by Mac Ewing
intruder knew of my presence, and even worse, it probably knew where in the room I was standing. Part of me wanted to get back into the cockpit and sacrifice the cargo, while the other just wanted to race through the room firing like a madman. I chose instead to advance further into the room, following along the starboard wall, heading towards the back. I was progressing at a fairly steady pace, unable to hear any sound from the evasive figure that was playing the part of both my hunter and my prey. Twenty steps or so in, I heard a sound come from the opposite side of the row of crates that were stacked on my right. I paused, listening, but was horrified by the sight of a tower, four crates high, tumbling down on me. I dashed forward, only to have another stack topple. This time one of the heavy, plastic boxes landed on my ankle, crushing it. I winced in pain, grabbing at the now trapped right ankle with my left hand. I still had my gun firmly in the grasp of my right. In the gap from where the two stacks of crates had fallen, I caught sight of a large creature with a glistening, insect-like shell, cautiously peering around the corner at me. Panicked, I fired off several shots, forcing it to retreat. I had bought myself a few moments, if barely. I used this advantage to free my foot. I lifted with my left arm only, which was far harder than it would have been with both, but did not hinder my readiness with the blaster. I managed to lift the box just enough that I could slide my foot out.
It was hardly a second after this feat was accomplished that the inhuman creature returned. Now it was at the far end of the aisle I was in. Worse, it was the end closest to the door. Though it was still too dim in the room to make out every detail, I could see that the creature appeared to be mostly bipedal with a hunched posture, using its front arms brace itself like the apes of Earth. It was a metallic gray-brown color, and it's maw hung open hungrily. As suddenly as it had come into view, it charged forward at me, making a loud hissing noise. I fired off two shots while scampering to my feet. The first missed completely, and it dodged the second, leaping onto the wall. Its gecko-like fingers and toes clung to the flat surface and it continued coming closer. I began backing further into the aisle as I fired off three more shots. It leaped from the wall to the stack of crates, knocking them down, then immediately back to the wall, and then the floor. A human man – even an athletic man – was lucky if he dodged even two blaster bolts in his life. This thing had dodged five.
I stood for what couldn't have been more than two seconds, astounded. It was still far too much time wasted. The alien was nearly on top of me by the time I turned and ran. As I said before, my gun was a cheap model, and with just those few shots, it already didn't have much of a charge left. I stole a glance at the indicator light on the handle, just as I was rounding the corner into another aisle. The light had been hard green when I retrieved it from it's drawer, but it had now faded to yellow.
A heartbeat after I had turned the corner, the alien sprang straight at the wall behind me and bounced off at an angle, hitting the crates before landing on the ground, all the while running on all fours. I fired two shots over my shoulder. When they missed, I fired three more blindly. The small LED light now was barely glowing a faint red. I couldn't have had more than two shots left, and to make matters worse, the pain in my ankle was beginning to set in. First my right steps sprung more, and soon they became heavy, and only a few after that and the appendage threatened to give way under my weight. Just as I thought I could not take any more, I reached the access hatch that led to the rest of the ship. I slid it shut behind me, gripping the handle and throwing my weight against it, just as the creature hit the other side. The door groaned from a mighty blow, and I pressed harder, shifting my whole body weight against the door handle until I was bracing with my left leg. The door barely sealed completely shut, and it was all the time I needed. I hit the lock switch, mechanically sealing the door. I collapsed against it, momentarily taking a desperately needed breath. My chest heaved and my heart pounded in my throat. My ankle throbbed. If it hadn't been too badly injured before, my running on it had greatly increased the damage.
The detach button had lit up when I locked the door. It seemed to glare at me from its spot on the control panel. I reached up, my finger hovering an inch from it. I almost retracted my hand, when I noticed that it had become suspiciously quiet. Surely the beast would try and break the door down, or smash at it in fury. But it had stopped entirely. I pressed me ear to the door, but could hear nothing.
It occurred to me I was not sure of the alien's motives, but I did know that I was not willing to risk my chances in finding out. I also knew that the silence was not a good sign. It had burned its way into another part of the ship, so it could certainly retrieve it's equipment and burn through the door, or perhaps request aid from it's species, possibly even from the ship it had landed on. With that though, I finally made up my mind. There was no other way to ensure my safety. I held the detach button down for five seconds, and released. It began flashing red and chirping, warning that a quick press would approve the jettison of the entire cargo bay.
'Here goes nothing.' I thought. But it was more than nothing. It was vast quantities of goods, worth a sizable paycheck, and far more importantly, it was the first proof that the human race was in fact not alone in the universe. I hadn't yet considered that. I was the first to make contact with an extraterrestrial, and I was about to launch it into an airless, aimless journey through the vastness of space.
'But this is my life we're talking about!'
My inaction gave way to my desire for survival and, ignoring all other thoughts of morality, I reached out to tap the button a second and final time, confirming the procedure. My finger was milometers from contact when the door suddenly buckled by several inches and a deafening boom shook my bones. I turned in shock, looking straight at the door. The sound of the creature's feet rapidly slapping the metal floor reached my ears. Before I could move, the door burst from the wall and crashed into me. The circle of steel – which was much larger than myself – hit me with breathtaking force, sending me back two and a half meters, and trapping me under its two-hundred pound bulk.
I laid there in a stupor, but was snapped back to reality when I heard the creature enter the room. By a miracle, I was alive. I had put my hand out in front of me and managed to prevent the 2 meter diameter door from crushing me. But doing so had caused me to drop my gun and – worse – smash my head against the floor. I was now bleeding badly, my ears were ringing, and I couldn't move. My immobility was partly self imposed in the hope that, by holding the door still, the thing would fail to see me. But my reason was most prominently because I lacked the strength to throw off the door, let alone hold it much longer.
It entered the room, its breathing ragged and full of rage. A series of loud clicking sounds followed every exhale; perhaps bones sliding together like gears. The clicking was loud enough, and varied enough in tone, that I wondered if the things was, in a strange alien form, speaking, perhaps even playfully calling out to me. By what my ears could make out, it had paused in the door way, and was surveying the room, a task which would take mere moments. We were in the midway between the cockpit and the storage bay, and it was little more than four and a half meters long, with a few control panels.
My palms grew wet and threatened to slip. I took a risk and tried to secure a better grip, but my left arm buckled momentarily. I forced it to resume holding the door, but not without letting out a large grunt of exertion. The creature's breathing hitched, and it was silent for a few agonizingly slow seconds.
The creature advance into the narrow room, and much to my
surprise, moved as if to go around me. But as soon as he was along side of the door, he seized hold of the steel edge with gnarled fingers and flipped it over, the side he had grabbed hitting high up on the wall with a resounding clang. The thing stared down at me and let out a horrid noise, like a million pounds of pressure being forced from a tire. Its beady eyes narrowed as my heart raced. It raised its fist and brought it down, hitting the spot on the floor where I had been a
second earlier. I had forcefully thrown myself aside and clambered to my feet, and willed my impaired legs to carry me towards the cockpit. The thing broke into a mad run, a hideous screech emanating from its beak-like mouth. As soon as I had passed the threshold into the room, I slammed my fist against the emergency shut button on the door. With the greatest of speed, the door slid horizontally shut, but I hadn't been fast enough. The alien was now pinned, its head having been slammed between the door and its post. Yet in spite of the force with which it was struck, the thing was only briefly stunned.
If I had not yet been in a panic then, I was now. My eyes frantically surveyed the room, hunting for something – anything – to be used as a weapon. The only gun on board was the one in the adjoining room. In a desperate rage, I finally grabbed a screwdriver out of a drawer and charged at the creatures head, grasping the tool like a knife. I was halted in my charge when the thing braced its muscular arm against the door and forcefully shoved it back into the wall slot. I was not sure it the creature was capable of human emoting, but I could
