The Kraekon Web

          Alone. Confused. Cold. Bone chillingly cold. Dark. Mind numbing darkness. Where was he? How did he get here? Where was here? The last thing he remembered was being at the control of his Hummerlab, a small shuttle craft, on his way to his Cosmoship. A flash of light. A flash brighter that Star 1254 when it turned super nova. Why did he remember that? What did it mean? What happened to him? His crew?
          Naes was a Commander Seventh Level in the Cosmogalaxias Command Fleet. He knew that. He knew his home was on Enterprise IX, an experimental military colony in Galaxy Tauri. He knew he was 118 annums. Very young to be a commander. Beyond this was confusion. He felt drugged. Weak. Lost.
          His mind was beginning to see his surroundings. He was in a room. Black. Rectangular. Empty except for the bed he was on. Yes, it was a bed. He knew that too. He sat up slowly. As he rose, there was that flash of light again. Why? His head hurt. He sat completely still for a minore. That was better. Slowly he stood up. His eyes were becoming accustomed to the darkness. He paced off the room - 140 x 90 zydics. Small.
          Think. Remember! How did he get here? Why was he here? Was he a prisoner? He couldn’t be. There had been peace for twelve centums. Wars were a thing of the past. The Cosmogalaxias Command Fleet ensured that. Slow down. Reason. Analyze.
          He sat back on the bed. The feeling of being drugged was overwhelming. His thoughts hurt. There was no sound, no movement anywhere. ‘No door!’, his mind screamed! He jumped up. Where was the door? He was in a cell. Overpowering isolation hit him like a sledge hammer. He still couldn’t think clearly.
          He told himself to calm down. He remembered his training in the Cosmogalaxias Training Array Lab. Clear your mind. Control your breathing. Tune into your thoughts. Get inside yourself. The flash of light. Good. A beginning.
          Slowly his memory began to return. He had been alone in the Hummerlab control bank. Why? The Hummerlab should have held a crew of thirteen men and women. What happened to them? Questions. Too many questions. Confusion over the questions. The events. Tired. Too tired to think anymore. Sleep. Dream. Hope for answers.
          Naes lay down. He fell asleep. Not peaceful. Troubled thoughts filled his mind even now. Suddenly in sleep his mind screamed ‘STOP!!!’ He woke. He realized that it was the bed that made him tired. Quickly he got up and moved to the other side of the room. His head exploded in pain. He stood against the wall. That was better. He cleared his mind. The feeling of being drugged slowly went away. He slumped to the floor. A light came on. Dim. Soothing. A door slid open silently at the other end of the room. Two beings entered. Strange looking. A race of beings not encountered by Naes before. They were tall - perhaps 120 hiethus. Slow moving. Tall. Very tall. Pale pink skin. Bony ridges over their eyes. Extremely long nails. Large teeth. Pointed ears. Old. Many centums old. Somehow he sensed this. ‘Come we will be friends. Follow us.’ No words had been spoken but, he knew. He rose and followed the beings. He was safe. He felt that also. Odd.
          ‘Welcome to our zheet. You are safe here. We will help you understand and remember.’ Still no words, but somehow he understood.
          “Welcome friend. I am Multnomahl.” Aloud. “You are surprised Neas?” They knew his name. “Yes we know who you are. You were correct about the bed. It took your thoughts and memories from you. Taught us your language. Allowed us to learn about you and your world. That is why you were so tired.”
          “How did I come to be here?” asked Neas.
          “We were traveling at hypergemynde speed on our way to save a small colony of our people on Bio-9. Our rash, young navigari programmed his instruments incorrectly. We went through your ship causing harm to you and your crew. That was the flash of light you remember.”
          He hadn’t been alone after all. “My crew!. How are they? Where are they? I want to see them!” A feeling of danger swept through his mind, but he slowly put it aside.
          “Your crew is safe and they will be joining us soon. We have repaired their bodies also. They too are beginning to remember.”
          “Your people, are they safe?” asked Neas.
          “Yes, thank you, they are safe. Our colony on Bio-9, as you call the twelfth planet in this star cluster, was caught in one of those terrible Kraekon webs. Our people managed to send out a distress signal and all is well.”
          “You saved them from the Kraekon web? Unbelievable! How?”
          “Here are your friends now,” said Multonmahl ignoring his last questions. “Will you partake of food with us? We have prepared many different foods from both our worlds. We will talk more while we eat.”
          “Yes, my crew and I thank you,” Naes replied. He still had many questions. The feeling of serenity that had comforted him before began to fade away. Who were these beings? How had they managed to destroy the Kraekon web? Why did he remember being at the control of the Hummerlab? Something wasn’t right with this situation, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Nothing known to mankind was more deadly than the Kraekon webs. They instilled terror in all beings in all the known worlds everywhere. There had never been any known survivors. Ever! He knew this. What was wrong? Why was he beginning to feel more uneasy?
          Multnomahl spoke, “Friends, we welcome you. Eat. Enjoy the drink. It is called Ambrosiavin and is the drink of friendship in our world. It is red because it is our homeworld color.”
          Neas became more uneasy now. His crew was talking happily to their hosts. Eating Arianus liver. Vesta kidneys. Sophoclatian brain stew. Delicacies too expensive for most Cosmogalaxias Command Fleet members. Their hosts were most generous, but his uneasiness grew greater. He needed to find answers to his questions.
          “Multnomahl, where are you and your people from?” queried Naes.
          “Seven hundred lightblanks from here in a galaxy you call Cruxus. We are from the planet known as KR-1-1-9 in your language.”
          Naes thought. KR-1-1-9? He couldn’t remember a planet named that in the Cruxus Galaxy. He had been there twice during his command. Once on a mission of peace negotiations to the planet Genesis and once to set up a small colony of farmers on SM-44, a tiny Edenlike planet located just on the edge of the cross shaped galaxy known for it’s three suns. “Why would you set up a colony so far from your world?”, he asked.
          “Our world is dying. It is many, many centums old. Through our negligence we have depleted all of its resources. We learned too late to rectify the problems of our world. We have visited many galaxies in search of a planet like ours used to be. We have found it on Bio-9. It is lush, vital, alive.”
          “I see”, replied Naes. An alarm button went off in his head. Something was definitely wrong with Multnomahls story. Cruxus was a young galaxy. He had learned that many years ago at the Enterprise Acadamiascolla. Many of the planets in Cruxus were manmade and settled within the last three centums. He still couldn’t remember KR-1-1-9. There were many planets like Bio-9 closer to the Cuxus Galaxy within three lightblanks.
          “Something bothers you, Neas? Eat. Relax. See your friends, they are happy and content. Join with us.”
          “If you don’t mind, Multnomahl, I need to ask a few more questions to ease my mind.”
          “By all means, ask. But, please eat! Drink! Join your friends,” he replied.
          Why was Multnomahl pushing him to eat? Think! Why? All at once he understood. Great Mind, the food and drink were drugged! He looked around. “STOP!!!” he shouted. “Don’t eat anymore! Don’t drink!” But, his crew ignored him seemingly in a trance listening only to their hosts. “Listen to me! Stop at once! We are all in terrible danger.” He understood fully now. They were inside a Kraekon web. Their hosts were Kraekons! He knew that they were to be food for them. His mind raced. He had to escape this room and save his crew. Was it possible? He ran and managed to make it through the door at the far end of the room just as his crew passed out from the drugged food. He had to hide. Had to have time to think. Time to figure out how to escape from the Kraekons with his crew. As he ran thoughts came quickly and randomly. The food was human - human livers, hearts, brains, kidneys. The drink was blood. The Kraekons were cannibalistic vampires! No wonder there had never been survivors. They kept their captive drugged to make them easy prey. Probably to fatten them up. The webs were perfect camouflage. They were impenetrable! He needed to know more.
          Outside the room, the passageways were like a maze. Dim. Smooth. Doorless. Everything else had been an illusion. Except for the food! He knew that.
          “Naes it’s useless to run.” The voice seemed to come from everywhere. “There is no escape!”
          Just then he came to a door. It was barely visible. As he approached it, it slid open. He went through. Webs! Hundreds of them. As he neared one of them, he saw that it was person - a very bloated person. Tubes were in his mouth, his nose, his arms. His eyes were sealed shut. He was alive! They were all alive! This was how the Kraekons kept their food supply fresh! Great Mind, this was barbaric! Unheard of! This was the 129th centum after all. He looked around and realized that it would be impossible to save these people but he had to put an end to this atrocity. He had to think. Had to find a place to hide. Looking around again, he noticed a few open webs near the wall on the far side of the room. A careful inspection showed that they were empty. Heavy. Thick. Quickly he repaired one to the point where he could get into it comfortably. He checked to make sure that it would still look normal, if normal was the right word to us in this situation. He got in and waited. His mind was completely alert.
          It was so quiet that he could hear his heart beating. His blood was pounding in his temples. He had to find a way to escape. He had no weapons. Weapons had been outlawed in all the known galaxies nine centums ago. ‘Peace must prevail’ was the prime dictum of the Cosmogalaxias Command. How was he going to get out of this alive with thirteen men and women who were drugged?
          Voices. Coming near. Clear his mind completely. No thought. He knew they could find him through his thoughts. Black. Darkness. Nothing. Block out all noise. Slow his breathing. He felt someone near by.
          Soon the voices faded. He remained completely still. There had to be a way out. ‘THINK!’ He had to find his crew. He had found this room. There must be others. It had been thirty minores since the Kraekon voices faded away. He got out of the web and looked around quietly. Soon he saw the reason the voices had been so near. His crew were hanging in webs. Eyes sealed. Tubes in place. “Naes your fate is sealed. We will find you. You cannot escape. You will join your friends now,” that voice from nowhere and everywhere all at once said. “Don’t make this harder on yourself than it has to be. Cooperate. Your time has come!”
          His mind screamed, ‘NO!!!’ He would survive. He would find a way to put an end to this barbarism. No weapons. Crew unsavable. Destroy the Kraekons. Think. Great Mind, his head hurt. Too much for his mind to absorb. He had never been in a position this complicated and deadly before. Had figured to live to be at least four or five hundred annums. Quietly. Easily.
          Light! Sunlight! That had to be the answer. It was very dim inside the web. The Kraekons didn’t like light. Faint memories of fairy tales. Myths about a planet in the Hadius Galaxy of a race of cannibalistic beings having lived there 100 centums ago. Just a child’s’ story. But, here he was trapped in unreality! Something to dig with. That’s what he needed. Looking around, he found a metalloid rod. He went back to the far wall and began to dig. The wall gave way slowly. It was thick. Felt like cotton. He knew about cotton from the Cosmogalaxias Prehistory Scientific Museum at the Training Array Lab. As he dug, an overwhelming sadness crept into his mind. He alone would survive. He knew that. One hundred ten zydics into the wall he hit something hard. What now? The rod would not penetrate it. Was wall this for nothing? Was this the outside wall? He began to laugh. Hysterical laughter. ‘Fool. Moron. You deserve to die,’ his mind shrieked. Get yourself under control. Clear your mind. Think! Something to pound with. That’s what he needed to force the rod into the obstacle.
          He went back into the room. Something weighty. He found a container. Full. Heavy. Able to be held though awkwardly. This would have to do. Back to the obstacle. He began to pound the rod into it. An alarm went off somewhere inside the web. He would have to hurry. This had to be the way out. It started to crack. Small chips. Bigger. Voices. Hurry. Hit it harder, faster. The crack grew. Pieces began to fall out. Sunlight filtered through. He would be safe! He knew it! Voices closer. Hurry! The wall gave way. Big enough for him to crawl through. Someone coming. Hurry! Get out! Run! Destroy the web and its inhabitants. A face at the opening. Singeing. Melting. Screams of anguish. The hole was expanding with the flames. The web was on fire. Light was destroying the Kraekons and web also. It was burning from the inside out. That was the answer!
          Neas would survive. Would go to the Cosmogalaxias Command Center. Would teach them about the Kraekons. He mourned for his crew. For the milieums of beings in all the known galaxies lost to the Kraekons. He reveled in his escape. His freedom. His life. He felt a rush of relief spreading throughout his body. He laughed. A happy laugh. The web was completely on fire now. He looked one more time and slowly began to walk away.

THE END???????