Ricaris Einar's Story

Resting almost precariously atop a mountain, was a strange metal hulk, appearing to have been sundered cleanly from something else. Plumes of smoke, and flame occasionally flared up from the strange, almost iridescent grey hull. It had fallen from the sky with a loud crash, and this was it's final resting place.

There were few markings on the metal hulk, in a language that was alien, blocky writing emblazoned under a large emblem that was as charred as the rest of the hulk. The image on the plaque was of some kind of bird.

Steam hydraulics hissed as a staircase unfolded from the side of the Bronze Bolt, the big flying ship that had come from the college to the south. The mechanics had barely disengaged when a man in a double breasted coat started down them, two long tails trailing behind in the cool mountain breeze.

He clapped loudly as he arrived at the bottom, taking in a deep breath and surveying the wreckage. A bright metallic ribbon, twinkling with copper weavings, marked the perimeter.

There was a loud thud as a big crate was dropped a bit too hard off the ship. The Professor shot a quick glare to the one working the pulleys before swiftly cranking open the lid. He fished out a hard hat from the collection in the crate and jammed it over his hair. Again, Rayner clapped. He turned his attention up the staircase gang plank and addressed the small crowd of students (and college staff, and one or two others on the expedition) that had gathered.

"BEST EARS ON, EVERYONE!" Rayner Evaristus cleared his throat and continued, loudly, after a beat,

"SINGLE FILE DOWN THE PLANK! GRAB A HARD HAT, AND GATHER HERE," The Professor pointed at a spot in the dirt between him and the copper ribbon.

"DO NOT CROSS THE RIBBON! Right-o!" He clapped again, signaling everyone to move.

The metallic hulk shuddered, and let out a deafening mechanical groan as the ground under began to settle. Metallic clanging, and rattling followed almost immediately.

Immediately in front of the group, scorched alien metal awaited them, along with what looked like some kind of hatch.

"ALL, BACK!" Rayner shouted and waved his arms as the giant metallic hulk settled. He scrunched his eyes shut to listen to the clangs and rattles, hoping to place them. No such luck.

Doreen, and many others, leapt back a solid eight to ten exaggerated feet in a hurried motion. She almost stumbled over someone standing behind her. The student had noticed what looked to be an entry to the great mass just up ahead.

The Professor must have noticed it too. He waited until the sounds were (hopefully) long gone, and spun to face those behind him.

"Helmets on! All of you, everyone, if you haven't a helmet, you're to retrieve one immediately," Rayner knocked on his own helmet for emphasis, "Part of the waiver you all signed. The helmet is to stay ON!" Rayner clapped his hands together again, pausing a moment to glare the rule into everyone's skull, "For the duration of this expedition. If I see any bare heads, well-!"

He turned to peer at the large structure, straight at what must have been the entry hatch.

"Well! You'd best right keep the hard hats on then, yes? Yes! Does everyone have their hantern?..."

The Professor began to rattle off a checklist of basic safety tools and procedures. She had her hantern, a hand-held lantern. Doreen let her ears grow lazy, instead choosing to take in the massive alien structure. She wondered if the coppery ribbon was for their protection, and whether or not it even did anything other than mark the point at which one would be in danger from falling foreign objects.

The large hatch was roughly five meters in circumference, and on the right side of the hatch was a bright red D shaped recessed handle that bore alien lettering written in red, and yellow. The handle itself was set besides what appeared to be screens of some kind, however the screens were non functional.

The sounds of settling stopped, however there were the sounds of a few faint pops of electrical arcing within, and the strange metal would feel warm to the touch, but not hot, and not cool.

The D shaped handle would pop out from it's recessed slot if touched, and could be easily manipulated. If the handle was turned clockwise, audible clunking could be heard inside the hatch, and the moment it opened a rush of foul smelling air would greet them. The air would smell like death, and decay, but also bear the acrid stench of ozone. Inside the hatch would be almost pitch black, a long hallway of some kind with a light at the end.

Rayner finished his checklist and watched as the group settled. A few more stragglers came down off of the Bronze Bolt, and he didn't wait to see whether or not they grabbed hard hats before turning back to the giant hulk of metal. The reason for their arrival.

"If you're set, stay close! We ready forth!" The Professor drew a small set of shears from his pants pocket and snipped the coppery ribbon. It gently fluttered to the ground, catching sparkles of light all its way to the charred ground. Rayner didn't wait so long for the ceremony of a ribbon touching dirt before he started marching diligently towards what looked to be the door. A hatch.

Well, it was a way in. But how to open it? Rayner noticed everyone else hung back by the ribbon for now. Probably for the better. What if he opened it, and it exploded? A dance of butterflies erupted in his stomach. If it were to explode, it likely would have by now. Right?

He wasn't so sure, but part of him didn't care. This was a first - and while the college saw many firsts, this was truly a first.

This thing fell literally from the sky. From the space beyond. Wherever and whatever was out there, now it was here. In front of him.

He was touching it. It wasn't until the D shaped handle popped out that he realized he was touching it, and he suffered a delayed reaction of a small jump and a loud "yip!". After a moment nothing else had happened. Nobody seemed to hear his utterance. Onward.

Rayner pulled on the D shaped handle. Nothing happened.
Rayner pressed on the D shaped handle. Nothing happened. He frowned at the vessel, and then pulled on the D shaped handle even harder than before. Again, nothing happened.

He shot a glance back at the crowd and realized too late literally everyone seemed to be watching him. Nuts, he thought to himself and gave the handle a firm waggle in all directions at once, how does this thing even--

With another yelp, the Professor clutched his hard hat and took a leap backwards. The handle finished it's turn, which he had started, clockwise with a few resounding clunks. A pause, and then the hatch cracked. It took a second for the smell of death to crawl up Rayner's sinuses and trigger his gag reflex. Once Rayner started puking, it wasn't long before more joined in.

Doreen's eyes hadn't left Rayner since his hand initially made contact with the foreign metal thing. She clamped her hand down over her nose and held her breath. The student took a big step away from the vomiting fray. Others clamored back onto the Bronze Bolt, decidedly grossed out and not interested in continuing the expedition. More coughed and heaved. She caught the eye of another who had the logic to stop breathing and get back. It seemed the crew actually going into the ship would be way smaller than planned.

Rayner, too, contemplated on the expedition. That smell... was it safe in there?

"And I was laughed right out of the university!" A voice almost cackled behind them as the older man disembarked from the Bronze Bolt, fixated up at the massive metal and mechanical hulk before them, seemingly unfazed by the smell of death. "My Theses on life beyond the firmament!" He called out again, flicking on a small handheld light that used a filament bulb to cast a bright light into the darkness, one of his many odd inventions that earned him a reputation as an eccentric outcast within the port.

"Professor." Dr. Wells called out. "It's a voidship, like our airships except these can travel the heavens! Or rather.. what's left of one." He put his hand on his chin in thought.

"It's so exotic." He remarked, running his hand on the metallic hull, which rippled under his fingers. "It's like a living metal."

"And to think! One of a dozen! In battle for the heavens!"

Inside the dark hallway, a light flickered.

"For the heavens?" Rayner blew a raspberry before returning to mouth-breathing, "A voidship. Pray, now that a voidship is right here. Before us. Do you really consider their motivation was for..." he peered down the hallway and spotted a flickering light.

Never mind the conversation he was about to prompt, about heaven and earth, whether gods existed, and what the fallen vessel had to say about any of it. He jabbed an elbow at Dr. Wells.

"You saw that, yes?" The Professor shined his own light down the tunnel of a dark hallway, hoping to reveal something other than the source of the stench.

The light in the hallway revealed a large and dimply lit hallway that was littered with debris, jagged torn metal edges protruding from a metallic patterned floor. The light illuminated charred walls, and the occasional fluid leak. Dr. Wells didn’t waste any time though as he stepped through into the hatch, and he didn’t get far before he stopped seemingly dead in his tracks at a charred corpse that was clasping the wall near the hatch they had just entered.

“I think i found what was left of the crew.” He remarked.

“Well? Come on! We won’t learn anything standing here!”

Rayner was right behind Dr. Wells with a cringe. Burned alive. Not a fun fate. He flashed his hantern around; the rest of the crew exhibited a bit more hesitation as they picked their way up the hallway.

"I wonder if there are any more?" The Professor pondered aloud. He shined his hantern in the direction of a decidedly sealed door in the hallway. It didn't sound like there was anything on the other side, but there was no telling how thick the door was.

"Do your best not to touch anything, not with bare hands," Professor Evaristus called back to the others before going back to ignoring them. Some would be collecting samples of the fluids - carefully. Others would be securing pieces of debris that seemed sensical enough to.

Doreen Terrazip was most interested in the flashing light. What was it made of? What were the mechanics of it? What a fascinating place this was, she noted to herself.

Dr. Wells crept further down the corridor, he was watching the conduits on the walls and was curious as to what each of them were for.

However a cold, viscous liquid would drop from the ceiling, and likely land directly on Dr. Rayner. The liquid itself was harmless and non toxic, but smelled faintly metallic and seemed to have an unusual iridescence to it. The liquid itself seemed to drip from a ruptured high voltage conduit overhead.

The light flickered again, and Wells quickly shined his electric torch towards the source, a simple LED light recessed into the ceiling.

"This is beyond anything I have ever seen. Whoever built this void ship is likely thousands of years ahead of us technologically "

Wells nodded.

"It's a warship I wonder if it was a warrior race. What could that mean for us?"

There was a rattle in the distance, and another light flickered down a deep hallway. The rattle eventually gave way to a soft hum, and Dr. Wells was busy examining some kind of flat screen, touching buttons, and trying to figure out how to get the thing to turn on, or ascertain its function.

"Good question." Wells answered casting a brief glance to Doreen.

The hum increased, before there was a static crackle, and a loud pop, out of nowhere what appeared to be some kind of ghost was seen standing down the hallway.

The shimmering blue entity appeared to be a woman of some kind, and she was speaking in a strange, ancient sounding, and unknown language. Dr. Wells immediately snapped to attention and pointed to the woman.

While the uneducated would think it to be some kind of specter haunting the vessel, but slowly, Dr. Wells crept closer.

The entity continued to address them in a strange language.