We did not, however, take off our helmets in that room to breath the air. The lab analysis didn't pick up any obvious toxins, but there were tiny, unidentifiable particulates in the samples, some organic; it wasn't worth the risk.
We could deny it no longer---this region of the alien ship was almost certainly built or adapted for human habitation. Proper gravity, atmosphere, temperature. Far too much for coincidence. At the same time, we still didn't doubt that the starship was alien, and had been constructed by alien "hands." The driving question now---one we feared would never be answered----was how this section had come to be built this way. When, by whom, and to what purpose? None of us had any ideas.
I was inside the alien ship with Leppink and Urbas. As I stepped into the circular chamber with its diffuse blue light, I was once again reminded of the circular room on Antioch, gateway to nightmare. I struggled to dispel the resurgent tremors of memory, the fleeting but horrifying images of metal hooks and gleaming bones.575Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfKAGLudHAt
Urbas and Leppnik both took a circuitous route down the steps, across the lower level, then back up the steps again. I stayed on the upper level, followed the perimeter to the left, and met them at the first door. Nobody had gone through it yet.
The mechanism seemed straightforward---a metal handle in the door itself long enough to be gripped with two hands. I tried pulling up; then, when it wouldn't budge, I pushed down. It moved a quarter turn and stopped.
I'd been expecting an automated movement since nearly every other door in the ship worked that way, but there was nothing.
"Try pulling it open," Leppink suggested.
I did. The door swung slowly, haltingly toward me, as if its hinges had become rusted stuck; although it sounded faint and distant, I could just hear a muted squealing with each scraping movement, which surprised me until I remembered we were now in an atmosphere, where sound would propagate. Light angled out of the new opening, a brighter yellowish light cutting through the blue. I kept tugging at the door, jerking it until it was completely open; a high, wide shaft of light sliced across the circular room, spreading and diffusing as it reached down to the lower level, up the steps and washed across the opposite wall. Beyond the door was a short passage that angled off to the right.
The light frightened me. For weeks we had been exploring what appeared to be a dead, abandoned alien starship. No signs of life, no signs of machinery still functioning. Nothing. Then we reached a section with Earth-normal gravity. Soon after that we had pressurized atmosphere; more than that, it was being maintained, somehow, at a habitable temperature; then some strange, blue light; and finally this---full, day-like illumination. Too much.
I looked at my companions and noticed that all three of us, consciously or not, had moved out of the path of the light and were well back into the shadows.
"I don't like this," I whispered.
"Neither do I," Urbas replied.
"Why are you whispering?" Leppink asked, though she, too, whispered.
"Sound carries," Urbas answered. "Didn't you hear that when Pavel was pulling the door open?"
"I wasn't sure what it was. I forgot about sound. You think our voices would carry through the helmets?"
"Probably not," I said, "but I'm not taking any chances."
"You think somebody, or something, is in there?" Leppink asked.
"It's not too damn likely," Urbas said, "but I'm with Pavel on this. We can't take chances." She unstrapped her hand phaser and gripped it. "I didn't think I'd ever need this. Still hope we don't."
I backed farther away from the door, still keeping to the shadow but gaining a greater view into the short passage. Nothing moved, nor were there shadows of any kind. Now I could see that the wall was off-white streaked with soot, or paint the color of soot. Down low on the wall, near the floor, was a raised brown smear. The first real signs of imperfection we'd seen.
"I'll go in," I eventually said. "Both of you stay out of here until I clear it."
Neither woman protested. This was no time for phony heroics.
I set the lantern on the floor beside me. I wasn't going to carry my stunner, either; I wanted both hands free. I stepped into the swath of light.
The sounds of my companions' breathing seemed terribly loud, and I was struck by the irrational fear that they would drown out any warning sounds. I hesitated, then stepped through the doorway.
I stopped for a few moments when I was completely inside, waiting, then continued. As I passed the streaks on the walls, I looked more closely at them, but I couldn't determine whether they were soot or burn marks or just paint. I knelt beside the brown smear---which, frankly, looked like dried excrement---but again, it was impossible to know what it was.
The passage took a 90-degree angle to the right, then opened out into a large room or wide passage, but I had no idea yet how large. Once again I hesitated, keeping back so that I could not be seen, which also meant that I could not see much either.
I took a step into the short, angled section of passage and stopped. In the far left corner---the only corner I could see, and which was ten or twelve meters away---was a pile of torn and rumpled cloth. In the wall nearby was a darker area that might have been an opening or doorway; my angle was too severe to tell.
Two more steps, and I was around the corner, fully inside the room.
A wild, flailing dark form lunged at me. It struck me at chest height, knocking me off my feet and onto my back with a jolt; my head slammed against the foor. Darkness covered my helmet and I cried out, some sound without words. I tried to grab the thing on top of me. I couldn't see what it was. It squirmed and fought at my arms and hands, pounded at my suit without much effect. I tried rolling to the side and a slice of light came through for a moment. I thought I heard a faint cry or screech; the pounding shifted to my helmet, jarring my head. The darkness over my helmet shifted away for a second, but all I saw were jerking flashes of what seemed to be limbs and claws and fur before the darkness returned.575Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ6lSSHqjKa
"Urbas!" I yelled. "Leppink!"
The creature was long and heavy, and I couldn't get a grip on it, couldn't roll it off of me. I felt like an insect stuck on my back with a weight holding me down, my legs fluttering helplessly above me.
"It's a woman!" Urbas's voice cut through her harsh breathing---she'd been running. "Help me, Rube!"
The darkness and the weight both lifted for me. I wasn't sure what was happening. My helmet was clear, but my vision wasn't right---silver glitter drifted in front of my eyes, and everything else was blurry. I tried to sit up, saw a tangle of pressure suits, long, whipping hair, layers of fabric, naked feet and hands, but everything began to spin around me and I lay back down.
"God damn it, she's....strong!" Leppink hissed between ragged breaths.
I thought I could hear Urbas grunting; in the middle of it she managed to ask me if I was all right.
"I think so," I said. I closed my eyes, but the spinning only increased. "If I don't puke all over myself." Eyes open again, I tried to focus on the ceiling above me. There was another dark smear almost directly overhead, and I concentrated on it, keeping my head and body still. The smear functioned as an anchor, and my vision slowly stabilized; I tried to ignore the movement in the corner of my sight---Urbas and Lappink struggling with the woman.
As my vision settled down, so did the struggle, and Leppink's cursing slowed to a trickle.
I finally managed to sit up, shifting around so I could lean back against the wall. Urbas and Leppink had their arms wrapped around the woman, who was in turn wrapped in layers of cloaks and robes, and all three of them were on their knees, like one big tangled knot. The woman's hair was gray and long and stringy, and her head was bent so I couldn't see her face. For the moment, at least, she was resting.
"Who's on the monitor?" I asked. "Is anyone watching this?"
"We're all here," said Doyle. "We're on your camera, Pavel. Sulu and Garcia are already suiting up. They should be in the ship in a matter of minutes. We figure an hour to reach you if they push it."
"Gardner, are you there?"
"Yes."
"I want you to go with them. We're probably going to have to sedate her to get her out of here."
"On my way."
"One more thing, in case you've forgotten. We'll need a suit for her."
There was a long pause, then Doyle said, "We hadn't thought of it. I guess we didn't think about bringing her out."
"We're not going to leave her in here."
"No. Okay, we'll send a suit with them."
The woman quieted down and kept her head bowed so her face couldn't be seen. I was still shaky, and my heartbeat hadn't slowed much; my throat burned with each breath.
I looked around the room, which was nearly twenty meters long. In the far right corner, on the floor, was a thick pad piled high with blankets, clothes, some metal bowls, a box, scraps of paper, and other things too lost in folds of material to identify. In the other far corner was another, smaller pile of clothes. Beside the pile was a tall cubicle with a round canister set in the floor. In the middle of the wall between the two piles was an open doorway leading into a long corridor.
"What next?" Urbas finally asked.
"I wish we could talk to her," I said. "Maybe if she heard a human voice....Maybe I should just take off my helmet and risk it. She's been breathing this air, and she's still alive."
"You can talk to her, Pavel." It was Brightharp. "We forget because we never need it, but there's an external speaker you can activate. It'll also activate a mike so you can hear her."
I had forgotten. The speaker was small, built into the helmet collar. I fumbled around until I found the stud that activated it. I started to get to my feet, but still feeling a little dizzy, I worked my way toward the others on my hands and knees. The woman still wasn't moving. Not wanting to frighten her any further, I stopped before I got too close.
"Can you understand me?" I said.
The old woman went crazy again. She screeched and lunged forward, and I could see her face now---lined and gaunt---and her maddened eyes glared deep into my own. She lunged again, then sprang straight upward, breaking free of Urbas and Leppink. I didn't have time to brace myself before she struck, again knocking me over.
"Stop!" I said, trying to hold onto her. "We don't mean you any harm!"
The old woman didn't stay on me. She scrambled to her feet just as Urbas and Leppink got to theirs, then she ran past me, hit the wall, rebounded and swung around the corner and down the short passage toward the circular room.
"Damn!" Leppink swore.
"She can't really hurt us much---" Urbas began.
"Speak for yourself," I broke in.
"Sorry. You know what I mean. But I'm afraid we're going to have to hurt her to bring her back to the shuttle."
"Shit, maybe we should just leave her here," Leppink said.
I was fairly sure she was kidding. The two of them helped me to my feet. All that remained of the vertigo was a vague sense of imbalance, but it wasn't too bad.575Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12LqkhypAj
"Let's go after her," I said.575Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgSHVEGmC1c
That turned out to be more difficult than I would have thought. When we entered the circular room, she was nowhere to be seen. I checked behind the door, but she wasn't there. We crossed the room (I still felt uneasy descending the steps to the lower, center level, and was relieved when we climbed back up), then entered the airlock.575Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrcniEdQP1A
"Where the hell did she go?" Leppink said. "Not out of the airlock."
"No," Urbas agreed. "First, I'm certain the other door wouldn't open unless this one was sealed first, and we would have noticed the air rushing out even if it did."
"Then where?" There is nowhere else."
"The other door," I said. "In the blue room. The door we haven't opened yet."575Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ71HjsDH17x
Back into the circular room, following the wall to the right this time until we reached the door. This one, too, had a long metal handle. But after we pushed the handle down a quarter turn, we could not get the door to open. We tried it with two of us on the handle, Leppink pushing off the wall with one leg, her boot planted firmly against it right next to the door. Finally it budged, but with far more resistance than the other door. With the external mike activated, I could hear the loud squealing it made with each pull.575Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdZHMDdodu
After we'd managed to get it open a few centimeters, it wouldn't go any further. Bright light slashed through the opening, but we couldn't see very far beyond the door---just enough to see that there was a similar passage.
"She's strong," Urbas said, "but not that strong." She shook her head. "She couldn't have opened this door."
Urbas was right, unless the door had been easy to open at first and the old woman had jammed something into it after she'd gone through. We all agreed it wasn't likely.
"Then were is she?" Leppink asked.
Father O'Heron spoke over the open channel. "There are cabinets in the airlock," she said. "For suits or something. From what I remember, some of them might have been big enough to hide in."
We headed back to the airlock. When we were all inside, we sealed the door; we weren't going to give her anyplace to go.
The old woman was in the second cabinet we checked. She came flying out at us, screeching again, but this time we were prepared. She was still strong and wild, but there were three of us and it wasn't long before we subdued her. I held her from behind, pinning her arms to her side, my hands gripping one another tightly; my artificial arms would not tire, although my shoulders eventually would.
"We mean you no harm," I said softly. "Do you understand me?"
Her only response was a pained, high keening, which gradually faded and she let her head hang, as if she was unconscious. As before, she had ceased to struggle.
" Vy govorite po -russki? " I tried next. I didn't speak Russian very well, but it wouldn't take much if the old woman did. Still no response.
"We've got to get her out of here before the others arrive," Urbas reminded me. "So they can use the airlock to come through." She went to the door and opened it.
Leppink picked up the old woman's legs, bending the knees, and we carried her into the circular room. Urbas came through behind us, then spun the wheel and sealed the door shut.
"K’art’ul ?" Urbas tried. "Katikati?"
Nothing. The old woman hung in my arms like a newly dead corpse, tangled filthy hair covering her face. I thought she'd passed out, or fallen asleep. But then she began to softly weep. The sound was so quiet, almost a whimper. I doubted Urbas and Leppinki could hear her. My heart ached for her. I held the woman tightly to me, and we waited in silence for Gardner and the others to arrive.
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