A Year Underfoot Read online

  All in all, I’d like to say the shaking lasted for fifteen minutes, but, in all actuality, it was probably closer to one. Regardless of the duration, the side–shift of the fault was violent enough to split the landscape, and in one particular spot near Fort Tejon, the ground was displaced by as much as fifteen feet.

  After the shaking stopped, I pulled myself to my feet and my thoughts immediately sprang to the air base. This had to have set the Threak off. In fact, I was counting on it.

  I wasn’t far from the base. No more than a half of a mile as the crow flies and I covered the ground to my latest vantage point in no time at all, crawling the last few feet to keep my profile low against the horizon.

  Down below, the base was dark. No lights, not a single one, and, more importantly, no plasma fence. The ominous pulsating shield was down. Hallelujah! The earthquake had knocked out the power lock, stock and barrel. This was it. This was my chance. It wasn’t ever going to get any better than this.

  I slipped out of the hills and ran along the Interstate. Sixty yards shy of the base’s southern gate, I dipped low in the weeds along the side the road and focused my attention on the guard shack. From where I lay, I could hear the excitable and confused wailing's of the troopers on duty and I could feel their fear in the air. They had no idea what was going on. For all they knew the ground was set to drop away under their feet.

  Their fear gave me strength.

  I drew my .357 and checked my vest pocket for the small cloth sack containing my secret weapon, – the one the Retratti had clued me into earlier, the one I would need to take out the power core of the mothership.

  I still had it. The package was safe and sound.

  I sidled up next to the base, and even though the fence appeared to be down, I wasn’t taking any chances. I’d seen what the highly charged fence could do to a human body and I wasn’t taking any chances. I picked up a rock and chucked it between the fence poles for confirmation.

  Nothing, not even a spark.

  I watched the stone bounce harmlessly along the alien tarmac.

  I was convinced. Well, – sort of, I sprinted to where the fence once stood and dove across the threshold, eyes closed all the way. I hit the ground and rolled across the tarmac unscathed and sprang to my feet. I kept my head low and took off for the western side of a massive gray warehouse, – and I made it sight unseen.

  So far, so good.

  The troopers were confused. They had no idea what was happening to the ground under their feet, and when another strong aftershock rolled across the southern edge of the Central Valley, they just about lost their collective minds. With the power knocked out, the link between those running the show and those on the front lines was broken. The grunts had no precedent to fall back on, they had no idea what to do. Left to think for themselves, for what may have been the first time in their lives, they jumped from being a calm, cool and collected crew to a panicked pod of nine.

  Chaos had bubbled up through the cracks and it was a beautiful sight to behold.

  But, not quite as beautiful as the six shuttles I spied sitting side by side on the eastern edge of the flight line. All were earmarked for the mothership and one even carried the royal crescent. They’d be lifting off at any moment and I had to be on board one of them. This was my shot. It was now, or never.

  An explosion rocked the ordinance supply warehouse on the western edge of the base. Flames leapt thousands of feet up into the air and had spread to the adjoining buildings, – adding to the level of hysteria in the compound and making my job of stowing aboard a shuttle that much easier.

  Through it all, I’d never stopped moving and had worked my way to within four hundred feet of the closest shuttle, the one carrying the royal crest. So far, so good, but the window to stow aboard her was closing fast. Already, two of the six shuttles had sealed their hatches and were making preparations to lift off. In a few minutes all would be gone.

  I bowed my head and ran, my .357 in one hand and a fist full of air in the other. I ran as I never had run before. I was chewing up the tarmac when out of the corner of my eye I spied a cargo loader carrying shipping crates displaying the royal crest heading for the flight line.

  Perfect.

  I angled my run to meet up with the back end of the slow moving loader twenty feet shy of the royal craft. When I reached the back end of the vehicle I pulled myself up and into the freight, squeezing myself tightly in between the crates. As I wedged inside, I felt myself being lifted, and a few seconds later, loaded into the back of the alien craft.

  Once again, I had found my way onto a Threak ship.

  Behind me, the doors sealed shut and it fell black inside the cargo bay. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, – and I took comfort in the fact it also meant the fuzzies couldn’t see me either. I knew that would all change once we hit our destination and the off–loading process began, but for now I was invisible.

  Next stop, the mothership.

  The temperature dropped inside the cargo hold and my breathing became heavy and labored. My lungs were being squeezed as the oxygen was being pulled from the room. I leaned back against a crate and cleared my mind. I slowed my breathing as best I could and held still. I couldn’t let panic set in as it had in the past. Panic would certainly kill me. I had to let my body adapt, – if it could.

  I closed my eyes and counted to thirty, – slowly and deliberately, and was able to calm myself and regulate my breathing. I heard the now familiar hissing sound coming from up above, and I held still as a light mist fell into the hold. Over the next few minutes the pressure in the hold stabilized, and the pressure on my chest remained constant as well. It may not have been Earth’s atmosphere, but at least I could breathe.

  When I’d finally caught my breath, I made a move to stand. I pulled myself to my feet and my eyes began to adjust to the dark. I could make out shapes and had a general sense of direction, but as soon as I left my hiding spot, the shuttle shimmied slightly and we began to power down. I slipped back into the freight and nestled in, praying the atmosphere onboard the mothership would support me.

  I’d find out soon enough.

  I clenched my .357 tightly and hoped for the best.

  The ship slid to a standstill and when the cargo bay door was breached a few minutes later an orange ambient light filled the hold. I took a quick, shallow breath and was pleasantly surprised to find the atmosphere was enriched with even more oxygen than was available on the shuttle.

  I’d scored a break and I thanked the Universe.

  A low rumble in the distance grew progressively louder and I correctly surmised it was a freight off–loader coming to collect me. I felt the blades of the lift slide into the grooves of the pallet beneath my feet and tilt back, rising slightly as it did so. I was lifted up and out of the shuttle and moved a short distance before being set down. Seconds later, another, much larger vehicle came and collected me. I was driven a short distance, – the loader lifting me into the air all the while, and soon I was set up on a storage rack. After the loader left, I peeked out and I found myself one hundred and twenty feet in the air, staring down at dozens of troopers working the busy docks down below.

  I was onboard! I was safely on board, and no one was the wiser!

  I scanned my surroundings and was about to hop down onto the freight below when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Another freight loader was headed my way. I slid back into the freight and soon after the blades of the loader slide underfoot.

  I was on the move once again.

  This time around I was moved deeper into the cargo hold. With any luck, I thought, I’d be placed on a shelf in the dark recesses of the ship and be forgotten, – which was exactly what happened. When the loader rolled away, I shifted forward and looked around. I was elated to find I’d been placed on the bottom tier of a storage rack in the middle of the massive hold area. I was well hidden from prying eyes and grateful for the fact.

  The air was dank and thick ins
ide this part of the ship, and although I found it hard to breath, it wasn’t impossible to do so. As long as I moved in short, quick bursts, I’d be all right, but if I had to run any sort of distance, one where I’d need to draw deep, successive breaths, I’d be in trouble. I wouldn’t be able to take in enough oxygen. I had to plan my moves. I had to be smart.

  Carefully, I crept from storage bay to storage bay, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. The maze of racks I had to negotiate to leave the cargo hold looked endless, and one thing became evident straight off, I would need a map of the ship if I had any hope of reaching the bridge and the power core.

  At the end of a long dark aisle, a small blue light flickered in the darkness. Upon closer inspection, I found the marked the location of a large oval hatch door.

  Did it lead to the interior of the ship?

  There was only one way to find out.

  I was ready to rock when the hatch swung open. Filling the doorway, a creature strode through the opening and the door closed behind him. He was a Threak, all right, but much smaller in stature than the troopers I’d been dealing with. This version was approximately three feet shorter and three hundred pounds lighter than his counterparts.

  They come in different sizes? Who knew!

  I crept a little closer and kept watch. Sure enough, the hatch swung open once again and another of the smaller–sized fuzzies stepped through. He turned and barked back through the opening and I realized the hatch didn’t lead to a hallway, but, more likely, it lead to a break room of sorts. A cold chill ran up and down my spine when I thought of what would’ve happen to me had I blindly popped open that door.

  I chased the thought from my mind as I slunk back into the freight.

  Time to take stock.

  I was on the ship and the enemy had no idea. I had the element of surprise and I wasn’t pressed for time, – the clock was not ticking. I had no deadline. I was rolling on my own program. As long as I went unnoticed, I was in charge.

  I found a path between the racks and moved diagonally across the hold. I was dwarfed by thousands and thousands of identically fashioned crates stacked from floor to the ceiling and I stopped among them from time to time to catch my breath and gather my bearings.

  I was holding up pretty good, I was breathing deeper and my limbs felt lighter. Either I was adapting, or the environment was becoming increasingly oxygen friendly. I didn’t matter to me which assumption was true, just as long as it continued.

  I popped my head up over a pallet and dropped it back down just as fast. An open–aired vehicle was coming to a stop in the aisle to my right. I held perfectly still as the cart–like vehicle slowed and stopped and one of the shorter, less menacing Threak stepped from it and headed for a storage bay not fifty feet away from me.

  I slunk lower and held still. I wasn’t curious at all to see who he was, or what he was doing. I had no interest in him at all. I was only interested in finding a way out of the cargo hold and onto the bridge sight unseen. Nothing more, nothing less.

  I waited without worry and in due time he moved on. Only after he’d left did it occur to me that he’d performed the task alone, unlike his trooper counterparts who operated in pods of three no matter how menial the task. Were the smaller ones smarter? Apparently.

  I crept further back in the hold. The din of the loading dock faded as I slipped deeper and deeper into the ship until soon it was quiet. The glow of a hazy red light beckoned in the distance and I crept toward its strange luminescence. As I approached, I hide among the pallets and found the red light also marked the entrance to a passage way.

  I sat, I watched and I waited.

  After a full hour of observation, I’d only seen one fuzzy use the hatch, – a high–ranking officer. The longer I sat there, the more convinced I became it led to the interior of the ship. With any luck, the bridge wouldn’t prove to be too far off.

  I had to pop open that hatch. I had to know what lay on the other side.

  I left the freight and approached the gray oval door. I hesitated a bit, but still reached up and pulled down on the hard flat metal–like lever. The hatch popped open with ease and I peered inside and looked around.

  It was a hallway. Long, dark and wide. I stepped through the hatch and sealed the door behind me.

  I was inside, but where inside? I had no idea,–but I was off the dock and one step closer to my goal.

  The interior of the hallway duplicated the interior of the shuttle,–featureless and cold. The floor, walls and ceiling were midnight black, and the space between them was lit with the same smoky red light I’d seen so many times before. Every sixty feet, on either side of the corridor, a huge oval door was sunk in slightly from the smooth walls and as I took my first step forward, a Threak trooper exited from one room and crossed straight across the hall toward another.

  I froze and held my breath. I was standing in the middle of the hallway stone cold busted. Had he not been preoccupied and simply looked to his right, my life would have ended right then and there. Instead, when he entered the second room and the door slid shut behind him, I took off running deeper down the hallway. My head was on a swivel, scanning from left to right, and back again. I had to get out of the hallway, and when I heard the hatch lever move behind me, I pressed my body against the closest door and hoped for the best.

  Mercifully, it slid open and I ducked inside.

  A smoky red light partially illuminated the room and a quick glance found it to be unoccupied as well. Leaning back against the near wall, I took a deep breath as sweat beaded and poured off of my brow. My eyes had adjusted enough to the crimson–hued darkness to see I was standing on the louvered grating of an air duct. The slatted cover measured two feet by two feet, easily large enough for me to fit inside and I immediately went to work removing the twelve clasps that secured it to the floor.

  After I’d finished, I pushed the grate to one side and slipped down into the duct. Once inside, I lay flat on my back and slid the slatted cover back over the opening and contemplated my next move.

  I lay there in the darkness and called up what I knew.

  From the information given to me by the Retratti I knew the mothership to be a triangular craft approximately a mile and a half long and a quarter mile from top to bottom. The captain’s bridge, the nerve center of the alien craft, is located high up on the pointed bow of the sleek, swept back vessel, while the main power core, the great ship’s Achilles Heel, is tucked away in the center of the massive craft.

  And, although the main power core lay in the center of the ship, the visions were quite specific, the package must be delivered to the power core via the bridge for it to have the desired effect.

  The Retratti were most adamant on this point.

  I closed my eyes and visualized the ship’s layout. It was over a mile from where I lay to the forward bow, – a figure that would only hold true for me if the ventilation system were laid out in a straight line. If it had been erected in any other manner, I may never reach it at all.

  I lowered my head and began to crawl forward. My progress was slow and deliberate. I was moving under the feet and over the heads of those who would kill me and I was fully aware that any misstep would certainly be my last.

  But, I had time on my side, there was no need to push it.

  One hundred feet ahead of me a column of crimson light blocked my path. I kept moving forward, nonetheless, and when I’d gotten to within twenty feet I saw that it was the light from a room below filtering up through a louvered grate.

  I slipped around the light, peeking down through the slatted grate as I did so. The room was empty, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I pressed up tightly against the side of the shaft and slithered past as quickly and as quietly as I could.

  I stared out into the darkness and for the first time since I’d embarked on this mission, I was stuck by the realization that my actions would not only take out the Threak, but myself as well.

  Was I really ready to die
?

  Until that moment I’d only focused on delivering the package and taking out the mothership. Never once did I entertain the thought of making it off this ship alive, but as I crawled along, I began to think of ways I might effect my escape.

  I had to stop and shake my head to keep from laughing. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. I still had to crawl more than half the length of the ship, sneak onto the bridge and then breach the power core without getting killed along the way.

  Thoughts of escape would have to wait. I still had a job to do.

  I looked up and my heart sank, up ahead, the ventilation shaft split off in two directions.

  It wasn’t a straight shot to the bow, after all.

  I choose the shaft leading off to the left and said a prayer. If the shaft presented another series of options up ahead, I’d have to fall back and take stock. As it stood, I had a fairly good idea of where I was on the ship, but a five minute crawl in either direction, with a twist or two thrown in for good measure and I’d have been hopelessly lost, no doubt about it.

  I kept moving, and as I pressed on I realized the shaft was slowly wrapping itself around the ship’s main power core.

  I was on the right track.

  This would put me mid–ship.

  Right here, right about the time I was feeling a bit smug, I was overcome by a foul, putrid stench. I nearly vomited on the spot. The smell of rotted and decaying meat permeated the air, and as it wafted past me, my eyes began to water and sting. I sat back on my heels and covered my mouth hoping it would pass.

  Then I heard footsteps.

  A brief pitter–patter, like that a small dog scampering across a ceramic tile floor, filled the shaft. I was no longer alone. There was something else in the narrow shaft with me, some sort of alien creature I hadn’t met before, but would now, because a confrontation was all but inevitable. There wasn’t anywhere else either one of us could go.

  I’d been inching forward with my .357 in my right hand all along, so I was good to go at a moment’s notice, but, rather than plunge blindly into the unknown I sat back and listened.