“Captain, it would appear our ship is not compatible with being fastened to the deck. It will be dangerous in the cargo bay until it is as there is a lack of gravity.”
“Thanks, Symboli,” Alex said, then said to the pilot, “You need to stay here. Use the compressed air to keep us against the deck if you need to. If shooting starts either from inside the hanger bay or from outside, blast your way out and get back to the Enterprise.”
“Good luck, sir!” Jeremiah replied.
Alex watched as Gs Nor Crest scrutinized him and the pilot. He imagined that Gs Nor Crest considered them giants in their suits, while he sat in an unfamiliar gigantic ship. The display screen made a familiar buzzing sound to Alex and caught his attention. A green circle with a line through it appeared on the screen.
The shuttle ramp door began to open, drawing his attention once again.
“Symboli, instruct our little captain to exit the ship first,” Alex said as he stood up and looked down at the guest who had just been lowered to the floor of the shuttle. Still wrapped in his clear round plastic bubble. Their version of an EVA suit. Alex wondered for a moment if that design would be better, but quickly dismissed the idea as from within the plastic ball there was no way to interact with the surrounding environment.
***
After the hanger bay pressurized the Gothans entered the bay along with many of gis shipmates. Gs Ho Tae floated out in front of them. Most of them held odd pointed devices toward the shuttle. The predator’s ramp touched the deck, and a blast of something exited the top of the shuttle. Vapor, Gs Ho Tae thought.
Many of gis crew had been startled, and more than one had fired a weapon at the predator ship in response, which didn’t seem affected—at all. Fear gripped Gs Ho Tae, and gi remained motionless.
Moments later Gs Nor Crest was removing himself from gis little plastic shell and exited the shuttle, floating out toward the center of the cargo bay.
“How are you?” Gs Ho Tae asked as the other captain was busy exiting gis plastic ball of self-contained atmosphere.
“I feel relief,” Gs Nor Crest said, once gi had composed himself. “I was questioned at length over simple and complex matters. I am not sure I answered all their questions correctly. They have huge, sharp teeth, and they speak to their machines. There are many giants in there.” Gs Nor Crest pointed toward the predator vessel.
And then Gs Ho Tae watched as two massive creatures slowly floated out of the predator vessel, carrying huge devices in their arms. Undoubtedly weapons—or serving utensils? Hopefully, they are weapons, Gi thought to gisself. Gi grasped the deck railing for support and allowed the terror to pass through gis body.
Hearing noises behind gis, gi turned back and noticed a few of the guards had left the room. Probably in terror; gi would have to punish them later if they survived the encounter.
The two giants remained near the ramp while a third and fourth giant emerged from the predator vessel behind them. The third one was not holding anything, but the fourth held something else entirely.
“Please, I feel fear. Could some of you return to your vessel?” Gs Ho Tae could not believe he had admitted that out loud, but if fighting was to happen, he wanted to get it over with.
The giants spoke to each other; that much was obvious, but gi heard nothing.
Moments later two of the giants disappeared back into the vessel. The giant without a device kept a great distance and then spoke. “My name is Alex, leader of humanity,” it said. “I feel pleasure to meet you.”
Celebratory cheers filled the cargo bay; nearly everyone lowered their weapons to slap legs together and rub shoulders. Even Gs Ho Tae breathed a sigh of relief.
“My name is Gs Ho Tae. I am the captain of our mother. What is it you want?”
The giant alien, who wore a suit of some kind, looked down at Gs Ho Tae. Its mouth was moving, but Gs Ho Tae heard nothing. A few moments later it produced a voice. “We have come to learn and exchange knowledge.”
“Then you are welcome. Would you like to be fed?” Even as gi said it, gi wondered how the aliens would eat through their suits. Gi watched as the alien held onto the nose of its ship to keep from floating around the bay.
“No, thank you,” the alien named Alex responded.
Gs Ho Tae began to let the apprehension of this moment fall away. Gis hands were aching, and gi realized gi had been squeezing them tightly. Gi looked around and began to feel awkward and then felt apprehension again. “I would give you a tour of our mother, but you will not fit in many areas. Since you have no need for food, I am unsure how to proceed.”
“I see the difficulty,” Alex said. “How about I invite you and a number of your chosen guests to visit and tour our ship? In the meantime, you can tell me about your people.”
***
Ga Mu Deck stood on the balcony of the holy palace situated atop the Holy Gat Fenora Mountain and looked out over the lively landscape of deep emerald and ruby vegetation. The golden-bronze star drifted along the horizon. Rock formations jutted from the top of the canopy of vegetation that covered the ground.
The palace was carved from the mountain itself, and its every surface was polished and smooth. Several Gothans stood by with covered faces waiting for direction, following Ga Mu Deck wherever ga went, some guards and some servants. Even Ga Mu Deck didn’t know what each of their roles were at any given moment. Ga assumed that was by design, a clever idea by a previous leader.
Without warning one of them approached Ga Mu Deck.
“Update from the mother; the predators have docked, and conversation occurs. Also, we have just approved a status update for the ship. Ga Det Gru is the new captain.”
“What! How did this happen?” Ga Mu Deck was not often surprised but this news stuck with genuine shock.
“It seems that Gs Ho Tae accepted a bribe.”
“It must be some bribe, for gis to accept the command change, fool! Ga Det Gru is not as nearly as smooth-minded.” Ga looked up and tried to imagine the ship high in the sky, above the seemingly perpetual cloud cover enveloping the planet. Even occasional gaps in the clouds did not allow Gothans to view the skies beyond them.
“Send the same orders to the new captain,” Ga Mu Deck said.
Gs Pay Ba silently approached Ga Mu Deck from behind. Those standing guard nearby knew better than to interfere as the new arrival wrapped gis arms around gis mate.
“It is always good to feel your presence, my rock,” Ga Mu Deck said.
“I feel joy. Any update on the predators?” Gi responded.
“Yes. They aren’t predators.”
***
Alex struggled to buckle in; the straps seemed tighter than usual. The Gs Hoe Tae and the other Gothans who were chosen to visit the Enterprise were secured in the back with the security guards. Alex smiled to think of himself as a giant as the pilot backed the shuttle out of the cargo bay of the mother. Suddenly, bright blue lights filled the cargo bay, bathing the interior of the shuttle and momentarily blinding the crew in the cockpit. As the light reflected into the back of the shuttle, a great commotion stirred among the Gothans.
“Captain, it seems your passengers are debating if a command change has occurred. The majority suggests that it has,” Symboli said.
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“Captain, get back to the Enterprise as fast as possible,” Symboli said with a bit of emotion.
“Why, what’s wrong?” Alex signaled permission to the pilot to follow Symboli’s suggestion.
The pilot began making quick movements with the disk rotations. Suddenly the lights in the cockpit went red. Alarms blared.
The shuttle shuddered, and what appeared to be a missile screamed past the cockpit canopy. Sparks flew from behind a console to Alex’s right, and all the indicators on that console went dark. Alex felt the tug of the straps against his shoulder. From the noise in the back, Alex could tell that at least some of the guests had been dislodged from their restraints and were flung
against a bulkhead within their plastic bubbles of atmosphere.
“We are under attack!” the pilot said.
“You think? Get us outta here!”
The shuttle shuddered twice more. Small cracks instantly spider-webbed across the canopy. The mother spun away from the frontal view as the shuttle began an awkwardly angled escape.
“We don’t have pressure in the cabin. We lost our air,” Jeremiah said, almost grunting.
Alex looked back in the cabin; at that very moment a Gothan was ejected from the temporary bungee cord restraints before landing somewhere outside of Alex’s field of vision. Then came another shudder, this one jarring his teeth. Even as he worked his jaw, he watched as pieces of one of the disks floated in front of the shuttle.
The pilot maneuvered the ship in another direction and increased speed dramatically. For a few seconds Alex watched intently. Then his field of vision began to narrow.
The next thing he remembered was opening his eyes and wondering why he was in an EVA suit. It took a few more moments, but when his memory returned, panic set in. Even past the extensive web of cracks, it was unmistakable that the Gothan planet was far too close for comfort.
Alex opened the communications display and toggled the Enterprise.
“Enterprise, this is Alex. Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, we can hear you. Thank God, you’re alive. We assumed you had been killed.” Alex could hear a thud and a scream in the background.
“What’s your status?” Alex asked as the speakers gave off static, in the background he heard a bridge officer say, “The shuttle is caught in the planet’s gravity.”
“Hey,” Alex said looking at the pilot, but there was no response. Alex switched his display to the sensor screen. He looked over at Jeremiah; the pilot was just coming back to consciousness and blinked at his own display screen.
“Hey, wake up! Get us away from the planet!” Alex shouted at the pilot, who was still dazed. Even as he said it, the sensor screen painted a darker picture. A massive amount of debris surrounded the position of the Enterprise which was maneuvering away from the planet, and the ship had taken on a lot of damage. Alex knew there should be dozens of other alien ships on the scope, but there were none.
Jeremiah eased up the power on the antigravity drive, and the ship reoriented at another angle, before starting to groan and complain.
“What’s wrong?” Alex looked around for an obvious answer, but there was none.
“We only have one working disk left,” the pilot said. “I think the hull surrounding it is damaged. I don’t think it can take the pressure.”
“How fast are we approaching the planet?”
“If the atmosphere is anything like Earth’s, we are going five thousand miles an hour too fast. If the hull weren’t compromised, I wouldn’t worry so much about the heat. We are starting to slow down though, we might be fine.” The ship began to groan again.
“It doesn’t sound like we are going to be fine,” Alex said. Just then one of the loose Gothans floated into the cockpit. Its protective plastic cocoon was breached and resembled a deflated transparent beach ball with the alien inside. Blood coated the interior heavily, a reddish-orange color that seemed—
The pilot grabbed the floating cocoon and tossed it back into the back half of the shuttle, interrupting Alex’s thoughts.
“You can help me by keeping the debris out of my way,” Jeremiah said, as the gravity of the planet gripped the ship more noticeably.
Alex peered at the pilot for a moment and read the nametag on his outfit. For some reason he became transfixed by the nametag for several moments. Jeremiah, he read.
Then the canopy flickered as if someone was playing with the lights. Alex looked at the lights, which were a steady white and red. It was a moment before Alex realized the light was coming from outside the ship, as the air around the fast-moving ship was catching fire.
“What is that?” Alex asked looking straight ahead as the flashes of fire got duller.
“Those are some bright clouds.”
Panic shot through Alex, and he said, “Can you get us back into space?” He was afraid they wouldn’t be able to get back into orbit.
“Not with one crippled disk!” Jeremiah said. The shuttle began to shudder again as the passing air buffeted the sides of the mangled shuttle.
Several interior lights went out. Only the pilot’s display remained functional. Alex grabbed onto his straps, feeling alternately helpless and awestruck as he watched a beautiful landscape of green, red, and brown come rushing at them.
“We are going too fast!” Alex shouted.
“Yeah, hold on. I’m gonna try a bit more power to slow our descent.”
The ship groaned even more loudly. Alex was sure the shuttle was tearing apart. But he could feel the straps against his chest even as the ground came closer. Deep down he knew they were slowing down even more. His mind, however, was contemplating all he had not explored or accomplished. His mind went to the moment Earth had first received the warning from the alien visitor about the galactic enemy that was destroying all life on all planets. He closed his eyes, figuring they were going to die anyway.
Jeremiah managed to apply a bit more power as the ship approached the surface. Then simultaneous booms reverberated along the ship; the first, Alex guessed, was the antigravity disk assembly separating itself from the hull under the immense pressure. The second came when the shuttle smacked into a thick canopy of trees moments later and then struck the ground. The shuttle rolled several times and it slowed. Lightly colliding with a thick tree bringing the shuttle to a complete stop.
Chapter 2
It’s a good day
Timmy sipped the warm coffee; it smelled good, and the taste was rich in his dry mouth. His eyes were fixed on the orb, which once again was producing a confusion of symbols and colors, each traveling in its own rippling direction. Ever since they had discovered the orb buried deep in the Earth they had tried to decipher its meaning and purpose.
It had been a couple of days since his science partner, Pete, got upset with him and began to study the nearby Zorn mother pod instead. The one that crashed right next to them as they studied the orb. Honestly, Timmy didn’t mind the quiet, but now he had no one to bounce ideas off, and the orb was not being as helpful as it had been a few days ago.
Once the counting finished, there wasn’t another topic to take its place. The symbols just appeared and continued as usual. It had been days since he spoke with his science partner, and now the silence was getting to him. Timmy gave a deep sigh as he decided to go to Pete and see how the investigation of the alien pod was coming. While dropping off his notepad on a nearby desk, “Hey.”
Timmy jumped, and his hand knocked the notepad to the ground.
“Geez…a little warning next time, OK?”
“I said hey,” Pete said as he looked around the desk. “How’s your progress going?”
“That’s funny. I was about to come over and ask you that.”
“After six days of silence, I doubt it.”
Timmy rolled his eyes and sat down, while Pete did the same while looking at Timmy. His skin and hair were greasy, and the orb was behind and over his left shoulder, behaving as it normally did.
“Well, after about six days in a dark alien ship, I can say I haven’t figured a whole lot out. That’s why I arranged for our guys to pull this sucker out of the hole it created from the surface and tear it apart in one of the hangars. I think we will make more progress that way. I’m just one guy, and ship design isn’t really my thing. Most of the pods buried into the Earth about the same distance as this one did.”
“No, that’s smart, makes sense. You handing the studying off to the others I mean.” The orb behind Timmy’s shoulder pulsed for a brief moment. So brief in fact, that Pete wasn’t sure it really happened.
“I haven’t made much progress either,” Timmy said with disappointment.
Now Pete was sure the orb was respond
ing to Timmy, whose every word provoked the appearance of a new symbol from the orb. “Uhh huh,” Pete mumbled, utterly distracted by the orb.
“When it finished teaching me to count, it went back to the normal routine, nothing to be learned.” When Timmy finished the sentence, a red glyph appeared and then disappeared as it spun over the horizon of the orb.
Pete focused back on Timmy. “So how much longer do you think it will be before we solve the orb?” Pete watched indirectly as the orb remained solid black.
“Oh, I don’t know—” The words produced new glyphs. Timmy lowered his head, exhausted by his efforts to solve the orb. Pete quickly glanced at the computer screen to his left, making sure there was video recording.
“Have you tried speaking to it?” Pete asked with a raised eyebrow,
“Why the hell would I try talking to a rock?” Timmy asked, and Pete watched as a new series of glyphs appeared with his words.
“Oh, I don’t know, it might be listening to you.”
“God, you can be so annoying. Your ideas are terrible.” Another series of glyphs appeared. The last one was red.
“Funny, I thought I left you because you were complaining about everything.” Pete watched the orb in its still blackness—obviously, his own words had no effect on it.
Timmy remained silent, and the orb remained black.
“Hmmm… What would you give me if I provided you another great but workable clue to the orb mystery?”
Timmy lifted his head, his face expressing consternation. “You don’t have anything.”
Pete stood up and watched the orb provide a new series of glyphs, then began walking toward it.
Timmy ignored him and kept looking at the ground.
“Timmy, just keep talking.”
“What?”
“Talk about anything.”
Timmy finally stood up and walked over to Pete as his finger was pointing to the black orb.
“That time you spent in the alien ship must have addled your brain.”
Shadows Page 2