by Ben Hammott
Theo thrust his head and flashlight through the cross shaped opening. His eyes scanned the huge room. Something in the middle gave off a green glow. He squeezed through and the others followed.
When Lucy squeezed through, the door shuddered, releasing flakes of rust. Concern spurred her to move quickly through the gap.
Richard, the last one to enter, remained in the corridor with his eyes focused worriedly on the door. He imagined its edges slamming together while he was between its jaws. He pushed away the unpleasant thought and sidled quickly through the gap. He was barely halfway through when the door juddered and began to close. Someone gripped his arm and yanked him to safety. The door scraped the sole of his boot when it slammed shut with a resounding clash of metal that echoed through the cavernous chamber. He let out a relieved sigh.
Jack released his grip on Richard's arm. “Are you okay?”
Richard nodded. “Thanks.”
“You're welcome, but you still owe me a plane.”
Richard snorted.
“That's strange,” said Max.
The whole ship was strange. With this in mind the others turned to see what Max had found particularly unusual. Their gazes followed his pointing finger. Four thin hollow tubes oozing a clear viscous liquid hung from a small oblong hole where the door button should have been attached. Unlike electrical wire, the tubes could not be reattached to open the door.
Theo bent down and picked up something from the floor. It was the missing door control. “It's been deliberately ripped off!”
The scrape marks around the hole in the frame added credence to his words.
They each examined the twisted metal panel with a button in its center.
With a creased brow, Jack watched a drop of the thick fluid splatter to the floor. “It's troubling that it seems to have been done recently.”
“But why and by whom?” asked Lucy, nervously.
Richard glanced anxiously around the gloom-filled room. “Probably to stop something from getting out, which now also includes us!”
Their gazes searched the darkest recesses of the room as a sense of foreboding swept over the group. They jumped in fright when the broken door control Theo dropped clattered noisily to the floor.
“As creepy as this place is, it's only our imaginations making us nervous. Whatever once roamed through this ship is long dead,” Henry reassured them. “With luck we'll find their preserved corpses so we can see what the crew of this ship looked like. At the very least we should find skeletal remains.”
Eli directed his torch around the huge space that was so large their flashlight beams failed to reach the far walls. His wandering light came to a halt on the high ceiling the beam only just managed to reach. “This room has the appearance of a cathedral.”
Thick arched ribs with the appearance of stone, but by the evidence of the rust streaks covering them, were in fact metal, towered from the floor to a round transparent feature in the roof that was segmented by metal, rust-covered frames, some of which were broken and hung down at twisted angles. Ice-formed stalagmites poked through areas that were missing the transparent panes. Melted water dripped onto the floor or dribbled down the sloped walls leaving trails of rust wherever they wandered. Between the rib-like supports the walls were fashioned to resemble rough, dark rock. A high balcony, whose balustrade was formed of short, twisted, tree-like columns, ran almost the entire circumference of the room. The floor wasn't smooth metal like the others they'd thus far encountered. To match the walls it too was sculptured to mimic rock, though this was a lot smoother. Bridge paths with edges of rough rock led out from the central green glowing feature, one of which led to the door they'd just passed through.
Jack walked over to an edge of the path and peered into the deep void. Mist hugged the ground, obscuring the details of the lower level. The musty smell of ancient abandoned places wafted up from the darkness shrouding the space below. His headlight moved over the thick, swirling mist that continued under the bridges and flicked back to its previous position. He thought he had seen something move in the mist.
Jane peered over the edge. “What do you see?”
Jack turned with a smile on his lips. “Only my imagination playing tricks.” He noticed the others moved off along the path. “This is certainly one strange spaceship and far removed from what I expected.”
“I know what you mean. It's not like the type of spacecrafts normally portrayed in science fiction movies like Star Trek and Star Wars.”
Jack glanced around at the strange architecture and then into the misty void. “It's more like something out of that Alien movie we watched last night.”
“Well, let's hope we don't meet any of those aliens. I'm no Ripley.”
Jack smiled. “I'm not sure I'm the hero type either.”
Jane grabbed his arm gently and flashed him a smile. “Oh, I don't know. I can easily picture you saving us from terrible alien monsters.”
“Are you two coming?” called out Henry, from halfway along the path. He was keen to make sure they all stayed together.
Jane reluctantly let go of Jack's arm and side-by-side they walked off to catch up with the others.
The group headed for the green glow emitted by something in the room's center. Everyone was struck speechless when they were close enough to make out its details. Rough sculptured metal rock surrounded the base of three two-yards-wide by five high transparent cylinders, set in a circle. Each was filled with a semi-transparent emerald green liquid and occupied by an alien creature almost as tall as the container.
There were variances in the three creatures' faces, but all were unmistakably of the same species. Though impossibly thin and tall by human standards, they had a vague humanoid appearance. However, the details of these humanoid appendages resembled nothing human. Long white wire-thick wispy hair grew from the back of the head and wavered in the liquid like Medusa's snakes. Blood red skin stretched over its face and neck faded into green shoulders that then faded into taut parchment-textured silver skin that covered the rest of its body, except for the wrists and hands, which were also red. Five long slender digits, each tipped with a short black talon, grew from large thin hands.
Jane studied the amazing life forms with interest. “Though a little scary, they do have a certain elegant appearance.”
“I agree,” said Lucy. “Though due to their skeletal appearance, I'm not sure if this was how they looked when alive, or if we're looking at partially decayed ancient corpses,” She was enthralled by the strange alien beings and pressed her nose to the cylinder for a closer look at one of the males.
“The red skin on their faces, necks and hands gives the impression a layer of skin has been peeled off,” said Theo, not quite believing what he was looking at.
“Is this the crew?” asked Richard, a little shocked by the aliens' appearance and size, but mostly by their existence.
“One would assume so,” said Henry. “But they seem too tall to be able to move through the corridors and doors we've just passed through.”
“Maybe they're the crew's gods or some revered species they worshipped,” Eli suggested. “They seem to have been held in some significance to be on show in this cathedral-esque chamber.”
Jack paused at the female alien and ran a hand down one of the four claw-like scratches in the container's surface.
Max noticed Jack's worried frown. “What's wrong?”
Jack pointed at the scratch marks that were apparent on all of the containers. “I was wondering what made these.”
Max shrugged. “Something a long time dead, I hope.”
“Even though the aliens are dead, does this count as first contact?” asked Richard, quickly working out the monetary value of such a discovery as Lucy took some photographs.
“I would assume so,” said Henry, “because no one has come into contact with an alien species, proving they exist, but it's not something that particularly worries me at the moment.” He turned away from the fascinating
life-forms and gazed around the huge space. “We need to find an exit from this room.”
Though reluctant to halt their inspection of the alien life-forms, the others joined Henry in the search for an exit.
Unaware of the yellow eyes watching them from the high balcony, the group moved across the room and soon made another amazing discovery.
At the far end of the room they stared at the gigantic face of the terrifying alien creature their light beams revealed. It was vastly different from the three elegant life-forms previously encountered. Arms stretched out from broad shoulders toward them. One hand, positioned a short distance above a five-yard-high stepped platform, was cupped into a chair-like form and faced into the room. The other hand lay flat on the floor, palm up. A ramp formed in the arm led up to an opening in the side of the alien's head, in the position where a human ear would be. The whole thing had been expertly sculptured from metal. Streaks of rust, heavier below the lips formed into a viscous snarl, gave the impression blood had seeped between the teeth and poured from the open mouth. With the skeletal theme of the ship, it was something they all thought a distinct possibility. Its eye sockets, vacant and hollow, were filled with such a deep darkness it was easy to imagine something hidden within and peering out at them. Long shards of serrated bone of various lengths and thicknesses surrounded the head like a gruesome sun burst.
“Now that looks like a God!” said Eli.
“The Aztecs had frightening gods, maybe the crew of this vessel did also,” said Henry.
“Rather a god than a representation of the crew,” said Jane. “It doesn't extrude friendliness. To think of an alien species like that having the ability of interstellar travel doesn't bode well for the human race.”
“Well, it's certainly been represented in godlike proportions,” said Eli, joining Lucy in lighting up the room with camera flashes when he snapped off a few photographs.
Richard regretted leaving his camera; he'd left it in his bag back in the cavern. Photographs of the ship and the things inside would be worth a fortune. As soon as the chance arose, he would nip back and collect it, but first they had to find a way out of this room.
Three bridge paths they had not yet tread led to doors, but each had smashed controls. Theo and Eli attempted to pry one open with their ice axes.
On the far side of the room, high above on the balcony, the pair of yellow eyes had been joined by many others. The scent of the new arrivals had drawn the hungry creatures to their next meal. They climbed beneath the balcony and scrambled down the rough walls.
Other creatures, though smaller, but just as deadly, had also sensed the chance of an unexpected meal; they were much closer.
Theo gave up and stepped back from the door. “It's no good. The join's too thin to fit the axe point into.”
A soft clicking caused Jack to peer over the edge of path. He saw nothing but darkness and swirling mist caught in his headlight's beam.
The others had also heard the noise. It definitely came from the lower level.
“You see anything, Jack?' asked Max.
“Nothing that's making that noise.” Jack laid on the floor with his head and shoulders over the edge. “Hold my legs someone.”
Theo and Max grabbed Jack's ankles as he squirmed forward and leaned into the void. In the light he directed beneath the bridge were caught hundreds of small mouse-size creatures with an insect appearance. The first thing Jack noticed was their mouths, a round maw crammed with hundreds of tiny sharp teeth. Orange spikes encircled the mouth and twitched like feelers as they scuttled forward. White, pupil-less eyes on protrusions of skin, closed when his light made contact. The two claws on two-fingered hands attached to double jointed arms were long, curved and designed to rip the flesh of its victims. Just as lethal were their four, clawed feet that presently gripped the rough underside of the path. The clicking sound that invaded the air was made by hundreds of these tiny clawed feet climbing the walls and moving across the bottom of the path. Jack indicated for Theo and Max to pull him up and quickly explained the danger.
Jane let out a scream when one scrambled over the edge.
Theo grimaced and backed away when the insect paused and turned its tiny teeth-choked head to glance at each of them in turn, as if selecting a suitable meal from the platter on offer.
Jack's foot shot out and returned it to the void.
When more of the insects swarmed over the edge, they backed away and hurried along the path toward the center of the room, only to be confronted by a new menace. Hundreds of evil, yellow eyes shone in the darkness. Beams of light aimed at the claws scraping on metal, revealed a wave of fur and teeth rushing at them.
“Space rats!” said Theo.
Eli had to admit it was a fitting name for the vicious creatures.
Jack turned his gaze away from the approaching menace and focused on the iron god. “Up the ramp, now!”
Richard, whose sense of self-preservation when danger threatened grew larger than his inflated ego, was already halfway up the ramp.
Jack glanced over at the alien insects. An insidious wave of miniature death flowed across the floor toward them. He waited until Jane and Lucy had passed him before he joined the sprint for safety. If there was no exit at the top, they'd never survive the attack.
When they neared the top of the ramp, a terrifying squeal rang out from below. The two species had reached the bottom of the ramp at the same time and a battle had ensued for the fleeing prize.
The larger space rats were covered in spiky green fur and about the size of a small dog, but a lot more ferocious, at first seemed better matched to defeat the smaller insect army. The rats' teeth-lined mouths and claw-tipped limbs, bit, chewed, ripped and squashed many of the smaller foes and snatched them from the air when they leapt to attack.
However, the insects had a secret weapon. As if a silent signal had been dispatched, the cavalry arrived in the form of their kind that were three times as large and whose swelled bodies were covered in small white balls. They scrambled over the pack stretched across the floor and paused a short distance away from the larger beasts. The balls shot into the air and exploded. Tiny versions of the insects rained down on the rats. With their round mouths and tiny teeth spinning, the offspring burrowed through their victim's skin. They ate, gnawed and ripped their way through the rat's innards to emerge in a spray of blood a few moments later slightly larger. While the remains of their hosts collapsed to the ground, the insect parasites leapt onto the nearest living beast and frenziedly attacked and burrowed into flesh.
The cannibalistic rats attacked and ate any of their kind that fell or were wounded. Caught up in the chaotic attack, some rats turned on their brethren regardless of them suffering any wounds.
Richard had seen none of this. He'd rushed up the ramp and entered through the opening in the side of the gigantic head. While he paused to catch his breath, he gazed around the strange chamber. Though the eyes were too high for him to reach, the gaping mouth provided an opening into the dark room. The others had wondered as to the vast room's purpose. Most had concluded it was probably a meeting hall, perhaps even a place of worship. Richard couldn't care less what it had been used for. He lived in the present. They'd made an unparalleled discovery that would astound the world. If he failed to make a fortune out of this, he wasn't as devious as he believed he was. However, first, he had to survive. He gazed through the open mouth at the creatures fighting below and shivered at their frenzied ferocity. Footsteps heading up the ramp announced the imminent arrival of his team mates. A glance around the head's interior revealed an opening at the back. He rushed through and discovered stairs with treads designed for a species with longer legs than humans. He heard the others arrive and called out. “There's a way down in here.”
The rats knew from experience when the egg laden females arrived, victory was impossible. They retreated and scrambled up the walls to watch from the safety of the balcony.
Free to continue their pursuit unmo
lested, the insects rushed up the ramp.
Theo entered the opening at the back of the head and aimed his light down the stairwell before turning it on Richard. “Where does it lead?”
Richard shrugged. “Does it matter? We've nowhere else to go.” Richard jumped down the first tread.
The rush of tiny feet up the ramp accompanied their hasty descent deeper into the bowels of the strange alien vessel. The shadows their flashlights cast on the walls spookily tracked their progress. A short corridor at the base led to small door with its control intact. Praying it would work, Richard stabbed a hand at the button. The door slid open with a metallic rasp that sounded sinister in their current state of anxiety. As the insects rushed down the stairs, the team entered the unknown. As soon as the last person was through, Richard closed the door.
The insects leading the charge dived at the rapidly narrowing gap. Only one made it through. White blood with the consistency of pus, exploded from the bodies of those crushed between the edge of the door and the frame when the two met.
Eli screamed when claws and teeth ripped through his clothing and latched onto his leg. Blood sprayed his fingers as he clawed at the feasting insect and threw it to the floor. It splattered when Henry stamped on it, turning it into a gooey mess of white blood and tiny body parts.
The remains of the insects squashed bodies dribbled down the door join. Heads and limbs caught in the white gelatinous fluid refused to accept their fate and snapped and clawed ineffectually at the food they'd failed to catch. By the time they had reached the floor, they were lifeless.
Shaking and pale from the attack, Eli leaned against the wall and slumped to the floor. Theo took the first aid kit from his pack and cleaned and bandaged Eli's wound.
“If those things in the cathedral room didn't count as first contact, that encounter certainly did,” said Richard.
When Theo had finished attending to his wound, Eli lit a cigarette to calm his nerves.
