Escape From Verena 5

Kareem Rahman

CHAPTER 1

"Deep in space
lies a sea most dark
where men must face
their internal spark."

On the furthest fringes of unexplored space, great tides rolled across a landless horizon around a planet outside the known system. A surface entirely engulfed in ocean had favored it and a magnetic polarity greater than any in the system had sustained it. Submerged deep beneath the depths of this recently deflowered planet, A ship traversed its lonesome course between black formations. Its endless rocks extended from the dark, large and alien formations appearing at every treacherous corner.

Then, the nose of this wondering ship escaped. The black crevices of the thinning path disappeared behind it and an open and dark watery void stood before it.

Lines of high intensity beams from the ship hull lights spat into the surrounding dark. It retreated back into its black corners. The hull of the bulky ship, now suspended at the center of endless watery space, drifted lazily towards the entrance of another cavern. The lights swayed from its hull in every direction, dozens of crators below and tunnel entrances above appearing in quick bright beams. Green glowing lines arched around them, slithering like roots on a tree.

A churning noise from the ships rear thrusters whispered in the silent depths, a low mechanical thrum growing louder as the ship inched forwards.

Now in the cavern, the belly of the ships hull descended quickly to the lower rocks. The surrounding water down the side of the hull bubbled into a vacuum of air and zynthonium fuel along the reinforced glass. This crude white mass formed from humanities former boon swept over the ship, leaving behind a long and sweeping trail.

Behind this thick screen that shielded the cockpit, Robert stone, the five year contracted captain of this mission, sat before hundreds of analogue controls, re-checking and stabilizing the pressure gauges.

"Crush depth, at 2000 meters" he said, a confident tone in his voice.

The man, tall, dark and bearded, leaned towards the controls. Under the flashing lights, lines that told of years of experience and fatigue riddled his long face. A strange perception that showed he knew more than he should about men's nature flared in his brown eyes.

"Hello, do you read?" he said.

A narrow gap between two protruding rocks in the distance appeared under the lights and robert quickly pulled at the controls. The body of the ship spun on its axis, rolling and slipping through the gap.

Static of a fuzzy screen suspended over the ship controls screeched out in the cockpit and a series of buttons and switches blinked in the dim light. A hundred labels for the on board ship systems appeared in Robert's view. On the screen of the monitor, the pale grizzled face of Jack Ducat, Robert's handler for the mission, appeared before him, his glasses barely hanging on his swollen nose.

"Approaching the coordinates now," Roberts eyes darted to the screen.

"Good to hear," replied Jack, "thought I lost you for a minute."

The ship slipped out of the narrow pass with a chip of rock behind it, rolling back to its normal position.

Now before a wall of darkness, the rear wings of the ship coasted into a slow and deliberate stop. The end of its lines of light dimmed in the distance, like a suspended bulb in the pitch black night.

Then, suddenly, the captain's focus, which had solely been on the controls, caught sight of something flickering in the distance. He stared through the cockpit glass. Between the dark expanse that stretched on forever and the ship's body suspended in the dark, he saw a fading bright light.

Carefully, he moved the ship and aligned all the beams of lights from the hull to whatever it was that shined so brightly.

As he gained speed, the captain's eyes discovered shadows of structures. Long black construction beams connected between rocky canyon walls appeared one after the other.

The head of the ship ducked beneath an incoming ridge. The lifting nose of the craft rose from underneath the rock and the captain, startled, quickly slowed its speed. A large elipses shaped station built into the side of the formations, appeared into view, countless lights flickering from its inverted base, and its head riddled with pylons and metallic antennae.

"Son of a bitch is lit like the fourth of July," Jack said over the the intercom.

"Standard procedure Jack," replied stone, "You wouldn't know where the hell they where if they didn't do it."

"Yeah, you know what. Discount the creepy shit and its kind of pretty," exclaimed Jack, "in a creepy way."

Robert's right hand lifted the mug from the dashboard and sipped at his coffee. Bruned by its temperature, he quickly dropped the cup, which smashed to pieces on the floor.

"Shit" he cursed.

As he reached down to the ground to pick up the cup, his eyes lingered at a photo stuck to the lower part of the dashboard. It was him, his wife and his son, deacon. Robert felt a small tug at the back of his throat but quickly forced down the feeling that he knew better to ignore.

Slowly, he lifted up the preices of his former coffee cup and turned to Jack on the screen. His oblivious operator, who seemed more preoccupied with his ramen noodles, seemed not to have noticed the accident.

"Creepy how?" Robert asked him, slurping some of the coffee from his fingers before resting the pieces on the counter.

"Well the planets terra inconita right," Jack began. "God knows what else is out here. That light could draw something right to them."

The flickering lights of the station grew brighter in the distance, refracting as bright blur on the the pane of the cockpit.

"Same thing could be said about my ship," replied Robert, "I've been here longer than most and i've never had trouble."

"Yeah, but that was sector delta, and, no offense, but it ain't exactly the biggest pond on the planet. But this, where you are right now, thats waters, real waters. The kind of stuff that makes earths sea look like a puddle. You could be there for an other decase and ain't ever gonna scout everything."

Robert picked up the mission brief tablet.

"Well," Robert sighed, "The company wouldn't send me somewhere without it being necessary and scanners didn't pick up any signs of anything dangerous on the planet. So we should just assume its a routine equipment gone bad situation."

Something in the back of the captain's tired mind told him that a simple comm talk wouldn't suffice. He knew he'd have to go ashore before he could make his superiors adequately happy. Anything less and he'd have a pile of paper work to deal with.

"Okay," he sighed reluctantly,"I'm gonna try and make contact. Wish me luck"

"I won't - not because i don't believe in you - but because you better make sure things go smoothly, It'll be a bitch to deal with the fallout if there's any casualties down there"

"Well" Robert said cheekily," that might be out of my control."

The captain's hand moved the ships throttle forward, sending the craft into a steady speed towards the station.

Suddenly, Robert's focus quickly spun into dizziness. His eyes quickly blinked and his focus faded.

"Shit," he muttered.

He had rested in bed two days prior but the small amount of sleep failed to keep him up now. His mouth widened into an involuntary yawn and he quickly wiped his blinking eyes.

He rose from seat of the cockpit and began to turn to his bed in the middle deck of the ship. Yet before he could turn his back, something odd in the corner of his eye caught his fading attention.

On the outer glass of the cockpit, the warm smear of a hand and arm print ominously painted its surface. The troubling sign appeared recent like someone or something had dragged itself along the head of the ship.

Stunned, the captain reached for the hull monitor controls, rewinding for something that passed by. The tapes showed nothing, just a series of columns passing by the ship from a distance.

His fatigued mind wondered whether what he had seen was real or if the fading print existed long before his departure from the planetary orbital dock. He pictured the mechanic leaving a memento while half-assedly prepping his ship but this seemed too far fetched, considering the hull being burned on entry. No, he thought, judging it be too recent to be that. His eyes watched the print disappear into the glass, like a dream at its conclusive edge.

Suddenly, Jack's voice blurted into his ears from the screen.

"Seems this is the bio- gene subsidiary. A lot of off-record stuff down here. So its no wonder i didn't hear about it earlier. It seems to be high up on the hush-hush list, so stuff the powers that be would keep us from knowing about."

"Is that so," Robert said softly, concern still hanging onto his voice.

"You good there"

"Yes - yes" he replied.

"I know we're supposed to do these weekly catch ups while your deployed but i know it can get - well - lonely down there. So if you do ever want to talk more than feel free to send me a message."

"I - I appreciate that"

"That's what i'm here for. People ain't supposed to be alone too long and that goes double in your line of work. Now i know you probably prefer some alone time - since - you know - your family situaion - but be careful because its easy to go mad if you don't keep in touch."

"That's good to hear - Listen, I'm gonna grab some shut eye before reaching this place. I'll have the ship computer handle introductions, docking and also have it wake me once we arrive."

"Probably better if you're awak-"

"It'll only be a couple of minutes," robert interjected.

"Okay, just keep in touch."

Jack's face disappeared from the screen. Robert's fingers pressed several buttons on the dashboard and his other hand turned two switches. As they flipped to the opposite setting, a high frequency sound echoed loudly across the dimly lit cockpit, like a loud and ghostly whistle.

"Ship computer," he said firmly.

The winding metalic beams and rusty underwater rails stealthily passed the ship. An eerie screech of a sound followed and echoed into the cockpit, like cries of a dead foundry.

"Jesus, I need something to listen to," robert silently muttered.

"Ship computer" he repeated.

An bright orange figure on the cold black screen where Jack's freckled face had been walked forwards and saluted. It wore the standard company jumpsuit of commercial ship artificial intelligence. The beardless organge face smiled at him, its features sharply resembling an old maintenance operator or mechanic.

"Yes captain," it replied with a low and reassuring voice.

"You didn't respond before, Axel" said the captain, yawning again.

"Sorry captain," the figure took out a holographic cloth to wipe its hands.

"I did a system diagnostic check while being rebooted which delayed the interface boot time by a few seconds."

"No problem, could you play something calming from the list."

"On it captain."

A low sound from the suspended speaker began to play in the cockpit. The captain smirked, quickly recognizing theme song from the classical movie , jaws.

"Very funny," he said.

"I'm glad you think so captain," replied the AI.

As it finished its words, the music in the room changed to an upbeat rendition of Robert's favorite artist.

"Thank you. now James-"

The captain stopped his sentence mid way and, quickly, released the throttle. The ship stopped in its tracks.

He stared out the glass, his heart beating like a drum.

A man, suited in a full atmospheric diving suit and with a wielder in his right hand, stared at the cockpit, floating in the dark like a deer in headlights.

The expressionless mask which the man wore watched him intensely. The captain felt his hairs stand on end. He waved at the stranger suspended in the dark waters before his ship. He hoped he would wave back or at least give him some assurance of normalcy in this otherwise terrifying meeting.

A menacing light on the visor of the man's mask shined coldly, like the glow of a tigers eyes in the dark.

Slowly, the figure's free hand pointed into the distance at some rusted docking rails. Robert found the act less reassuring as a wave but at the very least it cemented the idea that he was heading in the right direction. Then, slowly, the stranger's body turned to the dark and floated off into the distance, disappearing into black waters.

"Captain," Axel asked.

"Yes - yes - Axel ," Robet said his voice shaking.

"I need you to take control of the ship. Poll the stations customs and docking comms and tell them that were part of the companies inspection and slavage division. The company credentials should work but wake me if they don't, I- i'm going to grab some shut eye."

"Auto pilot engaged and polling comms to begin docking of the ship," James said, "sleep well, captain."

Robert pulled himself up from the controls and walked to his quarters.

Now before his bed and a wall of photo's he had amassed while on deployment, he felt the wave of fatigue that had previously hit him.

His eyes drifted. He bent down to the bed and slayed comfortably on his back, his eyes faced up at the riveted ceiling. They closed and the dim lights of the room slowly drifted into nothing.

The sound of heavy breathing woke him from his slumber. He opened his eyes. Immediately, his blood turned cold as ice. Two masked figures loomed over him in his bed, their masks identical to the one worn by man in the water from before. They stared silently at him for a moment. The captain tried to yell for Axel but before he could release a word, he felt the hard end of a gun on his skull.

CHAPTER 2

Robert felt his kneess graze against a cold floor. His eyes awoke in slow monotonous blinks. Every openning revealed a new corner of a rusty rivetted tunnel. The place was wrapped in steel with the occasional see though glass to seperate them from black waters which chocked the planet.

Then after some time, his mind returned to full conciousness. A heavily circluar door loomed over him. Its center replaced with a small square of see through glass at standing height. He shot up in a cold sweat and rose to the door. It was sealed shut. He pounded the glass, his bruised hands beating its surface like a drum.

"Let me out!" he yelled.

A cloud of steam from some loose pipe condensed the window but through it he could see two silent figures. Slowly, the steam disappated. Those behind the glass looked at him. Their faces concealed in strange, old and alien-looking dive suits. Robert recognised them as the two that knocked him out. They turned to eachother with an almost agreed acceptance and then faced Robert again. The captain pounded the glass harder but the pair just watcvhed. Odd green markings stained the rusted surface of their helmets, their lines glowing under the dim light.

"Let me the fuck out!" Robert yelled.

They remained silent, staring without so much as a flinch at the man's demands.

Robert, despite his years of solitude beneath these waters, felt uneased by what he could only assume was a cold gaze behind their masks. They moved towards the glass and the captain slowly stepped away from the door. He turned to the hallway behind him. A tunnel, a dimly lit passage of steel grating and rivetted ceiling, faced him. An identical sealed door stood at its opposite end.

So you want me in there, he thought. Cautiously he stepped towards the door, still feeling the cold gaze of the watchers on his back. A burst of steam erupted from a ceiling pipe. Startled, he looked over his shoulder. Those behind the glass said nothing but he sense an sick and eager anticipation from their direction.

The sound of his steps squeaked and echoed in the hall, compounding uneasily with droplets of water and the occasional burst of a steam pipe.

Robert felt his heart drum in his chest. His mind, trying to understand why he had been so violentlpy brought here, swirled with unpleasant thoughts. Pirates looking to ransom or corporate espionage being the most frequent.

Now he faced the two meter high door. He looked above it where a cracked pressure gauge hanged beside the fainlty painted words decompression. A dim red light spun to the right of it in the corner.

Suddenly, the light, changing to bright green, stopped and the door creaked open. Robert prepared himself for whatever lurked behind it.

The squeeking doors stretched fruther and further apart until a pitch black room stood silently before the captain.

Confused, Robert turned back to the suits who wathced through the other door. Robotically, one of them gestured for him to go inside. Angry, Robert threw the neiest piece of loose metal at the door and cursed at them. He waited for them to respond but they gave no answer.

Then one of them stepped back, reaching out for something on the wall. Robert suspected a voice to boom on an intercom, some concerted effort to appeal to him to go inside.

But as the suits hand fell, Robert painfully dropped to his knees.

A surge of sharp electricty stabbed at his legs and body.

He spat and throffed from the pain, rolling on the electrified grating. The smell of burning flesh filled the hall. It became almost too unbearable to bare for him.

The pair behind the glass watched in silence. Their helmets eagerly pressed against the glass, waiting.

The captain squirmed and shifted in pain towarsd on the black room.

Confident that what lurked in there was no doubt worse, he knew that it was still his only relief from the pain and possibly death. He threw his body through the door with as much strength as he could muster, landing head first into the dark.

Immediatly, the pain subsided into a faint sting. The captain rose to his spasming legs. He barely glanced the suits before the door to the tunnel descended shut.

Suddenly, he felt another flavour of pain. A loud yell escaped his mouth. He fell to the ground. The door, now entirely sealed, rested on widenning pool of blood around the captains now destroyed toes.

Delerious, he swore he heard hushed voices while he fell into unconciousness from shock.