Fiction:Secrets of Hgor/Part 2

Jove-1 Station, Hgor
The cold outside raged, gales and ice flying across the desolate white plains of planet Hgor. The Jove-1 Station was hunched up in one of those ice plains. It was a pill of metal, really, three separate domes and corridors between them shining in the dull light of a typical Hgorian morning. Its dock was empty, all Jovar vessels once on it now gone back to warmer worlds.

Inside, cadet Krellar sat on a metal bench, looking out through a thick window at the winds outside. Laughter sounded behind him, and he looked at the rest of the officer's mess; there was officer Kand, Jeran, Verra and Halcon, admiral Kirn and captains Jir and Heand. He'd never talked much to any of them, except for the female Verra. She was one of a kind, the only female Jovar to volunteer for work on such a hardy world. Plus, she was the only one who'd helped him get settled in, in the three long weeks on-planet. The other officers were hardy, not much to talk with really, so during the long turns on-duty he spent on the station he always hoped it would be with her, despite her higher rank. he sighed, then turned back to watching the ice outside. It would be a long, long time before he got to see the stars again...

"Cadet! Attention, cadet!", called the speakers above Krellar's bunk. "Report immediately to the command room, cadet! Stat!". He got dressed as quickly as he could, then ran off to the command cabin one the other side of the station. the doors hissed when he arrived, allowing him entry. Inside he saw verra, at first, then officer kand, captain Jir and-admiral Kirn! he was the commander here, so it was rare to see him at meetings. this looked liek no regular meeting, however.

"Cadet", said Kirn gruffly. He was a corpulent Jovar, with a ruddy glow and an explosive personality. Best not to get on the wrong side of him. "We have received a transmission from an unknown source, near the energy mines on the other side of the area. We wouldn't want any interference with the mining, of course, so I'm charging you with the responsibility to check out whatever's making all that ruckus. You will depart immediately, so suit up". Krellar mumbled a response.

"What was that, cadet?"

"I said yes, sir!", he replied, and went back to his room to get his snow suit.

Hgor Uranium Mines
Krellar stumbled past the snow all the way to the Uranium minds the admiral had been talking about, carved deep into an outcropping of dark Hgorean rock. He went into the dark caves, taking a passage that went deeper into the mountain. Weird crystals shined in the walls, and sharp shard of rock protruded everywhere. It was dark, very dark, bu he kept a glo-light in his suit and it lit up the way in front of him. Suddenly, a sharp crack came from the ceiling. He shined the glo-light up, but the roof was oto tall. The noise multiplied, coming from further down the tunnel. Still, Jovar kept his ground and stayed still. He looked down the tunnel, which had suddenly grown silent again. Everything was quiet...SKREEEASSH! a gigantic thing fell from the ceiling and hissed at him, two enourmously long fangs bared. He fell to the floor, and then more creatures began to fall back from the ceiling, which was...moving?. He suddenly understood perfectly...teh ceiling was bristling with energy spiders, thousands of legs scuttling forward to get him...He turned, shot a round of blaster fire into the nearest spider's brain, and ran for his life. More spiders tried to block his way, but their brains were soon scattered around the tunnel walls after a clean shot of blaster fire. he had to get out of there...but admiral Kirn would not be happy.

Jove-1 Station
"You did WHAT?! Why, by the two suns of Osion, did you RUN AWAY?!" shouted admiral Kirn. They were back in the command room, Krellar having arrived barely ten minutes ago with his snow suit dripping with Uranomatula venom. Fortunately, none of it was in his bloodstream, but apparently admiral Kirn would rather it was.

"The cave was bristiling with energy spiders, admiral", said a disgruntled Krellar.

"Really? Well, wouldn't you rather have blasted them into inexistence than runa way from them?

"They were too many! What was I-"

"Oh, don't you try to excuse yourself. You failed at your mission, and it was a pretty simple one. I'm taking you off duty. So be a good Jovar and don't protest. Get back to your room, change and then stay there. Oh, and I'd wash that Uranomantula spit right off. You're stinking up my station."

Back in his room, Krellar fumed at his ceiling. It had been so simple! Find the transmistter, take it back to base. Instead he got mauled by energy spiders and got a teling off from his acting officer. Stupid. he looked back out at the corridor, which was so tempting...ah well, it could be a faulty mine computer, that was all. No reason for it to be soemthing special, but still... yet, he was grounded off-uty, and if he screwed up again the commander would be sure to get him off-planet without ever finding what caused the signals. he turned over and tried to sleep-but a knowck sounded at his door. He looked up and saw officer Verra, looking hurried. He opened the door and let her in, and she immediately said, "we have to get back there!". He stared at her, who was looking hopeful. he grinned finally, and took his snow suit by the wall. "Fine", he said grinning. :Since we both know there's something important there, we should get going".

Hgorean energy mines
The two slipped back into the caves and out of a blazing snowstorm, walking qitely to avoid arousing the spiders again. Once Krellar thought he recognized where the ar=ttack had been, they took a different route to the depths of the mines and saw no spiders. There was occasionall a scratching sound from teh ceiling, but the two hid whenever one occurred and came across no organisms as unpleasant as Hgoean Uranomantulas. they went deeper and deeper, where the wall crystals became faint and the dark was so thick even their glo-lights had difficulty dealing with it. Finally they reached a dead-end, what must have been hundreds of tones of smooth black rock blocking their way.

"We should go back, Krellar said. This is completely unmovable."

"No, I don't think so, she replied. It's so smooth...it looks liek a door or something similar."

"Even if it is a door, how do we open it?". Cerra grinned, a plan obviously sprouting in her head. "Why, we bust it open, of course."

Half an hour later, the stone wall was crushed to the floor by a hoarde of gigantic, scuttling energy spiders that were all squashed into the dead end. The mess was terrible, its true, but the way was open and the two Jovars just jumped over the pile of half-dead Uranomantulas and their innards. What was inside would change their race and their lives forever...;