Page 9 of Alien's Eternal Mate
I rested my hand on the side. I didn’t know why, but the pods caused me great anxiety.
“If they are, then whatever was inside died a long time ago. There’s zero energy going into them, and they aren’t cold enough for cryogenic preservation. Just forget the pods, our objective is beyond this chamber in what we think is a control room.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from the pods. I couldn’t help but feel they were sinister, somehow.
We entered the maze of towers. I kept my compad on constant scan mode, though no one seemed to share my anxiety.
“Relax, Doctor Reed,” Caraway said. “There have already been several teams penetrating this far and further, with no ill effects.”
“How large were those other teams?”
“Not more than three to five.”
I groaned with the agony of his stupidity.
“And you didn’t think that there might be a different reaction because of a larger number of interlopers in this facility? Especially when they bring weapons?”
I gestured at a vakutan soldier and Caraway shrugged.
“This facility is older than humanity itself, Doctor. It has yet to cause us any harm, including the hundreds of years of a moon colony.”
My compad chirped and I grimaced as I turned the screen around to show him.
“Then why are the pods suddenly heating up? Four degrees in just the time it has taken you to read the screen.”
The procession stopped. Riel looked to Buzos.
“Are we in danger, Doctor?”
“There’s no reason to believe we are. Dr. Reed is correct, the pods are heating up, but that doesn’t mean they’re malignant.”
“Everything I see here is consistent with a security protocol, Doctor Buzos.” I shook the compad at him. “Perhaps you think I am racist, and perhaps you are right, but I am not wrong about these readings. We need to vacate, immediately.”
I moved toward the mining lift, but Riel stepped into my path.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said coldly, but how his yellow eyes blazed with hate.
“Doctor Reed, please come along,” Buzos said. “Perhaps the answers we seek are in the control room.”
“Or perhaps only death awaits us there.”
I cast one last, forlorn look at the mining lift before it passed out of sight. I turned my gaze forward as we navigated the maze of pods. After several minutes of walking I could not say for certain which way the mining lift lay.
No point in trying to run, now. Just have to hope I’m wrong. Ironic.
“Doctor Buzos, I think you are leading us in circles. I am certain we have been here before.”
Dr. Kight put his hand on one of the pods and then removed it, clearly alarmed.
“And the pods are almost too hot to touch. As much as it pains me, I think that perhaps we are in danger here?—”
The pods glowed with a bright, somehow sickly light. A clawed hand impossibly thrust out from the metal without making a hole or so much as a seam. I jumped back, eyes transfixed on the mix of machinery and muscle fiber.
“Something is coming out.”
“Soldiers!” Riel bellowed. “Go hot!”
A high pitched whine reached my ears as the Vakutan powered up their formidable weaponry. I stepped further back as the creature trapped in the pod continued to drag itself out, bit by bit. It had at least four limbs with manipulating appendages at the end. We had yet to see its face.