Lucy pulled a plastic container from her pack and used a small wooden spatula to scrape some of the insect remains into the plastic jar and screwed the lid on tight. When she slipped it into her bag, she noticed Theo staring at her with a grimaced expression. “I’m here to collect samples and now I have one of an alien creature. If we leave here with nothing else we’ll have proof of something.”
“I wasn’t being critical. It was the joy on your face when you scraped that thing up that surprised me.”
Lucy grinned. “You’re a geologist, and I’m a microbiologist. I’m sure you would wear the same expression if you were collecting a strange alien rock sample.”
Theo returned the smile. “You’re right, I would.”
Henry gazed around the small room unadorned with any furniture, an indication it was not somewhere the crew dwelled for any length of time.
“I found a door,” called out Max, who had wandered through the arched opening beside the alcove.
Henry and the others went to investigate.
The door, like the one the insects scratched at, was different, slightly narrower, but just as high, and lacked the four segments of the previous doors they had come across.
Max’s hand hovered over the door control. “Do you think it’s safe to open?”
Henry shrugged. “I guess we’ll soon find out.”
The door slid open. Anxious faces peered into the revealed corridor.
Max stepped forward and shone his flashlight along the passage. “It seems clear,” he whispered.
“Then let’s move,” ordered Henry, also in a low voice. “We need to find a way back to the corridor that leads to the engine room.” He stepped into the passage. The control that operated a door a short distance on the left and that should lead them back to the engine room corridor, though intact, failed to open the door. It reduced their choice of directions to one. Henry turned right.
Cautiously, with Theo giving support to limping Eli, the others followed.
Jack glanced at the inoperative door control. He had the feeling they were being herded in a specific direction. So as not to burden the already apprehensive team with an extra concern, he kept his suspicions to himself and hoped he was mistaken.
All had failed to notice the two sets of eyes peering at them from the ceiling vent as they passed beneath. After a few soft guttural grunts, one set of eyes disappeared. The vent hatch rose and a monstrous head stared after the strange intruders moving along the corridor. The lone creature’s landing on the metal floor made hardly a sound.
CHAPTER 6
Hell’s Garden
THEY TURNED A CORNER in the corridor to find a door blocked their route. The intact control panel indicated it might open. If not, they were stuck with nowhere else to go.
Henry waited until all had caught up. “If this door opens and there’s something nasty waiting for us on the other side, we run back!”
Richard casually moved to the rear of the group.
Nervous eyes and light beams focused on the door when it rasped open. Sighs of relief greeted the sight of another skeletal-themed corridor empty of any menacing presence. Henry led them through. Lights dotted along the ceiling materialized into existence, bathing them in blue light. They halted and fell to silence, the only sound their anxious breaths and the creaking hull.
Max voiced the question on their lips. “Who or what turned the lights on?”
Theo’s gaze wandered over the ceiling, but failed to pick out what he searched for. “We probably tripped a sensor. It could be an indication this part of the ship’s power is still operational.”
Lucy gazed nervously along the corridor. “They’re not very bright, so perhaps it’s emergency lighting.”
Though Henry thought it was possible a tripped sensor was responsible for the lights, he was concerned by this new development. “Whatever the reason, we have to keep moving because we can’t go back.”
Jane switched off her flashlight. “At least we can conserve our batteries. Though weak, the blue lights are bright enough for us to see where we’re going.”
“That’s a good idea, Jane,” Henry agreed. With their exit blocked, who knew how long they’d be stuck inside. “Turn off your lights, but keep them handy in case it goes dark again.”
They continued along the corridor, moving farther and farther away from their point of entry. Though they passed two doors, they decided not to risk opening them. So far the corridors had been free of any menace and it might eventually link up with the one that led back to the engine room.
When they arrived at an intersection, they halted to ponder their two options. Before them a door led toward the front of the ship and to their left a short passage led to another door. After a brief discussion in an attempt to get their bearings, it was decided to try the door on the left first as it might connect to a corridor that would take them on a circular route back to the engine room and the exit off the ship. They headed for the door, opened it, and when they stepped through into another dark corridor, blue lights flashed on. Henry led them forward, but raised a hand to halt the group after only a few steps.
Jack moved beside him, noticed Henry’s worried frown, and whispered, “What is it, Henry?”
Without diverting his eyes from the view ahead, Henry replied in a quiet voice, “Listen.”
Something clacked on the metal floor and grew steadily louder. Footsteps!
“Something’s coming,” whispered Jack.
A large alien stepped into a stream of blue light and stared at them with striking sulphurous eyes with centers darker than night. It screeched.
The shrill sound penetrated their nerves, a cross between a persistent, piercing dentist’s drill and the rasp of metal across a whetstone.
Richard shivered when the alien sound washed over him. He rushed back to the intersection and quickly considered his choices. One door led back along the passage the way they had come, but if the monster followed them they’d be forced to face the insects and space rats again. That wasn’t an event he wished to repeat. The only other option was the door that led to the unknown. To hedge his bets, he decided to open both doors. If what lay ahead didn’t look right, he would take the other route. He punched both door controls.
The others joined him as the doors slid open. All gagged from the thick organic stench of hot, putrid decay and rotting vegetation that seeped out of the opening to engulf them; the smell was so thick it seemed possible to grab a handful. Waist-high mist wafted out from the ever-widening gap, its leading edge wispy curls of exploring fingers. A mass of shivering red and purple plant tentacles choked the doorway. Sensing more space to fill, snake-like stalks flopped through the opening, startling those nearest.
The approaching clack of claws on metal invaded the silence.
Jane shot a glance behind. The monster hunched forward and charged at them, moving alternatively through patches of blue light and darkness. Wispy tongues of what seemed to be cobwebs, trailed from its body and limbs. A claw slashed the air and its teeth dripped with saliva in anticipation of a meal.
“Don’t stop,” Jane called out. “For God’s sake don’t stop! That thing’s right behind us.”
Theo glimpsed the lengthening shadow of something at the end of the corridor they’d previously journeyed through. When it stepped into view, he saw it was the same species as the Web monster behind them. They were being stalked and about to be attacked on two fronts. “We’re being hunted,” he informed the others. He shouldered Richard aside, dragged Eli through the entrance and forced a path through the tangled growth of vines and bushes. The others quickly followed his trail.
To prevent the Web from following, Jack pressed the close door button. In what seemed agonizing slowness, the door began sliding shut. Jack turned away, but halted when it slid open again. He shot a glance at the vines protruding through the opening. They had prevented the door from closing. The click of claws on metal directed his attention through the doorway. The monster rushed at him. He slapped the door control button, grabbed the vines and pulled them back into the room. The door was almost shut, the monster only a few yards away. Strands of mist made a desperate rush to escape through the rapidly narrowing gap. Jack glimpsed a missed vine that jutted through the opening. He had failed. The monster was too close to remove it and close the door again.