The Zygote Crystal

by Ashley Thomas

  An hour later, Guy Dance and the two scientists who had been with him on the flight, reported back to Ensign Graff who was the leader of the hovermodule expedition.

  “Definitely a lot of mosquito activity at the top Sir. And all indications seem to be that the structure is full of these things,” said Dance.

  “Structure?” queried Graff.

  “Yes. This is no natural mountain Sir. In my view, this has been erected,” explained Dance.

  “Erected,” repeated Graff, “Presumably not by the mosquitoes?” he half laughed. “Professor Bragget,” said Graff, turning to the elder of the two scientists, “Do you have a view on this?”

  “Well young man,” responded Bragget, inclining his head down a little as he looked at Graff over the top of the CaptchaGlasses he was wearing, “definitely interesting I’d say. Definitely interesting.”

  Bragget, whose core specialism was in Evolutionary Biology and Business Development went on, “In my opinion we need to do a lot more work to determine why this is so interesting. But interesting it is. Definitely. Interesting. Without doubt.” Bragget then turned to his scientific colleague Hanzel Gustsach, a Biology Engineer and said “What do you think Gustsach?”

  Gustsach, a younger individual, female and noticeably taller than any of the three men, said in a surprisingly deep, monotone and accented voice, “I couldn’t agree more Herr Professor this whole thing is without doubt interesting. One might almost say intriguing. No. Fascinating or possibly, one might consider, very thought provoking.”

  “Yes, fine,” said Graff in an exasperated tone, “but what does it mean? I can’t very well report back to Captain McBeckHam simply that we’ve found something interesting, or fascinating or thought provoking, can I? So please what does it mean? Why is there a structure erected here in the middle of the landscape full of giant mosquitoes? Is this their way of breeding or just living?”

  Bragget responded, “Without time to research we are just speculating. I would need a team of at least 25 researchers, probably working for several months to even begin to work this out. I mean it’s ridiculous to even contemplate that large mosquitoes would have the capability to build an artificial structure like this. But you never know. That’s what makes it so interesting.”

  “But, presumably,” said Graff very slowly, “It is possible something else built the structure to keep the mosquitoes in?”

  “Ahhh, Yes,” said both Gustsach and Bragget almost at the same time, “that could be a possibility. And a very interesting one at that.”

  Ensign Graff clapped one hand to his forehead as he looked down and slowly shook his head before exchanging a look of incredulity with Sergeant Dance. Before he could say another word though he heard Private Musk, the other member of the two-man security detail in the crew tell him loudly from within the hovermodule, “Incoming unidentified object Sir.”

  An interesting arrival

  Both Graff and Dance looked up to the sky in the direction of the structure containing the mosquitoes. They could see, just beginning to descend from the peak of the structure, two small flying craft that definitely did not belong to Explorer. All six crew members immediately went to an AlphaRed alert status and armed themselves as discreetly as possible, having every intention to greet whatever was in the craft with the utmost diplomacy and desire for friendship.

  Private Musk, who was trying to contact Captain McBeckham on the Explorer further reported, “Unable to communicate with the Explorer, Sergeant. My aircasts are all backed up and not being received.”

  “Keep trying Musk,” responded Dance, as he turned to face the two flying craft that had now settled on the ground at the foot of the structure approximately 100 metres away. Dance had deployed a universal communication Droid to try to open dialogue with whoever or whatever was piloting the craft. The Droid ambled over to the two alien craft emitting continuous sounds and other signals well outside of the human hearing range. The Droid was using a combination of advanced mathematics and images, linked to a range of communication algorithms and other computational approaches, to try to identify some common language reference points.

  The Droid had received no response by the time one of the craft showed signs of activity. This came in the form of the inevitable hatch slowly opening, revealing to the congregated humans a quite bright orange light framed by the edges of the hatch. Sergeant Dance and the other three standing outside of the hovermodule tensed, but resisted the temptation to point their weapons. They waited, poised for contact and possible action.

  Nothing really happened for several minutes after the hatch opened but then there was a movement that blocked out some of the orange light that was emanating from the open hatch. The movement was quite slow and continued as such. Very gradually, Dance and the others thought they could discern a head appearing against the orange light. It was difficult to be sure though from that distance. Ensign Graff had considered deploying some PictoDrones as the craft landed but had decided against this on the basis that they might be seen as hostile. They all zoomed in with their CaptchaGlasses to get a better idea of exactly what was emerging from the hatch.

  “Looks rather like a large walking lizard to me,” said Graff to the others.

  “Yep,” said the Sergeant as more of the shape gradually emerged from the hatchway.

  “Very leathery looking skin - definitely lizard like in that respect I’d say. But might not be a lizard at all of course.” said Bragget.

  Graff issued a private thought to Dance along the lines of ‘Are these scientists ever going to say something useful to us’? He then said to no one in particular, “They must be intelligent if they can pilot craft like these, mustn't they?”

  More of the lifeform had by now edged over the bottom of the hatchway. The head was out and the upper part of a body could be seen. There were what appeared to be two arms with very scaly hands and claws at the end of them. They could all see through their CaptchaGlasses some quite large, sharp looking teeth in the slightly parted jaws of the alien, as copious quantities of drool literally gushed from its mouth and fell to the ground.

  Mud Lizard tongue

  Graff momentarily wondered what would happen next as the hatch looked to be several metres above the ground, and there was no obvious means of stepping down. He didn't have to wait long for a quite extraordinary answer. In a flash, a thin structure, probably its tongue he thought, sprang from between the jaws of the creature and hit the ground. The ‘tongue’ widened markedly as it made contact with the ground, forming a stable base.

  As Graff thought to himself ‘yes this is its tongue’, the ‘tongue’ from base to the creature’s mouth, visibly stiffened. Then the rear two-thirds of the alien's torso back flipped out of the craft’s hatchway over the creature’s head using the stiffened yet flexible tongue for support, much like a pole-vaulter might use a pole to jump a gap. Momentarily the creature’s rear end faced towards the crew but then in the blink of an eye, and incredibly gracefully, the body of the alien completed the full 360 degree turn to face forwards. As the rotation neared completion, the tongue was released, like a stretched rubber band, back into the mouth of the alien making a slapping noise as it did so. Graff noticed that the skin of the creature had been noticeably looser and saggier when the tongue had been extended from its mouth but now, with the tongue retracted, the skin was much tighter. He also noted again the very scaly and leathery look of the creature’s body.

  “Was that its tongue?” asked Sergeant Dance.

  “Yep” said Bragget, “Definitely a tongue I’d say.”

  Whilst Bragget and Dance exchanged views on tongues, the first alien remained motionless as it was followed to the ground by three other identical lifeforms. They had similarly manoeuvred themselves to a position where their upper bodies were sticking out of the hatch of their respective crafts, before they applied the acrobatic ‘tongue flip’ action to get themselves to the ground.

  At this point the four human crew members standing o
utside of the hovermodule, Graff, Dance, Bragget and Gustsach, were faced by an equivalent number of the lizard like aliens. Each alien looked to be around 2-3 metres tall and stood on 2 sturdy looking legs at the back of their body. Their overall length was longer, as the 2-3 metre estimate from base of leg to head did not include the very impressive looking tail that they had. All 4 stood motionless, in somewhat stooped fashion, staring unblinkingly at the four people from Earth.

  “What should we do now?” asked Bragget.

  Graff remained silent for a moment and then said, “Haven’t the foggiest notion. What do you think Sergeant?”

  Sergeant Dance thought to himself ‘How many times had he been in such a situation, where the young officer really didn’t have a clue and turned to him for advice?’ The answer to this was actually never, as Dance had not before seen an advanced alien life form, of any sort. He decided not to reveal this and instead replied, “It’s difficult without any means of communication to judge how friendly or not they are. I’d say we have two options Sir.”

  “Which are?” enquired Graff.

  “Well, one would be to wander over there and try to use sign language, allied to body language that shows no threatening signs. That would mean no weapons I’d say. The second option is to get the heck out of here as fast as possible, go back to Explorer, and dump it in Captain McBeckam’s lap.”

  “It’s a shame we can’t get through to Explorer for advice,” said Graff rubbing his very smooth young chin between the thumb and forefinger on his right hand. “Any thoughts from you Professor Bragget on the likely danger of these creatures?”

  “Well, that is an interesting question,” said Bragget, “Very interesting. Wouldn’t you say so Gustsach?”

  “Yes,” added Gustsach, “One might almost say…..”

  “Fascinating?” interjected Graff before adding rather sarcastically, “Thank you both for your most interesting scientific view.” He then went on, “Right, I think if two of us wander over there, as you put it Sergeant, without weapons, the other two could safely cover us whilst we attempt to communicate with these aliens. If we can’t make any progress then we’ll back off slowly and head back to Explorer for advice. Dance, you stay here with Gustsach and I’ll walk over to the aliens with Professor Bragget.”

  “Yes Sir,” responded Dance.

  “Excuse me?” said Bragget, “I’m not sure I want to go over there, thank you very much.”

  Graff looked straight at Bragget and let out his frustration at the so far useless advice he’d received from him saying, “In this situation Professor you are under my military command and you will wander over there with me or I will have you arrested.”

  “Ok, ok,” said Bragget, “No need to get all military for goodness sake.”

  Let’s try to make friends

  Impressive, thought Dance, this young Ensign may have something about him after all. Dance re-booted his weapon, had Gustsach do the same and then casually turned to face the direction that the now weapon-less Graff and Bragget were heading. The four aliens had still not moved, remaining fixed on the spots they had settled after their acrobatic flip through the hatches of their crafts.

  Ensign Graff walked at a slow pace towards the aliens with Bragget to his right and slightly behind. He could feel sweat on his forehead and the palms of his hands. He had checked that his body armour was at full strength and instructed Bragget to do the same. Bragget walked along just about matching Graff’s slow pace though in reality, every step he took made him increasingly want to spin around and run back to Sergeant Dance. He felt no sweat, just a very pressing need for the toilet.

  As the two humans approached, the first alien to have emerged from the crafts, standing slightly ahead of the other three, turned its head to look back at its companions. These three other aliens still made no discernible movement at all. The first creature, looking like the leader of the bunch, then turned its head forward again to face Graff and Bragget as they stopped their advance and stood a mere 4-5 metres from the 4 aliens.

  Graff opened his mouth to speak a greeting, holding his hands up in front of his chest, palms forward, as he did so. As the first syllable of ‘Greetings’ emerged from his voice box he started to die. Suddenly wrapped around his throat was the tightening tongue of the first of the aliens which lifted him slightly off the ground, as he was quite rapidly throttled. Bragget had no time to do more than begin to turn his body to run before the same fate befell him, as the tongue of another lizard shot out to do its grisly work.

  One hundred or so metres away, watching through his CaptureGlasses and trying to recover from the shock, Dance crouched and aimed to fire. He was too late. Before he could even begin the thought that would start his weapon emitting pulses, he too was lifted off the ground, as was Gustsach, by tongues that had travelled the full 100 metres to attack then.

  From the pilot’s seat of the hovermodule Private Musk and the 4th scientist of the group, Harald Gunthyer, hardly had time not to believe their eyes before the hovermodule exploded around them. It had been hit by some sort of missile, fired at almost the same time as the four killer tongues had shot out. Within a matter of minutes all six members of the human crew had been killed.

  The lizards gathered together the bodies of the six humans, including the two from the burning wreck and placed them all into a container that appeared from the rear of one of their two craft. Musk had actually still been alive when he was dragged from the wreckage of the hovermodule, but was finished off mercilessly by one of the aliens.

  The rest of the Explorer’s crew get annihilated

  Back at the Explorer the remaining 18 crew members were variously engaged in activity within the newly built settlement buildings or on board Explorer itself. Some were sleeping when the attack came. Despite spirited resistance after the first wave of shock and surprise, all eighteen eventually met the same fate as the six crew members of the hovermodule.

  The lizards spent some days exploring and understanding how the Explorer spaceship functioned. They then placed all twenty-four dead crew members back on board Explorer and set the ship to auto-pilot back to Earth. Before placing the dead crew in stasis and sending the ship on its way, they selected the twelve least damaged bodies. They then carved a message of intent to destroy Earth collectively across the foreheads of these bodies, before placing them in sequential stasis pods. They also carved onto the glass front of each of these pods an Earth number from one to twelve, to aid message deciphering at the destination.

  The Explorer took off and set sail for Earth. The die had been cast. Interstellar war would shortly begin.

  Later in 2169, Explorer arrived back at the ISA’s base on the Moon, several months earlier than expected. Intended to be a 2 year round trip to Trappist-1, mission control had understandably been surprised to see the ship start a return trajectory several months before it was due to. All efforts to raise any communication with the returning vessel failed. Initially this was deemed likely to be due to the crew being in short-stasis for the return journey and a possible problem with the on-board artificial intelligences (AIs). However, as the ship got much closer to the Moon Base, mission control became a nervous and tense place as the lack of any communication with the crew persisted.

  It was therefore with some fear and trepidation that a boarding party of mission control staff waited to enter the ship once it had docked at the giant orbiting platform above the Moon. On boarding the Explorer it became quickly clear that there was something wrong, as no one was on the bridge and no AIs were in attendance. They eventually found all of the Explorer’s crew in the stasis chamber. The boarding party thought at first that something had malfunctioned with the stasis rousing cycle but then, to their horror, it was noticed that none of the individual stasis sacs showed any vital signs. Peering in through the observation panel of each sac it could be seen that several members of the crew had strange symbols carved on their foreheads.

  Within hours the bodies of the Explorer c
rew were removed and taken to the nearest major MediLab, aboard Earth Space Station Nebulon 6. In the MediLab the cause of death in most cases was determined to have been strangulation. All the signs were that crew members had been throttled outside of the ship and then returned to their individual stasis sacs, after the foreign symbols had been carved on their foreheads. The individual sets of symbols on each crew member’s forehead were clearly different, though some symbols appeared more than once across the bodies.

  Records of each set of symbols were analysed by the Big Brain at the ISA’s Cryptography and Linguistics Virtual Institute. It took some time, but the analysis eventually deciphered a language and was able to translate, with 99.9999% certainty, a clear message. Piecing together the different foreheads in the right order gave the message –

  ‘You will all die like this. The Mud Lizards are coming. We show no mercy. We want Earth back.’

  A few days later, Admiral Phiasco, the head of Earth’s Space Patrol Corps stared at the aircast translation of the Mud Lizards’ message. He looked around the table at his senior officers and said, “Gentleman, what does this mean?”

  Commander Prouff responded, “I think it means that the Mud Lizards are coming to kill us all.”

  Admiral Phiasco replied testily, “Yes Commander, well done. I think we all get that. My question ‘What does this mean’ was intended to be interpreted a little less literally. What I want to know is, who the heck are the Mud Lizards? They could be a new airgroup making teenagers scream and faint for all I know!!”