SIREN

Chapter Twelve

The device on my forearm started to beep. 'Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!' I yelled, looking at the display. A yellow triangle appeared with an exclamation mark in the middle.

'What is it?' Sam said, using his jetpack to spin his body round.

'Methane! That whole tube is filled with nothing but methane! Do not take off your helmet, whatever you do!'

'All right, all right, I got it,' Sam held up his hands, 'I wasn't going to anyway.'

'Why didn't your sensor go off?' I said, moving through the breach. I snatched Sam's arm and checked the black screen on his wrist.

'I don't know. I think it's busted.' He swiped his finger across the front and grimaced as nothing happened. 'It was working earlier.'

'Sam, you're an astronaut. We don't have time for slip ups like this.' I let go of his suit and stared at him.

'Sorry, man. There's just a lot going on.'

I felt a tingle of excitement and couldn't help but smirk. 'Hey Sam,' I giggled, 'we're standing in an alien spaceship. We're the first human beings to ever do that.'

Sam laughed and hit me on the back. 'Come on, buddy, let's see what we can find in that dome.'

'You don't want to go to the engines?' I said, pointing a thumb down towards the disc.

'Nah,' Sam said as he flew away, 'if your readings are right, then something might be alive here. Methane means life, right?'

'I can't say for certain. Doctor White would know, though,' I activated my own thrusters and pursued my teammate down the tube.

'Don't call him,' Sam snapped.

'Why not?'

'He's busy with Hoshi. We don't need to call him. We'll figure this out for ourselves, okay?'

'If you say so,' I shrugged, attending to the screen on my arm. 'Hey, Sam, do you remember earlier how you said it'd be better to use a saw rather than explosives?'

'Yeah?'

'Good call on that.'

'See? I'm not slipping that hard, am I?'

'I guess not, Sam. I guess not.'

After a five-minute journey through the tube, we came to the end of the pipeline. A grate with thousands of tiny holes blocked our way to the dome. I scraped my gloved hand across the metal and looked at my palm. The plastic beading had melted slightly, making a gloopy mess run down my fingers.

'What is it?' Sam asked.

'It's hot...' I replied, wiggling my fingers. 'Really hot.'

'Seriously?' He said, rushing to touch the barrier.

I grabbed Sam's shoulder before he could do anything stupid and span him round. 'Careful!'

'Don't worry about me, man, I got this.' He took out his saw and wasted no time in shoving it at the grate.

I cringed and expected sparks, but his tool sliced through the metal like a hot poker through ice. The grate broke into triangular shards and floated away, leaving Sam and me with a choice.

'Who goes in first?' He asked me. 'Me or you?'

'May I?' I said, lowering my stance. I briefly peeked through the opening and saw nothing but different shades of dark green.

'Be my guest,' Sam swayed his arm and aimed a hand at the hole.

I set the nozzles on my jetpack to expel minimum thrust and used my hands and feet to direct my body. I burst through and immediately felt myself sink.