Like the popping of champagne corks, the blue blooms ejected from the bush. Their trajectories were eagerly tracked by the waiting creatures. The blooms exploded in midair to shower the Wraiths with hundreds of tennis-ball sized globes of blue substance. Some were plucked from the air, others snatched from the ground. All were eagerly devoured. As each consumed its prize, its body glowed with a blue light, outlining its internal bones, blood vessels and organs and then amazingly they swelled as flesh grew on their bodies and limbs. After a few moments their body glow faded. Once the feeding frenzy was over, the creatures, no longer with the appearance of wraiths, relaxed and wandered around the cavern, nuzzling and sniffing others of their kind. Some mated, others played and some fought.
Jane exhaled loudly. “Wow! That was without doubt one of the most amazing spectacles I’ve ever witnessed.”
Lucy was in total agreement. “On Earth we have species of plants, animals and insects that depend on each other for survival, but nothing to rival the beneficial relationship we just observed.”
“It’s a possibility these creatures are guard dogs to protect whatever is inside the building against the monsters we encountered in the rest of the spaceship, or they might be food for the crew, much like cows, sheep and pigs are for us,” said Jack. “It would make sense to have a self-replenishing live food stock if the crew travelled vast distances for a prolonged time.”
Jane stared at the intermingling creatures. “Yes, but our livestock isn’t vicious and they don’t have claws.”
Jack shrugged. “Maybe the crew enjoys the thrill of the hunt.”
“A crew which we’ve yet to set eyes upon,” reminded Lucy.
Jack glanced over at the building across the moat. “That might soon change.”
He led them along the walkway.
“I wonder where Eli and Richard are,” said Lucy.
Jack remembered Eli’s scream shortly before they fled into the forest room. That Eli was almost certainly dead was a realization he kept to himself. Though Richard’s fate was unknown, he thought it likely the man would survive; people like him normally did. “Hopefully we’ll meet up with them soon. They might even be inside that building.”
Jane shot him a doubtful look, but kept quiet. Unvoiced, her concern might be proved wrong.
They continued along the walkway until they reached the door at its end. It slid open with a push of a button to reveal a corridor. After a cautious look to check it was free of monsters, they entered and the door slid shut behind them.
The Mimic faded into view when the three strangers had disappeared through the entrance. It was pleased. Things were going according to plan and they were heading in the right direction. She’d been observing the new arrivals, but the noises they made were unintelligible. Though she could repeat their sounds with ease, she didn’t know their meaning. If she was to escape from her prison, it was important she understood them, which is why they’d been herded to the front of the ship. Soon she would know everything she needed to. She morphed into a Wraith, scrambled up the side of the construction, moved toward an opening in its elevation and disappeared inside.
CHAPTER 10
Tombs
RICHARD GASPED AND STAGGERD back so abruptly he tripped to the floor. The ghastly, monstrous face, whose gaping mouth stretched twice his height, highlighted in his torch beam stared at him, but after a few fear-filled moments, he realized it wasn’t another hideous monster out to kill him, but an inanimate carving. Feeling slightly less anxious, he climbed to his feet and aimed the light along the passage. Nine more creepy heads positioned along the walls at various angles didn’t inspire confidence that he was out of danger. He stepped forward to touch the one he thought a moment ago was about to swallow him, and tapped its gaping wide lip. A hollow metallic boom echoed along the corridor. He had no doubt the rough rock that formed the walls and curved above him was also metal fashioned to imitate stone.
Another cautious step nearer the mouth allowed his light to penetrate the darkness within. A short set of steps led up to a chamber. A quick examination of the next two in line revealed identical steps. Not for the first time his reluctance to enter was pushed aside; he needed to find a way out of this hellish lower level. The rising steps might provide that escape. After snapping off a couple of photos of the heads for his collection, he took a deep breath in an attempt to pluck up what meager courage he could scrape from his now severely limited reserves and stepped into the nearest mouth.
As he climbed the steps, he noticed the headlight beam jumping up the treads with each cautious step seemed less bright. He sighed. Does this nightmare never end?
Lacking any spare batteries to replenish the ones draining before his eyes, he would be forced to wander through these nightmare rooms in total darkness.
The once white light took on a yellow hue when he peeked above the top step into a chamber. After a scan of the room revealed nothing obvious waiting to leap upon him and take his life, he stepped into the room and gazed at the nearest object; a large sarcophagus. Four similar were positioned around the edges of the room. It was a tomb.
An examination of one revealed it to be of actual stone. The worn edges of the intricate design and its aged appearance hinted they were once stored elsewhere, a place where weather and time could affect the stone. The name of the alien inside, though clearly marked on the thick, wide lid in an incomprehensible group of alien letters, remained a mystery to the man staring at it.
Recognizing another photo opportunity to add to his valuable collection, Richard snapped off a few shots of the tomb. He turned his attention to one of the sarcophagi. Its inhabitant might reveal the appearance of the crew or the ship’s designers. They had to be important to have been brought aboard the ship and have tombs specially constructed to house them; maybe they held great leaders or even royalty. There might be something valuable entombed with the body. However, an attempt to lift or slide open one of the lids failed; it was too large and heavy for one man to move.
Richard’s gaze around the chamber alighted on an opening in the back wall. A closer examination revealed a passage sloping up. He entered to discover what horror it would lead him to next.
Prepared to flee back the way he had come if danger threatened, Richard cautiously opened the door at the top of the slope. Blue light invaded the darkness of the passage he poked his head into. He glanced both ways along the corridor. As all seemed danger free, he stepped out. The curved corridor hinted it was circular, and that if he continued to walk in one direction, he would end up back where he started. For no particular reason, he headed right. Believing the doors set in the right side of the passage would lead to the tombs, he ignored them. The door he found in the left wall, he opened. When nothing howled, shrieked or attacked him, he stepped into a round room.
Though it was difficult to work out the room’s function, it was the most technologically advanced room Richard had seen since boarding the spaceship. He thought it might be a control room. There was no hint of faux metal carved rock, bone structures or any hint of the medieval architecture he’d encountered in the bowels of the ship. It was the first room that matched his vision of an alien spaceship, though the tree growing through the floor, which had spread its gnarly branches out to entwine nearby objects, did ruin the illusion slightly.
The door swished closed behind him when he stepped forward to explore. Metal pillars, positioned around the room, rose four yards before angling off to connect with the curved walls. The pillars were not straight edged, but organic in form, wider at the base and covered with tubes, grills and shaped pieces of metal. The colour theme of the whole room and everything in it were muted shades of purples and pinks. Even the floor was patterned with these colours.