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Jessie Knight stamped out the last of the steaming coals with her black shearling-lined boots, popped in her earbuds, and turned up Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” singing at full volume when the chorus hit. “Welcome to the new age…”
Heaving her pack over her shoulder, she started the long trek back to civilization, glancing back only briefly to make sure she’d left no traces of her short stay. Her little forest hideaway was as she’d found it but for a flattened tuft where she’d set up camp and the blackened fire pit where she’d cooked her meals.
Even though it was a chilly autumn morning and clouds were moving in, Jessie wore her camo shorts and comfortable black tank top, knowing the five-mile hike would keep her body temp up. Actually, she’d expected cooler temperatures this weekend, but most of the northeast was experiencing a gorgeous Indian summer, which was fine by her. If this weather kept up, she might be able to get in another couple weekends of camping before winter set in.
A soft autumn breeze played through her hair, bringing with it the musty scent of coming rain. She glanced up, squinting through the certain of elm trees. The sky was darkening by the minute, clouds rolling in fast. A flash of lightning split the sky, immediately followed by a crack of thunder. This storm had barreled in like a heard of roaring Harley riders who had been promised free booze. With any luck it would pass just as fast. In the meantime, it would be wise to take shelter. She’d be pissed as hell if she got herself lightning-fried to a crisp. The burn ointment she’d packed wouldsonot suffice.
Since she was too high up on the mountain for safety, under a field of lighting-rod trees, she hurried down the slope to where she recalled seeing a little alcove that preceded a possible cave she’d intended to explore anyway. But before she could reach her destination, the heavens tore open and dumped the Atlantic Ocean down on her, soaking her. Lightning crackled again and again above her.
Finally, she darted into the safety of the cave and wiped her dripping forehead. As soon as her eyes adjusted, she knew something was terribly wrong. Unless she had entered an alternate reality, caves did not come equipped with overhead lights, smooth aluminum flooring, and wide hatchways.
What the hell?
She popped out her earbuds. The music instantly cut off, making way for the soft whirring that filled the corridor she now stood in.
“Uh, hello?” she called. Why did she suddenly feel as though she’d entered the plot of horror movie? Was she to be the poor curious soul in the first scene who got herself murdered, enlightening the audience and her cast mates that there be danger here?
Unfortunately, there were no cast mates. She was alone. She knew she should make like a tree and vamoose…but what in the hell was a clandestine place like this, wide open, unguarded, doing in the Black River Forest? It looked almost military, reminding her of the many vessels her father had been stationed on. Was this a military outpost of some kind?
She glanced back the way she’d come. A few steps in reverse and she’d be back to reality, at worst waterlogged, at best alive and out of trouble, none the wiser.
Another snap of lightning cut the sky, so close, she worried it had struck a tree. Scratch that, at worst a shish kabob. She faced the corridor once more.
Well, at least she had an excuse for being here: a good ol’ damsel in distress. Although, she was thelastperson to ever consider herself a damsel, or in distress, but she’d play it up if necessary. Just in case, she reached down and unsnapped the Ka-bar military knife that was hooked at her waist, her father’s knife, hoping she would never have to use it on anything bigger than a plump trout. Her 9mm would have been preferred, but she’d already unloaded it and packed it away for the hike.
With light feet, she crept forward and peered around an open hatch, the soft rumble of machinery following her. It looked like some kind of storage area; a few crates packed around the edges of the room. The next hatch was closed with no way of opening it that she could discern. She listened for sounds of life, hearing none before moving on.
The next hatch was closed as well, but offered a window, through which she spied rows of green leafy plants, like a miniature hydroponics farm. Maybe this was a botany lab or bio dome. Bio domes didn’t exactly work as intended when the front door was left wide open.
Unease slithered along her shoulders, informing her she should go no farther. She could hear her father’s voice in her head:Curiosity kills the cat, Jessie, but the fox knows better than to lose a life in the first place. So are you a fox or a cat?
She had always answered fox. Everyone wished they were a fox, but as she entered the farthest room, she mentally meowed.
It appeared to be some kind of surveillance room. The mounted screens were dark, but the consoles were lit up by colorful buttons marked by strange symbols that would require a manual for her to understand.
One was particularly bright, calling her attention. She reached out to graze her finger along the top. Apparently that was all it took. An ominous whirring sound echoed from the corridor—a hatch had closed.
Stomach twisting, she darted back into the corridor and rushed for the exit—
Which was now blocked by a set of heavy doors.
Palming the metal, she searched for a way to pry the hatch open when a deep robotic voice sounded all around her, speaking in tongues. A vibration started in her feet and then snaked up to her knees before enwrapping her whole body. Had she triggered an earthquake?
The floor became unsteady, rocking unnaturally, forcing her to cling to the wall for stability. The shrill sound of machines flooded the space, drowning out her yelps of surprise. The air grew pungent, like ozone was suddenly being pumped through the ducts.
Then, without warning, gravity took on a different weight, as if the entire building was...rising?
She raced back to what she had previously dubbed the surveillance room, seeing it with new eyes. Her gaze flittered between the center console, like a captain’s post, and the surrounding consoles, all facing a single direction, and she realized what she was looking at. A command center…
Of a ship…
With hieroglyphs not of this world.
The staccato clanking from above made her envision pebbles, stones, and dirt shaking free of the ship’s surface. She kicked the insane thought away. It couldn’t be possible.
She couldn’t be in a spaceship…an alien spaceship.
Sudden G-forces made her feel a hundred times heavier. She scrambled to plant her ass in the captain’s chair. If it was her weight or her frantic searching that triggered the double harness to cross over her torso, she wasn’t sure. The screens in front of her blinked to life, revealing a perfect view of the storm clouds bearing down on her. Lightning slashed the sky before there was a plaster of gray and then pure blue on the other side that grew darker by the moment until she passed through the atmosphere into the dark abyss of space.
Her mind raced like a stock car in last place, gunning it in an attempt to make up laps, struggling to reconcile her unusual, unfathomable, unreal circumstances. Her heart thundered, beating so hard her ribs might just break. She couldn’t get enough air, her lungs burning from the struggle.
As the ship’s rumbling eased and space took on a menacing shade of black, her panic receding was joined by a mix of horror and devastation. As if of its own accord, the harness around her torso retracted. She stood to approach the screen, placing her hand on it in disbelief. Her father would be so disappointed in her utter stupidity.
“Well, shit.”Looks like I’m not the fox after all.
And curiosity just cost this kitty all her lives.
* * *
The end
