amberfocus | Just Another Shop Girl (7/18) (Reply)

Chapter Seven: Horror Story

“It was simple enough when it began,” Vincent told them that night while they gathered around the solar heater that was now reflecting back all of the warmth that it had gathered from its long day under Rukbat’s strong rays. “We’re scientists. Well, most of us are, anyway.”

He looked down at his feet then back up at the Doctor. “We were hired by a very rich and very powerful man named Harrington Conrad. He wanted us to crack the intricacies of a device that was…well, I know this is hard to swallow but it was extra terrestrial in origin.” He paused again as if waiting for someone else to speak. It was obvious that the role of leadership that had fallen on him was not one he was comfortable with.

“It’s all right,” said Rose reassuringly. “Take your time.” She pushed her blonde hair out of her face and gave him an encouraging smile.

“We, Amy and I, I mean, figured out how to make it work, though we still don’t understand fully how it works. It shouldn’t even be able to do what it does, but obviously we’re proof that it can. How else would we get here? It’s not like we can just get in a space ship and come here the direct route. Although, I guess this technology is the most direct route really. It opened up a diamond-shaped doorway between the solar system and the Rukbat system. And it did it by consuming a lot of power. I mean massive quantities of energy.”

“The first time it opened we could see through to here, to this planet. Amy and I took a chance and went through. I know it sounds crazy but it just…it just felt safe, protected. We were stupid. We didn’t even know if it had a breathable atmosphere. We were very, very lucky.”

Vincent fell silent until Rose encouraged him to go on again. “Once we were through the doorway it closed behind us, but we weren’t terribly worried. There was a duplicate of the device mounted on a pole here and we figured it would work the same way and we’d be able to get back well enough. Amy took down our coordinates and we decided to explore as much as we could. That’s when we found the animals.” He shook his head.

“Animal isn’t even the right term for one of these creatures. They…well, they’re extremely intelligent creatures, so gentle and sweet-natured. And so incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately they are also quite curious. When we used the device to go back to Earth two of them followed us back to the lab and the higher ups put them in cages and did experiments on them. It was awful.”

Vincent shuddered and took in a few deep breaths. He swallowed hard and opened and shut his mouth a few times. It was obvious he was having a hard time telling the next part. “We got them to agree, finally, to release them back here on the contingency that I bring a team of scientists here to study them in the wild. I’m young, just out of Uni, and they said they were giving me free reign to run this project. Stupid fool that I was, I trusted them. I trusted them to keep their word to us.”

He looked down at his feet then finally raised his eyes again and continued. “They didn’t keep their word. They kept the two creatures that they had in captivity and abandoned us here so they could do what they wished with the beasts. Every one of us that is here knew about what they were doing, that they had been torturing the creatures and had in one way or another objected to it. We were troublemakers and they got rid of us.” Vincent fell silent staring into the warm glow of the solar heater.

Tessa stood up and walked over to him, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She sat down beside him and said, “It’s okay. You can tell us. We’ll help you. We’ll find a way.”

He nodded at her and picked up the narrative again. “We did pretty well for ourselves in the beginning. They’d left us with tents and food supplies and tablets for purifying water. Eventually it ran out and we realized they weren’t sending anymore, that we had been abandoned for what we knew. The herd we were studying, for we chose to learn all we could about them despite what had happened, became the reason we survived. They showed us where there were tubers and vegetation that was edible and we found fish in the streams. We did okay until the hunters came.”

Tears began to fall from the young man’s eyes and Tessa slipped her hand into his, squeezing it in reassurance. “You’re doing fine,” she said. “Take a minute.” He did, rubbing the tears from his face with his free hand and drawing in a few more deep breaths.

When he was able to begin again he shuddered. “It was a wholesale massacre. Harrington Conrad sold tickets. One million dollars to come and hunt an alien beast. It became a status symbol to return with the horns. They used the beautiful blue hides for upscale clothing for the rich and famous. It was prestigious to bag a beast, fun to put themselves against the monsters. They were the monsters.”

He heaved in a deep breath and blew it out again loudly. “They were the monsters,” he repeated. “And when we tried to stop it, they started hunting…us. What better sport than a thinking creature? Fifteen of my people are dead and Amy, my sister, is close to it. If you hadn’t come, if you weren’t here, she wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“How did you know you could trust us?” Jack asked. “We could have been hunters.”

“No weapons,” said Vincent. “And anyway, the animals, they dreamed to us about your coming. And the old one led you to us. He has kept us safe though it hasn’t always been the best thing for the herd. They…they have compassion for us, though we are of the people who have killed their kind. They knew the difference. They can’t just be animals.”

“They’re not,” said Jack. “They’re an emerging sentient species called the Tirawls. And in 3000 years they are fully sentient.”

“You say that like you know,” Vincent said.

“I do know. I’ve been there. I’m from the future,” Jack admitted.

“You’re from the what?” asked Vincent.

“The future. I come from the 51^st century. I’m a time agent. And something has gone seriously wrong in this time line. You shouldn’t be here. No humans should be here.” His voice hardened. “Especially those hunters. It’s my duty to make sure things get put back to the way they’re supposed to be.” Rose and the Doctor watched Jack without saying a word as he wove fiction around truths, neither willing to interfere. It was as good a cover for them as any.

“Can you? Can you change it?” Vincent asked.

“I can’t change it,” said Jack. “But I can fix it. We all can.”

“How?”

“Well, first we have to disable that device,” the Doctor said taking charge. “We need to prevent any more humans from coming through.”

“That won’t be easy,” said Vincent.

“Well, now there’s no fun in the easy way,” the Doctor said and Vincent looked at him like he’d grown a second head.

“The device is in the center of their base camp. And it’s guarded at all times. Anyone not a part of their group they shoot on sight.”

“Then we’ll have to be both clever and careful,” the Doctor said.

“Don’t worry,” said Rose. “The Doctor and Jack always find a way.”

“And if we don’t, Rose does. Now is this everyone that is left?” the Doctor asked looking around the small group and taking their measure.

“No,” said Vincent. “We have five people on watch. There are fifteen of us left in total. We’ve buried half our original team.”

“Well, if we have anything to say about it,” Tessa responded squeezing his hand again, “you’ve lost your last person.” It was brave words from a girl who hadn’t even know aliens, inhabited worlds other than Earth, and time travel had even existed ten hours ago. But after the day’s events she believed every word that came out of her mouth.

Vincent seemed to as well for his shoulders finally relaxed as if letting the weight of the world fall off of him. “Thank you,” he said looking around at all of them. “We have hope again."

“And let us hope it is well placed,” said one of the other team members, a man by the name of Lawrence Roberts.

“Indeed,” said Vincent. “Indeed.”