I'm Not From Earth - 18. Eighteen

e i g h t e e n

With every step he took towards the crashed ship, Rover felt more and more compelled to go on. At first he wondered why, but soon those thoughts died. His fear dissipated, and eventually his head was a cloud of muted feelings. It felt sluggish. He could barely think, let alone see.

And when the voices that were but his thoughts had all shut down, he felt another presence enter his mind.

It didn't probe like a curious animal, but fell over him like a blanket. At first he could see nothing but darkness, feel nothing but the constant pulls that were his own feet walking, but soon it came. Waves that were nothing but flashes of impulses. Scattered, sporadic; they pulsed like fireflies behind his irises, flashing and flashing until they were images, crude but bold, playing rapidly in Rover's head.

He saw space. Outer space in all its glory; chains of white hot suns, clouds of pulsing stardust, dark expanses that stretched and stretched. Planets that were bright crescents of glowing colour, moons that were all contours and planes. Then he saw the ship, spinning with vivid colour that was not red, blue, yellow, or any in between but a colour more brilliant than any combined. It was spinning through space, with purpose and direction, spinning with intelligence that stood in figures behind the grey crystal windows...

"Rover."

He woke.

And the craft was no longer flying through space, because it was jammed dead in the side of the earth. The magnetic pull coming from the ship released him, and vanished altogether. Rover was left with a resonating remorse that deadened the hollow of his chest. He stood, weak kneed.

"It's perfectly normal," Slade said reassuringly. "Even though I have no idea why that happens, I go through it every time I visit." He smiled and put a steadying hand on Rover's shoulder.

"The sadness?" He asked quietly.

Slade paused, then nodded. "Especially that."

Rover forced himself to walk the last strides.

The entrance was the most human looking thing on the whole ship. Framed and embroidered, it stood tall, a gaping coffin of darkness. The only problem is was that being tilted to the side, the entrance was far too high to reach.

"C'mon," Slade said.

This time Rover obeyed without question. They leapt high into the air and landed at the foot of the threshold.

"It's going to be a rough trip, so hold on just a bit longer," Slade warned, just as Rover started to wriggle out of his grasp.

Rover cursed quietly. Slade grinned back and said, "You can bury your face into my back if you can't stand the speed. It kinda helps. And if you feel like throwing up, turn your head backwards, all right?"

"I'm not going to throw up," Rover announced, scowling.

Slade nodded all-knowingly. "I know that. Just being professional. Now we go on the count of five. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

Rover steadied himself, and Slade started to count, his voice echoing down the entrance walls.

"One..."

The dark doorway suddenly seemed a lot more threatening.

"Two..."

Deep, steady breaths.

"Five!"

"What?! What the hell!" Rover yelped, and the violent sensation of falling was back.

The trip was fast but smooth, although Rover could argue that it was more terrifying than anything else. He felt like he was in a dark water slide. A really, really fast water slide. The tunnel was steep and Rover would've fallen off if Slade had not secured him with his strong arms.

After what seemed like forever, they landed.

"Learn how to count, asshole." Rover grumbled, his voice cracking.

He felt Slade tremble with laughter. After a few minutes of getting his breath back to normal, Rover opened his eyes.

"Hell." He felt the breath catch in his throat.

Everything was brilliant.

It was as if they had landed in a world frozen over with diamond. The moonlight that shone in was intensified by the clear walls, its beams dissected and splayed with all the colours of the spectrum; a billion rainbows that shimmered in the sides of the crystal pillars. Rover could taste the ancient dust that hung in the air. Illuminated tattoos, similar to the ones on the outside of the ship, crawled underneath the vast expanse of cold glaze that formed a sparkling film over the massive interiors.

He wasn't sure what this was supposed to be. The arrangement of tall pillars reminded him of some strange shrine, but the vast, circular floor suggested a futuristic ballroom. A large strip of window that sliced through the wall behind revealed the starry night sky and the inner flesh of the crater.

The room was tilted at quite an angle in proportion to the position of the ship, but judging by the casual way Slade was standing, it didn't look particularly slippery. Slade released his hold and Rover slid off. His shoes gripped keen, miniscule edges of the shining mineral, and he made a mental note not to fall or he was sure to cut himself to ribbons.

Something bright caught his eye. Curious, Rover started walking to the centre of the room, drawn to what looked like a frozen sphere barricaded by rings and rings of designs. Step by step he approached, barely noticing that Slade was following.

He stopped a foot away. Up close, it looked like a small boulder of uncut diamond, all messy ridges and veins. But its glow was brighter than the rest of the crystalline ship. The light from it pulsed softly -- rhythmically -- like a heartbeat.

Carved onto the surface of the sphere, so faintly that one had to squint, was the engravement of a hand.

"What's this?" Rover asked.

Slade shrugged, "I haven't got a clue. By the looks of it, I think it might've been something used to activate the ship."

"You ever like, try it?"

There was no reply from Slade, but he rolled his eyes. The reflections from the ship lit his face in a strange but beautiful light, his smooth skin aflame with pinks and blues. Slowly, he stretched his hand and placed his hand in the engravement. Just as slowly, Rover lifted his hand too, stretching it over Slade's so they were as one, both palms resting on the heart of the ship. There were no thoughts of comfort, no bouts of embarrassment. It was just something that happened without a need for reason.

And then the world exploded.

A powerful jolt exploded from the crystal ball, without a moment's warning. They were momentarily blinded. The glow had escalated into a piercing beacon, and the surface of the cool crystal was suddenly too hot to touch. Rover stumbled back, and he felt Slade catch him.

"What the hell is happening!"

"I don't know!"

A shock wave rolled from the centre and hit them, driving them backwards again. It didn't feel like static, or a burst of wind. It was something that threw their thoughts in a painful state of disarray, and something physical that threw them twenty feet backwards.

"I thought you said it didn't work!" Rover screamed.

"Well we proved me wrong! It's working just fine, now!" Slade yelled back.

There was a shattering. Shatterings upon shatterings. Rover blinked and saw the pillars of crystal crumble into waves of countless shards, filling the once stagnant room with deadly motion.

A horrible sound split into their ears. It sounded like metal being wrenched apart. They both looked up. A spiderweb of giant cracks had blossomed across the ceiling.

"It's going to cave in," Rover gasped.

"I totally didn't notice that," Slade scoffed. "Now get on!"

He climbed onto Slade's back without hesitation, and they tore across the slanted floor at blurring speed. They were nearly at the wide strip of window.

Another earsplitting screech. Rover looked up, and nearly passed out from panic. Spears of ceiling were falling right above them -- countless fields of refracting stalactites to pin down.

"Slade!" Rover screamed, and they veered sharply to the left.

A hill of crystal missed them, and they spun to the right, avoiding two others. The next one flew right into Slade's foot.

They tumbled, and Rover landed in a heap on the hard floor. Quickly, quickly. He forced himself to his knees and crawled towards Slade, watching as he yanked the shard from his foot. Just as Rover was about to help him up, Slade was thrown violently back down into the floor.

A larger shard, about the size of his torso, had stabbed him right through his back, sinking deep.

Without a moment's hesitation, Rover gripped both of his hands around the piece and pulled as hard as he could, ignoring the razor edges that sliced into his palms. Trying not to panic. Trying not to notice the blood that had seeped into his shoes.

"What are you doing?!" Slade snapped, trying to push him away but unable to do anything.

It was heavy. Really heavy. But Rover was sure he could do it.

"Get the fuck out of here now!"

He pulled harder, but another shock wave that resonated from the core shook him off his feet.

"Leave. Please."

Rover ignored Slade again, climbed back on his feet, braced himself, and pulled one last time with all his strength.

With a sickening crunch, the shard dislodged. Then with a final wave so violent that his vision vibrated into nothing but colours, the floor beneath gave and the world fell apart.

*