In the late 22nd Century, there is a small human colony on Titan. Operational for six months, life is tough and challenging, but strange geological activity threatens to unearth alien horror and madness!
"Can you help us establish communications with the aliens?" asks Sam, trying to remain calm while looking at the thing that isn't quite human any more. "We got off on the wrong...appendage with them, and things got hostile. We want them to know that we have come in peace. We reacted the way we did because we were under attack."
"What happened to Jane?" buzzed Jane. "I am Jane, ztill Jane...ztill...." it paused, uncertain for a moment.
"The Mi-go are masters of all forms of science, but they excel in the transplantation of tranformation of flesh. I have zzzeen it. By marvellous devices, they can preserve the brain independent of flesh...wicked...fragile...flesssssh...." she buzzed.
"And in such form, see the stars! Beyond Sol...think of it! Have you not ever wanted to travel further? An immortal, never dying, but always seeing....seeing!!!!"
For someone so concerned with sight, her eyes looked glassy and dead. More peculiar where several nails and bolts to her head, some of which could be sensors of some type, one might suppose.
"The Mi-Go are here to see, too...they have found a city beneath the ice and rock...full of metals that are most precious to them, but beyond our sciences or understanding. They mine, ever mining. And they have found the city, old and strange....they wish to see.....they offer you, brave and curious friends...they would offer you the same opportunity they have given me! immortality and wonder! They would study you, and show you!"
Hattie couldn't deny being tempted by an eternity to study the stars, but the abomination that was all that was left of Jane was succeeding marvellously at showing her how attached she was to her own body.
"Why don't they come to talk and study us in person then? I will not be dissected like some rat and re-animated for their obscure purposes. If they gather minerals and knowledge, they are in essence similar to us, exploring the stars to further their species and to further their understanding of the universe. Surely the Mi-Go...", suddenly she wondered what the species' name meant in their own language," surely the Mi-Go understand we want to maintain our individuality. Tell them we wish them no harm and would call a parley. We can mutually benefit from this exchange...without compromising the other's physical integrity."
"He said we were all cooked but we were all right as long as we did not know it. We were all cooked. The thing was not to recognize it."
"If that's an example of how the Mi-Go change you," says Sam, "I think I'll stick with my body. Jane, would you let Dr. Bloom examine the...modifications the Mi-Go made to you so we can better understand how they work?"
The door doesn't open. Seth tries again to no avail. "Total shutdown. I wonder what's happened now." He grumbles and then heads over to the main hanger door. "Well, we'll see about that."
He checks his suit is ready for activation and then starts tinkering with the electronic lock hoping to override it. He thinks about trying to raise Sam or Hattie, he doesn't trust Boss, but being a loner he waits, "I'm sure to bump into them sooner or later." He thinks and then curses as he receives a minor electric shock. He sucks his finger.
Jane shuddered...more like a vibration, again with that horrible buzzing, at frequencies that felt strange and unnatural. She cocked her head, listening to something inaudible through some invisible ether.
"Your forms cannot cross space, not in your ships. You do not understand, do not see. There are stars and realms beyond the universe, and you just scratch...scratch....scratch..."
She cocked her head back, at an angle that looked horribly obtuse.
"If you will not see, if you will not come....then...the city is ours! yes, I will follow them, I will! tell us! tell us! whom have you told? whom have you told?"
Meanwhile....
Despite the Lockdown, the doors where not impossible to bypass. After all, the colony was not expecting burgulars. It was built to ensure no accidental openings, to ensure no damage would breach. All it would take was time and a little jiggery pokery...
"You mean the Mi-Go?" asks Sam. "Well, we told Dr. Bloom, of course. And I think Drake knows about them already. The two Mi-Go who tried to get into the base earlier were looking for him. Why do they want him specifically?" She keeps the fact that she has informed Earth to herself for now.
The door lock finally flashes green. Seth activates his suit and then has a thought, He goes to the hanger storage and rummages through the supplies to find something useful as a weapon. He still has his knife but something with a bit of range could be useful. There isn't very much immediate to hand unless he spends time constructing, say, a flame thrower. He grabs an all-atmos blow torch, which might be useful v cockroaches, and then opens the door and peers into the swirling atmosphere outside.
"We can arrange to meet them somewhere, talk to their representatives. Maybe see if we can establish an understanding that can be beneficial to both our races?"
And maybe also explain why we don't like having our heads removed, Hattie thought.
"He said we were all cooked but we were all right as long as we did not know it. We were all cooked. The thing was not to recognize it."
Seth could just about see, through the dim swirling gases of Titan, Hattie and Sam and....the thing...
The thing in question seemed eager to please, in response to Hattie's proposal.
"yes! Yes! They would meet! Show you the beyond!" came the buzzing sound. "They have discovered the city beneath the surface. Many strange and precious stones, and metals, and millions of years old! Meet them at the city! The earth quake, its centre!"
"They would show us the mysteries of the universe, of space, of time!" she buzzed. She sounded rather, or completely, insane.
"We tried going to the epicenter earlier," says Sam. "They attacked us, and we barely got out of there alive. Before that, they killed Commander Wu there with their acid shooter. How can we be sure they won't try again?"
"The City they have found is full of most precious metals and stones, beyond our understanding of chemistry! They would not share such treasure lightly!"
"You must understand! All flesh and thought you know are nothing. If you resist them, or stop their mining, you will surely be destroyed. They care nothing for us, we are but insects. They do not wish to step on us, nor to avoid stepping on us. They might study us, and transform us, to understand us...I have seen so much that is strange and beyond description! I have been transformed, so they might understand me!"
A vague sense of madness and sadness crept into her voice.
"They will not attack you, as long as you amuse them!"
"Well, I know a few jokes," says Sam. "Or I could always fall back on slapstick. I know, that's not what you meant. That was a joke, and a bad one. I don't know, maybe they find it amusing for us primitive humans to demonstrate our scientific capabilities. What does amuse them?"
"Share treasure? Stop them?
You and I both know that this is a peaceful mission of scientific exploration. We're not here to fight them."
She sighed deeply, somewhat saddened by the tone of this first contact. It was nothing she'd imagined it to be as a child, No Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, no classical orchestra theme...
"But we're not here to entertain either. We're looking for a peaceful meeting on equal footing."
"He said we were all cooked but we were all right as long as we did not know it. We were all cooked. The thing was not to recognize it."
For the first time, the cyborg horror seemed to be angry, or at least close to it. The buzzing sound worsened, and the tubes fizzed with strange chemicals. What was left of her brain seemed awash with some primitive endocrine rage.
"Equal? Equal? Do not think of them as your equals. You are ants to them. Do not mistake their invitation for equality. You are nothing, of no consequence, insignificant. An irritation at best, or worst!" she buzzed, her skin crawling with agitation.
She held up one arm, full of strange dull metal and stranger liquids. A small flame of plasma came out of her index finger, which was, they noted, an inch or two longer than it should be.
"Do not mistake this parley for negotiation. My masters will have their way with or without you. Your communication with earth will be destroyed, for they do not wish to be known. All that remains is for you to wither, to die, or to see the city and all its wonders. To be transformed!"
