O-Negative: Extinction (23 page)

“You sound like you speak from experience”.

“You could say that.”

They lapsed into silence again as the black smudge turned into a squat tower like structure. It was only when Joe did a range finding using a rifle scope he’d brought with him did they fully understand the size of it.  Whatever it was it was massive.  Even at more than two kilometres away it impressed itself upon them.  A kilometre closer and he could see it was circular in dimension.  Maybe 80 storeys high.  When they were half a kilometre away he called a halt.  He could feel both his and Laura’s confidence eroding.  The structure looked absolutely terrifying.  Not so much from its shape or size or look which were frightening enough but because it just felt wrong, Joe thought it just shouldn’t be here.  There was no nation on earth that could have built this without someone noticing it way before they had which was only 7 days ago.  “Laura.  I think I’ve seen enough.  I’m just going to zoom in on both cameras and then I think we’ll call it a day.  Those creatures were terrifying enough but having seen where they’ve come from I feel like we may have pushed our luck far enough for one day”.

“Joe I can barely speak for how scared I’m feeling.  I don’t think that’s been made by man Joe.  Look at it.  It’s completely black and there doesn’t seem to be any windows or doors or in fact any indentations of any kind.  It’s like someone has got a black metal drainpipe magnified it a million times and shoved it into the ground.  It’s also huge.  Maybe 300 metres across and what a kilometre high?”

“Maybe more.  We need to take what we’ve learnt and try and get back”  At this he increased the magnification on the camera he was holding and pushed the zoom button on the camera he’d placed on the dash.  “There don’t seem to be any flaws at all in the surface of it – it’s completely smooth.  Ok that’s enough of this.  Let’s turn round and head back.”

Laura turned the track around and brought the track up to its maximum speed.  Her hands were white as a result of the pressure she was exerting on the controls.  He kept his eyes firmly on the side mirrors attached to the track, watching the monstrous structure slowly grow smaller and smaller again as they put more and more distance between it and them.  Only when it was once again a black smudge did he tear his eyes away from the mirror.

“That wasn’t built by the Russians for sure.  That looked like it was….”

Laura interrupted him “…built by….”

They both said it as the same time. “Aliens.”

____________________________________________________________

The journey back proved as uneventful as the journey there had proved eventful.  Neither Joe nor Laura had spoken much.  Their brains still trying to process the sheer strangeness of the structure they’d seen.  Arriving back at Amundsen-Scott they’d found Dominic hovering the helicopter off the ground about 50 metres above them.  Even helmeted up Dominic looked extremely pleased with himself as he landed the chopper and waved them over.  They jogged over and Joe indicated to Dominic that they should take off and head back to Halley.  He and Laura then began strapping themselves in, Joe helping Laura to put on the necessary harness and show her how to put the headphones on and turn on the speaker and microphone.  This all required a fair bit of physical interaction which he wasn’t sure what Laura thought about but she didn’t seem to react negatively to the fact that he was putting his hands all over her.  Only as he leant back into his own seat and began strapping himself in did she look over at him and give him a shy smile.  To distract himself from Laura’s gaze he flicked on his microphone and spoke to Dominic.  “Dominic looking good.  Do you think you can get us back to Halley without crashing?”

“Can’t promise anything Captain but I’ll give it a hell of a go.  Hold tight I’m taking her up”.

Dominic pulled back on the rotor controls and lifted the helicopter off the ground slowly at first and then with increasing speed before he pushed forwards on the stick and initiated forward movement.  They were airborne.  Joe felt relief flood through him even though they were still over 500 miles from Halley in an American Apache helicopter being flown by a Royal Marine with three weeks training. Joe couldn’t explain it but he felt almost happy.  Happier than he’d felt in a long time.  He suspected that this must be some sort of a neurological effect given earlier in the day he’d watched a team of Seals be slaughtered in front of his eyes prior to discovering some sort of Alien structure slap back in the middle of the continent on which he spent most of the last two years working.  Even looking at the awfulness of the situation, he felt alive.   He felt more alive than at any time since he’d left the army 10 years ago. 

Dominic came on the radio. “Ok I think I’ve got the hang of this to a greater or lesser extent and the further we fly away from Amundsen-Scott the easier it appears to be to fly.  What did you guys find?”

“We found the end of the world as we know it.”  Joe hadn’t meant to be quite so brutal but realised that actually maybe that’s exactly what they’d discovered.

Laura joined in “We found a huge black structure the size of a skyscraper which looked just like it had just come out of a sci-fi novel”.

“Are telling me those silver crab creatures are extra-terrestrials?  Aliens?” Dominic sounded unconvinced.

Joe backed Laura up “Dominic I’d be the first person to tell you this was a crock of shit. But I’m telling you that unless the Russians have been hiding a construction company in the middle of Antarctica and have discovered as yet undiscovered new technologies there is a huge black cylinder of a building 300 metres wide and almost a kilometre tall that looks so terrifying an ex Special Forces soldier with nothing to lose was unable to get closer than half a kilometre without wanting to shit his pants.”

“You’re not fucking around with me are you?”

“No unfortunately I’m not.  I’ll show you the video when we get to Halley.  Hey wait a second what’s that on the ground below.”  Joe unstrapped himself to get a better view – Laura moved to do the same but he waved her back to her seat – he didn’t want her breaking her neck if they hit a turbulence pocket.

“Joe I think that looks like our friends returning to whence they came. I’m turning on the video surveillance camera attached to the gun turret.” 

“That is a hell of a lot of creatures.  What do you think 10,000 more?”

“Fuck.”

Laura looked at Joe sharply.  Joe looked slightly abashed “Sorry….it’s not what I see but where these creatures are coming from.  It looks like I was right they’ve hit Halley.  Shit shit shit.”

Joe returned to his seat.  His momentary feelings of exultation vanishing as quickly as they’d arrived.  His friends were dead.  As dead as the Marines and the Seals and the Scientists.  He realised that until now he’d only had to deal with the death of people he didn’t know.  Now he was going to have to see the bodies of his friends and colleagues.

Dominic tried to reassure him.  “We don’t know that for sure Joe.  They could just have been going out as far as where we came across them the first time.”

Joe knew this wasn’t the case.  If it had been they would have already been back to their black structure before this.  He didn’t say anything.  He simply lifted his head to look over at Laura, she was looking back at him with sad eyes, she knew he was right.  She’d already lost her friends and colleagues.

An hour and a half after spotting the silver alien creatures passing far underneath their helicopter they were landing at Halley.  From the air they could all see the line of bodies and vehicles stretching from the base towards the docking berth of the resupply ship.  Florence had obviously got them ready and had given them the order to flee when she’d seen the bright lights but the dock was a kilometre and a half from the station.  The creatures were just too fast.  He and Laura got down from the helicopter after Joe had told Dominic to fly the route from the base to the resupply ship to check for any survivors.  He wasn’t hopeful but he was proof that some people could survive against the odds.

He walked towards the station entrance.  Greg Jones body was by the steps, he had a rifle in his hands. He’d died trying to protect the rest of the staff.  Inside there were dead bodies littering the corridor and in the dining room.  Carole had died huddled under a table wrapped in the arms of Michael Chapman.  Carole had a bag of supplies under her arm.  But it was the sight of Florence’s crumpled figure on top of one of the tables that really got to Joe.  She’d obviously been trying to command the panic as the creatures had hit.  The silent tears streamed down his face, he tasted the salt of them as they dripped over his lips.  It was some time before he responded to his arm being pulled by Laura. 

“Joe come away.  There’s nothing you can do.  They’re all dead.  I’m sorry so sorry”.  Laura was standing next to him her tears as real as his own.  She pulled him to her and he leant over her hugging her as his body heaved up and down out of control.  “They were my friends.” he said.

“I know I know.  The whole thing seems so helpless”.

Joe wiped the tears from his eyes as he heard the helicopter returning.  Though the feelings of hurt and upset remained he had to keep some semblance of dignity about him if for appearance sake only.  Dominic had also lost all his men.  Men that were probably like brothers to him given they’d all spent time in Afghanistan together.  He wiped his face with the back of his sleeve and pulled himself away from Laura.

“We’re not helpless Laura.  We have that video and I think it’s time we let the world know what we’re up against.  We need to get that video out there – to as many people as we can.  Maybe the video can help us work out how to protect ourselves against these things.  Maybe it can help us work out how we can fight them.  I’ll be damned it I’m going to take this lying down”.

“You’re right but don’t you think the military are going to want to see that video before it’s widely published, it will cause panic don’t you think?”

“Yes it will Laura.  But it’s time to panic.  You’ve seen what I’ve seen.  I’m telling you this is a survival event.  We don’t have time to shit around arguing about whether or not we saw what we say we saw - we need to get this out to as many people as possible as soon as we can.”

Joe found himself standing straighter.  He knew what he had to do.  He pulled Laura after him down the corridor to the comms room.  Suzie’s body was slumped over her desk.  She’d been sending an all channels SOS when she died.  He wondered whether it had got out or not.  Carefully and with an almost exaggerated care he pulled Suzie’s body from the chair and placed it as respectfully as he could outside in the corridor.

“Laura can you operate the comms in here?”

Laura looked around at the mostly familiar machinery, computer, telex, telephone and even a dusty fax over in one corner. 

“err yeah sure but what do you want me to do?”

Joe handed her one of the video cameras.  Download this and send it out to everyone you know.  Send it to all the major news agencies.  Post it on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace you name it post it there.  I’m going to take some footage of the interior and exterior of Halley to add to what we found at Amundsen-Scott and then you can post the footage from the other camera as well.  I want the whole fucking world to know what we know and I want them to know right now.  Not in a week not in a month but right fucking now.  Do you think you can do that?”

“Ok.  I think we’re going to get into a huge load of trouble but what’s a whole load of trouble when you’ve just seen all your friends slaughtered in cold blood.  I’ll also download what I can to the TV stations and put clips up on twitter – the whole world is going to see this before I’ve finished.”

Joe couldn’t help himself he leant over and kissed Laura, she pulled back initially but then leant into him and kissed him back.  He broke it off “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me I”  Laura lent in and kissed him again and then pulled back “I don’t care I’ve been wanting to do that since the moment I saw you – now are you going to give me that camera or not?”  He laughed uncertainly and passed her the camera.  “I’ll be back in a few minutes”.  He held her hand for a moment and then left the comms room to do as he’d said he would.

After capturing the horrendous scenes in the dining area, he moved outside to video the sight of the bodies as they stretched out towards the Halley docking berth.  By the time he’d finished Dominic had landed the helicopter on the landing strip and was shutting the rotors down.  As he did so Joe saw the helicopter doors slide open and two people get out.  Even from a distance he could see one of the people was Wendy.  The second person lifted their head as they moved away from the chopper and he saw it was Ralph.  He ran towards them grabbing them both in a three way hug.  Wendy was in tears and Ralph looked like he’d been cast in a Zombie movie with blood all over him and a face that was so pale it was almost translucent.  “Oh guys it’s so good to see you both.”

Wendy hugged him tighter “They killed them all Joe all of them.  Ben, he’s he’s…..”  Her voice broke at that point and Joe hugged her back and murmured “its ok Wendy its ok I know I know”.

Dominic came round from the front of the helicopter.  “These were the only survivors I could find Joe.  Looks like the crew on the ship didn’t make it off either.  The ship’s still in berth, which though I wish it wasn’t at least gives us an option to get off the place.  Fuel’s almost gone from the helo and I doubt there’s anything suitable here to refuel with”.  He came over and patted Wendy and Ralph on the back.  Wendy disengaged herself from Joe and hugged a surprised Dominic as well.  “I know I don’t know you Lieutenant but I owe you my life.  Thanks for rescuing me and Ralph.”  She pushed her head into his shoulder as she continued to cry, hesitantly Dominic put his arm up and around her.

After they’d all regained some sort of composure Joe heard a shout from Laura who was standing in the main building entrance.  “Joe have you got your footage? I don’t think we’ve got long left.  I think someone’s trying to work out how to shut the comms down – I’ve lost the broadband but I’ve rigged the fax line and I’m still getting stuff out that way.  Joe ran over to Laura and passed her the camera he’d been using.  She took it off him and went straight back inside.  Dominic and the others joined Joe as he stood outside.  Dominic looked at him “What are you doing Joe?”

Joe smiled wanly.  “Accelerating the process of information dissemination Dominic.  Probably in a way which your bosses would have liked to avoid”.

“You’re publishing the video footage to every fucking body?  How’s that going to help?

“It won’t.  Not in the short term but we’re playing a longer game here Dominic.  You know as well as I do that the military and politicians will try to cover this up for as long as they can.  I don’t believe we have the time for fucking about on this.  You didn’t see the structure I saw Dominic.  We’d in the deep deep shit.  This isn’t some mysterious phenomena that’s going to appear on a late night documentary this is the real fucking deal.  We need to get people scared so scared that every single person with half a brain will be trying to work out what the hell we can do to stop those creatures because believe you me I don’t think they’re going to be happy with just Antarctica.  They came here for a reason and I suspect that reason is the Earth – all of it - whether we want to give it to them or not.”

“For fuck’s sake Joe could you pull your punches just once in a while?  It’s like living with Dr Strangelove on steroids.”  Though he said this he grasped Joe’s arm in a tight grip.  “You’re the boss Captain – I trust your judgement – even if it does mean we’re going to end up in Guantanamo”.  Ralph shook his head slightly and spoke almost in a whisper.  “I can probably get the broadband back on line.  Bouncing the feed off the German weather satellite.  It’s normally passing over our position about now”.

Joe gave him a slap on the back.  “Go for it Ralph, Laura’s in the comms room, she’s a physicist we rescued from Amundsen-Scott.” Ralph looked him in the eye for the first time since he’d seen him get off the helicopter and he moved up the steps towards the station entrance.  Wendy laughed unexpectedly and Joe found himself asking her “What?”

“It’s you Joe.  You go on a suicidal no return super-secret mission with a bunch of navy Seals and despite most of us expecting never to see you again you somehow manage to not only survive but also rescue a god damn damsel in distress.  You must have been a Prince or something in another life”.  As she said this she hugged him again and whispered, “Thanks for saving me as well”.

With Ralph’s knowledge of the station’s IT systems and of every satellite passing overhead they circumvented most of the efforts of whoever was trying to control the video getting out.  Once this was done Joe went down to Florence’s office with Dominic and using the secure terminal he got Dominic to send a message to both the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence in London informing them about the 4 British and 1 American survivor.  Within 5 minutes the phone attached to the secure terminal rang.  Dominic picked it up. “Lieutenant Taylor”.  Joe could hear the anger in the caller’s tone even through just the tiny speaker in the telephone handset as whoever was on the other end of the line told ‘Private Taylor’ to “Get off the fucking phone and put Captain fucking Harper on the line”.  Dominic stammered a “Yes sir yes sir” before passing the phone to Joe. 

“Dr Harper here”.

“Joe you were a fucking terrible soldier when you were in the S A fucking S and you’re still a fucking moron now.  If you were still in the Army I’d throw you in the most horrendous jail in Pakistan and throw the key into the darkest deepest cave I could find in Afghanistan.  As it is I’m going to make it my life’s work to make sure you never work in academia nor in fact any other discipline ever fucking again and if it’s the last thing I ever do I will consider it to be fucking worth it – WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKING PLAYING AT?”

“General Cartwright.  So good to hear your dulcet tones again.  You seem upset sir.”

“You bastard Joe you can be as calm as you like but I’m going to grab every aspect of your life by the balls and I’m going to squeeze so hard you’ll feel it in every nerve and sinew in your body.  Why have you posted that shitting video to every bloody media outlet in the world.  I’ve just had the Prime Minister threaten to deport you and every member of your family to North Korea.  What the hell are you playing at?”

“Have you seen the video General?”

“Yes I’ve seen some of the video.  A big black tower a few dead service men a whole load of dead scientists and a bunch of toy robots roving around Antarctica looking for victims.  Bad enough as it is but why push the mass panic button Joe why?”

“Because we don’t have time to shit about on this General.  You know as well as I do that the American’s call most of the shots in your office.  You also know what a bunch of weasely toe rags they are who’d stop at nothing to bottle this up until it was too fucking late to do something about it. I’m telling you General as the best ex Captain you ever had in your command this isn’t some tiny ‘crashed space ship at Roswell’.  This is the real deal.  Proper and sustained contact with an unknown yet shit scaringly dangerous entity that I’d bet every stinking molecule of my worthless being on not being of this earth.  Oh and just to make sure you’re really really fucking scared I don’t think this will be the only black structure we’re going to see.  That thing turning up on Antarctica - the most isolated and desolate part of our planet stinks of being a scouting party or something.  Do you understand why I did what I did now General?”.

“Joe listen to me.  You obviously believe what you’re saying and if you’re right, and I’m not for one fucking moment, saying you are, we’re all up the swanney without a paddle or even a bloody boat so why the mass transparency card?”

“Because I don’t think organised government’s going to survive this General.  I think we’re talking a MEE here – a big old once a million years MEE.  I’ve put the information out there because I want anyone who survives this to know every fucking thing I know.  Now what I want to know is how are you suggesting you get me and the rest of the survivors off this icy morgue?”