What Lurks Between - A SciFi/Horror Novella - Part Twenty-Two
Barry’s back in memory-land, recalling what happened to him on Ketcham station.
But the monster’s drawing nearer…
What Lurks Between - Part Twenty-Two
Some time later, I turned a corner, dull grey and bland just like every other corridor on Kethcam Station, and found myself outside the lab where I first met Dr. Liu. The memory of our earlier meeting, and of her dismissal, flashed through my head and I almost turned around before anyone saw me.
Curiosity stopped me. What were they doing in there?
Through the viewing window, I saw a large group of the researchers clustered together, Dr. Liu among them. Stretch and Baldy were there also, Baldy looking resigned yet also intrigued. The two junior researchers I recalled from the cafeteria were there as well. They stood in front of a whiteboard that was covered in greek letters and mathematical symbols that I found indecipherable, and were pointing excitedly to one part of the board in particular.
After a moment of discussion, Dr. Liu held up a hand and everyone stopped talking. Her lips moved and she looked to her left, where Baldy stood. He pursed his lips for several seconds while his eyes traced over the equations on the board. Then, finally, he nodded. I presumed whatever the cafeteria guys said, it had proven satisfactory.
Dr. Liu nodded and clapped her hands. The group dispersed quickly, each person going to a station around the room. They began throwing switches and making adjustments on equipment panels in the rapid, yet deliberate, way of people who were well practiced at their tasks.
A minute or so later, just as before, a man entered the room, but this time he only carried one cage. As before, when he grabbed the rabbit and lifted it out, the little creature struggled and kicked. But after a minute it settled down as the man set it down on a small black ramp that led toward the device in the back of the room that I could not see clearly last time.
This time I had no such difficulty.
The device took me by surprise. It was basically just a metal ring, about a meter in diameter, that rested atop a small table. It did not look like much of anything at all.
The ramp leading up to the ring began to move, and I could see that it was not a ramp after all; it was a conveyer belt. The bunny rode along placidly, chewing on some bit of food or other. I wondered if it was curious about the thing it was moving toward.
Lord knows I was.
At that point, with the bunny about halfway to the ring, I noticed the other device. It sat about three meters away from the first ring and looked identical to it in every respect, except that the conveyer belt was moving away from its ring.
I began to have a notion of what was going on. But it was too incredible, like science fiction.
Of course, I thought this while standing in a research lab on an orbiting space station with artificial gravity, so who was I to judge?
The rabbit neared the end of the conveyer belt into the first ring, and Dr. Liu gave an order. One of the junior researchers threw a switch and lights turned on around the circumference of both rings. The lights began rotating, slowly at first then more quickly, until, as the rabbit passed the threshold of the first ring, I could no longer make out the individual lights but only a ring of light superimposed upon each metallic ring.
The rabbit crossed into the first ring and there was a flash of brilliant white light along with a small gust of wind - I could see the researchers’ hair suddenly whip to and fro - as well as a barely audible popping sound. It must have been much louder within the lab, for me to hear it outside.
A heartbeat later there was a similar flash of white light from the center of the second ring.
And then there was a tremendous explosion and a deafening roar.
The researchers were knocked prone. Some lay still where they landed, others writhed in obvious pain. The plexiglass viewing window was cracked, the shockwave from the explosion was so strong.
I stood motionless, stunned. I knew I should have sounded an alarm, run for help, something. But the events inside the lab held me transfixed. Smoke and flame leapt from the table where the second ring stood. Electrical arcs shot forth, followed by another roar.
And then, from within the billowing smoke, I saw a pair of eyes. Glowing red eyes with vertical slits, like a cat’s.
Previous Posts:
- Part One
- Part Two
- Part Three
- Part Four
- Part Five
- Part Six
- Part Seven
- Part Eight
- Part Nine
- Part Ten
- Part Eleven
- Part Twelve
- Part Thirteen
- Part Fourteen
- Part Fifteen
- Part Sixteen
- Part Seventeen
- Part Eighteen
- Part Nineteen
- Part Twenty
- Part Twenty-One
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