X-Calibur: The Descent

by Jackson-Lawrence, R.

Earth Year 6239

  “No way,” Lance said, pacing angrily around the small space inside the dome. “I’m not going into whatever nest or hive those creatures live in.”

  “I’m with you, Lance,” Arthur agreed. “We came here to find you, Silan Daltas, and we’ve found you. It’s time to get out of here before those things come back.”

  “No, I’m not leaving,” Silan Daltas said defiantly. “Not without a sufficient sample of the element to save Teela. Leave if you must, but I’m not coming with you.”

  “Can’t you make it yourself; copy the samples you’ve already found?” Gwen asked.

  “Not in time,” Silan Daltas objected. “The subatomic structure, nuclear components, I wouldn’t know where to start. The element truly is unique to this planet.”

  “Arthur, please?” Triltan asked. “If we really are that close?”

  “Give us a minute,” Arthur said, turning towards Gwen and Lance. Triltan and Silan Daltas stepped to the other side of the console, where the other three Teleri were keeping as far away from the argument as possible. Once they were as alone as the small shield dome allowed, Arthur looked down and shook his head.

  “Why is it never easy,” he said.

  “You’re not really considering this?” Lance asked. “It’s insane.”

  “It is, it’s crazy,” Arthur agreed.

  “So that’s it, we’re leaving then?” Lance said.

  “Gwen?” Arthur asked.

  “If we go, I think they’ll stay behind,” Gwen replied. “Triltan included.”

  “No, they’ll come with us,” Lance objected. “They’ll have to. Staying here is suicide.”

  “Daltas can’t see past her work,” Gwen remarked. “That’s why she’s still down here, her team too, or what’s left of them.”

  “So we leave,” Arthur said. “Return to Caran Doc, tell him we left his daughter and the scientist here, along with the answer to saving their planet.”

  “No,” Lance interrupted. “No way, Arthur. We’re not doing this.”

  “Or we go straight to Earth,” Arthur continued. “Count the days until the Mori-Gran-Ra arrives to kill us all.”

  “Arthur!” Lance yelled, striking Arthur’s chest plate and knocking him back towards the shield. “Don’t do this!”

  “So give me an alternative!” Arthur replied, pushing back. “Tell me what we should do!”

  “We force them, make them leave,” Lance insisted.

  “Make them abandon their only chance of saving their world?” Arthur continued. “Force them onto the ship at gunpoint? I’m sure the Assembly will be more than happy to grant us aid against the Mori then!”

  “We do this, we die, then everyone on Earth dies anyway,” Lance retorted. “The Teleri weren’t our only option.”

  “But we’re here now,” Arthur said. “The code-”

  “The code?” Lance interrupted. “The code! The code’s all well and good when it suits you, but you’re quick to ignore it when it doesn’t. Do you think we’ve forgotten the lies you told that put us in this situation in the first place?”

  “That’s enough!” Gwen demanded, her voice loud enough to startle the Teleri scientists. “Lance, I agree with you. Going into the creature’s lair is insane. And Arthur, you’re right, we don’t really have another choice at this point. We find the element, get back to the surface and we leave. If we survive, you can argue it out between you back on the ship.”

  Lance was about to argue when a stern look from Gwen silenced him, fierce enough to make him take an involuntary step backwards. Arthur looked down at his feet, cheeks flushed through a mixture of rage and embarrassment.

  “I’m sorry,” Arthur said, quietly at first and then a little louder. “I’m sorry. I know I got us into this mess. I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this, but it did and it’s my fault. You don’t need to come with me, just head for the lift with the others. I’ll find the element and bring it back.”

  “No, I didn’t mean-” Lance began, searching for the right words. “I’m with you, Arthur, always will be. You too, Gwen. Let’s do this, find the element and leave. Anything else we can talk about later.”

  Lance held his hand out, a gesture he had learned from Merlin, and Arthur shook it. “No more unilateral decisions,” Arthur said. “From now on, we’re a team.”

  “Finally,” Gwen muttered under her breath. “Let’s speak to Silan Daltas and find out where we’re going.”

  *****

  Silan Daltas, Triltan and the other Teleri tried to look as though they hadn’t been listening, but it would have been impossible for them not to hear within the confines of the shield dome. Triltan was looking over Silan Daltas’ shoulder as she examined readouts on the large central terminal.

  “How long can the shield hold?” Triltan asked.

  “Oh, thousands of years if necessary,” Silan Daltas explained. “The zero-point energy module can maintain it almost indefinitely in the right circumstances.”

  “We’ll do it,” Arthur interrupted. “We’ll help you find the element and get it back to Teela.”

  “Thank you,” Silan Daltas replied.

  “So, where is it?” Lance asked. “Is it far?”

  “Miltren?” Silan Daltas said. “How are your studies progressing?”

  Silan Daltas turned to another of the Teleri scientists who was stood with the other two, trying to look inconspicuous. He turned quickly at the mention of his name and hurried to Silan Daltas’ side. “Very well,” he insisted. “I’ve been able to make detailed studies of the creature’s biology.”

  Arthur watched as Miltren removed the covering from one of the creatures he had begun to dissect. It only had two remaining legs, both curled up towards its body, and the underside of the protective shell had been removed, exposing a variety of internal organs.

  “That’s disgusting,” Lance mumbled, turning away as the smell struck him like a blow. Miltren didn’t seem to notice.

  “They appear to be a complex silicon based species, which is why our scanners have so much difficulty identifying them. You see here?” Miltren said, pointing. “The pincers drag material into the mouth, where the acids began to break it down before it moves further into the digestive tract. They’re carrion eaters, most likely. They have a rudimentary nervous system, a small brain here, see? And powerful musculature to move their enormous legs.”

  “Where are its eyes?” Gwen asked, finding the creature more fascinating than repugnant. It didn’t look too dissimilar to the anatomical diagrams and pictures she had studied in the Ark.

  “Exactly!” Miltren replied. “It doesn’t have any! These caves would normally be completely dark, so eyes wouldn’t be of any use to them. From what I can tell, they navigate through a combination of acoustic and olfactory stimuli.”

  Arthur and Lance were looking at each other with increasing confusion as Miltren continued to talk. “That’s enough,” Silan Daltas said. “Please excuse him, it’s not every day he makes such a remarkable discovery.

  “What he was trying to explain is that these creatures can’t see, but they can track us by hearing and our smell too. It would appear that they spend most of their lives dormant, waiting until the planet moves between the stars when the oceans begin to melt. Their thick shells allow them to scour the depths of the oceans, feeding off whatever remains of the aquatic life that once lived here.

  “Our presence in the caves has upset that process, and they’ve woken early with nothing to eat. That’s why they’ve been after us.”

  “So how does that help us find their nest or lair or whatever?” Gwen asked.

  “We were able to map a large portion of these caves before we had to abandon our research,” Silan Daltas explained. “One such area of the map depicts a large cave with outlets directly into the ice, and that’s where I suspect we’ll find the nest.”

  “And then the element,” Gwen remarked.

  “Exactly,” Silan Daltas concluded.

 
“How will we know when we’ve found it?” Arthur asked. “The element, I mean.”

  “I imagine it will sparkle just as the walls do, probably more so,” Silan Daltas replied.

  “Okay,” Arthur said. “First things first, though. We’re getting you back to the lift.”

  Silan Daltas agreed and ordered the other Teleri scientists to gather their equipment together. The central terminal hovered just above the ground, making it easy to move, but the shield itself had to be deactivated before movement was possible. Arthur held his pistol out ahead of him, illuminating the walls of the cavern, directing the others to watch in various directions as the shield was deactivated.

  “Any movement,” Arthur said, “announce it immediately and the shield goes back up. Don’t stray from the terminal, no matter what. If you’re trapped outside and those things come back, we won’t be able to do anything for you.”

  The others made mumbled noises of agreement as Lance and Gwen gave Arthur looks of encouragement. Once everything was ready, Arthur finally gave the order to disable the shield, worried that if he waited much longer he would lose his nerve.

  They were shocked at how dark the cavern suddenly became, the light from their pistols nothing like the dome of light cast by the shield. The Teleri scientists added to the light, shining hand-held torches all around them, but the dark was only metres away, and in the dark lay the unknown.

  Arthur felt his breathing increase, his heart beating faster within his chest. He was convinced he could see movement all around him, but when he moved his light, there was nothing to see but rock. He closed his eyes for a second, forcing his breathing to get under control, willing his voice to sound confident as he spoke.

  “Follow me,” he said shakily, but not as much as it could have been. “Watch your footing and stay close. Here we go.”

  Arthur advanced slowly through the cavern, ears alert for any sounds, his vision slowly improving as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He focussed his light on the walls ahead of him, looking for the narrower tunnel which led back to the lift. Every step seemed to be taking him up, or at least that’s what his brain was telling him. The walls, floor and ceiling blurred together, vast sheets of solid rock that had no discernible up or down. He was convinced for a moment that he’d gone the wrong way, got himself turned around in their mad dash to the shield, but after a few seconds of his heart racing he finally found the entrance to the passage.

  “This way,” he said, stepping over a gap in the stone floor after shining his torch inside to check it was clear. Silan Daltas seemed to be managing the terminal easily, and before long they were within the narrow confines of the tunnel, their torches better at illuminating the path before and behind them.

  “Shh,” Lance hissed, turning on the spot as he searched for something. “You hear that?”

  Arthur stopped and strained his hearing as he tried to locate what Lance had heard. He could detect the background buzz, the sounds of his own body in the absence of noise, but nothing else. He was about to tell them to continue when he heard it, the faint clickety-clack as it echoed through the tunnel towards them.

  “Stop! Shield up!” Arthur yelled, stepping back to be closer to the terminal. Silan Daltas didn’t waste any time, tapping the button on the console before her and watching as the blue light appeared before and behind them, sealing off the tunnel on both sides.

  They saw nothing for a moment, but the noise of the creatures grew louder, their claws tapping against the rock’s surface in terrifying rhythm. Then suddenly they were there, their bodies filling up the tunnel in front of them, their legs scraping against the wall as they pulled themselves along. As they struck the shield, the faint charge drove them backwards, their pincers chittering faster as they tried to get closer to the prey they could smell.

  “Just wait, keep calm,” Arthur said. “They’ll turn around and leave us, just like they did before.”

  “You’re sure?” Miltren asked.

  “Yes,” Arthur replied, though it was a brazen lie. He wasn’t sure about anything when it came to the creatures, apart from the fact that they wanted to kill him. He didn’t feel bad about lying to the others in that situation, though. Fear could be worse than the creatures if they let it take hold, and could put all of them in danger. Keeping the others calm was in all their best interests.

  “Lance,” Arthur continued, trying to keep himself busy. “Your hearing’s so much better than mine, would you like to take the lead? If it wasn’t for you, those things might have got us.”

  “Of course,” Lance replied, stepping forwards.

  The creatures slowly stopped tapping their claws against the shield, the tiny sparks of energy where they hit lessening. After a while, they began to turn around and retreat along the tunnel, though the sounds of their movement continued to reach Arthur and his companions even when the creatures were out of sight. Arthur waited until Lance said the coast was clear before agreeing to disable the shield and press forwards.

  The second time they heard the creatures approach, they were almost through the tunnel and close to the cave with the lift. It had taken less time for the creatures to return, but Lance had heard them in plenty of time and the shield was activated well before they could see them. As before, the creatures tried to crawl through the shield, their sharp claws drawing sparks as they struck the blue dome.

  “They’re just going to keep coming,” Gwen said as she watched the creatures climb over each other in an attempt to breach the dome.

  “No, they’ll turn around and leave again,” Arthur replied. He was correct, but it took longer than it had done previously for them to leave.

  Lance gave the all clear and they pressed on again, out of the tunnel and into the large cavern approaching the lift. The light cast by the capsule slowly became visible, as did the movement which crossed in front of the light. “Stop,” Lance called, spotting the movement seconds before he was able to hear the sound of the creatures approach.

  They activated the shield immediately, gathering around the central terminal as they had done before. Outside of the tunnel, the creatures were able to quickly surround them, trying to climb the dome as well as dropping onto it from the ceiling. They flinched every time something fell from the ceiling towards them, watching as the creatures scraped their eight long legs against the surface of the dome, trying desperately to find purchase. Without eyes to focus on, they instead found themselves gazing into the open maws as the creatures moved, the constant chittering of the pincers enough to slowly drive them insane.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Arthur said, “They’ve never taken this long to leave before. We’re still surrounded and more seem to keep coming.”

  “You’re right,” Silan Daltas replied. “Miltren?”

  Miltren stepped closer to the edge of the dome, inspecting the creatures as they climbed over each other in their attempt to breach the surface. “I don’t know,” he said. “From what I’ve seen, they seem to track us by sound and smell.”

  “So why would they leave at all?” Gwen asked. “It’s not like they’d get bored.”

  “They would abandon one potential food source when another became available,” Miltren suggested, thinking aloud. “I didn’t see anything in my dissection to suggest a complex method of communication, but it’s possible. They could use sounds or pheromones, directing each other to sources of food.”

  “Can you access the lift from here?” Arthur asked. “Make it produce sounds to lure the creatures over to it?”

  “Perhaps,” Miltren replied, “but how will that help? We’re heading to the lift?”

  “We call them towards the lift,” Arthur explained, “then leave something here, to call them back when we reach it.”

  “Ingenious!” Miltren remarked. “Yes, of course I can do that!”

  “What sounds do you think will attract them?” Lance asked.

  “My guess?” Arthur replied with a smile. “Us. People sounds, that’s what they’v
e been after so far.”

  Miltren tapped at commands on the central console, accessing the computers within the lift. He began to cycle through the menus, looking for audio files, when the image sudden changed, shifting into a face hovering above the terminal.

  “Arthur!” Merlin exclaimed. “Finally. The Teleri computer has been unnecessarily stubborn in refusing to allow me access.”

  “Merlin,” Arthur replied. “Are you okay?”

  “Me, my King?” Merlin said. “Apart from a few extra worry-lines, I’m perfectly fine. I’ve been trying to contact you. The records from the laboratory, the camera caught an image of a creature emerging from the lift shaft. Some sort of giant crab if I had to guess-”

  “We’ve seen them,” Lance interrupted. “I don’t know what a crab is, but giant certainly seems to fit.”

  “Then I am glad you’re safe, and in the company of Silan Daltas too,” Merlin continued. “Board the lift, I shall prepare the ship to depart.”

  “We can’t, not yet,” Arthur explained. “There are hundreds of those creatures between here and the lift. We were trying to get the lift to attract them.”

  “Leave it to me,” Merlin replied before his image flickered and disappeared.

  Moments later, the lights on the lift began to cycle and strobe, flashing on and off randomly. “Tell Merlin sounds,” Arthur said to Miltren, who relayed the message through the console.

  Shortly afterwards, the lights from the lift returned to normal, and Merlin’s booming voice could be heard echoing throughout the cavern. “Foul beasts from beneath the surface,” it began. “Abandon those tasteless morsels and come devour me! Contrary to what you may have heard, humans do not taste like chicken. And the Teleri? Barely a mouthful on any of them I’d wager, and don’t get me started on Sir Lancelot!”

  “What is he talking about?” Gwen asked.

  “I have no idea,” Arthur replied, “but it seems to be working.”

  As they watched, the creatures began to scurry away from the shield. It was slow at first, just one or two moving towards the lift, but soon after the others took notice and began to follow.