SpaceHorrors: “Rotten to the Core”

SpaceHorrors:
“Rotten to the Core”

    Someone screaming sent the other sixteen missing into some passages going deeper into that mountain. They stopped when they reached the end of those passages. Now they were standing at the edge of a large mountain opening. Below them, they saw a human shape of dust and dirt. Dust and dirt that suddenly became a mound of dust and dirt.

    “What just happened?” Oppan from the planet of Havion asked after pointing at that mound.

    “I don’t know either,” answered Monni from the planet of Normiac. “What’s that?” Monni pointed her finger at an oblong wood box with a clear top on it. A top that was now closing after someone got in it and laid down.

    The other sixteen missing walked down a narrow ledge that led to that wood box. When they got there, they formed a circle around it. Each one peeked into that wood box. All were shocked at what they were seeing. Their jaws were dropped, and their eyes got bigger.

    “Is that a DeathBringer?” Asked Ranick from the planet of Bandim after pointing at that DeathBringer.

##

    “We all know why we are here.” Voranda from the planet of Dasson stood in front of about three hundred other humans representing the ten other planets in this Group of Planets. “To solve our rotting and decaying planets before it’s too late for us too.

    Voranda slowly looked around the room they were all standing in at the ten groups of representatives. Their clothing and their being grouped together as a planet were the only things that separated them from everyone else. Some of that clothing was The Fighters of that planet. The others were more personalized, but the same styles.

    “That’s why we are on our way to Thanius. The planet that is causing this rotting and decaying. We are going there to find out why and how their rotting and decaying is affecting our planets before it spreads out to the rest of the universe.”

    “That isn’t the only reason why we are going there, though. We are also going there to see what happened to the twenty representatives we have sent there to solve our problems who crash-landed there.”

    Voranda took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Our Fighters among us will be trying to find them and find out what happened to them. The rest of us Researchers will try to solve our rotting and decaying problems.”

##

    About a hundred and fifty Fighters stood around a large hovering table with a shimmering landscape floating slightly above it. “We this our twenty missing crash-landed somewhere around her on Thanius. What we don’t know is where they are or why they crash-landed.” Povic from the planet Landion stood in front of the large shimmering mountain ridge.

    “We also don’t know if they are still alive.” Chanide from the planet Sorric said after stepping forward a few steps. If Thanius is as bad as everyone thinks it is, they probably aren’t still alive.”

    “That’s another reason why we are going there,” said Povic. “It depends on how their spacecraft crash-landed there. If it’s still mostly still there, they could be still alive. After all, they have only been there about a month, give or take a few days depending on which planet they are representing.”

    As Chanide stepped back in line with the others, Gank from the planet of Normiac stepped forward slightly. “What I want to know is how we are going to go there without us crash-landing there too.”

##

    “The first thing I think we need to discuss is what we already know about Thanius.” Voranda stood in the middle of a large Researcher’s room with about one hundred and fifty other Researchers surrounded by scientific equipment, tables, chairs, and supplies.

    “We know that there used to be about six billion Thaniusians living on this planet until about twelve thousand years ago. Then they suddenly disappeared. About that same time, was when the rotting and decaying started.”

    Voranda sighed. “Unfortunately, that’s all we know about Thanius. That’s why we are going there. to find out what happened to them. most of us think if we know that, we will know why it has been rotting and decaying. Hopefully, it will also tell us why our planets and the rest of the universe may suffer the same thing as they did.”

    “We’re already suffering because of it. We don’t want the rest of the universe to get it too.”

    “How are we going stop our suffering and the rest of the universe from rotting and decaying too?” Warrini from Havion got out of her chair and asked.

    Voranda sighed. “There’s only one way I know of to do it. That’s to go down to Thanius when we get there.”

##

    Aibary from the planet Issannic peeked around the open mountain passage looking down at the box the DeathBringer had been lying down in. The DeathBringer appeared to be sleeping from where Aibary was, but he couldn’t see her too well with his one-eye clear tube over his left eye.

    For the next several minutes, Aibary stared at that DeathBringer. Then he flattened himself against the side wall of that passage. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. After a few more minutes, Aibary started looking at that DeathBringer. Only she wasn’t there, and the clear top was ajar again.

    Just then Aibary felt something touch the back of his upper back. He barely got his head turned around slightly to see the DeathBringer behind him when he froze. Seconds later, the killing began. The DeathBringer placed her palms slightly away from the side of his head above his ears.

    The screaming started after the clear tube from the DeathBringers palms connected to his head. Aibary continued to scream as a clear liquid started coming through those tubes. His screaming got louder and that took a few minutes before he was dead.

####

    Povic walked behind the other Fighters who were sitting in front of a large monitor in front of them. each monitor had a little bit of Thanius on it. Slowly those Fighters were looking over their area of Thanius. Suddenly, Quive from the planet Jhaim shouted, “I found them.”

    “At least I have their spaceship.” Quive pointed at a large mound of surface dust and dirt with a little bit of metal visible through it. “No wonder we couldn’t find them. Their spaceship is covered in Thanius dust and dirt.”

    Povic and the other Fighters gathered around Quive. “Can you get through that mound to see how the missing are doing? Are they still alive?”

    “The mound is too thick to go through, but I have been able to do it through the small bit of metal I finally saw.” Quive looked at Povic with a pang of sadness on her face. “I don’t know if the missing are dead or not. There isn’t anyone in that spaceship.”

    Povic slowly looked at Quive with a shocked look on his face. His jaw dropped and his eyes got bigger. “What do you mean by that?”

##

    Voranda stood next to Povic in Control Central. Both were looking at a large monitor in front of them. a monitor that was showing Thanius with about forty small spaceships heading toward it. All were heading for where the missing crash landed. Once they got to Thanius, only ten stayed with the missing. The other thirty headed for other parts of that planet.

    “You said the missing weren’t on their spaceship.” Voranda was now looking at Povic. “Where else could they be? If they are still alive.”

    “There’s a mountain ridge not too far from their spaceship. The Missing could have gotten there if they could have done it. If their spaceship was dead beyond replacing what needed to be replaced.”

    Povic looked at Voranda. “I’m sending two spaceships to check out the missing spaceship. The other eight are checking out the mountain ridge. To see if there are any openings into it.”

    “What about your Researchers?” Povic was now looking back at their large monitor. “Why are they on Thanius? I thought you were going to do your research from up here.”

    “We were, but we need some of Thanius to find out what’s going on here. That’s why I sent some of my Researchers with your Fighters.”

##

    Charena from the planet of Athim came running into the passageway that overlooked the box the DeathBringer had been lying in when Aibary started screaming. By the time she got there only a mound of dust and dirt was where he used to be. That DeathBringer was still there, though.

    “You killed him too. Why did you do that? I know that is what you are. That you can’t help yourself from killing us, but why did you bring us here just to kill us. You are the one who brought us into these passages after we crash-landed. Aren’t you?”

    “We have been asking how we got into these passages ever since we got here. Until we saw that you were here too, we didn’t know how we got here. After seeing you, we figured you were the one who did it. Why did you do it?”

     Just then the other fourteen missing came running in there. They weren’t the only ones, though. The Fighters and Researchers with them were right behind them. “I brought you here because I want to know what happened to me. Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I here?”

##

    Voranda and Povic couldn’t take their eyes off of that DeathBringer. She was still in the passageways on Thanius, but there were Moving Image monitors all around her. The Researchers with the Fighters were still there, and some other Researchers had shown up, but the Fighters and the Missing had returned to their spaceship.

    “Do you really think this DeathBringer is the reason why we have our rotting and decaying problem?” Povic asked after pointing at that DeathBringer.

    “I do. Not only that, but I think she may be the reason why the DeathBringers stopped killing about twelve thousand years ago. Isn’t that around the same time this rotting and decaying started here on Thanius?”

    Voranda looked at Povic. “I don’t know how yet, but I think the Thaniusians were trying to find a way to kill their DeathBringer. Instead of killing her, they started their rotting and decaying problem. When she came back when the other DeathBringers did, her coming back somehow started the rotting and decaying to affect our planets and possibly the rest of the universe.”

##

    “We know what happened here on Thanius now,” Voranda said after Povic came into the Researcher Room on their spaceship. “Using the core of their planet, the Thaniusians did try to kill their DeathBringer with rot and decay by her liquefying it as they do with all their victims. Only the victim was the core of this planet.”

    “Why they used to core to kill her, we may never know. Maybe it was the only way they thought they could do it. Whatever the reason, they did it, but instead of killing her, they created the rotting and decaying problem that eventually killed all of them.”

    Voranda and Povic started walking to a large monitor at the other end of that room. A monitor their DeathBringer was on. Povic started looking at Voranda. “So, we know how it sort of happened. What I want to know is how are we going to stop the rotting and decaying from happening to our planets and the rest of the universe.”

    “The solution to our problem and probably the rest of the universe is very simple. All we need to do is destroy Thanius and this DeathBringer. We do that and the universe will be safe from rotting and decaying. At least it will be from Thanius.”

The Word Count = 1,984