The Nexus Colony (32 page)

But Monroe cowered like a frightened child, whimpering. She felt absolutely no compassion toward him. Up until that moment, he had been completely ignoring her presence. Her heart began to pound wildly when he suddenly turned toward her. An ice cold sweat broke out over her body.

He tried to speak, but words weren’t forming on his lips. The wind pounded fiercely against the tent walls. Allison held the knife pointed toward him. She would be able to make one mighty lunge if he moved toward her. She hoped the blade would penetrate his clothing where Ruger instructed her to aim to reach his chest.

Monroe stared pathetically at her for the longest time. Then he unexpectedly squatted and moved backward toward the far corner, crouching, holding his head as if it was filled with demons. He was sobbing the whole while, and this time she was able to clearly see the words forming on his lips. He kept repeating them over and over again. It took Allison a few seconds to realize what it was he was trying to convey.

A new terror filled her body. The horror that had been Monroe’s up to this point was now taking control of her, too. She kept watching the words on his lips. Involuntarily, she released the death grip on the hilt of the knife. The wind howled with unmerciful fury. Monroe kept repeating,
“They’re outside now…they’re outside now…they’re outside now…”

* * * * *

The Alien Dome

This is their world. This was
their
place. That
we
have dared to enter here,
we
have done so on
their
terms…

In the absolute silence of the moments immediately following the opening of the entranceway, the six men stood stationary, motionless in their tracks, all heads turned toward the direction of an all too familiar mechanical sound. Somewhere around the bend in the corridor, there was no mistaking the sound of grinding metal, and it had sent a reverberating echo throughout the structure.

Stone-faced, ill-prepared for the unexpected event, they all clutched at the horror in the pits of their stomachs. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from whatever abomination awaited them down the alien corridor. In Abbott’s mind, there came the sobering thoughts that were the very essence of this whole government project.
We have intruded…we’ve crossed the line…to where we have come is unacceptable according to
their
terms…the signs have been here all along…we have ignored them…we have conjured an alien inquisition…

Abbott tried desperately to get a grip, fend off the panic, and was about to hold up his hand to get everyone’s attention to remain absolutely silent when the impact of the occurrence suddenly hit home to everyone simultaneously. Uncharacteristic of Grimes, he blurted out, quite softly, “Don’t ask for something if you really don’t want it.”

Abbott angrily gestured for him to be silent. Abbott moved quietly several feet away from his position to retrieve the weapon that had been leaning against the honey-combed wall. The silence was reinforced by Prall indicating for everyone to
shush.

Quickly and quietly, pointing to each man, Abbott indicated where he wanted each of them positioned. Ruger and Grimes were to the rear. He pointed to the carbide lamps. Ruger got the idea quickly. Somebody might turn off the lights again, including the strange red sequencing.

Prall maintained the point position, weapon held high and aimed forward, his posture that of the illustrated human warrior. Everyone, including Ruger, was feeling the physical discomfort as cold sweat filled their armpits. It was as if
The Ice
had suddenly inhabited their bodies, assimilating them into the land.

Ruger held the rear. He glanced back toward the corridor bending away behind them. The entrance through the ice wall was passing out of sight range. The group had not moved fifty feet when the lights began to dim. Ruger looked back again. The entrance vanished from view, engulfed in the closing darkness.

“Don’t anybody move!” came Abbott’s hushed order. “Stay close. Within touch.”

But as the darkness closed, ahead they could see that a soft bluish lighting had remained present just around the bend. They were able to make out each other’s shadowy forms.

Pausing to contemplate, Abbott said, softly, “Any thoughts?”

“It’s automatic,” Almshouse responded out of the darkness behind him.

“I think he’s right,” Lisk agreed.

“Something triggered the change in the lighting pattern,” Almshouse said. “Just like the red light was triggered. We just haven’t figured out how yet.”

Grimes was the first to realize it. “The carbide lights are off. The red light should be on.”

“Maybe not,” Lisk responded. “The condition has changed. Whatever that is up ahead, it’s triggered a different environmental reaction.”

“He’s right,” Grimes agreed. “I’m convinced now that this place is programmed to respond to certain changes in activity. Or whatever.”

Abbott nodded. “Yeah. We fight and argue and the lights come on.”

There was a moment’s pause. Abbott gestured to move forward. They had traveled this path earlier when they circumvented the corridor. Now something was obviously there that they had overlooked before. Abbott’s apprehension about what lay ahead was overshadowed only by his compulsion to accomplish the objective of the mission. If that now meant meeting face-to-face with the unknown, well…

They moved forward deliberately, but very slowly. Grime’s words were ringing in his mind. Abbott wondered if they had indeed asked for too much.
Their world…their terms…

A portion of the wall had slid away to reveal an entrance into some yet unknown inner chamber. Abbott was the first to come into position to peer into the blackness. It was more frightening and foreboding than he had imagined. After all these years of working for Bill Korbett, he had finally arrived at it. The gateway to the realm of the alien. If they should dare to enter.
What was written on the gates of Dante’s hell?
Abandon ye all hope…

Crouching silently in front of the entranceway, they all peered into the interior. Lisk stood upright next to Abbott and gauged the height and width of the opening. It was no more than five feet by five feet. Lisk ran his hands around the doorway trying to determine where the honey-combed panel had disappeared to. There was no telling in which direction the panel had retracted, the seam was so perfect. All of them were gagging from the familiar foul odor, which seemed to magnify since the door opening.

Abbott switched on the lamp, shining the beam into the pitch. It was so dark inside that the beam illuminated very little, swallowed by the deep blackness until it completely vanished somewhere far into the interior.

“Reach inside the entrance,” Grimes whispered. “See if it triggers a lighting change.”

Abbott gestured for Lisk to move away, waddling forward from his squatting position. At the threshold leading into the chamber, he reached in.

Grimes was right. Slowly, very gradually, the chamber became bathed in the soft, bluish light, just enough that images began to emerge and take form. The shapes were not familiar ones.

“My God…”
Almshouse whispered, astonished.
“What have we stumbled upon?”

Prall tapped Abbott on the shoulder, gesturing that he should take the lead. “Go ahead,” Abbott responded. “Be careful. We’re right behind you.”

Prall stepped between them and entered the alien chamber, ducking to clear the low overhead. Inside, he stood erect. The lighting amplified, the subtle bluish glow high-lighting newer, even stranger images in what appeared to be a vast chamber.

“Its…its impossible…” Grimes said. “It can’t be…”

They all were inside now, peering at the alien surroundings in disbelief. For the distance they could see into the interior, the chamber was a wide expanse like an enormous amphitheater. Far across the room they could barely make out the other side, assuming it was indeed an opposite wall they were looking at. The lighting was concentrated where they were positioned.

“You’re right, Hilly,” Almshouse replied. “I don’t believe it either.”

Ruger peered across the expanse. He now saw what they all were perceiving. “Wait a minute…” he responded. “This room should only be about a hundred feet across you said.”

“That’s what we’re contemplating, Mike,” Grimes responded. “Our calculations couldn’t be that much off, Peter. We walked the circumference.”

“This place is at least a football field wide,” Almshouse responded.

“Maybe more.”

“It’s not all that surprising,” Lisk commented, and they looked at him. Abbott was nodding agreement.

“It’s not at all that unbelievable,” Abbott replied. “It seems to be a part of their technology.”

“What does?” Grimes asked, confused.

“Spatial distortion,” Lisk answered.

“Where have you seen
that
before?” Grimes inquired, skeptical.

“Doesn’t matter,” Abbott was quick to reply. “We’ve seen it.”

“No. I’m serious,” Grimes persisted. “Where have you seen it?”

What’s the difference? Might as well tell him. We’re all probably going to die anyway.
Abbott answered, “Retrieved spacecraft, Hilly. We’ve experienced spatial distortion when we’ve entered a few of their craft. A lot smaller scale than this, though”

“
Captured alien spacecraft?”
Grimes replied, astonished.

“Retrieved. Not captured. They make mistakes just like us and crash sometimes, too. But that’s right, Hilly,” Abbott said. “We got a warehouse full of ‘em.”

Grimes turned away and peered at the interior of the chamber. “My God. What a technology. To alter spatial dimension…”

“We’re still years away from figuring it out,” Lisk said. “Even the computers can’t seem to handle the theoretical problem.”

Almshouse responded, “That’s probably because we haven’t figured out
what
to program into them.”

While Grimes marveled, it suddenly dawned on Abbott that should the door close behind them, they could become trapped. “We’ve got to block the entrance,” he suddenly ordered.

Ruger responded quickly, searching the floor area for something to wedge in the entranceway. “Not that it’s going to hold,” Ruger said, propping an odd looking rectangular crate against the door jamb.

“Put another one on the opposite side,” Abbott ordered.

“They should hold,” Ruger said, backing away to examine the wedge. “I hope.”

“It probably opens activated by proximity,” Lisk said.

“Yeah,” Abbott responded. “Just like it did the first time we walked the corridor.”

“Hope it doesn’t close by us walking away,” Grimes commented.

Abbott nodded for Prall to move forward into the interior. “Keep the lamps off.”

As the group slowly advanced toward the central part of the chamber, the lighting amplified about every twenty feet, lighting their way like a stage light. As they passed out of an area, the lighting would dim. It projected an eerie setting, the effect like that of a dancer gliding across the stage, the spotlight illuminating only the movements. Grouped together like this, they were only able to see small areas at a time.

“…unless we spread out,” Abbott thought out loud.

“Let’s try it,” Lisk replied. “Activate more lights.”

They spread out, and more of the chamber became illuminated by the soft, blue light.

“Whoever lives here must be sensitive to light,” Grimes commented.

“Grays, most likely…” Almshouse responded to himself, and the frightening images of the most predominant extraterrestrial biological entities came into mind. The ones
all
the world’s governments were concerned about the most.

“What?” someone responded.

“Nothing. Just thinking out loud.”

“I sure as hell hope not,” Abbott responded softly to his comment.

They continued to move forward. Then Ruger spotted something even more bizarre. “Holy hell! Will you get a load of this.” Ruger was looking upward where the lighting was illuminating a strange configuration of tubes.

An infinitesimal number of flexible conduits hung from the darkened ceiling like tangled clumps of giant intestines. They were encrusted with a blackened, bloodlike substance that looked like it was still wet in places. Out of the blackness above the conduits, there protruded a long, needle-like object that resembled a proboscis on a giant insect. They couldn’t see what it was attached to, as the vault of the ceiling was completely immersed in darkness, and even when Ruger momentarily switched on the lamp, the beam from the carbide light wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate into the pitch blackness above. Along the curvature of the side walls, the strangely configured conduit bundles wound their way like meshes of umbilical cords upward toward the blackness. The only guess was that the giant proboscis was the main receptor.

Oozing out from a series of bundled piping along the curved wall was a dark, grayish-green gooey substance that appeared at first to be still in a liquid state. But upon further inspection, it had evidently become solid in the frozen netherworld of the past along with everything else. Its sheen, even in the near darkness, made it look liquidy and very menacing.

“Jesus…” Ruger exclaimed under his breath. “It almost looks as if it was alive.”

“I sure as hell hope its not now,” Grimes replied.

“Look,” Almshouse said. “Over here.” The lighting sequence followed Almshouse as he slowly moved across the floor.

The strangest thing of all was what was strewn throughout the chamber. Oddly shaped nodules of varying sizes ranging from a few inches to huge four-foot diameters were scattered sporadically all over a floor that was cratered in this section of the gallery. The many sized nodules all had the same basic configuration, like an inner tube wrapped around a beach ball. Most of the purplish-gray, translucent nodules were occupying the cratered depressions, where some seemed to have fused with others like bunches of purplish rotted grapes. Quite a few of the larger ones would be sitting alone on one of the flat segments of the floor, and it was hard to tell if they had been secured there intentionally, or like the smaller ones, had come to rest there by pure chance. Their function, like everything else in the chambered gallery, could not even be conjectured.