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Following is a story I wrote - largely inspired by the movie "Alien".
Out in the deep expanse of space, an astronaut named Darren was on an important search-and-rescue mission. Also on board were his partner, Ellie, and their colleague, Carmen. Ellie and Darren were brilliant scholars who were done with College by the age of 16. They were both 20 years old when they set out on this mission. Carmen, on the other hand, was in her thirties, and only knew how to be a NASA engineer. Their job was to find out what happened to the crew of the S.S. Armada. A couple weeks prior, the Armada had set out to monitor a dying star. After a week in their space station, the crew was never heard from again.
The trip out wasn’t all that great. The three took the new ship, the FireRocket out for its maiden voyage. Tension was running high all the way there. Carmen was highly irritable, Darren was tenuously stressed, and Ellie was just excited to finally be going out into the Great Unknown. She was the first to spot the Armada, tethered to a small space station with an extra dock. Carmen expertly landed the ship, but only Ellie and Darren got out in their space suits. Someone needed to guard the FireRocket, and Carmen was elected that position; Forced, rather. She sat back in the pilot’s seat and glared at the two of them as they disappeared into the deep recesses of the space station.
The interior of the station had a lot of room down the hallways, but virtually no windows. It was the perfect place for a claustrophobic like Darren. He and Ellie split up in opposite directions, each equipped with a small radio, in case something went wrong. Carmen had one as well. As he was walking, Darren couldn’t help thinking about the missing crew. He thought that they may not find them, or that they were floating out in space, stuck in an endless loop, never to return again. Darren shut his eyes against that image. He fought to control his breathing and calm himself down. He took off his helmet, and subsequently smacked into something solid. His eyes snapped open to reveal a large, metal door staring back at him. He radioed to Ellie, who after a few minutes, came sprinting around the corner.
Back out in the FireRocket, Carmen sat reading a magazine. She resented the fact that she – the one that flew them out there – was missing out on all the action. She hated those new kids who got to go out in space their first year working for NASA. It had been 10 years until she herself went out for the first time. Somewhere deep in her subconscious, she hoped the two of them died.
The metal door was unlocked, so Darren pushed it open. The room was pitch black and had the harsh smell of blood resonating from it. Neither of them had a flashlight, so Darren felt along the wall for a light switch. He found one and slowly flipped it. Ellie screamed and Darren felt a wave of nausea wash over him. The sight in front of them was too surreal to seem like reality.
There were ten human beings strewn about the room, which by the looks of it seemed to be some sort of laboratory. All the humans were dead, and covering the floor were fleshy, bodily organs and an unhealthy amount of blood. The whole crew of the armada had been slaughtered. Darren braced himself and stepped into the room. He had no idea what to do, besides puking, which he held back. He walked to the far side of the room and knelt down to examine one of the men. Ellie took her helmet off and left it outside the door, but stayed put. Darren beckoned to her to come in. She was reluctant at first, but after a slight hesitation, she walked in. Darren smiled at her, and then looked at the lifeless carcass lying by his feet.
The guy had a permanent look of shock imprinted upon his face. His space suit was drenched in blood. A long, metal pole was shoved deep into his brain, and his whole body was covered in puncture wounds decorated with dried blood. The man’s abdomen had been slashed clean through, spilling his intestines over the floor. Darren didn’t realize he was shaking, until Ellie touched him on the shoulder. “You think we should tell Carmen what we found?” Darren’s reply was uncharacteristically quiet. “Yeah, the Radios are in the hallway.” Ellie nodded and ran towards the door. She was nearly there when she slipped on some guy’s colon and slammed into the ground.
The metal door swung shut. Alarm entered Darren’s mind and he sprinted to the door, yanking at the handle…except there was none. There was no lock, and no way to get the door open again from this side. They were trapped. Darren fell to his knees in dismay. Ellie tried to apologize, but Darren told her it wasn’t her fault and that everything would be okay. That didn’t reassure her. The look of detriment deepened on her face. Darren slipped his arm around her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.
A sound pierced the air…a loud ripping sound.
The two slowly turned around to see something emerge from the chest of one of the astronauts. Darren had been there just minutes before. He and Ellie pressed up against the door, staring in horror at something they had only ever seen in movies. As it uncurled itself, this thing – this alien – stood as tall as an average human being. It had scaly, olive-colored skin. Its long, gangly arms extended into blood-stained razor sharp claws, and its feet ended in velociraptor-like talons. The alien’s blood-shot eyes darted around the room and locked onto Ellie. The look of pure hunger in its eyes pierced the inner workings of Ellie’s mind and numbed her into immobilization.
The alien started to approach her, retrieving the metal pole from the astronaut’s head as it went. Darren instinctively jumped in front of Ellie, shielding her with his outstretched arms. The alien stopped for a second, but continued on, like the Terminator fulfilling its mission. Darren turned his head around to look at Ellie, saying that he would do anything to protect her. He was cut off mid-sentence as an excruciating pain overwhelmed him. He winced, tasting blood in his mouth, and looked down. Ellie followed his gaze.
A huge gash spread across Darren’s abdomen and the metal pole was shoved through him. The pole was just inches from Ellie’s body. Bright red blood pulsed heavily from the wound. The alien ripped the pole out of Darren, the young man’s entire intestinal tract skewered at the end of it. He wobbled for a second, and collapsed on the ground. Ellie, though numbed with shock, bent down to look at him.
As Darren laid there, life draining from him with every passing second, Ellie looked into his eyes; his light green and hers bright blue. A single thought transferred from one to the other without any words exchanged. They loved each other. Ellie closed her eyes, and grabbed his hand, tears running down her cheeks.
Something warm and wet splattered against her blonde hair. Ellie opened her eyes to see that the alien had slashed through Darren’s neck, decapitating him. He had a permanent smile etched across his pallid face.
Ellie tore her eyes from his dead body, just as the alien took a swing at her. She ducked, narrowly missing the whiplash of solid metal. The creature didn’t give up and attacked her once more. She only had time to get up before the metal pole smashed against her ankle, knocking her back down. A searing pain shot up her leg and reverberated throughout her entire body. Ellie tried to stand up, but cried out in pain. With her broken ankle, she was a wounded animal and the alien went in for the kill.
As the creature stepped towards her, Ellie froze with fear. She stared death full in the face, as the alien raised its arm to strike her. Metal filled her vision and she shut her eyes, feeling the sting of death … that didn’t come. She opened her eyes just slightly to see that the alien had stopped mere inches from her face. Its feral eyes darted around the room, only to focus on something in the corner.
That was when Ellie noticed a corrugated metal box. She held her breath as the alien stalked over to the box, dropping the pole on its way. Ellie sparked an idea. Bracing herself against the pain, she crawled over to the pole and picked it up. Then, she tried to stand. Without uttering a single sound, she forced herself to her feet. Ellie held the pole in both hands, about ready to attack, when the alien turned to face her. She nearly dropped the pole when she saw what the creature held in its hands.
Ellie’s eyes widened as she took in the sight of the onyx-colored sphere. She knew what it was and she knew what it meant for her. NASA had been developing a new kind of bomb with a silent ticking device on it. The bomb was supposed to work, even in space, to blow things up that didn’t need to be there. This device must have been the astronauts’ final product. And it was about to go for a test run.
The alien set the bomb down, a malicious smile spreading across the creature’s face. Ellie snapped out of her trance and looked around. She couldn’t escape, nor did she have the slightest idea of what to do. Trembling, she limped over to the alien and began slamming the pole against the alien’s skin repeatedly, to no avail. The creature scratched Ellie across the face with its claws, sending her sprawling to the ground. She reached up to the side of her face to feel a huge gash.
Looking around, Ellie spotted a lab station under which she could hide. She crawled over to it and hunkered down underneath. She pulled a drawer open to create a makeshift door. The whole thing was made of metal. Taking one last look at Darren’s body, she said good-bye and pulled the door down to cover her. It was the best she could do.
3…2…1…
The lab station came crashing down on top of Ellie, as tremendous heat enveloped her body. She heard an explosion that nearly deafened her. She heard the blood-curdling scream from the alien, as she was propelled forward, gripping the lab station as it rocketed towards the earth. Ellie felt herself falling, and her last conscious thought was Darren’s smile.
Back out in the FireRocket, Carmen stared in horror as a giant fireball hurdled straight for her. She picked up the radio, and muttered, “Houston, we have a problem.” And in the blink of an eye, the FireRocket and the Armada both blew up, the pieces scattered across the universe.
 SamWeiki · Mon Nov 11, 2013 @ 04:12am · 0 Comments |
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