Ghosts of Ophidian (7 page)

Conner fell back against the railing, then looked down along the
length of the building before him. There were thousands of these beings lined up in these glass-fronted coffins or showcases just on this level alone. McKenzie gasped as he was now looking at the same thing that Conner had discovered. The others quickly joined them.

“There
must be millions of them,” Crossway muttered, “Millions upon millions!”

“
It looks like they’re plugged into the ship itself,” Roberts said, pointing to the silver metal cables that appeared to be drilled into both sides of the alien’s skull and extended out to the sides of the cell.

“I didn’t notice those
before,” Conner said, leaning closer, “It really does look like the cables enter into their skulls.”

“Maybe it’s to monitor their vitals
,” Crossway said, “Though if they’re frozen, would they even have vitals?”

“
Assuming they’re frozen and not…” McKenzie began, then looked up toward the ceiling, “Are these… these
‘people’
alive? Is your cargo alive?”

“Yes, but I cannot confirm
this anymore,” the AI replied.

“Why can’t y
ou confirm it?” McKenzie asked.

“Data unavailable,” it replied.

“How long has it been unavailable to you?” he asked.

“
Data unavailable,” it replied again, “But mission completed.”

“I don’t think we’re goi
ng to get anywhere,” Conner stated.

Conner turned and looked at the building behind them. He could get a better estimate as to how many beings were stored in the buildings from this vantage point.
He noted that there were metal stairwells further aft that descended all the way to the bottom level.

“This is
almost frightening. What if they came here with plans to take over our planet?” Conner stated, “There must be hundreds of millions of them. Even if they came here to live peacefully among us, we couldn’t support such a sudden increase in population.”

“This could be representative of an entire race,” McKenzie said, “Maybe they had to flee from their planet for some reason. Perhaps this is their ark.”

“I hope you’re not starting to pity them,” Lentz said, “Beneath those tentacle mouths could be needle-like piranha teeth which they would use to tear us apart.”

“
Nice, Doctor Lentz. Thanks for the visual,” Roberts said, leaning over the railing, “I’d like to take a closer look at those computer terminals down at the bottom level. See if I could find a way to tap into them.”

McKenzie joined Roberts
at the railing. He tried to follow the direction of his gaze.

“What
computer terminals?” McKenzie asked.

Roberts pointed down at the little
room that jutted out of the front of the building at the bottom level.

“What makes you think that
room houses a computer,” Conner asked, examining the porch-like structure down below.

“All those
wires heading into the roof, not to mention the enormous fan mounted to the roof that is most likely blowing into the space below,” he replied, “My wrist terminal says it’s sixty-one degrees Fahrenheit in here, yet there is a fan spinning down there most likely cooling the room where the cables lead.”

“Hmm…” Conner said, “McKenzie, now that we’ve assessed
there to be no imminent danger from the beings on this ship, would it be okay to split up? I’d like to go down there and see the computer space also. Besides, Roberts may need me to blow the door open.”

“I
really don’t think it would be wise to split up,” Lentz said.

McKenzie stepped
away from the railing and returned his attention to the stoic creature behind the glass.

“How long do you think you two would be?” McKenzie asked,
mesmerized by the being in front of him, “I’d like to stay up here and try to gain access to one of these cells. And I’m sure Crossway would like to get some tissue samples also if possible.”

“We shouldn’t split up, McKenzie. What if someone gets hurt o
r ends up locked in a room?” Lentz said, “There will most likely be future exploratory missions and they can check out the lower levels.”

“We’ll still be in direct contact through our communication links,” McKenzie said, “How long
do you think you’d be, Steele?”

“Well, just
navigating down thirty stories in this bulky suit will probably take fifteen minutes. Then fifteen or twenty minutes coming back up,” Conner said, “I’d guess no more than an hour.”

McKenzie looked
down at his digital time display, then nodded to Conner.

“No matter what you discover or h
ow important you believe it is, you need to be back up here within an hour,” McKenzie said, “We really can’t afford to risk being split up longer than necessary.”

“You got it,” Conner replied.

Conner patted Roberts on the shoulder and gestured toward the stairs several yards away.

Eleven

It ended up being easier than they though
t to navigate the stairwell in their awkward spacesuits. They reached the bottom in less than eleven minutes. On the way down, they listened to some arguments that had started between the others as they discussed the morality of potentially killing an innocent alien in order to study it. Ultimately, it was agreed upon that it served the purpose of their mission in order to verify if the cargo was indeed alive and being stored in something of a cryogenic stasis. If the beings were truly alive, their presence in orbit still posed something of a threat to the human race.

Conner and Roberts
proceeded past a few dozen alien cells on the ground level and quickly located the room at the end of the building.

“Do you have the equipment you would need to tap into their system?” Conner asked as they
searched for a door.

“Yes, assuming I can figure out what everything is. Obviously tho
ugh, I wouldn’t know how to decipher any of the alien language,” Roberts said, nodding toward a door along the forward wall of the room, “But if they can learn our language by tapping into our shuttle’s computer and our communication units, I figure if I copy enough from their hard drives, I could eventually learn theirs. It may take me a couple years, but I’m sure it would be possible.”

Conner tapped the door with his fist,
resounding in a dull thud. He then stepped back and kicked the door, knocking it inward while it still remained on its hinges.

“What, no fireworks?” Roberts asked.

“The door sounded like it was made of plastic and wasn’t as sturdy as the others. I was right,” Conner stated.

Roberts lead the way into the room, discovering quickly that it
truly was something of a computer room. Nothing looked even vaguely familiar to Conner, but Roberts was quickly able to identify some of the alien counterparts to their own computer systems.

Conner glanced around the room curiously while Roberts inspected different
portions of what looked like giant machinery to Conner. Nowhere did he see what resembled a keyboard or computer screen no matter how alien. David set his bag down and sifted through the contents. He pulled out a typical laptop and turned it on before searching his bag again. A moment later, he attached a long cable to his computer that led to several metal alligator clips.

“How are you going to hack into this
thing?” Conner asked.

“Their computer is definitely humming with life and it’s drawing a lot of power. That’s this baby right here,” he said, patting the giant grey box with no features beyond that of two tiny red lights, “If this
beast is being used to just maintain the current status of a million sleeping aliens, it shouldn’t be even half as busy as it appears to be. With a little luck, I should be able to tap into the outgoing cable.”

He reached over his head
and placed the laptop on top of the grey machine.

“Can you give me a boost? I need to get on top of this thing to get to the cable,” he said.

Conner assisted Roberts onto the machine, then felt a little useless while he waited. He looked around the room, mindlessly passing his gaze across the nameless machinery. He could still hear the conversation between Crossway, Lentz, and McKenzie. Several minutes prior, they managed to shatter one of the glass doors in order to gain access to one of the aliens. Their initial findings reported the cell’s interior temperature to be thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that the aliens were indeed being kept in an almost frozen state. Crossway listened to the alien’s chest and stomach region and located what she determined to be a heartbeat, so the aliens were verified as essentially alive.

Conner continued pacing around the room as he listened in on their findings. As he neared the corner of the room, he noticed something
highly unusual with one of the cables that led from the ceiling down into the floor.

“Uhh… I think
I found something,” Conner said, taking hold of the thick cable near the spot where it was badly frayed, “Someone sawed through this cable and it looks like it wasn’t easy work. They struggled with it and realigned the saw more than twice.”

“Really?”
Roberts asked, peering over the edge of the machine, “Could it have been a repair job?”

“It looks like it was done in an expedited manner,” Conner replied, “Like
maybe the person was in a hurry.”

“Yeah, but what I’m saying is, do you think there might have been an electrical fire or something that caused them to have to do an emergency bypass?” he asked.

“Well, that could always be the case, but this still appears to be too hasty of a cut and the burn marks on the insulation suggests the cable was still live while it was being cut,” he replied.

“So you’re suggesting sabotage,” Lentz said through Conner’s
earpiece.

“It looks like that to me,” Conner replied, “I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.”

“Where does the cable lead?” Lentz asked.

Conner looked up at the ceiling again, then down at the floor. He turned
toward the door and thought for a moment.

“It comes from the roof with
all the other cables, but it doesn’t lead to any of the equipment in this room. It sinks straight into the floor,” he replied, heading to the door, “I’m going to check one of the other computer rooms. Will you be alright for a minute, Roberts?”

“I’m just fine,” he replied, “I’ve got a connection but I can’t filter this
junk for the life of me.”

Conner slipped out of the room and headed for the computer room of the next building
. He was able gain entry into the room with as much ease as he did the previous one. He made his way to the corner of the room and immediately discovered the same cable cut in almost the exact same spot.

“This one is cut too,” he said, shaking his head, “What purpose would this serve?”

“It depends on who it was that cut the cable,” Roberts said in his earpiece, “Come back here for a moment, Steele. You might want to see what I’m getting here in this feed.”

“I’m on my way,” he muttered, leaving the room.

He turned to look toward the next computer room, then just when he was about to turn away, he noticed something odd. Behind the computer room of the next building were three open alien cells. The glass doors to the cells were actually open outward on their hinges.

Conner drew the
P90 out of his leg holster and chambered a round. He started toward the three cells, studying his surroundings to make sure no one was around.

“I’ve got some open cells down here. There are three of them and we’re not talking just
empty cells here. The doors have been left wide open,” Conner said, “You may want to have a weapon ready.”

“This is just great,” Lentz said sarcastically, “I thought we were safe.”

“So did I,” Conner said, approaching the open doors.

He peered into the first “coffin” and noted that it was indeed empty and the two cables that attached to the alien’s skull were lying limp at the sides. He lifted one of the cables an
d saw a half-inch metal plug that jutted out of the end which must have literally inserted into the creature’s brain. He shivered at such a thought.

“What’s going
on down there?” McKenzie asked, “I don’t like this one bit.”

“These cables actually plug into their heads
,” Conner said, dropping the cable, “That’s disgusting.”

“Any evidence on how long ago they woke
up?” McKenzie asked, “Are we talking minutes? Hours? Days?”

Conner noticed something unusual
in that moment about the cable he had been holding. Hidden behind a small piece of fabric that matched the black tone of the coffin walls was what appeared to be one of those digital stopwatches that his track coach in high school used to carry. This object was yellow and it was wired to the cable in a very amateur way, using tape and what appeared to be some hasty soldering.

He dropped the item and looked into the next cell. It too had a yellow “stopwatch” dangling from the cable on the right, covered by a sliver of black fabric.

He rushed down a few cells and pressed his face against the glass of one of the occupied cells. The cables had nothing dangling from them, not even a piece of black fabric. He checked the next cell and then the next. The only cells that had the yellow devices were the ones that were now empty.

“Hello, Steele,” McKenzie said, “We need an update
before Lentz starts shooting at shadows up here.”

“I think the three who used these cells had added some kind of override
switch. There are objects added to the brain cables on these three cells,” Conner said, “And no, I can’t tell how long they’ve been empty.”

“Well, then we’re going on with the assumption that there are three aliens loose on this ship
right now,” McKenzie stated, “I want you two to return immediately.”

“I can’t!” Roberts said, “I’ve already filtered this to the point where I’m getting some heavy alien code. There’s a lot of video going through these cables, but I can’t decode any of it.”

“Record it and review it later, Roberts,” McKenzie stated firmly, “I’m not comfortable with being split up anymore.”

“Don’t you get it, Doc?” Roberts said, “We don’t have any aliens on the loose. They probably died centuries ago.”

“No, I don’t get it,” McKenzie said, “I’m giving both of you an order.”

Conner yanked one of the yellow devices off one of the brain cables and shoved it into his pocket.

“We hear you, McKenzie,” Conner replied, “I’ll get Roberts and we’ll be heading your way. You’ve got about thirty seconds to download what you can, Roberts.”

Roberts
’ reply came only as an exasperated groan.