by Louise Wise
Matt was silently observing a littered corridor deep inside the spaceship. It was narrow, and the cabin doors in this particular alleyway were open. The interiors were large but fire-ravaged, some had fallen in, and the debris from the upper floors lay broken on the charred ground. Matt carried on, stopping every now and then to poke around. He wished he had a light, but his eyes grew used to the dimness and soon he could see quite well.
He found iron steps leading upwards to another floor and tested their strength by bouncing on the bottom step before beginning to climb.
The upper floor was vast, and had a complex mixture of computer terminals and other strange objects that Matt recognized as similar from his own world, yet different; alien and repugnant. He felt incredibly small, like Jack had when he’d climbed the beanstalk; all the technology was completely beyond him.
There was some kind of interconnected device, which Matt crossed to examine. His disrespect deflated as he took it all in. The people from Itor were clearly advanced. Why hadn’t Earth known about them?
There were numerous bodies. Almost unrecognizable as human-like, the corpses were so disfigured by decay. Many had limbs missing, and some had even been decapitated. But strangely, there was no sign of fire, and little structural damage.
Matt chose a corridor leading away from the amazing room of terminals. The passage was merely a narrow walkway between two connecting offices, which even now, gave the impression of a capacity for methodical organization.
Coming to a dead end, Matt turned and discovered yet more of the metal steps, and again tested his weight before moving up them. The entrance to the next room had been sealed, but the environment had rotted the ship to an extent where Matt was able to break the seal and climb through.
In this new room, the floor had shriveled, as if melted by some powerful heat source and left to set hard again. A small hole was neatly made in the wall of the spaceship, and many cracks branched off, zigzagging in all directions.
Particles of non-indigenous stone littered the floor and, curious, Matt stepped forward. Something snapped loudly underfoot. He withdrew rapidly, one hand groping the metal stairs, his body ready to swing himself backwards should the floor give way.
From the safety of the stairs, Matt looked back. So, this is where the asteroid had came in, he thought. He remembered why the ship had crashed, and how the asteroids had claimed Taurus as well. The stone looked like varnished coal, and fragments of it littered the floor.
Matt frowned, then looked back at the entrance and its destroyed seal.
“Ah! The asteroids weren’t your shuttle’s entire downfall as you have led us to believe, were they, alien. “
The part of the ship where he stood had been automatically sealed after impact, a mechanism that had contained the damage and automatically protected the spaceship and its crew from possible further bombardment.
Matt’s expression was one of respect. “It’s clever, very clever, alien man, and it saved your ship from being totally destroyed. “
As he stared at the broken sealed door, he was more than certain that it had been a safety precaution, and had closed the instant the asteroid made contact preventing the complete destruction of the ship. But the ship had crashed despite the foresight - why?
Crossing the rickety floor to the next set of steps looked too dangerous, so fighting disappointment Matt climbed back down. He rested at the bottom, his old injury beginning to ache, before limping back through the room of terminals.
His eyes fell on the steps he had ignored before, and he headed for them and began to climb. He stood at the top, head and shoulders into the new room, and looked around.
Narrow doors, some open, some closed, stood side by side with the same plaques that were on the cabin doors several floors below. Matt counted, but the doors faded out of view along the steel-floored corridor. He clambered to his feet and stood for a moment looking around.
Moving forward he inspected the plaques but couldn’t even begin to decipher the strange lettering. Matt began walking towards a door that stood open.
The smell that came from the room hit him in a rancid and stomach-churning surge. The fetid air stank of stale sweat, urine and excrement. Matt gagged and turned away, but not before noticing the floor was awash with alien filth. The cabins were minute, empty, and menial. They were nothing but cells.
Covering his mouth and nose, he entered. The ceiling was low, and he couldn’t stand straight, and if he’d wanted to lie down he wouldn’t have been able to lie straight, either. The walls were black steel, and not charred as he had first thought. He was about to leave when something caught his attention; embedded in the wall was a thick chain. He followed it with his eyes, and lying in the squalor at the end of the solid chain was an ankle cuff.
Matt backed out. This wasn’t an ordinary space journey exploring an unknown planet - this craft had carried prisoners of some kind.
Glancing in the other cabins Matt saw exactly the same thing. Some chains had been broken away from the wall, whereas others had been neatly cut. Matt, his stomach heaving, headed back towards the steps when he noticed something inside an opened cell.
Covering his nose and mouth with his hand he looked inside. Curled in a fetal position was a humanoid naked body. Its rotting leg was twisted grotesquely, and attached to it was an ankle cuff. Matt pushed the body with his toe, and as the body moved a fresh smell of wasted flesh filled the tiny cabin. Matt backed away suppressing an urge to throw up, but not before noticing how this deceased Itor man had died - his throat hung open as if frenzied claws had gorged it out.
Matt inched slowly along the dark corridor. His journey took him downward towards the lower region of the spacecraft. He crawled beneath the hefty door at the end, and physically recoiled as the fetid stink, the same as in the cells, swamped him.
He stood, holding his breath, and waited until his eyes adapted to the gloom. When they had, he saw that the room had been wrecked, not by the crash but by flesh-and-blood hands. The air it contained was heavy with the stench of putrid flesh and, although he knew it was his over-active imagination, Matt felt he could taste the anger and violence that this room had witnessed.
Matt looked silently around. Metal chains, like the ones he had discovered before, had been torn from the wall with such force that the steel that held it was puckered. There were steel rods that reminded Matt of electric cattle prods. A lone knife lay on the floor, its blade colored by what looked like rust, but when Matt held it up to take a closer look his suspicions were confirmed: the rust was ingrained blood.
He turned, feeling sickened, wondering if he had discovered a place of torture, when something caught his horrified eye. A perverse need drove him to investigate, and he walked over.
Stacked haphazardly in the corner was a heap of decomposing corpses. The bodies had been thrown one on top of the other like rubbish. Here and there, he could see the whiteness of bone gleaming grotesquely amongst the mound of putrefied flesh.
Matt turned and gagged. He felt shaken, and made his exit quickly. He found his way back to the main corridor, guided by the need to leave the spaceship.
He’d seen enough. Enough to know that he and Bodie had been right about Fly, and Jenny was wrong.
Movement in the far distance made him stop in mid pace and he watched as Fly, unaware of Matt’s watchful eye, exited from his cabin. Matt licked his lips, thinking fast. He edged around the wall, knowing that if Fly turned for any reason he would be seen.
The alien hadn’t actually forbidden them to explore, but he felt Fly wouldn’t be pleased to know he had been snooping, especially if he realized that Matt now knew the truth about him.
As he crept along behind the alien his knee knocked against something jutting out of the wall. His old injury complained bitterly, and breath escaped from his mouth in a smothered cry.
Fly turned sharply, the long mane of his black hair falling around his shoulders, and his eyes glittered green, reflecting as a cat’s
would, as they searched the dim area.
Matt edged further along the corridor, not frightened, but wary. He peered around the corner. Fly was still facing him but staring off into another direction.
“Ugly son of a bitch,” Matt whispered.
Fly cocked his head. Then his head snapped round, and his eyes seemingly fastened onto Matt. Automatically Matt flattened himself against the wall. He waited until he was sure he was alone before moving.
There was no sign of the alien. Fingering the bloodied knife lying snugly in the waistband of his trousers he said, “We’re equal now, buddy. “
Jenny and Bodie were alone, much to Matt’s relief. They sat either side of a small fire. Jenny was peeling vegetables and Bodie was twisting long lengths of twine.
“Very domesticated,” he said stepping out of the ship.
“Where have you been?” Bodie wrinkled his nose. “You stink!” “He’s been snooping around the ship,” said Jenny, concentrating on peeling the yellow skinned vegetables.
Matt patted her sarcastically on the head. “Missed me, sweetheart? What’s this in your hair?” He pulled something out, none too gently, and closely studied a bead of grain. He began to toss it to one side, but Bodie held out his hand for it.
“Where’d you get this?”
“Jen’s hair,” Matt grinned.
“They’re from the tall yellow flowers.” Her face turned pink, as if a memory had resurfaced. “Why the interest?”
“I’ll tell you why,” he tossed the small grain up in the air and caught it again. “It’s some kind of wild wheat. The alien’s done well for himself but he’s lived only from day to day.” He tossed the grain again, not realizing how silent Jenny had become. “If there’s wheat there may be other sources of cereal. We can sow crops; make our own food - God, the possibilities are endless!” His face became red in his excitement. “What exactly is there on this planet apart from ice and wolves?”
Matt watched the guilty flush rise on Jenny’s face.
“We’ve already planted crops. We’ve cattle, and - and everything,” she said lamely, avoiding eye contact.
“Sorry for coming to your rescue and messing up your cozy little home-life,” Matt said. He laughed. “Do you wear loincloths for Sunday best?”
“Shut it, Matt!” Bodie snapped, and turned to Jenny tentatively, as if afraid she was about to jump up and disappear with Fly and he’d never see her again. “Is this the same shelter where you keep disappearing to each day?”
She nodded.
“God, I hadn’t believed your relationship with the alien had developed so far,” he exploded. He raised his hand to rake nonexistent hair, but only disturbed old bloodied crusts on his head instead. “You’re a regular Tarzan and Jane, aren’t you?”
“Isn’t that what I’ve been trying to tell you?” said Matt.
“I’ve told you, time and again, that it was serious between us. But you never listen,” she cried. Both ignored Matt. “Fly and I have a good life here, a happy one. We’ve a house, cattle, crops, and we’re very comfortable together. “
“I never realized you’d gone this far… he called it a shelter! I thought it was a small den not a house.”
Jenny looked both distressed and frustrated at the same time. “But I did try and tell you.”
Matt raised his eyebrows. It seemed her relationship with Fly had finally been recognized…
…Although still disbelieved.
“You can’t really believe you love him? He’s an alien. Jenny, sweetheart, you don’t need him. You have us. There’s no need to prostitute yourself -”
Her shocked gasp was very audible, and drowned Matt’s loud guffaw.
“I’m sorry.” Bodie held up his hands in an act of innocence. “I didn’t mean -”
Jenny threw down the half-peeled vegetable. She stood, arms akimbo. “Just get it into your head, will you? Fly and I love each other!”
Matt gave another hoot of laughter, but Bodie’s face paled dramatically.
She glared at them one last time, before storming off up the hill.
“Well done, I couldn’t have got rid of her faster if I’d tried,” said Matt, still grinning.
Bodie rubbed his eyes with the forefinger and thumb of the same hand. “We’re losing her, Matt. I can’t get through to her at all. The alien’s won.”
Matt crouched down by his chair, knuckles supporting his weight between his legs. “Not by a long shot,” he grinned. “You’ll never guess where I’ve just been.”
“Yes, where exactly have you been? You’ve been gone most of the morning.”
Matt smiled. “This was no ordinary spacecraft exploring the cosmos; it was some kind of a flying penitentiary system. Neither was the spaceship brought down by the asteroids - the ship had been protected by that bombardment. No, it came down because of some sort of mutiny between the prisoners and the crew. Wonder which was Fly?”
Bodie shook his head, and blustered, “What the hell are you going on about… a flying penitentiary… ?”
“System,” Matt filled in for him.
Bodie’s eyes grew wide as Matt’s words began to take effect. “Jenny said that he said an asteroid had been the cause of his spaceship crashing.”
Matt nodded. “He was lying. I saw, with my own eyes, the device that protected them from a would-be fatal impact.”
“What’s made you believe the ship was full of prisoners?”
He tapped his nose. “By snooping, that’s how. Am I gonna surprise Fly with my discovery or what!”
“Now hold on,” Bodie held up a cautionary finger.
“Keep your hair on,” he said, and laughed at his joke, but Bodie only glared at him. “I’ve sussed out the spaceship and its crew, Bodie, and I think our alien should know what we know - especially Jenny, don’t you?”
“I don’t know anything!” Bodie said. “You’re talking crap as usual, and not telling me a bloody thing.”
“I’ll reveal all this dinnertime,” he said. “Have you done your exercises today, Commander?” he asked as he noted Bodie gently rubbing the painful area on his thighs.
“Don’t change the subject,” Bodie answered. “Fly’s dangerous and I don’t want Jenny, or us, put into any more danger than we already are!”
“Oh,” Matt flapped a hand in Bodie’s face, “he isn’t any different to us really, and I don’t see why we should feel scared of him anymore.”
“You don’t?” Bodie looked skeptical.
“You’re all brains and no balls,” Matt mocked as he knelt down in front of him and took one of Bodie’s ankles in the two of his hands, and gently began to raise and lower the right leg, as Bodie struggled not to cry out with pain.
He did the same to the other leg. “I’m wondering if the splints should come off -”
“No,” Bodie snapped. “I’ll tell you when they come off, not you or some bloody dead-eyed alien!”
Matt grinned, and positioned Bodie’s legs back on the chair where they’d been resting. Rising, he locked his fingers together and stretched out his arms, simultaneously cracking his knuckles,
“Time for your physio, Commander.”
“Be gentle this time,” Bodie said, as Matt knelt down again, and took one of his legs in his lap. “Gentle, I said!”
Matt grinned. “We’ll have you up on your feet in no time, Commander. “
Bodie grunted and then moved his eyes in the direction behind Matt. He said, in a lowered voice, “Just promise me, you’ll not say anything of what you’ve found until we’ve had a chance to talk.”
Matt glanced over his shoulder and saw Jenny and Fly slowly walking down the hill.
“Well now,” he said. “Tarzan and Jane are back.”
“Matt.” Bodie said, in a warning tone.
Matt looked at him, then winked, “Dinnertime.”
TWENTY-TWO
Bodie acted as if he was in high spirits during dinner, but secretly he was petrified of what Matt was going to revea
l. If the alien turned nasty what chance would they have? He was a cripple and Matt had a gammy knee. And right now, Matt was taking a perverse delight in tormenting him.
Bodie spiked a chunky piece of vegetable with his pointed wooden knife and bit into its darkened flesh. His ears pricked up. Matt and Jenny were discussing Taurus, and the perilous journey they had made through space to get here.
“Jenny tells us your cause of crash was the same as ours,” Matt addressed Fly, and Bodie’s heart leaped at the innocent question.
Fly looked up. His dead eyes showed nothing, but it was probably the first time Matt had ever addressed him politely and Bodie wouldn’t have been surprised if the alien’s pause was caution.
“The asteroids caused sufficient damage to the craft,” he said at last.
“They went completely undetected by us, too,” said Jenny.
“You wouldn’t think a ship that size would notice the impact let alone crash because of it,” Matt said. He caught Bodie’s eye, and winked. Bodie’s heart sank. This was it. This was when Matt was going to reveal what he knew about the spaceship and the crew.
“We landed safely,” Fly said.
“Oh, I thought you crashed,” Jenny said.
Fly directed his unblinking gaze on her. “We landed safely but wounded.”
“Damaged,” she corrected. She speared a vegetable. “You landed thinking there was little damage, and the explosion caught you unaware, I suppose.” She raised her fork to her mouth. “How awful.”
Fly agreed, and scooped up sweet vegetables on his spoon and put them in his mouth.
“An explosion created extensive damage to the lower region, but the upper deck was hardly touched,” Matt continued. “Funny that, especially as it was the place where the asteroid came in.”
“The asteroid caused a chain reaction, which resulted in the explosion in the lower floors,” Fly said. “Nothing strange when the engine room and other electrical departments were ready to ignite.”
Matt fingered his chin, and “hummed” very dramatically. “But how come the floor, where the asteroid came in, was sealed off? With that type of protection your spacecraft wouldn’t have gone through the type of devastation that occurred, other than environmental.”
