SIREN

Chapter Seventeen

The Eagle coasted gracefully over the giant pieces of glass left by the Martini. The blue flame of our thrusters glinted off the jagged splinters and shone onto our ship. As I watched Sam navigate the controls, I pondered the reasons why anyone would move an entire garden to our solar system. Was it an act of war? Was it because they heard the Poseidon Transmission and they brought a gift?

The fungus also played on my mind. I thought of its complex sentences and puzzling phrases, but I couldn't figure anything out.

'You know the one thing that's bugging me?' Sam said, taking one hand off his joysticks to itch his chin.

'What?'

He lifted his hands and put on a mocking tone. '"Dare have I ten hogs fear Rosy!"' he said, 'that's what that thing was on about, right?'

'Yeah, why?'

'Who the Hell is Rosy, man? Why should we fear her? Or is she afraid of us?'

I fingered a buckle on my suit and drooped in my chair. 'I don't know, Sam. I don't think the fungus fully knew English but I guess we won't have a chance to ask it anymore questions.' I thought of the wonderous plants now dying in the icy pit of space.

'I guess we won't, but then again, we won't have to feel those vines creeping around our legs, either. Silver lining, right?'

'If you say so,' I sighed.

Sam sailed the Eagle round and I watched as we passed a spinning asteroid. I pressed a finger against my goggles took a snapshot of the rock. A thermal reading appeared on the lenses, along with other details. The asteroid weighed, according to the computers calculations, almost forty tonnes.

'Big girl, isn't she?' Sam said. 'I don't need a pair of fancy spectacles to tell me that.'

'You're missing the point of these goggles, Sam.'

'Am I?'

I frowned. 'Yes, you are. Using your eyes is fine, but these things give me an edge. For example, I can see that the asteroid we just passed has a...' I stopped and peered at a screen on my dashboard. I hit it with an open palm and shook my head.

'What is it?'

'Okay, so you know I said these asteroids are made of ice and rock, right?'

'Right...' Sam increased the Eagle's speed and leaned back.

'Haven't you noticed how there are more rocks here than there should be? This whole belt is densely populated, but none of the stones hit each other. It's peculiar.'

'The most peculiar thing here, Teabags, is you,' Sam slapped my goggles.

'I'm serious! Look at the core of these asteroids! They're made of metal, I'm sure of it! They've got shaped insides, too. I told you that before, didn't I?'

'You're crazy,' Sam scoffed.

'The goggles don't lie. Something weird is going on here.'

'What? Like something is hiding in the asteroids, waiting to pop out? Like this is an ambush and we're going to get hit by thinking stones from space? Get real.'

'Is that such a departure from a talking fungus?'

Sam shot me a dirty look and mumbled under his breath. He turned the Eagle and I gasped as the second alien ship appeared in the middle of the windshield.

Now that we were closer, I could see the detailed edges of the ring and the black box in the middle along with the two rocks bolted to either end. The whole structure was still baffling to look at. The ring didn't spin, and the dark rectangle didn't move, either. The whole ship was frozen.