Ben Hammott - Siberia

“That’s what Waldemar and I were trying to discover when we found that thing.” Luka looked at the black substance that seemed to be stretching up the man’s arm and noticed his arm seemed too short. His hand was missing. Shocked by the revelation, he looked at Stanislav. “I think that thing ate them. Look, Waldemar’s hand is gone.”

Stanislav took a cautious step nearer the screaming man and studied Waldemar’s arm. Luka was right, his hand was gone. “We need to seal this room, now!”

“What about Waldemar?”

“Fuck him.” Stanislav turned and strode from the room.

Luka looked at Waldemar guiltily. They weren’t friends, but he couldn’t let the man suffer. He quickly followed Stanislav though the door. He returned a few moments later with a fire axe and stood over Waldemar.

Through pain-filled eyes, Waldemar looked at the axe and laid his rapidly diminishing arm on the floor. “Do it!”

Luka raised the axe and brought it down just above Waldemar’s elbow. Waldemar screamed before passing out. Luka knocked the severed arm away with the axe before dropping it. He quickly took off the man’s belt and tied it tightly around the arm to halt the blood flow. Unable to lift the man on his own, he grabbed his ankles and dragged him from the room.

Stanislav glanced at Waldemar’s severed limb and then at Luka. “Now will you seal the room?”

“And how do you propose I do that? The most I can do is lock the door. The only rooms that can be sealed completely are on Level 4.”

Stanislav glanced anxiously into the room. “Well, shut the damn door then before that thing gets out.”

Luka closed the door and turned the key in the lock. He looked at Stanislav. “Now what?”

“We need to find a way to contain that thing. Come with me.”

“What about Waldemar?” asked Luka.

Stanislav turned, looked at his unconscious co-worker, and sighed. “You grab him under the arms and I’ll grab his ankles.”

Luka glanced at the door through which he could hear the agitated sounds of his animals. Though reluctant to leave them at the mercy of the black blob, Luka was afraid to go back in. Hopefully the scientists would work out how to kill it, and everything would return to normal.

Carrying Waldemar between them, they headed along the corridor.

After Waldemar had been taken to the infirmary and Pechka, the elected first-aid official, was contacted to come to the infirmary, Stanislav and Luka left him to have his wound tended to while they headed for the laboratory. After informing the others of what had taken place, the scientists were shocked by what they had just heard.

“But what is it and where did it come from?” asked Vadim, finding it difficult to picture the organism just described.

“We have no idea,” replied Stanislav. “But we can worry about that when we’ve neutralized it as a threat.”

Krisztina, like the others who hadn’t seen it, found it hard to believe such a thing existed, let alone here in the facility, but she trusted Stanislav’s observations. The man had his faults, but he wasn’t prone to exaggeration. Frowning, she asked, “How big is it?”

Luka held his hands about ten inches apart. “It was about the size of a dinner plate and flat, like a pool of thick, oily liquid.”

“Then it doesn’t have eyes, limbs or anything?” enquired Svetlana, trying to visualize the strange entity.

Luka shook his head. “It’s just a blob. It wrapped itself around Waldemar’s hand when he prodded it. I told him not to, but…”

“Then it should be easy to catch if it can’t see, hear or smell,” offered Alexei. “It probably reacted in defense when Waldemar poked it. If we avoid touching or aggravating it, we should be okay.”

“If we can’t touch it, how will we catch it?” said Svetlana.

“We could place a container over it, slide something underneath, turn it over and put the lid on, job done,” suggested Vadim.

“We should destroy it,” stated Luka. “Burn it or something.”

“Let’s not be too hasty,” argued Stanislav, wondering if it would be advisable to contact his superiors to find out how to proceed. However, if he did, they might send people to catch the thing, whatever it was, and claim the glory. He thought it strange it had appeared so shortly after the arrival of the alien technology and too much of a coincidence for the two not to be connected. If the thing was an alien lifeform that somehow got here from the spaceship in Antarctica, there was only one person who was going to claim the victory for proving alien lifeforms existed— him . “We have no idea what we’re dealing with yet or the benefits it might have for the Motherland, so no one will be destroying it.”

Luka glared at Stanislav. “Exactly what benefits did Waldemar get from it? The damn thing took his hand and would have taken more if I hadn’t acted.”

“He shouldn’t have poked it,” stated Stanislav. “As Alexei just said, the thing probably thought it was being attacked and defended itself.”

He turned to his colleagues.

“We capture it like Vadim suggested and take it below to one of the sealed experimental chambers to observe and examine. Once we have it safely contained and have more of an idea what it is, I will contact the Kremlin to find out what they want done with it.”

“What about our work on the alien weapons?” asked Krisztina.

“As far as I’m concerned, this thing, creature, or whatever it is, takes priority over the weapons. I’m certain those at the Kremlin will agree when I inform them. Vadim, I understand you are about to cut through the outer shell to get at the inner workings.”

Vadim nodded. “I’m about ready. I’m all set up on Level 2.”

“Then you continue with that and the rest of us will concentrate on catching this thing.”

“I still think you should destroy it,” said Luka. He pointed at the alien pistols resting on one of the tables. “They might do the job.”

Stanislav stepped to the side to block Luka’s view of the weapons. “Luckily for the scientific community and Russia, that decision is not yours to make.” He turned his back on Luka. “Okay, Comrades, Vadim, take one of the weapons to work on, and I’ll lock the other in my office. Alexei and Svetlana, you will capture the thing and bring it below to Level 4 where Krisztina and I will have a chamber prepared to receive it.”

“Good luck if you think that thing will placidly sit there while it’s captured,” scoffed Luka. “It reacted damn quick when Waldemar got near it.”

“As this thing seems to be liquid, we could use CO 2fire extinguishers,” suggested Krisztina. “CO 2gas has a temperature of minus 66°C so maybe the cold will incapacitate it long enough for it to be captured.”

Alexei nodded at Krisztina. “Great idea, Krisz. From the descriptions, scant though they are, it seems to be a glutinous liquid, so it should work.”

“What about me,” enquired Luka. “What shall I do?”

“You can catch that damn monkey you let escape,” ordered Stanislav. “When the thing has been captured, you can return to your animals. Until then, keep out of our way.”

As the others left the room, Luka approached Krisztina. “I don’t like this.”

“Me neither. I don’t understand where this thing could have come from, but it can’t be a coincidence it only appeared after we received the alien weapons.”

Luka raised his eyebrows. “Alien pistols? As in UFO alien?”

Krisztina shot a worried glance at Vadim who was collecting a few tools across the room. “Shush. Forget what you’ve just heard, or at the very least don’t let on that you know.”