildly. I couldn’t afford to stop. Jumping, sliding, diving and running in unpredictable paths, I tried to stay well ahead of the hunter as much as possible. This is a nightmare, I thought, as I continued to run like a madman through the forest.
A low buzzing frequency reverberated through the trees. Before me, a depression opened suddenly like a sinkhole and swallowed up a trailer-sized hole of dirt. My initial reaction was to steer clear of this danger until the words came through to me: Refuge! Safety!
Standing at the opening and scared shitless, I debated my own sanity before plunging into what could be certain death. Had the blow to my head driven me crazy after the accident? Did any of these things even happen to me in the last fifteen minutes? The pulsing crystal in my hand assured me this was entirely real and not a dream. With no more time to think, I ran headlong into the newly formed cave which quickly morphed into a huge cavern.
Inside, the walls were completely smooth, opaque, and reflective. Arrayed along the walls and the floors were cables snaking into consoles with no clear direction. Whoever left the place like this was in a hurry. In the center of the room was a raised disk with a large ring towering over the base like an arch. With my heart racing, my mind was receiving additional instructions. Directly to my right, I keyed in the correct sequence of keys into the console, as if I had done it a million times before.
A wave of noise brought the consoles and cables to life with a hum that vibrated the cool stone beneath it. The room illuminated, as the whirring and beeping of machinery grew noisy around me. Anxiously glancing up at the cave entrance, I ensured that the hunter wasn’t there, ready to come and blast me away at any moment. A light coiled along the edges of the arch in a bright emerald static, bringing my attention back to it. It grew and cracked much like a spiderweb throughout the entire plane of the arch.
Fwoom!
The arch was now a whole bright green portal.
Go! The signal pulsed through me with urgency. The hunter arrived, roaring down from the mouth of the entrance. Its loud footfalls echoed through the cavern as it stomped down the entryway, screeching and aiming a device at me. Making out the features of my pursuer in detail required time I couldn’t spare. Spinning back towards the portal a few paces away, I dived the remaining distance and through the portal, as a searing shot hit me square in the back.
Upon flying through the field, gravity slipped away briefly as a sinking feeling settled deeply in my gut. The moment seemed to last forever, and I couldn’t breathe. I never thought I would die like this, echoed through my mind.
The land was rough and ended with a hard thud on a cold, slick floor, which scraped both my arms and legs. The green aura of the open portal behind me flickered and promptly collapsed, leaving me alone in the dark, unable to breathe or even move. I clutched the crystal in my hand tightly, while the scalding pain in my back drove me to scream what little air I had left in my lungs before everything went blank.
TWO
A bubbling sound woke me from my dreamless slumber. A highly viscous, bluish-teal liquid, nearly the consistency of syrup, covered me.
Upon further inspection, this wasn’t the case, as someone immersed me in some sort of tank. My heart started racing, and I panicked as I was fully submerged but still able to breathe. Instinctively, my hands went to my mouth and discovered that something was over my face and down my throat.
I moved, feeling the wide walls around me, my fingertips just grazing its sides with my arms stretched out. Reaching up, I could only touch the top if I pushed off the floor in a small jumping motion and I was bouncing on its floor. My arms struck out in a flurry, trying desperately to swim out of the tank.
I attempted to yell out but couldn’t. Looking around the tank through burning eyes, and finding no emergency release, a sense of claustrophobia crept over me. Oh shit, oh shit! I panicked, vainly pounding on the tank’s glass.
A wave of calm slipped over me. The soothing sensation crawled over me until my heart was no longer pounding out of my chest. Relaxing, I returned to a stable position in the center of the tank.
Although the liquid stung my eyes, I was able to see just enough to know there was a room beyond the glass immediately in front of me. I pressed my hand against the tank’s glass and waited.
Complete. The signal that was now becoming familiar shot through me. The tank drained slowly, with me nearly sinking into the drain also. When it emptied, I scratched desperately at the mask over my face, yanking the thing off and tearing the nearly two feet long tube from my throat. I instantly puked a bluish liquid onto the floor of the tank.
After taking a moment to catch my breath while I knelt on the floor, I wiped some of the goop clinging to the glass and peeked out into the room beyond. It looked rather empty, but my vision was still blurry and my view limited. I attempted to stand but my legs fought me. There was a sense of disconnect as if trying to move something that wasn’t mine. The warmth from the slime dissipated, quickly replaced with an increasing chill that became more uncomfortable each second that passed.
Confusion gripped me more than anything else, but I was going to get sick covered in this slop. Slapping my hand against the glass again, I groaned and wished for freedom. Moments later a pop came from above somewhere inside the wall. The door pushed out and slid to one side, and with it, came a hellish draft.
Sticking my head out of the tube, I dared to sneak a peek at my small world and found…not a lot else. Where am I? I thought. Unable to muster the strength to stand, I submitted to crawling on all fours into the larger room. A small bench that appeared to arise from the floor itself, rather than installed was the only thing that stood out. Running my hand along the base of the walls in an attempt to find a door or a way out, my exploration was cut short as I gave into the cold. The goo clinging to me began to harden like cake batter, and the bluish oil slick left in my wake, made me feel like some sort of human slug.
Wanting to rid myself of the goo and seek any form of warmth, I settled into one of the four corners of the room. Curling my knees to my chin in a fetal position and wrapping my arms around my legs, I shivered, violently. The room was barren, covered in a black marble, or whatever material it was. There was nothing remarkable about it besides the tank that I came out of and the small bench to the side.
A double beep sounded to my left, and a red light pulsed in the center of the wall. Scooting along the floor, I brought myself close enough to the pulsing light some three feet off the ground. Sticking my hand up to the light, I waved it in front of it and attempted to find a button to press. The light appeared to be coming from within the slick wall itself.
“Gah, please, just do something…open!” I wished with a grunt.
The shhik of a doorframe formed in a rectangle around the light at the center. The crevices became deeper, sinking away further into whatever lay beyond before it slid away into the ceiling. I recoiled at the sudden disappearance. The walls didn’t bulge with the increased mass like it should have. Where the wall went, or where it was stored was confusing to me. Beyond the entry was a small cubicle. The walls looked identical to the room I was currently in, with exception to a hole at the bottom center of the wall facing me.
Enter. The familiar thought came once more. I crawled in, gathering enough strength to stand and lean against the wall with my arms still wrapped tightly around my gooseflesh arms.
“Okay, I’m in…what now?” I said out loud, halfway to myself and halfway hoping for any sort of response.
The door reappeared and slid back into place behind me in a sudden flash that took me by
surprise.
“Wait! Shit, no!” I gasped, placing my hands on the cold wall and continuously slapping my hands against it, afraid of what would come next.
More popping noises came from the walls around me. I looked and saw there were small nozzles from all sides, and yes, I mean all sides.
Streams of high-pressure water sprayed me with a sudden burst in an ice-cold wave.
“Holy shit, what is this!? I am in hell! This is pure hell!” I screamed in submission. I attempted to move to a spot along one of the corners that had fewer nozzles, but the damned things kept tracking me. There was no escape. I curled up in the corner and covered my sensitive parts from the onslaught, “Too cold!” I yelled over the spray.
I must have said the right words to whatever sick, sadistic bastard may have been watching me or something, because like a miracle, the water became hotter—toasty even. The gunk washed off me and into a drain. My blue feet began turning pink with warmth as I relished the one comfort I had since leaving the tank. I thought about standing up again but opted instead to sit against the wall, letting the warm water wash over me.
“Thank you,” I whimpered and sat silently, with my eyes shut. What is this place? I wondered. I tried to remember the last thing that happened. I was running near my home from the downed aircraft—no, it was a spaceship—and it had that thing inside. There was a cave with a portal within an arch. I was shot. I was shot! I thought as I reached a hand to my back. Barely able to reach, I ran a finger over the area where someone shot me. The skin was completely smooth, there was nothing different about it.
I wiped the remaining bits of sludge off me, unable to explain the phenomenon when I noticed something was off. On closer examination of my body, I saw that I had abs—unlike before, these were well defined, with significant fat loss. My chest had gained more muscle than from my previous memory too.