Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,14

and such keep their stuff. I guess it would make sense on a spaceship, too.

This is worth documenting.

I get the phone out. The battery is still almost fully charged.

“We’re in what appears to be a cell in the alien ship,” I narrate softly. “This seems to be a door, but I can’t get it open. Inside there is the bathroom. And under the bed, I have just discovered this drawer. Let’s go through it and see if we can find a weapon.”

I rummage through the drawer. There are fabrics in exotic shapes, weird items I can’t identify and some empty boxes and tins. As well as one soft square-ish box that turns out to be empty. It all feels old and stiff, as if it’s been here for years or even decades with nobody looking at it.

“None of these things look like weapons,” I inform the not-viewers. “Whoever lived here probably left these things behind willingly. But I think this means that this is not actually a cell. It’s more like a crew cabin.”

I push the drawer closed and sit on the bed. The air is fresh and the temperature pleasant. The whole place has a styled feel, simple and functional. Like Scandinavian furniture. Like the inside of cars made by Volvo.

Some of their SUVs back on Earth have a function where you wave your foot in the air under the rear bumper to automagically open the hatch.

That door. I don’t get a feeling it’s locked. I think it can be figured out.

On an impulse I get back up and stick my foot out towards the door, moving it around.

Nothing. Not made by Volvo, then.

I give the bottom of the door a little kick with my bare foot.

It quietly slides open, upwards.

“Oh, look!” I whisper. “One kick was enough. Maybe the species that built this ship liked to control things with their feet.”

Outside is a corridor, a little darker than the room.

I get a little shot of excitement.

“I think,” I ponder whisperingly to the not-viewers, “that we should behave like guests and not like prisoners. So we’ll leave this cell or whatever it is and do some exploration. Come along.”

I stick my head out of the door and look to both sides. The corridor is short, and there are a couple more doors.

“I guess there might actually be a crew here,” I whisper. “If these doors are crew cabins, too.”

I take a deep breath and walk out into the corridor.

Nothing shoots at me, I don’t even get an electric shock the way I know aliens enjoy giving us.

I tiptoe to the open end of the corridor. It ends in a domed little area with squares of light on the floor.

“These are some kind of elevators,” I inform my not-viewers. “We won’t use them yet. Feels like it would be hard to know where you’d end up.”

I stand still. There’s a hum in the background, just like I’d expect in a spaceship. It would need all kinds of technical systems turned on at all times.

Three corridors lead away from the circle, in addition to the one I came from.

The hum is stronger from one of them. “I think we’ll choose this one,” I whisper. “Sounds like it’s an important place.”

I walk lightly along the corridor. The floor is cool under my feet, and it has a softness to it that feels like thin foam. I look behind me, but I don’t leave footprints.

Up ahead is a door with a bright, green outline. On Earth, that would be a good sign. In space, it could be opposite, green meaning ‘stop’ or ‘danger’ the way red does back home.

“This means ‘danger’, I think,” I narrate softly. “See how bright green it is? Poison green. And that’s exactly the kind of place we want.”

I kick the bottom of the door. It stays shut, but a machine-like voice starts speaking.

“Caution. Engineering section,” my phone translates, but I understand it all myself. “Authorized personnel only. If this is an emergency entry, state so.”

“Emergency,” I say loudly in Spaceish.

The door zooms up, and the hum gets much louder. “Emergency entry acknowledged. This entry has been recorded in the log.”

I step into the room beyond. It’s not huge, but the technical nature of the place is obvious.

There are machines and consoles and modules, as well as a total chaos of pipes and tubes and conduits. But it’s well-ordered, and I can easily walk among the various pieces of technology.

The hum is loud, but not overpowering. It has a