Once Upon The Stars (Updated 08-22-04)

[Atrocities]

XVII Revelations

Over the next thirty minutes Captain O’Connor’s team worked feverously to clear the ice from the corridor. Only a small section, about six meters or so had collapsed and his team was making good time. The fear was not another collapse, but rather how much oxygen was left in the main chamber. Their first order of business was to drill a hole through the ice in order to allow fresh air into the chamber. That was accomplished within the first fifteen minutes of the rescue operation.

In the mean time Doctors Mentor and Ramzies, using the Gravimetric Core Sampler, scanned the ice around the main chamber. What they discovered was startling. The ice had not only begun to warm in and around the chamber, but around the entire object.

“General Christopher, I estimate that the object will melt the surface ice over it within twenty six hours.” Said Doctor Mentor in what could only be described as a tone of utter despair.
“Why is it melting Doctor?” Tom asked more than a little annoyed.
“Our best guess Tom is that the ship itself is generating the heat.” Replied Doctor Ramzies.
“Bill we already know this. The General wants to know why.” Snapped Nina Smith over her COM. Tom was standing about ten feet from her and hadn’t considered that she had anything to offer to the conversation. He was wrong.
“Nina, we don’t know why it is generating the heat. We can only speculate.” Replied Doctor Mentor.
“Lets here your best guess then Doctor.” Tom said.
“I believe that something, perhaps our proximity to the vessel itself has triggered an automated response. This response has in turn activated some kind of system that is now attempting to free the ship from the ice.”
‘Oh that is just great,’ thought Tom to himself. “Captain how much more time is your rescue operation going to take?”
It took several seconds before O’Connor could respond. “About two hours give or take an hour.”
“General Ron Lindley here, the ice is a lot softer and our team is going through it rather rapidly. We have to be careful though as this ice is not like the ice we first excavated. That ice was compact and hard as steel, this ice is less dense and could give way to more collapse.”
“Thank you Mr. Lindley.” Replied Tom as he lowered the COM. Tom was not prone to fear attacks, but the prospect of being buried alive under a hundred tons of ice did not appeal to him, and he could feel the chambers walls beginning to close in on him. Nina Smith was trying to organize the Monitoring equipment; a useless task as most of it was damaged beyond repair and the equipment that was functional had no power to operate with.

Harris was just sitting on one of the durra pLastic chairs holding his rifle and staring at the entrance. Tom could tell that Harris was feeling the pressure the same as he was. They both wanted the hell out of this tomb before it became a permanent resting place.
Without warning Harris jumped to his feet and looked around the chamber then directly at Tom.
“Sir did you hear that?”
“Hear what Harris?”
“That popping sound?”
“I hear it too,” Replied Nina. Being trapped in an ice chamber with Harris had not caused her any undo stress, or at least none that Tom could see, but he knew she was uncomfortable in Harris’s presence.
“There it is again.” Commented Harris, as he moved toward what appeared to be a hatch on the alien ship. “It’s getting louder.” Tom could hear it now too, and was growing concerned.
“Harris your side arm.”
Harris looked over at Tom and without comment tossed him his pistol. Tom cleared the safety of the gun and raised it. He also lifted the COM to his mouth and spoke into it rather softly. “O’Connor we may have a new problem.” There was no response. The COM was dead. Nina checked hers and it too was dead.
The rapping sound grew louder and started to change pitch, it was now more like a whine the kind that a flash would make as it was building a charge.
“Harris get back away from that thing!” Harris did not have to be told twice, he moved away from the hatch, as did Nina Smith. Both moved over to where Tom was standing.
“The whine grew louder and louder and then the bulk head began to change. At first Tom could not believe his eyes, it was as if the metal had come alive, had some how began to alter its structure into a human form. Both he and Harris raised their weapons.
“Hold your fire Mr. Harris.”
“Sir with all due respect, if that thin moves so much as an inch toward me I will shoot.”
“And if he doesn’t I throw snow balls at it!” Replied Nina who was now hold snowballs in her left and right hand.
“Lets see what it does before we kill it people.”
The form began to change color it took on a more humanoid appearance before collapsing to its knees. Tom knew instantly what it was he was looking at. The form solidified into a humanoid body, covered in a deep black armored uniform. The uniform was like nothing he had ever seen before, but somehow it looked familiar.
“Who are you?” Tom asked out loud.
The humanoid form did not respond, instead it collapsed to the ground. In the distance the rapping sound began again. This time it was far more intense than before.

Tom moved over toward the humanoid and knelt down beside it. Harris was covering him and Nina was covering Harris. Tom rolled the form over and he could see what looked like release fasteners on the part of the armor that covered the humanoids face.
“Sir are you sure that’s safe?” Asked Harris in a concerned voice.
“Well soon see.” Replied Tom as he clicked the fasteners and removed the humanoids helmet reveling the face of a man, a human man.

Nina gasp and Harris’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
“Oh my god, he is human!”
“And he is still alive.”
“Sir, what in the hell kind of man is he?”
Tom took several seconds before he answered Harris’s question. Tom had never seen this man before, but he knew him and he knew what he was.
“This is a member of the assassins guild.”
Harris’s face instantly went from one of shock to one of utter hatred. He took several aggressive steps toward Tom and the unconscious body of the assassin.
“Step aside sir.” Harris barked.
Tom looked up at Harris and understood what it was he was planning on doing.
“Stand down Sergeant.” Tom ordered but Harris did not respond. “I said stand down Sergeant!” This time Tom rose to his feet and Harris leveled his pulse rifle at the man on the ground.
“He killed my trainee and four other good men sir, he deserves to die.”
“I said stand down Sergeant!”
“I can’t sir, I hav-” In the middle of a word there was a rather loud thonk and Harris’s eyes rolled upward and he collapsed to the ground. Standing behind him was Nina Smith holding one of those useless monitoring device wearing a wicked grin. “Oh that felt really good.”