My Star

by Christine Gasbjerg

  I put the paper back on the board, and cover it up the way it was before. I’m only just done, when I hear voices approaching outside the door, and I instinctively hide under the desk. The desk is build solidly into the wall. I press myself against the wall under the table to make myself as invisible as possible, and kick myself in my mind for choosing this hiding place. If it’s the captain coming back to sit at his desk, it’s highly likely that he’ll discover me here—but the voices are just outside the door now, and I haven’t got time to go hide somewhere else. My heart is racing, and an ocean of excuses for why I’m in the storage room are brewing in my head. Suddenly the wall gives way to the pressure of my shoulder with a little thump. It’s not too loud, and I pray that the voices outside haven’t heard anything. There’s knocking on the door, and then it opens. I hold my breath, and hear someone walk in. It sounds like it’s one person walking to the back of the storage, picking something off a shelf, and then leaving again. As the door shuts, the conversation outside continues, and gradually the voices disappear in the distance.

  I breathe again, and realize I had even closed my eyes—as if that should help. Like an ostrich hiding its head in sand thinking “If I can’t see them, they can’t see me.” Funny!

  I’m relieved and eager to get out of there. I get up and make sure that I’ve left no trace in my hiding place under the desk. Then I notice that the space beneath the desk isn’t as deep as it should be. It’s only a little, but just enough for me to suspect that there might be a fake wall under the desk, where the wall gave way to my shoulder. And sure enough there is. With some difficulty, I manage to move the fake wall, and a secret stash is revealed. As I said, I’m a ‘noxpert’ and don’t know a lot about anything specific—which includes weapons. But I can say this much—there’s a few guns, something that looks to me like grenades of different shapes, and then a collection of small bottles with ‘toxic’ and ‘lethal’ labels on them, next to a handful of syringes. I want to take a photo with my personal device, so I can research on the weapons and the poisons later, but all info recorded on the personal devices are automatically uploaded to the common computer, where someone could potentially hack into it. I can’t take that chance, so I’ve got to rely on my memory. I take another look at the poisons and what I believe are grenades, but I already feel these unfamiliar names and details fade in my mind.

  I put the fake wall back up, skedaddle out of the storage room undetected, and head back to my quarters to collect my thoughts.

  “Phew. I finally satisfied all the captain’s questions.” Kurt slips in the door to my cabin. “What’s the matter? You look very strange. Are you feeling ill after the asteroid walk?” Kurt sounds concerned.

  “No no, nothing like that.” I hesitate and wonder if the cabin is bugged. I’m aware that any kind of detected betrayal or action of mistrust towards E-corp will be punished severely... probably with death, I imagine. But I need to know that Kurt is with me, and Kurt should know the danger we’re in, so I dig out an old fashioned paper pad and pen, and start writing.

  We can’t speak. I’m afraid the cabin is bugged. Do you think the hatch, where we talked about the light is bugged? I hand Kurt the pad with my writing on. He looks puzzled, but reads it and writes me a reply on the pad.

  The hatch doesn’t need to be bugged—it has the intercom... But I don’t think anyone was listening. Usually the control room only listens in, when the green activation button is pushed. Then there was the intercom in the suits—but they were turned off. What’s going on? Kurt writes on the pad and returns it to me. Then he looks patiently at me almost as if I was a child.

  I think we’re in danger... I write on the pad about the secret stash of execution weapons I just found.

  Kurt goes pale as he realizes the threat, and rips the pen out of my hand.

  We can’t speak about the light, and we’ve got to appear dedicated to headquarters and E-corp. Kurt writes frantically fast on the pad.

  We have to hide that we speak to each other in confidence. We better keep our conversations to a minimum. Only speak when there’s nobody around. That way they won’t suspect we’re sharing intel, and they will feel in control of us. They can finish us off in a snap, if they feel we’re posing any kind of threat. I feel calm under the circumstances, but very much awake. We’re filling the pages of the pad quickly now.

  Who are ‘they’? Kurt writes fast in imperfect letters full of panic.

  Surely it’s Captain Alvah and the mysterious ‘Officer’ on Earth, possibly a guy named ‘Lorenson’, and presumably all the other highlighted crew members, excluding just you, me, and Martin. Perhaps Rosie is excluded too, although it’s my impression that she obeys all the captains orders without question, so she might soon be ‘highlighted’ too if not effectively already. ‘We’ are probably only including three—you, Martin and me.

  Should we tell Martin? Kurt’s eyes are wide open as he hands me the pad.

  He seems to be very open and extrovert when he finds someone who wants to listen. Even if he’s not with ‘the highlighted’, how can we know he’ll keep it secret, and not reveal our knowledge by accident. Do you think it’s safe? I already know what I think.

  Kurt reads what I’ve written on the pad, and shakes his head in reply.

  If Martin confides in us by himself, then let’s warn him of the danger, tell him to keep quiet and only speak to one of us. But not tell him everything we know and suspect. Keep him at a ‘need to know’-basis, so there’s less risk, if he should happen to spill the beans. I hand Kurt the paper pad. We’ve filled almost half of it now.

  Let’s not tell him anything. He appears to be a blabbermouth, and might give us away. Kurt looks sad, and his writing is getting sloppier.

  But his life is in danger too, if he doesn’t keep his head down, and his nose to himself. We’ve got to warn him. Plus, we could use an ally. I hand over the pad, and squeeze Kurt’s wrist to encourage him.

  Right. Then let me do it. I’ll tell him the bare minimum. Kurt sighs as he hands me the pad.

  He seems ready to give up, and I think a bit of encouragement is in order.

  Look. We’ve made contact with aliens, ET’s. We’ve had an actual conversation with an ET, and we’re learning something extraordinary—almost unbelievable. This is what we came here for. Sure there’s a conspiracy we’ve got to navigate through, and learn the politics of—but we’re also experiencing something that humans have dreamt about for centuries. I try a vague smile, but Kurt just stares at the words on the pad in my hand. The task now is to get the captain and ‘them’ to trust us. Keep our heads down and collect as much intel as we can. At least the words I’ve written have a calming effect on me, if not on Kurt.

  Kurt just sits there, and stares into thin air.

  I tear the written pages off the pad, and put them in the incinerator. The incinerators minimize the amount of trash produced on the vessel, as well as minimize the risk of spreading germs and bacteria. And now this incinerator minimizes information about our secret too.

  Everyone straps up for hyper speed, and the ship moves rather turbulently, like it did during take-off. When the turbulence finally stops, we’re next to what appears to be a space station. It says ‘E-corp’ on the side of it.

  I look at the surrounding space. There are no longer any familiar star constellations or planets around. The Milky Way is far behind, and there are three moons in the distant space behind the station—all three in different shades of grey.

  Apollo approaches the dock at the space station with the utmost care, and finally lands steadily in the dock. The ship is locked in, and the hatch is opened for free access to and from the space station.

  All crew members gather in the dining hall.

  “This is our outermost space station, and the last stop we make before entering virgin space. It’s the most restricted area of our entire corporation, and it’s an honor and a privilege to be here.” Captain Alvah speaks to the crew in his pompous ma
nner. “In addition to the general provisions of food, oxygen and water, we’ve brought certain provisions, that need delicate handling. I need only our two flight captains to stay behind to monitor the Apollo. The rest of you will carry the special provisions onboard the station under Jack’s supervision.” The captain nods at Jack, who’s usually in charge of technical stuff relating to the engines and the controls of the ship. Jack is another crew member I haven’t had an actual conversation with.

  “Lorenson, you come with me.” The captain heads for the space station followed by Lorenson, who turns out to be a small, rather skinny guy with a balding head, and a serious-looking face.

  Everybody else follows Jack, who distributes boxes and containers between us in the storage room. I get a box that is rather light and easy to carry. I follow the others through the hatch and onto the space station. It’s gigantic. Much bigger than I could ever have imagined any facility in space. I wonder what they use all that space for, and how many people there are. We enter into what seems to be a huge hangar, where different engines hang from the ceiling. There are vessels parked on the floor of the hangar. It’s primarily small one- or two-seater spaceships, carrying something that look like weapons.

  Jack shakes hands with a crew member from the station, who takes us through a maze of narrow halls to a large storage room. We stack everything up nicely, and when the station guy starts leading everyone back out through the narrow halls, I fall behind. As I exit the storage room into the hall, Captain Alvah and Lorenson have just passed the others in the hall, and are walking further into the spaceship in the opposite direction of us. I feel my curiosity accelerate like crazy, and I know I’ve got to follow them. When the others turn the next corner, I stay behind. I turn around and walk back past the storage room in the same direction as the captain and Lorenson. I pass a few doors and suddenly a door opens in front of me, and the captain steps out the door next to another guy from the station, who’s wearing a white coat like a doctor. I freeze and don’t even try to hide—there’s no time. They turn away from me, head down the hall, and don’t notice me. I can’t believe my luck. I make sure I don’t move a muscle until they’re gone. Then I quietly open the door they just came through. Behind the door there’s a small entrance hall and another door. A couple of white coats are hanging on a rack on the wall, and protective slip-on shoes are standing in a row on the floor underneath. I can hear noises from behind the second door. I slip in a white coat and a pair of the white shoes, and open the door. I step out onto a narrow railing that runs all along the wall of a massive hall, two to three stories tall. In the middle of the hall a huge thing is floating in the air. It looks like some sort of spaceship. It’s kinda round and has very organic-looking curves in the hull. It’s not suspended by anything, and just hangs there in the air, all still, as if it’s weightless. The strangest thing about it is that it has no real color, and seems translucent. Along one side of the hall there’s a wide horizontal window into what looks like a control room or lab... or possibly both. The window is at the top level that I’m on, and looking out over the hall from the wall furthest away from me. I can see a couple of white coated people moving around in there, but they’re so far away, that I wouldn’t be able to recognize any of them. A door opens below me on the ground floor of the hall, and one of the white coated people from the station crosses the floor of the hall, and finally exits through a door in the furthest corner. I find a staircase that takes me to the ground floor, and approach the translucent vessel. There’s a fence on the floor around the ship. I skip the fence and walk under the hovering vessel. It’s just close enough to the ground for me to be able to touch it. The surface is smooth and hard, but not hard as steel, more like the way that wood is hard. There’s no visible doors or windows and I’m curious about how to enter the vessel. I’m presuming that it indeed is a vessel—perhaps even an ET vessel, but of course I could be mistaken. As I’m exploring the lower surface with my hands, trying to find cracks that would reveal an entrance, the surface starts to respond ever so slightly to my touch. I’m wondering if I’m playing myself a mind trick. The lowest point of the vessel is so low that I have to bend a little to go under it, and strangely that part seems to become softer under my touch—almost as soft as skin.

  “Find anything of interest, Miss Hunter?”

  My heart stops. My body is nailed to the floor. I don’t dare turn around.

  EIGHT

  captivity

  I’m pretty sure that’s the voice of Captain Alvah. I’m caught red handed and now my ship goes down.

  “This is peculiar. What is it?” I try a ‘childish curiosity’-approach, turn around and smile innocently, as if I don’t know that I might be doing something wrong.

  “What’s your game?” The captain sounds calm.

  “Sorry. I got lost looking for a toilet.” I’m trying an excuse. His calmness disturbs me. I wish he’d get angry, and that way show lack of control, but he’s not. He’s calm, unsurprised, and completely in control. I’m sure he can kill me in a heartbeat without a second thought, if he sees fit.

  The captain’s face reveals vague signs of amusement over my lame attempt at an excuse. Like a cat playing with a mouse, he knows he’s got the upper hand, and just enjoys to see me squirm and squeal.

  “I think we’ve found our ‘volunteer’.” Captain Alvah is addressing his space station companion in the white coat.

  “I see... Interesting.” The man sounds strangely intrigued.

  “This way!” The captain orders me abruptly to follow.

  There’s not doubt in my mind that the captain finds me annoying and completely expendable. I can’t escape the feeling that I’m about to be executed. I follow them through narrow halls into a huge room that looks like some kind of test lab. In the middle of the room, there’s a cage of triple layered glass surrounding a heavy table with a human-like creature lying on it. As we get closer, the creature appears lifeless, and is held down by a web of metal wires. It looks somewhat humanoid, but still other-worldly. I am sure it’s an Extra-Terrestrial Being.

  A woman from the station, wearing a full body suit, hands us each a similar body suit to wear.

  “No, not for her.” The captain takes my suit and gives it back. “Only oxygen.”

  The woman pulls a small bottle with a mouthpiece out of the suit, and hands the bottle to me. She puts the mouthpiece properly on me, and opens the nozzle of the bottle.

  “Now you go in there unprotected, and release the ETB from the restraints.” Captain Alvah sounds almost cheerful.

  I really don’t like that man.

  “Turn off the current.” He’s addressing another station guy in full body suit sitting behind what appears to be a control board.

  I suppose the wire web holding the ETB down is electric. I approach the double door entrance of the glass cage, and the woman lets me through the first door. Once it’s closed behind me, a shock wave of little laser sharp lights are washing over me and seems to analyze my body from top to bottom. Then the second door is released, and I enter the glass cage. There’s not a sound in the cage, and the ETB appears to be dead. It’s got two arms, two legs and a head similar to humans—only everything is still just different. The legs and arms are unusually long and slim, the torso relatively small, the head somewhat bigger, and I’m pretty sure that the ETB is almost twice my height, although it’s hard to say exactly since the creature is lying down. The skin of the body is smooth without hair, and has a colorless and translucent look, similar to the vessel I just touched. The face looks withered and tense, and has a nose, a mouth and two closed eyes—appearing very human-like. The skin of the face and hands is different—it has a pale color, and looks like old parchment about to dissolve. The hands are huge, and look like they can snap my legs like twigs.

  “Hello?” I don’t know what to do with myself.

  I don’t feel threatened as such—except for the fact that the captain has put me here, and seems to think he’s puttin
g me in harms way. I approach the table, and quickly touch the electric wire web. It’s not on. I touch the torso of the ETB, and it feels very smooth, soft and organic. The ETB doesn’t move.

  “Hello, are you alive?” I try again.

  Nothing. I can’t even feel breath around the nostrils of the ETB I bend down under the table, and try to figure out how to remove the web. There’s a release handle by the head of the table, so I crawl there, and pull it. The edges of the web releases from the table, and now hang down around the table. I start pulling the web off, and notice that the web has cut into the skin of the ETB. Barbaric!

  Barely alive... It’s finally coming to an end. A voice in my head sounds like the voice I encountered with the light.

  “Are you dying?” I look at the face of the ETB for signs of life.

  You can hear me? The ETB opens both eyes.