The Calibray Job, Episode Thirteen
Things are unravelling for the crew of the Sol the deeper into the darkness of Calibray they venture
The Calibray Job is a sci-fi/horror serial. This is the thirteenth episode: ‘Lab 03.’
Previously: The crew of The Sol have arrived on Calibray to steal something from an abandoned science facility. Now, with their ship destroyed and their minds each unravelling, they desperately need a way off this rock.
<Previous Episode | Index | Next Episode Coming 06-09-23>
0001.
"You killed him," Lera said.
"Before he killed you," Raea replied.
"He was sick."
"Well, now he ain't."
Raea pulled Lera up by her good arm and held her bloody hand to get a closer look at the damage. Lera glared forward, beyond Raea, unperturbed by the movement.
"Gods, what has he done to you," Raea said.
She tore off the edge of her white shirt and double-wrapped it tightly around the space where Lera's fingers used to be.
"You okay?" she asked, elevating Lera's hand to try and stem the bleeding. "Lera?"
Without paying any mind to her hand or the fresh blood slowly flowering on the makeshift bandage, Lera's eyes flicked to Raea.
"What is this place?"
0002.
"Five minutes are up Jaark," Beck said, wrapping her fist on the bathroom door. Jaark hovered over the sink, shards of broken glass mixed with brown water and blood swirled around the edges of the white basin like streaks of paint before disappearing.
"Yeah," he said, "I'm coming."
He wiped his bloodied knuckles on his shirt, still staring into the blackness visible through the few fragments of the mirror that remained in place. By the time he stepped out of the bathroom and into the dimly lit mess hall, all attention had turned to him. He did his best to hide the shock on his face, wiping it away with a smile he'd perfected back during the war.
"Needed a shit," he said, his laugh fragile.
"Right," Beck said. "We need to get moving."
"This way," Amara said.
0003.
The girl led the group down another darkened hallway. The impossible light that lit their way, flickered like a heartbeat, the room alternating between green and black. Only Beck's flashlight cut through the din, playing across the smooth, black walls of the facility like white fire.
Jaark, rushing now, stood just a few paces behind the girl and Nera who led the group. He stumbled as they reached the end of the hallway, turning to look at the two paths that curved in opposite directions ahead of them. To his right, he saw darkness, the green light having given up entirely leaving the hallway in total black.
Somewhere in that blackness, he could see them. The faintest outlines but, still, unmistakably human forms. Human forms cowering and screaming, beckoning Jaark forward. His face, slick with sweat, trembled in a way he hadn't experienced since he was a child. Hiding the fear from the others, he wiped at his eyes and turned towards the other path.
"We need to go that way," the girl said, pointing at the darkness behind Jaark.
"No," he shouted.
"That's the way to the hanger," Amara said.
"We can't go that way."
"What's the matter, afraid of the dark?" Sama said.
"Please," Jaark replied, all attempts at hiding his fear now fully abandoned.
"What did you see?" Nera asked, stepping towards Jaark.
He wasn't sure he'd ever stopped seeing it. He couldn't remember what it was like not to look into the darkness and see them waiting for him. One of them stood behind Nera, chest bare, fingernails dug into its flesh, peeling bloodied streaks of meat away from a stark white rib cage.
"We can't go that way,” he said in a whisper.
Nera rested her hands on his shoulders and found his gaze, staring at him in the eyes. For a second, she thought she could see something reflected in the blacks of his pupils. A mess of people crawling and clambering over each other. She blinked away the image and followed Jaark as he swayed from one foot to the other.
"It's this place," she said, "it's trying to infect you."
He nodded, tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Please don't make me go down there," he said. His deep and coarse voice was now somehow small and fragile.
"Okay," Nera said, "okay."
"How else can we get to the hanger?" Sama asked.
Nera turned to Amara, "Is there another way?"
Before Amara could reply, Beck took a few steps away from the group towards the two doors at the end of the opposite hallway. Emblazoned in block letters over the metal frame were the words 'LAB 03.'
"Holy shit," Beck said.
"What is it?" Nera asked.
"Why we came here. It's in there."
0004.
"You still want to finish the job?" Sama said.
Beck, staring at the slight opening between the doors into Lab 03, narrowed her eyes.
"Kid," she said, "which way are we going?"
Amara pointed down the hallway towards the lab.
"Well then, if it's on the way."
Sama sighed, "If we see it we get it. Otherwise, we keep moving and we get the fuck out of here."
Beck nodded.
0005.
Nera had to double-check that the others were all seeing the same thing when they reached the doorway into Lab 03. The two metal doors were blocked by something that, at first, reminded Nera of one of the pistons that made up the engine back on the Sol. The two doors were angled at the point where they met, two grooves that fit into each other to form a perfect seal. Only a severed leg, sliced cleanly below the knee and still clad in what looked to be a light blue hospital uniform, was preventing them from closing fully.
"Fuck me," Sama said, retching at the sight, confirming to Nera that this wasn't a hallucination.
"Jaark, help me with this," Beck said grabbing one of the two doors. After a moment’s hesitation, Jaark carefully sidestepped the limb and pulled at the other door. They screeched loudly as they receded back into each side of the hallway wall. Where the rest of the facility had been bathed in an eerie green glow, the inside of the lab was blue. Cold and sterile metal surfaces caught the soft light and passed it between the white walls, giving the lab the impression of being underwater.
"There's the rest of him," Beck said, gesturing towards a smear of blood that led from the severed leg to a corpse lying just in front of the door.
Benches were filled with pieces of machinery, the likes of which even Nera had never seen before. Wires leading to probes dipped in black oil beakers were strewn across one bench, spilling onto the floor. Something that resembled the insides of a Faster Than Light Drive1 was meticulously arranged on the opposite bench alongside a view screen that hovered in place displaying a frozen vid-feed.
Nera stepped forward to inspect the machine when she skidded forward falling onto the edge of the metal bench and hitting her burnt leg. She reflexively reached down to hold her wound, which was now reminding her just how bad the burn was when she saw the streak of red beneath her boot. In the blue light, the blood looked black. Only from where she now kneeled, one arm cradling her shin, could she see that the floor of the lab was covered, the streak where she'd slipped revealing the glossy white tiles below.
"Bad things happened here," Nera said.
"I can see that," Beck replied.
"No, before whatever caused all this," Nera added.
"Bad things," Jaark repeated.
He backed away from the group, eyes wide and full of fear, repeating the same two words over and over until he backed into something fixed to the wall.
"Jaark," Beck said, calmly, "don't move."
He picked at the scabs that had begun to form around the cuts on his knuckles, turning slowly to find the body of a woman, pinned to the wall, head lolling, arms spread and tacked in place by several scalpels driven through her wrists.
"What the fuck did they do down here?" Sama said.
Jaark lifted the woman's head slowly to find only empty space where her eyes had once been.
"She did this," Amara said.
"She killed all these people?" Sama asked.
Amara nodded.
"How?" Nera said.
"With that."
Amara pointed towards a pane of glass that covered the back wall of the lab. Through the glass was a small room, walls and floor and ceiling padded in small black panels that covered the white metal.
At its centre was a chair, almost identical to a pilot seat in one of the Riders2 the royal army had flown during the war. Nera stepped closer to the glass and saw a body strapped into the chair, naked but for a soiled pair of grey shorts.
Their fingers contorted into wild shapes, fingernails fractured by days clawing at the hard metal arms of the chair. Unlike the body of the man in the doorway and even the woman on the wall, this corpse looked alive. Its head was facing forward, unsupported but for a series of needles as long as knives protruding from various points on their head. Needles that connected to a bundle of wires that disappeared into the ceiling. Though the glass was clearly only one way, Nera felt they were staring at her, wearing an expression unlike anything she'd ever seen before.
"Who is she?" Nera asked, turning back to the woman on the wall.
"My mother," Amara replied.
Author’s Note
What’s the deal with the woman on the wall, huh? And the person in the chair? They were having a wonderful time, right? Right!? Things sure do look bleak down there, don’t they? I wanted the facility to feel somewhat akin to the insides of an alien environment.
I wanted the facility to feel almost organic. That’s why there are curves and smooth walls. No greeblies here. I had the idea that the lab would contrast nicely with the rest of the facility like they were somehow entering the heart of this beast.
What are some of your favourite bases or facilities in sci-fi and why?
Appendix
Faster Than Light travel is made possible by the use of FTL drives, complex machines that calculate the trajectory of a ship through space-time. Their invention is much disputed due to scant historical records from the early settlements on Lunaris but their origin is believed to be traced back to Old Earth.
Riders were small, one-man starfighters that were used by the Royal Army during The Final War. Equipped with rudimentary protection and heavy armaments, Riders were built for speed and manoeuvrability above all else.
Well, damn.
Those opening lines are fantastic.
This entire chapter was *so* cinematic, I can see it playing out so clearly. Really creepy vibes, and the lab just feels horrifying.
How are any of them going to get out of here?