The Black Seas of Infinity (35 page)

As I reach orbit, I slow down. A sterile ball
of mountain ranges and craters recedes below, a wide expanse of
stars stretching out its cold arms to greet me. The light on the
left-hand side of the screen starts to blink again, and I crane my
head around nervously. The right-hand screen displays an oblong
chunk of rock, the pockmarked leviathan reeling slowly as it
approaches. It must be either a large asteroid or a small moon.
Most of it is cast into shadow, the forward tip rotated just enough
to catch the rays of some distant star. I have no idea where the
fuck I am.

CHAPTER XIX

THE PLOT THICKENS

Maybe that chunk of rock will buy me some time. I
angle toward it. The surface is absolutely desolate. Gray sand and
rock, riddled with squat mountains and defaced by a multitude of
craters. The sizes vary dramatically. With no atmosphere, every
little chunk of stone has made its mark. As I glide into a landing,
I start to wonder how far this ship can travel. It has more the
feel of a small fighter than an intergalactic cruiser. How much
fuel it has is another issue. If it even uses fuel. I have no idea
what powers it.

An even more pertinent question is, where the
hell is Earth? I need some sort of guide. Something I could make
sense of. The craft alights with a soft thud. I stand up and head
back into the hind chamber. As I approach the cabin door, it
automatically slides up. I wonder for a moment if this ship
recognizes my mental imprint. Maybe I come across as a member of
the native race, seeing as to how I occupy something of theirs. Or
maybe it’s because I took control of this ship and it recognizes
this in me. It didn’t open when I first boarded. It makes me wonder
again if any of this is pre-planned. Am I right where they want me?
Either alien race? Maybe I haven’t even woken up yet. Maybe I’m in
a simulator and all of this is some fantastic dream. Maybe I’m
still back on Earth, entombed in an alien capsule, thinking I
inhabit the body next to me, whereas the real truth is it’s all
some deathly fantasy! This is doing me no good! I have to
concentrate on the present.

The hole I used to enter is now closed. It’s
probably an automatic response to my activation of the ship. I
stare at it, wondering what activates it, and suddenly it opens.
This is getting stranger by the minute. Maybe there is some central
system in this ship that can read my thoughts. I wonder if it can
read all of them or just the ones I project to the forefront. Maybe
it only recognizes key words. Something occurs to me. If this
vehicle doesn’t have a decompression room, it might be used only
for small commutes. It’s probably a short-range fighter or
transport. I jump into the opening, feeling a slight wave of
pressure as I descend. If I had ears, they probably would have
popped.

As I drift down into the sand, I realize that
the pressure might have been some form of atmospheric barrier. A
decompression room might not be at all necessary and more an
offshoot of primitive Earth technology. I duck under the wing and
crawl out. Standing up straight, I take a look around. Craters and
sand, just like the planet below. The sky looks particularly empty.
A cold darkness, no nebula, no sister planets, and only a few stars
in the sky. A strange blue glow sparkles on the far horizon, the
pale luminosity outlining a diminutive mountain range. The
intensity of the light throws the cliffs into a solid wall of
ebony.

I wonder what that is? Maybe a reflection
from a bigger planet? I peer around. Nothing. I’m wasting time.
Walking to the ship, I duck under the wing and re-enter. It closes
behind me automatically. As I’m strolling back to the pilot’s chair
a voice suddenly booms in my head.

“Stay where you are. We’re coming.”

I glance about wildly, and practically jump
into the seat. Spots on the screen have erupted in flashes of green
and red. The central panel shows more ships like the one I
destroyed earlier, cresting the horizon and heading straight for
me. Somehow, I know that they weren’t the source of the voice in my
head.

There are five of them, the craft growing in
size as they descend. Suddenly, a flash of light flares up behind
two of the vessels, growing into a crackling maelstrom that engulfs
the ships in a ball of lightning. Two of the remaining fighters
start to veer sideways, but they are too late as they succumb to
the same fate.

That leaves one. It arcs up and accelerates.
But it’s a last ditch effort, and not nearly enough. A few pops of
light erupt around it before one finally hits its mark, the impact
blossoming into a blazing sphere of ruin. The sky grows black, and
I see two smaller ships, almost identical to mine, fast
approaching. They zip by, revealing a multitude of similar vessels
behind.

A huge ship that looks like a giant black bug
looms behind, the glimmer of hundreds of small lights spotting its
surface.

“What did you find?”

They must think I’m one of them!

Suddenly, there are three silver bodies in
front of me. All are about four feet tall, their bodysuits serrated
in repeating small bumps. The hands and feet are cordoned off by a
silver ring, black gloves and boots adorning the appendages. The
front faceplate gleams with a mirrored surface, obscuring all
features.

“Wait a minute. Who are you?”

They can probably communicate telepathically,
and my thoughts must be strange to them. At least that’s my guess.
Abruptly, they disappear.

In the blink of an eye, I find myself in a
small, round room. Dim and musty, a thick mist punctuates the air.
The floor is some sort of grate, the dark gray bars stretching from
one wall to the other with no apparent seam. A half-inch space
separates each bar, the depths below disappearing into shadow. The
glossy chocolate brown walls bolster large raised seams that
converge at some point in the gloom above. The chamber is
illuminated, but I can’t make out the source. The construction is
vaguely familiar. It resembles a greatly expanded version of the
cells in the crashed ship.

“Who are you?”

I stiffen immediately. The words were in my
head, but they were as loud as if they had been spoken!

“Are you the Al’lak?”

“Yes. But I don’t think you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Who are you?”

“I found this suit. I don’t mean you any
harm.”

A figure materializes in front of me. Short
and white, his skin is silky smooth, no hair marring the sleek
veneer. Two yellow eyes, the beady globes sporting orange irises,
peer out at me. The nose is virtually skeletal, dark slits resting
above a wide, thin mouth. He doesn’t appear to have any clothes,
but his diminutive form has no visible sex organs either. Six
fingers and toes garnish each appendage. Two floating,
bubble-shaped chairs appear. The figure sits in one. I take a seat
in the other.

“So, where did you find that suit?”

“On Earth. In a crashed spaceship.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was exploring ancient ruins on Earth when
I stumbled across an abandoned outpost. Somehow I activated a
beacon. Those creatures picked me up, interrogated me briefly, then
dropped me off at this encampment for further questioning. They
were obviously aggravated. I took my first chance and escaped. I
fled to the nearby mountain range, and in my attempts to lose the
pursuers, I came upon what must have been an old base of
yours.”

“That base is a bit of a [indecipherable].
This species you have encountered didn’t know we had anything here.
Revealing its presence forces us to act.”

“Act on what?”

“That outpost you escaped from has now been
destroyed. This will create a huge political incident. We are put
in the [indecipherable] position of deciding how we are going to
handle the situation. Your occupying that body is the start of a
chain reaction that has only been [indecipherable] by this current
development.”

Some of the words are too exotic for me to
make out, but I can understand the gist of what he is saying. He
seems to be much more cordial than the other creatures. At least so
far.

“Is Earth off limits?”

“Well... [indecipherable] they probably know
you aren’t Al’lak. [Indecipherable] probably deduced that you were
[indecipherable] blindly. That [indecipherable] you now inhabit is
an anomaly. You are trapped in there, and can’t be removed. It was
an experiment that didn’t work, and you are inhabiting one of the
early versions. The others had undesirable...side effects.”

“What is the point of all this?”

“We have no fear of you. You could cause some
damage momentarily. Then we’d be forced to [indecipherable] you
into the heart of a nearby star. Your remaining [indecipherable] in
that shell is interesting. I propose a trade.”

“What do you want?”

“We’ll discuss that later. We’re heading
toward our closest occupied zone. This whole affair will be
dissected and planned there.”

“I have one question.”

“What was the purpose of that base?”

“That other race stumbled across an anomaly.
They are a bit more primitive than us, and haven’t managed to
decipher it. We think it’s a wormhole.”

CHAPTER XX

WHAT THEY REALLY WANT

This planet, which might be the Al’lak home world,
is breathtaking. Covered in a glacial sheet of frozen water, under
which they maintain entire cities. The mammoth mother ship I’ve
spent the past day in apparently isn’t built for planetary
landings. I’m taken from my cell and escorted down a dim corridor.
Molded ocher walls cloister around me in undulating spirals, an
unseen light casting its bleak fluorescence across the stunted
tunnel. I’m led by a single, white-suited creature to a small hatch
on the wall. Large metal blades spiral open, and we enter another
gloomy passageway. I’m starting to wonder if these vessels are
grown rather than constructed, their smooth, textured interiors
resembling more than anything an insect hive. I’m led to another
room that looks like a cell, and ushered in. A hatch closes in
another spiral of metal blades as the Al’lak steps through it. The
light dims, and I’m left in silence. They’ve been fairly equitable
to me so far. I’ve been kept in holding cells, but there has been
no interrogation. All of this could be a ruse to facilitate my
disposal, but I don’t think I have any other options. It’s a
waiting game. I’ll just have to stay on edge. I’ve grown used to
it.

There’s no sound, but with a lurch of motion,
I feel the compartment shift. If my eyesight weren’t so sharp, I
would be in total darkness. The floor is completely smooth, its
black face marbled by a swirling white pattern. There are no
visible chairs, and I debate sitting on the floor for a moment. But
there is no need.

I wonder what trade they could possibly want
from me? A sparse jolt is followed by an opening of the serrated
portal. A creature that looks exactly like the one that escorted me
here beckons me to follow.

I’m led down yet another dim, corrugated
hallway. The creature leads me around several bends, and then stops
abruptly. A section of the wall slides up. The Al’lak ushers me out
into a narrow corridor. This isn’t textured like what I’ve seen so
far, but is made up of a smooth black material covered with spindly
white marbling.

I’m paraded through a series of gloomy
tunnels followed by well lit rooms. Their walls are made of perfect
spheres, milky and translucent, a raised pathway flowing from the
hallway and continuing in a smooth arc across a seething abyss of
bluish fog.

The corridor widens, and I proceed through a
series of larger rooms, all dim and well grounded, the walls a
return to the dark brown of the hallway. The floor becomes rippled
in a pattern that resembles bones, slowing my progress. The queue
of rooms starts to feature a serpentine series of small pedestals,
the surfaces stamped with the same small holes as the ship. Austere
chairs hover beside them, the seats supporting the forms of
Al’laks, their vision trained on the small instruments, their
bodies bent in rapt attention. They don’t even register my
passing.

Finally, I’m led into a dim chamber garnished
with two of the floating chairs. My escort motions for me to sit,
then promptly turns and exits the room. A few minutes pass when a
new creature enters and takes a seat. Truth be told, all the
creatures look the same to my eyes. It could just be one being
playing mind games with me.

“We have no need to play mind games with you.
We want you to help us explore the wormhole. You’ll be tutored in
what you need to know, perform the service we require, and then you
can return to your primitive planet.”

Ouch, that’s the first hostile move they’ve
made. Then again, Earth probably is a fairly primitive planet in
their eyes. So far this whole experience has been like one long,
fantastic dream. It ranges from euphoria to nightmare, but like a
car crash, I can’t turn away. I almost feel like I’ll wake up any
minute, rolling over in bed and cursing at my alarm. It seems
nearly too surreal to actually be happening, but if it’s a dream,
waking up is going to be devastating.

Part of me wants to return to the relative
stability of Earth, but I’m so intrigued, I have misgivings about
going back to what I realize is a rural dead end. Earth is always
there for me. This opportunity might never present itself again. At
least not for eons. And who knows what my state will be come that
day.

“I’m in.”

After a few hours of confinement, in a
grander version of the same cell I’ve been occupying recently, I’m
conveyed to a strange, small room. It’s too dim to make out much,
but I’m beckoned to sit in a dark recess. As I approach, I notice
an object in the corner laid out like some glistening, esoteric
lounge chair. Just as I lower myself into place, everything
dissolves into a pitch-black void. My consciousness shifts, and I
can feel myself transported to another time and place. I’m seated
in a craft, with a dreamlike feeling akin to being in some
overgrown, hyper-realistic flight simulator. A monotone voice cuts
into my head, instructing me on the functions of the vehicle I’ll
apparently be using.