by
Travis Kline
I
The year is 2307, where
man has made his way to the stars. It
has been nearly 338 years since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, and
man has colonized almost 20 star systems.
Many home worlder’s feel that humanity should have colonized many more
systems, but as with many new endeavors humanity underestimated the difficulty
of colonization. For the present
however, we will concern ourselves with the events on a planet in the Alpha
Centauri system. The name of this
planet is Alpha Centauri III, one of the two habitable planets in the
system. A planet with a layer of deep
red clouds that perpetually blocks out all light of Alpha Centauri except for
the a dismal red tint that basks the surface of the planet in a blood hue. We begin our story at New Homestead, a city
on the edge of the vast wasteland that covers one quarter of the planet. This city is little more than living
quarters overshadowed by the monstrous Ricol mining facility, which extracts,
refines, and ships a translucent ore known as crowcite. Nicholas Cole, was the head of security for
the mining facility. A job that he took
with great honor, it had been more or less inherited from his father. His father had died under mysterious circumstances,
the company had told his mother that he had been killed in an industrial
accident, but he knew better. His
father had been one of the most perceptive and cautious people in all of the
world. That had been one of the reasons
he had taken this job, to find out the truth behind his fathers demise. Cole had been working security for the past
eight months and still had not found any clues as to the death of his
father. Today was different however,
today he would begin to uncover a mystery that would bring him to understand
what had killed his father all those years ago.
It began as any other
day did for Nicholas, he woke up at 4:30 standard time, showered, ate, and
dressed in his daily manner making sure that his JP-25 laser pistol was fully
charged and at his side a ritual that he went through every day. He walked his daily route to the transport
tube, but today he walked at a slower pace.
Today, was the same date that ten years ago his mother had received the
message that his father was dead. As he
boarded the transport he had an feeling, one that he had never felt
before. He looked around, and saw the
usual mine personal that he had seen almost every day for the past eight
months, but then he realized that his friend Jason Krin was not on the
transport as he usually was. Nicholas
had known Jason Krin for about five months, he had met him one day on a
security sweep of the lower levels of the mining facility. Jason had been a low level security guard
then with low self-esteem, but Nicholas had taken Jason under his wing and
taught him how to respect and take care of himself. It struck Nicholas as odd that he would be late for work, so he
turned to another security guard that was seated nearby, “Have you seen
corporal Krin this morning?.” The guard
had a questioning look on his face “Haven’t you heard sir?”
“Heard what?,” “They found Krin in the lower
mines last night, he had been brutally killed.” Nicholas was shocked, he could not fathom how Jason could have
been killed, he had been trained to protect himself against all types of
attacks. As Nicholas sat down to take
in all that he had just heard the transport came to a stop with the hiss of
compressed air. Nicholas stepped off
the transport and walked slowly to the security check point. He went through the check point as he always
did, and after walking up the four flights of stairs that just as well could
have been a hundred, he walked into his office. Nicholas logged into the security grid and began his daily
routine, all the while he was tearing himself apart on the inside. Where had he gone wrong, what had he not
taught Jason. “No!,” he thought it and
yelled it at the same time without even thinking. The security guard out side his office burst into the room weapon
drawn and ready to fire. “Are you all
right sir?” the guard asked with a bewildered look on his face as he realized
that Nicholas was still seated at his desk.
“Yes, I’m quite alright corporal, you can go back to your duties.” Then and there, Cole decided to find out
what killed Jason.
Nicholas wasn’t quite
sure were to start his investigation, so he proceeded in the most rational way
they he could think of. He took one of
the mine trams to the lower mines, he hoped to find some clues as to the nature
of Krin’s death. As the tram came to a
stop he reflected on the past few weeks of work. He remembered the party that he and Krin had gone to, he
remembered how Krin had too much to drink, and how he had carried him
home. The low hum of the tram stopping
roused Cole from his daydreaming. The
doors opened with a whoosh of compressed air, the sulfuric fumes assaulted his
lungs, and he took in a long slow breath before he put the filter mask over his
face.
He looked out of the
tram, and was taken aback, the corridor was dark and only the emergency lights
were on which left an eerie yellow glow on the corridor and the bodies in
it. A shadow moved near one side of the
door. A figure came toward Cole from
the darkness, and as soon as the figure came into the light Nicholas was
stopped dead in his tracks. He felt his
blood freeze in his veins, the figure was one of the mine security officers,
and as he moved into the radius of the trams light Cole realized that the man
had been brutally attacked. His uniform
was torn in a hundred different places, it look like he had gone through a meat
grinder. He collapsed into Cole’s
arms, Cole turned him over so he could see his face, he had at least twenty
cuts of various sizes all over his face.
The man tried to speak, Nicholas leaned close to listen, “Help
meeeee....” His voice was a rasp, Cole
did what he could but the man couldn’t
be saved. Nicholas brought his pistol
up without a sound, he moved along the left wall deeper into the darkness and
the mine.
The machinery of the
mine was dead for lack of power, Cole could hear his own heart beating in his
chest. He had moved about two-hundred
yards down the corridor when he heard the unmistakable thump of a repeater
rifle. He started to take longer
strides, then he broke out into a run, he could hear a scream and then
silence. As he rounded the corner of
the adjacent corridor he saw the thing that inflicted the horrible wounds on
the security officer. The alien visage
was one of shear terror it turned from it’s victim and stared straight at
him. It was a mass of teeth surrounded
by a oblong head, it had six eyes and looked at Cole as a man would look at a
holiday dinner. It seemed to grin as it
moved toward Cole, it’s massive body stood on two legs that were as thick as
oil drums, the body was a mass of blackness that seemed to absorb all light
making it seem larger than it really was.
The two arms that extended in front of it were tipped with six fingers
that ended in claws that looked sharper that knives.
Cole fired as fast as he
could make his finger pull the trigger.
He struck it head on it screamed and then lunged, Cole knew that then
and there he would die. Then, all of a
sudden, a shot rang out, the creature dropped just inches in front of Nicholas
he could feel the things arms land next to his feet. He starred down for a few seconds, and then raised his eyes and
say a man leaning against the wall a repeater rifle cradled in his arms. Then he realized that this was the thing
that had killed Krin and his father. He
walked the man out of the mine and left the creature where it had died. After a prolonged questioning by company
authorities he was released to return to his job. After that incident, the lower mines were closed due to a
biological hazard, or at least that is what the company told the news
media. As he rode the transport home he
began to wonder if there weren’t more of those things in the mines or on the
planet itself. Then the lights of the
transport went dead, the transport slowed to a stop and he heard a scream that
chilled him to the bone. It was the
same scream that he had heard in that mine tunnel. Then he knew that this nightmare had only just begun.
* *
*
To call what Cole felt
as he heard the second scream terror, is to diminish the meaning of the
word. Adrenalin pumping, he looked up
and down the transport’s cabin. His gun
followed his eye’s every movement, he swung the gun to the front and back of
the transport. The other passengers,
had no idea what was going on and Nicholas had no idea what to yell out as the
black mass crashed through the roof.
The creature landed on the seats four rows behind Nick, screaming again
as it crashed down into the steel and cloth.
It’s body rose out of the twisted and crushed metal, it’s oblong head swinging
back and forth looking for something.
It saw Cole but still attacked the nearest passenger, a poor young man
headed home from work. It lunged,
catching the man as he scrambled to escape.
Screeching, it broke his back and neck as if he were a small twig.