“What is it?” Joanne asked.
Jeff stood up and whispered softly in her ear. “He seems so apathetic.”
Joanne nodded and dropped to her knees. Jeff took a step back. She felt Owl’s carotid artery, his forehead, and shone a little flashlight into his eyes. His pupils didn’t contract.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes, I can.”
“How do you feel?”
“I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know?”
“How I feel.”
“Are you in any pain?”
“No.”
“What’s your name?”
“Edward Owens, Corporal.”
“Where are we?”
“On the alien ship.”
“Who am I?”
“What kind of a dumb question is that? Can I get up now?”
Joanne nodded, stood up and went back to Jeff.
“And?” Jeff asked quietly, while Owl got up and searched for his belt.
“No idea. He doesn’t have a fever and doesn’t seem to be confused, either. Maybe we woke him up from a dream and he’s just a bit off kilter. Let’s wait and see.”
Jeff shrugged, went back to his camping spot, picked up his sleeping back and rolled it up. He used the belt to tie it into a small bundle that he stowed on the equipment sled. He glanced around. “Where’s Castle?” he asked, when he noticed the WSO was nowhere in sight.
“No idea,” said Shorty, who was also stuffing his sleeping bag onto the sled.
“Joanne!” Jeff called.
“Yes?” Joanne turned away from Mac, with whom she was immersed in a conversation.
“Where’s Castle?”
She hesitated. “Call of nature.”
Jeff groaned. “Didn’t I say we should use the recycling systems in our suits? What way did he go?”
Joanne shrugged.
“Castle,” Jeff called. Despite the haze, there was visibility of about a mile. Castle couldn’t have gone far.
“Castle!” he called again.
The others stopped talking.
“Did anyone see what direction he went?” Jeff asked but nobody answered.
Jeff shook his head. He was upset rather than angry. Everything was falling apart. How was he supposed to lead the group if nobody listened to him?
“Castle!” he called again as loud as he could.
It was pointless. Joanne returned his concerned glance. “Shall we split up to search for him?”
“No. We stick together,” Jeff replied firmly. “We’ll look for him together. We’ll circle outward from the camp.”
“What about the equipment?” Green said, pointing at the sled. “Should we leave it here?”
“No. We’ll take everything with us. Pack anything that’s still lying around and then we’ll leave.”
“I’m here!”
Jeff looked up to see Castle running down a small hill. He could feel his blood pressure rise. “Damn it, I told you we need to stick together. What should we do, if—”
“I found something,” Castle said, gasping for breath. “Over there. You’ve got to come and see!” He pointed in the direction he had come from.
“What did you find?” Joanne asked.
“Come and have a look for yourselves,” he said excitedly, and started running back up the hill.
“Mac! Shorty!” Jeff called and pointed at the equipment sled. Then he scrambled after Castle.
When he reached the top of the hill, he saw what looked like a big trench a few feet below them. It was filled with something.
“What is that?” Joanne asked, as she came panting up behind him.
Castle clambered down the hill until he reached the edge of the trench. It was about three hundred feet long and sixty feet wide. Jeff joined him and peered into the hole.
“Oh my god,” Shorty said, letting go of the handle of the sled. Mac cursed as it tipped over and some unsecured objects fell to the ground.
Jeff squeezed his eyes shut in the hope that his imagination was playing tricks on him. But when he opened them again, he was greeted by the same sight. Bones. Whole skeletons. Hundreds of them. Thousands. It was a grave. A mass grave. The skeletons had two legs, two arms, ribs, a skull. Were these the extraterrestrial builders? There was nothing that distinguished them from human skeletons. Jeff could have sworn he was looking at a human grave.
“The aliens?” Shorty asked quietly.
“Who else?” Mac retorted.
Joanne crouched down on the edge of the pit and then jumped in among the bones. The edge of the grave reached up to her chest. She bent down and lifted up one of the arms of the corpses. “Four fingers and a thumb. Exactly like a human.”
“Any idea how old the grave is?” Jeff asked.
Joanne stroked one of the naked skulls and finally shook her head. “No idea. I trained as a paramedic, not a coroner. It would depend on the environmental conditions, too. It’s very warm and humid here. Depending on the microfauna, it can go very quickly. I would say anything between a month and a million years.”
“Maybe this is where the aliens buried their dead during their journey,” Shorty suggested.
“And why did they never cover them with anything?” Castle said. “No, I think this happened after the aliens left the ship.”
“What makes you say that?” Joanne asked.
Castle shrugged. “Nothing. Just a feeling.”
Joanne snorted.
“Can you tell how they died?” Jeff asked, feeling increasingly queasy gazing into this mass grave.
Joanne took her time examining some of the skeletons.
“It varies,” she answered finally. “Some of them have terrible injuries. This one had his skull smashed in, that one had his chest crushed, as if he was put in a vice. But some of them don’t appear to have any injuries.”
“So how did they die?” Jeff asked.
Joanne shrugged. “How should I know? They might have been poisoned or gassed.”
Jeff helped his shipmate out of the pit. “Weird that they’re just like humans…”
“Maybe we have common ancestors,” Castle speculated.
“Not likely,” Joanne said. “How could we have common ancestors if they come from another galaxy?”
“Maybe the computer lied to us, like it did about almost everything else,” Mac said.
Jeff frowned. “Come on, let’s get going,” He hoped against hope they would find answers deeper down in the ship. He swung his backpack over his shoulder and marched off. The others followed him.
“What’s up, Owl?” Mac cajoled his shipmate. “Come on, get a move on!”
Jeff turned around. Owl was still standing at the edge of the pit. As Jeff approached him, he turned his head and looked at Jeff with glassy eyes.
“What is it?” Jeff asked.
“They died,” Owl said in a completely monotone voice. “The ship killed them.”
Jeff swallowed.
“And we’re next,” Owl added indifferently. Then he turned around and followed the others.
23.
“I can’t stand another day in this depressing place,” Joanne said quietly to Jeff, taking an unenthusiastic bite from her concentrate bar.
Jeff shrugged. What could he say?
“I’m almost looking forward to leaving the cavity and getting back into the dark corridors.” Joanne’s eyes were red—possibly because of the terrible air in the cavity, or from lack of sleep.
“I kind of wish we’d gone with the other option and tried our luck in space,” Joanne concluded her monologue.
Jeff sighed. Was even Joanne losing heart? Was he the only one who wanted to carry on? No, wanted wasn’t the right word. He didn’t want to go deeper. He’d seen enough of this damn ship. But they had to go deeper. It was the only logical way out. Their last chance. They had to find something down there. Quite apart from the fact that he wouldn’t have the strength to go all the way back the way they had come. Back across this bleak and desolate terrain. Back through the same corridors of the ship, only to vegetate in their quarters with the fear of being killed at any moment. No, it wasn’t an option. And he hoped that the second cavity, which they still had to cross, would be more hospitable.