“No, I sent a greeting via all standard frequencies, but haven’t received an answer.”
“Then it really does appear to be dead. Lieutenant Green, tell your men to prepare to leave the ship!”
“Yes Sir.”
“We’re within range of the landing lights,” Joanne said.
“Activate!”
They were now flying at low speed above the surface of the foreign body. Jeff gawped at the sharp-edged protrusions, pointed antenna, and dome-shaped projections dotting the black surface. Joanne had to change course more than once to avoid colliding with one of them.
“I really haven’t got a clue where to set down,” Joanne said. There was a hint of desperation in her voice.
“Go a little higher so we can see more of the surface,” Irons commanded.
They swerved upward. Jeff shook his head. He couldn’t see anything that looked even remotely like a lock or a hangar door. The whole thing looked so other-worldy.
“Fifteen more minutes,” Green said.
“Right then,” Irons said. “Just set down somewhere. It doesn’t make any sense to look …”
“There! There!” Finni screamed and pointed. His already high voice was almost piercing.
Jeff looked up. “You’re right!” On the horizon, about thirty miles away, part of the surface glowed a dark red.
“What is that?” Joanne sounded worried.
“An invitation, perhaps,” Iron replied.
“Or a warning to get the hell out of here,” Castle speculated.
“Take us there.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Irons ignored the question.
“Yes, Sir!” Joanne confirmed.
The Charon turned slowly to the right and approached the illuminated spot between several spiky outcrops. Red spotlights on the surface of the artifact illuminated a circular area that was free of any protrusions, but which looked otherwise inconspicuous. Joanne slowed the ship down until they came to a standstill above the circular area.
“Is this the only spot on the surface where there’s any sign of life?” Irons asked.
“Seems so,” Finni said. “At least there’s nothing on my readouts.”
“Can you detect any sources of energy or other evidence of anything else going on down there?”
“No, but it’s a hell of a big beast. If their reactors are deep inside that thing, my instruments won’t be much help.”
“Any reaction to our radio signal?” Irons asked.
“Nope, still nothing.”
“Look, an opening!” Joanne cried.
She was right. A circular hole suddenly opened up below them. Jeff estimated it was about thirty feet in diameter. It appeared to be an airlock, and was filled with red light. They could even see the ground inside.
“Looks like a lock to me,” Castle said.
“Looks like an invitation to me,” Irons retorted.
“Ten more minutes,” Green called out.
“OK, we’ll leave through the emergency lock. Captain Austin?”
Jeff stood up. He knew what the major wanted him for. “Got it.” He was closest to the emergency lock. He walked the two steps to the hatch and pressed the small switch on the door. The remaining air escaped from the cabin. Then a red light went on.
Shit!
Jeff tugged at the silver lever next to the switch, but it didn’t budge.
“Emergency lock can’t be opened. Automatic and manual mechanisms aren’t working.”
“Then we’ll leave through a window,” Irons said.
Jeff took a deep breath and stepped up to the closest of the two big cockpit windows. The HUD of his spacesuit confirmed that the cabin was almost completely evacuated, in any case, so he didn’t need to worry about a difference in pressure. He hung on to his console and thrust his right leg out. He kicked as hard as he could. Even the reinforced glass of the cockpit window couldn’t withstand the diamond-studded tips of his boots. The glass shattered into thousands of pieces, which were pushed out by the remaining atmosphere.
Suddenly, a metal screen began to drop down from above, covering the newly formed opening.
Shit!
He had forgotten about the damn safety screen! It was automatically activated when a window was damaged and sealed the window against the vacuum of space.
Jeff turned around and punched a round knob on his console.
The screen already covered half the window, but it came to a stop. Thankfully, the hole was big enough for them to squeeze through.
Irons gave him a stern look and shook his head. He didn’t give him a dressing down in front of the others.
“Meeting point is at the edge of the opening on the artifact. Lieutenant Rutherford, program a course for the Charon that will take her to a safe distance.”
“Sir!”
“I don’t like this at all. That thing down there is freaky,” Castle said.
“Better than being dead …” Jeff mumbled. But he got goose bumps at the thought of going inside that thing.
“That was an order!” Irons said, unfazed. “And that goes for you, too, Lieutenant Castle!”
Jeff stepped back to let the WSO pass. It was a miracle the artificial gravity was still working.
“Lieutenant Rutherford, hurry up!” Irons commanded. Jeff went over to the navigator, whose fingers were still dancing over her console.
“I’m programming another course to a safe distance. It’s a bit more complicated than I thought, I need to make sure the Charon doesn’t collide with the artifact.”
“Make it quick!”
Castle, Green, Owl, and Finni had already left the bridge. Irons was squeezing himself through the gap under the screen.
“Joanne!” Jeff laid a hand on her shoulder.
She nodded agitatedly, then stood up. “Done.”
“Then get a move on!” Irons ordered.
Jeff followed Joanne to the window. One by one, they squeezed through the opening.
“Hurry up!” Irons ordered. “Meeting point is next to the lock on the artifact. Fields, Short, McGuinness: have you understood?”
“Loud and clear—Sir!” Jeff heard Shorty’s voice.
“How far are you?”
“We’re just leaving our lock,” Mac McGuinness answered.
“Have you got emergency equipment with you?”
“Yes, Sir. We loaded an additional pallet with things that might be helpful.”
“Good. We’ll see you on the surface.
In front of Jeff, Joanne was pushing her way through the opening. She activated the small jets on her combat suit and floated down. Jeff stepped forward and gaped in amazement at the surface of the alien body, which was about twelve miles below him. It was lit up by the Charon’s powerful landing lights. He had the feeling he was staring down on a man-made planet—the surface looked like it was made of black metal sheeting. It was as if a surrealist painter had tried to recreate the moon out of the most bizarre metal pieces they could find. The view to the horizon was obscured by spiny outgrowths and terrace-like overhangs. Below him, Jeff saw the red illuminated area with the opening in the middle. He didn’t want to go inside. He didn’t know where the feeling came from, but something was telling him that if he went in there, he would never come out again.
“Get a move on, Captain Austin!” the major shouted at him.
Jeff took a deep breath. He pushed off with his boots so that he floated headfirst. Then he activated the fine-control jets on his suit and was thrust forward. Gently, as if in a dream, he began to fall. Joanne and the others had already reached the ground, which was bathed in red light, and were casting jerky shadows on the black metal surface whenever they moved. Beside them, the open lock glowed like a red-hot eye. The pale white light from their helmet headlamps danced like ghosts over the ground. A few seconds later, Jeff had also reached the ground. He activated his magnetic boots and was relieved to find that the ground was ferromagnetic. The gravity of th
e planetoid body was too low to be able to move about normally.
“We’re all down,” Irons said. “Get the spaceship to a safe distance!”
“Sir!” said Joanne and jabbed some buttons on her arm console.
Jeff looked up to where their ray-shaped bomber hovered motionless in space. The landing lights were so dazzling, he couldn’t see the ship clearly, but even so, he could tell it was badly damaged. The starboard engine pod was torn off about halfway along the outrigger—cables and wires dangled out of the cavity like entrails. Frozen coolant was leaking from several parts of the fuselage and there were numerous spots where the outer skin had been torn off, revealing the ugly bowels of the ship.
“How much longer?” Jeff asked.
“One to two minutes,” Green said.
“What’s going on, Lieutenant Rutherford?” Irons asked impatiently.
“I’m ready. I’m starting the program.”
The bomber gradually accelerated while rising up at the same time. It spun slowly on its axis, turning its nose away from the artifact. Jeff saw the faint glow of the Vernier thrusters, then the Charon accelerated quickly. A few seconds later, it had almost disappeared from view. If it weren’t for the landing lights, it would have already been swallowed up by the darkness. A few more seconds, and it was just a small white dot. Jeff squinted as he tried to follow its course. Then it was gone completely.
“Lieutenant Rutherford, has the Charon—” Major Irons began, but he didn’t finish his sentence.
A painfully bright flash lit up the sky and Jeff closed his eyed, dazzled by the light.
So that was it.
They were stranded. In the middle of the darkest void, dozens of light years from the nearest manned outpost, unable to send a hyper-radio message. They were now standing on the outer shell of the first extraterrestrial artifact ever to be found by mankind. Jeff’s thoughts swirled like mist. Their fate and survival now depended on whether they could get into the interior of this spaceship—or whatever it was—and in what they found there. Judging by the open lock, it looked like getting inside would be possible at least.
“Gone …” Green peered up into the blackness. “Now we’re really up shit creek.”
“Please keep your pessimism to yourself,” Irons retorted sharply.
“What do we do now?” Shorty whimpered. Jeff looked up. Although he couldn’t see any of his shipmates’ faces through their visors in the dim light, he knew it was Shorty from his hulking, six-foot-five form.
“We’re going in,” Irons said.
“All of us?” Joanne asked. “What if we can’t get back out?”
“Then I wouldn’t know what to advise those of us left out here. If there’s a solution to our problem, it can only be inside this thing. And I think it makes more sense for us to stick together.”
“What do you think’s down there?” Jeff mused out loud.
“I wonder if there’s anyone living down there, waiting for us,” Owl added.
“I doubt it,” Irons said. “By the looks of it, this thing is ancient. It’s probably been abandoned for eons.”
“But somebody turned on the light and opened the lock,” Joanne pointed out.
“That was probably triggered automatically. Our approach must have activated some kind of program,” Irons retorted.
“An automatic program could just as easily have thought we were an enemy and shot us down,” Green pointed out sardonically.
“But it didn’t,” Irons snapped back. “Corporal Fields, please take the emergency equipment into the lock.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Without waiting to be instructed, the two privates, Shorty and Mac helped Green push the sled-shaped construction that was hovering above the ground on repulsor fields. They steered the equipment into the yawning, red hole in the ground of the artificial asteroid. A few seconds later, the technicians had disappeared into the lock. Irons waved over Joanne, Owl, and Castle, and waited for them to descend into the hole, too, before bringing up the rear. Finni stepped up to the edge, looked nervously down, and then jumped. Only Jeff and Green were left standing on the surface.
“Come on!” Irons urged them.
“This is how Jonas must have felt when he was swallowed by the whale,” Green said, and jumped.
Jeff took a last look up at the stars, which were so unfathomably far away. He wondered if he would ever see them again. Then he, too, stepped over the edge and drifted down into the red cavity.
As the walls glided past him, he looked around. It really did seem to be a lock and resembled similar ones on their own spaceships and planetary bases. The walls were made of dark metal plates that dully reflected the red light emanating from a source he couldn’t see. Yellow and red stripes marked the hazard areas around the hatches. Jeff could make out alien-looking pictograms, which must be the aliens’ warning signs, and strange characters that were vaguely reminiscent of Sumerian cuneiform. Jeff landed softly on the ground. In front of him he saw a hatch with a small window in the middle. He peered through, but all he could see on the other side was darkness.
“And now?” Castle asked. “How do we operate the airlock?”
Jeff looked around in vain for a manual control panel or something similar.
“Maybe hidden behind flaps in the wall or something …” Joanne wagered a guess.
Fields and Mac began to tap along the walls.
“Or maybe they controlled the lock by remote control,” Joanne added.
“Or the aliens had telepathic powers and used their minds.” Green began to laugh. “Then we’re really—”
“Lieutenant Green!” Irons spoke sharply and the engineer fell silent.
“It could be …” Jeff began, but stopped as he noticed a movement above him. He craned his neck to look up. “The outer hatch is closing!”
Because of the vacuum they couldn’t hear anything, of course, but they could see the door sliding over the opening.
“Let’s hope we can open it again,” Green said in a snarky tone. Jeff waited for a dressing down from the major, but Irons didn’t respond.
Several seconds passed in silence, then Jeff heard a low whistle, which gradually grew louder.
“They’re pumping air into the lock!” Joanne said in surprise.
“Then we can take off our helmets in a minute,” Castle said.
“Could also be mustard gas,” Green remarked.
“We can’t rule out that these aliens breathed a different atmosphere,” Irons said. “We’ll have to analyze the air first.”
The whistling noise had stopped. Fields rummaged around on the sled with the emergency equipment, found a container, and opened it. He took out a small, silver device with a handle: a multitester.
“I’ll start the analysis.”
Jeff pressed a button on the controls on his arm and looked at the HUD display on his combat suit. “Ten twenty-two hectopascals of external pressure,” he said.
“Tailor-made for us! It could be Earth,” Joanne sounded relieved.
“How long does the analysis take?” Irons asked.
Fields looked up. “Done. The atmosphere is breathable. A mix of seventy-eight percent nitrogen, twenty-one percent oxygen and one percent argon.”
“That’s almost exactly the same as on Earth,” Irons commented, without a trace of surprise in his voice. “Aerosols? Trace gases?”
“No aerosols. Very few trace gases. Just some carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone. And water in the form of unsaturated steam. The humidity is sixty percent at a temperature of seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit.”
“If there’s carbon dioxide here, then someone must have exhaled it,” Green said.
“Unless the atmosphere is artificially composed,” Irons said.
“But the resemblance to our atmosphere …” Joanne trailed off. “It’s as if they were expecting us.”
“Have you checked for microbes?” Irons asked.
“Yup. No microbes. The atmosphere is absolu
tely sterile. A military hospital would be proud of the purity level.”
“Right then,” Irons said curtly. He reached up for the neck ring and released the latch. Then he pushed the helmet back over his head and took a deep breath.
Jeff looked intently at his superior’s face, ready to react immediately if he started to discolor, or if he passed out. But Irons breathed calmly and evenly. After what seemed like an eternity he smiled, even if his smile was a little strained. “Smells kind of stale and musty.”
“Should we open our helmets, too?” Joanne asked.
“I don’t see why not.”
Jeff released the latch and flipped his helmet up. He took a cautious breath. The Major was right. The air did smell stale. As if they’d entered an apartment that hadn’t been properly aired in months. It was warm and very humid. There was also a faint whiff of something else he couldn’t put his finger on—something which was anything but pleasant. A little sweetish, but with a tangy edge that suggested decay. Not so much like old fish or rotten meat … more like exotic vegetables rotting in the sun. Very strange—and very alien.
By now, the others had also removed their visors. Jeff could tell by their puzzled faces and wrinkled noses that his shipmates were also trying to identify the smell.
“I don’t like this air,” Joanne said. “Smells like there are dozens of decomposing aliens on the other side of that door.”
“If they open the outer hatch now, we’re all dead,” Green said.
“Then why would they have opened the airlock in the first place?” Jeff retorted.
“Maybe they’re playing a game with us.”
“How do we get inside, anyway?” Owl asked.
As if an invisible listener had heard his question, the bulkhead retracted with a hiss. A gust of wind swept across Jeff’s face. Behind the opening, it was still dark. Their helmet lights were too weak to illuminate the apparently much larger space on the other side. Irons stooped over the equipment sled and found a battery-powered headlamp. He switched it on and stepped into the opening. Jeff came up beside him.
“Looks like a small hangar,” Irons said.
The Major was right. Black and yellow lines crisscrossed the ground in random patterns. The ceiling was about thirty feet above them. The room itself was empty, as if nobody had ever bothered to equip it. On the other side of the room was a large metal bulkhead. As Jeff looked around, he noticed that the room was gradually getting brighter. “They’re turning on a light!”
The Dark Ship Page 5
