Ch. 29 Vacant

Mars

The twins ascended the rugged mountain terrain, their EVA boots gripping onto the mountain's uneven surface. The gravity of this planet was close enough to Galactic standard that their suits didn't need to compensate for much.

Taking the lead, Falken was ahead of Drake as they ascended. As they walked, Drake looked down at his arm; a small display was mounted there affixed to his EVA suit. With a few taps, he sent a ping to Falken's display. With little thought, Falken quickly accepted the ping, and the brother's visors connected with a slight hum. Each brother was given a video feed of what the other was seeing.

A faint tremor resonated through the ground as they pressed on, sending small rocks tumbling down the mountainside and kicking up dust around them. Just as quickly as it had come, the shaking had passed. Causing the brothers to exchange silent glances. Silently, they continued their ascent towards the mouth of the cave.

As they reached the mouth of the cave, it became evident that the scans were correct. In front of them was the start of a cavern, yes. However, it went in maybe 10 feet and stopped at a solid grey featureless wall with a large metal door.

They both activated their helmet lights and started walking towards the door. As they neared it, they noticed some kind of inscription on the door. Drake was about to speak when another tremor sent small rocks tumbling throughout the cave.

 "Guess Mars doesn't like uninvited guests, eh?" Falken quipped through their linked comm channel.

"Maybe it's just giving us a warning," Drake said dryly. "Hey, Soonie, were there reports of this much seismic activity on the scans?"

"Nope, planet wasn't actin' up till we landed; General Zephyros just asked me the same thing. He says if it gets too bad to abort the mission.

Drake looked to his brother to see if he understood. To his exasperation, Drake could tell Falken was smiling under his helmet as he quickly shot him a thumbs-up.

With a sigh, Drake ignored his cheery brother and responded to the comms, "Understood, Soonie, thanks; also, could you send us the doctor's translation notes for this place? We've found some kind of inscription; we want to verify that we're not walking into an active reactor or something."

"Sure thing, give me a moment, and I'll ask her," Soonie said before going silent.

Falken, taking advantage of the silence, began to fill it.

"So, I wonder what these aliens are like; they seem bipedal; look at this door; that's proof enough of that, at least."

"And not to mention they're of similar stature to us; the height of the door is damn near perfect." Drake Added.

"You think they can survive in a vacuum?" Falken asked, almost like an over-excited chickling.

Drake responded matter of factly, "We won't know until we get inside this place, and speculation now would be just that, speculation."

"Oh, come on, I know you're excited too. It's real-life aliens!" Falken said while giving Drake a jab with his elbow.

Drake gave a small smile; yes, he was excited. Could he admit that much? Anxious? Well, that was just sensible. They were going into an unknown alien building. But the emotion that hung to him the tightest was that odd feeling, like something was wrong.

That strange feeling seemed to only get stronger the closer they had gotten to this door. Drake thought he was hiding it pretty well, but if it kept up, he thought he might become a liability.

Over the comms, Soonie said, "It took some time, but here's what the doctor was able to skim off of the Codex's records: sending the packets now."

The brothers quickly accepted the files and started up a visual translator with the packets as a reference. Suddenly, their visors lit up with information, and as they turned to the inscription on the door, their visor automatically shifted the inscribed shapes into galactic standard.

The writing on the door said, "Terrarium Airlock B."

Drake's voice echoed within the confines of his helmet as he processed the revelation. "A Terrarium?"

Falken chimed in, slightly puzzled, "Like a place where plants are grown?"

Drake affirmed, "Yeah, that's what it seems like. This is an airlock, I guess."

Falken, musing over the implications, responded, "Well, that answers my question about them surviving in vacuums. But, brother, I have another question. In all the wide expanse of space, what are the odds that there's another bipedal race of similar stature to us that also breathes oxygen?"

His voice hushed, Drake replied, "Very slim, I would guess, brother."

"Yeah, seems very unlikely," Falken concurred. He unholstered his Aurum Beam-caster, the metallic sound echoing in the cavern, and continued, "My guess is Imps using some weird language."

Drake followed suit, unholstering his own Beam-caster. "Yeah, probably," he agreed, a sense of caution in his voice.

Drake took a deep breath, steeling himself for what lay beyond, and then spoke with a commanding tone, "Open it." The atmosphere between the two brothers shifted abruptly, from light camaraderie to the focused demeanor of trained killers on a mission.

Falken stepped up to the door, a console positioned conveniently beside it. With a few presses, his visor translating the information, the large metallic door opened with a hiss.

Silently, the brothers funneled into the airlock, Falken swiftly locating a console on the other side of the room. He closed the door behind them, and the rush of air began, quickly filling the chamber. The brothers exchanged a brief, silent glance, arriving at a tacit agreement not to remove their helmets—eliminating one less variable to contend with in the unknown.

A few moments later, the door at the end of the sterile chamber opened to reveal a brightly lit hallway. Drake took the lead as they advanced, proceeding cautiously. The walls on either side of the brothers were transparent glass, revealing rooms beyond. Each room housed alien flora planted in orderly rows of soil, bathed in the glow of bright white lights. Hydroponic systems were suspended above the plants, and small, agile drones moved about, meticulously tending to the vegetation.

As far as the twins could see, the hallway and the rooms were immaculate. This place defied the expectations of being the remnants of a long-extinct species. Instead, it resembled an active planetary station, teeming with life and purpose.

The hallway stretched on, revealing more and more rooms until it culminated at a door with the inscription "Atrium Beta." With his weapon aimed at the door, Drake nodded to the panel on its right. Falken swiftly approached, pressed the console, and the door slid open with a faint hiss. Drake entered quickly, his Beam-caster trained forward. The room unfolded into a spacious audience chamber with multiple semicircular rows of seats, all facing a raised stage. Ten feet above the stage, a large holographic display cycled through images of Mars.

The room was bathed in bright light, its walls and chairs pristine white, while the stage retained a dull grey hue. The entire space was immaculate, devoid of any dust or dirt. The twins swiftly moved through, sweeping the area for potential threats, but the chamber remained empty. There were two exits besides the one they had entered through—one at the back of the room near the stage and another straight ahead.

Falken broke the silence after they had confirmed they were alone. "What is this? Some kind of lecture hall or something?"

"Possibly, this whole place is weird; it's like no one is here, like this whole place is on autopilot or something." Drake glanced at the display on his suit arm again.

"Yeah, I wonder if w..." Falken cut himself off immediately and, quicker than Drake could be seen, drew his Beam caster back down at the rows of seats. "Where the fuck did that come from!"

Drake, following his brother drawing his weapon and pointing it at whatever Falken was pointing at, was shocked for a moment. Sitting in one of the chairs, a figure had appeared. It wasn't there a moment ago, yet, perfectly still, they were looking at the back of some kind of strange creature.

The creature was bipedal, wearing a white coat, but was featherless, just having bare skin on top of its head. It looked like a newborn chick but was the size of a fully grown Aelorian.

Falken said what Drake was thinking "It's a fucking alien!"

As Drake stared at this thing, that strange feeling of wrongness started to fill his chest like this thing was a part of whatever made him feel this way. Falken furrowed his brow, getting upset at himself for feeling like this.

Falken spoke in a commanding tone, "Move in and surround it. We need to get a good ID on this thing."

Quickly, like practiced machines, they both moved in weapons lock on the figure; they made their way down the steep steps to be in front of this strange creature.

They knew this thing looked strange, but what they didn't expect when they got to the front of it to see its face was for there to be a black void where its face should have been.

A dark chasm of void concaved the eerily still creature's head. Falken spoke again, precisely what Drake was thinking.

"What the fuck?"

The figure was on its feet in an instant, somehow going from entirely still to standing in the blink of an eye. Having the two brothers' quicker reflexes, Falken sent out a screeching shot from his Aurum Beam-caster. The beam of pure energy tore through the seat and a few of the seats behind that one as it evaporated a hole in them and the concrete floor below it.

However, before the beam could hit the figure, it vanished. Not that it moved too quickly to see or became cloaked by invisibility; it was there one moment, and the next, it was simply gone.

The brothers stood there in complete silence, shocked.

"Where did it go?" Falken's question snapped Drake out of his confused haze.

"I don't know, it just disappeared," Drake said as he scanned the room and settled on something. The Door at the back of the stage was now open, revealing an inky dark space past it.

Falken's eyes landed where his brothers had, and he spoke. 

"I don't like this anymore."