by Tom Chattle
Grimacing, Chen crouched next to Wilde and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Miss Wilde? I'm sorry for your loss, but we need to get out of here."
Wilde let out another sob then raised her head. "We'll never make it out of here."
The haunted look in her eyes sent a shiver through Chen. "What do you mean? Other than a few of the traps, we haven't run into too much trouble."
"It won't last." Wilde stared back at the dead body lying behind her. "They killed my crew. All of them."
"Who's they?" Bauer demanded. "More traps?"
Wilde let out a hollow laugh. "No, the aliens."
An uneasy ripple spread through the gathered Marines. Their eyes darted around the darkness for any signs of threats. Several seemed highly skeptical of Wilde's claims, despite what they'd seen so far.
"Miss Wilde, I need you to tell us everything that's happened to you and your crew," Chen coaxed.
"Of course." Wilde smoothed her hair back and seemed to regain some of her composure. "And, please, call me Katrina."
Chen nodded. "Katrina, we found the wreckage of your ship and saw the last recording. What happened after the satellite fired on you?"
"You found the Wilde Star?" Her head lifted, a faint trace of hope on her face. "I'm hoping it can be salvaged if we ever make it out of here."
Moreau's eyes widened, and Chen rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, I don't think it's going to be salvageable."
"That's a shame." Wilde rubbed a weary hand across her face. "After we were fired upon, Felix—my pilot—did his best to land, but there was too much damage. We came in hard." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Neither Felix or Yusaf survived the impact, and the rest of us were so shaken up, it took us some time to get ourselves together."
Wilde sighed. "The ship barely had any power left. We managed to hold on in there for over a week, using what little power we had left to try and send out distress signals but our comms were badly damaged, and it didn't seem like they were making it through. Eventually, the remaining power ran out, and the ship was becoming less and less stable." A sob broke through, and she paused for a moment before taking a deep breath. "We'd seen the city on our way in. Kit, my producer," she motioned back to the body that Strahovski had covered with an emergency blanket, "suggested that we try and find a way inside, hoping we'd find some sort of power or communications equipment." She gazed into the darkness, her eyes dull and unfocused. "We should have stayed where we were."
"What happened to the rest of your crew?" Chen prompted.
"We were attacked." Wilde shuddered. "It was pitch-black by the time we came through the energy shield around the city. We were following what seemed like a main road toward the mountain—figuring that's where anything important would be. Half-way there, we were attacked by this pack of...things that appeared out of the night. They killed Jaya almost instantly. We had no time to react. Kit had his revolver, and we had a couple of light shotguns for ship defense from pirates, but we barely held them off."
Bauer leaned closer, her rifle cradled in her arms. "What kind of things are we talking about?"
Wilde turned her head to the Marine and screwed up her face with frustration. "I don't know. Aliens, I guess?"
Bauer took a deep breath and nodded. "Any detailed description you could give us would help. If these things are out there, then my Marines need to be prepared."
"Right, I'm sorry." Wilde pressed a palm to her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm not thinking clearly."
"Katrina, we understand." Chen attempted a reassuring smile. "Just tell us what you can."
The holo-star paused, searching for the right words. "They were kind of like dogs, maybe?" She held her hand out, palm down. "They were about knee-high, had this kind of...armored shield for a face." She shivered. "And these two arms that came out of their backs. You know those old-fashioned scythes they had on farms? Like those."
"And they just attacked you? For no reason?" Moreau asked timidly, her face twisted in consternation.
"Straight out of the dark," Wilde replied before Bauer stood and went to confer with Gunny Haynes.
Chen frowned. They had certainly seen the handiwork of whatever these things were when they had found Wilde's fallen crew member, but her description was so bizarre, it was hard to imagine. She turned to her science officer. "Ensign, could these explain the strange readings you were getting when scanning for life signs?"
"Honestly, ma'am?" Moreau shrugged. "I have no idea. Without scanning these things directly, I have no way to analyze the data. Our view of life is so narrow, based only on Earth and the few simple biological elements we've found on a handful of planets. These things could work in a way entirely beyond our understanding."
"Well, it sounds like we don't want to be encountering them any time soon." Chen studied Wilde's face. The woman was definitely in shock, understandably so given the circumstances. Reliving it all probably wasn't helping, but if these things were roaming out there, they needed all the information they could get. "Katrina, what happened after they attacked you?"
"We just ran." Wilde chuckled mirthlessly. "There was nothing else we could do. We eventually made it to the main tunnel entering the mountain, and they didn't pursue us for some reason. But things hardly got better from there. We had no light and had to find our way in the dark. That's when we ran into the traps."
"Now those, we're familiar with." Chen grimaced.
Wilde glanced up to the ceiling. "Kit ran into one, but he managed to get some shots off as it was pulling him up. Whatever the hell it was released him, but it had punctured him twice. We finally made it to this cavern, which seemed safer, but I had no supplies to help him and..." She waved a hand and choked back a sob. "Since then, I've just been holed up here, surviving on what few rations we had grabbed from the ship. I sometimes hear things moving in the distance, and they sound a lot bigger than the things that attacked us."
The news just kept getting better. Chen stood and went to find Bauer, leaving Moreau and Strahovski checking over Wilde. She tapped the Marine on the arm. "We need to get out of here."
"Yeah, you don't say." Bauer raised her eyebrows. "Not such an adventure now, is it?"
Chen bit back a sarcastic response and shook her head. "Not so much."
"Is she good to move?" Bauer asked, inclining her head toward Wilde.
"She'll have to be." Chen shrugged, turning as she heard a deep rumble somewhere nearby in the dark room. Nothing was obviously threatening—perhaps it had been the geological movements Moreau had talked of earlier.
Bauer motioned to Haynes, who was investigating the unexplained noise. "Okay, prepare to move out."
Wilde gasped. "No! We can't go out if it's dark. Not with those things lurking out there."
Bauer grimaced. "Ma'am, we have a team of heavily armed and well-trained Marines. You'll be perfectly safe."
Wilde shook her head and huddled her knees closer to her.
"Can you deal with her, please?" Bauer asked Chen.
"Right." Chen looked at Wilde. The woman clearly needed encouragement of some sort, but Chen was damned if she knew how to give it. Tough love was all she'd ever received from her mother, so it was all she knew how to dish out. "All right, Katrina. I'm going to need you to get the hell up and come with us."
Wilde shot a scowl in her direction. "You don't understand what those things are capable of."
"Look, I realize you're not used to taking orders, but I'm giving you one now." Chen folded her arms. "Get up, get ready, we're moving out."
Wilde glared at her but unfolded herself and stood tentatively. Strahovski had removed an expandable stretcher from her pack, and two Marines gently moved Kit's body onto it.
"Okay, let's go," Bauer called from ahead, already on her way out of the single exit.
- 20 -
2208.02.19 // 23:56
Alien mountain, Arcturus b
Between the stretcher that carried Kit's body and Wilde's hesitation at every twis
t or corner in the tunnels, progress was slow as the landing team traced their steps back out of the mountain. Compared to the journey in, it felt they should be much further out of the mountain than they were.
They navigated yet another turn in the alien labyrinth, and Bauer drew to a halt, an annoyed grunt escaping her lips. "Moreau, are you sure we're going the same way we came in?"
The ensign had been checking her scanner frequently, but the expression on her face looked anything but certain to Chen. "I think so. I mean, there was only the one exit back out of that room where we found Wilde, right?"
"I'm starting to doubt that." Bauer frowned.
Chen scratched the back of her head. "There's no way we could have missed another exit and gone down a different one, surely?"
"But shouldn't we have been to the alien death room by now?" Bauer shook her head. "I know it wasn't this far."
"Uhh, LT?" one of the Marines called from ahead. "You might want to take a look at this."
Chen caught Bauer's eye as they moved forward. The fact there was something new to see was not reassuring.
They rounded a corner and entered a room, but it was far different from the broad, domed execution chamber Chen had expected to see. Much smaller, it was round—like all the rooms seemed to be—but the edges sloped up in a stepped fashion. It reminded Chen of ancient arenas she'd seen on Earth, and if they were seats, they were focused on the object in the center of the room. A wide, squat base tapered up into a long, thin pillar that rose into the ceiling, ghostly violet light glowing from somewhere far above.
"What is it?" Bauer asked, moving cautiously into the room, eyes scanning the shadows.
"The way the entire room is focused on it, it must be important." Chen narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. "An alien computer console maybe?"
"I guess." Bauer stepped past the piece of alien technology and sighed. "Whatever it is, it means we definitely did go down the wrong path."
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant," Moreau blurted, her face distraught. "I don't know how I could have made a mistake."
Chen placed a reassuring hand on the ensign's arm. "Don't worry, nobody else caught it either." She stared back at the tunnel they had emerged from. "I think there's something screwy going on here. It's almost like the tunnels changed to lead us here."
"Like this place couldn't get any worse," Bauer growled. "How the hell are we supposed to get out of here if we can't navigate reliably?"
While they were discussing, Wilde had wandered toward the alien console, brow furrowed and lips pursed as she examined the device. Chen noticed the holo-star raising a hand toward the towering piece of alien technology. Even after everything she'd been through, the woman seemed to have an innate curiosity about everything that was no doubt quite the asset in her line of work. "Katrina?"
Bauer turned toward the woman, grimacing. "I wouldn't touch that, Wilde. We have no idea what it does."
Ignoring the Marine, Wilde placed a palm on the console and leaned in to examine it.
"Damn civilians," Bauer muttered.
"I don't think she has much regard for orders," Chen snorted. Even with her father being an admiral, Wilde seemed to be oblivious to any form of command. Shaking her head, Chen made to turn away when a pulse of light radiated out from underneath Wilde's hand.
Wilde jerked away and stumbled back, looking at Chen, mouth hanging open with guilt.
"See, I told you to stay away!" Bauer snapped.
"Okay, sorry, geez." Folding her arms, Wilde circled the console, eyes squinted at it. "What if it could tell us how to get out of here?"
Bauer stared at Chen for a moment before rolling her eyes and addressing Wilde. "Even if you could turn it on, how exactly do you think you would read an alien language that may have absolutely nothing in common with human tongues? For all we know, they spoke with elaborate dance moves."
Wilde pursed her lips, and annoyance lit up her green eyes.
Chen suppressed a smirk at Bauer's irritation toward the young woman and held up a hand, trying to smooth over the brewing argument. "It's probably safer we don't touch it again."
Another ripple of light radiated across the console.
"I don't think we have a choice," Moreau mumbled, scanning the object.
Moments later, lights flickered across the curved surfaces of the object, and the whole thing started humming, filling the air with a static tingle.
"Whoa!" Wilde exclaimed.
Holographic screens sputtered into life around the central pillar. Strange glyphs and symbols hovered across them, backed by lines and markings that must have been maps and diagrams.
"Is that the mountain?" Chen asked, pointing at a round feature on one of them.
Bauer stepped forward, peering at the lines glowing in mid-air. "It looks right. Perhaps this flashing dot is where we are?"
"Seems logical," Moreau replied, gesturing with her finger. "If these lines are passages, there's way more of them than we thought."
"This entire mountain is a massive labyrinth," Chen muttered. The entire structure was riddled with passageways, shafts, and huge open spaces. It felt like a vast termite mound.
Wilde walked through the ethereal screens, eyes wide in wonder, and stopped to stare at one in particular. "These markings seem familiar." Leaning forward, her fingers brushed against the surface of the console, and lights flashed brightly again.
"Damnit, Wilde, stop touching everything," Bauer snapped.
Wilde threw her hands up in defense, but the trails of lights that climbed the console kept spreading, shooting up the central column at an ever-increasing speed.
Bauer moved away as the lights on the device sped up, a pulsing thrum now filling the space. "Step back, everyone!"
Pulsing one more time, the pillar lit up fully. A crackle of energy emanated from the swirling data streams of light that wreathed it. Chen felt her skin prickle as the hair stood on end from the static.
Within seconds of the pillar lighting up, Chen's commpad fizzed and popped. "...reach you...is Lieutenant McCann...the Valiant, come in."
Scrambling to reply, Chen thumbed the switch on her comm. "Valiant, come in, this is Chen. Do you read?"
McCann's voice came back over the comm, cutting out and laced with waves of static. "...read you, is everything okay...heard from you since..."
The sound of McCann crackling across the airwaves sent a wave of relief through Chen. Why they had only just now been able to make contact—however poor the quality—was unclear. "McCann, can you boost the comm strength at all? The city's shield is blocking most of the transmission, and we're inside a mountain."
There was a pause, then a loud wave of static caused Chen to wince. "Is that any better?"
"Yep, it sure is," Chen confirmed. "How's everyone doing up there?"
"Oh, everyone's in quite the little tizzy since we've not been able to contact you for hours."
Chen smiled at her friend's agitation. "Our comms weren't able to punch through the shield. We decided to press on regardless."
"How come it's working now?" McCann asked.
Chen looked at Moreau—who shrugged—then glanced back at the console. "We're not sure, but we're in a room with an alien console of some sort that Wilde activated accidentally. It seems to be transmitting the comm through the energy barrier somehow."
"You found Wilde's crew then?" They heard him muttering to one side momentarily. "We do see some strange energy readings coming from the apex of the shield. It's almost like a pulse-laser communication."
Bauer snapped her head around at the description. "McCann, this is Bauer. Could it be a transmission of some kind?"
"Could be a transmission, could be a pretty fireworks display. We can't really tell."
"We need to shut this thing down." Bauer turned to Chen. "We don't want a signal going to the things that built this place."
The idea of a fleet of alien warships showing up because they'd triggered an intrusion alarm was unsettling. Chen nodded
. "Wally, we're going to see if we can shut this thing down. If we do, we'll make our way back out of the mountain as fast as we can."
"Aye, aye," McCann replied. "Try not to leave us hanging so long this time."
"We'll do our best. Chen out." Staring at the pulsating console, she frowned. Even the slightest chance the device was preparing to send a message was enough to outweigh the benefit of communication to the Valiant. "What's the best way to turn this thing off?"
Bauer narrowed her eyes. "Normally, I'd say a plasma charge would make short work of it, but I don't want to risk the overpressure in such a confined space." She gestured to her Marines. "We'd be fine sealed up, but it would shred your insides without exo-suits."
Hayes moved away from the wall he'd been leaning against. "That column is pretty thin, LT. Maybe a short burst of fire would sever it."
"Good idea, Gunny." Bauer stared at the column, examining it for weak spots. "Okay, everyone move back."
Once the rest of the group had retreated to a safe distance near the doorway, Bauer leveled her rail-rifle and sent a screaming burst of fire into the middle of the pillar. The kinetic rounds shredded it completely, and the light flooded out of the breach as though it were water, running across the floor before the console flickered and went dead, plunging the room back to its former darkened state.
Chen activated her comm and tried to call the Valiant just to see, but there was only silence in response. "Guess that did it."
A sudden hiss from the other side of the room made everyone jump, rifles up and trained toward the noise. An opening had appeared in the curved wall.
"That wasn't there before, right?" Chen asked, staring warily at the doorway.
"Not visibly, either to the eye or my scanner," Moreau replied.
They crept toward the new route and examined it carefully. "The tolerances on the engineering are so good, it must have sat almost perfectly flush with the wall," Moreau explained. "If something similar happened back in the room where we found Ms. Wilde, that might explain how we could have taken another route without realizing it."