The Thing: from the Depths of Hell

by V Bertolaccini

  “Alright! Thanks! This place gets more and more screwed up as time goes on!”

  All three laughed at the joke, and considered the future and what the outcome of such a situation would be.

  Chapter 18

  Weird Dreams

  Mist flew around everywhere, blinding Kruger in a surreal dream, with him mildly seeing it, while he happily rested, floating freely.

  In lingering spots he caught only darkness, like the void surrounding the spacecraft, and sounds or thoughts like whispers came out of hidden places or invisible zones, and taunted him.

  Energy shone, which normally would have been invisible, and he saw the mist was energy formations, and he was seeing it as what they really was, powerful and intelligent, which never really made sense when he thought about it, but it did as a fantasy.

  It reminded him of a dark cold cloudless night under a bright moon, with lunar radiance visible everywhere.

  It was golden in places, and strange energy lights twinkled through thick areas of the energy mist. A bright light appeared deep in it, and he realized the depth of it. It was tremendous, and like looking into the depths of the universe.

  He sensed the presence of something mysterious, which existed about him, and which he could not account for.

  Again he looked out at the bright light, and wondered what it was, and studied it. Even though he never recognized it, it looked familiar, and he realized that it reminded him of the spacecraft.

  Suddenly, Kruger was awakened by a sharp buzz, and he pressed the button on his communications device, automatically finding it in the surrounding darkness of his quarters, and listened to the voice of Major Ripley asking him where he was, and he told him he was still in bed.

  Even though it was early morning, ship’s time, the room was in darkness, as there were no windows or anything to light it.

  “You wanted to me to contact you if anything happened,” Ripley stated, excitedly. “Well, something has! So you better get down here if you do not want to miss the action!”

  “What action?” he answered, jumping out of bed, and for his clothes, on a desk.

  “One of our detection systems has picked up the alien, shifting through a wall, and we have been able to detect where it is, and we have set up an ambush. So if you want to see the thing, get down here now! We’ll need you!”

  “Where to!” he relied, putting on the last of his clothes.

  “Use your ship’s communicator! I’ve placed the location on it, for you to follow to here!”

  Kruger grabbed everything he needed and rushed out the door.

  Finally he was going to see this thing, and what it was really like! It as Dan and the altering version in the bar had confused him, and he wanted to see the real alien – and more than anything else – its identity.

  Chapter 19

  The Alien

  The moment he got out of the transportation vehicle a loud ghostly and unearthly screech ripped right through him, as some hideous monster from the darkness pit in hell were out there.

  Its momentarily stunned him, and he opened his eyes wide, and he marched out, observing everything in the corridor ahead, and all the military personnel all along it, hidden in various locations, behind large objects or in doorways, with their weapons ready, and he looked at the furthest point, before a bend, and saw something faintly move.

  At his side, Major Ripley edged over, and waited for him to react to him.

  “Don’t say anything aloud!” Major Ripley announced, pulling his arm over to him.

  “So what’s happening?” he whispered back.

  “It is at the end of the corridor. We are all around it. We have completely surrounded it. In all the corridors and rooms around it, and above and below it – if it tries to escape through the walls, roof, or floor.”

  A few minutes later, a loud explosion blasted out, and Kruger realized the battle against the alien had begun, and he saw it rush out, and along the corridor towards him, as it made its escape, from its attackers around the bend.

  Kruger and everyone else saw it simultaneously, and they all stood stunned. It had a blood red devil appearance, and was made of pure energy, and though it had legs it floated over the corridor floor, not touching it, as though touching another higher floor there in another dimension.

  Its monstrous appearance was worse now, and was like the devil itself they were fighting, in blood red transparent devil.

  Everyone seemed to wonder what the hell they were up against, and if they had finally confronted the devil itself!

  The weapons soon started blasting into it from everywhere with everything that they had in a rage of violence, and Kruger finally placed his hands over his ears to stop them being damaged, and noticed the alien was not being destroyed, and even looked surprised that they were not that good, and Kruger checked the metal walls behind it, where the bullets were going straight through to.

  Suddenly, he started to see the danger in the situation and that the monster could attack and rip their throats out, as it had done to all his victims that were found spattered all over the place in the library, and wondered why the hell he had not just stayed in bed.

  The situation was ridicules. They had finally found their ultimate enemy, capable of anything, which they could not kill!

  It was the military’s worst nightmare, and they all slowly started to comprehend it, and show deeper signs of fear, and some made moves backwards.

  At that moment a loud scream of a woman came from somewhere behind him, further up the opposite end of the corridor, and he saw a woman rush out of her quarters, and he heard the noises of something strange mingled in her sounds.

  While he attempted to identify it, other strange sounds appeared all about her, and him. He could not recall hearing anything like it, nor did Major Ripley, who looked stunned by everything, and as if he was preparing for death.

  They stood listening to loud gurgles and splutters from behind her, as she ran away down the corridor to a vehicle, to escape. It surprised Kruger that she had been sitting there in her room all along, ignoring the orders given to them about remaining there, and her not leaving the area with the rest, and that she must have been listening to the battle going on there.

  From something nearby, where she had been, a man began shouting about something.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Major Ripley loudly moaned, showing his intense depression of the situation, surrounding him, and at that moment the alien, at the front of them, started attacking and killing its first victim, by viciously smashing and ripping a soldier apart.

  All the men were then ordered out of the region, and some were to follow the alien at a safe distance, to find where it went.

  After jumping into a vehicle with Major Ripley, Kruger observed the corridor ahead, where they were going and where the woman had been, and sat in amazement, with his mouth and eyes wide open. He could not believe what he was looking at! Three demon creatures were killing and smashing other people that were there, which had to be with the alien.

  Somewhere behind him there came the worst horrifying howl that he had ever heard, from the alien, as it started killing everything it could find in a wild frenzy.

  Major Ripley reported the other aliens there to the military control center as fast as he could, before leaving, and the people at the military control center replied in confusion trying to get descriptions and information from him of what he was talking of.

  Major Ripley continued giving more detailed accounts, while they were clearly unsuccessfully trying to control the situation there, with all the other soldiers, all about the control center, and the withdrawal of the military from that region, without any further deaths, of soldiers that some of them clearly knew.

  Major Ripley gave them all that he knew, and described everything as clearly to them as he possibly could, while warning them of the danger that he was in, to which they clearly did not understand, or even realize the location that he was at, and he had to describe
things further and further, and situation remained the same, with them now not understanding what the alien or other aliens were, and he finally had to pack it in as one of the aliens approached his vehicle.

  It finally rushed along in fury at the vehicle, and Major Ripley reversed the vehicle, and it caught and lifted the whole vehicle up into the air, and Kruger thought it was the end of everything.

  It opened itself up, and created a deafening scream like nothing he had ever heard before, which was so alien and hideous, and out of the depths of hell, that he thought of killing himself first.

  Yet he heard two explosions from weapons and the vehicle went crashing to the floor, and he saw two soldiers further up had fired weapons at the places the alien was holding the vehicle, and the areas had been destroyed, leaving the alien holding bits of debris from it, and Major Ripley swiftly raced the vehicle away.

  Afterwards they heard that the control center had realized the situation that they had been in after all, and had contacted the soldiers nearby to help them.

  Chapter 20

  The Psychic Researchers

  Kruger had kept the secret Mitchel and Bryan had told him of what was out in the void, and he confirmed it to them when he arrived to see them.

  The laboratory was great now, and he liked being there, and especially away from the other side of the ship, where the aliens were starting to make attacks on.

  He had thought of getting permission from Mitchel and Bryan to tell them about their discoveries, but he would only have added and worsened all the confusion and problems that they had, and there being something out in the void.

  The situation was bad, and they were all starting to think there might not be a way out of it now, and the tension about the spacecraft was increasing, and people in or near targeted areas reacted as if they were in war zones.

  Kruger suddenly recalled recognizing some of the work that Mitchel and Bryan had done, after he had examined documents about them.

  Their stuff was surprising, and even more surprising with them being psychic researchers, and he even thought that they were deliberately putting the psychic researchers title on them to cover their work and discoveries, as he had hardly even seen anyone even check what they did or had created.

  They informed him that they were checking for virtually all known forms of energy and matter disturbances in the void and on the spacecraft.

  He wondered if they had something that could properly detect the aliens, so they would know where they were, and stop them catching and killing them all.

  Presumable their presence could act on things and produce effects to indicate them being there – such as altering air currents, gravity, magnetic fields, radioactivity, scent, sound waves, static, and the light spectrum ...

  Most of the equipment in the surrounding laboratory was there to check everything in a degree that had not been done before!

  Kruger moved over to some equipment, and asked, “Would this detect the alien at a distance?”

  “It is only for detecting temperature at great distances! I am unsure what temperature readings the alien creates! But we do have stuff here that we use to check a whole range of things, to show us exactly what is occurring, and what we may be missing. Information such as it is of course vital. We may be able to acquire some type of insight into what is happening, with the right information.”

  “Have you used the equipment on the alien?”

  Mitchel strangely glared at him, and asked, “What take the stuff over there? Why would you want to do that?”

  “To find out if we are missing something! That thing is starting to kill more and more people, and they have not come up with anything to destroy it with. And if things go the way that they are it will kill everyone aboard! If you have anything, even if it just helps locate its position then it will be of great use ...”

  Bryan glared, and wondered how much he was exaggerating the situation, and if they should help.

  “That may be a good idea,” Bryan finally replied, still considering it. “But what would it want the ship for? And why go to such lengths to get it, and why could it not work with us?”

  “I’ve a few good ideas about that, you should know ...”

  Mitchel moaned, “We wanted to see it. Will you take us to it?”

  “Yes! It is not as secretive and hidden now! And the military are following and attacking it with what they have! We can go and see it if you want?”

  “Alright! We will go and see it then!”

  “I don’t know if I should laugh or cry! You’re going to be surprised somewhere! I can assure you! To think I was in the same vehicle as that thing out there on that world, trapped with it ...”

  Kruger picked up a container from his bag, and poured drink from it down his throat. “That’s perfect! What type of surveillance stuff have you, for detecting it?”

  “We have a great deal of stuff as we have shown you! We specialize and experiment in detecting things! This is the best there is, and we love investigating anything extraordinary. Even if it is an assassin trying to wipe us all out ... And we would love to help stop it ...”

  Kruger began to leave, and they followed. He was getting tired, and he needed some sleep, and he wanted to do one last thing before he finished up for the day, and to get these scientists to see what they were up against.

  Chapter 21

  The Devil

  The alien rushed through the walls like an enormous blood red devil, going through walls like they were transparent clouds of energy, seeking vengeance against the life forms that had tried to destroy it, and stop it carry out its plans, which would leave it a prisoner in the void, after all that it had discovered.

  While its speed increased walls turned to glowing flickers, while it raged on, and occasionally stopped to savagely attack and kill like a grotesque monster killer lion.

  People would see it materializing out of red clouds of energy, like the realms of hell, as a blood red devil, with its giant demon shape glowing, altering, whirling, within hideous energy surges, while it consistently stopped itself vanishing from existence, and back into original energy states.

  Fractions of its composition frequently altered or vanished into other dimensions, as it altered itself to form other forms of itself to attack at other locations, to speed up its work, and show its powers and that it could form itself into many versions of itself, and it sensed some thought it was a freak of nature, before their deaths.

  It was thought to be from the deepest depths of hell, and people who remained alive or had heard the horrible stories of it never spoke of it, as though they were talking of the devil itself.

  With all its powers it still admired the human life forms in many ways, especially when considering when it had taken the form of Dan, before it had transformed, and it admired the voyager, and the work that they had done on it, and it considered if it could have built it with the right materials and powers, and wondered if it could reproduce something like it out in the void if its mission never worked.

  The life forms were capable of destroying it to stop it getting its hands on it, and it had detected thoughts of this from the control center, and it wondered if it would do such a thing.

  Sometimes the energy powering the voyager astonished and staggered it, and it could not imagine what it was, and how so much power could be so condensed, and why it had not confronted it before. Vast unstable energy explosions blasted out across outer dimensions with so much power that it thought it could rip away and destroy the fabric of space and time, and make it unbalanced, temporary warped, and cracked – across light years of space – with its protective energy shield and other stability forces holding it from the effects, which large regions of space could be subjected to in its field – in the form of time leaps, warping, decelerations, accelerations, and leaping of space – or being thrown out of space and time entirely.

  Chapter 22

  The Retort

  Some people in the outer regions of the spacecraft
thought anarchism was occurring and being covered up, from traveling out so far into the depths of space, where nobody had gone before, and it had altered people, and that the media was covering it up.

  Others thought it was one of the scenarios that were sometimes introduced on worlds to stop civil disturbances, which even went as far as creating wars, and allowing people to be killed.

  What was the true nature of the savage and brutal killings that threatened everyone aboard? Had some hidden occurrence taken place that had lead up to the events? Unseen and unpredicted events could occur that had to be handled by them!

  Many wanted full investigations of the deaths and what was actually occurring! And for it to be proven that there was an actual alien aboard, and if there was, that the military would be given full control and power to deal with it, as many thought that they had not even attempted to do anything, and that their weapons were not capable of being beaten or not being able to destroy anything in the universe.

  The figures of the amounts of deaths were unbelievable, and reached out to many thousands, and the people that discovered them were increasing everywhere, and the way people reacted to the events and that there was great danger there accelerated at an alarming rate, and people were reporting trouble occurring and them threatening to attack all the people controlling the spacecraft.

  The alien had stopped thinking of the humans and their normal weapons of being able to do anything, and it no longer tried to avoid their surveillances, including their scans of it.

  It turned faster and faster, and too fast for them, and anything they had available, even though they had not entirely used their most powerful and advanced stuff available, from years of scientific achievements from many worlds.