by Colin Weldon
Chavel looked at the readouts and saw that they were coming up on the structure.
“Three hundred meters,” Chavel said.
He looked out the window and saw nothing but blackness. Chavel hit the control panel above his head and increased the exterior illumination. The lights increased to full, spreading white beams into the surrounding water. The comm system clicked on.
“Barrington to Shuttle Pod 2,” said the captain.
“Here, Captain, go ahead,” said Chavel.
“Report,” Barrington said.
“Descent vector is normal, Captain, no sign of the structure yet, we are … hold on,” said Chavel.
The exterior lights suddenly stopped on something solid. Chavel slowed the shuttle craft down to forty percent thrust.
“There!” Young said suddenly.
Chavel looked out of the window at the towering rock that emerged from the darkness. It was massive and seemed to reach all the way down to the sea bed. Chavel looked at the strangely familiar shape and thought about how big it must be to reach all the way to the ocean floor, thousands of meters beneath them. The rock was symmetrical, with perfectly sharp corners on all four of its rectangular sides.
“What’s happening, Lieutenant?” Barrington said.
“Sir, we have contact with something down here. It’s huge. Looks like …” Chavel paused and looked at Young whose wide eyes looked perplexed.
“Looks like the structure we found on the first planet that we landed The Agathon on, John,” said Young.
“Keep the comm channel open, Chavel, I want updates,” Barrington said.
“Yes, sir,” replied Chavel slowing the shuttle down to twenty percent velocity.
The shuttle creeped up to the mountain sized rock, with its lights on full.
“Ten meters,” said Chavel.
“Take us right up to its edge, David,” said Young.
It looked like marble. Small patterns began to emerge from its surface the closer it got.
“Imaging scanners activated, uplink established, we are transmitting now, sir,” said Chavel to Barrington, as he began transmitting the images of the rock to The Agathon.
There was silence as the shuttle came to a stop next to the surface of the rock face.
“Look at this,” Young said pointing out the window at the shapes and forms etched onto the smooth rock surface.
“What is it, Mr Young?” Barrington’s voice said down the comm system.
“There are figures on it,” Young said looking at the symbols scattered across its surface.
Chavel looked at the perfectly carved figures on the stone. It was unmistakable how alike they were to the first object they had discovered, before encountering the machine planet.
“We have to go deeper,” Young suddenly said.
“Easy, Jerome,” Barrington said, “David?”
“Sir, we can withstand another thousand meters, but that’s about it. At a push,” Chavel replied.
“Captain, we have to find out what this means … please,” Young said pleading with Barrington.
There was a moment of silence on the comm system.
“Okay, Jerome, but David, I am giving you full authority to pull the plug on this. You see any stress level indicators light up, you abort immediately understood?” said Barrington.
“Understood, sir,” Chavel replied.
Chavel gave the top thrusters a small burst, forcing the ship to descend slowly into the depths. Young was out of his chair with his hands pressed on the glass trying to make out as much of the detail as possible. They slowly sank, scanning the information into the data banks and relaying the information back to The Agathon.
“Stop,” Young suddenly said.
Chavel halted their descent and looked at Young.
“Look at that,” Young said.
Chavel looked out the window at the symbols carved into the marble. A single vertical line intersected with two lines at roughly sixty degrees, cutting through its centre. A small circle was marked out at each point.
“It’s a six point spacial coordinate!” Young said with glee.
The figure was underneath what looked like a humanoid figure, standing tall, with its head pointed towards the top of the stone structure.
“That could be anything, Jerome,” David said sounding sceptical.
“No, look … it’s definitely a spacial coordinate,” Young said pressing his index finger against the glass.
Directly underneath the diagram were a set of lines and dots all laid out in a concentric circle.
“John, are you receiving this?” Young said.
“We are receiving it, Jerome, what do you think?” Barrington said down the comms.
“It’s language, John, it has to be,” Young said sounding excited.
“Okay, so how the hell do we decipher it?” Chavel suddenly asked.
There was silence in the cockpit.
“I have to go out there,” Young said.
“What?” Chavel replied.
“Say again?” Barrington emulated.
Young looked at Chavel.
“John, I have to go out there with a hand scanner to get a closer look. I can’t make out the detail in the shuttle. The atmo suits will protect me at this depth, I will be perfectly safe. Twenty minutes, then I am back on board,” Young said.
There was silence in the cockpit.
“Chavel?” Barrington asked.
Chavel looked anxiously at Young. He did not like this at all.
“Captain, I would not be entirely in favour of this action,” he said.
“Ten minutes,” Young said, “I will stay out for ten minutes, John, this could be a marker to a habitable world. We have to take this chance.”
There was a palpable tension in the cockpit.
“Ten minutes, no more,” Barrington said, “I want you tethered to the shuttle at all times.”
“Got it,” Young said already out of the chair and opening a storage locker behind him.
“Shit,” Chavel whispered to himself.
He steadied the shuttle, maintained their current depth and looked at the scanners to see if there was anything else in the vicinity. All clear.
A few minutes later, Young was suited up and inside the airlock checking his oxygen levels. Chavel looked at him through the glass and pointed to his wrist.
“Ten minutes,” he said through the glass.
Young gave him a smile and a thumbs up. Chavel equalised the pressure and began letting water inside the airlock. It filled quickly. He gave one final thumbs up to Young and activated the outer door letting the former Jycorp CEO free into the darkness. He turned away and went back to his seat and looked out at the giant stone structure before him. After a few seconds, Young appeared swimming gently towards the rock. Chavel’s heart began to race. There was no way The Agathon could send help in time if anything went wrong. They were alone down here. He watched Young as he reached the rock face and began running his hands slowly over its surface as if he was seducing it.
“How’s it going, Jerome?” he said activating the comm system.
“Astonishing,” he replied, “feels like glass. The carvings are so fresh. So clean cut.”
“You have eight minutes, so get what you need and get your ass back in here,” Chavel said.
“Yes, Lieutenant,” Young said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Several quiet minutes passed, as Chavel watched Young scan and examine the rock face carefully. He had been watching so intently that he had not seen the blip on the scanner. A light bleeping noise alerted his attention.
“Captain, I have a blip on the exterior scanners out here, can you confirm?” Chavel said looking at the reading curiously.
“We don’t show anything up here, David, what are you seeing?” Barrington said.
Chavel looked at the reading and boosted the confinement beam, pointing it directly at the intermittent blip. He brought up the three dimensional readout and tried to
hone in on the moving reading. The screen suddenly lit up with a long bulbous shape moving in their direction. Chavel looked at it and requested an analysis from the computer. Whatever it was, it was massive. AND MOVING.
“Eh ... Jerome, we may have a problem,” he said looking out at the floating man.
Young looked back at the shuttle briefly before resuming his investigation into the carvings.
“Oh?” he said.
“Yeah, something is moving out there. Something big. And I think it’s coming our way. Time to go,” Chavel said suddenly remembering how quickly they had been attacked by the alien life forms on the mechanical planet.
Chavel looked at the scanners. The huge object’s speed had increased and it was definitely coming straight for them.
“Young, we have to go. Now!” he said looking out at the diver.
The urgency in his voice was picked up by Barrington who suddenly came on the comms.
“David, we just picked up your reading. Get the hell out of there,” he said.
Chavel looked at the scanner.
“Jesus Christ, it’s right on us,” Chavel said.
The shuttle began to sway slightly as the currents under the ship began to shift. Chavel turned it to face the sea floor and pointed the lights in the direction of the movement. What he saw next sent a wave of adrenalin through his veins so large that his heart nearly burst. It was an enormous set of teeth attached to an open mouth that must have been a hundred meters across. A gaping moving mouth attached to the biggest animal Chavel had ever imagined. He had less than a few seconds to react. He looked at Young and instantly saw that they were both dead. He hit the thruster controls engaging the engines to full power. The force pushed him back in his seat as he piloted the craft forwards and into a barrel roll pulling a hard right in the process. He felt the impact as the shuttle bounced off the outside of the huge creature. The pod went into a flat spin and began to descend. Chavel was thrown clear of his flight chair and into the back of a computer console behind him. Sparks rained down on his head as a panel exploded above him. His arm felt wet as the world around him started to dim. He recognised the familiar feeling of a head trauma and tried to remain conscious. A small freezing jet of water hit him in the face sending an icy chill through his skin. The hull was clearly breached and the shuttle had begun taking on water. It slowly fell and in the distance, he could hear Barrington’s voice over the comm system.
“Chavel?” Barrington shouted, “what the hell is happening?”
The light from the shuttle craft illuminated the creature only seconds before Young saw Chavel initiate a crazy manoeuvre sending the shuttle into the side of the monster and falling in the depths of the vast ocean. Young had only a second to react and nowhere to go, so he turned sharply and laid himself as flat as he could against the rock face. The creature skimmed his body as it passed. Young saw a series of eyes along an impossibly large torso as it passed. It was like some sort of mutated blue whale, but had to have been ten times its mass. The force of the current snapped his tether to the ship and sucked Young away from the rock face and sent him tumbling into the open sea. An alarm inside his helmet sounded indicating a tear in his atmo suit. He felt an icy chill run up his left leg and a sudden loss of pressure inside his helmet.
“Fuck!” he tried to shout as his body was tossed and turned in the wake of the alien sea monster. He curled himself into a ball and tried to let the current take him, instead of fighting it, but the terror in his heart was making it difficult to function. A breach in his suit meant that water was beginning to seep into his now compromised pressure seals. He figured he only had minutes before his helmet would flood.
The current suddenly subsided and his body was released from its grip. He floated freely in the dark. The rock face was nowhere to be seen and the sea monster had disappeared into the blackness. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out an emergency pressure seal, strapping it straight onto the tear on his leg. The only light source was the small lamp attached to his faceplate, but it was sufficient for the task. His leg felt heavy as it was filled with ice cold water. It was starting to go numb. He could feel his pulse racing as he looked out into the darkness to try and find the shuttle.
“David?” he said into his comm system.
There was no response.
“Young to Agathon,” he said.
He looked at the heads up display in his faceplate and saw a blinking error message telling him his comm system and scanning array was out.
“Shit,” he said to himself.
He was completely disorientated. Surrounded by blackness and water. The only way to tell which way was up, was to try and find some way to gain buoyancy. He felt a light current from beneath his feet. He looked down at the hand scanner and saw that it was still functioning. It was a miracle that he had been able to hold onto the device at all. He reached up and found the manual entry directory and began typing. It was still transmitting to The Agathon. Somewhere in the distance he heard a low growling and popping sound. He began to feel water pressing against his body as he looked directly ahead. Out of the darkness, he saw it. A large black mass heading straight for him. His heart began to sink. He had nowhere to go. Rows of enormous teeth attached to a gaping mouth approached. Like a moving cave. He looked furiously around and saw the blinking of lights off in the distance. Too far away for Chavel to get to him. If he was alive at all.
“Young to Agathon?” he said quietly as the mouth approached steadily towards him.
He was dead. He knew that now. He had lost it all. His company. His planet. His hope of finding the Signal Makers. Sienna Clarke. It was time.
He looked down at the scanner and began typing furiously as the great mouth continued to approach. He felt a surge of water as if being pulled into the gaping abyss. He typed. The boulder sized teeth surrounded him as he moved slowly into the beast’s mouth. The overwhelming fear and terror of what was about to happen made his vision blur as he tried to finish his message. He looked up and saw the inside of the monster as the teeth closed around his body and he was enveloped by it. He felt soft tissue surround his body. It folded down on him softly at first before a crushing force sealed him inside a cocoon of flesh. He screamed into his faceplate that was now filling with icy water. His legs cracked under the pressure and his ribs soon after. Water and blood filled his lungs as a burning sensation filled his whole body. He prayed for it to end as he choked on blood, water and vomit. He gave one final muffled scream as he relinquished himself to the terror of being eaten alive.
17
The Void
Carrie was tired. Her shoulder ached from the burns she acquired from the shuttle craft fire. They had been waiting in the great chamber for over two hours. Tyrell stood quietly watching the emptiness, but Carrie’s tired legs had wandered off to a nearby wall where she had kneeled down and rested her back against it.
“Okay, seriously, Tyrell, what the hell?” she said looking at him.
He was perfectly calm and his posture was strong and straight. He looked over at her.
“You really need to learn patience, Carrie,” he said.
“Whatever,” she said leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes.
Her arm hurt and she was sure that she needed some sort of dressing on it. She stared at the magnificent architecture of the long walls as they reached the height of the hall. She started to think of her father. About how worried he must be. Something suddenly peaked her interest. A cool breeze drifted across her face. It was accompanied by a second and then a third.
“They are here, Carrie,” Tyrell suddenly said looking over at her.
She stood and looked around at the empty hallway. She wiped her dry eyes and walked over to Tyrell. Another cool breeze blew a strand of hair away from her face. It was like someone was opening and closing a window during a storm. She could not see anything. She opened her mind to her surroundings and suddenly sensed a presence. Something very old.
&nbs
p; “Close your mind, Carrie,” Tyrell said suddenly inside her mind.
Carrie looked at him and nodded.
“They will let you know if they want you to access their thoughts. Just remain calm and still,” he said.
Carrie did as she was asked and closed her mind. She thought about what it was that she had sensed before doing so. She thought she felt a hand on her shoulder and spun around only to see nothing there.
“What the?” she said looking at Tyrell.
He smiled.
“Let them examine you, Carrie. They are curious,” he said remaining still.
Carrie felt like she was being toyed with, by both the unseen entities and by Tyrell. She was tired.
“I am Carrie Barrington! Show yourselves!” she suddenly shouted into the seemingly empty grand hall.
Tyrell looked at her and raised up one of his eyebrows. She shrugged. Carrie suddenly thought she heard the sound of whispering all around her. As if there were hundreds of unseen watchers talking about her behind her back. It was ghostly and unnerving. She did not feel threatened by it. It was starting to frustrate her. She needed answers and needed them now. Her family was in trouble and whatever these things were had kept her waiting. She looked at Tyrell and was about to fire a burst of electrical energy into the air to get their attention, when suddenly a form appeared before them.
It emerged from a light cloud of vapour. The resemblance to the surrounding statues was remarkable. The figure that stood in front of Carrie was tall. At least seven feet. It was bipedal, from what Carrie could tell. It wore a dark fabric over its body that looked ceremonial. The creature had pale skin and a soft oval head with small blue almond eyes that regarded Carrie with a soft expression. She felt no danger from the creature. It was actually quite the opposite. She felt great warmth radiating from it. She had not noticed herself take a step back when the creature had suddenly appeared in front of her. It was Tyrell’s hand on her arm that had alerted her to remain still. The creature stood looking at the pair. Its lightly blinking eyes darting from one to the other, but it seemed to take a special interest in Carrie. It took a step towards her and stood looking down. Carrie could see a softness in those almond eyes. There were lines under them, much like the crow’s feet on an aged face. She looked at the embellishments on the entities robe. There were brooches and pins depicting strange symbols. The creature tilted its large head and blinked several times. It had a thin mouth, with no discernible lips that Carrie could make out.