Ben Hammott - Ice Rift

“And they say romance is dead.” Jane looked at the floor filled with the patter of clawed feet. They were out of time.

Suddenly, a bright light lit up the scene. The insects surrounding Jane, Theo and Jack were interspersed with the egg-laden females. The bright ball of light shot over their heads. An explosion followed. Glass tinkled to the floor above them. Jane screamed when the females fired their eggs. Green liquid poured over the edge of the floor and washed over them, sweeping the insects aside. One of the tall aliens flopped to the ground before them.

“Now would be a good time to move.”

They looked at the voice. The small alien stood across the room looking at them. He lowered the recently fired weapon.

Drenched with the green liquid, Jack and Jane dragged Theo over the tall alien and across the room. They followed the small alien to a door in the far wall that slid open with barely a sound. As soon as they were through, the alien closed the door.

The alien glanced at his breathless followers and smiled. “Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? You can relax now. From here on, there’s nothing to harm you.” He turned a dial on the gun and its lights faded. “We can rest here for a few moments if you like?”

Jack and Jane rested Theo on the floor with his back against the wall.

Jack held out a hand toward the alien. “Thanks, you saved our lives.”

The alien looked at his hand, puzzled.

“You hold it and shake,” Jack explained. He grabbed the small hand and shook. “It’s a human custom.”

“Your thanks are in part, misplaced.” He nodded at Lucy. “She persuaded me to come to your rescue. I would have left you there. I warned you not to stop.”

“Humans, as a rule,” Jack shot a glance at Richard, who smiled, unconcerned, “don’t abandon their friends.”

Theo moaned.

Jane knelt beside him. He had a nasty lump on his head. “Are you okay, Theo?”

Theo put a hand to his head and winced. He glanced around. The last thing he remembered was the insects. “What happened? How did I get here?”

“I’ll tell you about that later.” Jane helped him stand and then turned to look at the alien. “Whatever the reason, you did save our lives. Thanks for that, but who are you and how did you get here, on this spaceship?”

The alien smiled. “I am Haax and I’ve always been here. I worked on this ship. When the crew evacuated, I was left aboard and have been here ever since.”

“But that was thousands of years ago,” said Jack. “How could you survive for so long?”

“I wasn’t always active. Most of my time was spent in what you call hyper sleep. I programmed the computer to alert me if certain changes occurred, such as any strange life-forms coming aboard, which is what happened when you humans arrived. Once I had recovered from my long sleep, I came looking for you. I saw the monsters around the door fighting each other and guessed you were on the other side, so I killed them.”

“But how can you speak our language?” asked Theo.

“When the main computer linked with one of you, the data was stored. I accessed that data. Now, we should move on. We have much to do if we are to survive when the ice breaks away.”

“You know about that?” asked Jack.

“I know everything you know—well more actually, much more. Follow me.”

They followed.

A corridor brought them to a cargo hold. A huge space filled with neatly stacked storage containers secured in place with metal bands. Haax led them along pathways between the crates.

“What’s in the boxes?” Richard asked.

Haax glanced at a stack they passed. “Everything the crew needed to start a new life when they found a suitable planet to inhabit. This spaceship, as you call it, was one of a fleet of fifty. When they evacuated their home world they set off into space in different directions. The first ship to discover a habitable planet was to send out a message to the other ships with the coordinates so they could regroup.”

“Do you know if they found one?” asked Lucy.

“They hadn’t when we crashed on this planet.” Haax halted at a huge door reinforced with thick metal struts and pressed the control to open it. Another identical door stood twenty yards away.

Theo noticed the door was a foot thick. “It’s an air lock.”

Once they were all inside, Haax closed the door and crossed to the other side. When the red door control light turned from red to green, he pressed the button. The two large door sections slid apart to reveal another huge space, but there were no crates in this one. They stepped out of the airlock and gazed at the smaller spaceships positioned around the edges of the room.

“Shuttlecraft!” stated Theo, excitedly.

“Correct,” said Haax. He pointed at the larger box-shaped ships. “They are for transporting crew and cargo to and from the planet surface.” He directed his arm at two smaller crafts at the far side of the room. “Those two are scout ships that were used to visit any suitable planets to check the climate, soil and indigenous life-forms for compatibility.” He led them across the large hangar bay to one of the scout ships.

“Do they still fly?” asked Jack, admiring one of the transport ships that towered above him.

“Of course,” Haax replied.

When they neared one of the scout ships, the ship’s sensors were alerted to Haax’s approach. A door at the back of the craft slid open and a ramp unfolded.

“Cool,” said Theo.

The scratches and dents adorning some areas of the craft’s black and silver hull hinted at a history of close encounters with something tougher than its metal hull, much like an old car that had a less than careful owner. Unlike the bulkier cargo transport ships, the scout ship’s design was sleek and about the length of a private jet. Three piston-articulated legs supported the craft, one at the front and two either side at the back. The circular body tapered into a long nose that contained the cockpit with a wide view screen. A tapered flange on the back formed the exhaust and two swivel-jets either side of the body allowed it to lift off or land horizontally.

When they’d finished admiring the sleek craft, they followed Haax up the ramp into a small cargo area. When all were aboard, Haax pressed a button. The ramp retracted and the door closed. They followed Haax through a small door on the far side into a short corridor with three doors on either side.

Haax indicated the doors. “Crew quarters for extended travel. Each contains a hyper sleep chamber.”

The ship shook, swaying them from side to side for a few moments before the motion subsided.

“It won’t be long now,” stated Jane.

Everyone knew the meaning of her words.

They passed through a lounge and dining area into the cockpit. Screens and controls covered the consoles around the room’s edges. Chairs fixed to a rail in front of each console allowed the controller to slide back and forth to reach different controls. A group of four comfortable looking seats set in two rows were in the center of the room facing the command post at the front of the ship, which was where Haax headed.

Haax sat in one of the two pilot seats and flicked a few switches. The cockpit came to life. Lights of different colours adorned the consoles and screens lit up. “Don’t touch anything !” he warned.

Another tremor shook the ship so violently the spaceship’s hull was unable to stand the pressure and in places buckled. Metal support beams fell from the roof to crash to the floor. One struck the second scout ship and slid down its side with a loud screech. Another struck a power terminal. Sparks sprayed out as electrical connections were severed, one of which supplied power to the magnetic catches that held the shuttle craft in place. When another tremor reverberated though the ship, the scout ship slid a few yards across the floor with a piercing screech of metal.