Collector Ship

by Adam Moon

  David thought he was wrong, but so far so good. The alien hadn’t tried to take the ship already, probably because of the security. If that security held up, and alien number one wasn’t able to find a way around it, then they’d be safe. But he knew alien number one. He knew it was tenacious and patient and highly intelligent. If there was a way, it would find it sooner or later. The only thing working in their favor was that it relied on its intelligence rather than its physical might. It probably wouldn’t rush the base with guns blazing because it didn’t want to die in the process. It would stake the place out and pounce when the time was right.

  They walked down a corridor as wide as the hangar above them. The end was pitch black, like they were walking straight to hell. The walls were rocky and wet and every once in a while a drop of water that had percolated for hundreds of years would hit one of them on the head. A string of lights lit the way poorly.

  Henshaw explained, “This place was built in the sixties for exactly this reason. It’s not the only one of its kind but it’s the best. There were some nukes stored here in the eighties when it became clear that it wouldn’t fulfill its intended purpose. They were decommissioned a decade ago. Don’t worry, there’s no residual radiation left over.”

  Gordon smirked derisively. “You mean to tell us that the United States military built an underground bunker in case it had to hide an alien spaceship?”

  “That’s exactly right. It would never get the green light today but back then there was money to spend on frivolous projects. I always thought it was a waste but now it’s coming in pretty handy. Just watch your step. It’s slick down here.”

  They came to a set of steel doors that opened silently, as though they weren’t made of tons of rusting metal, over fifty years old.

  The corridor lit up when the doors opened. It was bright and lively on the other side, with men and women bustling around. At the far end was the collector ship, and leading up to it, along the walls, were gurneys that held the dead aliens they’d sent them. Teams of scientists surrounded each carcass but they were all very careful, keeping their distances while they took tissue samples and photographs. But the grand prize was clearly the ship. Twenty old men and women surrounded it. Inside the open door of the ship was a single man in a hazmat suit. He had a flashlight even though the ship was fully illuminated from within. He looked like he wanted to run away screaming.

  Henshaw led them past the bewildered looks of the scientists, right up to the ship. “We’re not making much progress with this thing, but we’ll get there in the end.”

  David offered, “Maybe I can help. It’s a long shot but I’d bet the ship will recognize me.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It tried to abduct me.”

  The Commander stared at him, probably to see if he was pulling his leg, so David added, “It landed on my property and tried to take me. I fought back and accidentally released the other abductees. But before I fought back, the ship linked to my brain. It read me and at the same time it downloaded a bunch of stats about the other inhabitants.”

  Henshaw smiled, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then his smile faded and he said, “If that’s true, then Murphy has a lot of explaining to do. He didn’t tell us about you. He fed us the intel on the aliens as though he’d discovered it himself.”

  Stacey said aggressively, “That’s probably because he knew you’d try and quarantine David against his will and we need him out in the field to help us. Murphy did the right thing.”

  Henshaw shook his head with a mixture of sadness and anger. “You’re right about that. This man can not leave here if he has in-depth knowledge about the ship. We need to know what he knows.”

  Before they could defend themselves, two armed men rushed forward from the shadows and trained their rifles on them. Three more came from the back side of the ship to surround them.

  Gordon laughed and raised his own rifle but Stacey said, “Not now.” Then she whispered, “Just let them think they have us at a disadvantage.”

  Gordon slung his rifle over his shoulder and shrugged at the disbelieving Commander.

  Henshaw said wearily, “I want us to all cooperate here, as we’ve been doing for the past couple of days. There’s no need for violence. Stow your weapons and there will be no trouble.” He looked to his men and they backed away, lowering their rifles. “We have to unite against the alien menace. But I want to make sure David relays all that he knows about the ship and its escaped alien occupants before anyone leaves here. Is that acceptable?”

  Stacey nodded and Henshaw stared at them all in turn to be sure they weren’t a threat. He stared at Olaf and Gordon the longest because they looked like they were the most bloodthirsty of the bunch.

  He said, “I was hesitant to allow Murphy the kind of clearance he requested but I was told from someone at the top that I had to grant him and his team full access. I’m curious to know who you people are.”

  No one answered him so he sighed and said, “Follow me. I’ll get you up to speed on recent developments. Then, before we sit down and have a little chat, maybe I’ll let David go and talk to the ship.”

  “I can’t do that. I’m not even sure it will react to my presence.”

  “It’s worth a shot.”

  After a full tour of the various alien carcasses, which was an utter waste since they had been responsible for each and every dead alien in the room, they were allowed full access to the ship. They all knew Henshaw was using the time to evaluate them, to see if they could be trusted before letting them anywhere near his ship.

  The scientist in the hazmat suit came out to greet them. He took his head gear off and wiped his brow. “The technology is beyond me. I don’t know what you hope to achieve in there.”

  David brushed past him and entered the ship. He had two separate agendas. First of all, he wanted to see if the ship might spring back to life and try to communicate with him again. Secondly, he wanted to search every nook and cranny of it to see if alien threat number one had stowed away, waiting for its chance to come out and finish tampering with the ship.

  The guy in the hazmat suit started yelling that there was a breach, which scared David half to death until he figured out that he was responsible for the man’s hysterics. The guy threw him a hazmat suit and ordered him to put it on. That was the breach of protocol he was screaming about. David threw it back and told him, “Stay out of our way. We know what we’re doing.” The last part was a lie.

  Gordon, Olaf, and Stacey walked in next and the hazmat guy looked like he was about to start crying. Henshaw gave him a quick nod and he left them alone.

  David asked Henshaw, “Were you able to power it back up?”

  “It flickered a couple of times in transit but it went black just as quickly. The lights seem to operate off of a separate source.”

  One of the scientists took an abrupt step up to the doorway of the ship and said, “When it flickered on we were going over rough bumps in the road. We can only assume there’s a shorted out wire or a faulty component that has a broken electrical connection. Then again, we based our assumptions on the way electrical systems work here on Earth.”

  Stacey nodded. “It’s as a good a place to start as any other.” To the team she said, “Fan out and see if you can see any melted or frayed wiring.”

  The scientist said sheepishly, “That’s what we planned to do but protocol demanded we take baby steps.”

  “We don’t need to adhere to your silly protocols. Thanks for the information.”

  The scientist tried to take a step onto the ship but a soldier came forward and held a hand up. “You know you can’t go in there yet, sir.”

  The scientist huffed. “These hired guns get to but I can’t? I’ve spent half my life training for this. This is outrageous.”

  “They’ve been granted immunity to the very rules we must abide by. I’m sorry.”

  He stomped off out of the cavernous room. David just shook his head. That sc
ientist wanted more than just to see the secrets of the ship unlocked, he wanted to be the key master who unlocked them. Otherwise he would’ve stayed to see what happened next. The guy was self important and David was glad he stormed off.

  Surprise Attack

  It didn’t take long for something odd to happen.

  First, Gordon yelled out, “Oh shit, I found something,” and then the door closed and the consoles lit up. The cryo-tubes closed and then reopened and then several of the tiny nanobots rose from the floor and buzzed all around them.

  All guns were raised but no one knew what to shoot at. And then the nanobots attacked the guns, eating them like rats on cheese. Gordon was the last to give up trying to fire his when his trigger melted beneath his finger into a cloud of heavy dust. They gathered together in the center of the room and waited for the nanobots to turn on them.

  David asked meekly, “Did anyone bring a taser?”

  They heard a creak and turned to see what had caused it. A panel overhead moved aside and a pair of bright red eyes stared at them. Then a gnarled leg came into view, followed by another, and then alien number one dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

  It was as tall as a man but thinner, like it was skin, bones and muscle only, and very pale. It had sunken reptilian eyes and a flat nose that had just a single nostril. Its mouth was small and round with puckered white lips that were cracked and dry. It looked around at them feverishly, like it was more afraid of them than they were of it. In its bird-like claws was a box with several wires trailing from it, across the floor. It was clear that the box was how it had controlled the nanobots and the ship. It had trapped them inside and disarmed them. That did not bode well for the team. It was clothed in a leathery outfit that hugged its taut skin.

  Everyone took a step back when it came forward, except for David. He knew something was wrong. The alien’s demeanor was not what he’d expected. He expected it to attack them immediately, to eradicate the threat. But it looked almost forlorn at David. The alien fiddled with the box and two cables descended from the ceiling and dropped into its outstretched hand. It gingerly placed one atop its head and then handed the other one to David.

  He hated to go along with it, but he knew he had no choice. He looked at the cable, remembering that the nanobots had attached it to his head when the ship tried to abduct him. It was the same cable that had relayed all of the information directly to his mind. He turned it over, hesitating. Then he acted on faith, attaching the end of it to the top of his head. He felt it take purchase.

  When Stacey made a move to rush the alien, David stopped her. He whispered, “It’s acting friendly. Give me a minute with it first.”

  And in that instant, he felt an adrenaline surge and he knew what the alien knew. He felt what it felt. It was afraid, but not in the way a cornered animal gets. It feared for its species as a whole.

  It was not going to call its people to attack Earth. Its normal modus operandi had not been put into effect because the threat was more than a personal one. It was acting on behalf of its entire species, and the Earth was not the threat. The collector aliens were its enemy and it knew it with a steely certainty.

  Number One’s people were called Gorlans and they were old enough and advanced enough that they’d dealt with interstellar threats on various occasions over the eons. They knew instinctively what to do in most abduction or invasion situations. That was why David assumed it would find a way to call in a strike on Earth, because he assumed it would view humanity as the threat. But he was wrong, or rather; the information downloaded into his mind was skewed, probably because it was based on the collector ship achieving its objective, rather than it finding itself moored on Earth.

  And in that same instant he knew what the alien standing before him wanted to do. Number One wanted to find the collector aliens and kill them all. If it could find a way to commandeer the collector ship, then it could allow it to operate on autopilot to take it to the destination planet and find its tormentors. Once it knew where they were located, it could call in its people. As a sort of excuse for its aggressions, it thought: if the collectors enjoy battle so much then maybe the fight should be brought to their doorstep.

  David had a thought that was apparently relayed directly to alien number one and it was this: getting to the collector alien’s planet could take hundreds or thousands of years. Short trips wouldn’t require stasis pods, like the collector ship was equipped with.

  The alien replied, in a weird, telepathic fashion with: I’ve already retrofitted the ship with a drive that will bypass physical limitations. Once the ship begins its journey, I’ll be able to figure out which planet it’s heading to and jump it directly there, avoiding the long journey.

  David shook his head and grimaced. It wasn’t every day that an alien splashed its own thoughts directly into your head in crystal clarity that made them almost seem familiar, like they were your own.

  He had doubts about the logistics of Number One’s plan, though. He thought: What if the ship still has other planets to visit? What if there were other specimens to abduct? Even with instantaneous travel, it could still take them a long time to come to the end of the journey.

  Number One thought: When the ship tried to abduct you, all the stasis pods were full except for yours so I know its next destination would have been the arena planet where we would’ve had to fight. With any luck, the collector aliens call that planet home. If not then I can find a way to trace them from there, assuming they’re monitoring it from afar. Either way, we have to try and take them out before they figure out that we’re on to them.

  David flinched when the words ‘we have to’ flashed through is mind. For the first time, he realized that alien number one hadn’t failed to take the ship. It was waiting for an accomplice and apparently David was it.

  He thought: the collector’s are not enemies of mine.

  Number One thought back: they will be when they find out that you sabotaged their ship. They’ll worry that your people might find them and they’ll wipe your entire race out to stop you.

  David: how do you know?

  One: I don’t. But I know enough about them already not to trust them. Do you believe them to be altruistic?

  David: I haven’t thought about it. I was more worried about you and the other aliens who escaped the ship.

  One: As you should be. But the collectors are the bigger threat. Even if you round up all of the escapees, the collectors will notice their ship hasn’t returned on time and they’ll come looking for it. I’m sure that won’t bode well for your people.

  David: You might be right. But I’m not sure I’m willing to travel the stars to help you eradicate an entire alien civilization.

  One: I understand your hesitancy. I can see that you’ve only recently been given access to your memories and now that you have them back, you don’t want to abandon those whom you’ve just rediscovered. But if you don’t help me, you’ll all die.

  David: Let me talk it over with my friends.

  Number One detached the cable from its head so David did the same. There was an odd sensation that accompanied its removal but not an altogether unpleasant one.

  He turned to discuss the situation with the team and almost laughed when he saw their stunned faces. But he could understand their awe and apprehension. From their standpoint, everything they’d just witnessed was bizarre, in a mind shattering way. But from his perspective it was sort of normal. He’d already had an ocean of info downloaded into his head from an alien ship so connecting minds with a single alien was a walk in the park.

  To Stacey he said, “It’s not a threat to us. It will call a strike but not on our planet because it knows we weren't responsible for its abduction. It wants to take the ship to its eventual destination to take out the collector aliens, who it sees as the real enemy.”

  It took her a moment to find her voice. She eyed it coolly as she whispered to David, “How do you know it’s not lying to you so that we allow it to take
the ship? We can’t trust it?”

  “It already has control of the ship. It has for some time now.”

  “Then why hasn’t it fled?”

  “It needed an accomplice. It was waiting for help.”

  “Who is it waiting for? Number three?”

  “No. It was waiting for any one of the escapees to arrive.”

  Stacey’s mouth fell open. In that moment she knew David was about to turn her world upside down. “You’re an escapee.”

  “I am. It seems like I have a big decision to make.”

  Join Number One

  It was a hard decision but he knew he had to help. If Number One was right then if he selfishly stayed behind to be with his loved ones, he’d also be dooming them to obliteration. It was a double edged sword.

  He explained to Stacey, “I have to go. It needs my help. If I don’t then it could fail and we’ll all die when the collectors come snooping around here.”

  “You can’t leave us again. I won’t let you. Think of dad. Think of Gunner.”

  “I am thinking of them. That’s why this has to be done.”

  She clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. “Fine,” she barked abruptly, “Then I’m coming with you.”

  “I can’t allow that. There’s a very real chance we won’t survive this.”

  “Then you’ll need help. I’m happy to offer my services.” She put on a fake, plastic smile that was impervious to his arguments.

  He was about to argue anyway when Olaf and Gordon suddenly joined in, offering to help too.

  Stacey smiled and said, “It’s settled, then. I’ll radio dad and Gunner and let them know we’ll be going off-grid for awhile.” They all knew what an understatement that was. They were about to go into outer space. They were about to try to make contact with an entire alien civilization and then attempt to wipe them out.

  She keyed her radio but no one responded, probably because they were beneath three hundred feet of rock. “I’ll try again once we fly out of here.”