Alpha Rising (5 page)

Lynch mumbled, “This ain’t right. This can’t
be happenin’.”

Surrounded by rubble, Bach felt around the
floor for something to grasp to pull himself up. Teetering as he
stood, he lost his directional bearings in the pitch darkness.
“G.R., you’re at aft cabin. Say something to guide me through the
dark.”

“
Here … walk toward my
voice.” He waited. “But don’t come all the way. I’m farther than
the supply hold area.”

Bach felt his way through
the debris following G.R.’s lead, and found the emergency supply
hold. He yanked and pulled on the damaged door to get it open, then
passed his hands over a jumble of objects inside. He knew by the
shape of a handle that he’d found a lantern flashlight, but he
couldn’t free it, so he switched it on to see how to get it out.
Yellow beams jutted at odd angles from beneath the clutter and the
sudden burst of light in absolute blackness momentarily blinded
him. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed something odd.
Is my mind playing tricks?
The lantern’s beam had the appearance of smoke swirling around
the cabinet.
Maybe it’s a G-LOC
effect
. When he felt a puff of smoke drift
across his face, he knew it wasn’t his imagination. An uneasy
feeling stirred in his gut, but it came with a tinge of curiosity.
The swirling light rays flickered for a moment, then pulled
together in the center of the cabinet and transformed into a yellow
mass that throbbed in and out like a beating heart. Little by
little, the clustered light formed a three-dimensional sphere
suspended in midair. It took on the shape of a man’s face with
symmetrical features and peculiar copper-colored eyes that shone
with an eerie glow, like a dog’s when a light beam hits them in the
dark. As Bach watched, the irises pulsed in and out with a hypnotic
effect so strong he couldn’t turn away. He grew weaker by the
second, as if his life force were funneling out. He couldn’t stop
it, and he couldn’t speak.

The otherworldly face’s hypnotic eyes never
wavered as his lips parted and the words, “Follow me,” rolled from
a glistening silver tongue.

Bach’s heart pounded so
hard the fabric of his jumpsuit moved in and out with each
beat.
Keep your head
, he told himself.
Breathe in,
breathe out.

“
What are you doing, Bach?”
Deni yelled. “Hurry up! Faith still hasn’t answered.”

The face dissipated, leaving the
flashlight’s pale beam.

Bach glanced through the
cabin, eyes searching up and down, side to side.
Did the visitor respond to Deni’s voice?
“I’m coming!” he yelled back. He didn’t want to,
but he took one last look at the light inside the cabinet. No face
this time.
Should I tell the crew? No,
we’ve had enough. No danger apparent; don’t add to the
trepidation.
He pulled the lantern from the
debris and for some reason turned it off, then on again to see if
the man’s face would reappear. Nothing. Hoping the others wouldn’t
notice his trembling hands, he wrapped them both around the
flashlight and passed the yellow beam around the ship’s dungeonish
cabin. Visible layers of dust hanging in the air seemed like
something from a horror movie with an overactive fog
machine.

Kaz scrambled over mounds of trash to Bach’s
side and latched onto his arm.

The crewmates’ faces reflected their fear as
they got their first look at the disaster’s toll: G.R. in pain on
the floor at aft ship; Bach and Kaz together at mid ship; Deni and
Lynch strapped in their seats in the cockpit, injured; Faith
missing.

“
Get movin’, Bach,” Deni
yelled, “Find Faith. Be careful where you walk. And, Kaz, we need
your help up front.”

“
Help me, too,” G.R. said,
his voice weak.

Bach found a flat piece of shiny metal in
the rubble, propped it up at the mid-ship control center and shone
the lantern on it to intensify the light. He looked around the
cabin and noticed something near the galley area. To get there, he
cleared a footpath and crawled under a portion of dangling ceiling
insulation stretched crosswise across the cabin. Then, all the air
in his lungs expelled at once when he found Faith’s body curled up
and motionless. The others watched as he knelt at her side and felt
for a pulse in her neck. When he rolled her onto her back, her body
flopped over like a life-sized doll. He tried again to find a
heartbeat then announced through a lump in his throat, “Faith is
dead.”

Kaz got as close as she dared. “Are you
sure? Try again. There’s no blood—nothing seems wrong.”

“
She’s dead.”

G.R. tried to get up. “I’m the doctor, I’ll
determine who’s dead and who’s not.” A bolt of pain held him in
place. “Oh, my back.”

Bach scooted to G.R.’s side. “It doesn’t
take a doctor.”

Deni yelled from the cockpit. “Kaz, find the
medical supplies. I need an ankle splint—have to get mobile. It’s
black as pitch outside, but I want to find out what’s out there.”
She mumbled to herself. “I can’t believe this.”

Kaz searched the flotsam of cables,
insulation, and damaged equipment, and found the medical kit under
a sleep hammock. Carrying the kit in outstretched arms, she
grumbled in Spanish all the way to the cockpit, then pushed it to
Deni’s lap. “I can’t do it. I get sick seeing blood.” She turned
away and burned off frustration by clearing a pathway through the
debris.

Deni opened the medical kit without a word.
After splinting her ankle and tending to Lynch’s fractured
forearms, she hoisted her tall frame onto one foot, pulled a piece
of plastic pipe from the debris to use as a walking stick, and
hobbled to aft cabin where Bach had just covered Faith’s body with
a blanket. Leaning over, she steadied herself with a hand on his
shoulder and spoke into his ear. “You positive she’s dead?”

He lifted Faith’s hand and let it drop. “Not
a mark on her. It’s like she died for no reason.”

Kaz spoke from behind Deni. “She can’t be
dead. She’s just unconscious—breathing shallow. Sometimes people
seem dead when they’re not.”

“
Let it go, Kaz, she’s
dead,” Bach replied. He looked away and his eyes stopped on the
gilt-edged pages of Faith’s Bible sticking out of the rubble. He
pulled it free and dusted it off on his sleeve, choking on emotion
as he placed it at his fallen crewmate’s side.

Kaz backed away, whispering, “Why is Faith
the only one dead? Something scary’s going on. What if we die one
at a time?”

The copper-eyed face flashed through Bach’s
mind. “It’s okay, honey. You’re just in shock. We all are,” he
said, lying.

“
Faith may be the lucky
one,” G.R. said. “The rest of us are lost in space.” He flagged
Kaz’s attention. “Please find the painkillers, and water. My
throat’s so dry, I’m dyin’.”

Deni limped toward the cockpit to check on
Lynch, who hadn’t spoken or left his seat. On the way, something
outside a porthole caught her eye. “Oh, my gosh!” she yelped,
pressing her face to the window. “What’s going on? Look outside.
It’s like somebody turned on an underground light and the whole
planet’s glowing gold. The light’s coming from within—gold!”

“
What kind of gold?
Whaddaya mean ‘gold’?” G.R. yelled.

Bach rushed to a porthole. Speechless for a
second, he offered, “It’s hard to describe. The atmosphere’s dark,
but there’s a luminescence coming from the ground. Like it
originates from within the planet.”

Kaz stood back, gnawing her thumbnail. “Is
anybody out there?”

“
No. It’s desert-like with
mounds and gullies. We’re in sort of a basin, and off in the
distance are large craters filled with glowing gold dust. But no
small craters.”

Fighting a wild rush of dread, Kaz peeked
over Bach’s shoulder. “Maybe we’re on the moon.”

Deni shook her head and
looked around the cabin. “We’re
way
beyond Earth’s solar system. Let’s get organized
to ensure our survival.”

“
Right,” Bach said. Another
peek outside brought an uneasy shrug. “Glowing gold. My mind’s
racing through all the studies we did, but a fluorescent glow
wasn’t anything I ever read about.”

“
Might be radiation, or the
astral equivalent,” G.R. offered.

Kaz grew jittery. “I don’t like this. Maybe
aliens know we’re here and turned on the lights. We don’t even have
a gun.”

“
Kaz!” Deni snapped. “Why
automatically assume that unknown people are evil? Maybe they’re
peaceful and helpful.” Moving debris aside, she saw the American
flag on the sleeve of a space suit. She freed the jumpsuit and
shook it off, watching as particles fell to the floor from gravity.
She would find out more about this alien planet. Limping to the
mid-ship control center to check for damage to the built-in
equipment, she called to Bach. “Bach. This equipment looks
functional. See if you can get something operational. There’s
gravity, but it can’t be the AstroLab’s AG. Try to get stats for
temperature outside, atmospheric pressure, oxygen. I want to go out
and have a look around.”

“
No, Deni, we need to stay
together.” G.R. said. “There could be dangers, and you’re in no
condition.”

“
I won’t go far. I’m not
going to sit around and wait for time to pass then wish we could
turn back the clock and do something. Sooner or later we’re all
going to have to go out. Time may be critical to our
survival.”

Bach tried to initialize the electronics.
“Nothing. Processor’s dead. But one power cell’s operational.
Thermal measuring units show seventy-three degrees in here and
sixty-eight outside. Maybe I can get a little interior and exterior
light going.”

Deni examined the spacesuit she’d found, but
it was torn and useless. Scrounging through the wreckage for
another, she noticed an area at aft ship where cooler air and a ray
of golden light streamed through a three-by-four-inch split in the
ship’s framework. “Bach,” she yelled. “Come here. Hurry. The ship’s
split open.”

Bach inspected the opening with a huff of
concern that soon changed to excitement. “This is good—it’s good!”
He yelled to the others, “We got a sizeable rip in the framework
and outer hull back here that compromised the vapor and compression
seals. We’ve been breathing foreign air for over half an hour with
no ill effects.”

Deni stuck her face close
to the hole to get a better look. “That means I can go outside
without suiting up.” She angled one eye full into the opening. “A
lake?” She gasped. “
Is
that a lake? It’s so still it looks like black
glass.”

Bach stuck his face next to hers and peered
through the opening. “Looks like a lake with a big boulder or
platform in it, but no reflection in the water.”

Deni steadied herself on the makeshift cane
and looked at him with determination in her eyes. “I’m going
out.”

“
Don’t open that door,
Deni,” Kaz warned.

Bach stepped back. “You can’t go by
yourself, Deni. I’ll go with you.”

Kaz clambered across debris to Bach. “Don’t
go.” She grabbed his arm. “You both don’t need to go. She can go if
she wants to. G.R. might be right. Something bad might happen. We
can’t get separated. Don’t go!”

“
We can’t just sit here,
Kaz.” He wrestled from her grasp. “We need to know where we
stand.”

Lynch called out in a pained southern drawl,
“How you gonna get out? Our boarding door’s flush against the space
station.”

Bach pushed his hair back from his forehead
and exhaled. “Okay, we’ll use the back ramp. The Lab’s tail is
clear. I’ll open it manually.”

“
Gonna strain your guts
crankin’ that ramp open,” Lynch said, “and you’re gonna jeopardize
all of us to whatever alien life forms may be out there. But if
that’s what you want, the crank’s right there alongside the
ramp.”

“
Can’t you wait until
daylight?” Kaz asked in a high voice. “At least wait until you can
see more before going out there.”

Bach grasped Kaz’s shoulders and looked into
her worried brown eyes. “We can see enough to move forward. It’ll
be all right.”

She stepped back, face in her hands.

He unlatched a clamp and removed the crank,
then put it into the turn hole.

Kaz yelled, “Bach!”

As Bach turned the cumbersome crank with
both hands, each turn inched the ramp farther downward to slowly
reveal the golden, moon-like world beyond. His nervous crewmates
stood there breathing heavily. He stopped halfway to rest. Then,
minutes of agonizing anticipation ended with the door fully open
and the earthlings face to face with the mysterious planet.

Bach and Deni stepped a few
feet out onto the ramp. He looked left, then right, and for some
reason his mind rewound to one night as a kid when his big brother
took him into a Halloween haunted house on a full moon. The mix of
anxiety and titillation was the same now as then—almost
unbearable.
Get over it
.
Swallow your apprehension and do
the same thing you did that night. Go forward bravely.

By the time the two stepped off the ramp,
Kaz had wrung her hands and bounced from foot to foot a dozen
times. “Bach, come back! Please….” The world outside the door
seemed to absorb her voice. As her crewmates moved farther from the
ship, she rushed to Lynch in the cockpit. “What’s going to happen
to us?”

The commander smirked. “Face it, Kaz, we’re
in an astral hinterland. We got no chance of survival.”