“Step away from the ship,” one of them said, a slight hiss present as he spoke, like a snake warning its pray that it could strike at any minute.
“On who’s orders? Is this your ship?” Timson interjected.
The two elderman in the shadows took two steps forward. Each step leaving a deep imprint in the dirt beneath them. Gustoff could feel his head tighten as a shooting bolt of pain throbbed in his cranium. Sweat was dripping down his face as he stared at the two elderman, fear slowly drenching him in perspiration.
“Stay out of this, Earth Man. This has nothing to do with you. This is between the two of us and the scientist,” the other elderman said.
Randy took a step back, feeling the hot metal of the ship pressing against his back. Meanwhile, Timson stood his ground.
“Where did this ship come from? Did you build it? And if you knew about it, why didn’t you inform the others? We could have been off this rock ages ago! Nobody needed to have died!” Timson said.
The two elderman continued to take more steps toward Gustoff and Timson. But Timson wasn’t intimidated. He stood there, waiting for them to get closer. Randy could tell that Timson was ready to defend himself if need be. But Randy himself wasn’t too sure if he could do the same. He’d never fought anybody in his life. He didn’t know how to punch, let alone defend himself from one.
“Stay back! We do not want any trouble,” Randy said, his voice sounding a tad squeaky as he spoke.
“You don’t want any trouble? Do you hear yourself, Randy? You’ve been nothing but trouble ever since you were born. You think you know everything! You think that you have all the answers! That we elderman are just out of our minds! That we waste our time worshiping Gods that don’t exist! But you know nothing! Nothing!” one of them said, quickening his pace. The other clocked on and did the same.
“Tell us about the ship! Why is it such a big secret? Why didn’t you tell us?” Timson said.
But before Randy could back Timson up with some questions of his own, the two elderman reached Timson and without saying so much as another word, they both pounced on the Earthling.
“What the heck are you two doing?” Randy cried, sprinting toward the fray.
The elderman were stronger than they looked, and Timson was in shock at how proficient they were at forming an attack. Before the Earth Man could defend himself, one of the elderman socked him hard in the jaw. Timson nearly lost his balance and fell to the ground, but Randy rushed in and kicked one of the elderman off him. Now it was a fair fight, even if it was against seemingly older men in robes.
“Why are you fighting us? What is the meaning of this?” Randy said before one of the men in robes hit him in the face.
Gustoff wasn’t as resilient as Timson, and fell to the floor, landing on his back. He went in and out of consciousness as the elderman continued their attack on Timson. But Timson got over the shock of what was transpiring, and his strength and height began to become a factor against the elderman. Before Gustoff knew it, he was being dragged to his feet by Timson who wiped a speck of blood off his lips. The ground felt wobbly as Randy tried to remain steady on his feet. Timson held a long gaze at Randy and tried to shake him out of his daze.
“You okay?” Timson asked.
Randy nodded his head. At first, Timson’s voice sounded faint, but then his hearing came back and the slight sound of moaning could be heard at his feet. Randy looked down and saw the two elderman on the floor, unconscious.
“Are they dead?” He asked.
Timson laughed.
“No Randy, they’re not dead. Just a little sleepy, that’s all. I think it’s best that we get back to the others. They’ll be thrilled to know what we’ve found,” Timson said.
Randy blinked, looking at Timson and then back down at his feet.
“What about these two?” Randy asked.
“They’ll be out cold for a while. We shouldn’t be too long, anyhow. Let’s get the others and tell them the good news. This ship could be our way off this planet!”
Randy nodded, stepping over the two motionless elderman and walking through the fresh hold, into the narrow cave system. It was from there that the two of them began to run back toward their fellow colony members. But Randy couldn’t help but still wonder where the ship came from, and how the other elderman would react.
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” Randy said, his voice bouncing off the rocks around him as he tried to keep up with Timson.
Chapter Two
“Sir, there’s been some sort of leak,” the man holding the clipboard said.
He’d been permitted to enter the room seconds before, where a meeting was taking place between a dozen men in suits. They hadn’t paid much attention to the man before, but now that he was addressing the man at the head of the table, they all looked at him with shocked expressions on their faces. They knew that a leak could mean the end for everybody. Suddenly, everyone wanted answers and they all spoke at once, drowning the man with the clipboard out.
“Enough!” the head suit wearing man said, standing up, rattling the glass conference table with the sheer power of his voice. Everybody quietened down almost immediately. Then he turned his attention to the man with the clipboard, who was now shaking slightly.
“What do you mean, a leak?” he asked, but the man didn’t say anything, he just stared at the floor, sweat dripping down his face. “Answer me Goddamn it!” the head honcho hissed, making the man slowly raise his head up and lock eyes with his boss.
“I don’t know Sir, but my sources are telling me that there’s been a leak. One of our men has gone rogue. We don’t know who, but apparently the scuttlebutt around the office is that some lowly east wing pencil pusher is on some sort of mission,” the guy said, still locking eyes with his superior.
But the suit wearing man wasn’t blinking, he was just staring. It was as if he was looking for a clearer answer in the man’s eyes, but all he could see was fear.
“How have you come across such information?” the head honcho asked.
The man with the clipboard gulped. The others in the room watched on in silent terror. A ticking clock on the wall matched the buzz of anger in the room, throbbing every other second. The man looked at his clipboard and then back at his boss.
“What’s this?” the head honcho asked as he was handed the clipboard. On it was a solitary piece of paper. On that piece of paper were five words printed in bold.
“Where did you find this?” the head honcho asked.
“It was posted through our door this morning,” the guy said.
The head honcho stared at the five words on the piece of paper and then suddenly slammed his fist onto the glass table, cracking it. He then grabbed his coat and dropped the clipboard onto the table, leaving the room as fast as his feet could carry him. The others were left in shock as the door slammed shut, leaving the room in a gulf of silence.
“What does it say?” somebody on the far end asked. The man picked the clipboard and paper up, attaching the two back together, then cleared his throat.
“The truth will be known,” he said to a deafly silent room.
***
“Go!” Williams shouts before bursting through the door and into the corridor where he expected to see the blackness lurking and waiting for him. But to his surprise, there was no blackness, just silence, eerie in its continuous drone as he held his torch up and illuminated the corridor he now stood in. The others made their way through the door and up to him, hanging tightly back in a single file. Everybody was mimicking each other, holding their torches up, fear condensing their facial features into miniature caricatures of what they usually looked like.
“So what now, Commander?” The Captain asked as he walked beside Williams who wasn’t moving. He just stood there, waiting. It unnerved the Captain something rotten. He was nervous as it was, and standing idle in the corridor knowing that the black thing was still somewhere on the ship wasn’t helping matters.
“What now? Now we run like hell,” the Commander said before taking off in a sprint. His heart pounded in his chest as he ran. The others followed, taking up the rear as Williams made his way down the corridor.
The luminous light coming off their lit torches bounced up and down the walls as the group ran for their lives. Nobody really knew what the plan was, besides from the objective of getting off the ship and onto the Commanders ship. None of them knew where the blackness was, but Williams was attempting to retrace his steps back toward the foyer where he’d originally told his team to split up and search the Orion Traveler.
But the thing with moving so fast was that Williams was finding it hard to get his bearings. The lights shining behind him was causing the metal walls to come to life, and various remnants of black shadows danced as the light cascaded off the shiny surfaces. At first, Williams thought it was the blackness returning, and as his heart thumped hard in his chest, he held his breath for imminent contact with the beastly figure, but after a second or two, he realized that it was just a trick of the light, and for now, they were safe.
“Where to?” The Captain blurted out as he tried to catch his breath whilst he ran, but the Commander was ignoring the man. He knew that if they were going to get out of this alive, stealth would be the only viable option. And shouting as they ran wasn’t going to help their cause. So Williams stopped suddenly, turning around and pressing his finger against his lips, signaling the others to remain quiet.
As he was just about to turn around, and continue his run, he saw something behind the mass of survivors as they stood waiting for their orders. A lot of them were already spent, and Williams could tell that this was the first proper bit of exertion some of them had done in a while, which would be a problem if they ran into trouble. But it wasn’t their sweaty faces that was causing the Commander to tremble slightly, it was the massing shadow behind them. It looked as if there was a smudge behind them, a few hundred meters down the corridor they’d just run down. But Williams couldn’t be too sure of what it was.
“What? Something a matter?” The Captain said, before wiping a sheet of sweat off his head. Williams was about to tell the man to can it once again when the smudge on the horizon started to grow.
It was getting closer, and it was getting there fast.
“Shit! RUN!” Williams said, about to turn on his heels and start running for his life. But before he could, the smudge caught up with the stragglers at the back, and before he knew it, they’d been consumed by the blackness. Screams of torment rang through the desolate corridor as Williams’ feet rocketed beneath him and he began to gain pace.
The corridor winded from left to right. And as he ran, he kept his sights locked firmly on what was in front of him. He ducked and weaved barrels, pipes and loose wiring, all the while the dancing light coming from the people behind him began to diminish slightly. All Williams could hear was the continuous screams from the men and women on his tail. He didn’t dare look back in fear that he’d see the blackness centimeters from his back, so he ran like hell instead.
“We’re going to die!” Someone shouted before their voice trailed off into a gargle. It was then that Williams darted his head back to catch a glimpse of the horror behind him.
To his dismay, the many survivors that had been accompanying him and the Captain were now dwindled down to just four men. One of those men was the Captain, who looked as white as a ghost. He was keeping up, and was just about to overtake Williams when the Commander recognized where they were.
“Take a left through here!” he shouted, before turning and bolting through a narrow doorway. The other four men did the same.
Williams turned his head once again, only for a second, and saw the others on his rear. The expressions on their faces were obvious, and didn’t need words to accompany them. He knew that they were fighting for their lives as they ran behind him, and unfortunately it wasn’t over. The smudge had now turned into a huge aura of liquid blackness, coating everything it touched, and it wasn’t far off from touching them. So Williams dug deep and turned it up a notch. His heart ached in his chest as his ribs rattled in protest. But he wasn’t going to give up. He couldn’t allow the darkness to consume him. He wouldn’t allow himself to crumble. So he ran faster and harder.
And so did the others.
“Jesus, where’s this ship of yours?” The Captain spat, running beside Williams. Another scream could be heard. Both men turned to see that the darkness had consumed the three other men behind them, and all that was left between the Captain, Williams and the darkness was a couple of inches of solid metal floor grating.
“Through here! On the right!” Williams said, turning and bursting through a set of metal doors that hung to the far right. The Captain followed, as did the darkness, blanketing everything it touched with a coat of death. The screams stopped, and all that could be heard were the thumping hearts of the two men as they ran like hell.
The doors they’d gone through automatically shut behind them, but that didn’t stop the blackness from finding a way through. It seeped through the various slits and gaps around the door, slowing it down slightly, but not stopping it. They were now in the docking area. There were four air-locked doors in front of them, side by side. Three of the doors had red lights over them, blinking furiously on account of the low power on the ship. But the fourth door, the one farthest from them, had a green light above its metal frame. That was the door that they’d need to go through if they were going to get off the ship alive.
So the two of them didn’t hesitate when they scrambled toward the green light, the hue making it seem as if their skin was glowing. Neither one of them looked back to see if the blackness was through the gaps in the door yet. They didn’t have enough time. The Captain hit a switch on the side of the door, opening it up, and pushed Williams into the chamber. He followed closely behind, hitting another switch and closing the door. The chamber hissed and roared as air got sucked out and another door behind them opened.
Before the two of them moved, they were transfixed by the sight of the blackness reaching the other side of the door that now separated them. They watched through a small porthole as it thrashed against the metal and glass, cracking it as it attempted to reach them, but it couldn’t penetrate the air-locked door, and the two men looked relieved as they turned around and bolted through the second door, which shut promptly behind them, hissing once again.
They were now onboard Williams’ ship. It was dark and empty. Seven seats stood without occupants. Williams collapsed into one of them, panting like a dog. He turned on the dash and started pressing down on various commands on the touch screen. The ship suddenly groaned to life, and before the Captain could join Williams, they’d burst through a tunnel leading out into the void and disengaged from the Orion Traveler, ascending into the darkness of the Andromeda Galaxy. The Orion Traveler looked small as they gained altitude, the so-called Second Earth acting as a backdrop.
They were now safe. They’d escaped the Orion Traveler, and left the blackness to feast on the corpses of their fallen men. But this wasn’t a victory that either man onboard that ship was relishing in. A flood of regret crashed over them as the realization of what had just happened encased them, squeezing them into showing some emotion.
“Fuck, they’re dead!” The Captain said, tears rolling down his cheeks. Williams bowed his head, and closed his eyes. He’d failed his mission. His men were dead. The crew of the Orion Traveler were also dead. There wasn’t much more he could do other than feel sorry for himself.
And between the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way, he had plenty of time to marinade in his own self-pity.
***
Hutchison and his ship the Phantom reached the Jump Gate. There was no traffic at the gate, and they were the only visible ship for thousands of miles on the radar. So he felt confident that getting past the station would be quick and easy. The various soldiers onboard the ship stayed strapped in their harnesses, sitting in their seat
s, looking blankly at the big screen as they approached the large complex.
It was an amazing sight. The gate seemed to hover in perfect symmetry over two large stations where a few hundred smaller ships were docked. People used those stations to rest up before leaving the Milky Way through the Jump Gate. This particular gate went to six different galaxies, the Andromeda being the closest obviously. Hutchison had never used a Jump Gate before, so was very excited to traverse the luminous purple fresh hold and warp to his destination.
He’d used FTL travel before, but he’d done it through ‘freelance’ technology that was onboard the ship. FTL travel was banned in the Milky Way and the only way anyone would be able to travel to another destination was through an authorized gate. If somebody decided to opt out of the official route, and take one of their own, then the Galactic Travel Body would shoot their ship down. It was against the law to travel on unsanctioned so-called pathways. The only people or races that used the back roads to travel were nefarious types, and in Hutchison’s opinion, they deserved what they had coming to them.
Straightening out the ship, he approached the Gate. His comms came on and somebody from the station hailed him. It was Operational Command. The people in charge of letting ships pass unhindered. Hutchison connected to the transmission and somebody’s face appeared on the screen. It was a woman. She wore army gear and was quite beautiful. But Hutchison wasn’t there to gawk at the pretty lady. He was there to make sure that his men got to the Andromeda Galaxy and commenced the arduous task of bringing The Company down. But the woman’s expression alarmed him slightly. She didn’t look pleased to see him, and in fact, held a contemptuous look on her flawless face.
“Captain Hutchison. We have been expecting you. I’m afraid that your name has turned up on the no-fly list. We are ordering you to dock at the station and disembark your ship, or risk being shot down,” the woman said.
Second Earth: The Complete First Novel (Second Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 17
