Inseminoid Read online

  “I’m going to make you proud of me, baby,” Mitch promised.

  Barbra kissed him tenderly on the forehead and whispered, “I already am.”

  Kate and Gail returned to the tomb with camera and sonic sensor. They were to make sure there were no other hidden chambers and take photographs for the documentation file.

  Kate fired off picture after picture. She wanted to get every angle down on film because she definitely didn’t want to come back to the tomb again. There was something eerie about it. She couldn’t describe her feeling, she just knew that she’d be better off being somewhere else. Call it intuition.

  Gail, meanwhile, ran the sensor across the walls, the ceiling and the floor of the tomb. She started at the entrance and worked her way inward to the spot where the creature had been found. She was about to join Kate when the sensor indicated a relatively small gap behind the wall. Gail was tempted to overlook it because it was so insignificant that she figured nothing could be hidden there, but the sensor also showed only two inches of outer rock that needed to be moved to get to reach it.

  “Oh, fuck, might as well,” she mumbled to herself.

  She had no difficulty prying the earth and stone loose with her fingers. She dug a bit deeper to reveal yet another glass case. This one was just three inches square. She was very careful not to break the glass and lifted it out safely.

  Gail shone her light on the discovery to get a better look and called for her crewmate to join her.

  “What is it?” Kate asked.

  “Looks like crystals. It was just there in the wall.”

  The two young women marvelled at their find. “I wonder what they are?” Gail was thinking out loud. “They’re beautiful.”

  They examined the crystals a while longer, then Gail said, “I think we ought to get them to Karl right away.”

  Kate agreed. “You take ’em. I’ll stick around here just to make sure there’s nothing else we’ve missed.”

  “Okay. Do you need anything from the complex?”

  Kate checked her camera. “Yeah, another couple of rolls of film. I’m down to my last one and you can save me a trip.”

  Karl was peering into a microscope still hoping to find something familiar about the composition of the creature when Gail came into the lab.

  Sandy was the first to see her. “What’ve you got there?”

  “Absolutely no idea,” Gail replied. She held her helmet under her arm and extended her hand to show the crystals to Sandy. By that time Karl had stood up and was walking over to see for himself. “We took it out of the wall close to where we found the Being.”

  Without a word, Karl took the encased crystals from Gail and held them up to the light. He immediately wondered what their significance might be. They gleamed brilliantly. At the correct angle and with the light hitting them just so, it was possible to observe a spectrum of colors—colors that Karl had never seen before.

  “Sandy, get Holly on the communicator. She should get a load of this.”

  Sandy called the control room and explained the situation to the commander.

  Holly was right down and Karl passed the crystals over to her. After studying them for a few moments she looked at the doctor and asked, “What do you make of it? Any ideas at all?”

  Karl wrinkled his forehead. “Not a one.”

  “Then you might as well break this one open too,” she told him.

  Karl nodded his head. He reached for his scalpel and struck the case gently. That was all that was needed. The glass crumbled and dissolved into sand-like particles.

  Suddenly the crystals began to melt. Their exposure to oxygen had caused a reaction and they began to turn into a bubbling brown liquid.

  As the liquid evaporated, a noxious gas rose in the air. Karl was nearest to it and started to gag as the fumes reached him. He grabbed at his throat; he couldn’t breathe and at the same time felt his stomach churning. He thought he was going to vomit. Then the others fell under the same spell. The sensation was horrifying. One by one they dropped to the floor.

  The fumes rose to the ceiling slowly but when they reached the detectors a dozen oxygen masks automatically dropped down. The crew grabbed for them and desperately breathed in the pure air.

  Immediately a rush of air-decontaminator steamed into the lab from hundreds of tiny vents in the walls. It took two minutes for the atmosphere in the lab to be replaced. When it had been done the masks recoiled into the ceiling.

  Although the crew was still breathing hard the color was returning to their faces.

  Tears ran down Sandy’s cheeks. She held her stomach trying her best to overcome her nausea. “I didn’t think the detectors were functioning. I thought we were all going to die. It was terrible.”

  Karl brought her close to him and held her tightly. “Easy.” He rocked her back and forth. “Easy, Sandy. It’s okay now.”

  They rose slowly to their feet, still weakened by the strange fumes. Karl looked at the crystals. They’d completely melted and what remained had cooled. For a split second Karl remembered what Mitch had said about waiting until he’d figured out the language before going ahead with the tests. Perhaps he’d been right, Karl thought.

  Suddenly a scream rang out. Sandy’s face was ashen and she was trying to say something, but she couldn’t get the words out.

  “What is it?” Karl asked.

  “It moved. I swear it moved.”

  “What moved?” Holly demanded.

  “That thing. The creature.”

  “You’re imagining it,” Holly insisted. “It hasn’t moved for thousands of years.” She was trying to comfort Sandy.

  But Sandy resented the patronising tone in her voice. “No! I am not imagining it. Look for yourself.”

  They crowded around the table on which the creature lay. They watched closely but if the Being had moved, it was no longer doing so. Holly shot Karl a meaningful glance. She couldn’t believe it was more than Sandy’s over-active imagination. Karl understood the look.

  The creature lay still, yet he felt that the least he should do was check for signs of life. He leaned across the creature and placed his fingers on its neck, its chest and its arms, but there wasn’t anything like a heartbeat. There was only nothing.

  “I know you don’t believe me but I’m telling you what I saw. Its head moved and its arm jerked,” Sandy insisted.

  “Which arm? It’s got two of them, you know,” Holly said.

  Sandy didn’t like Holly’s attitude. “Oh, forget it!”

  Karl took Sandy’s hand in his. “I believe you thought you saw it move. But I can’t find a trace of life and we’re all still groggy from the crystals. Things are not always the way they seem at the moment. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

  Sandy turned away. “Okay, let’s get back to work. It’s no use anyway.”

  Just then the communicator cracked open. It was Mitch. “Karl, are you there?”

  Karl walked to the wall unit and responded. “Go ahead. What’s up?”

  “I think I may have made a bit of progress on the script. I figured you might want to take a look yourself.”

  “I’ll be right up.”

  Karl turned around to find Sandy standing over the Being once again. He walked over to her. “If you’d like, I’ll strap it down.”

  “Don’t do me any favors.” Sandy was getting fed up with patronising people.

  Karl turned her around so that she was facing him. “Look, maybe you did see something. I would feel better if it was strapped down. Honestly. I know it’s not going anywhere but just in case.”

  Karl laid heavy leather bindings across the strange creature and pulled them as tight as he could.

  Holly was about to leave the lab. “I’ll be in the control room if you need me. And if Mitch comes up with anything significant, let me know.”

  “I always do,” Karl said.

  Holly left and Gail went with her.

  Just as soon as Ricky hit his bunk he fe
ll off to sleep. Maybe it was the pills the doctor had given him, maybe he was just plain drained by the disastrous morning, but he slept fitfully. One dream followed another through his subconscious. They were strange dreams. Dreams about Dean and about explosions.

  Suddenly he began spinning around and around. He was travelling faster than he ever had before. Clouds of colors he’d never seen before swept over him at tremendous speeds while he turned.

  Ricky grabbed the bed rail tightly and screamed. The sound of his own voice woke him. He was afraid to open his eyes, afraid of what he might find. He was breathing hard and was soaked with perspiration. “Whew, I need a glass of water. I’m so hot,” he mumbled.

  Ricky stood up and took a step but then he lost his balance and toppled back on to the bed. He lay there, spread-eagled, burning up inside. Sweat ran from his forehead and face in such quantities that it formed a pool on his sheet.

  “Gotta get up. God help me to get up. Please,” he cried.

  Ricky struggled but it was no use. A strange force seemed to be pulling him down. His legs were like rubber. Music filled his head. Strange, discordant sounds pummelled his brain.

  “Karl,” he called out, “Someone, please help me!” He didn’t know if the words even left his lips. He didn’t hear them. The music was too loud. “Who’s left the music on?” he asked himself before passing out.

  CHAPTER

  THREE

  Mitch’s study was cluttered with open volumes of academic books on language, semantics and dead or forgotten tongues going back many thousands of years. Hanging from the walls were charts which meant nothing to those uninitiated in that particular science. To the untrained, the squiggles—circles and other shapes—were nothing more than infant’s scribbling. To Mitch they meant much more. They were mirrors into worlds beyond comprehension. He considered himself fortunate that he was able to visit these worlds that others would never know.

  He was deep in thought when Karl rapped lightly at his door.

  “Please come in.” Mitch’s voice was resonant and powerful.

  Karl entered the study. “You sounded excited on the communicator.”

  “I am excited. Though I haven’t broken the code yet, I’ve learned a thing or two about this planet.”

  Karl drew up a chair and plonked himself into it. “Fire away.”

  “The inhabitants were very intelligent.”

  “How can you tell?”

  Mitch motioned for Karl to move closer. “Look here.” He pointed to a tablet resting on the desk. “For one thing this slab isn’t natural. At first I thought it was just hieroglyphics engraved in stone. But after conducting a number of tests, I’ve come to the conclusion it’s man-made. No, that’s not right. I mean, artificially produced. This material could last a million years. Watch this.”

  Mitch took a small laser from his desk drawer and aimed in at the slab. He released the safety catch and fired. He held the beam on the spot for a good two minutes and then took it away. Karl reached over and touched the surface. It wasn’t even warm.

  “And look at the engravings,” Mitch went on. “The lines are so narrow and deep they could only have been burned in. Remember this civilisation has been extinct for thousands of years, but yet had such powerful knowledge when Man was still swinging from trees. I tell you, the intellect that created the substance and the engravings to last for all eternity is vastly superior to anything we’ve encountered so far.”

  One question was gnawing at Karl. “If the inhabitants were so damned smart, what happened to them? They died out, didn’t they?”

  Mitch shrugged. “Who knows? Natural catastrophe, invasion perhaps. Maybe they took the first flight out. That’s what I’ve got to find out.”

  Another question. “Why did they leave behind one of their own. Why only one?”

  Mitch didn’t know the answer. Not yet he didn’t. “Your guess is as good as mine, Karl. Maybe it’s just a souvenir left for explorers like us to find. Their version of a time capsule, perhaps. I just hope I can crack the language. Then I’m sure we’d have the answers.”

  Ricky’s eyes opened and shut involuntarily. He was sweating heavily and his mattress had turned soggy from the moisture. He stood up and staggered across the room, stopping in front of the mirror. There were large bald patches on his head. Clumps of his blond hair remained on the bed where he’d lain. He put his fingers to his scalp. “No! Not my hair!” It was coming out in bunches. “What’s happening to me?” he screamed.

  Ricky reached to the floor and picked up what hair he could find. He was hysterical, holding the loose strands tightly against his scalp. “Stay there, dammit. Go back!” His hand dropped to his side and the hair followed it to the floor.

  Then his eyes caught sight of his forearm. The burn from the explosion had somehow grown larger. The sore was big and deep. Karl’s bandage only covered a small section of the new sore. Ricky pulled it away to get a better look at his wound.

  He could hardly keep his gaze on it, yet he was drawn to the abhorrent sight. Everything but the bone had melted—blood, arteries, muscle, cartilege had all turned into a single russet-colored liquid. He touched the skin around the sore but amazingly there was no pain.

  Ricky stood in the middle of the cabin, reeling out of his mind. With his good hand he felt inside the wound—inside his arm. The temperature of the fluid was so hot it nearly scalded his fingers. He forced his fingers deeper, to the bone. He felt his own bone but experienced no pain. He continued to probe past the bone to the inner flesh.

  Suddenly there was pain. It shot through the length of his body. He screamed. It was a wretched, wailing sound. The pain increased. It became so bad he thought he was burning in hell. Then a buzzing sound grew louder in his brain. Ricky grabbed at his face. Crazed, he pulled at the skin, trying desperately to claw his way through to his brain to put himself out of his misery forever. But the pain only grew worse and the buzzing louder.

  He couldn’t stand it any more. He smashed his head against the wall. Again and again until his scalp was little more than a bloody pulp.

  Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the pain was gone. He felt nothing, he knew nothing and he questioned nothing. A force had taken control and was guiding him. His eyes began revolving. Ricky was blind yet he could see. He was told to leave his cabin and he followed the order.

  Karl had just left Mitch’s study when he met Sharon. He liked her. She was often brusque and straightforward, but there was no bullshit about her. You always knew where you stood. He respected that quality.

  “The expedition started out boring,” Karl was just making conversation, “but it’s got pretty exciting in the last day or so.”

  The crewmates turned a corner and continued in the direction of the Space Preparation Chamber. Inside it, Ricky was pulling his suit on and he held a helmet in his hand. As soon as he saw Karl and Sharon approaching he froze like a frightened animal.

  “Ricky?” Karl called out.

  Ricky pulled on his helmet and went for the airlock.

  “No! Wait!” Karl said.

  “What’s the matter with him?” Sharon wondered.

  Karl raced after Ricky and caught up with him at the inner door to the airlock. “Hey! Where ’ya going?”

  Ricky tried to push past Karl. There was only a blank stare on his face. “Dean . . . Gotta find Dean.”

  Karl took him by the arms and tried to hold him back. “Dean’s not out there.”

  “Dean!” Ricky shouted.

  Without warning he lunged at Karl and the doctor was taken totally by surprise. “Ricky, what in hell’s got into you?!”

  But Ricky didn’t answer with words. His actions told the story well enough. He banged his elbow into Karl’s ribs, sending him flying. He brought his balled-up fist down to Karl’s face. But the doctor saw it coming and jerked his head out of the way at the last possible second. Ricky’s hand smashed into the wall with full force. There were cracking sounds that Karl knew were those of
bones breaking but even that didn’t stop the crazed man.

  Sharon leaped on to Ricky and grabbed at the oxygen pack on the back of his suit. He shook her off easily but he was disorientated for a brief moment. Then he remembered where he was and started for the airlock door. Only Karl was between him and freedom. Ricky moved steadily toward him and grabbed him. He reached back, poised to try again to finish Karl off, just as Sandy came around the corner from the opposite direction. She didn’t understand what was happening but she knew she had to do something fast. This was just the kind of crisis books couldn’t teach you how to handle.

  She dived between Ricky’s legs and using a manoeuvre she called “testicles deviant” she brought her hand up in a karate chop to his crotch.

  Ricky screamed like a wounded animal and Sandy figured she’d scored a direct hit. When she saw blood seep through his suit she realised just how accurate she had been.

  That distraction, engineered by Sandy, gave Karl the chance he needed to reach the emergency alarm to warn the others. He broke an alarm panel sending the high-pitched wailing sound blaring through the complex.

  Ricky had started after Karl but the alarm brought him to a complete stop. He covered his ears with his hands. It was too much for him to bear. He spun around and careened through the corridor, leaving Sandy, Sharon and Karl behind.

  Ricky ran faster and faster but everywhere he went there was the alarm. He couldn’t get away from it. Gary had stepped out of his cabin to check out what was happening. He was looking the other way and didn’t see Ricky coming. The two men collided and both ended up in a pile on the floor.

  “What’s going on?” Gary tried to shout over the din.

  But Ricky wasn’t aware of anything but the noise, that excruciating noise. He got up and tried to climb a stairwell but he was clumsy in his spacesuit and fell backwards. He rose from the ground and pulled himself up by the railing. Just then Mark appeared. “Ricky? What the hell . . .”

  Ricky never let him finish his sentence. He knocked him out of the way with a blinding two-fisted punch to the gut. Mark went flying into a row of cabinets while Ricky headed off down the corridor in the opposite direction.