Under Attack

About the author and series.

This book is part of a series, written by IP Spall, consisting of 22 short stories in total. To find out more about this book series or any of IP Spall’s other publications, head to https://linktr.ee/ipspallbooks

Many of these short stories are free, and if you enjoy reading this book, you can even buy a total collection of all the short stories for a low price! Follow the link above to find out more.

This story can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2RXc72F

An uncomfortable foreword

It has been said that a series of short stories must emanate unexpectedness and a sense of chilling surprise. Such a collection of stories would require a character framework that is present throughout the whole book; from tale to tale, offering the reader a chance to relate to the individual characters — their pain, their horror, their paranoia. Such a collation would also contain an underlying subplot, so all of the stories connect and relate to one another, in a weblike manner, allowing each entry to follow on from the last with some continuity, while still retaining individuality.

I gave this some thought and decided to do the complete opposite. For me, each story should be read as an individual tale of terror, and certainly not as a collective.

Each of my short stories should evoke thought, emotion, and hopefully, leaves the reader wondering what the hell happens next. Let’s face it; not everyone looks for a happy ending in the stories they read. With this in mind, let your imaginations run wild, and enjoy the unpredictability; often an uncomfortable ride.

Under Attack

The general sense of relief was evident amongst the crew, as their ship began to exit the meteor belt. The onboard computer finally signalled the last few rocks were just about to pass when suddenly a terrifying thud was heard on the starboard side of the ship. Something big and heavy felt like it hit the ship, but as they just presumed it was one of the meteors that they had somehow missed. It was strange that the computer hadn’t acknowledged the collision, only adding to the immediate safety concerns of the crew and vessel. The bang was unnaturally loud and weirdly didn’t resemble a collision. Instead, it felt like it came from inside the ship somewhere. Instinctively, all heads turned towards the noise, before they all returned to their consoles, seeking answers to the disturbance, which was followed by an eery silence. The sound had momentarily upset the peaceful balance of deep space; their first and only unusual event recorded in the ship’s log.

In the minutes that followed, the crew search hard for answers to the crashing noise, but initially, the onboard computer didn’t register anything unusual. It took approximately another eight minutes before the first alarm suddenly sprung to life, picking up an unknown disturbance on the outer shell of the vessel. There were no details, a vague warning with no details, just stated a general collision event, with no information available, which was a worry. The unique crashing sound didn’t help anyone’s nerves settle, with no other incidents reported, the captain reluctantly ordered that they carry on cruising at the same speed, as they still had a few large boulders to avoid before they reached the relative safety of open space.

Another bigger thump was heard, about five minutes later. This time the sound was more significant, more aggressive and seemed to come from another part of the ship, in the direction of the cryogenic sleep chambers, on the port-side, near the flight deck. The sound was a real worry, as cryogenic pods for the rest of the crew were all stored there. This time, the internal alarms did ring out, causing a flurry of action on the bridge. Shortly after, another alarm sounded, as a sharper, more precise bashing sound followed, seemingly in the same area as the cryo-pods again. The team stood and watched through the small internal windows that looked down on the rows and rows of pods. Apart from the noise, everything seemed at peace, as if nothing was happening; the computer system happened to say the opposite, as further alarms and prompts began to appear. The sound resembled someone, or something, trying to break its way into the ship. It no longer sounded like lumps of rock bouncing off the hull; it felt more targeted and precise, and as such, it was becoming a real concern. With only two other crew members awake, the captain turned to look at his colleagues.

“Walker, I think you’d better get the weapons.” Walker was apparently thinking the same thing, as he didn’t hesitate to run to the back of the flight deck, where he proceeded to open a locked cabinet, full of guns.

“Clarence, any details of what the hell is going on”?

“No sir, the alarms are from general disturbances, although I don’t believe that to be the case, sir. Maybe we hit another rock, sir”? As the Captain was about to reply, there was another crash, harder, with seemingly much more force, in the same place as before. The men looked at the window and then turned to each other. An uncomfortable eery feeling filled the bridge. The Captain took his colleagues into the cryo-pod room, as it was time to see what was going on in there.

The banging continued intermittently, with each bang getting a little stronger, more targeted and intensive. Each crash and bang now centred around the same spot as before, high up on the wall, at the end of the cryogenic chamber. With one large crack, a dent now felt like it was coming through the wall, from outside, in open space. The pounding continued; it was beginning to resemble a triangular shape, which confirmed the Captain’s suspicions that it wasn’t another meteor they’d hit. The indentation was starting to resemble a large inverted triangle shape, that became more significant with every further bout of pounding, which was occurring now every few minutes now. The onboard computer finally went into panic mode, as the sensors. Lights and sirens all went into overdrive, frantically seeking a solution to the problem at hand. The crew couldn’t do anything except watch in horror. There wasn’t anything known to man, strong enough to break through the hull; the room filled with fear.

After running all of their exhausting procedures, yielding little or no results, protocol dictated that the last solution was to wake up all other senior members of staff and engineering. The Captain drew in a deep breath; he paused for a few moments before he gave the order. There would be consequences of coming out of a long-term deep sleep without reason, so his decision was not an easy one to make.

The indentation continued growing at a significant rate, with the thumping and banging still increasing in loudness, intensity, and frequency. There were also some further crashes and banged reported from various other areas of the vessel. They were certainly under attack, but from what? They simply didn’t know. It was currently an unseen enemy at the door.

“Get Michael woken up immediately” the Captain shouted; urgency in his voice.

“Yes, Sir” Clarence replied.

“If anyone knows what to do, it’ll be him,” the Captain said; a slight glimmer of hope underlined his command.

The mission’s most senior ship engineer, Michael Rose, was the most experienced engineer in the whole fleet; he’d had the most space travel experience by far, almost double that of the Captain. He was an honest, hardworking individual, who the Captain had nothing but the utmost respect. Upon selection, Clarence commanded the computer to initiate his awakening; the light on the top of his Cryogenic pod lit up, as the rest of his chamber started to glow a faint orange colour. Michael’s resuscitation began. The reversal procedure for waking him up was slow, as it drained the gas, and initiating all the charging of internal organs and normal vital signs. The process seemed far too slow for the Captains liking; the crew stood and watched, flicking their gaze from the working Cryo-chamber to the ever-increasing in size dent, that grew bigger which each bang. As the engineer’s pod slowly rotated up into a vertical position, initiating the door opening sequence, Michael stood there in his mask; a few seconds passed before he opened his eyes. He raised his hand and yanked off his mask, looking quite upset to be awake. He then fell to his knees, in a fit of coughing, having a sickening reaction to the foul-smelling gas they used for waking patients.

Michael took a few minutes to ground himself before he stood up straight and looked around. He was about to speak when another loud banging on the side of the ship instantly took everyone’s attention. The indentation was now huge, almost at bursting point. They all knew that it wouldn’t be long before what-ever-it-is broke through the hull. Walker took a step forward and pointed his weapon toward the sound, with Clarence also gripping her gun tightly. The Captain turned back to Michael.

“Michael, I think we’re under attack,” he said, looking worried.

“By what”?

“We don’t know. The computers are not picking up anything except a disturbance. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before” the Captain added. Michel looked back at the dent, which was now slowly changing colour; the hull of the ship was being stretched to its limits, regardless of its strength and forcefield in place. Michael took a few seconds to think before he moved over to one of the control panels. With a loud crack, which made then all jump, another crash caused a long white line to appear directly over the dent, as the breach began to split.

“I think it’s all too late,” Michael said, looking back in horror.

“Give me one of those weapons,” he then said, as another crash just intensified the breach.

With a sub-machine gun-type weapon in his hands, he quickly glanced down to see if it loaded before he raised it to his chest; he then slowly took a step back, towards the Captain and the others. A fleeting glance back towards the control panel was again interrupted by another shockingly loud crack, as the crack in the wall finally gave way, opening the hole up to show a strange black object. With weapons cocked and ready, they all stood in trepidation, scared by what they were about to face. They knew that whatever it was, it was going to be big, as nothing known to man was strong enough to break through those walls. The loud bang was then followed by a series of loud, aggressive cracks, as the seam was pulled apart further. Gravity turned horizontal, and like oil dripping down through a gap, a strange dark matter seeped through the hole. Whatever it was, it resembled plastic; black shiny and hard, sticking out into the room sideways about a metre or so, where it stopped and held its position. For now, the breach held the atmosphere in place, but for how long, they didn’t know. Then an unearthly grating noise was heard, as the bright black protrusion moved slightly, allowing a thick, viscous liquid to seep in at the base of the crack. At first, it just danced around the opening, which was worrying enough, but then it started to morph into something bigger, climbing and twisting about the first protrusion, growing ever bigger and thicker. In the centre of the open crack, it suddenly started to pour into the room, extending outwards in all directions, as well as descending to ground level. With another heavy-duty thud, the wall broke open more significantly, and with it, the black jelly-like liquid came flooding in through the hole. As it squeezed through, it sent out long tendrils of black stuff up the walls and up onto the ceiling. A thick stream of it also poured down to the cryogenic chambers below. The alien moved with high speed.

Readying himself for a battle, Walker aimed and opened fire on the black mass, pointing directly at the centre of the mass and opened fire. He was confident that he would cause some damaged, but instead, his bullets just sank into the black liquid with absolutely no reaction. He emptied another round, with the others briefly joining in, but they all soon realised that it was pointless.

The black goo continued to pour into the room at speed, while many further bangs and crashes are happening from other areas of the ship. As the mass reached down and encompassed the cryogenic chambers, they listened to the breaking of glass, and hissing as the gas escaped. Smoke and smothering sounds followed, as each cryogenic pod was cocooned by the strange black mass, which was now slowly consuming everything in its path.

“Go, go” the Captain shouted, grabbing Clarence by the shoulder. They all turned and ran towards the door at the back, while Walker continued to off-load thousands of rounds.

“Walker, come, it’s no good,” the Captain shouted. He didn’t listen; instead, he just continued firing, round after round. A long, elongated strand shot out the centre of the mass; it circled the barrel of his gun while it continued firing before it rapidly extended over his hand and up his arm. With one violent movement, it yanked him at high speed towards the bulk of the mass, where he just sank into it, like it was liquid. The Captain, glancing back from the doorway, watched in shock, before he turned to run, quietly panicking inside. With the door locked and sealed behind them, they ran down the corridor, surrounded by banging and crashing noises, now coming from all directions. With the fear of God in their eyes, they eventually reached the evacuation pod chamber. With only ten feet to go, the sidewall collapsed, and a chaotic mass of black goo burst into the room at speed. With long tendrils shooting out at high velocity, Clarence was the first to go, with Michael following only seconds after. For a very brief second in time, the Captain just stopped and watched, knowing what was to come.

About the author and series.

This book is part of a series, written by IP Spall, consisting of 22 short stories in total. To find out more about this book series or any of IP Spall’s other publications, head to https://linktr.ee/ipspallbooks

Many of these short stories are free, and if you enjoy reading this book, you can even buy a total collection of all the short stories for a low price! Follow the link above to find out more.

This story can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2RXc72F