by Allan Burd
“Good. Let’s finish this thing,” Steele said, living up to his name. He turned towards Logan, who was crouched over the alien’s body.
“You didn’t have to,” said Logan.
“Yeah, I did. I had the sucker in my sights. When I saw you, I decided to give you a chance. You got balls, kid—big ones. Made me think too. Maybe diplomacy might’ve worked, but things just went too far. Make no mistake, kid, once he fired that first shot, you were next.”
“Let’s go,” Chase interrupted. He didn’t have the time or the patience for Logan’s soul searching. They all stared at the ragged hole leading inside. This was it. There was no turning back, nor did anyone of them want to. It was time to enter the spaceship.
ALIEN
GROUND
37
Up close, the six-inch thick, copper-hued metal was unlike anything they had seen before. Blaze touched it, just to make sure it was real, and just to glide his finger over the smooth alien hull.
Colonel Chase kept his attention on the opening. He peered inside, noting the hole led to a small tunnel way which was almost completely dark save a dim illumination at the far end and the sunlight which leaked through from the outside. Colonel Chase and Major Gaines entered first.
They stepped inside, over the jagged edge and across a scattering of metal before reaching a narrow passageway almost comforting in its smoothness. The smell had an opposite effect. It was slightly nauseating, yet totally unfamiliar—like a strange combination of salt water, urine, and locker room. The air was thick, but breathable—warm and wet like a gentle sauna. The walls were cold and damp to the touch.
They slowly walked towards the dim artificial light. After a short jaunt they emerged unscathed inside a huge circular room illuminated by violet glowing rectangles on silver walls about halfway between floor and ceiling. Stationary cylinders with rounded lids varying in color and size filled the room. Along the wall opposite them was an open doorway leading deeper into the ship. The opening they came through was similar to the hole in the hull in that it was a wall blown outward from the inside. Presumably from the same weapon that was fired at them. A quick look around confirmed the most important detail—they were the only beings in the room.
“All clear. Come on up in groups of two,” Gaines shouted down the tunnel. He would have preferred silence, but they no longer had radios and the element of surprise was long lost anyway.
Logan and Jeff came in next, followed shortly thereafter by Rebecca and Lt. Steele. They fanned out and covered the room.
“Incredible,” said Steele.
Logan silently disagreed. He thought the room dull and anticlimactic. He was expecting the fantastic. This was nothing more than a storage facility on LSD.
“Colonel, you notice anything wrong with this picture?” asked Dr. Blaze.
Gaines answered for him. “Looks to be in pretty good condition for a ship that crash-landed.”
“Exactly. The impact alone should have sent those canisters flying.” Dr. Blaze walked over to one and tilted it. It wobbled back and forth before returning to its motionless state. “There’s nothing holding these down.”
“Does that mean they didn’t really crash?” asked Logan.
“More likely they cleaned up the mess afterwards,” said Steele.
Dr. Blaze disagreed but kept his opinion to himself.
“Why bother?” asked Logan.
Gaines gave no answer. Instead he issued a command. “Steele, guard the tunnel entrance. Anything comes in after us or tries to escape—terminate it. Rebecca, guard that door. Same orders.” He approached a light green cylinder as his team complied with his order. He opened the latch on the lid, ready for anything. With a whirring sound and a puff of vapor, the lid lifted slowly backwards, revealing many colorful small spheres within. He reached in, noting the colder temperature, and grabbed one in his hand. It was about the size of a softball made from two halves of what felt like a hard smooth plastic. He twisted it opened. Within were leaf-like greens and a soft, burgundy substance. He pushed it with his finger and it jiggled. He paused temporarily, thinking twice before touching the green substance. It was moist and squishy. “I think it’s organic.”
Blaze grabbed a violet sphere and popped it open. Inside were a solid grayish-brown thing and a mucous-like, squishy thing. He picked up the grayish-brown thing with his thumb and forefinger and poked it. It squirmed in his grip causing him to drop it on the floor. He put on a glove and picked it up. Studying it, he saw no notable features, but it was warm and clearly alive. Major Gaines quickly closed the sphere he held and put it back.
“What the hell is that?” asked Chase.
“I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I’ll bet it’s food,” answered Dr. Blaze.
Logan frowned. “Food?”
Dr. Blaze explained. “Sure. They have to eat something, don’t they? These cylinders are probably refrigeration units. The light greenish hue might be from krypton gases used for their cooling system. Though that’s just a wag.” He meant wild-ass guess. “These individual spheres must be their meals. Looks tasty, huh,” he grinned.
Colonel Chase opened another green-hued cylinder. Within, he found similar spheres. He opened one, finding more organic-looking material. He closed it and threw it back. He continued on to the only blue hued container. This one was wider and shorter, with a different type of latch. The green-hued containers had thicker latches with tighter seals. This one was thinner and easier to open. He undid the latch and lifted the cover. Inside was a cushioned panel with twenty-four slots. Sixteen slots were empty. The remaining eight held donut shaped copper hued objects with an indent and a blue display. He grabbed one and held it in his hand.
“It’s got to be their weapons locker,” said Lt. Steele, spotting the object from a few feet away.
Colonel Chase placed his thumb in the indent and pointed it in Steele’s general direction. Steele jumped aside and, as fast as he could, readied his weapon on Colonel Chase. Colonel Chase pressed the indent attempting to make it fire. Nothing happened. He looked over to Gaines. “I didn’t think they’d work for us.”
Steele responded angrily still pointing his weapon. “You sonuva bitch.”
Gaines quickly approached Chase, tearing the weapon from his hand. “Don’t push me,” he said in a low growl. Then he motioned for Steele to lower his weapon.
Colonel Chase ignored the threat.
Dr. Blaze whispered to Logan. “He gets more fun by the minute, doesn’t he?”
“Actually that’s the first thing he’s done I agree with,” answered Logan.
Chase yelled across the room. “Hey, Blaze. What do you make of these?” He tossed Jeff the alien weapon.
Blaze caught it in one hand. “It’s a laser. More advanced than we got, but I’m sure the principles are still the same—stimulated emissions of a single color of light causing a burst of photons. The discharge is probably made through an adjustable funnel allowing for a flexible dispersion of the beam. Judging from the bluish color of the beam, I’d guess it’s an argon laser. On the inside is probably a yttrium aluminum garnet crystal—or some alien equivalent—that allows the laser to operate continuously. It’s incredibly impressive.”
“How do you know so much?” Major Gaines asked.
“I’m a physicist. The biology of different species varies tremendously according to its environment. We have bears, fish, snakes, rodents, all different because they adapt to their environments. They even recently learned of a microbe that lives in volcanic vents called an archaea. It’s totally different in DNA structure from man, plant, or animal.” He looked at Logan. “That discovery dramatically expands the thermally habitable zone, meaning there’s most likely even more life out there than we could imagine. Anyway, despite the differences between life forms, one thing always remains the same. We are all subject to the laws of physics. Biology is regional. Physics is universal. All species have to obey the laws of time, space, gravity, light, pressure, temperature … these laws a
ren’t going to change. The aliens may possess more knowledge than we have. They may know how to manipulate the forces of nature better … have access to more elements. They may be able to create better alloys, like the copper alloy that makes up this ship, but whatever the situation, the principles of physics are the same.”
“And you’re a physicist,” added Major Gaines sarcastically. “Got it.” He was sorry he asked in the first place.
“Want to try the purple one next?” Blaze asked with an enthusiastic smile.
Chase and Gaines approached the purple canister. This too had a different latch and was easy to open. Inside it contained tiny spheres with markings on them, each stored in a different compartment. On the other side of the cylinder were half empty containers and odd-shaped vials storing colorful liquids of various viscosities. Another section contained a few small unrecognizable devices and gray materials. Notably some of the compartments were empty or only half-filled.
“Any guesses?” asked Chase.
“Tools. Repair equipment.” Gaines shrugged. He picked up a few items and studied them.
Dr. Blaze noticed the items. “Medical supplies. I wouldn’t play with those if I were you.”
Colonel Chase and Major Gaines returned the items gently to their proper places.
“We seem to be in some kind of storage room,” said Logan.
“Let’s move on,” suggested Major Gaines. “We need to secure the entire ship. We can worry about the details later on.”
Rebecca approved. “The corridor splits up three ways. Right, left, and up a ramp. Let’s split up into three teams of two to cover the ship quicker.”
Gaines objected. “No, I want Steele here to guard our backs and make sure nothing goes in or out.” He also thought Steele was too injured to be any good to them. “Rebecca, you go with Logan. I’ll be with Colonel Chase and Dr. Blaze. That OK with you?”
Chase shrugged with feigned indifference. “Whatever. We’re going up.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” said Logan.
“If you see one, just talk to it until we get back.” Chase was purposely trying not to be reassuring. He didn’t want Logan along in the first place and now that he wasn’t going to be needed, he saw no reason to keep him around. More than likely he would just get in the way. He followed Gaines and Blaze up the ramp to the next level of the ship.
“Don’t worry, sport. I’ll look out for you,” said Rebecca with a smirk. “They’ll take the high road, we’ll take the low. We’ll meet up with them in the middle.” She went back into the room, opened up one of the green hued cylinders and filled her knapsack with some of the different colored meal spheres. She stopped briefly and held a brown one in her hand. “Hey, Steele, you hungry?” she asked jokingly.
“No thanks,” Steele answered with a chuckle.
She continued filling her knapsack with as many as she could comfortably fit.
“What are you doing?” asked Logan.
She ignored him. “C’mon. Hold the fort, Steele. We’ll be back for you soon.”
Steele winked and gave her a thumbs-up.
Rebecca and Logan entered the corridor and went left. The hallways were just as bland as the walls in the storage room and made of cold silvery metal. Conspicuously bare, the most notable feature was the lighting, dimly lit violet rectangles about waist high that barely illuminated the corridors. Underfoot, every twenty feet or so, the floor had a rectangular seam indicating a hatchway leading below. Rebecca, with her gun gripped tightly in her hands like the trained soldier she was, took the point. Logan walked unarmed behind her. The corridor circled inward with a new passageway appearing on their right, presumably leading to the middle of the ship. Rebecca placed a green meal sphere in the passageway and continued on the current path. Twenty feet further they came upon two sliding metal doors, one to their left, one to their right. On the left side of each door was a panel with markings on them. Logan reached out to touch the panel.
“No. We secure the corridors first. Then we try the doors,” ordered Rebecca.
“I think they’re rooms. Look how the markings on the third lines are similar to each other.”
“Save the speculation for later. Corridors first, then rooms. Here, hold these.” She handed Logan the knapsack with the colored spheres. “Use a brown one to mark this door.”
Major David Gaines, Colonel John Chase, and Dr. Jeff Blaze were well into the ship’s second level. The lack of detailed décor stole their attention—cold and bare, disappointingly basic, structurally brilliant but without heart. A strict work of functional engineering, thought Blaze. Chase looked at Blaze for directions, an action that Gaines found oddly disturbing. They moved left encountering another up ramp intersecting the corridor. Blaze nodded his head affirmatively. Chase went first, leading the way. He raised his head and his gun above the ridge that was the third level. The corridor was clear. He quickly did a 180 degree turn checking the other direction. All clear. He had three choices. Continue up the ramp to the next level, go to his right, or go to his left. He called to the others who came quickly.
Dr. Blaze quickly scanned about, then recommended going to the next level.
Major Gaines became increasingly suspicious of the duo, but he had no choice except to stay with them and watch closely. The ramp ended at a fourth level. Chase had the same routine. Noticing it was clear, he called the others up the ramp. Here they had two choices, both the same. To their right and left were short hallways that ended with doors.
“Your call, Gaines,” said Chase.
Gaines’ response was less than sincere. “Thanks for asking. Left.”
“Left it is,” said Blaze. He hit the large circle on the panel next to the door and moved to the side letting the two soldiers enter first. The door didn’t open.
“Now what?” asked Gaines.
Dr. Blaze answered. “The ship’s dead. Judging from the bad lighting and these doors, they must’ve killed the power. These auxiliary lights probably operate from some kind of battery.”
Major Gaines tried to pry the seam open with his fingers to force the doors. “They’re not budging.”
Chase unsheathed his belt knife and tried to wedge it between the doors. He didn’t even chip the metal. “Damn, didn’t they plan for a power failure?”
“Can I borrow that?” Blaze asked Chase for his knife. He took it, jammed the blade between the panel and the wall, and punched the handle causing the panel to pop off. Underneath was a complex matrix of crystals.
“Pretty fancy wiring,” commented Gaines, though there wasn’t a real wire in sight.
“Can you bypass it?” asked Chase.
“Let me see … a highly advanced crystalline lattice network. What looks like thousands of alien microchips … millions of pathways, any one of which might open the door if we had power. Sure.” He reached his hand behind the metal towards the door and smiled coyly. A second later both the right and left sides of the door slid open slightly leaving a few inch crack between the doors.
Gaines was surprised and suspicious. “How did you—?”
Blaze pointed to the trigger-like lever he just pulled. “It’s the only mechanism in here that has nothing to do with a power source. I figured it was an emergency latch.”
“Good figuring,” commented Gaines.
Chase grabbed the left side of the door, his gun drawn at his side. Blaze grabbed the right. “You ready?” asked Chase.
Gaines clicked the selector switch of his weapon to single shot. If there was to be a firefight, he wanted limited damage to the ship. He knelt low with his rifle pointed straight ahead, knowing if the aliens were inside they already knew they were coming. He nodded. Chase and Blaze pulled the door ajar.
38
Logan continually scanned the empty corridor. When they came across another intersection, Rebecca told him to place a green sphere down. “You know this doesn’t seem right.”
“You mean me with the gun and you with the markers,” responded Rebec
ca, without looking towards him. Her primary focus was on the task at hand.
“Huh. Oh, no, I mean this ship. I can’t believe that life this advanced would be so bland. Look at this place. It’s cold, dark, empty … no personality whatsoever.”
“Mmmm.” Rebecca wasn’t really interested.
Logan looked around. Even a tomb had more personality. “Is this what happens to us? We concentrate so much on the sciences that the arts just wither away.”
They came across another intersection. Up ahead, Rebecca saw the first marker she placed down by the storage facility. She had thought about checking in on Steele, but decided against it. He was more than capable of handling himself. They had already made a complete circle, so she decided it was time to go right towards the heart of the vessel, if indeed it had one. She quickly turned the corner, ready for trouble. The way was clear. So far they hadn’t encountered one alien. She hoped the rest of the search would be as easy, but she didn’t feel that lucky. “Drop a blue here.”
Logan pulled a blue sphere from the sack, briefly wondering what alien snack was inside it. Then he placed it down. “No, I don’t believe that. There’s got to be more. Every culture has beliefs, arts, entertainment … no matter where they’re from. There’s no way they could be any different.”
“Maybe they just brought the bare essentials.”
“Doubt it. Even the most sterile environments I’ve been in had pictures of friends and family lying around.”
“You’re talking too much.”
“Yeah, I tend to do that when I’m nervous.”
“Then tell me this. Is your boss always such an asshole?”
“Don’t know. Just met him today,” answered Logan.
“Steele should’ve shot him.”
“Oh that. That was just his way of testing him. To see if he was in good enough shape to continue. Inappropriate maybe, but Steele doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would admit when he was too injured to continue. I don’t think asking him would have done it. Gaines caught on. Steele’s reaction time was slow, so he kept him behind for his own protection.”