SFW Story - Vergu's Mineshaft
#1 of SFW - Stories (English)
VERGU'S MINE SHAFT
Story by Jigaard for Kalahad
I am Kalahad, a blue and white fox with green eyes. I'm a lieutenant on a ship called the "Mirage 272", a craft carrying precious minerals. The speed of travel had stabilized, as we finally arrived on the planet Vergu. We are on a mission to extract minerals from this place, which was abandoned after a nuclear explosion that polluted the entire atmosphere. This happened more than a hundred years ago and no one has had the courage to venture there since. There were even some people who said that the place was cursed. But fortunately, we were highly equipped, with the latest anti-radiation suits and a large arsenal of weapons, just in case.
"All personnel, please return to your seats and fasten your safety harnesses, we'll be entering the planet's atmosphere in two minutes."
I hurried to the cockpit at full speed, luckily I was very close, I put my hand on the touch screen on the door. After a few beeps and the message "Authorization granted" from the device, the door opened and I was able to enter the command cabin. The front of the ship was built like a triangle and the room was sloping, with a small central staircase, seats for each of us and once in place we had a huge keyboard with three screens in front of us for engine control.
"Take your time Lieutenant Kalahad, there's a little over a minute left." Said a voice from the seat in front. I finished tying up in a hurry and once I was in place and my straps were securely fastened I replied.
"Yes, but I'd rather be ahead of the game than find myself with a critical situation" I asked to the man. It was our captain, Retjohn, a black bear with a few stripes of grey fur all over his body, I had never worked with him before, but he was really very effective in his guidance, at the same time with his 52 years he must have a lot of experience. And that reassured me, because it was a risky mission, even though the radiation wouldn't cause us any harm, but recently, the heat of the planet had increased considerably. The latest readings showed oscillations between 39 and 74° Celsius, all of this in the same day.
" Entering the atmosphere in 10 ... 9... 8 .. 7 .. 6 .. 5 ... 4 .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 ..."
My claws stuck automatically in the leather of my seat, I had already made a hole in it with my left hand, I wasn't afraid, but all these vibrations and all this pressure crushed me as if a weight of one ton was pushing me inside the seat. The upholstery was made of a new gel that prevented damage to the body. And it was very comfortable and reassuring.
- Huuuggghhh ! As I clenched my teeth while taking brief, quick breaths, as the pressure intensified against my rib cage, I couldn't see the progress of the journey to the surface, because several metal blinds about one meter thick obscured the view from outside the passenger compartment, the glass itself was at least three meters wide.
Yes! The ship was a "Big Daddy".
Then, to my great relief, the pressure decreased, the tremors gradually subsided and finally the captain took the controls for a manual landing.
"I request the opening of the protective screen!" Said Retjohn.
"Opening in progress" Replied the artificial intelligence. Then, after a few clicks and beeps, a muffled rumble was heard and, slowly, the metal plate hiding our view slowly came away, allowing us to see the planet's ground. The captain was busy pushing buttons.
"Thrusters firing" The AI said.
"Kalahad! Engage thrusters 2, 7 and 8" The captain said.
I did not be begrudging, quickly tapping the left touch screen on my station, I reached the reactor controls and pressed the switches.
"Reactors 2, 7 and 8 operational Captain!" I say strongly.
The passenger compartment then started to shake for a few seconds and I felt pressed against my seat again for a few seconds. Retjohn, piloted manually, causing the ship to describe a slight curve to place itself at a respectable distance from the ground.
"Kalahad, switch on the field scanner so we can land near the site Z241-c. I don't want to get into a crevasse."
I went through the programs to find the map in another tab and turned on the "Terrain quality and stability" setting. Immediately a map was placed on the ship's visor and showed us in green, an area 17 km away from where we were. With red all around.
"Ah, perfect, a fairly large spot, right next to the site." Retjohn continued. The structure vibrated for a second while the captain corrected the trajectory. Given our speed, we reached the area in less than a minute.
"Kalahad, engage retro thrusters." he said.
"Retro thrusters on." I said after I switched them on in the ship's computer. The craft quickly lost speed and began to straighten up, and the captain took care of the final landing maneuvers. He extended the articulated arms to stabilize the ship on the ground and then shut down all thrusters. He was good because we had barely been shaken during the landing on land. The moment the vibrations stopped I took the time to undo all my straps.
"Well done Captain, it's rare to land as smoothly as you did!" I complimented Retjohn as I stood up.
"Thank you boy." He said to me as he finished untied himself. Standing up, I began to stretch, my neck cracked a little, and I was able to observe the state of the planet, or rather a land of desolation.
This place was about five times smaller than most colonized planets. The state of this planet was not only due to the war that started the nuclear explosion, not directly. The damage to the Earth's mantle ripped off much of the planet's largest volcano, which erupted, spewing out magma and ash without stopping for more than twenty years. The atmosphere became lethal in less than a few days. The landscape I had before my eyes summed it all up, the sky was bright red, clouds ... no, a yellowish mist replaced the clouds, all the vegetation had disappeared, I could see in the distance the remains of a city, buildings completely collapsed.
"What do we do now, Captain?" I asked.
"Oh! Relax for today! We'll be much more efficient if we're full of energy, especially in this cursed place!" He said.
"Very well." I said before leaving the cockpit.
It was almost pitch black outside, so the ship's lights would stay on during our stay on Vergu. I looked distractedly at my surroundings. The interior of the ship was lined with three different colours, a yellow-brown on the floor, the walls were all white except for blue stripes going in the direction of travel and pointing here and there to the different areas of the cabin. On my own account, I was going towards my room for looking at the details of our mission beforehand. On the way, I passed near Kotac, a wolf with white and grey fur, he was one of the men in charge of security during the mission, there were rumors of mutant creatures on the planet. In fact, he was a mercenary that we had recruited, he was extremely well qualified, besides his stature didn't make you want to mess with him. He was three feet tall and almost a hundred kilos and he didn't have a hair of fat on his body, his muscles could be easily guessed through the suit.
"Hi Kotac! How are you doing? The landing was rather quiet for once." I said shaking his hand. He burst out laughing at the end of my sentence.
"You said it Kalahad! It was more comfortable this time."
Indeed, the last time we had landed on a planet, Kotac was present at my side, and during the crossing of the atmosphere, a reactor had decided to explode and the ship had started to turn on itself slowly, the crash was quite violent. We were very lucky. One, because the planet had breathable air, and two, we had somehow escaped unharmed. Then after a distress call, a rescue team came to meet us. By the time the team arrived to extricate us from the ship's carcass, we had talked a lot and became buddies.
"Congratulate the captain for me! We really landed like a feather. Well, I've got to go. I've got all the weapons to check. See you later." He said as he continued on his way with a determined step.
"Ok! See you later." I said, turning back towards the junction. After that I quickly found my room, I had a private shower at my disposal, I hurried to wash myself, the hot water did me a lot of good and relaxed me after the stress of the landing. Then, my bed welcomed me with open arms and as I collapsed on it, I started to close my eyes and fell asleep quickly.
Day One :
The next day, I opened my eyes with the impression that I was in great shape, I hadn't paid attention to the time, but I was operational! I took the time to look at the file on my desk and went through it quickly. My job consisted mainly of supervising the drilling teams. Before the forced evacuation of this planet, someone had discovered a mine that contained ruby obsidian. In short, it was worth three times as much as a diamond. The mining crew had been carefully screened to make sure there was no leak, because some people would be able to kill to get such an ore. I quickly walked through the main hall and reached the common room where everyone was standing, I was not late for the meeting, it was the room with the most comfortable seats. There were a few groups chatting, others on their electronic tablets, watching programs from the many channels in the galaxy. For my part, I made sure to pour myself a generous portion of coffee with a few rations of nutritious bread, some kind of soft toast stuffed with dehydrated vegetables. This was the food that could be most easily preserved in a spaceship.
"Hello Lieutenant!" Says someone behind me. So I turned around, it was Cophiss, the mining chief , a cat with brown-black fur and blue eyes. He was already equipped with his working suit. Outside everyone would be dressed the same way, in suits that allowed them to breathe and that could tolerate the violent temperature variations due to this atmosphere perverted by the ashes of the volcano and radiation. The ship was also extremely shielded and protected against all these inconveniences.
"Hello Cophiss! So, how do you feel about this mining mission?" I was wondering.
"Well, fortunately our equipment is very efficient, I sent a probe to measure the temperature outside, within five minutes the temperature oscillated continuously between 15° and 67° Celsius." He explained. My eyes widened in front of these frightening results.
"And that's not all, at the same time I also put a second device into operation to capture the radiation level. And ... Tell me a number!" He said. I then took some time to reflect on my knowledge. The unit of measurement for the harmful effects of radiation was the Milisievert. I had seen a scale of values, with their effects on the body according to the intensity received during my training at the intergalactic space base. From a thousand, we would lose our hair and vomit. At five thousand we had ulcers in our stomach and intestines. At ten thousand, extreme diarrhea, pulmonary fibrosis and death within days. And from thirty thousand on, you could say "bye!". So, a huge radiation was floating in the air and it wasn't just one power plant that had exploded, in fact the planet had two continents, opposite each other, like a north pole and a south pole, but with normal temperatures, before the catastrophe. And the leaders of the time decided to build all the power plants in one place. It was a very bad idea! As if you took a matchbox full of matches and lit just one ... Boom!
"So?" Pressed me Cophiss.
"Well .... I would say ... fifty thousand?" I said. He burst out laughing and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Your answer is correct! If you add a zero!" He said very seriously.
"What?! At this point?!" I say alarmed, my heart starting to beat fast.
"Don't worry, the suits were made to withstand more than double that, and the ship has a tolerance of ten million Milisieverts. You'll be able to sleep peacefully." He said, calmly. I drank my coffee and ate quickly to calm myself after these revelations. I had always wondered why the walls were so thick and also, why there were five decontamination airlocks. Now I had my answer.
Once on board the ship, the radiation was no longer a problem, because recently a technology had been invented that could completely destroy the radiation without damaging the body cells. I was very interested about the mining and Cophiss explained the procedure in detail. The stay wouldn't be very long, we just needed to harvest two tons of ore, a mine was present near where we had landed. After taking the minerals, the person would enter the first airlock to be deradiatized a first time, the same for the second airlock and the third one. There was a door that allowed access to the shed where the ore could be stored, and then he would enter the ship, one airlock after the other. The captain arrived and with Cophiss, we gave all the instructions for handling the ores, a reminder on how to handle the drilling rigs and safety rules.
"We'll be bored in the airlocks! Twenty minutes to wait to get back into the ship? That's boring!" Says a Red Squirrel.
"Maybe you'd rather wait twenty minutes in a hospital waiting room wondering if by chance you might have a fatal tumor?" Said Cophiss, that quickly calmed the protester down. After this briefing, everyone went back to their activities, to check the good state of the equipment as a priority. I was with the Captain. Spending a good part of the afternoon planning a protocol to leave this planet as soon as the job was done.
"I think we'll be able to leave in five days. There's about twenty workers on the drilling crew. It'll be quick, he says. I nodded, quite happy not to stay more than a week, that red sky was stressful. I went to the common room, got some more food, then after a little shower in my cabin, I went to bed.
Day Two:
The work started very quickly, the mining teams had been very well briefed by Cophiss and the pace was going well. Barely two hours after the first runs we already had access to some ore samples. Once all the radioactivity was removed, it was harmless, its main use was that it was ten times harder than diamond once it had been melted down and mixed with another substance. I had a sample, it was very enjoyable to hold one in your hand, the ore itself was not beautiful. Imagine a large lump of coal with red veins all along it. But thanks to this! We could build even more efficient machines. I carefully put the lump in my bag as a souvenir and the rest of the day went by without a hitch, by the time we stopped drilling we had already collected almost eight hundred kilos.
Day 3:
But obviously, things were going too well to go on. In the middle of the day, a small part of the mine collapsed and only twelve miners returned in shock. They crammed into the first airlock in a hurry and it was a test of strength to calm them down in the loudspeaker.
"Calm down, you are safe now!" I repeated several times calmly. Kotac and his team of mercenaries were not too much to stop them from running around and damaging the electronics.
"The shadow! The Shadow! It's going to kill us all!!!!" Shouted one of the miners. Being able to handle them all wasn't easy, the tranquilizers were a great blessing since we didn't have psychologists, we had to manage as best we could. The ferret I was looking after kept raving the same thing about a shadow with red eyes and he kept repeating it over and over again. I went through all the survivors and noted the ones that were missing. The captain called me urgently with Kotac. We all took stock together, we had to find an emergency solution to get the trapped miners out of the mine and quickly!
I'm going to do a scouting with Cophiss, Kotac and some of his mercenaries. You Kalahad, you'll keep an eye on the miners, I don't want one or more of them to go berserk. They look better, but I don't want to find them crazy again when I'll go back." Explained the captain, as he hurried to the dressing room. They quickly wear their suits, hanging up their oxygen tanks.
We'll try to do it as quickly as possible!" Said the captain as he hurriedly left for the decontamination airlocks.
Once they were out, I went back to the room where the miners were, they had calmed down. I tried to have a little chat with each of them. But they were all talking about the same thing, a sort of gigantic red-eyed shadow that wanted to kill them. It made my back hair stand up, I hoped it wasn't hallucinations because of some kind of defect in the suits. I decided to check every nook and cranny of every outfit by myself. But, they were perfectly conformed, absolutely none were damaged. My helmet beeped suddenly.
"Kalahad!!! Kalahad! We've got to get to the ship. Open the first airlock, fast. We're being attacked by something!!!" Kotac screaming in complete panic.
"Right now!" I answered on my way to the checkpoint. After pressing the airlock release button I saw that thing. It was ... like a big chunk of slimy tar with arms and legs with two huge red eyes. Damn it! The miners weren't delirious at all.
"Hurry up! I'll close the airlock behind you! Hurry!" I shouted in my helmet. There were five of them coming back. Cothiss, Kotac and three miners rushing for the door. Unfortunately for the last one, the ... thing was faster, one of his arms grabbed the miner and, horrified I could see his body starting to dissolve, the combination with it. And the miner turned into a kind of black mud on the floor, the monstrosity then lowered itself and sucked all the juices that was left of his body.
"Hey!!!!! Close it!!!" Shouted Kotac's voice into my helmet. It startled me after the horror vision I had just witnessed. They had now all entered the first airlock, illuminated by the ship's internal lights. I then pressed the closing button on the first airlock, the thing was almost in, but ... It didn't go in, it stood two meters in front of the open airlock. Which closed completely. Phew! They were safe and all together they went through the airlocks one by one. When I finished closing the last one, I stormed out of the room and rushed towards them, they were all in tears, hugging each other.
"We should never have come here!" Said Kotac, calmer now. A question that I viscerally knew the answer to came out of my mouth.
"What... what happened to the captain?" I said in a breath. A heavy silence fell upon us, then one of the miners broke the silence.
"He... we don't know where he is." He said, before breaking into tears again. So we all settled down in the big common room to calm down.
Day 4 :
We spent the night together, comforting each other as best we could. One of the miners had brought something from outside.
"This ... It was at the bottom of the mine." He said. The object looked like a diamond eggshell, but with inscriptions in a language I didn't know written on it. But there were several symbols, such as an exclamation mark surrounded by a red circle and a hand with severed fingers.
"Hmm, strange." I said, speaking to myself. Turning then to the miners I spoke to them clearly.
"I am going to see the mercenaries to see what we can do." I said as I walked through the door. I walked quickly down the wide corridor and heard a scream behind me coming from the common room, which closed immediately.
"The thing went in!!! It's in!!!!!" Made a muffled voice behind the door. Looking behind me, I saw the black horror, the big furnace-red eyes were staring at me, a pestilential smell emanated from that thing. I ran towards the exit of the corridor, but unfortunately the alarm had been given and all the doors closed instantly. I found myself trapped, pressed against the back door. By reflex I clung to it and by closing my eyes I prepared myself to endure great pain.
Ten seconds later, I was still alive, I had the courage to open my eyes and see that the beast was stomping in front of me. One second! I was under a lamp that made a circle of light three meters in diameter all around me. Would it be possible that ...
Luckily, I had a lamp on me, so I turned it on quickly and directed the beam slowly towards the black thing. Just as the light was about to hit it, the monster emitted a scream and retreated violently. And at the same time I wondered how the monster got in when everything was completely locked up. I got the answer shortly afterwards, because being cornered this thing went through the window to the outside, but without breaking it. I grabbed my helmet and gave my instructions.
"Everybody listen up! This thing can't stand light, so put all of you under lamps, take all the torches and stay away from the windows, because it can go through!" I said. After a minute without an answer I started to worry.
"Did you hear my message??!" I shouted. Then finally the doors opened again and a multitude of lamps blinded me.
"Are you all right Kalahad?!" Kotac asked me before coming close to me and hugging me briefly.
"Yes I'm fine." I answered back.
We all moved into the large room to develop a strategy.
"We have to find the captain, it's the only person who knows the maneuver to get the ship up and running!" I say, Everyone was listening carefully.
"At least we know how to protect ourselves from this crap now. We're going to watch the surveillance cameras and as soon as we're sure that thing is out there, we're going to close absolutely every metal shutter on the ship. Then me and Kotac will go get the captain!" I explained. We were now in a hurry because I didn't know if the Captain had a light on him or not! From now on we were all together. The ship was of course completely illuminated inside. But now everyone was paying attention to every dark area. I never thought I would be afraid of my shadow one day in my life. The journey to the control room was very slow. And when we finally arrived, everyone got on a screen and watched carefully. It was dark, it was as if the images were in black and white, except for the inside of the ship of course. Our surveillance lasted at least an hour before one of the miners reported the appearance of the black beast, making us all startle at the same time.
"There! There! The damn thing is here!!!!!" He shouted.
"Where exactly is it? Which side of the ship?" I asked, scanning the screen quickly.
"On the right side about ten meters from the ship!" He said.
"Ok! Kotac! Hit the emergency lock down button!"
He pressed it immediately and after a slight vibration of the ship all metal flaps closed slowly.
"Emergency locking procedure initiated .... »
We always had our eyes on the monster.
"Don't come any closer, you bastard !!!" I said, very nervous.
The black thing looked at the ship, but didn't move an inch.
"......... Lockdown in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 "
CLANG!!
The closing sounded deafening, making all of us startle.
"Come on, now let's put on our suits and take as many lamps as we can, to hang them on us, at least ten each, let's not take any risks !"
Few minutes later, we were all dressed like Christmas trees. We headed for the decompression airlocks. We were, at the same time, in a hurry to get the captain, but also completely terrified by the thing that was surely waiting for us. Once outside, we heard a shrill scream and a heavy footstep. The beast was heading towards us at full speed, but it stopped right at the edge of our lights, I saw the red eyes staring angrily at us.
"It pisses you off, doesn't it?! Scum!" I said between my teeth. As we headed towards the mine, it followed us, stuck at the limit of our lights, ready to jump on us at the slightest opportunity.
"Someone will stand at the entrance to block it, so we can search the mine safely!" I said.
"All right, I'll take care of it, Kalahad!" Said Cophiss. The beast was now furious at not being able to follow us into the cavity, so I took some pleasure in showing my middle finger at the beast before entering the mine.
Put that one deep in your ass! I said to the monster, before advancing into the dark corridor. We spent an hour looking for the captain and the survivors. Cophiss regularly reassured us by telling us that the thing was not moving.
I'm throwing rocks at it, but it doesn't care! he said. After a while, Kotac found something.
Hey Kalahad! Look at this! He said.
As I approached him I saw a familiar object in his hands, half a diamond shell with the rest of the inscriptions.
"Oh, my God! Yes! We'll get rid of it!" I said, understanding what it was. The third inscription was a drawing of the creature enclosed in an egg, just like the one I was holding in my hands, well, half of it.
"Guys! We got a way to lock this damn thing up! We've got to go back to the ship and get the other half of that diamond egg, I think it's some kind of a way to contain it!"
"Okay, let's go!" Said Kotac as I walked along. Once we got close to the beast, we moved carefully again. Cophiss signaled us to move to his right.
"Why?" I asked.
"I think this monster had just...shit... Disgusting! He said briefly. Then, after an endless journey, we arrived near the first airlock.
"I'm afraid that the Captain is dead, unfortunately." Said Cophiss. Everyone remained silent and I made no comment. The first airlock opened, we settled in. Once inside the ship, I went to the large room to claim the other half of the shell and immediately returned outside with my three other companions. The thing was still in the same place, but this time we pushed it further and further back so that we could push it back. We had to make several attempts to corner it. I was holding the shells in my hands, on one of the two halves there was a button to press, I guess that was the way to lock the monster inside. And when, at last, we had managed to get it into a dead end, the thing grabbed some big rocks scattered around and threw them at us, pushing blood-curdling scream at us. Unfortunately three lamps attached to Cophiss's suit were broken. The monster started to rush at him, because his belly was in the shade, so I stood in front of him to protect his body with my light. then the black horror started throwing rocks at us again, more furiously this time, turning off one lamp after another. We fled, half a shell escaped me and rolled behind this monster. In my run, still clinging to the other half, I stumbled and sprawled on my belly, all my lights burst during my fall. As I got back on my back, I saw my death coming, when suddenly a voice came from behind.
"Put your half out in front of you Kalahad!!!! Quickly!!!!" Someone shouted. The red eyes came closer and almost instinctively I obeyed the voice.
Once my arm was outstretched, I could see a flash of blinding light coming from behind the beast, I felt my half egg suddenly become heavy, then there was complete silence. As I opened my eyes, I saw a flashlight in front of me. There was no trace of the thing and I could see that now the egg was whole.
"It's over Kalahad, you're safe now"
"What... Captain?!??" I said, extremely relieved.
"Yes, it's me, Kalahad." Said Retjohn.
"But what happened to you?" I asked. He quickly explained to me . After he went into the mine, a second part collapsed his communication device was broken and he was stuck under a rock. He succeed to free himself thanks to the creature when it began to throw rocks at us. He already knew the history of this restraint system. We got back into the ship and the captain announced to everyone that we were about to leave. Of course we got rid of this cursed egg, sealing it in an empty suit that we later buried deep in the mine, to plunge it into oblivion.
Captain Retjohn's mission report:
Once we arrived on the planet Vergu, we started drilling immediately, but we had to leave in an emergency due to an earthquake that threatened to damage the ship. In addition, the atmosphere of that planet was beginning to seriously deteriorate the miners' suits (some of whom died due to breaches in their clothing).
I, Captain Retjohn, say it is impossible to stay on this planet, even with the best equipment.
Let this warning be heard!
THE END