Realms of Sci-Fi

Infested Metal

I'd been contracted to transport a supply of scientific crates from Ticotan station to the research center in the Zangee system, but the moment I dropped out of hyperspace, I knew I wouldn't be making the delivery. Ticotan station was a mess. I could see holes in the outer hull even before I maneuvered close enough to dock.

The strangest thing was I couldn't tell how it had happened. No scorch marks blackened the gray plates of metal, and no debris drifted in space. The edges of the damaged hull weren't jagged as one might expect but clean and smooth as if the metal had simply peeled back like the shedding of a cocoon.

For some reason, the sensors couldn't read anything inside the station. It was if every wall and floor were shielded against my scans. Unwilling to leave the mystery alone, I decided to go aboard. I know it was stupid, but after everything I'd seen in my thirty plus years of being a pilot, this was beyond me, and I had to know what had happened.

The hangar bay doors were closed and unresponsive, so I piloted my ship through the breach in the hull, setting down into what had been a cargo hold. Establishing a magnetic field around my ship, boosted with power from the engines and filled with oxygen from the reserve tanks, I was able to temporarily restore atmosphere inside the hold. I put on a space suit just in case something else went wrong.

As the underside hatch opened and the transport platform where I stood was lowered down by telescoping extenders on either side, I looked around and beheld the truly bizarre damage to the station. The floor was buckled and rippled, and it reminded me of the surface of a pond if it had been frozen while the wind stirred its surface. The distortion of the metal was even in all directions, which was weird as buckling usually occurred with greater intensity close to the point of impact or disturbance, but I couldn't find anything to tell me where it had started.

An optical display, sitting over my eye like a monocle, connected with the portable sensor array clipped to my belt, relaying information to the tiny screen and overlaying it on my vision. Life support seemed to be working beyond the cargo bay doors, so I pulled the manual release lever. Nothing happened right away.

I wondered if the gearing systems had been dislodged by whatever had peeled back the outer hull. As I was about to try something else, the doors opened but in a different way than standard. Most station doors retreat into hidden pockets within the walls, but the metal seemed to soften before the doors curled back like a withering flower. It was even more eerie because the doors didn't make a sound as they twisted out of position. Something in the back of my mind was insisting I get out of there as fast as I could, but I went deeper into the station.

The rippling of the floors continued in the hallway, but it was also present in the walls and ceiling as well. I considered a powerful magnetic wave could've disrupted the station in such a manner, but it wouldn't have explained the way the cargo doors had opened. Figuring the answers I needed were in the computer files, I set about restoring power to the station in order to get an information terminal back on.

Silence filled the station, and it wasn't the normal kind that gets ignored most of the time. This silence was everywhere, filling the corners of rooms and hallways, and pressing down on me with smothering intensity.

The sensor pack on my belt continued to monitor my surroundings and told me the life support systems were working, but I couldn't hear the flow of air at any of the vents I paused beside. At the time, I thought it was just my nerves getting to me, but I could've sworn I was being watched.

Pushing the disquieting thoughts aside, I continued to the power generators, three decks down from where I'd started. I had yet to find any people, alive or otherwise. The prickling hairs on the back of my neck were proving to be a nuisance, but I couldn't do anything about it while in my spacesuit.

The power generators composed most of their deck with narrow metal walkways running down the length of their housing assembly. Normally lights from a hundred different displays would've kept the entire room lit in shades of different colors, but they were all dark. I opened an access hatch and looked over the internal circuits, trying to find the reason for the generators to be off.

It wasn't until the fifth or sixth access panel that I found the problem. One of the circuit plates had come loose, don't ask me how because there are a dozen systems to prevent such an error. I carefully applied pressure to the edge of the panel until I heard it click into place. Immediately, lights turned back on, but the station also began to shake.

Have you ever heard the scream of metal under pressure in the moments before it breaks? That sound, but more powerful, filled the entire station. The vibrations in the air were so extreme, I thought the station would be shaken to pieces. The circuit plate I'd reconnected detached itself from the computer, and the noise of screeching metal stopped, allowing the circuit plate to sound very loud as it clattered to the floor. With power out again, the lights switchedoff, plunging the room back into darkness. 

Although the sensors had detected the noise, they were unable to give me a source or direction. My unease won out over my curiosity, and I decided to leave and let someone else risk life and sanity trying to figure out what had happened.

As I turned toward the exit, the floor rippled like water ten paces ahead of me. Some of the walls also liquefied and flowed toward the growing distortion in the floor. The metal didn't appear to be hot, so I didn't know how it was moving in such a manner until it surged upward in a column and reshaped into a humanoid figure. In seconds, details became more defined until the figure standing before me was a mirror image of myself and my spacesuit, composed entirely of gray metal. It looked like a sculpture, but it turned its face to gaze in my direction as if it could see.

Fear was slightly replaced by fascination. I raised a hand, and my metal statue did the same. When I turned to the left, it copied the movements. The metal had become solid again, but it still moved and bent with ease. The sensor data being relayed to my eyepiece told me a highly concentrated magnetic field existed in the core of the statue.

Before I could investigate further, I was ripped off the station by molecular teleportation. A blinding flash of light and a tingling electrical surge across my skin were the residual effects. Since only the Federated Star Systems has access to such technology, I knew who had me.

I couldn't ask any questions as a flurry of activity broke out on the bridge where I'd been deposited. The warship opened fire on the station, shattering metal and vaporizing components inside. Before the destruction was complete, my ship flew out into space and vanished in a jump to hyperspace.

The Captain was furious, ordering a pursuit course. They dropped me here because it was the nearest inhabited planet, ordering me not to say anything or be arrested. Apparently the aliens on the station exist as energy and magnetic fields, and they can infest metal, becoming one with it and shaping it to their will. Considering how many things are made of metal in this day and age, the High Command is concerned panic will sweep through the galaxy if word of the aliens' existence is made public.

I'm risking being sent to a mining prison for telling you this, but covering up the incident isn't going to help. It will only make people unprepared when the aliens come back, and I'm certain they will return. The aliens took over my ship and figured out how to work the hyperdrive. If they can understand our technology, they can use it against us. Just imagine what that might mean on a galactic scale.

Be careful who you share this information with unless you want to get locked up. I have to go and find a new ship, something made out of nonmetallic materials. Stay safe out there, and if you find any vessels that your sensors can't scan, be careful because it could be one of them.