Terra

by Robert Turnbull

  “Correct Gil. I’m sorry guys, we just can’t send more people as the amount of food is limited. We cannot send another shipment for another year because of the vast amount of power needed and then we can only open a portal about a foot across. Fortunately it will be big enough for us to send you a message and allow you to you reply if all is ok. If it is safe for us to send through the nuclear fuel rods we can, but then the wormhole will collapse if you don’t get the rods in place within a brief period of time.”

  “Nuclear?” Joe frowned “I have no training to handle…”

  Doc held up his hands and grinned “Easy there Joe, as I said everything is taken care of, just some assembly required.”

  “Yeah I read that on toys and shit I bought for my kids before my wife split and took them with her. So easy a ten year old can assemble, but I wasn’t a ten year old.”

  Doc laughed “Much easier Joe. The fuel rods are safe and in containers that just have to be inserted in the power unit. We do not want to send them until we’re sure you two are ready for them…and hopefully avoid contaminating the planet. Once they parachute to Zed, you drive out, pick them up, and insert them into the unit. Believe it or not, I was told there are only three controls used to open and maintain the portal, power up, activate, and off. The portal will form and you two can come home as the portal it will create will be about six feet in diameter to begin with.” Doc grinned “Guess they intend on sending more proficient people through to stabilize the portal and build a bigger power supply, bigger wormhole.”

  “So we do the hard work and they get the credit…figures!” Joe snorted.

  Doc grinned and waved his hands in the air “Of course when the information becomes available, we will be able to tell the world and you will get the recognition of being the first men to set foot on a distant world. Needless to say it will have to remain a secret for some time while the new teams go through, build it better and figure out exactly where Zed is located. We can only receive information while the portal is open, so you two forming a portal on your side is crucial.” he sighed again and Gil read his mind “The portals…we think, will help maintain their own stability. But to be honest gentlemen, this is new technology and there’s so much more to learn.

  “So…Doc? If I’m reading you right, we’re going to need some space suits…and…”

  Joe snapped his head around to his friend “Whoa…I don’t like that tone of ‘and’.”

  Gil grinned “I’m guessing that space suits are going to be sent with us…but didn’t you say they didn’t want to trigger a portal on Earth…uhh…and we’re supposed to open one on this Zed?”

  Doc slowly nodded “I was told it was just a precaution to start out with, but now they figure it is safe enough to do so.”

  “But just to be sure, we’re going to try it out on Zed first…before it’s done here on Earth…just to be sure.” Gil snorted.

  Joe snorted “And hope that we don’t blow up the fuckin’ planet and us with it?”

  “Pretty much Joe, pretty much.” Doc frowned slightly “I guess they figure that risking two men and a planet that isn’t ours, is safer than…” he needn’t say more, both men got the picture.

  “Gil here will start processing and after the next few days will be put into stasis, Joe, you will be sent to the main control room for a day’s worth of training on the electronic gear most of which you’re already familiar with, and then will join Gil in stasis…in your own private stasis chamber room. You two will be only a room apart and a new computer I’m just finishing the program on, will watch after all your statistics and health like a new borne babe. Oh, and will complete your sterilization process.”

  “Wish you wouldn’t put it quite that way Doc.” Joe grinned wryly “Makes me feel like I’ll never have kids again.” he chuckled again this time but his smile quickly vanished when Gil replied.

  “If we don’t get that generator built, neither of us will ever have kids again.”

  Recovering quickly Joe chuckled “Who knows, maybe we’ll find some beautiful green skinned women whose only goal in life is to have daily sex with a couple of good looking astronauts from Earth.”

  Gil grinned and nodded “Orrrr, find hairy, sharp tooth creatures that want to dine on Earth astronauts.” As soon as the words tumbled out, Gil regretted ever saying it. For all they knew, this was a new planet on the other side of the galaxy and there was no telling what was living there. Excited, yet wary of the outcome Doc finished his briefing and Gil spent two days of needles, pills, and more examinations. Joe was to follow him a day later, but by then he’d be sleeping only to be awakened on the day before they were to be launched into orbit, completely encased in their special sterile suits. The last thing he remembered was some technician telling him other suits would be provided for the trip home…they didn’t want them bringing anything home, and Gil again wondered about what kind of viruses and bacteria they might find on this new world and if and how it might affect them.

  ***********************

  Val told Gil what he needed to do, but even though he was extremely intelligent, he knew he had to go slow, one mistake and there were no replacement parts…one bad move and he could electrocute himself; slow would be good.

  Chapter 4.

  “Ok Val, do your final checks and hope for the best.”

  “I cannot hope Major, I am a semi-sentient computer. I can think and plan, but do not have emotions nor…hopes. I can…”

  “Just run your checks Val and let me know if everything looks ok before we connect the secondary power connections, I’d hate to fry you now.”

  “Agreed Major, as I am your best hope to find out what you need to know, keeping me viable would be in your best interest.”

  “I meant I’d hate to chance destroying you.”

  “I am a machine.”

  “A semi sentient one Val, remember? You told me…”

  Val interrupted “Major, I distinctly remember telling you I was a semi-sentient computer, you seem to take it as if that meant close to human, I must inform you that I am not close to…”

  “Ok I give up Val, just do you checks.” Gil snorted his frustration which Val seemed to pick up on.

  “I do appreciate your concern Major, but I am…” Gil looked at the computer monitor due to the strange silent pause “content in the state in which I am in.” Gil sighed a breath of relief, it appeared that Val had to find a word.

  Gil chuckled “It would appear that you do have some sort of self being if you are content.”

  “Beginning checks.” And Gil could have sworn that she sounded a bit peeved at his insistence. After several minutes Val replied all was functioning well and Gil took a deep breath, crossed his fingers…and with his other hand pressed the power button. Several clicks of switches and breakers began to sound and then everything in the main control room came to life. Monitors other than Val’s system monitor flickered to life and several that were programmed to run a slide show of various complex cameras ran. Val was silent so Gil watched the monitors.

  “Well Val, everything looks normal.” he smiled satisfactorily “How about outside the blast doors and the elevator.”

  “I only have the cameras in the inner door hall and security room Major, the cameras on the other side of the blast doors are malfunctioning.”

  “How about topside Val?”

  “Negative Major, for some reason that is not clear there seems to be a malfunction on every camera and I will not be able to bring them on line.”

  “How much are you able to do Val? I mean can you repair them?”

  “Negative Major, I only have the ability to use replacement parts that affected the stasis rooms or the associated systems. Now that you’ve interfaced me with the main computer system, I can only monitor, not repair that is what the skeleton crew was for.”

  “Yeah, great and they left how long ago? This place is probably a mess.”

  “The crew left…”

  “Val, that
was me more or less me talking to myself.”

  “Is that wise Major; talking to one’s self can be construed as a sign of mental angst.”

  “Val…look, I meant that…”

  “Attention! Major Wells, the anomaly has returned. The main computer detects movement in the room outside of the blast doors. I do not have sound, as the sound detector system also is inoperable.”

  Gil shot from the room and as he left he shouted to Val asking her if she could follow him throughout the complex. She confirmed that she could detect him using all cameras, speakers, and microphones that were embedded throughout the inner complex.

  “I may not be able to see you all of the time Major…” she replied as he ran through the main control level to the elevator that was inside of the complex “but there is no reason we cannot converse everywhere you might want to go Major.”

  Gil rode the elevator up to the top floor, three levels up, and ran toward the inner blast door control room.

  “Christ! This camera is out as well.”

  “I informed you of that fact Major.”

  “Val?”

  “Yes Major?”

  “Can you operate the blast door in any way? I can try to fix the camera later, it appears that it was bumped by a ladder standing next to it. Perhaps someone was going to fix it. Just give me an answer on the door.”

  “Affirmative Major. Now that you have interfaced me with the main computer, it is used to operate the fifteen ton blast door as it would be too hard for a human to do so. However there is a manual open and close button as well if you would prefer to do so yourself; it is operated by the usual hydraulics. It was installed in case of a computer malfunction, the buttons are just to the left of the blast door. By the way Major the door opens inward in case of a collapse of the elevator shaft, so be sure to stand well clear of the swing path.”

  Gil secured the security room’s steel door and stepped into the short hallway. To his right, the blast door, to his left a steel door that security would have to ‘buzz’ someone into the main lab complex from inside. Just past the ‘swing path’ sat the steel door to the small security room. He jingled the security door keys in his hand, rethought his plan, and unlocked the door and left it open halfway.

  “Ok Val open the blast door.”

  “Affirmative Major.” There was a hiss and one solid clunk.

  “Just a little bit now Val.”

  “Major, I can open and close it, but not in increments.”

  “SHIT!” Gil shouted and spun to the security door as the blast door slowly swung open and the half scream, half growl he heard turned his blood cold. He didn’t even glance over his shoulder and that probably saved his life.

  Gil leapt through the door as something hit his foot so hard that the impact spun him in mid-air and he hit the floor not on his stomach like he had planned, but on his back. He slid until his feet hit the wall in the narrow security room. Without thinking he pushed off of the wall like a diver on a diving board, slid several feet and flung the steel door closed to the sound of a horrible crash. The steel door had locked securely just as something had hit it hard enough to resound throughout the small room, and it was all steel and concrete.

  “Jesus Val did you hear that?” he could hear a screeching that reminded him of chalk on a blackboard, but one hundred times worse.

  “Major I would recommend that you stay perfectly still. I got a glimpse of something rather large before it took out the camera in the security room door. I do not believe it meant to, as it appeared the anomaly backhanded it in a fit of rage, it was moving too fast for me to identify it. You could be in danger Major as the window…”

  “Val this is four inches of polycarbonate window here in security.” Gil slightly relaxed a bit as the sounds vanished “Hell, it would take a .50 caliber round to even crack it.”

  “CRACK!” the window cracked and Gil nearly had a stroke as he rolled under the metal desk. There were two more ghastly sounds that followed; the first was another earthshattering slam to the window, the second was the sounds of four inch thick polycarbonate plastic falling on the floor and desk over and around him.

  “Major, I do not believe this anomaly knows where you are at. It seems to be in a fit of uncontrolled rage.”

  Afraid even to breath Gil pulled his legs into a tucked position and the sounds of a deep raspy breath sounded from above. It was worse than anything he had ever envisioned in his worst nightmares and his heart leapt into his throat.

  His head swam with horrible visions of his upcoming fate and barely heard a faint click of relays, the wind of a motor, and the sound of something familiar…Val had started the elevator.

  The sounds of the approaching elevator stopped and Gil could hear whatever it was ripping at something metallic and that was all he needed. He slid out from under the desk and hit the close button. The heavy blast door began to move and knowing it would take six seconds on the emergency close, Gil began to count; six…five…four…

  Alarms sounded and Gil banged his head on the underside of the desk he had ducked back under until the door closed. There was the most horrifying, god awful scream that he ever heard, and then there was a sickening crunch.

  A speaker blared “WARNING BLAST DOOR COMPROMISED!” Gil leapt to his feet and grasped the first thing he could find…a seven inch letter opener…and it was plastic!

  “SHIT!”

  He spun to see the window and an eight inch hole broken through it, the rest was so badly egg shelled that he couldn’t see through it. Warily he approached the hole and looked to see what he could from whatever distance he was at. Half expecting some horrible arm to shoot through and grasp him at any second, he inched forward…another inch or two, he saw nothing. Swallowing hard he took a deep breath, grasped the plastic letter opener and winced at its flimsiness.

  Holding his breath, he shoved his face to the hole in the window and looked in as many directions as he could. Carefully pressing his face to the broken plastic he turned toward the huge steel blast door…his heart nearly stopped!

  “Jesus Christ! Val can you see that thing?”

  “Negative Major, my camera is broken…remember I informed you that…and that thing took out the camera in the door of the security…”

  “Forget about it Val. Send me one of those robot transport dollies.” he unlocked the security room door to see huge gouges in the steel plating of the door face, he quickly looked back at the jammed blast door. There wedged in the gigantic round blast door was some horribly mangled beast and what looked to be part of a steel I-beam. Luckily the beam was not as large as the creature. Now nearly cut in half Gil looked at the horrible thing and without looking at the speaker/mike in the corner of the short hall, he muttered…

  “Uh, Val? You’d better make that one of those big transport dollies.”

  Gil slowly approached whatever this thing in the door was. Thick blackish blood oozed onto the floor and it looked about as thick as catsup. As he got nearer, the oozing stopped and chunky pieces of flesh splattered onto the floor…and then the remains of a human hand slipped out where it was wedged in the blast door, the I-beam, and the jamb of the blast door. The hand tumbled out onto the floor and slid through the ooze to near Gil’s foot. Gil gagged and dashed back into the security room and tried his best not to throw up.

  Quickly recovering his composure Gil slowly peeked out of the security door and into the shaft’s darker area.

  “Major?”

  Gil jumped, back stepped so fast that he stumbled back inside the security room and slammed the door before he realized that it was Val on the speaker. His heart still in his throat and shaking like a leaf, Gil frowned.

  “Christ Val, next time warn me before you speak, shit, I nearly had a heart attack.”

  “I cannot tap you on the shoulder Major, what would you have me do next time before I speak?”

  “Forget it Val, what do you want?”

  “I need you to open the inner security door so the
robotic vehicle may pass through. I sent the largest one for cargo.”

  Gil looked back to the beast “Looks like I’m gonna need it too.” He hurried to the blast door that was now jammed by an eight inch I-beam. He kicked the limp body that looked to be nearly twice his size, then kicked it again. He then looked through trying to see all he could in the small gap. Seeing nothing, he leaned back hit the open button, checked the shaft, and then opened the inner security door to allow the robot to drive through. He took the manual control that was attached by a long black electrical cord and moved it right up to the body.

  “Think it’s safe to touch Val?”

  “I would not know Major, this is an unknown species. I would not advise even being in the same room as it Major, but that advice it would seem to come a bit too late.”

  Gil had pulled out some plastic sheeting from a storage compartment on the side of the robotic vehicle “Val? Are you developing a sense of humor? I detected a bit of dry humor…” he strained to lift the upper half onto the flat bed of the vehicle used for moving supplies around the complex, as the lower half flopped on the bloody floor. Again Gil fought the urge to vomit.

  “Why no Major, I am not programmed for humor; besides under these circumstances I would see no humor in what has just happened. You were almost killed, and that new species was before we could study it…what a shame.”

  “Shame?” Gil lifted the lower half and folded it over the top half and dragged it into the hall, dashed back over to the button and hit the emergency close. And began to breathe a little easier once the door sealed.

  “Now all I have to do is get this, this, thing…into that medical bay they did my physical in.”

  “Agreed Major; studying this creature would be a good idea. However if you’ll take it to the main lab I will be able to assist you as there are many devices there that I can use for examining.”

  Gil nodded “Great! Have to admit though, didn’t know you were set up for dissections.” he walked around to the rear of the vehicle and began the slow drive toward the supply elevator and the trip down to the lab floor.