Suspended by Aric Merchant
This story originally appeared in Alien Dimensions Issue #8
“Well… This is unfortunate.” Cal said.
Cal was not prone to talking to himself. In others, he saw it as a sign of instability. There was little privacy in the Third Phase Colonies, and plenty of people available for conversation. Talking to oneself was inherently antisocial. He would be loath to admit that he had done it. It would be hard to deny it to himself, however, because Calvin was now the only living thing for over 757 trillion kilometers.
He stared at the spot ahead of him where the portal had been less than an hour ago. Its former location was marked by a patch of black, charred earth, a byproduct of the energy released when the portal had first opened.
Everywhere else, the ground was red-brown. This planet had been compared to the surface of Mars, though Cal had never visited the Phase One Colonies himself. The landscape was largely flat, dotted with boulders. The only prominent feature in sight was the large rock outcrop from which he had just returned.
Don’t panic, he thought, this time careful not to say it aloud. They might have been forced to disengage the wormhole for technical reasons. They will reactivate it any moment.
He almost believed it. Calvin was not a physicist, but he knew enough about wormholes to know just how unfortunate his situation was. Wormholes were extremely difficult to target. Once one was successfully locked onto a location, the team kept it open. The chances of reopening a wormhole in the same location twice were remote.
“Begin log,” he said aloud, this time he was speaking to the devices embedded in his uniform. A small chime acknowledged his request. “This is Calvin Watts, chief xenopaleontologist for the Gamma Survey Team. My team has been conducting a survey of the planet designated EX-B448. We were still in the preliminary stages, using only drones to explore the planet. We found it to be totally devoid of extant life, but we did find fossils of microbial life in our soil samples. We were exploring the possibility of fossilized multicellular organisms in a rock outcrop near the portal when our equipment began to malfunction. We were unable to troubleshoot the issue remotely. I volunteered to traverse the wormhole and see if I could fix things manually. If not, then I would examine the rock outcrop myself.
“Unfortunately, I was unable to correct the error in our survey drone. Something external to its hardware appeared to be creating interference. So, I did a preliminary examination on the outcrop and collected a few samples.” Cal shifted the rucksack he carried and was reassured to hear the sample vials clink together. “I believe I saw evidence of boreholes in the fossilized seabed. If so, it would be evidence of ancient multicellular life on B448. I was returning to the portal to have my samples chemically evaluated for corroborating evidence. Much to my surprise, my portal back to Phase Three space has disappeared.” He took a deep breath. “I received no call to return to the portal, so I must assume that the wormhole failure occurred unexpectedly. My best course of action would probably be to…”
Cal froze. He had heard something in the distance- a cracking sound, barely audible. He held his breath as he listened. He noticed the sound of the breeze as it propelled loose sand over the regolith. The sound he had heard did not repeat itself.
“Replay last sentence.” He ordered his uniform tech.
“My best course of action would probably be to…” The tech repeated to him. The recording was muffled by static. The sound must have been too low to have been recorded. Nothing on the landscape had appeared to move. The planet was as barren and lifeless as ever.
He hated to admit it, but when he’d heard the sound he had hoped to turn around to find a new portal awaiting him. He knew better than to hope for that. If the wormhole crew took a shot in the dark, they might be able to reopen a wormhole in this star system. Even if the portal was in open space, they could send a rescue team through in a small spacecraft. The hitch was, almost anywhere the portal opened, it would take that craft well over twelve hours to reach him. Even if they opened as many portals as resources allowed, they’d still be very unlikely to reach him before his situation became critical.
Cal checked the time on the display embedded in the sleeve of his uniform. He took a deep, uneasy breath. The drugs they’d given him to make EX-B448’s atmosphere breathable would only last another twelve hours. After that, hypoxia would occur.
There was no point in remaining at the original arrival point, so he started off towards the rock outcrop.
#
He certainly hadn’t just imagined the sound. As Cal walked around the rocks he could see where a large piece of stone had broken away. Something metallic was catching the light from EX-B448’s sun. At first, he assumed it must have been something their drone had dropped as it was exploring the outcrop. As he got closer he saw that that the metallic object recessed into the rock was even larger than their drone.
Cal allowed himself a moment of excitement. The object was egg-shaped and just a bit taller than he was. Its surface was polished and reflected the red of the landscape. Cal had no idea what he was looking at, but he was certain it had not come from the Phase Three Colonies. All wormhole activity was documented in great detail, and the one he had arrived through was the first to be opened on this world.
The object shook and Cal jumped back nearly a meter. The reflective front split down the middle. Then, those two halves pulled away to reveal a living creature.
Cal took a moment to process what he was seeing. The organism was slightly taller than himself, but its body appeared very different from that of a human. It was segmented, like an insect, but he only saw four appendages, two on the topmost segment and two on the bottommost. Its exterior was the same color as the skin of a very pale human, but it looked like it would be solid to the touch. The top segment was capped with a small head. There was a face with what appeared to be four eyes positioned around a mouth.
The insect-like appearance of the alien gave Cal the impression that the machine was an insect’s cocoon, but it seemed more likely that the machine was for cryogenic freezing or another form of suspended animation. Mankind had never managed to get such technology to work long-term. Fortunately, wormhole technology had made sleeper spaceships unnecessary.
The cocoon’s position in the rock suggested to Cal that it had been sealed and dormant for a very long time, possibly centuries to millennia. He wondered how long The Creature had been asleep?
The Creature stirred. One at a time, the eyes changed from dark blue to white. They appeared to be lidless, but the color change suggested to Cal that The Creature was waking up. The head shifted slightly and he felt that the eyes were now focused on him. The Creature shuddered, whether from fear or excitement, Cal could not say. There was a grinding sound as the solid exteriors of its segments rubbed together. The alien’s lower appendages came out of the metal cocoon and planted themselves on the dusty ground.
Cal’s heart was racing. Adrenalin was flooding his body and he could not tell if he was either afraid or excited. He was face to face with an alien intelligence, something every xenopaleontologist only dreamed about. Primitive life had been found on a few colonized worlds and intelligent signals had been detected from millions of light years away, but no human had yet interacted directly with an alien being. He had no training for this, no idea of what to do or say.
The Creature leaned forward. Cal took another step back as its body pulled free of the cocoon and its front half lowered to the ground. The head turned upward and the eyes landed on Cal again. There was something in that gaze, but Cal was not sure what: curiosity, fear, anger, loneliness?
Its front segment lifted up again and it balanced on its hind legs. Towering over Cal, it could have been quite intimidating, but Cal did not feel that he was in danger. He took a cautious step forward. The front appendages began to move frantically, pointing in various directions. The movements were accompanied by clicking noises. The display was likely meant to convey an intelligent message, but it was lost on Cal.
The tech in his uniform could record the movements and sounds. If the portal were open, it could relay the recording to the Gamma Team computer and return a translation in minutes. With the portal gone, Cal was left to his own devices.
He couldn’t be certain, but he suspected the alien was trying to relay its own story of arriving on the planet. There was no spacecraft in sight, so Cal suspected wormhole technology had brought them both to B448. The same unknown forces that had affected the drone and stranded Cal might’ve done the same to this alien.
Cal held up his hands to try to get the Creature to calm down and watch him. The Creature paused and focused on Cal once again.
He placed a hand on his own chest and said, “Cal.” It felt like the logical place to start.
The Creature imitated the self-referential hand gesture and gave a quick series of clicks.
“Nice to meet you.” Cal said, knowing full well the sentence meant nothing and he was totally incapable of speaking his companion’s name.
Cal was startled when one of The Creature’s front appendages suddenly extended toward him. The end of it splayed into six digits which then gently touched the side of Cal’s face. The digits slid downward and there was a prickling sensation as fine hairs on the digits rubbed against the stubble on Cal’s jaw. The touch sent a shiver down his spine.
Cal was surprised by The Creature’s willingness to touch him directly. He thought some kind of quarantine procedure was probably called for given that they were from different worlds and this creature had been isolated for a very long time. Then, he thought about how a human might react after a long period of isolation. He would probably also abandon caution and embrace the first person he encountered. Cal reached up and placed his hand over The Creature’s digits. He hoped this could be understood as a gesture of friendship. For a moment, Cal felt a connection with his companion, the only other living thing for light years.
Suddenly, the digits closed around his hand and squeezed hard, painfully. Cal pulled his hand away and stumbled backward.
“What the hell?” He shouted as if it could understand.
The Creature didn’t seem to be looking at him though. The four eyes shifted from dark blue to white. Its body trembled. A silver fluid began to trickle from the spaces between its segments. The clicking speech changed to a shrill whine. The creature dropped back down onto all fours, but then the appendages gave out and its body collapsed onto the red dirt. It convulsed on the ground for a moment, then was still. The eye color stopped shifting and landed on a speckled mix of blue and white.
Cal had no clue what he should do. In a medical emergency back home he could check a human’s vital signs or try to resuscitate a nonresponsive human, but he knew nothing of this being’s physiology. He crouched down next to it and listened for respiration. He heard nothing, but he couldn’t recall if it had been breathing before.
The alien’s body remained still. Cal stared, dumbfounded, waiting for some sign of life, but nothing happened. Medical devices in his uniform were capable of detecting his vital signs and responding if he were to suddenly be rendered unconscious. He prayed that The Creature was equipped with similar life-saving technology.
As the minutes passed, he slowly lost hope. Eventually, he concluded that any hope of resuscitation was long gone. The Creature had lived outside of the cocoon for less than two full minutes. Once his drugs wore off, he knew he would meet a similar fate. Unless…
He turned to the cocoon. This was his salvation. It was his only option. The odds were immense that The Creature should just happen to have taken refuge here. It was as if a means of rescue had been delivered to him. He needed to believe it. The Creature had foolishly chosen to exit the cocoon and had inevitably succumbed to the planet’s inhospitable conditions. Its death did not need to be in vain, however. He could use the cocoon to survive until help arrived.
No, he realized. There would be no rescue party. The Gamma Team would conclude that he could not be reached and he was surely dead. There was no point in Cal denying that. There was still some hope in this device. He could survive in suspended animation within the cocoon until the far-off day when colonization of the Phase Four worlds was well underway. B448 was not that deep into Phase Four space. If he was lucky, this world may be colonized and partially terraformed within fifty years.
Cal slowly climbed into the machine. He turned around to face the red landscape and lay back against the cocoon’s interior. The cushion beneath him shifted and molded itself to his body. So, it was adaptable. That was promising. The top portion of the cocoon shook, then the opening began to seal itself from bottom to top like a zipper. Cal was plunged into darkness. Then, the inner surface of the cocoon became translucent and the view of the red planet’s surface reemerged.
The cocoon issued a few chimes and clicking sounds. Cal presumed that these would have been meaningful to the alien. Of course, he could not understand, but the machine seemed to be proceeding without requiring any input from him. Cal silently hoped that the machine could account for his physiology. Still, his chances of survival were greater in here than out on the planet’s surface.
A strange, stifling odor filled the tight space and Cal found it harder to breath. Each inhalation took more and more effort. He tried to reposition himself but found his body was locked tightly to the cushion. He felt like he was going to start hyperventilating, but his breathing slowed instead. He realized that the air was literally getting thicker, heavier. Something was filling the space around him, but it was not being poured like a liquid. It was filling every empty part of the cocoon’s interior at the same rate. Calvin speculated a form of nanotechnology that was yet unknown to humanity was at work.
Cal was startled when he realized he had stopped breathing. He did not even feel the compulsion to breath. He reassured himself that it was a part of the suspended animation process. If he was honest, the process so far had been less unpleasant than he had expected when he had first climbed into the machine.
With his breathing now suspended, Cal assumed that he would be unconscious in only a few moments. With luck, he would then awaken in a Phase Four Colony hospital. The locals would recount how he was discovered. They would be shocked to learn that he was still alive. Perhaps his stranding and presumed death will have passed into legend. Calvin, the first man on B448- he would be a living piece of their history.
Or, he would die here in the cocoon. Either way, at least he would slip into unconsciousness with hope.
Cal waited… and waited. He remained conscious. His eyes no longer blinked. His body would not respond to any attempt to move. He stared, frozen, at the red scenery. Minutes passed and still he was fully awake. How could that happen? The machine was clearly doing its job. He was frozen and his bodily function all appeared to have come to a halt.
A horrific notion came to him. The cocoon was intentionally keeping him conscious. Perhaps the nanotechnology it employed created an alternative way for his senses to gather information and carry it to his brain while keeping the brain active to analyze it. Why it would do such a thing, Cal could not guess. Perhaps remaining conscious had cultural significance to The Creature.
The Creature. Now, its behavior made sense to him. It had somehow signaled the cocoon to release it when the drone had appeared. The Creature had not only been in suspended animation for millennia, it had been conscious the entire time. It didn’t care that exiting the cocoon meant imminent death. When Cal had arrived, The Creature had accepted death in exchange for a few moments of interaction with another intelligent being.
Cal stared out at the arid landscape. There was no movement. How long would it be before someone arrived to free him? How many hours would he have to endure with only his own memories to occupy him? Any more survey missions would likely arrive in a very different part of B448. He may not be found by Phase Four Colonists for decades.
Already, he was eager for a dust storm to change the scene before him in only the slightest way. The red planetary landscape persisted, unchanged. After only a few hours on this planet, he had already begun talking to himself.
What kind of toll were a few decades alone going to have on his mind?