© 16 June 2014
In a steampunk universe, a spaceship patroling the outer edges of the solar system discovers an ancient, otherwordly horror…
PSA-S Benicia, a twenty gun star-sloop, swooped down towards Makemake. The planetoid had long been claimed by the Pacific States of America but recently reports reaching Sacramento said spacecraft belonging to the Russian Tsarina had been spotted in that distant region of the Kuiper belt.
High on the bridge, Commander Sandra Kavanaugh swiveled her chesterfield around and ordered that the spaceship be slowed.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," replied her Science Officer, Lieutenant Chunhua Yee, her Celestial accent still detectable as she lifted the speaking tube. Almost immediately, the spaceship's wings tilted slowing its descent through the quintessence of space.
Returning her chair to its customary position, Commander Kavanaugh watched as Makemake loomed larger in the viewscreen. It was one of the larger Trans-Neptunian bodies on the outer edge of the solar system but, apart from a handful of prospectors, it was deserted. Not surprising as, at this extreme distance, it was a cold, bleak, inhospitable rock; one of the least of the Pacific States possessions.
"Assume standard orbiting distance," she said, "And watch out for any Russians."
Once again, Lieutenant Yee relayed her orders.
Stretching her long limbs, Kavanaugh stood. "When we're in orbit, give the benjys an extra tot of rum."
Yee smiled. That would please the sailors.
Several hours later, PSA-S Benicia, was revolving around Makemake. In her cabin, Kavanaugh was dictating her orders into the auto-diplograph. She looked up as Yee knocked and stepped inside. The Lieutenant wore an elegant black dress that complemented her golden skin beautifully.
Kavanaugh adjusted her dark green jacket and escorted Yee to the wardroom for dinner. The few other officers stood as they entered. During the fish course, a megabarbo from Europa's oceans, Ensign Sandoval knocked and entered.
"Excuse me, ma'am, the spectroscope has detected an area of unusual radiation," Sandoval said.
"Any idea what it is? A Russian ship?" she asked.
"Dam'fino," the young man replied. Then, realizing his error, he blushed. "I mean, I don't know, ma'am."
This could be serious. With a nod, Kavanaugh excused herself and crossed to the sensory suite. Putting her eyes to the screen, she studied the anomaly. Even on maximum intensity, she couldn't make out more detail.
"Ready a shuttle. We'll investigate."
"Aye, aye, ma'am," the Ensign said.
Commander Kavanaugh finished dinner, proposed the Navy Toast, and then made her way to the shuttle. Lieutenant Yee hurried over carrying her box of scientific apparatus. Kavanaugh nodded. She would be useful to analyse this anomaly and she was bricky in a fight.
A few minutes later, the shuttle hurtled down through the quintessence, rocking slightly as it was buffeted by Makemake's slight atmosphere. The abnormality was situated at the edge of an immense, black crater and Kavanaugh had some trouble finding a suitable place to touch down but, at last, the shuttle came to rest on level ground. She furled its ether-sails and in the quiet heard wind-blown grit spattering against the shuttle.
"Put on your armored suit," Yee suggested, peering at her portable E-voltmeter, "Something's quite wrong here."
Nodding with agreement, Kavanaugh helped the Lieutenant into her suit and then dressed herself. Checking that her Collier revolvers were loaded, Kavanaugh opened the hatch and then they climbed down a short ladder and out onto this alien world. At this distance, the sun was no more than a super-bright star but she still squinted against its light. Following the rhythmic clicking from Yee's E-valvometer detector, they skirted the crater's lips towards a hillock. Frost-coated rubble covered the landscape.
"There it is," Yee said, her gauntleted hand pointing up the slope. Through her binoculars, Kavanaugh saw a dark opening between two large, oddly rectangular blocks. She couldn't see any trace of human activity. More important, there was no Imperial Russian double-headed eagle flag in sight.
Relieved, she said, "It must be a natural phenomenon then?"
Yee adjusted her dials and peered closely. "Possibly," she said, although her voice expressed doubt. "Although it doesn't read like an area of high magnetism or radium."
That got Kavanaugh's attention. "What does it show?"
"I don't know," Yee finally admitted.
Nothing for it. Carefully, they climbed the slope, alert for any loose boulders until they stood on a ledge before the opening. Running her hand over the supporting blocks, Kavanaugh saw a pitch-black tunnel sloping downwards. The first few yards were covered with dust and grit but then the dim light faltered and died.
"Whatever it is must be down here," Yee commented.
Checking in with the Benicia before lighting Tilley Lamps, they stepped into the narrow opening and headed down along the passage. After an initial straight section, it turned back on itself.
"Volcanic? An extinct magma tunnel?" Kavanaugh wondered aloud.
"No," Yee said from behind her. "It's too straight, like it's been squared off."
That brought Kavanaugh to a halt. The Science Officer was right. Lifting her lantern high, the tunnel seemed more like an artificial shaft, the sides too smooth and even to be natural.
Briefly, she wondered if some hallucinogenic gas had penetrated their ether-suits. No; they'd checked all seals earlier. The tunnel stretched for a mile or more. Apprehensive now, she was about to call a halt to their explorations and summon reinforcements when they stumbled into a large chamber. Lifting their Tilley Lamps high, both gasped at what lay displayed before them.
It was a scientific discovery of the first order. In the centre of the chamber was a crystal table upon which was the desiccated husk of an alien body. Although man-sized, that was where the similarity ended. Its shelled body reminded Kavanaugh of an obscene crustacean, its limbs ending in huge, serrated pincers and vestigial ribbed wings sprouted from its back. But it was what passed for its head that was most shocking; an exposed, convoluted brain-like structure covered in masses of cilia. Yee stifled a gasp of disgust.
"You know what this means?" Kavanaugh said at last. "Finally proof that intelligent alien life exists."
"But why out here, on the very edge of the solar system?" said Yee.
"Perhaps it fancied the peace and quiet? Or maybe this was merely some sort of outpost?" suggested Kavanaugh.
"We should leave now. Don't disturb it," said Yee, her eyes wide with fear. She crossed herself, a legacy of her childhood.
"Thought you scientists weren't superstitious. We have to take a look," Kavanaugh snapped.
Overcoming their strange repugnance, moving forwards they inspected the body. Reluctantly, Yee took out her box-camera and started taking pictures. Then she spotted something lying beneath one of the monster's wings. She pulled it out and was amazed to find a book. Its covers were aluminum and covered in hieroglyphs that made Chinese characters look simple. Opening the cover, she saw its pages were made of a tough, flexible foil with more writing inside.
Taking it from Yee, Kavanaugh's eyes opened wide with shock as the incomprehensible writing shifted, transforming itself into regular Latin letters. But the words still made no sense, although the language was harsh and guttural.
"Gnaihh goka-gotha fm'latgh hlirghh, uln-vulgtlagln...," Kavanaugh recited, the words taking control over her brain.
Startled from her photography, Yee looked up. "What's that?" A long suppressed memory came to mind of a day when one of her friends at university had sneaked out a Photostat of a page from a forbidden tome she claimed was the Necronomicon itself. She had read from that page until Yee snatched it away. That horrid page sounded similar to what Kavanaugh was declaiming.
Kavanaugh carried on speaking, her voice increasing in strength and power, gaining an alien timbre as it echoed around the chamber. With every word uttered, the alien presence dominated her mind, drowning out her personality, drawing it down into the darkest depths of her subconscious.
"Stop that!" Yee screamed. The words sounded powerful and incredibly evil. She stepped towards her captain, intending to snatch the book from her gauntleted hands. Or were they still hands under her ether-suit? Even as she watched, Kavanaugh's gauntlets seemed to swell and thicken, becoming more like pincers. Her back hunched over, as if rudimentary wings were sprouting from her shoulder blades. And she was glad that she couldn't see through her helmet's visor.
No, that had to be impossible; a trick of the light, flickering shadows, her own terrified imaginings. The evil chant continued increasing in resonance. The ether thickened and Yee felt dark things stirring deep beneath the alien soil. That eldritch presence seemed to reach up through the crust and into her own psyche.
Her eyes held by the book, Kavanaugh continued reading. Despite her dying mind's best efforts to tear herself away; she felt the words' deep grip. Her mouth moved and those hideous syllables poured from her throat.
"Lw'nafh n'gha c'yar...," the captain intoned.
Yee felt herself drawn in by their force and domination. With the last of her mental strength, she wrenched the book away from her captain. "No," she shouted. "No more!"
Behind her visor, Kavanaugh's face sunk back, looking more rational and like herself again. She shook her head. "You don't understand, human," Kavanaugh said. She drew her Colliers and fired, once, twice. The powerful bullets ripped through Yee's ether-suit. The Science Officer fell to the floor, where Kavanaugh fired again, killing her stone dead.
Picking up the metal book, the thing that had been Kavanaugh retraced its way back through the tunnels. Yet that journey now seemed much shorter as if geometry itself was helping to expel her from that millennia long nightmare.
Panting, it emerged into the open. The distant sun was a mere jewel of light but even that unaccustomed light hurt its eyes and made her long for the deep blackness of her native intergalactic space. Checking her wrist wireless-transmitter, the Kavanaugh-thing saw it had a signal. Immediately, it dialed the Benicia.
"Full bombardment. On my current position," it shouted into the transmitter as it started running back towards the shuttle.
Miles above, the communications officer hesitated. "But ma'am, immediate...?"
"Yes, destroy that hillock."
"What about Lieutenant Yee, ma'am?"
"Stop arguing. I'll take full responsibility. Commence bombardment now."
There was only one thing the communications officer could say. "Aye aye, ma'am."
Still running around the crater's lip, the Kavanaugh-thing heard the whistle as five-ton shells from the ship's Agar Repeating Guns hurtled through the quintessence, slamming into the hillock. Fiery explosions blasted rock high into the atmosphere, showering Kavanaugh with shards.
It reached the shuttle and threw open the airlock's valve. There was a terrible grin as muscles that had never been designed for smiling pulled her human face out of alignment. With an effort, it stood upright and awkwardly climbed the ladder, as its mind was unused to this new body, before firing up the shuttle. It rocketed upwards on a plume of smoke, eventually docking with the Benicia.
"Where's Lieutenant Yee, Commander?" said Sandoval, worry in his voice. "Why did you call down that bombardment?"
The thing that inhabited Kavanaugh shook its head. Dredging up its host's memories, it replied, "No. Tragically, she didn't make it. We found the beginnings of a Russian military base – if it had been allowed to grow, it would have threatened our interests out here."
Ensign Sandoval was aghast. "You bombed the Russians! That will mean war."
"Nobody survived. Yee died a hero." Turning away from the Ensign and the stokers manhandling the shuttle into its bay, the thing that was Kavanaugh said, "Nobody must say anything about this. Head back to Earth as I must inform the Admiralty immediately."
It was just as well the crew couldn't see the thing's terrible grin as it thought about setting up servant cults on that world – as well as all the fresh food there for the taking.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," said Ensign Sandoval. The Benicia's nose turned about and soon a trail of smoke marked its passage as it accelerated back towards an unsuspecting pale blue dot...