The Opening (The Universal Portals Book 1)

by J. Blanes

  “Not at all. What I’m saying is that we should focus on escaping the same way we came, on the small ship. We must find a way to control that ship and get out of here on it. Unfortunately, that will take some time. We need to know much more about the aliens, about their technology, the way they think and do their things. We need to be patient and stay calm and focused. Like it or not, there’s no other way; after all, we’re hundreds of thousands of miles away from home, in a strange and unknown environment, and it won’t be a simple task adapting to it well enough to find a way out of it.”

  Their somber faces revealed that Albert’s words had an upsetting impact. He hadn’t expected to tell them his thoughts so soon, but now he felt that it had been for the best. Better to acknowledge their harsh reality now than despair later because of false hopes. He let his words sink in and waited for an answer.

  Keira spoke first. “It hurts, a lot, but you’re right.” Her voice was soft, but determined. “We must have patience and wait for the right moment. Otherwise, we could blow it and never get back.”

  “Whatever,” Dylan said. “As long as there’s food, there’s hope.”

  “But even if you say one thing,” Keira went on, staring directly at Albert, “I know you and I know that you’ll want to decipher those symbols anyway, if only as a challenge. Am I right?”

  Albert smiled at her. Of course, she was right. He didn’t intend to waste an opportunity to study an interesting problem like this; it would be against his nature. He would stay there and examine the symbols and their pattern changes. He didn’t expect to reveal their meaning—it would be foolish without something to compare them to—but it would be a good mental exercise anyway.

  “You can go back if you want,” he said finally. “Or better yet, you could continue the exploration of those empty rooms. Who knows, there could be more to them than meets the eye. There could be hidden microbuttons on their walls. I’ll stay here for a while.”

  They did as Albert suggested, but they couldn’t find anything in those rooms, even with Dylan’s persistent petitions to the ship to reveal its secrets.

  “Ship, what’s in this room?”

  “Ship, open this wall!”

  “Ship, show us the way!”

  “Ship, where are the buttons?”

  And so on.

  They thought about going back to explore the dark corridors they had left behind but eventually decided against it. Albert would kill them if he found out they’d gone there without him. Instead, they went back to the kitchen for lunch.

  They didn’t see Albert again until well past seven by Keira’s watch. He had spent almost the whole day studying those symbols without eating or drinking. He found Keira and Dylan playing a new game she had recently remembered from her childhood.

  “What are you playing?” Albert asked.

  “I think it’s called Reversi,” she replied. “I remembered that when I was sick and couldn’t go to school, my mother often left me at home with Grandma, and we played this game a lot.”

  “I know the rules. I’ll play the next round,” Albert said as he served himself some water and food.

  “Any luck with those symbols?” Dylan asked with a hint of curiosity.

  “Not at all,” Albert denied. “I only found that each symbol cycles through five different shapes and that there are a total of fifty-three different ones. In addition, they change at random without having to touch them. Apart from that, everything is as mysterious as before.”

  “Not really worth it to not eat at all the whole day, don’t you think?” Dylan couldn’t understand how a person could spend so many hours without eating anything just to play with some glowing circles and lines on a wall.

  “For me, it was worth every second,” Albert said truthfully.

  “If you say so,” Dylan said dismissively without believing a word. It just couldn’t be possible, not without eating.

  Albert was interested in their search. “What about the other rooms, any luck on your part?”

  “Empty as my stomach in the morning,” Dylan replied. “We talked about exploring the rest of the corridors but decided to wait for you. We thought you’d be bored sooner, but it’s clear that we’ll have to postpone the search until tomorrow.”

  “I appreciate that,” Albert said.

  They played more games until midnight, when they finally felt sleepy. Albert finished his last move and stretched. “We should find a way to turn the lights on automatically in the morning, or we’ll wake up later and later each passing day,” he reasoned.

  “Have you asked the ship?” Dylan asked innocently.

  “What?”

  “How can you be so smart about some things and so thick about others? The ship obeys our commands, at least the ones it can carry out. Have you asked? Maybe it’ll comply.”

  “But…” Albert seemed confused, not because he didn’t understood what Dylan was saying but because it would be so easy as to be embarrassing.

  “Ship!” Dylan interrupted him impatiently. “Turn the bedroom lights on each morning at eight.” He paused, staring at Albert with a raised eyebrow. “See? Easy.”

  “If you’re right, I’ll kill you,” Albert joked and excused himself to go to bed. Keira and Dylan stayed for one more game before turning in for the night.

  Keira was having a hard time falling asleep that night. She could not get rid of Albert’s words, and they bounced repeatedly inside her head, keeping her awake. She went down to the kitchen to drink some water and clear her thoughts. While she was waiting for the water, she heard some steps behind her.

  “Can’t you sleep either?” she asked distractedly and drank her water.

  The steps quickly ran away, and she turned around with increasing curiosity. “Dylan?” she called, frowning. “I’m too tired for playing games.” She headed to the doorway and looked up through the gaps in the metal stairs. Strangely, nobody was there. She shrugged and made a mental note to talk to Dylan in the morning. She drank some more water and went back to bed.

  The next day she joined Albert and Dylan in the kitchen. They were eating breakfast, and Dylan was gloating because the lights had turned on automatically exactly at 8:00 a.m. as he had expected. Albert was embarrassed at not having thought of that before.

  “Did you have fun last night?” Keira interrupted them, staring fixedly at Dylan.

  “Yes, I enjoyed the games last night, why?” Dylan had no idea why Keira would ask about last night.

  “Don’t play the dumb with me,” she warned him. “I know it was you.”

  Dylan was puzzled. “Me what?”

  “Really? Last night, in the kitchen, you hid from me.” She was in no mood for games, but she played along. “Do you really think you would scare me?” she scoffed.

  Dylan was very surprised. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I slept like a baby the whole night.” His voice tone felt sincere, and Keira started to doubt herself.

  “Then, it was you?” She switched her attention to Albert, pointing a finger at him.

  “Keira, are you OK?” Albert asked with concern.

  Keira was confused. They seemed genuinely surprised, but she had distinctively heard steps last night. If it hadn’t been either of them, then who? She decided to share her story.

  “Last night I came down here to get some water, and I heard some steps, as if someone was walking toward me. I thought they were Dylan’s. I asked if he couldn’t sleep either, but then they ran away. I had my back to the door and I didn’t see anybody, but I thought it was Dylan pulling some kind of bad joke.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe you were too sleepy and you could’ve imagined it,” Dylan said.

  “I came here precisely because I couldn’t fall asleep,” Keira said. “I wasn’t sleepy at all, and I don’t imagine things. I’m sure I heard steps, loud and clear,” she fini
shed with a firm, final tone.

  Albert and Dylan didn’t know what to say. They believed her; she had no reason to lie about something like this, and they were on a spaceship that could be swarming with aliens, after all. However, why would the aliens hide from them? Did they visit them at night? With what purpose?

  “Where do you think the footsteps were coming from?” Albert asked.

  “I don’t know, but I went up to bed and nobody was there, so whoever it was, it must have escaped downstairs.”

  “Perfect. If they’re visiting us at night, we need to greet them properly. Don’t you think? Tonight we’ll be ready for them,” Albert announced, surprising everybody.

  “What do you mean ‘ready for them’?” Keira didn’t like where he was headed.

  “I’m sure you’re telling the truth, so we can safely conclude that we have visitors at night,” Albert reasoned. “They come either from the hall or the small corridor downstairs, so it’ll be easy to lay an ambush for them.”

  “Seriously?” Keira couldn’t believe it. Meeting the aliens was scary enough, and doing so voluntarily was just plain crazy.

  “We’ll hide inside one of the empty rooms downstairs and wait for them.” Albert roughly delineated his plan. “And when they’re near enough, we turn the lights on and force them to confront us directly once and for all.”

  “No way!” Keira disagreed. “It’s crazy. Dylan and I will never consent to that, right?”

  Dylan remained silent. “Right?” Keira repeated, but Dylan wanted to confront the aliens, too. He believed it was the fastest way to finish this permanently. “Let’s do it!” he agreed finally.

  “What?” Keira said with despair. “Both of you are crazy. If the aliens don’t want to meet us, then so be it. We don’t need them to get out of here.”

  “Think about it,” Albert told her in a soothing voice. “It’s the best way to speed things up.”

  “Do whatever you want, but don’t count on me,” she said stubbornly.

  “It’s really a good idea,” Dylan insisted. “If the aliens wanted us dead, they would have killed us already. Let’s meet them head on, ask what they want from us, and finish this nightmare for good. Please…” he pleaded with all his charm in his voice, which was not much.

  She sighed and accepted, resigned.

  They planned to hide that night in the first corridor room adjacent to the hall. This way, they could watch both the corridor and the hall. Nobody could go past them without being noticed.

  They behaved normally the whole day, as if nothing had happened, and at night pretended to go to bed as usual. Then, after a few minutes, they got up, took some provisions for the stakeout—Dylan’s idea—stealthily descended the stairs, and hid in the dark inside the previously selected room. They would take turns sleeping. The first watch, two and a half hours long, and assigned by playing rock-paper-scissors, went to Keira.

  Hers was an extremely boring and uneventful watch. She spent her two hours reviewing in her mind what she would write when all of this was over. After what seemed an eternity, she could finally awake Dylan. She wasn’t sure if she should accompany him, because she knew he could easily fall asleep out of boredom, but she decided against it to avoid hurting his feelings. He would do well, she thought, as he always did on important things. With those reassuring thoughts, she woke him and warned him that she would kill him if he fell asleep. After that, she fell asleep herself.

  In less than twenty minutes, Dylan was dozing off. It was hard to have his eyes open with nothing interesting to see, not even those dim blue lights. At least some light coming from the hall projected a few soft shadows into the corridor, and he rested his eyes on them. But twenty minutes of staring at some static shadows strained his eyes, and a pervasive drowsiness invaded his body like a blitzkrieg. His mind was already entering the realm of dreams when a sudden noise startled him. He shook his head. Had he really heard something? He focused on listening. Nothing. He brushed aside the idea—probably a dream. He stretched, forced himself to be alert, and battled against sleep. He lost the battle seconds later and was about to fall asleep again when the sound of approaching steps inside the corridor startled him again. This time he wasn’t dreaming; the steps were real.

  He hastily woke the others and quietly signaled them that it was show time. They crouched, and Albert whispered to let him turn the lights on. Then, at the precise moment the steps were about to reach their room’s doorway, Albert sprang up in a hurry, displaying a swiftness and ability that impressed Keira and Dylan, who would never have guessed that a big body like his could move at that speed.

  “Ship! Turn the corridor lights on, now!” Albert shouted as he rushed out, the others behind him.

  They froze in astonishment at the same time as a terrifying scream resounded through the corridor.

  ELEVEN

  No one knew exactly what had happened because the lights had blinded temporarily their unadjusted eyes. Albert had been the first to come into the corridor, shouting at the ship to turn on the lights, followed by Dylan, who was closest to the door, and Keira soon after. At that time, most of their senses were still numb because of the drowsiness and the lights, but even if they had been deaf, their ears would have heard that scream.

  The unexpected scream still rang into their ears with all its intensity, full of alarm and panic, and made them shiver in shock. As their eyes gradually adjusted to the light, the source of the scream slowly revealed itself. Though they had mentally prepared for this moment, no one could have predicted the bizarre and somewhat pathetic scene that unfolded a few feet in front of them. They would have accepted as normal any kind of big, ugly alien confronting them, friendly or not; it didn’t matter. Another captive, perhaps even another human, had also been considered. Increasing their number and getting some answers from another of their kind would have been an interesting and welcome turn of events. As a worst-case scenario, they had talked about a sophisticated robot acting on behalf of their captors, following an established protocol and unable to understand their most basic needs. What they had never imagined was the little blue corpse lying unconscious in front of them, probably after being scared to death by their unexpected encounter.

  “What is it?” Keira asked, dumbfounded. “Is he dead?”

  “I…I think it fainted,” Albert replied, uneasily baffled, as he was not used to being taken by surprise like this. He believed that he had considered all possibilities, but he had been wrong, so wrong.

  “Why is it so…so symmetrical?” Dylan asked, talking about the alien’s cylindrical body and flat-topped head. The others found it bizarre, too, but no one could think of a proper answer.

  “It must be another captive, from another species,” Dylan speculated. “By the way it screamed, we must have scared it so much that it passed out.”

  “That was my first impression too, a captive, but look at its back,” Albert remarked while pointing at it. They all paid more attention to the little thing on the floor.

  It was only about a foot tall and completely blue from head to toe, and the same tone as the glowing lights. It had no clothes on, and its skin seemed spotless and smooth. Its whole body, from hips to shoulders, consisted of a single thin cylinder about two inches in diameter. Another smaller cylinder attached at the top of its body by a small disc formed its head. It had no protruding ears, but two circular grids in their place seemed to provide their function. A feature that stood out, even with them closed, were the two disproportionally big and cartoonish ovals that served as its eyes, and the lack of eyebrows and eyelids made them strangely robotic. A triangular, sharply edged nose and a square, lipless mouth completed its face. The arms and legs were proportionally sized, but that was the only thing normal about them. It had no shoulders, as the arms came directly out of its cylindrical body. The arms and legs were perfectly round, like plastic tubes, without any noticeable bulges from t
he muscles below. They bent at the same spots where we have elbows and knees, but the joints were different, more subtle and blunt. The arms ended in comparatively large hands, without fingers, like mittens, perfectly suited for a boxing match, and the legs suffered no better fate, having to bear a pair of huge clown feet. However, what really captured their attention emerged directly from its back. It was a scorpion-like tail, by far his most prominent feature. It didn’t start at the bottom of the back, like a normal tail, but in the middle of it, and from there it grew away from its body and curled back to just touch the back of its head. It was thicker at the base and gradually thinned up until ending in a pointed tip.

  “Its tail looks the same as the one on top of the small ship!” Dylan exclaimed, realizing that this little alien probably belonged to the same species that built the ships and, therefore, was one of the aliens that had abducted them. “But you said they must be tall because of the ceiling heights,” he said, questioning Albert’s previous prediction.

  “I know,” Albert confessed uncomfortably. “It makes no sense because I’m sure the small ship was conditioned for us, using an alien ship as a base from which to build things on. But its tail is clearly not a coincidence.”

  “He’s kind of cute,” Keira commented with a conflicting feeling. She had a growing guilt at having scared this poor little creature while at the same time hating him for abducting and keeping them away from home. She looked at him again. “He seems straight out of a Disney movie,” she observed, “like a baby cartoon.” Those words triggered an unsettling thought in her mind. “Oh, my God! What if he’s an alien child?”

  “Seriously?” Albert snapped. “Would you leave your children alone in an area where you had some captured aliens?” The rhetorical question was enough to end that discussion. “And don’t grow any feelings for it,” he added, realizing the way she looked at him. “This little, cute thing could well be one of our kidnappers and jailers.” Albert didn’t trust at all its innocent appearance.