Ghosts of Ophidian by McElhaney Scott

Author:McElhaney, Scott [McElhaney, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Superluminal
Published: 2013-12-22T23:00:00+00:00

Twelve

“He’s dead,” Crossway said after she checked the vitals of the scaly creature, “I didn’t really expect though that an alien could be easily revived from cryostasis simply by busting the glass of his cell.”

“Well, if you need any tissue or blood samples from this creature, you’d better take them now. I doubt we’ll be sticking around much longer,” McKenzie said.

“Hold on there, Mac. We can’t just pick up and run. We need to verify if these cryochambers are going to start randomly opening up or if those three chambers down below were just a coincidence,” Lentz said, “We can’t scrap the mission yet until we have assessed the threat.”

“There is no threat,” Roberts stated in their earpieces, still making his way up the stairs.

Conner and Roberts had already climbed almost twenty flights of stairs. They found it to be a much slower process than when they headed down.

“I’m glad you’re so confident with your assessment, Roberts, but as I recall, you’re the IT guy for the mission,” Lentz said.

“And it was my IT skills that verified that we are not faced with any kind of threat, Doctor Lentz,” Roberts stated, “These people are in a slowed down form of cryostatis – slowed, Doctor, but not stopped. They’re not frozen solid. Their brains are still active and their hearts are still beating, albeit at a much slower rate than normal. These brains of theirs are being fed some significant stuff from those computers down there. I saw the files pouring through and almost even decoded some of the video feed. Whatever this place is, I’d have to guess it’s something along the lines of the Matrix.”

“The Matrix?” Conner laughed, “That’s what you got from all this?”

“I know what I saw down there, Steele. These aliens all around us are living out some form of digitally enhanced lives while they wait for their interstellar journey to end. The computers are transferring impossible amounts of data at speeds I’ve never even imagined possible,” Roberts stated.

“And how does this assessment of yours prove that there’s no threat,” Lentz asked.

Conner and Roberts finally arrived on their level. They started toward the others who were situated in front of the cell they had shattered.

“As Steele pointed out, someone sabotaged the main computer’s access to these aliens in the cargo hold. The last thing our AI pilot friend informed us he did after arriving in our orbit was that he transmitted the accomplish code to the cargo hold – a transmittal that was never received,” Roberts said, “Otherwise, I’m sure all the cells would have began their automated revival process and we’d be faced with an alien invasion unlike anything in all the horror movies we’ve ever seen.”

“That’s a pretty nice theory, but what about the three who were already revived down below?” Conner asked.

“You said yourself that they had some kind of hacker unit installed in their cells. I’d guess they probably woke shortly after this ship left the home planet and they were most likely the ones who sabotaged the mission.

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