Sargasso of Souls – Session 5

So there we were standing in the cave, gazing up at the wall. From what we could see in the darkness, which was only broken by the patchy illumination from our flashlights, the smooth surface was composed entirely of hexagonal crystals. Naturally Phipps was excited and wanted to take a closer look, though sensibly he refrained from going forward. Before he did so, Morris and I scanned the area to check that it was clear. We slowly moved up and, only after we had reached the wall without incident, did we motion for Phipps and Harris to join us. Pietersen stayed further back, near the cave-mouth, covering the rear.

I stayed alert, senses straining to detect any threat that might be lurking in the shadows. As always it was very claustrophobic inside the suits; particularly in the darkness and with the dust and wind outside. I couldn’t fully relax until we were back on the Salvation, or maybe Bharat station itself. The problem with these damn EVAs is they’re so unforgiving. Make one stupid mistake and that’s it, you’re history. I’d seen it happen before.

I edged slightly further away from the wall as Veldin started poking and prodding the crystals. Now he had been unleashed his caution seemed to have evaporated. He found one of the hexagons that appeared to be very slightly indented compared with the others and, when he pushed it, it moved and the centre of the wall suddenly unwound like an iris valve.

Everyone leapt back, and Morris and I swung around, covering the opening with our SMGs in case something hostile emerged, but everything was still. Beyond the iris, all that was revealed was the start of a hexagonal corridor that led away into the darkness.

Great! I’d been a grunt long enough to know that sooner or later some damn fool was going to want us to investigate.

Veldin hopped around excitedly and came close to hyperventilating over the magnitude of this find. Nothing remotely like this had ever been discovered before. Yet ultimately he deferred to military judgement on the subject of whether we should go any further.

Over the fibre-optic link from the Salvation, Ramsay was even more enthusiastic. I noted that he was remarkably ready to risk our necks, while he was safe on the shuttle.

“For what it’s worth I say we head back to the Salvation”, I said.

Morris gave me a stern look. “I want to make it perfectly clear that we are not going back” he stated authoritatively. “It’ll only mean we have to come out again later.”

“I was just expressing a preference”, I muttered.

And so the decision was made.

We waited a few minutes while Morris endeavoured to wedge a small rock in the opening so that the iris couldn’t fully close while we were inside. Then we moved on.

It came as no surprise to me to find that I was on point. Gee! Aren’t I the lucky one!

I edged slowly down the corridor. There was a lot of dust hanging in the air I couldn’t see shit. The beams from the flashlights mounted on my gun and suit helmet must have illuminated all of ten metres. If anything came at us it would be on me before I could do anything.

I had gone about fifty metres when Harris told me to stop. His scanner was picking up some unusual readings emanating from the floor and ceiling up ahead. After Veldin had come up alongside me for a closer look, the two of them decided that there was a faint energy field across the corridor.

After some debate over the fibre-optic link with Ramsay, Bauer and Strauss, on the Salvation, the techies collectively decided that it was emitting too little power to be anything other than a sensor, or maybe some other system that was so ancient it had nearly run out of juice. So in their expert opinion it was safe to continue.

Oh it’s just a sensor! That’s comforting! It’s what it might be attached to that was concerning me!

Nonetheless Morris was satisfied that we should press on. He seemed to want to get it over with.

For my own part I didn’t like it, but I knew Morris would take the risk if I didn’t and I was on point, so it was my job. F**k you Morris! I thought, and stepped across.

Back on the ship our signal immediately went dead as the iris valve behind us clamped shut and severed the fibre-optic link.

Where we stood in the corridor dust started to kick up and swirl around us.

Shit! Something’s happening?

I remember Morris’s voice in my helmet saying, “I’ve got movement up ahead. Readings are weird but there’s lot’s of it, and it’s coming fast!”

He’d barely got the words out before a huge cloud of dust and dirt boiled up the corridor and enveloped us.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

I hunkered down close to the floor and struggled to make my way to the wall as the windstorm roared around us.

Then Harris screamed.

“Something touched my leg!” he yelled.

And moments later a fist-sized rock ricocheted off Morris’s upper arm and smashed into Veldin’s helmet. In its wake it left a large crack across the visor. Though of course I couldn’t see any of this.

I heard Morris say, “Work your way to me” and I remember thinking, “F**k that!”

“I’m going on”, I said over the radio and I started working my way slowly forwards. I was hoping that eventually I could get beyond the roaring wind, though I reckoned it had started a fair distance away.

As I did so, all along the corridor, the rushing of the air gradually subsided. The dust began to settle. It was over.

“What the f**k was that?” exclaimed Morris.

“Is everyone OK?” I said.

“Can someone take a look at my visor” Veldin replied shakily.

Fortunately for him the integrity of his suit had not been compromised. However, at my insistence we reinforced the crack with sealant. It was safer that way, though after that Veldin repeatedly complained it restricted his ability to see things.

Harris had dropped his scanner to draw his Maser and was so jumpy he had come very close to shooting Phipps. Inside his suit I could see that he was wide-eyed and close to panic.

When Pietersen laconically reported that the iris valve had closed behind us Harris nearly lost it altogether.

Morris on the other hand seemed completely unperturbed by what had just happened and suggested that we scout on up the corridor for five or ten minutes before going back to see if we could get out.

Ramsay hadn’t exactly made it clear who was in-charge of this mission, but Morris had been my sergeant in the 54th and he was Razor’s brother, so I assumed he had seniority. Though I felt we were chancing our arm I decided it was his call and didn’t argue with him. Besides I’d have put money on the fact that Ramsay would have told us to go on anyway.

We went on a similar distance until the corridor ended at a second iris valve. This one was open.

Beyond it was a larger area where vague shapes were dimly illuminated by our flashlights. Everything was covered in a thick coating of dust and larger rock fragments were strewn across the floor. Off to one side was a large crystalline pillar that appeared to be encasing a mummified alien corpse.

We waited for a few minutes to make sure that there was no sign of movement, and then Morris and I went inside to check that it was safe.

When we heard Veldin’s startled exclamation, “My god! This is incredible! It’s almost perfectly preserved!” we realised that he had followed us in and was standing wide-eyed alongside the statue. Morris barked at him, “Phipps, don’t you move another fuckin inch!”

Obediently Veldin froze; though that didn’t stop him blathering on about an assortment of fascinating readings that popped up on his scanner every few seconds. I tried my best to ignore him as Morris and I continued our careful progress around the perimeter.

Within the room there were obvious signs of a firefight. Scorching and burn-marks were on the ceiling and walls. And in three or four places the hexagonal tiles, that everything seemed to be built out of, had shattered leaving dark rock faces exposed. There also appeared to be another iris valve on the far side of the room from where we entered, but we didn’t attempt to open it.

Having completed our sweep of the interior, we concluded that it was clear. At which point Veldin was unleashed to explore. He was like a kid at Christmas, though his exclamations of delight at each new discovery were lost on me. He took a multitude of bio-readings and samples, bone fragments and a handful of small blue crystals that lay scattered on the ground. They looked strangely like some form of ammunition to me, so I reminded him once again to be careful and went to see how Harris was.

The geologist hadn’t said a word since the incident in the tunnel and was still tightly clenching his Maser pistol like he was daring anyone to try and take it away from him. It seemed to me that he was more likely to shoot one of us than anything else so I told him to pull himself together and put the gun away. The room was secure. Morris, Pietersen and I had everything under control. He didn’t need it. Harris looked at me uncertainly for a moment, as if he were contemplating the wisdom of disregarding my orders.

“Haven’t you got some geology stuff to be getting on with?” I added. “The sooner you and Veldin finish up here, the sooner we can get back to the ship”

Harris took a deep breath and nodded. Slowly lowering the weapon he put it back in its holster. Satisfied, I turned and headed over to Pietersen.

We spent a good twenty minutes looking around before I raised the issue of heading back. I assumed that, if we were out of contact for long, the Salvation would send out a rescue party.

Consequently Morris sent Pietersen and I back to the outer door to see if we could open it, but we found no way to do so.

Harris then hypothesised that the corridor might be some kind of long airlock with an inner and outer door. And he and Veldin figured that if we pressed the tile we had already found inside the inner door and then crossed back through the sensor in the corridor, the airlock would probably reverse.

It was a sound theory and it worked.

A short while later we arrived back at the Salvation where the rest of the crew had not had an entirely uneventful time themselves.

While we were away a number of “tumbleweed-like” life forms had attached themselves to the outer hull and had begun draining power from ship systems. As they fed they had begun to grow. Fearing that if left to their own devices they might incapacitate the shuttle, Ramsay had ordered Hollis and Bell outside to deal with them. Fortunately for the two security personnel the unknown creatures had posed little threat and had been driven off by SMG fire.

The mood aboard had become somewhat surly however; as Ramsay continued to demonstrate his willingness to send others out into danger while he remained locked in the cockpit aboard the Salvation. The rumblings had grown more vocal when he had decided not to send out a rescue party after our comms had been severed. Bell, Hollis and Zakowski had all volunteered to go, but Ramsay had maintained that despatching another group would be too great a risk to the security of the shuttle.

To make matters worse he had called Hollis ‘Babs’, which was something only Morris was allowed to get away with. By this point Hollis’s opinion of Ramsay couldn’t have fallen much lower.

Thus it was with some relief that it was decided to put off any further exploration of the alien base and begin preparations for departure.

There was one final encounter with a large, multi-legged, ground hugging creature that approached the shuttle while we were detaching the charge dissipation rod but, when Ramsay turned on the exterior lights so the security team could get a better shot at it, it retreated.

A few hours later we were safely back on Bharat Station undergoing a thorough debriefing. I had the impression that Razor wasn’t entirely happy with the execution of the mission, but the main issue that he raised was a lack of clarity about who was in command. “Wasn’t it Ramsay?” I thought. After all it had been his idea to go.

Once Razor was through, Morris and I took Hollis, Bell, Pietersen and Zakowski out for a drink and then everyone took the opportunity to get some well-deserved kip.