Odyssey Rising (15 page)

Back inside the Pod, all attention was on the throbbing silver light pulsing from the makeshift canvas butterfly net. If the silverfly thing wasn’t alive, it definitely could be a cool party trick. That was if the group ever got a chance to celebrate any momentous occasion ever again.

Even though the group was amazed by the possibility of what was trapped inside the canvas bag, they knew this small silverfly really didn’t meet the necessary requirement to be the “It” they had been hoping to find. It didn’t have the size or a shape that was remotely similar to what Theo had found with the Wet Willy probe. Whether it was alive or something in between life and death was a debate they had yet to have.

Ravi had a video camera in one hand and the portable light in the other. When he guided the portable light onto the canvas surface, the small flying creature they had named a silverfly throbbed with a silver heartbeat. Along with the glow, the creature produced a low purr, almost a hum.

Ravi looked kind of miserable, almost sick with worry.

“Man, I hate making history,” Ravi said. “Seriously Theo. Why do we have to make history?”

“You’re the one in the Guinness Book of Records,” Theo said.

“Not by choice,” Ravi said, “it’s my karma, brother. It follows me everywhere.”

“Just be ready to catch it,” Ellie said.

“What if it can’t be caught?” Ravi asked.

“Then we improvise like Mingus,” Theo said.

“Bloody, bloody crap. I hate when you talk about jazz,” Ravi shouted back. He was on edge, nervous and speaking loudly. “We’re not musicians, you know. And not all jazz is improvisation.”

Theo interrupted, smartly. “We make a transfer. Okay?”

“To what?”

Quickly, Theo went to the supply closet and took out a clear specimen jar. It was about the size of an old-fashioned glass mason jar and made of a plastic compound.

Using the common room table as an operational base, they prepared to make a transfer from the canvas bag to the specimen jar.

Theo cupped his hands around the open end of the canvas bag and then tilted the bag upside down so that the open end was just above the specimen jar.

Gently, Theo shook the canvas bag and the silverfly dropped into the specimen jar. The transfer was successfully completed and they all could now see the silver thing.

The silverfly was an amazing sight and Theo had a distinct interpretation of what he was looking at: it had to be alien life. It was strange. Four wings. Each was a quadrangle and mostly made of some transparent film of skin.

When all four wings flapped at once, the silverfly thing made a sound from the bowels of shrieking hell. They had never seen anything like it. Based upon the body they saw, it looked as if the silverfly didn’t have a single bone.

“Do you think it passes Fullmer”s Seven Laws of Life test?” Ellie asked.

“Only experimentation will confirm what we are looking at,” Ravi answered.

“It sure looks like a living thing,” Ellie said.

“Alien life in my bloody book,” Ravi added.

Nervously, the silverfly fluttered its wings, all four of them, inside the specimen jar. It was no larger than Theo’s fist, perhaps a little smaller.

“Its skin is translucent. No inner organs,” Ravi said into his Communication Device, “at least not the kind of sensory organs we’re used to seeing. Highly doubtful that it has any skeletal bones that would match up to our initial skeletal discovery.”

Ravi clapped his hands by the canvas bag and the silverfly fluttered its wings. He did it again and got the same result.

“The clap test doesn’t prove anything,” Theo said.

“I think it proves it has some mechanism for sensory perception,” Ravi countered.

“Stimulus and response,” Ellie said. “It is, technically, a valid experiment.”

Ravi clapped again and the silverfly fluttered and the silver glow throbbed.

Ravi said, “We just need an extract of its … um… its skin.”

“There’s got to be a better test than clapping,” Theo said.

“Boys and girls. Ladies and gentlemen. Human beings and alien friends. You are now looking at the first confirmed extra-terrestrial being in the history of mankind. We call it a silverfly. No facial features,” Ravi announced.

“It’s a bizarre looking thing,” Theo said.

“I don’t think it’s like an insect. Not a bird. Not a bat. Just an oval blob of four sided wings. Up close, it looks harmless,” Ravi said as he pressed his nose right up to the specimen jar. He was as close to the silverfly as he could get, separated only by a think divide of plastic.

With a shriek, the silverfly slammed into the plastic. Startled, Ravi jumped back.

“Yeah, as harmless as the Yin-Yang Twins looked when we first saw them. So let’s not jump to any conclusions yet,” Theo said.

“There’s no protocol for this, at least none that I’m aware of,” Ravi said.

“Except that you should always tell an alien that you come in peace, right?” Ellie added.

“Exactly.”

“So, little silver E.T. thing, we come in peace. You hear? We come in peace,” Ravi said as he bent down to eye level with the silver fluttering about the specimen jar.

Into the video camera, Ravi announced the details of the creature, “No visible internal organs. Two side wings and a front and rear. Four wings. When the wings stop fluttering it looks almost like –”

“—a heart,” Ellie said.

Indeed, it was shaped like a human heart, an uneven and throbbing oval. It had large veins that pulsed. They were not designed like flies, not like birds, not even like night fliers like bats. The silverflies were shaped like a very thin and small football with two connecting flaps. There was no visible head. They were so thin, so fluorescent.

“The creature’s no bigger than a lemon or my fist,” Ravi observed.

“It appears to fly with four wings,” Ellie said.

“It’s alive,” Ravi said. “But no eyes. No head to speak of.”

“It’s hard to call it an insect or an animal or even a bird. At least it’s not like anything I’ve ever studied,” Theo added.

Harry Wolf did not cooperate. The dog jumped and barked.

“It’s okay, boy. It’s okay,” Ravi yelled.

Each bark from Harry sent the silverfly’s four wings fluttering even faster and with each flutter the silver thing also shrieked a little louder.

The shrieks sent a shiver through the Pod.

“Friendly bloody thing, isn’t it?” Ravi said.

“If that’s communication, I don’t like what it’s saying,” Ellie said.

“Maybe it doesn’t like to be trapped,” Ravi said.

“We’re not letting this sucker go free.”

“I know. I know,” Ravi said.

The shriek was somewhere between a cricket’s chirp and fingernails running down an old-fashioned slate blackboard. And it was getting louder.

As the silverfly moved, the specimen jar began to vibrate with the low hum of its shrieks. Though the jar muffled the sound slightly, the shriek was getting louder and the specimen jar was in danger of rattling off the side of the common room table from the vibrations.

Theo picked up the jar in his hands before it fell off the table and then the creature’s shriek became as loud and piercing as an opera singer reaching the highest note the human voice can reach.

The specimen jar shattered in Theo’s hands and for a brief moment he cupped the silverfly in his hands and he screamed in pain as a long tendril of silver whipped out from the center of the silverfly creature and into his hand. The tendril didn’t stay in Theo’s hand. It retracted into the silverfly as Theo released it from his grasp.

The silverfly went fluttering and flitting about the common area of the Pod.

From Harry Wolf’s salivating tongue, the dog knew without a doubt that the silverfly was some kind of delicious food.

Ravi tired to grab the silverfly as did Theo and Ellie. They all missed in their grasp.

Harry Wolf had much better luck and instincts. As the silverfly rested briefly on the seat of the chair and then Harry Wolf pounced on the silverfly and his paws slammed down on top of it before the silverfly reacted.

Theo dove on top of his dog, ripping at its paws, which were firmly placed atop the silverfly. The creature bulged much like a helium balloon about to burst.

And then that’s exactly what happened. Theo lunged down onto Harry Wolf, but it was already too late. The dog pressed tightly down on the silverfly creature until it totally burst!

A black and silver goo oozed out of the remains of the silverfly and Harry Wolf sucked it down in three quick slobbers before Theo yanked him off the remaining parts of the alien thing.

“Stop that, you stupid, stupid dog!”

The dog slobbered up much of the remains of the silverfly before Theo yanked him away from the small silver and black mess. Harry Wolf, the husky dog, scampered away and found a quiet spot under the common area table. Sheepishly, he curled up into a comfortable though embarrassed curve.

From under the table, Theo yanked the dog by the collar. Harry Wolf had those sad puppy eyes that practically all dogs can make. The dog was pleading.

“Stop it, Harry. Don’t look at me like that,” Theo said to the dog.

“He didn’t know better,” Ravi said.

“He should’ve,” Theo snapped.

“But what just happened? Like surprise! Tiny and harmless looking things attack like a ferocious beast with crystal arms,” Ravi said shaking his head.

“What can we do?”

“I’m not sure, but basically I think we just leave it in there,” Theo said “Eventually he’ll either vomit the silverfly up. Or poop it out. Or just digest it.”

“No!” Ravi shouted. “We need a sample! Anything alive down here offers a possible clue!”

Ravi ran was for the supply closet. He rummaged through the medical supplies and came back to Harry and the others with a brown bottle.

“Hydrogen peroxide, that’ll do the bloody trick,” Ravi said.

“What are you going to do with that?” Ellie asked.

“Make Harry drink this down. We need to know what it is,” Ravi answered.

“Hold him. It’s not going to hurt, but he’s not going to like this.”

Theo yanked Harry Wolf by the collar and quickly forced his mouth open. The

dog pulled away but Theo yanked him again.

Ravi poured as much of the liquid hydrogen peroxide into the dog’s mouth as he would allow. The rest spilled from the dog’s lips.

Instantly, Harry Wolf coughed and fought the liquid.

“He’s going to throw up,” Ellie said.

“Exactly. It might take a minute or two. And then hopefully, we’ll get the remains of the silverfly and be able to test it,” Ravi said.

Ellie reached for Theo’s hand. It was his crippled one. There was a slight redness and a small cut where the silverfly tendril had attacked him. There was a fragment of silver left in Theo’s hand. It looked as if it had already crystallized.

“Are you okay?” Ellie asked.

“I guess,” Theo answered.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

“Not really. Barely felt it,” Theo answered.

“But you felt something. Like what?” Ravi asked.

“Kind of like a sting,” Theo said.

“Looks like it left a part of itself,” Ellie said.

“I say if it’s a splinter, then take it out,” Ravi added. “But if it’s something else, maybe you should leave it in.”

Theo shrugged. No one was sure what the right course of action should be.

Perhaps life here on GidX7 had evolved into something the group could not understand – cause his hand was glowing silver. Theo wasn’t sure of what had been left in his hand.

Suddenly, Theo felt weak. Cool and hot at the same time. His skin was pale and clammy. Theo was feeling helpless. Weak. Out of his own body. He felt like he was back living in the desert of his youth. Sweat dripping from his forehead. Was he dreaming or dead? His vision quickly went blurry. His knees buckled.

“Theo? Theo? Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer. He could barely hear him. His brother’s voice was just an echo.

“Th----th---eeee---ooo?”

It felt like a new madness was running through his blood.

And then Theo sat down in the middle of the common room, right down on the floor. His body went a little limp and he closed his eyes and passed out.

From: EllieL.Odyssey.space

TO: MsEsparanza.Ark.space

The following details my observational update of the Positives.

Theo Starling: passed out after being stung by the silverfly creature. Still asleep. His vital signs are worsening. As ordered by the big brains, we’re not going to move him.

Harry Wolf (Siberian husky): swallowed alien entity known as silverfly. Forced hydrogen peroxide down his throat. About an hour later, Harry puked his guts out. Fortunately, the silverfly remains were mostly complete, though mostly just a mess of silver and black goo.

Ravi Starling: Later in the night complained of severe nausea and went off to his sleeping bunk for rest and perhaps the next stage in his own personal madness.

Sam Suzuki: deceased.

I don’t want to be the last one standing. God, please, not me! I can’t be the last to die.

I stayed up most of the night running chemical composition tests on the remains of the silverlfy thing, or at least what’s left of it. Therefore, I can confirm that the silverfly entity is a silicon-methane based life form. While the exterior of the silverfly is unlike anything from Earth, the interior biology is a distant cousin to the Earth’s horseshoe crab. What do you all make of that? It doesn’t appear to have a skeleton, at least not one we would find on Earth. Instead of many types of blood cells, this silverfly thing has a very primitive large blood cell. Its chemical composition has a fifteen percent overlap with the horseshoe crab.

I did some research on horseshoe crabs and it turns out they’re an amazing, ancient little creature. A clotting agent in the blood of the horseshoe crab apparently can differentiate between bacterial and viral meningitis. As well, surgical sutures and wound dressings made with a pure form of the shell material of horseshoe crabs have been known to speed healing by 35 to 50 percent.

I also analyzed the video of the attack of the silverfly on Theo’s hand. Can confirm that the creature’s tendril like appendage released some kind of liquid excretion – a silver and black goo that is fertile with microbes.

I think we got the wrong name for our microscopic invaders. The Yin-Yang Twins should have been called Jekyll & Hyde. Maybe that’s what they are? Maybe they’re some primal trigger to what’s really inside us. Cause maybe we’re just beasts like they are who want to kill and hurt and survive by any means necessary.

As you’ve figured by now, I need help down here. Need it now. Please send instructions. Please send prayers. Send a miracle. Send anything! Please!

Your student,

Ellie Lloyd

ENTRY COMPLETE.