From beyond, p.25
From Beyond, page 25
At least Lennon’s explosives had been enough to kill the one they’d encountered, but what if they ran into more of them?
And that wasn’t even their biggest problem. The explosion they’d triggered had ripped their suits open with shrapnel. There was no way they were getting to the Beyond now, not unless Carter crawled over with three spare suits. And with his bad leg…
“We have to grab the rest of the bombs from where we came in…” Lennon said, her breath ragged with exhaustion.
“Understood.” David led them up the shaft, his movements slowing as the exertion of the day’s events took their toll on him.
The airlock was as they’d left it, and David knew Carter was only a few meters away, on board Beyond.
David tried the comms, to see if the jamming field was still active. “Carter. Come in.”
A squeal of static made him wince. Not even a hint of Carter’s reply. They were on their own.
“Put them in here,” Liu said, opening his sample bag.
Lennon glanced at the contents. “Got anything to give us a boost?”
“I should have thought of that,” Liu said, retrieving a vial and three needles. He stuck her first, dropping the used device on the floor. David was next, and he gritted his teeth as the point entered his shoulder.
“What is it?” David asked.
“A stimulant to keep us awake, at least for a couple of hours,” Liu said.
“Okay.” He wasn’t sure if it was the administered drug, or the placebo effect of knowing he’d been injected, but David already felt better: his mind less muddled, his muscles regaining some of their former strength.
Lennon used her detonator, linking the last five bombs, and she wiped them clean. “I think they’ll work. The controls weren’t as caked as the others.”
“We need to move.” David went ahead, with Liu shouldering his bag. David noticed Lennon kept one of the bombs in her hand.
Eventually, David slowed as he approached a bend in the corridor, and he leaned around it to check that the way was clear. Muted green lights extended into shadows as the tunnel snaked up to a higher level, but there was no sign of spiders, or the sinister creatures with four eyes.
Lennon slowed alongside him, and she let out a ragged breath. “Where is this leading?”
David produced his Holo from a mag-sealed pocket on his hip. Thankfully it hadn’t been too damaged in the blast. The mapping app gave him some notion. They’d distanced themselves from the splattered guts of the alien crewman, and were headed to an unexplored region in the bow of the ship.
“We don’t know what’s in there,” Lennon said.
“Or who,” Liu added in a dark whisper.
“Maybe not, but we can’t go back,” David stated. “Besides, if we’re lucky we might find some type of escape pod we can sneak into.”
“And also be fortunate enough to figure out how to operate it?” Lennon asked.
“Do you have a better idea?”
“We need to stop them before they arrive.”
“You tried that.”
“So we try again. We have more explosives.”
“The swarm is there,” David argued. “No.”
Not waiting for further argument, David crept forward, keeping his sidearm at the ready. The tunnel twisted higher, and all three of them were laboring for breath. Eventually they came to a dead end as David touched the door handle.
“Wait,” Liu said, and assessed it with his scanner. They’d left their helmets behind, forcing them to crowd around the small holographic display at the back of the device. “Clear,” David whispered, before opening the barrier into a more artificial corridor. About a hundred meters later, they found a vast chamber full of glowing aisles with illuminated tanks stacked atop each other. They were filled with the same lanky monsters they’d encountered down in the engineering section.
Lennon gasped and cursed under her breath.
David rocked on his heels as a dull wave of shock rolled over him. It was exactly as they’d predicted. Some type of cryo room or suspended animation chamber. In a daze, he drifted toward the nearest tank for a better look.
Two sets of eyes to either side of a vertical, slitted mouth. They were shut with semi-translucent lids that made the creature appear blind. A spiked black carapace, lengthy limbs and three-fingered hands. Four legs that extended from two bony hip joints that trailed to a point near the bottom of the tank. The being was suspended in the liquid, connected to multiple tubes and clear, hair-like cables that faded behind its skull. A single black orifice at the top of its curved forehead was puckered shut.
“There must be thousands of them...” Liu whispered, his gaze scanning the room.
“We should leave.”
Liu gawked at the tank. “Look.” His hand came up and brushed a blinking panel set into the tube.
Something clicked and whirred. The lights flashed from green and blue to solid yellow, and the tank rose several inches above the floor. The fluid inside the tank began to swirl.
“What did you do?” Lennon hissed.
“I didn’t...” Liu staggered away, shaking his head.
David leveled his weapon at the tank, watching as the contents steadily drained. The alien stirred to life. Translucent lids fluttered, the eyes roving behind them.
“It’s waking up! We need to leave!” Lennon said.
Its palms slapped the glass as the fluid no longer held it in stasis. “Come on!” Lennon pleaded, tugging at his arm.
David nodded, breaking his stare.
The alien stared right at him. It let out a muffled roar, and he froze. Lips receded from interlocking sets of translucent six-inch teeth that vaguely reminded David of a Venetian flytrap. It hit the inside of the tank with a fist, and it sprang open. The thing stepped out, fumbling with the tubes connected to its chest before yanking on the bundle of hair-thin wires attached to its skull.
BANG.
A bullet plinked off its head, barely missing one of its eyes. The alien shrieked and snapped its jaws. It lunged for David, but he ducked the blow. Lennon came to his aid, firing relentlessly, but her aim was off target.
“Run!” Liu cried, even as he let off a hasty shot of his own.
David joined their assault. The alien staggered and let out a sibilant hiss as one bullet hit the mark and its upper right eye exploded in a fountain of clear, viscous blood that splattered David’s face. The creature sagged to one knee, clutching its ruined eye.
A thunderous clunking and groaning sound erupted, and all of the glowing tanks simultaneously rose off the deck, fluid swirling as pumps emptied their liquid contents.
“They’re waking up!” Lennon said. “We have to go now!”
David didn’t hesitate. He turned and tore after Lennon, sprinting through the exit.
THIRTY-THREE
Off the Australian Coast
The image of the alien suspended in that tank stuck in Atlas’ mind. He tried to focus on the conversation to distract himself from the maelstrom of questions churning through his thoughts.
“Dark Seven has been with me for years.” The general indicated James Wan. “One of the originals.”
“What are you guys?” Atlas asked.
“Merely a covert operation. We deal with global issues that require discretion,” he said.
“So you’re mercenaries.” Atlas glanced out the window, seeing the choppy waves below them.
Dark Leader laughed, the noise booming even with the sound of the rotors. “Mr. Donovan, you are still in denial. Without us, the world would have already ended. I promise you that.”
Atlas identified a black dot in the water, and assumed it was their destination. A minute later, he saw it was an aircraft carrier, only there were no jets parked on the runway. The smaller boat he’d seen near the coast was floating nearby.
He noted it was unmarked as they set down on the helicopter pad. “Tell me about the Mars operation.”
“Mars, or the Beyond III’s mission?”
“Are they different?”
“Vastly. Beyond was sent to intercept…”
“An alien ship,” Atlas finished. “I heard something about the change of trajectory.”
“Is that so?” Dark Leader lifted an eyebrow. “It seems you’re more astute than I gave you credit for.”
“Who are they?”
The general stepped out of the helicopter, and Atlas followed. Another armed man greeted them. He wore the same uniform as James Wan, and looked to be eastern European.
“Dark One,” the general said. “Thank you for meeting us.”
“Anything you need, sir.” The man had a slight German accent, but spoke English fluently.
James remained on the platform, and Atlas went with the others to the nearest set of stairs.
Atlas was exhausted, but adrenaline kept him going. Eventually he slowed, struggling to keep up with the pair of operatives. He longed for a shower and something to eat, but the notion of learning more about these Stalkers fueled his movements.
They emerged in an echoing aircraft hangar below the flight deck. The rock was here, somehow already moved from the coast to the carrier. Atlas was astounded with how fast these people operated. Dark Leader held the pair of relics Atlas had once possessed, and walked toward the oval vessel. “Now we learn the truth,” the man said.
“What are you hoping to find?”
“My intel suggests a pair of these landed on Earth. One holds a signal.”
“For what?”
“We’re unsure. My information isn’t very reliable. But we fear serious consequences if the Stalkers find it.”
Atlas marched closer to the rock and set a palm on its exterior. “There’s another ship like this?”
“That’s correct.”
Dark Leader retrieved his Holo from inside his suit jacket, and passed it to Atlas. The drawing was detailed, created with a digital pen. Green lights shone from a circular stone. “What is it?”
“That’s the signal’s source,” he responded.
Dark Leader stared at his counterpart, who held his automatic rifle to his chest, prepared to use it if necessary. Atlas didn’t think it was intended for himself.
“If we’re right, the signal might be emanating from within the hull of this craft.”
“And if that’s the case? Then what?”
“We destroy it,” he whispered.
Atlas had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, and was beginning to see the bigger picture. “They’re coming here, aren’t they? The Stalkers.”
“I’ve sent someone to deal with the Interloper.”
Atlas mouthed the word silently.
“Sir, has Dark Three responded yet?” the German asked.
“Wait. You dispatched one of your operatives with the Mars mission?” Atlas asked.
“Yes. She’s been ordered to destroy the Stalkers’ ship. But I fear something’s gone wrong.” He took his Holo back, and typed on the screen. “I’ve lost contact. The last message she received was when I asked her to await further orders.”
“Why did you tell her that? Aren’t they a threat?”
“Because I needed to see what happened when we activated this.” He gestured to the dormant hunk of rock. “But her final response bodes well. I will place them. We have landed. Hostiles on board. One dead so far.” Dark Leader read the communication.
“So she is going to destroy it?”
“That’s the plan.”
“But why?” Atlas could think of a million reasons why, but he would have expected Dark Leader would want to study a giant alien spacecraft full of advanced technology.
“Atlas, what happens every time a native population is visited by outsiders?”
“They’re conquered.”
“Or they bring pestilence and disease. No matter what we think, they will devastate our planet,” Dark Leader said. He had the relics in his grip, and he passed them to Atlas. “How did they work?”
Atlas hefted the object, and stuck his three fingers into the depressions. He spun them as he had in the rain before dawn, and he immediately felt vibrations pulsing through the deck. The rock clicked and hummed as the square of light flashed before the doorway opened.
“Dark One, investigate it.”
“Sir, yes, sir.” He poked his gun inside, and soon he vanished within the vessel, crouching to fit into the opening.
Atlas waited nervously, resisting the urge to fidget. A minute later, the German agent returned. “It’s in there.”
“It?” Atlas asked. “The signal stone?”
“No. One of them.”
Atlas rushed to the craft, peering into the opening. A being was seated in a metal chair, strapped in around the chest. It wore considerable armor, but no helmet, and its shiny black head had lolled to the side, two sets of large eyes staring blankly. It smelled like sour milk. “Why didn’t it decay?”
“This ship was sealed up tight. Nothing in or out.” Dark Leader brushed past Atlas, searching the small cockpit. “The signal isn’t here.” He exited, pounding a palm against the hull. “That means it’s out there somewhere. And we’ve already activated it.”
By the expression on the man’s face, this was distressing. But how did he know? He seemed to know what he was looking for, despite not having found it yet. That made Atlas wonder about his source.
“What do we do?” he asked.
“Prepare for the worst.” He faced Dark One. “Contact the Association. Explain our discovery. More will be coming.”
Atlas glanced at the skinny alien, seeing that it also had three fingers and four eyes, like the other in the tank. But this one was small and hunching, curled in on itself and somehow shrunken within its glossy armor.
Papery flakes of skin fluttered in a draft from an open doorway, and a vertical slit for a mouth revealed a hint of translucent teeth. But it had only two legs that he could see.
Were these two species related? Their similarities made him wonder. It implied a relationship. Finding out that not one, but two different alien species had visited Earth left his mind spinning with entirely new questions.
***
Lennon
The Interloper
Walking these corridors was becoming a living nightmare. Lennon found they all looked the same, and she was growing too used to the pale emerald lighting. It was unnerving, and after the series of tense situations they’d experienced, she was seeing monsters within every shadow.
The Interloper had an off-putting aroma to it. Now that they were without space suits, the experience had changed. The primary corridors were scentless, the lower decks musky, and the caverns held a tinge of fecal matter and decay.
“You seriously want to return to engineering?” Liu was beginning to lose his composure. “I think we should hide somewhere. Wait them out.”
Lennon had heard enough. She shoved the doctor, planting her forearm against his neck as she pinned him to the wall. “Shut up, Liu. Did you see those things? There are thousands of bullet-proof aliens destined for Earth, as well as a giant weapon on the front of this vessel, and we are not prepared to deal with an invasion. Do you understand?”
Liu stared at her, and finally nodded. “Okay.”
Lennon appreciated that David kept his nose out of this. He’d obviously resigned himself to her authority on the matter. After seeing those cryo-tubes, and what was in them, how could anyone in their right mind ignore the fact that they needed to destroy the Interloper?
“You think it’s better to remain here, go for it. Maybe you could draw them out. It’ll be a good distraction,” Lennon half-kidded. It didn’t go over well, considering David’s glare.
“No one is staying behind. We’re here to support you, Baxter. Let’s finish this once and for all,” he said, marching past her.
She checked the Holo, finding their destination was only three hundred meters away, and two decks below. “What if we use the shafts?”
“Good idea. They might be guarding engineering,” David said. “Liu, can you locate one with the scanner?”
Lennon waited impatiently while he checked the walls. The Interloper had been moving quickly, but Lennon had no idea how long it was going to take to reach Earth. Hopefully months. If so, she could tear the vessel apart in the next while, sending the pieces drifting through space. The mission would be a success, and Earth would be safe.
“Here.” Liu tapped a hidden panel, and David wretched it loose.
“We have a way in.” David stretched toward an explosive from Liu’s pack.
Lennon grabbed his arm. “We’re planting them. I don’t trust the range of this thing.” She stared at the detonator. “If it fails, I’ll have to override using the manual.” Not that she loved the idea of being torn apart by the explosion.
“Fine. But we all go.” David climbed in first, and she heard him begin his descent, arms sliding as he pressed them against either side of the shaft.
Lennon let Liu go next, and she glanced behind her, almost expecting to find a hundred of those creatures stalking the corridor to greet her. But it was silent on this deck, half a ship away from the cryo chambers.
She made quick work of the five decks, her arms fatiguing from effort, but she entered engineering, amazed at how pristine it was. There was no evidence of their battle with the spiked black monster.
Lennon sped into the room, setting two of the explosives at the base of the reactor tube. She couldn’t believe she was here again. A never-ending circular path on the alien’s vessel.
David was at the exit, his hands shaking with the gun in his grip. “They’re coming,” he whispered.
“Who is? Which ones?” Lennon felt the rumbling under her boots.
“Five, ten–all of them? Does it matter how many?” He stared back, his skin pallid and sweaty.
“Go into the ducts!” she shouted, and David dashed for it. Lennon paused at the opening, watching for the aliens’ arrival. The other two were already up the shaft. Lennon meant to take out as many of the beasts as she could.
