Paphos

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Dmitry tried not to cross his arms, but his face remained openly impatient.  Helena sat on the floor rocking back and forth holding her knees.  He didn’t have the ability to feign sympathy anymore.  “Are you ready to go yet?” Dmitry asked as nicely as he could.  Helena’s face looked as pale as a white sheet.

Helena tried to regain her courage.  They were inside one of the countless exam rooms, having taken refuge there.  This facility must have been home to countless experiments, the species here obviously had a thing for genetic research from what she had seen.  Some of the rooms were unfinished, like an abandoned construction site, a quickly abandoned one at that.  Many rooms on this floor in particular had only frames, no walls, or were missing doors, looking altogether very skeletal.  She wondered what might have forced everyone to abandon this place, as it was no small feat of engineering, being built underground and on a foreign planet of all places.  Either way, they were alone, and whatever she thought she had heard, she didn’t.

Dmitry never heard whatever it was that had sent Helena into a sudden panic.  Despite that, and shamefully, Dmitry had panicked too.  Maybe if Helena was any less terrified he wouldn’t have gotten caught up in the moment.  Following Helena, of all people.

Helena, who had remained quiet the entire time, just now started to say something, but that’s when Dmitry did hear a noise.  He slapped a hand over her mouth, silencing her.  Whatever it was sounded very feint, but he did hear it. 

Helena forced his hand away but she stayed quiet.  That was a good thing for her sake.  Dmitry listened as the sound came closer, his heart beating faster.  After a few tense moments they both stared at each other.  The sound became louder, and more prominent.  It was coming from down the hallway, and its heavy footsteps were getting closer.  Then they heard it breathing, and realized how close it must be.  He had a terrible idea of what could be in that hallway, making that noise.  Helena was terrified, her face as white as a sheet.  Dmitry was also afraid, but more than that he was wishing they had the means to capture that thing.  The prospect of bringing something back home would be the height of his great conquest.  First he was given the parasite, and now this.  If he could, he would do whatever it took to drag it back to Earth.  Naturally, their planetary vessel wasn’t designed for that kind of weight… but there were ways to cut useless weight.  Helena, for example.

Then, as if Dmitry was thinking too loudly, the creature stopped.  Why did it stop??  Dmitry needed to see, he needed to see, and so he opened the door a tiny bit.  He wiped the forming sweat from his face and lowered his eye to the sliver of view out the door.  What was it doing??  Even with the door opened a little, he couldn’t see anything.  His desire for safety told him to stay, but he gave Helena one look and remembered his shame, and then slowly opened the door.  He would not be a coward.  He still saw nothing, apparently the creature was not as close as it had sounded.  He had come this far, so with his nerves on edge he stepped out of the exam room, and still saw nothing, so he carefully walked a few paces into the poorly lit hallway.  Through flickering lights he saw it, or at least, its shadow.  Coming closer, carefully closer, he saw a dark metal door with large hinges.  The creature must be there, standing at the door.  He still couldn’t really see anything, so Dmitry went just a little closer.  He licked his lips subconsciously, and realized how dry his mouth was.  In the back of his mind he charted an emergency retreat back to his hiding room, assuming he could get there fast enough.  Now he could see it.  Dmitry squinted, not sure what he was looking at, and when he realized what it was his jaw dropped. 

He saw Orlean, and the creature.  Orlean was interfacing with a hologram, a security feature Dmitry imagined, but that wasn’t everything.  Orlean was attached to the creature, attached by several long veins coming out of one of its pod hands.  Orlean looked like he was somehow biologically connected to it, and the vision sent the blood out of Dmitry’s face.  He pictured those tentacles inside his own body, probing, and instinctively took a step back.  The creature was controlling Orlean with those organic probes.  He couldn’t imagine what that must feel like for Orlean.