Chapter 11 – Lornicaan’s Gem
Pete reached up and pulled his head through the airlock. The corridor below him was bathed in a dusty red glow. He shifted his grip to the side and swung his legs down to the ladder below him.
This was one aspect of the Work Pod that he’d never understood or gotten used to. The gravity field in the pod never lined up properly with the gravity field from another vessel. In this case, their airlock had left them upside-down in relation to the strange vessel that he and Alex were boarding. That meant a rather awkward entry onto the ladder below him.
Pete let himself drop, his boots making a dull thud as he landed.
“There’s no one here to greet us,” Alexander commented.
Pete swung his torch around. The bright white light cut a swathe through the red glow of the corridor. The signs of damage in this small corridor alone only emphasised what they’d seen of the outside of the ship. The smell of burnt electronics stung his nose and there was a low, but steady hum coming from the wall to his left.
His torch played over the dangling wires, fallen ceiling panels and what seemed to be a series of blown junction relays. The right-hand wall was filled with scorch marks from a recent fire.
“What happened here?” Pete breathed as he surveyed the damage.
Alexander shook his head. “No idea. I hope the people here are in better shape than their ship.”
Pete took out his scanner, flicking the power switch on as he brought it up. He swung it around slowly as he watched its display.
“The power in here’s pretty erratic. I doubt that the relays that are left are going to last long.”
“Let’s find the command centre. Anyone who’s still alive will probably be there,” said Alexander.
The royal blue jumpsuit that was Alex moved off. Pete followed it automatically, his eyes glued to his scanner. The red glow around them flickered off. Alexander stopped and looked back at his brother. Pete glanced up as the lights returned. They held steady for a minute before suddenly intensifying to an almost painful brightness and then snapping off. Pete looked down at the display in his hand.
“The relays have blown,” he said in a flat voice.
Alexander’s torch played over the corridor ahead. A pair of reddish glows came from ahead of them where the corridor seemed to split in two.
“Come on, Pete,” said Alexander.
He was moving faster now and Pete was forced into taking only quick glances at his scanner or risk being left behind. He followed his brother as they skirted a half-collapsed wall, before having to duck under some loose wiring. They came to a halt at the junction of two corridors.
One led off in front of them before veering to the left. The other looked to be a short cross-corridor and led to a second corridor that paralleled their own on the other side of the ship.
“Any guesses?” Alexander asked, looking at the scanner in Pete’s hand.
Pete took a couple of paces down the corridor in front of them, swinging the scanner backwards and forwards. He brought it down and crossed to the smaller corridor. Pete watched the scanner as he took readings from that direction as well.
“Sorry, Alex, no idea,” Pete shrugged. “There’re low-level power readings coming from both directions. If anything, there seems to be more rooms without atmosphere from down this way than from straight ahead.”
Alexander looked up, thinking. “That seemed to be the main airlock where we docked. If I was designing a ship, I’d want a straight path between the airlock and the command centre.”
“Makes sense,” said Pete.
“Alright, we keep going straight. We can always come back if we need to.”
Alexander set off again, the bright white light of his torch weaving across the corridor ahead of them. Hexagonal shaped doors started to appear in the corridor the further that they went. The first couple opened as Alexander pressed his hand to the panel beside the door. The insides of these rooms were a shambles. They seemed to have been small storage rooms.
Whatever had happened to this ship had sent the odd shaped containers flying, spilling their contents everywhere.
At each room, Pete checked for life signs. As soon as they were sure that there were none, they moved on. The door to the fourth room refused to open when Alexander pressed the panel.
Pete scanned the room. “No atmosphere,” he reported.
The lights started flickering erratically as they reached the end of the corridor. In front of them was the last of the doors. They shared a look before Alexander pressed the panel beside the door.
The large hexagonal door split in two as it slid open. The left-hand door seemed to stick for a second, but managed to open with a screech. Alexander took half a step inside and froze. Pete was forced to turn and squeeze in beside the door. Inside, the dull red lights were brighter, almost an orange colour.
The room itself looked relatively cramped. Two large workstations dominated the room. Each ran along the front of the ship, across the wall and then turned in to complete a u-shape. A small space between the two stations allowed the crew to move between each station and the rear part of the room where Pete and Alexander were standing. What looked to be the remains of a view screen was set into the far wall.
Pete could now see what had frozen his brother. Seated at each of the stations was a purple skinned alien.
He felt his jaw drop as he stared. Aliens. Utterly impossible, unimaginable, but large as life, and just, just sitting there, smiling? at them. Pete shook his head, trying to clear it.
The two purple humanoids had swivelled to face the two intruders to their bridge. The larger of the two had a darker purple colour to his skin than the smaller one, who seemed to be female. Wisps of gold-coloured hair covered the back part of his head. His silver vest over his blue shirt was pulled taut over an ample stomach.
The smaller alien’s skin was a softer purple colour. As she turned, her long, plaited dark blue hair whipped around behind her. She crossed her arms over her white shirt and stared back, her jaw jutting out at them in what Pete took to be defiance.
Pete jabbed Alex in the side with his elbow.
“Uh, hi. We, ah, we’re here to, uh, to rescue you,” he said hesitantly.
The larger alien frowned at them before looking down at the board to his side and picking at it with his fingers.
Alexander looked at his brother. Pete shrugged.
“Uh, you do need help don’t you?” Alexander asked.
This time the larger alien looked up and smiled.
“Help, yes,” he said.
The two words came from two different directions, in two different languages, at once. The alien’s words were just that, alien. The English words came from the speakers set into the room. Some sort of translator, Pete decided.
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere,” Alexander muttered.
“Your ship looks pretty damaged. I don’t think the power will last long,” Pete told them.
He cocked his head, listening to the silky sound of the alien words as the ship translated what he had said to them.
“No, our ship gone of power nearly. Save my daughter, I beg,” the older alien pleaded, gesturing to her as he spoke.
“We can take both of you in our pod,” Pete reassured him.
Alexander grabbed his brother’s arm and swung him around.
“Take it easy, Peter. We don’t know yet if these aliens can even be trusted? They could be planning to kill us and take our pod as soon as we get them on board,” he hissed.
The larger alien stood, waving both hands out in front of him. “No, no, no harm. Never would we harm unless harmed first.”
Pete looked at Alexander. Obviously the sensors on this ship were extremely sensitive.
“You can trust my father,” the younger alien spoke for the first time. “A man of his word he be.”
Alexander remained
silent. Pete could just imagine how hard his brother must be thinking.
“Alright,” he said at last. “We’ll trust you.”
The look that Alexander gave to Pete seemed to say that he still wasn’t convinced, but that he’d go along for now.
The large alien stood and walked around his console, a smile on his face. He stopped in front of Alexander and laid his three-fingered hands on Alex’s shoulders.
“Thank you. My name is Holas Lornicaan. We owe you our lives.”
Pete swallowed hard as he stared at Holas turning to him, repeating the gesture and words. He really didn’t know what to think or feel. A day ago he didn’t even believe in aliens. Two hours ago, he was confronted with a fleet of bizarre looking ships. And now, he and his brother had become the first human beings not just to meet, but also to talk to and touch, someone from another world.
He was completely lost for words. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly.
“I’m Alexander Daniels. It’s nice to meet you,” Alexander finally managed to get out beside him.