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Science Fiction short story – 2015

Two men stood sit before a round stone table, one facing another, both dressed in hooded and smudged robes that once might have been white.

A large window revealed the infinity of the desert that extended beyond the stone walls.

‘So, Brother Malcolm’ invited the elder one, ‘do tell what happened.’

Malcolm began breathing heavily and stood like that for a moment. The other man didn’t push him and allowed him the moment.

Then, he inhaled deeply and finally spoke.

‘I did make it here.’

Malcolm’s report. Instance #34

As you know, brother, the council has assigned me and Martha to breed. Our genes were proclaimed to be strong and healthy to generate offspring and so I went to her chamber to perform mating.

When I knocked at the door I noticed it to be slightly ajar. I believe it was meant to be invitational and expected to find her inside awaiting my arrival.

However, though I did find her, I also found horror before me.

Her corpse stood in a large bed, grey and wrinkled as if her youthful appearance had drastically changed to the one of a decayed carcass. I collapsed and allowed myself to take a moment to avert my eyes from the disgusting scenery.

I gathered strength and once again examined the body, noticing a large and deep cut on the base of her neck. There was no blood to be seen and, by the slight look I managed to give, it looked as if there was nothing inside her at all. It was like all had been carefully removed.

I couldn’t stand being there anymore and got back to the living quarters. The first thing I did was knocking on the doors of her neighbors. All locked and no answer was given.

I didn’t know where to go: if back to my quarters, if to you and the council room or even back to Martha’s chambers. Fear has that thing of making ourselves get easily lost when the path is clear.

Soon, I heard footsteps coming from one of the edges of the corridor. I waited, hoping it wouldn’t be the thing that killed Martha.

It was with great relief that I saw brother Mathew walking down the corridor of the Women’s Living Quarters, armed with a spear.

‘Brother!’, I said not hiding my relief, ‘Thank our holy Creator for sending you here! Martha is…’

‘Dead?’, he asked promptly. ‘Her body with a large wound and dried like an old corpse?’

‘How do you know, brother?’

‘Found six brothers and two sisters in the same state during the last couple of hours. Here.’ He presented me with a small sword that I took in my hands. ‘We have to find more of our brethren to fight off whatever has invaded our tower.’

Mathew wanted me to follow him down to the chapel, where more brothers and sisters could be found, and alert them to what was happening. Meanwhile, I was delving in trying to assume what could be attacking us. This planet is a lifeless desert. Only ourselves and the greeneries that we cultivate stand alone in this tower, defying all the natural order of this world.

Could it be a brother that had gone mad? Even so, how can a human being drain so perfectly all the fluids of a body without leaving trace? And how could that person do such thing to seven people in such a small amount of time?

Soon, I left behind those thoughts and hoped to find an answer in the looming darkness of our descent through those vacant and silent hallways.

And then, there we were: the chapel.

It looked as if night had fallen right inside our most admirable location. It was also devoid of any presence.

Mathew didn’t speak a word, he should’ve been as scared as I was. I felt the need for praying to our beloved Creator, so I turned to a nearby shrine, approaching it as if it would wake me up from that nightmare. I had a tinge of hope there: if it could all be just a dream.

When I got to the shrine, I stood appalled when my eyes could fathom from the dark, a blacker, oval shape that started to shrill and jitter itself.

A pack of six insectile legs where revealed such as a pair of long antennae and the glitter of small protruding eyes. In a glimpse of a second, the creature raised its head, launching two long arms with claws on their ends and a most horrific limb that looked like a needle in a line of flesh.

‘Get back!’, shouted Mathew and shoved me aside, taking for himself the deadly blow when the two claws clutched on his shoulders and the huge needle penetrated his chest.

‘Warn our elder…’, he still managed to say.

Then, I ran. Ran through the empty dark corridors, hearing the chitter of other creatures like that, barely knowing where I was going. Maybe there was some inner sense of direction beneath the panic that drove me to the upper levels of our tower, but I made it here, brother.

The silver shine of the spaceship belonging to the Special Intervention Force, also known as SIF – cut through the dull grey clouds of the planet labeled as Q-15487L09, commonly known as ‘The Storage’.

The ship made its descent into the planet’s surface, crossing canyons and sharp edged mountains.

‘No life signs, whatsoever’; said a cadet, analyzing the small screen of his portable assisting device.

‘That something new to you?’ questioned another, one with a harsh female voice. ‘Haven’t you read the briefing?’

Both soldiers were all covered in a black armor. No part of their skin, or even a glimpse of their eyes, could be seen.

‘Of course I have!’, asserted the younger one. ‘It just seems… inadequate’

‘It’s more than adequate, believe me’ these words were spoken by the captain, also all in black, who just approached them. “We’re landing in five. Get your gear ready.”

Soon, the SIF was on the sterile surface of ‘The Storage’, trekking their way with backpacks and carrying different kinds of tools in their hands. Scorched and viciously windswept, the whole landscape was bleak.

‘Living here must be a dreary and depressive existence’, commented one of the six members of the Intervention Force.

‘Living here it’s almost impossible’ replied another, ‘The harsh climate, the atmosphere… Just check your Assistant’, she pointed at hers, on her armored wrist, ‘That’s why the place’s perfect.’

‘Not for me’ said the cadet and the one who promptly replied was the captain, distinguishable from the rest due to a red armband that stated his position: ‘Your commodities are of no importance to what it’s being kept here.’

They all stared at the lone stone tower that loomed not too far away from the group.

The captain added ‘There’s the source of our rescue signal.’

Two men stood sit before a round stone table, one facing another, both dressed in hooded and smudged robes that once might have been white. A large window revealed the infinity of the desert that extended beyond the stone walls.

‘So, Brother Malcolm’ invited the elder one, ‘do tell what happened.’

Malcolm stood silent, breathing softly, and stood like that for a moment. The other man didn’t push him and allowed him the moment.

Then, he inhaled deeply and finally spoke.

‘We are all doomed.’

Malcolm’s report. Instance #52

As you know, it was the will of the council for me and Martha to procreate. Our genes would produce a healthy offspring that would ensure the continuity of our precious race.

So, before I’d go to Martha’s chambers, I went to the chapel to beg for the blessing of our beloved Creator. Curiously, as I was praying I started feeling dizzy. My head begun to weight heavily and I got up from my knees, craving a simple glass of water.

There were some brothers and sisters around me, and I remember a sister looking at me with some concern, then, I passed out.

I woke up at the sound of screaming and a continuous buzz over my head.

I opened my eyes to find everything covered in darkness. I got up and strolled throughout the chapel, finding torn benches and the bodies of our deceased brethren, unearthed from their graves.

Or so I thought they were the departed ones until I saw the terrorized, aged face of our stout Brother Mathew. He was thin, his skin was bluish in tone and had a hole in the center of his chest.

I couldn’t believe in what I was seeing. A heinous act; a massacre! And somehow, I stood there. Alive. In the center of it.

I kept going through the corridors of our tower. Not walking, not running, but flying, as if I was in a dream.

As I went to look into the rest of my body, I saw the black legs of an insect emerging from an equally black and flaccid torso. The buzz I couldn’t stop hearing came from my translucent wings.

Despaired and insane, I flew all the way here, brother.

Upon entering this chamber I was a man again. But only in form.

I feel it. I know, Brother, that neither you or I are humans, so I ask you: why do we look like and live for a creature that we are not?

After that, the elder brother spoke again, softly placing a hand over Malcolm’s wrist.

‘We are Humanity. All that’s left of it.’

Dozens of black winged creatures flew around the grey tower. They didn’t stay for too long in the sunlight, coming out to circle the tower and quickly heading back to the crevices from where they came.

The giant insects completely ignored the Special Intervention Force crew that was making its way to the tower.

‘The bugs are too active’ observed one of the soldiers.

‘They’re OK.’ Confirmed the captain. ‘Their larvae produce a substance that feeds what we keep in the tower. Which reminds me, none of you here have seen it, right?’ A silent nod was the common answer. ‘Good!’ he sounded very satisfied, ‘You are about to witness one of our greatest achievements!’

The interior of the tower had simple stone corridors with a variety of compartments to accommodate visiting crews. There was a medical area operated by robots that stood idle awaiting any possible patient; a food court and a compressed food storage; a leisure area and some living quarters.

The SIF didn’t pay any attention to it. What was needed was to keep moving forward, to where the hallways where also filled with pipelines that run towards a large steel door.

The door opened itself when the SIF was close enough, revealing a tall and wide chamber, laden in steel pipes and mechanisms with a colossal organism growing from a pit in the center of it. The thing was of a pinkish tone and looked pretty much like the roots of a tree, as if it were turned upwards. It had some electrical wires plugged from the nearby machinery to its flesh and, the more curious fact was that each ending of the bizarre fungus-like organism had the shape of a human arm.

A breathing sound resonated through the great chamber. It also came from the oddity that lived there.

‘Behold our biggest treasure!’ claimed the captain and the youngest one, the rookie, knew exactly what it was:

‘Mankind.’

‘The race that gave us a new language and a stable body form’ explained the captain, beholding a stretched arm that was slowly waving its fingers.

‘Until then our language was very limited and our shapeshifting bodies hadn’t find the perfect combination between balance, agility, toughness and with a practical way to use tools.’

Another one was analyzing the creature, when it signaled to the others that had found the source of the problem: one of the black insects was on it, with its thick proboscis stabbed in the pale flesh of the huge being. With a long lightning riffle, the soldier shoot down the insect, killing it instantly.

‘Good work!’ said the captain, ‘The bug must’ve gotten in through a breach somewhere. You there!’ – he pointed, ‘find the breach and seal it. Everyone else to the computer terminals. Let’s rescue this baby!’

Less than ten minutes later, one of the members of the silent team that had started operating the terminals that were there broke the static clatter of fingers striking keyboards.

‘Captain!’, he spoke to the one who was supervising, raising his attention. ‘We found the problem. A class M anomaly, no doubt generated by the attack of the black moth.’

‘Why had the black moth attacked the relic?’ asked the captain.

‘It didn’t only attack it, it was feeding itself of the relic,’ completed another one. ‘They must be getting low on food, hence the one that we just killed had to find another type of organic matter to feed on.’

The captain stood quiet for a moment. The rest of his team were expecting his orders.

‘Why are the black moths getting starved? The psychokinetic waves generated by Mankind should provide a steady growth of the cavern fungae they feed on.’

‘That’s the problem,’ quickly answered a technician with a female voice, ‘the waves are not as strong as they used to be.’

Another one replied: ‘But we created the perfect setting to stimulate the brain cells by recreating Humanity’s essential struggles: the strive for survival, living in society, search for mating and procreation, mystical belief in an omniscient all-powerful being. Everything that defines the specie is there.’

‘It cannot be,’ asserted the captain, ‘or else this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘I think I found it’, ventured the cadet, who had just approached while the rest were debating. All eyes fell on him on that moment, making him feel unease.

‘Come on, lad’, pushed the captain, ‘go on, we want to hear you.’

‘You see, based on what I’ve read about the Human race, you’re missing one of its cornerstones: conflict.’

‘Conflict?’ repeated one of the technicians. ‘Don’t they already have that by fighting for survival?’

‘No, it’s different. They need to have enmity towards something.’

‘Of course!’ blasted the captain, ‘How could we forget?’

‘Maybe ‘cause it’s passed almost a century?’ commented one of them.

‘Mankind was a very aggressive and self-destructing specie. Their whole history was written on it. It’s on their genes.’, then he immediately commanded: ‘Incorporate rivalry and animosity. That should get the psychokinetic waves right again so that we have an optimal A-condition.’

Two men stood sit before a round stone table, one facing another, both dressed in hooded and smudged robes that once might have been white. A large window revealed the infinity of the desert that extended beyond the stone walls.

‘Brother Andrew’, begun the elder one ‘What news from outside our tower?’

‘Great news! We have driven the heretics into the depths of their caves, a heavy toll they have taken on their last onslaught and their numbers have dwindled greatly!’ Andrew was euphoric. ‘This is the moment of glory our beloved Creator has given to us. We must strike now and finish all that’s left of them!’

The elder smiled and said, not as enthusiastic as his brother, but sharing his joyfulness ‘Indeed we shall! Our precious race of Man is now but a few individuals that are about to become even fewer, but, at least, that tiny part of people will be truly pure in the eyes of our Creator.’

The spaceship of the Special Intervention Force rose up in the windy grey skies, initiating the return trip to the far side of the galaxy from where it came.

The crew have scattered through the vessel, some were in charge of tasks regarding the flight back home, others could just relax and enjoy some free time.

The younger, the only cadet, stood in front of a window, beholding the beauty of the infinity of stars and other celestial spheres that revealed themselves as the ship exited the stratosphere of “The Storage”.

‘You have done great today, cadet’ commented the captain, who appeared beside the young one, ‘I’ll make sure those who matter will know about it in our homeworld.’

‘Thank you, captain.’ He said, in a somewhat dry tone.

‘Is something bothering you, cadet?’

‘Actually, captain, could you answer me a question?’

‘That would be the least I could do for one so young that has fixed the problem with our most valuable possession’

‘It’s about that. Our “treasure,” if you might say so.’

‘Please, make your question. I will try to answer the best I can’

‘Of all the races we have conquered and exterminated, why keep such a primitive and self-destructive one?’

The captain fell silent and waved his arms, trying to find the right choice of words.

‘So?’

‘That was the question many of us raised when we took the last one hundred and twenty-seven human beings to create that specimen you saw, and applied our most advanced technology on such project. Of all the races, why this one?’

The cadet was looking eagerly at the captain, who didn’t say a word for a moment on purpose.

‘This is the nature of our kind.’ He pointed to the youngster, ‘The thirst for knowledge, the desire to understand. Humanity shared that with us, however, the history of Mankind is not only war against each other, as you have said. It is also the never ending quest to find meaning in their existence. No matter how much they fought, studied, learned, acquired or experimented, they were never satisfied and kept believing that there was much more to understand about themselves.’

The cadet wasn’t able to argue, his mind was still processing all that information.

‘The reason we have the Storage is to try to help them find that answer. If they do, they will accomplish what they desired most in their whole existence and we will not only benefit from such knowledge, as we would have solved one of the biggest riddles ever heard of.’