Free Ghosts of Ophidian by Scott McElhaney Page A

away.

Eleven
     
    It ended up being easier than they though t to navigate the stairwell in their awkward spacesuits. They reached the bottom in less than eleven minutes. On the way down, they listened to some arguments that had started between the others as they discussed the morality of potentially killing an innocent alien in order to study it. Ultimately, it was agreed upon that it served the purpose of their mission in order to verify if the cargo was indeed alive and being stored in something of a cryogenic stasis. If the beings were truly alive, their presence in orbit still posed something of a threat to the human race.
    Conner and Roberts proceeded past a few dozen alien cells on the ground level and quickly located the room at the end of the building.
    “Do you have the equipment you would need to tap into their system?” Conner asked as they searched for a door.
    “Yes, assuming I can figure out what everything is. Obviously tho ugh, I wouldn’t know how to decipher any of the alien language,” Roberts said, nodding toward a door along the forward wall of the room, “But if they can learn our language by tapping into our shuttle’s computer and our communication units, I figure if I copy enough from their hard drives, I could eventually learn theirs. It may take me a couple years, but I’m sure it would be possible.”
    Conner tapped the door with his fist, resounding in a dull thud. He then stepped back and kicked the door, knocking it inward while it still remained on its hinges.
    “What, no fireworks?” Roberts asked.
    “The door sounded like it was made of plastic and wasn’t as sturdy as the others. I was right,” Conner stated.
    Roberts lead the way into the room, discovering quickly that it truly was something of a computer room. Nothing looked even vaguely familiar to Conner, but Roberts was quickly able to identify some of the alien counterparts to their own computer systems.
    Conner glanced around the room curiously while Roberts inspected different portions of what looked like giant machinery to Conner. Nowhere did he see what resembled a keyboard or computer screen no matter how alien. David set his bag down and sifted through the contents. He pulled out a typical laptop and turned it on before searching his bag again. A moment later, he attached a long cable to his computer that led to several metal alligator clips.
    “How are you going to hack into this thing?” Conner asked.
    “Their computer is definitely humming with life and it’s drawing a lot of power. That’s this baby right here,” he said, patting the giant grey box with no features beyond that of two tiny red lights, “If this beast is being used to just maintain the current status of a million sleeping aliens, it shouldn’t be even half as busy as it appears to be. With a little luck, I should be able to tap into the outgoing cable.”
    He reached over his head and placed the laptop on top of the grey machine.
    “Can you give me a boost? I need to get on top of this thing to get to the cable,” he said.
    Conner assisted Roberts onto the machine, then felt a little useless while he waited. He looked around the room, mindlessly passing his gaze across the nameless machinery. He could still hear the conversation between Crossway, Lentz, and McKenzie. Several minutes prior, they managed to shatter one of the glass doors in order to gain access to one of the aliens. Their initial findings reported the cell’s interior temperature to be thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that the aliens were indeed being kept in an almost frozen state. Crossway listened to the alien’s chest and stomach region and located what she determined to be a heartbeat, so the aliens were verified as essentially alive.
    Conner continued pacing around the room as he listened in on their findings. As he neared the corner of the room, he noticed something highly unusual with one of the cables that led from the ceiling down into the