“Damn it, Lucas!” Benson swore. “How many times have I gotta tell you, mate?! Pay attention in there, OK? That stuff is no joke.”
I was standing next to the wash station inside Sub-Basement 2, while my boss examined a tiny hole in the sleeve of my biosuit.
“Come on, it can’t be that bad,” I fired back. “You really think they’d let a couple of guys like us handle top-secret material? It’s probably just medical waste, or they’re testing chemicals on animals or something. That last container only had a piece of gnarly bone in it.”
One of the veins on Benson’s right temple started to bulge, as his eyes locked onto mine. “You opened it? Bloody hell, Lucas!”
“It was already open, I swear!” I replied. “Besides, I don’t see what the big deal is, it didn’t look dangerous.”
Benson could have made the hardest man recoil with the look he gave me. “Lucas, Nordström Labs hired us to dispose of extremely fucking sensitive material, deemed Category One, OK? Category-fucking-One! I didn’t submit to all those bloody tests just for you to fuck it up for us in the first week! In case you’ve forgotten, we were practically on the verge of folding when we got this contract.”
I opened my mouth to joke that he’s become extremely sensitive since that cavity search, but managed to stop myself. He was right of course. Contracts hadn’t exactly been falling in our lap lately, and contracts like this one, never.
“Sorry, Boss,” I said. “I’ll be more careful from now on.”
Benson sighed and his expression softened slightly. “Alright. Look, we’re here for three months. If we do a good job and follow procedure, then who knows? Maybe this’ll lead to more government contracts. But if we’re half-arsing it and people get hurt, whether that’s you or me or whoever the fuck, then we’re out the door and right back to junking food waste, or worse, siphoning shit outta port-a-loos. You understand, mate?”
“Oh man, I do not want to go back to that.” I declared.
Benson nodded as he stared through me, probably recalling the same memories that went through my mind, then headed towards the exit. “I want you out of that suit and cleaned up by the time I get back. I’ll have to report this upstairs and see if I can get you a replacement.” He stopped near the door and turned back to me with a puzzled look on his face. “What did you snag it on, anyway?”
I shrugged. “Beats me. I didn’t even notice the puncture until you pointed it out.”
Benson rubbed his chin for a second. “OK, I’ll say you caught it on something out here while you were taking it off. That should do,” he said.
“Uh, Boss,” I whispered, motioning with my eyes to the opposite corner and the little glass dome protruding from the ceiling. “I don’t think they’ll buy it.”
“Ah, shit,” Benson conceded, looking up at the camera. “Right, no matter. I’ll go up and explain the mishap, we’ll get a caution and be right back to it. Get yourself sorted and up to the common room. I won’t be long.” He punched the big green button on the wall and left through the door.
I decanted from my suit and placed it on the hook next to Benson’s, and began the decontamination procedure inside the wash station. Lost in my thoughts and the mundanity of the process, it was a full minute before I noticed five small, white dots about halfway up the inside of my left forearm. At first, I thought they were chunks of soap I hadn’t rubbed in yet, but quickly realised they weren’t coming off and dried my arm to have a closer look.
I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. “What the hell?” I uttered.
There were tiny stars on my arm.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I was looking at five geometrically perfect stars on my skin, which had not been there a minute ago. They looked kind of like little white tattoos, except instead of colour, it was more like the pigment had been erased, leaving these star-shaped marks behind. I ran my fingers over and over the strange blemishes, feeling no raised edges or lumps, just my own smooth skin. It quickly dawned on me they were in the same spot where the hole was in my biosuit, and a sliver of panic crept into my mind. Was I exposed to something in there?
As if hearing my thoughts, a voice issued from a loudspeaker set into the ceiling, making me jump.
Hello, Lucas.
“What? Uh, hello?” I answered. I stepped out of the wash station and looked up at the camera.
Lucas, my name is Professor Karlsson. I’d like you to remain calm and tell me what happened. And don’t worry, we can hear you perfectly fine up here.
“Um, O-K,” I replied. I got the feeling we were in more trouble than Benson assumed, but tried not to sound worried. “So, yeah, I guess by now my boss has told you about a little accident I had with my suit? And uh, I was just going through the proper wash procedure, and I think I might have a weird rash on me or something.” The words came out far quicker than intended.
Very good, Lucas. Now, at what moment did you first notice the stars?
“What? How can you see them from there?” I answered. The hairs on my neck bristled as I realised I never mentioned stars. This time I couldn’t keep the alarm from my voice. “Where is Benson? I need to speak to him, now!”
There was a brief pause, before the voice came back on.
Yes, Lucas, your colleague is here with us. Don’t worry, you’ll get to speak with him soon. Why don’t you tell me…arghh…restrain him! Quickly, before he gets the mi…
A high-pitched squeal shrieked out of the loudspeaker, followed by more sounds of a struggle, and then Benson’s voice, loud and panicked:
Lucas!…Lucas, get out of there!…They did this…your suit…
The loudspeaker cut out abruptly and the room went quiet.
Fear and confusion raced through my mind. I ran towards the exit and hit the release button for the door. Part of me expected it to be locked, trapping me down here, but it opened immediately. I sprinted around the corner, taking the stairs two at a time until I reached the upper level and burst through the stairwell door to the common room.
It was empty.
This morning there were a dozen people in here. Lab technicians, researchers, even military personnel had sat around the room, chatting and eating. It seemed completely normal, friendly even. And now it was empty. I started to wonder if everyone we’d met this week was part of some horrible in-joke, which only added to the torrent of fear I was experiencing.
I made my way to the lockers they’d allocated to Benson and myself, and found them open. They’d already taken everything from Benson’s, including the keys to the truck, but surprisingly left the only thing I brought: my jacket.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I said, freaking out. I put my jacket on while I tried to think what to do next, and felt a lump press against my chest. My phone! I remembered stashing it in the inside pocket, and breathed a small sigh of relief they hadn’t found it. There was no reception this far down, but there would be on the ground level. I looked to the elevator on the other side of the room and was on my way there when the loudspeaker came on again.
My apologies, Lucas. I’m afraid you won’t be leaving us anytime soon. Thanks to the outburst from your colleague, you are now aware that we haven’t been entirely truthful with you regarding your role in this facility, and while Mr Benson will no longer be joining you, there are some people up here who are very interested in your progress.
I looked around and found one of the domed cameras set into a corner of the room.
“What the fuck is going on?” I shouted at it. “Why are you doing this?! Let me speak to Benson!”
I already told you, Lucas. Mr Benson is no longer with us.
The voice paused to let that last remark settle in, before returning in an almost cheerful manner.
Now, as I mentioned before, my name is Professor Karlsson and I’d like you to tell me how you’re feeling? Specifically, how your arm is feeling?
“What? My arm?” Having momentarily forgotten about the marks, I started to pull up the sleeve of my jacket and audibly gasped. Seeing them again, half buried in my sleeve, the stars looked much bigger than before. And somehow brighter.
The excited voices of Professor Karlsson and others I didn’t recognise, brought my attention back to the camera.
…yes, it will begin shortly…Lucas, quickly, tell me. What are you experiencing right now?
“What the hell are these things?!” I shouted.
This is very important, Lucas. Are you noticing any strange sensations? Perhaps auditory or visual phenomena?
“Auditory, or visual…? What the fuck?” I muttered. I ran to the elevator and mashed the UP button repeatedly. “I’m coming up there, you’re going to get these things off me, and I’m getting the hell out of here!” I yelled. The sudden whirr of hidden machinery and the jarring clang of cables pulling taut startled me, and I instinctively stepped back from the elevator doors, before realising it was on its way. I closed my eyes and calmed my breathing a little, trying to slow the panic, but my thoughts kept drifting back to my arm and the stars.
I opened my eyes and pulled my sleeve all the way up, lifting my arm to my face so I could clearly see the marks. All five of the stars were bigger and brighter than moments ago. As I looked closer at one of them, I saw an almost imperceptible dot of light form at its centre and pulse outwards, like a wave rippling out to the edges of a tiny, star-shaped pool. At the same time, I felt a slight sting.
“Ow. Son of a…”
Ding. At that moment the doors to the elevator opened. I pushed my sleeve back down and hurried inside. As I reached out to press the button for the ground floor, liquid hot pain shot through my left arm. I screamed and grabbed at it, doubling over as the wave surged up and into the whole left side of my body. Falling to my knees, I began to wrench off my jacket, hearing the pop and tear of multiple stitches as I fought to get to my burning skin. I was suddenly overcome by a horrible thought: that somehow I’d been set alight beneath my clothes, and I would remove my arm to find it scorched and black from some unseen flame.
I finally ripped the jacket from my body and fixed my eyes on the source of the pain. The stars were glowing, pulsing in time with repeated waves of agony that were shooting up my arm. I clawed at them, willing my fingers to peel them from my skin, but they glided over as smooth as before.
I watched on in horror as a single, crisp white line appeared above one of the star’s points and began to etch itself slowly through the middle and out the other side at a different angle. It was like having a hot razor blade drawn across the skin, an inch deep. It continued in a straight line until it connected with the next star, and the next, the pain increasing as it reached the centre of each one. When it changed angles a final time and connected through the fourth and fifth stars, the line and the stars began to pulse and throb as one.
The pain was unbearable. My skin felt like a thin sheet of film stretched tight over a furnace, threatening to melt away in seconds.
And then my arm just…opened.
I screamed. Kneeling in the middle of that elevator, I screamed over and over as this impossible constellation tore me open from within. The hole widened with each new wave of torment, until it took up my whole forearm, from wrist to elbow. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. Instead of blood and muscle, inside the hole I could see thousands of swirling white tendrils, undulating and glowing as they moved in a deliberate spiral motion down through my arm, into an infinite space beyond. It was more than my mind could comprehend, and I felt moments away from passing out, but kept my eyes locked onto the bizarre scene before me.
After a few seconds, I began to notice gaps in the writhing mass and realised the white-hot strands were slowly retreating to the edges of the hole, like the opening of a slithering aperture, revealing a truly terrifying vision beneath. Staring back at me was the elevator shaft. I wasn’t hallucinating, I was actually looking through the hole in my arm, even through the floor, into the shaft below, only infinitely repeated, stretching on forever. Dotted throughout the endless expanse were stars and nebulas. Entire galaxies looked back at me.
“Oh, my god…”
In an instant, the air was pushed out of my lungs as the elevator plummeted.
The previously slow-moving tendrils were now spiralling around the edges at an incredible speed, doubling and tripling upon themselves, a living light tunnel that circled an infinite reflection of the rapidly descending scene. The air inside the elevator began to funnel into the hole, and I could feel my hair and clothes being whipped about as the vortex generated a mini whirlwind around me. I could even feel the skin on my face gently stretch towards it. I resumed screaming, fear coursing through my entire system, as my heart threatened to burst out of my chest and pitch down the tunnel.
Over the screaming and the frenzied wind, I heard a voice. Professor Karlsson was shouting my name.
Lu-cas!…Lu-cas!! Do you see it? The canister! Take it, Lucas. Take it now!
I frantically searched the elevator, but couldn’t see anything resembling a canister. I looked back towards the camera, pleading with it, hoping someone would leap out of it and save me from this nightmare. “What do you mean?!” I roared. “Help me!”
No response. I looked back to the horror unfolding in my arm, and that’s when I saw it. There in the middle of the swirling vortex, growing in size as it rose out of the cosmic depths, was a metallic grey cylinder.
“Jesus Christ! What the fuck is that?!” I wailed, not taking my eyes off the object. It was only a foot away now, inside my arm.
The voice came again.
Lucas, reach in and take it! You must take it!
I shook my head furiously.
If you don’t take the canister now, you’ll be pulled into the wormhole! Take the canister, finish the transfer!
I started to reach my right arm towards the hole, and hesitated. What am I doing?! I thought. Caught between this terrifying chasm that wanted to swallow me, and hauling a mysterious space tube out of my arm, the whole experience felt completely and utterly insane. But I could also sense my strength and focus fading, and I knew I needed to finish whatever was happening to me or I might not survive it.
I plunged my hand into the void, feeling the freezing vacuum of space constrict around it, and stretched my fingers towards the metal cylinder. It was smooth and incredibly cold, but it was definitely real. Gripping it tightly, I summoned all of my strength and ripped the tube from my arm.
There was a great woomph, as all the air that had been sucked into the wormhole was expelled back out into the elevator in one gasp, lifting me off my knees and slamming me into the ground. Looking at my arm I could see the glowing tendrils of light pouring into the centre of the tunnel again, clouding over the view of the infinite shaft and solidifying as the hole began to close. A few seconds later, the stars were all that remained on my skin. Their pulsing glow diminished.
It was over.
The elevator felt like it had come to a complete stop as well. I was still lying on the floor when the doors opened, and I looked out to the common room beyond. I let out a groan.
The elevator hadn’t gone anywhere.
I looked at the cylinder in my flash-frozen hand, trying to bring it into focus, but exhaustion overcame me, and everything went black.
***
The sound of voices woke me. I lifted my head and saw I was in a hospital bed in a small, sterile room, surrounded by a half-dozen people. One of them realised I was awake and stepped forward.
“Ah, Lucas. You’re back with us. Good.” I recognised the voice from the loudspeaker. “You did very well, Lucas. Very well indeed. Some had their doubts, but I knew you were the right candidate. Please, get some rest. We’ve bandaged your hand, but it might be sometime before it’s fully functional. Someone will be with you shortly to transport you to a more suitable location.”
I couldn’t quite process what he was saying, my mind still in a fog, but I managed a weak acknowledgement before dropping my head back down on the pillow. Closing my eyes, I pretended to fall asleep as the strangers filed out of the room. Two of them stopped near the door and I opened my eyes just enough to see Professor Karlsson talking to a man who looked to be high-ranking military.
“I hope I have your full support now, General?” the Professor asked the uniformed man. “I’ve proven the subject can handle the gateway, and as you just saw, Phase Two has already begun. Our new friends seem eager to move forward quickly.”
The General nodded once, short and sharp, and both men left the room. An audible click! informed me the door was locked.
***
It’s been half an hour since they left me alone. I’ve surveyed every inch of the room, looking for another way out, but there isn’t one. What I did find was my jacket in a locker next to the bed, my phone still inside. I’ve typed out everything that happened and put it on the net. Not because I think anyone can save me, the people in charge clearly don’t care that I have a phone, or that I’ve disclosed what they’ve done. They know everything is going to change after tonight.
No, I’m telling this story because there needs to be a record of how it started, in case it doesn’t go how they think, which it won’t.
Besides, I suspect I won’t be around for what happens next anyway. I don’t know what’s about to come through, but whatever it is, it’s big. Looking down at my arms and legs all I can see are hundreds of tiny, white stars.