Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 48 - Chrome

"I hope this hangar's going to prove to be friendlier than the last one," Aron chuckled, using the telescopic pole to activate the door sequence.

Soon the buggy's powerful headlamps were illuminating the gel fall that seemed to be standard on all the hangars as the inner doors slid smoothly open. Aron's right foot hovered over the accelerator pedal, but he hesitated.

"If there is anyone in there, the longer we wait, the more we lose any element of surprise," said Ekono calmly. He tapped the robot cannon that lay across his lap. "With this, we should be able to defend ourselves against most opponents.

Aron nodded, more out of politeness than agreement, checked the position of the side-arm on his belt then gently pressed the pedal. The nose of the buggy pierced the clear gel and soon they emerged in the complete darkness on the other side. He shook gel off his gloves and was about to wipe his visor when he realised that the curved glass surface was already clear.

There were no apparent light sources, so he pressed the buggy on towards the centre of the hangar, hoping its headlamps would pick out some sort of vessel.

L.E.O. Obi's voice broke the silence on the radio system, "My suit's showing a breathable gas mix in this hangar."

Aron pulled his left arm from the steering controls and checked his own display. Sure enough, it showed key gases matched the mix and pressure of their own hangar. There were subtle differences in the trace gases but nothing that registered as harmful. Taking his other hand off the wheel for a second, he flipped the display to show the particulate report. That was clear too. It seemed the atmosphere in the hangar was breathable.

"I recommend we keep our visors down until we know what's at the centre of this one," said Ekono.

"I agree," replied Aron. "Can either of you see that, up ahead?"

"Is it a ship?" Ekono asked.

It was hard to see what it was, beyond being highly reflective. Aron resisted the urge to more quickly close the distance to the object. The shiny, chrome finish on what seemed to be a curved surface brightly reflected the buggy's headlamp beams, mostly reflecting them into the black floor.

Soon they were close enough to accurately make out the shape, apparently a double-ended egg with a rounded point at both ends. The chrome finish looked seamless apart from two streamlined hatches where mechanical landing feet protruded to hold it clear of the floor. Presumably, there were two identical feet on the other side.

"That does not look like robot technology," said Ekono.

"No," replied Aron. "That might explain the atmosphere in here."

They could make out a scattering of unidentified equipment on the ground near the chrome vessel. There was no order to its placement and some of it looked to be smashed. An obvious folding table lay upside-down next to more objects.

"There is a door, at least it looks like a door, just to the right of centre," announced Ekono as Aron stopped the buggy just short of the mess. "I cannot find any trace of movement around the vessel."

Aron activated his suit lights and slid off the buggy. Now they were closer, the beams from his suit picked out imperfections in the outer surface of the strange vessel. Several slight dents and a couple of faint scorch marks seemed to imply some sort of violence. Around and on what had to be a door, there were more dents and several more obvious scorch marks.

"I'm guessing someone tried and, apparently, failed to get into this ship," he announced after studying their find for a while.

"We should check around the other side," said Ekono. "You stay here. Obi and I will do a sweep."