Ashili blinked. “I thought only the five seniors whose presence reactivated you could give you orders?”
“Conditions have altered.”
She thought furiously, then looked up, eyes wide. “One of them’s here.” She found herself peering anxiously past the blue ellipse. “One of them managed to escape and make his way here. Probably had you guide him. Who is it? Heath?” If anyone could slip away, it would be the retired military man, she decided.
“No. None of the individuals to whom you allude is present.”
Her confusion grew. “Did you come after me on your own? Is that part of your programming?”
“I have not come after you.”
“Then what in the name of Omolu are you doing here?”
An answer of sorts came in the form of a grinding, rumbling noise from above. Ashili whirled to gaze upward.
The large, irregular form atop the monolithic platform was stirring.
“I suggest you depart if you desire to preserve your puny life,” the Autothor declared solemnly.
Ashili was already backing up, unable to take her eyes off the gargantuan shape. “Preserve my life? From what?”
“From who summoned me.”
She could make out the details of the massive being now. A long echoing moan boomed from the top of the platform, as of a great gust of wind compressed through a narrow orifice. She hesitated to activate her gun. Instinct as well as logic suggested that any overt display of aggression was likely to be met with instant annihilation.
“What … what is it?” she heard herself mumbling.
“Why, I should think that obvious.” The Autothor bobbed brightly. “It is a member of the crew. A Drex. Surely you did not think that this vessel was utterly abandoned?”
“By your own admission it’s been a million years.”
“Yes. A long sleep.”
“Nothing organic can be functionally preserved for a million years!”
“Okay,” said Ksarusix timidly, “you tell it that.”
“I wouldn’t mention it just now,” the Autothor advised her.
By the time she considered running for the portal it was too late. The gigantic alien had turned and dropped four massive limbs, each as big around as a good-sized tree, over the side of the platform, blocking her route. Each limb ended in a heavy, thick pad dominated by six short, blunt claws; three in front and three behind. She reversed direction and retreated the other way.
The Drex straightened. Erect, it was nearly twenty meters tall. She could not estimate its mass. The thick legs expanded into a barrel-like torso from which hung four seven-meter-long tentacles that tapered at the tips to delicate round points. They writhed and curled like a quartet of hyperactive anacondas. The bloodred leathery skin stood out in sharp contrast to the black garment which covered the body and upper portions of all four legs.
Four muscular tubes surrounded a pale pink fifth atop the torso. Riding above this peculiar multiple neck was a skull like an upswept vermilion wave, from the forepart of which, or crest of the wave, four slightly protuberant, elliptical black eyes stared out from beneath a single curving lid of scaly flesh. They had round, crimson pupils. Below the curve of eyes was a protruding diamond-shaped structure with holes at each point of the diamond, and below that a round proboscidian mouth lined with inward-facing fangs. The mouth expanded and contracted obscenely in time to the monster’s breathing.
Ashili’s first thought was that the Drex were not vegetarians.
The four tentacles rose and extended, quivering as the creature stretched. A deep-throated trill came from somewhere within the multiple neck, or perhaps from the complex of light-emitting instrumentation it wore around its body just beneath the tentacles.
Its immense stature cleared up one mystery. The ship had been designed to operate with a much smaller crew than anyone had initially suspected. The cavernous corridors and vast chambers had been constructed not to impress and overawe, but to accommodate a normal Drex crew. The rock formations which had formed the charming little cove in the exotic searoom weren’t cliffs at all: they were benches. The monolithic structures in the observation chamber were seats. The inscriptions which covered so many walls had been installed at eye level for the crew. And so forth.
No doubt there were innumerable other details of anatomy that Ashili overlooked. She could be forgiven this, since her principal concern of the moment lay in saving her own skin.
So that’s an alien, she found herself musing wildly. So many decades of deep-space exploration had passed without finding any sign of other intelligent life that except for a lunatic fringe the majority of humankind had ceased to fantasize about them. As so often happened, to the extreme discomfort of the majority, the lunatic fringe once more turned out to have been right.
The Drex wasn’t cute and cuddly as aliens were so often portrayed in speculative fantasies. It looked overpowering, competent, and nasty. But then weensy little purring furballs weren’t apt to build a warship on the scale of the artifact.
Feeling like a bug hunting for a hole to hide in, she wondered if it would find her cuddly.
“Real impressive.” Feeling somewhat vindicated, Ksarusix was staring up at the tentacled titan.
“Keep your voice down,” she hissed at the robot. “It’s ugly and horrible!”
“I wouldn’t let him hear you say that,” the Autothor advised her. “Impolitic.”
“That thing has a sex?” Somehow the thought rendered the creature’s appearance even more grotesque. Even as she searched desperately for an escape route she found herself mesmerized by the twisting tentacles, the elephantine feet, the bizarre multiple neck, the crimson pupils floating in pools of black oil, and especially the steady sucking sound it made as it inhaled air past wicked inward-curving teeth.
And though she didn’t know it, the Drex were the good guys.
A ponderous rumbling issued from the creature’s mouth.
“Sorry, got to go now.” The Autothor was apologetic.
“Wait, don’t leave me!” But the blue ellipse, burning intensely, rose until it was hovering just to the right of the Drex’s upswept skull.
Espying its presence, the alien emitted several modulated booms, to which the Autothor replied in kind as it spun exuberantly on its axis. Moments later, it descended and disappeared inside the alien’s chest-adorning instrumentation. It emerged soon after as Ashili crouched behind a corner of the massive sleeping platform.
On all four legs the Drex turned and inclined its great skull so that all four bulging, penetrating eyes were staring directly into her own. A tentacle reached. Letting out an involuntary moan, she reached for her gun. The tentacle tip struck and knocked it easily from her fingers before she could take aim, then curled firmly around her waist.
