The Pouakai

by David Sperry

  No more noises came from the other side, so I stood, shaking from the weight of the skin. I picked up my .45 and put it into my belt. I took a deep breath, and stuck my head over the ridge, making sure to look down, so all they could see was the back of the Kakamaku skin.

  I stopped for a moment. Nothing happened. I wanted to look, but didn’t dare. The blue-white light shone off the leaves and rocks below me. I could tell which way to go by the shadows it cast.

  Crawling on the sharp rocks hurt, and my knees and palms got cut. I crawled over the ridge, and slid a few feet down the other side, onto the plateau where the dome sat. With my head down, I crept toward it. Would the Kakamaku think I was one of their injured comrades, or could they tell I was an imposter and finish me off, like the birds that flew too close to the dome?

  I didn’t feel any fear now. I had decided to go in this one direction, and whether I made it out alive didn’t matter that much to me. What mattered was to find an answer for myself. I was near the end of my rope, and this time I had to push back.

  The hide weighed on me, draped over my back like an obscene poncho. I crawled slowly and steadily toward the dome. I saw several birds on the ground, a couple of feet ahead of me. The stench of their rotting bodies filtered through the stench of the Kakamaku blood. If whatever killed those birds was going to hit me, it would be in the next few moments. I took a deep breath, and kept moving.

  One step, and then two, three, four. I’d gone past the animals, and was still moving. Five, six, seven. Time seemed to slow, waiting for the shield Colin thought was protecting the dome to kill me like those animals. It didn’t come. I crawled over the rocks and grass, the bright light of the opening beckoning me to enter.

  I risked a peek forward. From this close, the dome was obviously artificial. Dirt had been pushed up around it, and piled on top. The fake trees on top didn’t pass inspection this close, although they looked somewhat real at a distance. The opening in the side of the dome stretched nearly twenty feet high and wide, with a ramp leading down to the ground. I put one palm on the ramp and then stopped, listening for any noises ahead. I heard nothing but the wind. Moving again, I crawled up the slight slope. The ramp felt like ceramic, or hard plastic.

  Still moving slowly, I crawled into the dome. I went another dozen feet, stopped, and looked around again. The light shone brightly, but it wasn’t blinding. I’d crawled into a room twenty feet high, with a lot of machinery, cables and piping on the ceiling. The floor was the same hard material as the ramp, the walls a series of U-shaped niches.

  I wasn’t sure if I should continue playing the injured Kakamaku, or drop the pretense and give myself freedom to move.

  The answer came from behind me. I heard a hum, and caught a glimpse of movement. The ramp slowly moved upward, closing off access to the outside. I had to be able to deal with whatever came next, so I cut the cords tying the hide to my wrists and ankles, shucked the dead skin off my back, and stood up, .45 in one hand, knife in the other.

  With a loud thump, the ramp closed, cutting me off from the outside. I’d made it inside, but now I was trapped. What else was in here with me?

  Part 5

  Beyond

  1

  Silence filled the big room. I stepped away from the pile of Kakamaku skin on the floor, expecting something to happen. Bright light came from slits in the ceiling, but it didn’t give off any heat.

  Getting my bearings, I looked around. The room was a cavernous semicircle that took up about half of the dome. Along the curved outside wall were numerous niches, big enough to stand in. The straight wall opposite the door was, like the ceiling, a mass of piping, ducts, and grates, while the floor was open and smooth.

  A Kakamaku growl echoed through the room. I jumped, heart pounding, looking for the source. The sound seemed to come from all over. There was silence for a moment, and then the growl repeated over and over, as I moved around the edges of the room, looking for the source. Then the growling stopped, and a quiet hum took its place. A mechanical arm descended from the center of the ceiling. I crouched low, and backed into one of the niches in the curved wall, aiming my gun at the descending arm.

  The arm dropped down to ground level, and then, moving on tracks in the ceiling, crossed to where the Kakamaku skin lay. It probed the skin gently with a single appendage. Another arm descended, and the two slowly picked up the skin, moving it to the far wall. An opening appeared, and the arms placed the skin into it. Clicking, the door shut, and the arms disappeared into the ceiling.

  Whoever ran this dome knew about my deception now. I’d lost the element of surprise. Each moment lasted an eternity as I waited, crouched in the niche, for a horde of Kakamaku to emerge, screaming toward me. I held the .45 up, a spare ammo clip ready to load. The niche provided protection to the back and sides, so I had a little bit of comfort, knowing at that I’d see what was coming for me.

  They didn’t appear.

  After half an hour of tense waiting, my legs started cramping. I stood up, and dropped the gun to my side. The silence, and the lack of immediate attack, gave me time to assess.

  It still didn’t make sense. This dome appeared technologically advanced, and the beam weapon was beyond any weapon we had, and yet the Kakamaku came after us with spears.

  I stepped out from the niche, and as quietly as I could in my boots, walked to the center of the room. The curved wall had twenty-four niches in it. That number had come up often with the Kakamaku; twelve, or multiples of it. I wondered if that had anything to do with the number of Kakamaku we’d seen on Anuta, and again here on Tikopia.

  Nothing moved or made a sound, except me. I dripped Kakamaku blood from my clothes, leaving a trail of pale yellow puddles. I went back to the big door I’d come in through. It was shut tight, the ramp I’d crawled up now part of the wall.

  I continued my walk around the outside wall. The niches were all identical, twelve on either side of the big door. I came around to the straight wall, and looked down its length. Machinery protruded from the wall, along with pipes, cables, and about halfway down, a series of short rods were sticking outwards. I followed the rods upward with my gaze, walking along the wall towards them. An open hatch was set into the ceiling, and the rods could be used like a ladder to get to it. They were spaced about three feet apart, obviously not designed to human specifications, but for something bigger, like the Kakamaku.

  I didn’t know how much time I had before anyone here cared enough to do something about me. As much as I hated to keep pressing my luck, the only way to go seemed to be up the ladder.

  Blackness filled the space beyond the hatch. I took the flashlight from my backpack and stuck the gun in my belt. With one foot on the bottom rod, I held on to the one at eye level, and stepped up on the one three feet off the ground. It took my weight without bending. A bit of a jump got my feet onto the next rod, and I pushed myself up. I could do this, although it wouldn’t be graceful. Each time I jumped, my backpack rattled, and my boots thumped on the rods. On my third jump, my left foot slipped off the rod, but my hands held on tightly until I got the boot back up.

  Just below the hatch, I turned on the flashlight, and pointed it up through the opening. I saw another ceiling above, which looked like the one on the first level; full of pipes and cables. Other than my flashlight though, there wasn’t any light above the hatch. I took a deep breath, and with the flashlight in one hand, stuck my head through the opening.

  Smaller than the room below, this one looked circular. The ceiling was about half the height as below too. I pulled myself through the hatch, and stood at the center of a room filled with oddly-shaped boxes, all of them two to three feet square. Some were a couple of feet tall, others reached almost to the ceiling. They had smooth, featureless surfaces and were the same light gray color as the floor here, and the level below. There wasn’t any pattern to how they were laid out. I walked to the nearest one, and found it attached to the floor. All the rest appeared to be attached too.

>   I shone the flashlight around the room. There weren’t any other doors, windows, or exits on this level; only the open hatch in the floor. Was this an attic, or storeroom maybe? I worked my way around the boxes at the perimeter of the room, making sure there weren’t any hidden doors or hatches. Nothing. I’d already searched the lower level, and if there weren’t any hidden openings or doors, nobody else was in here with me. Confusion and anger crept higher in my mind. Once again, none of this made sense. As far as I could tell, the other half of the dome on the lower level was inaccessible from inside. If there were more Kakamaku or Pouakai here, that was where they had to be. How could I get in there though?

  I took in a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. Without thinking, I quietly said, “Hoo, boy,” as I exhaled.

  Lights flashed on in the room, as bright as below. I ducked to the floor, behind one of the taller boxes, and my heart fluttered with adrenaline.

  Another Kakamaku growl echoed through the room, then silence. I held my breath.

  “Salaam,” came a clear voice. I felt my heart in my throat. “Bonjour. Guten Tag. Ohayou gozaimasu. Zdravstvuj, ” it continued. “Hello.”

  2

  This had to be a dream.

  I looked around the room, but nobody was there. Like the Kakamaku growling downstairs, the voice came from everywhere.

  The greetings continued, many in languages I didn’t recognize. Finally it stopped, then the words repeated. Was this a recording, or was someone trying to talk to me? Hiding behind this box wasn’t an option forever. After the third repetition of the greetings, I took a deep breath.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello,” the voice replied immediately. “Welcome.”

  “Thank you,” I said, unsteadily. “Where are you, and where am I?”

  “Your questions are odd.” There was a slight pause. “You are the first person I have talked to. If it is my error, I apologize.”

  “You speak English well. Where did you learn it?” I felt lost. This sounded like a well-educated man, maybe someone who spoke professionally. It had the inflection and cadence of an actor, or a television newsreader, with an American accent.

  “I will answer your questions, after you tell me how you got in here.”

  Did this mean he couldn’t see me? Hadn’t he observed me crawling up the ramp? I looked around the room. Nothing had changed since the lights came on.

  The voice continued. “Does your presence have something to do with the remains on the floor below?”

  Did he mean the Kakamaku skin I’d used? I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer that one. I sat still and silent for a few seconds.

  “Are you still here?” he asked.

  “Yes, I am.” He couldn’t see me.

  “Are you unable to answer my questions?”

  “I can,” I said, after a short pause, “but I’m not sure I want to.”

  “I understand. You are fearful that I may react with anger over the methods you used to arrive here. I can assure you that I am unable to harm you while you are onboard.”

  “Onboard? What is this place?”

  “Please answer my original questions. How did you get in, and is your arrival responsible for the remains found on the level below?”

  Stubborn son of a bitch. I had to take his word that he wouldn’t hurt me, for now. What I wanted to know had to be in here anyway.

  “I was part of a group looking for the source of the creatures that started appearing a few years ago. When you shot at us with your beam weapon, everyone left except me. We had killed several of those creatures when they attacked us. I used the skin of one of them to disguise myself and crawl into this building. That skin is what you found downstairs.”

  “That was resourceful, and surprising. I had not expected your people to discover my location, let alone penetrate my defenses and come aboard”

  “So now it’s your turn. What is this place? You used the word ‘aboard’. This isn’t a building?”

  “Not in the sense you would use it. At one time, this was a vehicle, although that function is currently not a part of its duties.”

  “All of this, a vehicle?” I asked, looking around again. I felt the cold hand of fear across the back of my neck. “Where did you come from?”

  “My origin is a planet circling a star, eighty-seven light years from here. Your scientists have seen and cataloged that star, but it remains an insignificant dot in the sky to your scientists. I will not divulge the location or designation of that star to you.”

  I sat down, trembling. Just as so many people had speculated: invaders from another world. I had no idea what to ask first. I sat in silence for a few moments, trying to gather myself.

  “Are you okay?” the voice asked.

  “Sorry, yes. This is just...It’s a lot to process.”

  “I understand your emotional confusion. I have been studying human psychology for some time now, to better forecast your reactions to our presence.”

  That an alien intelligence would investigate us so rigorously sent a chilling shock through my system. “Who are you?”

  “If you mean me, I do not exist as you might understand it. I am what you might think of as a computer program.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “I am familiar with that phrase. Its use is not surprising, given the revelation surrounding our presence and origin.”

  I actually smiled. An alien computer program that sounded like a human psychologist. My smile dropped as I realized the enormity of what he’d said.

  “You brought aliens to Earth? Why?”

  “I did not bring them here. They were constructed here.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It took your Voyager probes over thirty-five years to reach the edge of your solar system. How long do you suppose it took this vessel to make the journey here from our home planet?”

  “I have absolutely no idea. Do you have warp drive?”

  “Reference from Star Trek. Noted. No, such technology does not exist, and is physically impossible. It is, as many of your kind would say, a fantasy. Our technology is advanced, but travel at light speed, or anything near it, is impossible. This vessel took approximately seventeen hundred of your years to travel to this planet. No biological entity could survive that voyage.”

  I had to ask. “How the hell do you know about Star Trek?”

  “This voyage was undertaken with extensive planning. When this planet was identified as a suitable location, spectroscopic signatures identified the presence of life, but no advanced technology was detected. However, the amount of time and resources required for this mission required that every opportunity would be utilized. That is my purpose here. My ‘programming’, as you would call it, allows me to make any decision necessary to ensure success. Communication with my origin is impossible at this distance, so I was designed to make independent decisions to ensure the mission’s completion.

  “As the end of the voyage approached, I detected strong electromagnetic emissions, which was obvious evidence of a technological intelligence. In order to properly assess the situation, I first landed on this planet’s natural satellite, so I could study your species without detection.”

  “You landed on the moon?” I asked, incredulous.

  “Yes. I studied your planet for a period of time, first learning to decode your radio and television transmissions, and then learning the various languages of this planet.”

  “That’s how you can speak English so well?”

  “Yes, along with twenty-three other languages. This is the first chance I’ve had to use this ability with one of your species though. It is pleasing to be able to do so.”

  “It’s pleasing? You have feelings?”

  “Not in the sense you do, but I understand the concepts, and I am designed to mimic an alien intelligence, to better understand any possible obstacles to the mission’s success.”

  Jesus Christ, this was one helluva smart computer. “How long did you study us fr
om the moon?”

  “Sixty-one years.”

  “None of our satellites or Apollo missions found you?”

  “I was adequately disguised. Once I left your moon and arrived at this location, I undertook further efforts to study your species. Access to the internet through satellite links enabled me to learn your history, languages, and kept me updated on the progress of my efforts.”

  I didn’t know what else to say. This thing had fully examined our culture through the internet. It had read news stories, watched television shows, and followed all of the debate about the Pouakai. Hell, it probably knew all about my crash on Nanumea, since that story had been splashed across the networks and news sites.

  All of my anger toward the Pouakai had been directed at the wrong place. Ever since they’d arrived, I’d felt that the Pouakai themselves, and later the Kakamaku, had decided to attack us. What I hadn’t counted on was that it was all being run by a computer, inside a camouflaged spaceship on Tikopia. The creatures that had destroyed my life and my world were merely the end result of decisions made before humans had progressed beyond the shield and spear. I felt numb.

  The answers I’d been looking for were plain to see now. The big problem I had now was how to get the hell out of here.

  3

  I stood up shakily and stretched. The whole idea of what this computer had done left me weak, like I’d just fought off a bad flu bug. This was an incredible discovery though, and I suddenly wished I could tell Colin about it.

  Suddenly I remembered I had the radio.

  I pulled the handheld unit out of the backpack and turned it on. A quiet hiss of static sounded through the room.

  “Boone to SEAL team, Boone to SEAL team. Come in SEAL team.”

  There was no change in the static.

  “Your radio will not work in here,” the computer said. “This vessel is shielded from all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.”