Someone's Calling

As Ishar crept inside the hole, shielding himself from the raging wind outside, he leaned against the walls to connect with Pratap's satellite camera. Surprisingly, the interior walls were chillingly cold, so cold that he regretted not bringing a blanket with him.

Ishar stared at the screen, hoping the connection would be better inside Pralaya-1. Finally, to his utter satisfaction, the screen buzzed open and Pratap spoke through the earpiece,

"Ishar, are you inside the spaceship? Great. Now, tell us what you see. The entire team is connected here."

Ishar grinned at the successful communication and looked at his surroundings. What exactly did he see? There was nothing but a long, winding tunnel, swirling and turning with weird patterns, much like the root of a tree.

"I don't know what I'm seeing," Ishar replied, turning on the camera attached to his chest, "But, I'm going to keep walking. I think I am under the spaceship right now. The hole wasn't included in the blueprint, so I'm just going to roam around, praying to find the power and control room in an hour."

Without waiting for a reply, Ishar turned on his flashlight and started walking through the small tunnel, as softly as he could.

He knew that if an alien spotted him right now, he would be dead meat. After five minutes, which felt like three hours, he noticed that the tunnel turned sharply upwards. Holding the flashlight between his teeth, he climbed up the tunnel, managing to fit through the hole, and landed on the solid floor outside.

He groaned and turned up, looking at the ceiling. It was the same, slimy substance that Ishar had seen on the satellite camera. 

"Where are you right now?" Aniket asked, "We can't see you through this satellite."

Ishar looked at the satellite broadcast. It still showed the fiery stars in the power room. That's when Ishar started looking around. 

"I have absolutely no idea where I am", Ishar said, looking at his surroundings disgusted, "But it looks like a storage room of some kind."

The circular room hosted a variety of weird devices, so strange that Ishar couldn't have even dreamt them up. There were some spears hanging from the ceiling, and vats filled with oozing green liquid. Inside the vats were some kind of living animals that Ishar didn't dare to explore.

"These creatures just shock me more and more," Anjani said through the earpiece.

"Is this room in the blueprint?" Ishar asked, taking his copy of the blueprint out of his pockets, "Because I can't spot it right now."

There was a moment of silence. Then, Karan spoke up.

"It is, but the room looked different that time. That's why you can't spot it. I think that if you turn left, you should find a corridor that leads you straight to the control room. Don't worry, we will first check the corridor with the drone to see if it's safe or not."

Ishar nodded to no one in particular. He just wanted to get out of the storage room, or whatever it was. It was making him feel terribly uneasy. 

He took his flashlight and stumbled out of the room. He took a left and was met with a long path, thick wires and buttons beeping from the top. As he walked on, he noticed that there were some sort of cages on each side of the path. Weird, growling sounds came from inside them, along with occasional thumps that scared the life out of Ishar. 

"Look up Ishar!" Pratap shouted in his ear.

Ishar looked up, expecting to see an alien ready to eat him. Instead, he was met with the familiar, small satellite-drone, buzzing innocently above his head.

Ishar groaned. "The next time you decide to shout at me, when I am in an alien spaceship, make sure that you specify what's coming."

Pratap sheepishly chuckled. 

Ishar walked down the path, almost reaching an end. The drone hovered forward to check for any aliens. As Ishar was about to turn out of the path, he heard a sound, one that made his eyes widen in anxiety.

"Ishar?"

Ishar stepped back slowly, not daring to turn and look at what was calling him. 

"Ishar, are you there?"