Inseminoid Page 3

  “Do you think they’ll be hard to crack?” Holly asked the professor.

  Instinctively Mitch brought his hand up to stroke his chin as he always did when in deep thought, but this time his helmet got in the way and he dropped his hand to his side. “Hard to crack? Hard to crack! Can’t say really. No, can’t say. Too early. But I want to get down to work as soon as possible. When can we move these tablets to the complex?”

  “Right now,” Holly said. “But we’ll have to use the forklift. There’s far too many for us to carry by hand.”

  She called the control room and ordered the forklift. They waited in silence the half-hour before it appeared. No one spoke, mostly out of respect for Mitch. He was finding the episode a religious experience. He was certain he had at his fingertips the chronicles of . . . of . . . of what he wasn’t yet sure. But he’d soon learn.

  Mark broke the quiet. “I can’t get the forklift any closer. It won’t make it through the opening.”

  “Then we’ll have to carry the tablets to it,” Holly said.

  That upset Mitch. “Be very careful. We mustn’t break even a single one. And keep them in the order in which they’re stacked. Don’t confuse the order. Oh no, that wouldn’t do at all.”

  For the next five hours, they shifted the tablets. Mitch doted on each and every one as if they were a collection of porcelain birds. Just to make sure the order was maintained, he chalked an identifying number on the upper right-hand corner of each.

  It was strenuous work for all concerned, but Mitch’s enthusiasm spread through the crew. He was indeed exhilarated. This was something he could get his teeth into, and he needed a find like this to keep his reputation up. It had been a long time since he’d made a significant discovery. It was about time for another.

  Mitch kept marking the slabs and protested when Holly called for a ten-minute breather. “We’ve got to keep going. We mustn’t stop now!”

  “Relax, Mitch,” Mark said. “They’ve been here for God-knows how long. They can wait another ten minutes.”

  “You’re right. I just got carried away. I’m sorry.” Mitch stood up and forgot about the low clearance. He hit his helmet on the jagged rock and stumbled backwards, losing his balance. He fell into the open space created by the removal of the tablets.

  The tumble jarred some rocks loose from the wall and they fell on top of him.

  “Hey, you okay?” Mark rushed to Mitch’s side.

  “Yeah. Just lost my balance.” Mitch reached out to prop himself up and took hold of something for support. Whatever it was it was so cold he could feel the temperature drop through the protective material of his suit. He realised immediately it wasn’t his imagination because the thermo unit on his suit sensed the cold and increased its output.

  Mark saw Mitch hesitate. “What’s wrong? You sure you’re all right?”

  Mitch got to his hands and knees and began clearing the rock and dust from the object. “Come help me. I think I’ve found something.”

  Mark, Holly, Gail and Kate gathered around but Mitch needed no assistance. He was so fired-up doing the job himself. When enough of the debris was cleared away Mitch knew for certain he had found something. He reached for the lantern, bringing its light down on the object. Still, he couldn’t make it out and brushed more gravel and dirt out of the way. What he saw under the glare of the light stunned him. For a moment he couldn’t move or speak.

  “Mitch, what is it?” Holly demanded.

  The professor stepped back so others could take in the experience. No one said a word. Enclosed in what appeared to be a glass case was the body of a Being. Round, lidless and pupil-less eyes stared up blankly at the humans. It was a specimen preserved undisturbed for untold thousands of years.

  CHAPTER

  TWO

  “What do you think it is?” Kate asked no one in particular.

  But since Mitch was the expert he attempted to provide a reasonable answer. “A number of different possibilities. This whole set-up is reminiscent of the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. If you recall, their subjects built them pyramids—tombs in which their mummified bodies were interred. With them went their valuables and other personal effects. I think the similarities between the Pharaohs and this Being are strong. But then, one can’t say anything for certain until those tablets are deciphered, except that . . .”

  “Except what?” Holly asked.

  Mitch became serious. “That none of us will ever be the same after this. Discoveries such as this profoundly affect those who make them. Now, we must get back to work. I believe we should carry this specimen ourselves to the complex and leave the forklift to deal with the tablets. It’s safer that way.”

  The crew members lifted the glass case. It was heavy and they strained to move it. They handled it like fine crystal and moved slowly out of the tomb and across the surface of the barren planet to the airlock.

  The doors swung open and they moved inside the lock. The closer they got to the laboratory the harder it was for them to move slowly. But they knew they had to restrain their enthusiasm, their joy, their pride and satisfaction. The entire way Mitch kept repeating the words, “I never imagined, not even in my wildest dreams.”

  Karl and Sandy were busy making out injury reports on Ricky and Dean when the pallbearers arrived at the gates with the glass coffin. Karl didn’t know they were coming. He knew nothing about their approach and was startled to see the four space-suited figures approaching.

  “We have a surprise for you,” Mark announced.

  Karl whispered to Sandy, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

  “What?”

  “Forget it,” Karl said, rushing forward. “What the hell is it?”

  “That’s what you’ve got to find out for us,” Holly told him. “We found it in the tomb where Dean and Ricky were hurt. Mitch thinks it’s a king-figure. Like the Pharaohs.”

  “Now, I only said that was a possibility. We don’t know for sure,” Mitch corrected her.

  “Here, put it on the examining table. I’ll get started on the tests as soon as I can,” Karl said.

  They set the transparent case down gently and took off their helmets.

  “Karl, I would like you to wait before conducting any tests on this Being,” Mitch said. He wiped beads of perspiration from his forehead.

  “Wait?” Karl asked with a quizzical smile. “Wait for what?”

  “Until I figure out what those tablets have to say. You see, there’s no telling what may happen if you break the case. It’s been airtight for so long that exposure to oxygen might cause it to turn to dust—to evaporate.”

  “So what am I supposed to do, just look at it until you decide it’s time to open it up?” Karl was feeling his temperature rise. He didn’t like being second-guessed. And he knew how Mitch would react if he suggested a delay in examining the tablets.

  “That’s what I’m asking. Delay it for a day or so.”

  “But you don’t even know if you’ll be able to decipher the tablets. Mitch, I’ve never told you how to run your operation, please don’t tell me how to run mine!”

  Holly could see it was time to step in. “Hold on, both of you. I realise what you’re saying, Mitch, but I think you’re out of line. There are good reasons why the tests should get under way as soon as possible. If this Being carries organisms harmful to the human race, we’d be doing a terrible thing taking it back to the space station before a reasonable incubation period has passed. And I think you’ll agree that Karl is as eminent in his profession as you are in yours.”

  “But . . .” Mitch tried to protest.

  Holly was firm. “I’m sorry. Karl is in charge of the laboratory and he’s got my total support on this. Don’t you think you’ve got enough on your mind already?” Holly backed off a bit. She knew Mitch was sensitive and she didn’t want to cause him any pain. “Come on, Mitch, you’ve got to have trust in your colleagues. One person can’t do the entire job himself. That’s why we each have our field of special
isation. Now, get to work and find out the secrets of this world.”

  Mitch managed a smile. “You win, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “One warning, duly noted.”

  Karl turned his attention to the specimen on the examining table. Under the bright lights of the laboratory they took their first close look at the creature. It was about seven feet long with lizard-like skin. From the waist down it was olive green in color, while above that the scaley skin was reddish-brown.

  Instead of hands, there were lobster-like claws at the end of its arms, and the end of the legs were webbed, almost amphibious feet. Its neck was thick and covered with what looked like hundreds of warts. And the face—a lipless mouth with sharp, fox-like teeth, a snout for a nose and those lidless round eyeballs staring into nowhere.

  After a moment, all eyes of the crew were fixed on to another part of its anatomy. Between the creature’s legs hung two, foot-long rods. No one needed to ask what their function might be.

  Karl took a deep breath. “Well, should we stand around all day looking at it or start getting to know our new friend?”

  Holly gave him the go-ahead and he started to wash down the glass case. It was to be as clean as possible before being opened.

  “Do you want me to help?” Sandy asked.

  “No. I’d rather do it myself.”

  “I understand,” she smiled.

  Midway through his work it suddenly dawned on him that there was no lid to the coffin. He wondered how the Being had been placed in the case. He recalled that even model ships inside bottles had cork seals, but there wasn’t even a seam on this encasement. He had no explanation for this phenomenon. When the dirt was finally soaked away, Karl said, “I don’t think there’s any other way than to smash the glass.”

  “Just be careful,” Mitch warned. “Just be careful.”

  Karl took a roll of surgical tape from the supply cabinet and applied it to the glass. Then he tapped on the tape very lightly with the handle of his scalpel. He supplied a bit more force and still more until the glass cracked. He lifted out the broken fragments and repeated the painstaking process until all the glass above the creature was gone.

  Karl put on a pair of gloves and moved to the head of the case. “Mark, I’d like you to lift the feet. Mitch, how about taking the mid-section.”

  On a given signal they lifted the Being out of its enclosure and placed it on an adjacent table. Karl was admittedly relieved. He’d half-expected it to crumble at their touch but it hadn’t. On the contrary, it was stiff—even frozen. The creature was exceedingly cold and dry. Karl felt along the usual places but wasn’t at all surprised when he didn’t find anything resembling a pulse.

  “A real museum piece,” he remarked.

  “Get to work on it right away,” Holly told him. “But try to keep him in one piece. I think a lot of very important people would like to get a good look at him.”

  Karl nodded. “I understand. I’ll do as many of the tests as I can using the scanner. But I shall have to slice off a bit here and there.”

  Holly turned to the others. “All right. Let’s get back to work. This is only the beginning. No doubt there’s more out there and it’s up to us to find it. I want you—Gail and Kate—to return to the tomb and keep piling the tablets on the forklift. When you’re finished with that, take pictures so we have a complete record of the expedition.”

  “I’ll get those tablets into Mitch’s study so he’ll have something to start on,” Mark said.

  “Good idea,” Mitch agreed.

  “Okay, let’s move out!” Holly ordered.

  After the others had gone, Mitch lingered behind for a few words with Karl. “I just wanted to say, I’m sorry for overstepping my authority before. Holly was right. It’s your decision.”

  Karl put his arm around his black friend. “Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s all behind us. It’s easy to get excited and fly off the handle. You felt something and had to say it. I wouldn’t expect any less from you.”

  “Let me know what you find out about our friend there,” Mitch said.

  “You’ll be the first. That’s a promise.”

  So the time had come for Karl and Sandy to get down to work. The first thing to do was put the creature on the scanner. They rolled the examining table parallel to the glass-topped scanner and slid the body on to it. Karl attached the impulse leads to the creature’s chest, forehead and thighs. When that was done, he pressed a sequence of buttons and turned the correct knobs before pulling the activating lever. Seconds later, the first of the charts and graphs came spewing out of the side of the machine. The doctor eagerly lifted them out of the tray. But he couldn’t believe his eyes. The picture that came through showed nothing at all. It was as if thin air had been scanned. Not a damn thing had been indicated.

  Karl checked the equipment to make sure it was functioning correctly. It seemed to be. But he ran a second series of tests just to make sure. As he’d feared, the results were the same. Blank!

  “What does it mean?” Sandy wondered.

  “I don’t know. It can’t be hollow,” Karl insisted. “I can only guess that the scanner isn’t programmed to handle a subject like this. Of course, it’s designed for humans and animals. I suppose this creature doesn’t belong to either category.”

  The doctor and his assistant began to perform other tests. Karl sliced a sliver from the creature’s scaley skin and placed it under a microscope but what he saw meant nothing to him.

  Hours had elapsed since the creature was delivered, though Karl wasn’t any closer to figuring out what its composition was. Finally, they had to take a break.

  “How about a cup of coffee?” he suggested.

  Sandy laughed. “I never thought you’d ask. Some people can go on pure adrenalin like you, but some of us need artificial stimulation—” she paused suggestively “—like caffeine.”

  Karl quite enjoyed working with Sandy. They got along well. Too well, in fact. She was most definitely a fine woman to look at. Karl was a sucker for fair-skinned blondes, especially ones with big breasts. And that was Sandy. Her smile? God, he loved her smile.

  They had just begun their rotation together. Karl believed Sandy looked up to him as a father-figure. He was, after all, nearly twice her age. His hair was thinning and the lines on his face revealed the strain of too many years of space travel. He was flattered that Sandy was infatuated with him. That’s something you don’t expect from the rotation, especially when the reasoning behind it was that romantic entanglements were not in the interest of ultimate efficiency.

  Some people, especially the younger ones, found mate-rotation acceptable, but not Karl. Okay, sexual functioning often led to problems on long expeditions and yes, in the past emotional pairings had caused unwanted conflict but, hell, Karl could remember when the chase was nearly as much fun as the catch. Since rotation became the policy, sex had become downright boring.

  Sandy must have been reading his mind. “I’m glad you chose me for your assistant.” she just blurted out.

  Karl was floored. “You had the best record. Why shouldn’t I have picked you?”

  “I didn’t have any experience. There were others . . .”

  Karl cut her off. “You’ll get all the experience soon enough.” He stopped for a second and studied Sandy’s sullen face. “You know, you should smile more often. You’re always so intense and serious.”

  “I’d like to relax—to let myself go—but I’m so afraid people won’t take me or my work seriously.”

  “Don’t worry about people. There are doers and there are talkers. Mark my words, one day you’ll be so fine a doctor and scientist that all these people you’re concerned about will be like flotsam in your jetstream.”

  That brought a smile to Sandy’s face. “Thank you, Karl.”

  Karl knew he wasn’t going to like it when the time came to switch partners. But he shrugged, all too aware of the facts of intergalactic life.

  Mitch was
suited up and waiting in the airlock for Mark to deliver the slabs. He was impatient to get down to work. As the vehicle’s grunting sounds grew closer Mitch opened the outer door to the airlock. The forklift bounded inside and the door closed.

  They worked quickly, lifting the stone blocks from the forklift and transferring them to a large four-wheeled motorised wagon.

  When the wagon was fully stacked, Mitch opened the inner door and guided it across the complex using his remote control unit. He never could quite get the hang of it and the wagon kept crashing into the wall. At last, he manoeuvred it down the long narrow corridor leading to his study.

  Barbra was there waiting for him. She was a tall, statuesque twenty-three-year-old woman. She’d been one of the professor’s students; now she was his assistant and as devoted to him as he was to his work. Her schoolgirl crush had flowered into deep love.

  “That’s a lot of work,” she said.

  “I know. I’d better get started.”

  “Can I help?”

  Mitch thought for a moment. “As a matter of fact you can. Would you wipe the dirt and grit from the first twenty-five? But be careful not to rub out the numbers.”

  Barbra was pleased to be of assistance.

  Mitch shed his suit and moved to the wagon. He dusted the top tablet with his shirt sleeve and looked at it closely. The writing was strange to him. He couldn’t remember ever seeing anything like it. He was sure this was going to present a real challenge.

  By the age of thirty-five, Mitch had become an eminent scientist with a reputation widely known and respected. He brought the slab to his desk and slumped into his chair deep in thought. His dark brown skin tightened on the features of his round face. Barbra saw him tense. She came from behind and put her arms around him. “Take it easy, baby,” she whispered. “It’s nothing you can’t handle.”

  Mitch laughed. “There’s nothing I can’t handle.” Then he stood up and kissed her. It was a long deep kiss and Barbra felt his desire growing against her body.