The Expanding Universe

by Craig Martelle

  Looking about her again, along the main field of debris stretching off to her left, where the rear part of the ship would be, she felt drawn to walk that way. As much as going to her right to see if any of the command crew had survived was a tempting idea, she knew a better chance of finding a survivor lay in the other direction. Also, Kal would be that way.

  As she looked ahead now at the path she would take to the first chunk of debris a mile or more away, she suddenly noticed something odd close to it. There appeared to be huge upright stones that seemed to be carved into shapes she couldn’t quite make out. They were tall and slender and did not look like natural rock formations. She considered them for a moment, before disregarding them for the time being.

  The sun was high in the sky and she had no idea how long the days on this planet would be. It made no sense to waste any more time here, so she set off down the slope to her left and started to pick her way over the rocks.

  A couple of hours later, the high sun was starting to take its toll on her. If she hadn’t been exerting herself, the heat wouldn’t have caused too much trouble, but the difficult terrain and the weight of the backpack made things much more difficult. She’d cut off the legs of her jumpsuit and rolled up her sleeves in an effort to keep cool and did her best to keep herself hydrated, stopping from time to time in a shady area to catch her breath and sip some water.

  Eventually, she walked into a wide and relatively shallow valley lined on both sides with the tall monuments she had seen earlier.

  Walking between the two rows of them, she could now clearly make out the shapes of these statues and got an eerie feeling of dread from them, causing a shiver to pass down her spine. Was she going mad, or did these statues look distinctly humanoid?

  They were figures cloaked in hooded robes that hid their features making it difficult to be sure that they were human, but the resemblance was uncanny.

  But no humans had ever been out this far. They were twenty thousand lightyears from Old Earth and over five thousand lightyears from the colonised edge of human space.

  Acacia’s home world of Norfolk, one of the powerful Foster Colonies, lay about twelve or thirteen thousand lightyears behind her, and as she stood there, looking up at these impossible statues, that felt a very long way away, she suddenly felt very vulnerable.

  Ahead, at the far end of the valley lay the next huge chunk of ship in the centre of a debris field of blackened twisted metal.

  Acacia kept her head down and even though it felt like they were watching her, did her best to ignore the statues and walked at a brisk pace towards the wreck.

  ‘Hello,’ she called into the ship as she reached a doorway without its hatch. ‘Anyone in here?’

  ‘Urgh, yeah, in here,’ came a voice from inside.

  Feeling suddenly elated that she wasn’t alone, she climbed up into the ship.

  ‘Keep talking, I need to follow your voice,’ she said.

  ‘In here, I’m in here,’ he called back to her. She picked her away over the mess as carefully as she could following his calls into the remains of a room and quickly found a young man with his leg pinned under a huge metal strut.

  It looked broken, but there wasn’t a lot of blood.

  ‘We need to get you out of there,’ she said.

  ‘And how do you propose to do that?’ he groaned.

  ‘Let’s try and lift it together, can you help?’

  ‘Sure, what’s your name? I’m Braxton,’ he said.

  ‘Acacia. Now, have you got it? Good. Now lift!’

  She pulled as hard as she could; it moved, but not enough. After another moment, she had to let it go, causing Braxton more pain.

  ‘Aaaah crap, now what? If we can’t do it together, what hope do we have?’ he moaned

  ‘Don’t be so pessimistic, I’ll get you out of there, I promise,’ she smiled.

  He sat back and sighed. ‘Sure. Do you have any water?’

  Unpacking her supplies she passed him the water taking the opportunity to have a better look at his leg and the debris that had it pinned while he drank.

  ‘I’ve seen you around the ship, haven’t I?’ she asked.

  ‘Probably, you’re one of the bridge crew right?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m the navigator, you?’

  ‘Just a lowly engineer,’ he sighed.

  ‘You’re engine crew? Then you must know what happened. How did we drop out of warp?’ she asked, suddenly insistent.

  ‘We did pass the info on up to the bridge, did you not…’

  ‘I was a little pre-occupied. I must have missed that conversation,’ she said.

  ‘There were a series of explosions. They were internal. Nothing hit us, but it was strange. Everything was running fine, that we could see anyway. If I had to guess, I’d say it was sabotage.’

  ‘Really? But that makes no sense. Why now? Why here?’ she asked.

  ‘No idea, I’m just telling you what I saw.’

  ‘That is so strange,’ she mumbled to herself, before refocusing on his trapped leg again. ‘Anyway, I’ve been thinking, wait there a moment, I have an idea,’ she said and started to look about her.

  ‘I’m going nowhere,’ he groaned and sat back again.

  Acacia soon found what she was looking for in the shape of a long bar of reinforced metal and returned to the engineer.

  ‘Let’s see if a bit of leverage can’t get you out of there,’ she said taking her time in positioning the bar. ‘Ready?’

  ‘As I’ll ever be,’ he said, scepticism written all over his face.

  ‘Here we go,’ she said and used all of her weight to press down on the long end of the bar. It lifted the strut easily and seconds later, Braxton had pulled his leg free.

  ‘You… you did it. Thank you,’ he said.

  ‘You need to have more faith in my abilities,’ she chastised. ‘Now, let’s have a look at your leg,’ she said.

  She was no expert, she had some basic medical training, but the way his leg bent in the middle of the shin suggested to her it must be a clean break.

  ‘I… I don’t know what I’m looking at really. It looks broken, clearly,’ she said wryly, ‘but other than putting it in a splint, I don’t know what’s the best thing to do,’ Acacia said, looking up at Braxton who was still in a lot of pain.

  ‘You found me right? Maybe there are others who survived? Maybe someone with some medical training?’ he said hopefully.

  ‘There’s a lot more debris for us to search. I saw plenty more sections of the ship from some high ground. I think it’s our best option,’ she agreed.

  Acacia set to work and found what she could to put a splint on his leg. She also found him a “T” shaped bar of metal that he could use as a makeshift crutch and slowly guided him out of the ship into the valley outside.

  ‘What the hell are those?’ he said, looking up at the ominous looking statues.

  Seeing them again only brought back those feelings of unease she had. She didn’t like looking at them, but Braxton had his arm around her shoulders as she helped him to walk, and he wanted to have a good long stare.

  ‘I don’t know, they creep me out,’ she said.

  ‘They look human, how can that be?’

  ‘I have no idea, but we can think about that later; we need to get you some medical attention,’ she said.

  ‘They look reverential, religious maybe… scary looking things whatever they are,’ he said as she guided him out of the debris and the valley, continuing along the trail of wreckage.

  As they walked, Braxton looked back at the statues a few times while he could still see them, but Acacia kept her eyes forward.

  Knowing they were there, though, didn’t help. She felt watched, but couldn’t put her finger on why exactly. Was she being childish as she fought the urge to look behind her, all the while half expecting something to stab her in the back?

  Leaving the valley behind, they walking up a gentle slope of rock, taking their time so as not to fall. Braxton
had been doing well, she thought, never wanting to stop and rest and fighting through the obvious pain he was in.

  They soon reached the crest of the hill and looked down into another long and winding canyon that looked to be several miles long. Ahead of them, wedged up against the canyon wall, a huge section of the Pilgrim lay smoking.

  ‘That looks promising,’ Acacia said.

  ‘Sure does, and, if I’m right, I think the medical suite is in that part of the ship,’ he said.

  Acacia looked at it and tried to visualise the internal layout of the Pilgrim and where the medical suite sat within it. Braxton might just be right, maybe, hopefully.

  But before they went down there, she really needed to have a rest and a drink. Braxton was quite heavy and taking his weight as well as the weight of the supplies had taken its toll.

  ‘I need a rest, here, sit here,’ she said and guided him to a rock, lowering him down. With Braxton comfortable, she collapsed onto the rock next to him and spent a moment catching her breath.

  Feeling a little better, she looked up at Braxton and noted that he seemed to be staring into space, looking at nothing.

  ‘You okay Braxton?’ she said.

  ‘I’m just thinking about those statues,’ he said.

  Acacia pressed her lips together and glanced back the way they had come. The valley and the statues were out of sight now, but she knew they were there, waiting.

  ‘I wasn’t going crazy was I? They looked human right?’ he said.

  ‘I believe so yes.’

  ‘But, no human has been out this far before, have they?’ he asked.

  ‘Not to my knowledge, no, we’re way beyond the furthest reaches of colonised human space here,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t think Earth Gov were exploring out here do you during the Great Separation?’

  ‘I don’t see how. They would have had to get past the Colonies without being detected in order to do that. But those statues, they looked old, I mean, really old.’

  ‘Command will be very interested in this, you know,’ he said.

  ‘I know. The first sign of intelligent life ever found beyond Earth. Of course they’ll be interested.’

  ‘Even if they do look human…’

  Acacia nodded and looked down the slope towards the next section of the ship. As she watched, she picked out what seemed to be movement. She stood up and watched more carefully.

  ‘What is it? Did you see something?’ Braxton said.

  ‘I think so. I’m sure I just saw something move down there.’

  ‘More survivors?’ Braxton asked.

  ‘Hopefully, come on, let's go,’ she said and packed her stuff away before helping Braxton back to his feet.

  The descent was slow-going as they picked their way through the rocky terrain, trying to make things as easy as she could for her injured friend. She tried to keep an eye on the ship for more movement, but she couldn’t be sure at this distance, so she just concentrated on getting there as quickly as she could.

  Over an hour later, they finally approached the wreckage. It was a huge section of the rear part of the ship. Not all of it, but the biggest chunk she had seen so far. It sat silent and still with a light smoke rising lazily from the torn sides.

  ‘I need to go in there,’ she said to Braxton, feeling an urgency to get into the wreckage and find someone or something to help Braxton.

  He nodded to her. ‘Set me down over there,’ he said, pointing to the side of the canyon.

  ‘Of course,’ she said, and guided him to some rocks in the shade of the canyon walls. ‘I won’t be long, here’s some water. Just shout if you need me, okay?’

  Satisfied that he seemed comfortable, she walked towards the ship, scanning the area around her as she went trying to see if she could see anything.

  ‘Hey, helloooo! Anyone there?’ she called, her voice echoing through the canyon.

  The lack of reply made her furrow her brow in consternation as she continued on towards the ship. Climbing up the hull, she made her way to the most obvious entryway and stepped up into it. Her glow stick held high, standing in the fissure in the ship’s hull, she saw several twisted dead bodies in front of her.

  They were crewmen, mainly engineers and survey crew, numbering maybe four or five in total. It was difficult to make out in the darkness, but something about it looked wrong. They could have been killed in the crash, but a few of the wounds looked… deliberate?

  One of them was strung up by his feet. Had that happened naturally during the chaos of the crash or… not?

  Backing out to the edge of the hole she looked back at Braxton, and out the corner of her eye, caught some movement. She looked over just in time to see someone disappear down a side passage in the canyon behind some of the rocks.

  Frozen to the spot, she stood there speechless for a moment with one thought big and bright in her head.

  She thought she recognised him.

  ‘Kal?’ she whispered to herself.

  She jumped down and picked her way over the wreckage and made her way over towards the tributary canyon that Kal had disappeared down.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Braxton called as he watched her cross the canyon floor.

  ‘Sure. I thought I saw something. I’ll be back, one moment,’ she said.

  Once into the side passage, she walked slowly through the canyon and kept her eyes open for any clues.

  ‘Kal?’ she called. ‘Are you there?’

  There was no reply, so she pressed on and wound her way through the rocks until it suddenly opened up into a large open section of the canyon, its walls stretching away from each other for hundreds of meters. Directly in front of her was another of those statues, stood just into the open area its head bowed as if to look down at her. Its hooded face lost to shadow as it gripped a sword's hilt, the blade pointed down.

  Beyond the statue rose up an obviously man-made structure that reminded her of the ancient pyramids and ziggurats of Earth she had seen photos of as a child.

  ‘What the hell,’ she said.

  Braxton’s scream cut through the air to her. She heard it clearly and with one last frown at the ominous scene before her, turned and sprinted back through the rocky side canyon to Braxton. Rounding the corner, she skidded to a halt on seeing the back of the figure she had seen minutes before, stood over the body of Braxton.

  The huge spike of metal that stuck out of Braxton’s chest and the growing pool of blood beneath him said everything she needed to know. Braxton was dead.

  ‘No, god damn it,’ she said dropping to her knees and looking up at the figure in the distinctive black security uniform she knew so well. The man turned and looked down at her, and Acacia’s mouth fell open. It was Kal.

  ‘What? Kal, what have you done?’

  ‘I’m sorry Acacia, I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Wh… why, why did you do that Kal?’

  ‘He made me, he made me do it,’ he rambled.

  ‘He? What? Who made you? Kal? What are you talking about?’

  ‘The man…’

  ‘The man? What man, what are you talking about Kal?’ she said, confusion, worry and fear filling her head and making it difficult to think straight.

  ‘The man, the shifted man, he made me do it. I’m so sorry,’ he rambled.

  ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. Look, it’s okay, we can fix this. I can help you, you don’t need to be afraid, if we work together,’ she pleaded, rising to her feet and approaching him.

  ‘Don’t come… don’t, I don’t want to hurt you…’

  ‘Kal, it’s me, it’s okay,’ she said, as an area of darkness grew in the air behind him only to be filled with light that distorted the air about it in the shape of a man.

  Kal’s eye glazed over for a second before he moved in a blur of speed and hit her across the face.

  She fell backwards, crumpling to the floor as pain shot through her jaw where he’d hit her.

  She looked up in time to see
Kal yank the metal shard from Braxton’s chest and take the handful of steps towards her. Through the head-pounding pain she saw him swing that piece of metal like a club at her face, the ghostly glowing figure stood behind him, smiling at her with a very unfriendly grin.

  And then it all went black.

  Months later.

  Foster Colony Norfolk

  7 Thousand Lightyears from Earth.

  Gerard looked up at his aide as the man walked into his office wearing his usual suit and carrying a data tablet.

  ‘What is it Curtis?’ he said.

  ‘Minster, you said you wanted an update on the missing scout ship the Pilgrim.’

  ‘I did, go ahead,’ Gerard said.

  ‘Its status has officially been set to M.I.A. and all searches for it are being called off,’ Curtis said.

  Gerard sat back in his plush chair and looked out through the window of his office. Night fell early at this time of year and the huge spires of the city rose up into the night sky like grotesquely huge gothic church towers of old, dotted with lights from the apartments and offices within.

  The Pilgrim hadn’t been the only ship they had sent to scout the outer reaches of Human space. Their mission, to find new planets for potential future settlement and make contact with the old colonies, healing those old wounds.

  In the scheme of things, it was a small loss, but a loss all the same, and a blot on his record.

  He looked back at his aide. ‘Thank you, Curtis, is there anything else?’

  ‘Your final appointment of the day is here sir, shall I send her in?’

  ‘Of course, please do,’ he said, closed his files and made himself comfortable as Curtis let the woman in.

  She walked up to his desk and smiled. She wore nearly all black clothing which had a curious look to it, part warrior, part priest and somewhat mysterious looking.

  She smiled out from under her black hair and he noted the curious tattoos on her face and other exposed parts of her skin.

  He’d met many people in this office, but the look of this one alone should have set warning bells ringing with his staff who should really have stopped her from getting a meeting with him.

  He made a mental note to meet with his staff tomorrow and remind them about who was allowed to get meetings with him, and more importantly, who wasn’t.