by Dan Henk
This might be a stroke of luck. The ship back home was gone over with a fine-toothed comb. It took us years of perplexing research that was generating almost no answers. One day a man we had never seen before walked in and pulled aside the chief scientist. After a brief conference in a side office, the researcher emerged looking shaken and edgy. When he rejoined the other scientists, he seemed to have all the answers. They were able to start the ship. I think they even took it out for test flights, although by that time I was removed from the project.
Strange, I almost forgot about that. Come to think of it, I did forget about that, and it was only the sight of this cockpit that brought back the memory! But that isn’t something I would easily forget... A shudder passes through me. Not physical, but my mind reels, as if fighting off a cold. I grow dizzy, and have to grab hold of my knees to keep from falling over. I am gripped by an overwhelming impression that my memory has been tampered with. I try to trace back through my thoughts. Specific memories of the incident are nebulous. What else is hidden in the recesses of my consciousness? Maybe this was all preplanned and I was supposed to take this body? Maybe the conditioning wore off with the unpredictable transfer of consciousness! Or maybe it hasn’t, and I’m following someone else’s grand agenda!
I concentrate, folding my consciousness inwards. I get the notion that I am viewing a long hallway in a dim, gray building. The ceiling towers over me, its features lost in the shadows. A pale blue glow, the light emanating from an unseen source, illuminates the premises. Small rooms line the sides, their gloomy interior sporting worn metal file cabinets. Faded yellow tags mark the drawers. I step into one of the rooms and stoop to read the label.
“Seven years old, camping in a canvas army tent in the backyard.” The one below it reads:
“Seven years old, gathering lumber from a scrap yard to build a tree fort.”
I don’t have time for this!
I close my eyes and concentrate, pulling myself back into the current reality. I open my eyes to the same central chamber in the ship.
I’ll figure all this out later. Walking up to the middle chair, I peer into the holes running alongside. The shallow pits appear somehow to collapse into an impenetrable blackness. Some of the orifices in the ship we recovered had a weird, gelatin-like substance in the depths. It could be manipulated by hand, and acted almost like a keyboard. I feel dizzy again, like my brain sped past me for a moment! I stoop over and slowly delve my hand into the hole. They alight on a gelatinous substance. I sit down and twist my fingers about. The entire ship lights up. In a scrambled frenzy of motion, a projected screen springs to life. It shows a dusty cavern of industrial girders and stark walls stretching out before me. Apparently this is a view outside the craft. The floor spreads out in a long, smooth strip, the far end dissolving into the shadows. The walls host some barely visible carvings, the marks large and crude. I stare at them for a moment, and they seem to stir some buried memory, but just what that is eludes me.
I think I can operate this ship, at least well enough to get it aloft. The real question is, where will I go? I have no idea where I am or where Earth is located. I would hazard a bet that the creatures at the outpost I just escaped won’t be too happy to see this ship. They probably don’t even know about this whole complex. I wonder if it was here first, or if it was meant to spy on that outpost. I jockey my fingers in the gap. A low rumble flows in a swooping crescendo behind, beneath, and finally breaks away in front of me. A brilliant flash blanks out the screen, the intense radiance drenching the chamber in a polarizing flood of pure white.
Just as quickly, the light vanishes. There is no longer a dark wall of rock in front of me. A large, perfect circle has been cleaved out. A wide gap now offers up long stretches of sand, the undulating dunes flowing out in a maze of gray embankments toward the distant mountains. A sliver of some celestial body peaks out from behind the rugged peaks. Pale and slightly orange, it looks too small to be a planet. Maybe this is a moon orbiting a moon? A chill settles over me, and I realize how far I must be from home! I never felt any kinship to my fellow man, but he was an inconvenience I could at least understand! This is feeling more and more like some endgame I’ve buried myself in. Not only am I far from anything I know, I don’t even have faith in this body anymore! I’m seeing things...sensing things... It feels like I’m losing my grip on reality. I don’t even know what reality is... I have to stop thinking like this! Getting bogged down now will only leave me in an even worse predicament.
I must have activated the weapons. I twist my fingers in a different direction, and the ship starts to move backwards. I hastily push the other way, and the craft moves forward. The gap looks big enough to fit through. The ship is harder to operate than I first thought, and I clumsily scrape the right side as I pass through, the wing emitting a muffled crunch followed by a spray of rock. The collision starts to spin the craft sideways. With some hasty manual manipulation I tilt the ship back and forth, managing after a few tries to level it off.
I sail out, gliding low above the sand. I push forward more, and the ship picks up speed, soaring toward the far mountain range. I think I’m too low as my passage is stirring up immense clouds of dust. The underbelly skims off a few tall dunes, the craft buffeting left and right with each impact. I arch my hand back and bring it up a little. Maybe I should head for orbit? Then again, I’ll bet my former captors have something like radar. On second thought, I’ll cruise to the other side of this planet and then try for deep space.
A green light on the left of the screen erupts into a frenzy of flashes. What is that? All I see are pale dunes speckled under a canopy of starlight! I glance to my left and see a narrow strip of screen. Funny, I didn’t notice that before. It must have sprung to life when the ship powered up. A long, sandy plain stretches out to the jagged peaks of a distant mountain. Two small, dark specks at the far corner of the screen catch my eye. I focus on them, and the picture zooms in. Two small craft, their fronts resembling flattened metal eggs, are angling in toward me. A pulse of light, and a bluish burst escapes from the rear of the closer one.
“What are you doing here?”
The voice pops into my head out of thin air. The words aren’t in
English, and the accent is a bit off, but the intent is clear.
“Identify yourself or be destroyed.”
I twirl my fingers frantically. The ship lurches right, then left, then back-flips in a dizzying loop before finally leveling out.
Flashes of light blaze by me, bleaching out my side screens as they pass in a blinding fluorescence that drenches the cockpit. The pulses continue in clusters of fire as they shoot past me. I relax my hand, and the craft slows. I can almost feel the ships closing in. A minute...two...and then I pull down sharply. My ship back-flips and takes up a position behind the pursuers, then I level out. Two small, semi-metallic spheres, a dark cylinder jutting out of the back, now float just in front of me. One of the cylinders starts to glow. That would be the craft powering up to take off. I start shooting, and the craft explodes in a ball of light. I curl my fingers, and the sky around the other craft lights up in bursts of fire. I don’t exactly know how to aim—I’m just winging it—and none of my blasts appear to be that accurate. The vessel dives into a skillful display of evasion, dipping and spinning quicker than I can follow. I fire more frantically, the night sky exploding in a maelstrom of turbulent eruptions. The enemy craft starts to loop upwards. One of my projectiles hits the bottom, and the tail end flares up. The fiery edge shoots arcs of lightning toward the cockpit. The craft starts to crack, the splintering walls expanding as shafts of light spew out the fissures. The whole mess flares up briefly, the augmentation quickly reversing as it collapses into a white-hot ball. A flare up, and the ship is simply gone. Glancing across all the screens, I see no other signs of pursuit. Pointing the nose forward, I punch it. The speed increases exponentially, the surface features mutating into a shifting blur. I’m moving so fast I can almost see the cur
ve of the planetary body beneath me passing in a haze of speckled gray. I pull up and sail into space.
As I reach orbit, I slow down. A sterile ball of mountain ranges and craters recedes below, a wide expanse of stars stretching out its cold arms to greet me. The light on the left-hand side of the screen starts to blink again, and I crane my head around nervously. The right-hand screen displays an oblong chunk of rock, the pockmarked leviathan reeling slowly as it approaches. It must be either a large asteroid or a small moon. Most of it is cast into shadow, the forward tip rotated just enough to catch the rays of some distant star. I have no idea where the fuck I am.
CHAPTER XIX
THE PLOT THICKENS
Maybe that chunk of rock will buy me some time. I angle toward it. The surface is absolutely desolate. Gray sand and rock, riddled with squat mountains and defaced by a multitude of craters. The sizes vary dramatically. With no atmosphere, every little chunk of stone has made its mark. As I glide into a landing, I start to wonder how far this ship can travel. It has more the feel of a small fighter than an intergalactic cruiser. How much fuel it has is another issue. If it even uses fuel. I have no idea what powers it.
An even more pertinent question is, where the hell is Earth? I need some sort of guide. Something I could make sense of. The craft alights with a soft thud. I stand up and head back into the hind chamber. As I approach the cabin door, it automatically slides up. I wonder for a moment if this ship recognizes my mental imprint. Maybe I come across as a member of the native race, seeing as to how I occupy something of theirs. Or maybe it’s because I took control of this ship and it recognizes this in me. It didn’t open when I first boarded. It makes me wonder again if any of this is pre-planned. Am I right where they want me? Either alien race? Maybe I haven’t even woken up yet. Maybe I’m in a simulator and all of this is some fantastic dream. Maybe I’m still back on Earth, entombed in an alien capsule, thinking I inhabit the body next to me, whereas the real truth is it’s all some deathly fantasy! This is doing me no good! I have to concentrate on the present.
The hole I used to enter is now closed. It’s probably an automatic response to my activation of the ship. I stare at it, wondering what activates it, and suddenly it opens. This is getting stranger by the minute. Maybe there is some central system in this ship that can read my thoughts. I wonder if it can read all of them or just the ones I project to the forefront. Maybe it only recognizes key words. Something occurs to me. If this vehicle doesn’t have a decompression room, it might be used only for small commutes. It’s probably a short-range fighter or transport. I jump into the opening, feeling a slight wave of pressure as I descend. If I had ears, they probably would have popped.
As I drift down into the sand, I realize that the pressure might have been some form of atmospheric barrier. A decompression room might not be at all necessary and more an offshoot of primitive Earth technology. I duck under the wing and crawl out. Standing up straight, I take a look around. Craters and sand, just like the planet below. The sky looks particularly empty. A cold darkness, no nebula, no sister planets, and only a few stars in the sky. A strange blue glow sparkles on the far horizon, the pale luminosity outlining a diminutive mountain range. The intensity of the light throws the cliffs into a solid wall of ebony.
I wonder what that is? Maybe a reflection from a bigger planet? I peer around. Nothing. I’m wasting time. Walking to the ship, I duck under the wing and re-enter. It closes behind me automatically. As I’m strolling back to the pilot’s chair a voice suddenly booms in my head.
“Stay where you are. We’re coming.”
I glance about wildly, and practically jump into the seat. Spots on the screen have erupted in flashes of green and red. The central panel shows more ships like the one I destroyed earlier, cresting the horizon and heading straight for me. Somehow, I know that they weren’t the source of the voice in my head.
There are five of them, the craft growing in size as they descend. Suddenly, a flash of light flares up behind two of the vessels, growing into a crackling maelstrom that engulfs the ships in a ball of lightning. Two of the remaining fighters start to veer sideways, but they are too late as they succumb to the same fate.
That leaves one. It arcs up and accelerates. But it’s a last ditch effort, and not nearly enough. A few pops of light erupt around it before one finally hits its mark, the impact blossoming into a blazing sphere of ruin. The sky grows black, and I see two smaller ships, almost identical to mine, fast approaching. They zip by, revealing a multitude of similar vessels behind.
A huge ship that looks like a giant black bug looms behind, the glimmer of hundreds of small lights spotting its surface.
“What did you find?”
They must think I’m one of them!
Suddenly, there are three silver bodies in front of me. All are about four feet tall, their bodysuits serrated in repeating small bumps. The hands and feet are cordoned off by a silver ring, black gloves and boots adorning the appendages. The front faceplate gleams with a mirrored surface, obscuring all features.
“Wait a minute. Who are you?”
They can probably communicate telepathically, and my thoughts must be strange to them. At least that’s my guess. Abruptly, they disappear.
In the blink of an eye, I find myself in a small, round room. Dim and musty, a thick mist punctuates the air. The floor is some sort of grate, the dark gray bars stretching from one wall to the other with no apparent seam. A half-inch space separates each bar, the depths below disappearing into shadow. The glossy chocolate brown walls bolster large raised seams that converge at some point in the gloom above. The chamber is illuminated, but I can’t make out the source. The construction is vaguely familiar. It resembles a greatly expanded version of the cells in the crashed ship.
“Who are you?”
I stiffen immediately. The words were in my head, but they were as loud as if they had been spoken!
“Are you the Al’lak?”
“Yes. But I don’t think you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Who are you?”
“I found this suit. I don’t mean you any harm.”
A figure materializes in front of me. Short and white, his skin is silky smooth, no hair marring the sleek veneer. Two yellow eyes, the beady globes sporting orange irises, peer out at me. The nose is virtually skeletal, dark slits resting above a wide, thin mouth. He doesn’t appear to have any clothes, but his diminutive form has no visible sex organs either. Six fingers and toes garnish each appendage. Two floating, bubble-shaped chairs appear. The figure sits in one. I take a seat in the other.
“So, where did you find that suit?”
“On Earth. In a crashed spaceship.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I was exploring ancient ruins on Earth when I stumbled across an abandoned outpost. Somehow I activated a beacon. Those creatures picked me up, interrogated me briefly, then dropped me off at this encampment for further questioning. They were obviously aggravated. I took my first chance and escaped. I fled to the nearby mountain range, and in my attempts to lose the pursuers, I came upon what must have been an old base of yours.”
“That base is a bit of a [indecipherable]. This species you have encountered didn’t know we had anything here. Revealing its presence forces us to act.”
“Act on what?”
“That outpost you escaped from has now been destroyed. This will create a huge political incident. We are put in the [indecipherable] position of deciding how we are going to handle the situation. Your occupying that body is the start of a chain reaction that has only been [indecipherable] by this current development.”
Some of the words are too exotic for me to make out, but I can understand the gist of what he is saying. He seems to be much more cordial than the other creatures. At least so far.
“Is Earth off limits?”
“Well... [indecipherable] they probably know you aren’t Al’lak. [Indecipherable] probably deduce
d that you were [indecipherable] blindly. That [indecipherable] you now inhabit is an anomaly. You are trapped in there, and can’t be removed. It was an experiment that didn’t work, and you are inhabiting one of the early versions. The others had undesirable...side effects.”
“What is the point of all this?”
“We have no fear of you. You could cause some damage momentarily. Then we’d be forced to [indecipherable] you into the heart of a nearby star. Your remaining [indecipherable] in that shell is interesting. I propose a trade.”
“What do you want?”
“We’ll discuss that later. We’re heading toward our closest occupied zone. This whole affair will be dissected and planned there.”
“I have one question.”
“What was the purpose of that base?”
“That other race stumbled across an anomaly. They are a bit more primitive than us, and haven’t managed to decipher it. We think it’s a wormhole.”
CHAPTER XX
WHAT THEY REALLY WANT
This planet, which might be the Al’lak home world, is breathtaking. Covered in a glacial sheet of frozen water, under which they maintain entire cities. The mammoth mother ship I’ve spent the past day in apparently isn’t built for planetary landings. I’m taken from my cell and escorted down a dim corridor. Molded ocher walls cloister around me in undulating spirals, an unseen light casting its bleak fluorescence across the stunted tunnel. I’m led by a single, white-suited creature to a small hatch on the wall. Large metal blades spiral open, and we enter another gloomy passageway. I’m starting to wonder if these vessels are grown rather than constructed, their smooth, textured interiors resembling more than anything an insect hive. I’m led to another room that looks like a cell, and ushered in. A hatch closes in another spiral of metal blades as the Al’lak steps through it. The light dims, and I’m left in silence. They’ve been fairly equitable to me so far. I’ve been kept in holding cells, but there has been no interrogation. All of this could be a ruse to facilitate my disposal, but I don’t think I have any other options. It’s a waiting game. I’ll just have to stay on edge. I’ve grown used to it.