Fish Don't Scream
by Michael P Calligaro
Myami Nakamura instinctively reached up to scratch her itching nose, only to have her gloved hand hit the "transparent" dome covering her head. "Come on, Gared, hurry up," she pleaded. "I want to get back to the station and out of this damn suit."
Gared ignored her and continued whatever important action he was up to--on his knees with his head and arms in a hole in the rock wall. Myami couldn't even see his sand-pockmarked helmet.
Not that she had to worry whether he was alive. She could hear his breathing, just as she could hear her own and that of the expedition's third wheel, Buser the Bus. Of course, fat Buser's breathing was closer to a wheeze.
"Your scientific curiosity is an inspiration for us all, Myami," Buser chided.
Myami bit her tongue to keep from saying the first thing that popped into her head, "Buser, the only scientific curiosity you've ever shown is for the shelter's supply of chocolate pudding." As the urge to speak rose, she clamped down harder on her tongue, only stopping when the pain made her mouth promise to comply with her wishes. A similar comment to the head scientist at the university had landed her this choice position on this awful planet.
She looked over her shoulder and down the rock tunnel. A scant hundred meters away, iron-rich, red sand blew by the cave mouth, sometimes gusting up to ninety kilometers per hour. At least they were sheltered in the cave.
Gared's breathing quickened, as if he was exerting himself. Myami glanced at the air pressure gauge on her right forearm. Her pressure gauge, like her breathing apparatus, was no more advanced than late twentieth century scuba gear. Rather than a digital readout on a heads up display, her gauge had a crystal face so scratched she could barely make anything out. She was actually supposed to read the current tank pressure (in psi, not kPa) by matching up a little needle with a faded number below it. The needle was directly connected to the tank by a pressure hose that ran along the inside of her suit and chafed at her shoulder. Nothing but the best for researchers in this hellhole.
The gauge read two thousand psi. Doug, the self-appointed station safety expert, went into conniption fits every time anyone returned with less than five hundred. Of course, when traveling with air pigs (men), Myami never went below a thousand. "Watch your exertion, Gared, or you'll suck down all your air."
"Ignore her, Gared," Buser said. "She's just testy because she can't fish in the sandstorm."
Myami scrunched her nose at Buser but kept her mouth shut. Though she'd never before witnessed any signs of intelligence in her coworker, he'd hit that one on the head. Back on Earth, she used to use a trick her father had taught her when she was four. To keep oneself civil in the face of annoyance, bottle it up and then vent it at creatures so stupid they'd bite a steel hook because it was shiny. All the people who thought her father had been a calm and centered man never saw him screaming at the fish he caught.
Buser's comment made her remember that she was here now because she foolishly left Michigan to take a job in lake-deprived Arizona. That had done wonders for her demeanor. "Damn it, Gared, what are you doing in there?"
In a strained voice, he replied, "I've...almost...got...it."
"Got what?"
His body pulled back slightly and he exclaimed, "Got it!"
Before Myami could ask again, she felt a low rumble, and the wall began to shake. Gared slithered out of the hole while Myami and Buser backed away. Gared quickly joined them. "Gared, what did you do?"
His voice full of concern, he replied, "When we entered the cave, I felt something drawing me toward the hole. When I looked inside, I found a lever."
The shaking continued but seemed to stay localized by the wall. Nonetheless, the three of them continued to back out. Buser asked, "A lever? We didn't put a lever in here."
Gared nodded.
"Then who did?" Buser asked.
Gared shrugged and said, "I don't know. That's why I pulled it."
Myami threw up her hands. "You found a strange lever you'd never seen before, and you pulled it? My God, Gared, what were you thinking?"
He shrugged and his voice became confused and unsure of itself. Slouching he said, "I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time."
As the wall before them split down the center, they picked up their pace in backing away. Myami shook her head. "Damn it, Gared, we're too far into the cave to get out. If you bring this ceiling down on us, I'll never forgive you."
Though the fissure in the wall widened, the rumbling stopped. The three of them watched in amazement as the wall smoothly spread apart, revealing a sparkling cavern beyond.
Buser was the first to speak. "That couldn't have been a natural occurrence, could it?"
Myami was too dumbfounded to even think of a disparaging remark. Humans were supposed to be alone in the universe. If this proved otherwise, it would render the planet's hassles meaningless. They glanced to each other and then snuck forward. At the mouth of the cavern they saw the cause of the sparkling. Bright light emanated from nowhere and fell across a varied assortment of shiny metal objects. The objects were well polished and in complicated shapes that don't occur accidentally. Someone had strewn perfect five-pointed stars in silver and copper around the room. Mixed in with the stars were golden chalices and objects in complicated alien shapes made out of what must have been an alloy.
Gared twisted a dial on his chest plate and started to speak. His opening gasp made Myami realize that she too had been holding her breath. "Station, this is Gared from the expedition. We found something. We found something important."
Doug's voice came back, "Gared, it sounds like your breathing rate is too high. How's your air supply? Is something wrong?"
"Forget the air supply, Doug! I told you we found something."
"I'm not listening until you all report your supplies. Ridley's almost got his nuclear drills prepped so when you three go dry, his group is next to go out. If you're squandering air, your mission will have to be postponed."
Everyone glanced at his gauge and Gared grumbled. "Fine, I'm at a thousand."
Buser added, "I've got eight fifty."
Myami rolled her eyes. They wouldn't be able to check out the find for very long. Maybe she could convince Doug to let her stay here alone while the others went back. "Nineteen hundred and fifty," she reported.
Doug said, "Thank you. Now, what did you find? An interesting rock formation?"
"No Doug," Gared replied eagerly, "we found artifacts. Alien artifacts."
The comm link sat quiet except for the sound of their breathing. After a moment, Doug said, "Repeat please."
Myami spoke up. "You heard him, Doug. Gared found the entrance to a cavern full of non-natural, metallic artifacts."
The comm link went quiet again. Finally, Doug said, "I'd better get Fin. Hold your position."
Myami cut her transmit power, limiting her conversation to the three of them. "Do either of you really plan to hold your position?"
Buser and Gared looked at each other for a second, smiled, and shook their heads. Myami's opinion of her partners raised a notch. With a grin, she realized that she'd better get used to these two, as the three of them were about to become very famous together.
They stepped into the cavern, and Gared bent to touch a star. But, as soon as his gloved hand came in contact with it, the world went crazy. The image in Myami's vision twisted and distorted. Her stomach fell, as if she'd stepped into weightlessness. But she could still feel the planet's 1.2g in her legs and back. Suddenly, something ripped her feet out from under her. Her face raced toward the rock floor, and her heart skipped a beat as she wondered if her dome would survive the impact.
Whatever had grabbed her legs, pulled up. Her head narrowly missed the floor. Her vision inverted a moment later, and then stopped distorting. She found herself hanging by her feet in a large metal cavern. Her ears popped as her suit pressure decreased. Oh God, my suit's been holed. A glance to the gauge confirmed that she was leaking air.
Gared and Buser hung next to her and each was checking his gauge. Had all of their suits been holed? She couldn't hear their breathing over the comm link. "Gared? Buser? Can you two hear me?" No response. While Gared reached up and felt around his legs, Buser's eyes became very large. Myami twisted to follow his gaze. She gasped.
Two aliens walked toward them. They were each roughly six meters tall with plump torsos and three large eyes in a triangle. Walking on two legs and dragging a thick tail, they waddled as they moved. Their skin consisted of green scales, and they had slits on their necks that fluttered as they walked.
Their eyes moving independently, the creatures devoted an eyeball to each of the scientists. After a brief survey of their captives, they both pumped their fat, stubby legs quickly and raced over to Buser. One reached out a long arm with two fingers and an opposable thumb and plucked Buser off the ceiling. He squirmed in the creature's grasp but didn't manage to wriggle free. The other alien held out a contraption that looked like a platform with a ring on top. The first alien took the device by the ring and stuck Buser's feet to the bottom side of it. The creature let go of Buser, and the platform slid down, revealing a pole below the ring with notches spaced evenly along it.
The second alien plucked Buser from the platform and moved him behind its back. The first grabbed Gared and attached him to the platform. Fewer notches showed on the pole this time. The alien disconnected Gared and dropped him.
"Gared!" Myami yelled. He dropped headfirst toward the rocky floor. His dome would never survive the impact. Myami's hands clenched, and she held her breath.
As Gared struck the ground, it warped around him. Myami blinked, and he was gone--not crumpled in a heap on the floor, just gone. Confused, she looked back up to see a close-up of a scaled hand reaching for her. Despite her knowing that they'd come for her next, the sight startled a nervous scream from her lips.
When her feet disengaged, she immediately kicked, wriggled, and fought to get out of the monster's grasp. It turned her over and she stared into the yellow irises of its three eyes. She imagined she saw malevolence and hatred there, but she really didn't. It was an alien face that she couldn't read.
The alien bounced her up and down it its hand and then dropped her. Her stomach flew away as she sailed toward the floor. She gasped and held her breath while looking down. Would she go through, like Gared, or hit something solid and break? And if she did go through, where would she end up? Worst of all, did any of this matter? With a hole in her suit, she wouldn't live much longer anyway. Though resigned to her fate, Myami's heart raced.
Her legs and rear hit first. The floor had the consistency of thick goo and caused her fall to slow as she sank into it. The goo encased her revealing what looked like the insides of rocks and dirt. Waving her arms and twisting her body in the viscous ground, she was able to get her feet below her. A second later, they broke free. She bent her knees, crouched down and prepared for impact. She quickly hit something solid, which caused her body to collapse. She ended up face down on the ground.
As if the hole had been magically fixed, her suit re-inflated with a hiss. The comm was full of gasping noises. She rolled over and found herself in the room with the shiny objects. Gared lay nearby, his body wracked in spasms. Myami rushed over and grabbed his shoulders. "Gared?"
His mouth opened and closed and his eyes stared up at her, with tears running down his cheeks. She grabbed his wrist and checked his air gauge. The needle pressed up against the peg at zero psi. "Gared!" she screamed. But all she could do was hold him and watch him die. Eventually, his eyes fluttered and his body stopped its spasms. He died with his eyes open, and she couldn't even close them.
Numb, she checked her own gauge. It read only 250 psi. She unthinkingly gasped and immediately berated herself for wasting precious air. Deep breaths, Myami, she thought to herself. Take long, slow, breaths.
She stood and walked calmly out of the room and down the tunnel, leaving Gared's body behind. She'd have to grieve later. Now, staying alive was a higher priority. Twisting the dial on her chest to maximum gain, she spoke calmly, in between deep breaths. Still, her fear rang out with every word.
"Mayday. Gared is dead and Buser's gone and I've only got two fifty psi. I'm going to cut communications to conserve air, but if it looks like I won't make it, I'll stop and relay what happened."
Despite the low fidelity comm link, the panic in Doug's voice rang through loud and clear. "Myami? Where are you? What happened?"
Myami rolled her eyes and focused on long, slow breaths.
"Wait, did you say you've only got two hundred and fifty psi of air? You'll never make it!"
Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Doug, she thought. She reached the mouth of the cave and plunged into the sandstorm. Her world became a swirling red blob punctuated by the patter of sand buffeting her dome. She hit the big green "return to base" button on her left forearm and a low rumble added itself to the sounds of her breathing. She turned her head left and right, causing the noise to change pitch. She found the point of lowest pitch and headed in that direction.
Doug came back on. "Okay, Myami. Take slow, deep breaths, and move as fast as you can without exerting yourself. Don't make any unnecessary communications, as speaking burns air."
God, what's he going to do next, remind me to blink so that my eyes won't dry out?
"And don't forget to use your base locator. This is no time to be wandering around, lost in the sandstorm." She rolled her eyes again. "Fin went up into the observation tower to scan for you, so it'll take me a few minutes to get him. Hold on."
Oh, but, Doug, I'll miss you so, she thought. At least the fool thought to get Fin. Fin was the station commander, and one of the few people there whom she respected. He had a level head on him.
She concentrated on long strides and slow breaths and, if the locator's pitch ever increased, she corrected immediately. The heavy concentration was good. It didn't leave her time to worry that she wouldn't make it. Some number of strides later (she didn't want to count them), Fin's voice came over the comm.
"Hello, Myami. I hear you're in a bit of trouble."
Myami smiled. Fin had an endearing way of understating a bad situation.
"Well, here's what we're going to do, dear. I'm going to ask you some yes/no questions. If the answer is no, you just keep breathing like normal. If the answer is yes, take one quick double breath. Do you understand?"
She took half a breath, paused and finished it.
"Wonderful. I promise to try to minimize the number of nosy questions I bother you with. Here's the first one. Is your air supply now below a hundred psi?"
"She glanced down at her wrist, but couldn't make out the dial in the sand-storm. She had to hold the gauge right up to her faceplate to see that she was just a hair under 150. In doing this, she got off her line and the tone went to a higher pitch. She quickly righted herself.
"I'll take that as a no. How about one fifty? Are you below that?"
She answered yes and heard Doug's panicked voice in the background. "She can't possibly make it. She's dead."
The next sound Myami heard was the sharp retort of flesh striking flesh. She savored the mental image of Fin slapping Doug and regretted not being there to participate in the beating. A moment later, Fin's voice came back. "Well, we'll have no more of that. I've sent him away. Now, other than the regrettable air situation, are you all right?"
Myami considered the question. She'd just seen one coworker abducted, another had died in her arms, and she'd only narrowly avoided both of their fates. She didn't feel all right. But that was too much baggage to try to relate through one yes or no response. So she just gave him a double breath.
"That's good to hear. Now, let me remind you that, despite the assertions of our sadly unprofessional coworker, you will make it back. Just keep your head about you and keep moving."
Myami gave two quick breaths and continued to plod forward.
"Now, dear, in a situation like this, some people would want me to keep talking, to give them something to listen to. Others would want to be left alone so they could concentrate on the task at hand. Would you like me to stop talking?"
No, she didn't. She liked hearing his voice. It gave her a link to the station some unknown number of breaths away. So she made sure she didn't double breath.
"Fine. Did I ever tell you the story about the time I got stuck on an unmanned cargo ship without a life support system?"
Myami grinned. Like any good manager, Fin was also a good liar.* * *
"So there I was, trying to yank this extra air bottle from a bloody maintenance droid who was sure it belonged back in cargo hold two and--"
Suddenly the boxy walls of the station appeared in Myami's view. She took a double breath, and Fin immediately stopped. "Has something changed, Myami?"
Still moving forward, she held her gauge to her faceplate. About ten psi left. "I'm back, but running on fumes. Get the south airlock open."
"Got it." Away from the mike, he yelled, "Mr. Baxter. She's almost to the south airlock. Start cycling it immediately."
Myami continued to aim for the airlock, and, seconds later, it started to cycle upward. The damn thing was slow and it had only gone halfway when she got there. She fell to her knees and crawled through, then jumped up and waved through the window.
Doug Baxter looked through the window with a confused look on his face. She made frantic winching motions while pointing over her shoulder to the still rising door. After a second, he hit a button and the door started its long descent. It felt good to be out of the driving sand. She leaned back against the wall and stared at her gauge, which seemed to dip farther with each breath. That's okay. Unless Dim Doug forgets how to work the airlock, I've made it.
Something began to gnaw at the pit of her stomach as images of Gared dying and Buser being passed between the aliens flashed through her mind. The door shut with a sand-grinding thud. She stood up angrily, trying to push the images from her head. A few seconds later, a red light by the inner door turned green and that door started to rise. She released the clamps on her dome and pulled it off, taking a deep breath of the station's stale, yet plentiful air.
Myami waited until the door opened about half way before she crawled under it. Doug had his arms crossed over his chest. "Myami, safety procedures state clearly that you should wait until the airlock doors have opened fully before passing through them. In light of your recent problems, I'll overlook those last too infractions, but--"
She shoved her dome into his stomach, causing him to exhale abruptly. "Hold this for me, will you?" He grabbed it and she stormed off toward the communications room. The station was hardly large enough to hold its ten inhabitants (eight, now) and she'd only taken four steps in the right direction when Fin came rushing up to her. Standing over six and a half feet tall, he towered over her and had to bend down to throw his arms around her.
"We were so very worried about you, Myami. Welcome back."
Her heart still racing, she returned his hug for a second, then grew impatient and broke it off. "Thanks, Fin. Now, call everyone into the comm room. We need to talk."
Fin called out, and the two of them walked down a short corridor. Minutes later six other scientists, including Doug, joined them and took seats. Myami, still in her pressure suit, paced nervously.
Fin nodded to her, and she turned to her coworkers. "We've got trouble."* * *
Having relayed the story in as much detail as she could remember, Myami concluded with, "We've got to call for a pickup and get out of here."
The geothermal researcher, Ridley, cleared his throat and said, "It's not clear to me that's necessary."
This brought a gasp from a few of the others and caused Myami to explode, "What? Losing twenty percent of our crew isn't enough to show you these aliens are dangerous monsters intent on our destruction?"
"Actually, they sound more like fishermen to me."
The sheer cruelty of the statement actually left Myami speechless. She stared at him in shock, her mouth gaping open. But Ridley only stared back, his face neutral. It lacked the sadistic grin that should have gone with such a statement. She didn't know him very well. Could he not know that she was such an avid fisherman herself? Her mouth having missed the chance for an initial dangerous outburst, she was able to hold it in check. Instead, she said in a strained voice, "Explain?"
The mineral guy next to Ridley, Bhram, nodded. "Yes, I see what he is saying. That device you described, it sounded very much like a spring scale. And they kept Buser, who was very overweight, but threw back you and Gared. Perhaps you were under their limit."
Ridley nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Maybe we're just fish to them. If that's so, we just have to avoid any strange shiny objects we see and we'll probably be safe."
Myami fell back against the wall and covered her mouth with her hand. Though she would never have come up with such a metaphor on her own, having it thrust before her forced her to see its aptness. Is this how the fish she yelled at felt? She always threw them back, but maybe some still died, just like Gared had. Her hands trembling, she turned to stare at Fin. His deep blue eyes bored into her, seeing all and understanding.
I'm not a fish, she thought. In the back of her mind, she saw a myriad of fish, held in her hands, staring up at her with those dumb eyes and not understanding why she screamed at them. Then she saw herself in a pair of hands. The thought repulsed her. Her hands went from trembling to outright shaking, and she had to clench them into tight fists and cross her arms. Her revulsion deepened. She couldn't deal with the thought of being a fish.
With only half of her consciousness, she noticed Fin stand. "For now we'll stay. I'll send out a message that describes our situation but does not yet request an emergency pickup. Everyone is to be extremely careful, and we'll have no more outside missions for the time being."
But we were just like fish, Myami thought. We even fell for a shiny lure. And to the aliens we couldn't have looked very intelligent.
Ridley frowned, "I've got the little nukes all prepped for the deep crust drilling. It'll take me over a day to repack them."
What if the fish I caught were intelligent too? What could they have done to prove it?
Fin considered for a minute, then nodded. "Okay, keep them out. Let's assess the situation for a few hours and then decide what to do."
What am I thinking? The fish couldn't have been intelligent. They just stared up at me and watched me scream at them. They didn't learn from their mistakes. They kept biting the hooks.
Ridley nodded, "I'll get up to the observation tower and scan for hooks." He turned to Bhram, "You want to come along?"
We made a mistake. We stumbled into a dangerous place. That doesn't mean we're fish. She marveled at how small and childish her inner voice sounded--as if it were pleading with her. She thought, you're not a fish? Prove it.
The mineral scientist nodded and they left. The others filed out talking animatedly, leaving Fin and Myami in the comm room. Fin walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "These certainly are interesting times."
She grabbed him at the wrist and squeezed. Staring intently into his eyes, she forcefully said, "We are not fish."
He winced and she released him. Before he could say anything she pushed off from the wall and stumbled out of the comm room. In a quiet voice that he may, or may not, have heard, she added, "Fish don't scream back."* * *
Fin's agitated voice blared over the comm. "Myami, what in God's name are you doing out there?"
The rumbling in Myami's ear went to a higher pitch. She corrected her course. "Don't worry, Fin. I filled my tanks before going out." She'd actually overfilled them. She was going to need all the air she could get.
She heard him take two deep breaths. He came back with a voice intended to reason with her. "But, Myami dear, I instructed everyone not to leave the station. Did you think that somehow didn't apply to you?"
"I'm sorry, Fin. But I've got to do this."
She heard Ridley's voice in the background. He was very excited about something. She shifted her heavy package from one hand to the other.
Fin came back on. "Myami, this is insane. You're going to endanger all of us."
"No. Everything will be fine. I know what I'm doing."
"No, Myami. You don't. You're obviously not thinking clearly. Please, come back and let us talk about this."
Shaking her head, she said, "Sorry, Fin," and turned her speaker gain to zero. If she kept talking to him, he'd surely change her mind. Homing in on Gared's suit and pumping her legs quickly, she soon found the entrance to the cave. Nothing had changed inside. The assorted trinkets were still strewn about--an invitation to all creatures dumb enough to go after something shiny. Gared's body still lay in the middle of the trinkets, his dead eyes staring up at the ceiling.
Myami took a deep breath and glanced at her gauge. Three thousand psi. She'd hoped to have more at this point, but couldn't turn back now. She looked at Gared's body again and the image of Buser being handed from one fisherman to the other danced across her mind. Then she saw images of countless fish in her hands staring up at her as she screamed at them. None of them had screamed back. She wrapped both arms tightly around her package, clenched her teeth together, and stepped on a chalice.
Being yanked out of the water felt the same as it had last time. She found herself upside down in the same strange place where her suit leaked and her comm system didn't work. Did this mean her package wouldn't work either? And if it did work, would it stay contained here, or did the gooey floor let irradiated particles through just like it did big, heavy bodies? "Okay, Fin," she muttered to a dead comm system, "my plan is half baked. But I'm here now, so I'm going to see it through."
She crouched down and let the package get close to the ceiling. As she had hoped, it tugged on her grip. She released it and it fell upward, to stick next too her feet. She flipped a few switches, and a green light went red. The counter read 60. "Okay, you bastards, I'm ready when you are."
In short order, the aliens came back. She waited until they got close before bending down and pressing a button. The counter flipped to 59, then 58. She felt giddy, standing this close to the device with so little time left. With a grin, she looked up at her captors. When one grabbed her, she started screaming. Her screams were not in fear, but anger. She pretended the alien was Doug, and let him have it with a verbal barrage that would have made a space marine blush. Then she pretended it was that damn scientist in Arizona who'd indirectly landed her here. She'd moved on to her former coworkers in Michigan when the alien dropped her. She continued to scream as she fell to the floor. The aliens grabbed the package.
Suddenly Myami ceased her screams. She'd set the time-out as low as she dared. But what if they just dropped it and it came back with her? No, she mentally pleaded with them. That's really interesting. It's the world's most interesting bomb. I swear it. You've got to look at it for at least another 45 seconds. As she hit the goo she saw one of the aliens holding it close to his face. Please let him keep scrutinizing it, please.
She put her feet below her and hit the ground more gracefully this time. She grabbed Gared's body under the shoulders and dragged him out of the room. Would they drop the bomb or not? How much time did she have? Maybe twenty seconds? She got Gared out of the room and dropped him. Running over to the hole, she climbed in and pushed the lever. The walls started to close. It had taken them about twenty seconds to open. Maybe they'd close in time. Maybe it didn't matter.
She grabbed Gared's body again and started dragging him out of the cave, staring the whole while through the opening into the sparkling room. She didn't see anything else fall out of the ceiling. She'd gotten about halfway out when the whole cave shook. The ceiling in the other room bowed downward, reaching all the way to the floor just as the walls finished closing.
Myami glanced at her gauge. A thousand psi. Plenty. She turned up her mike and speaker gain and went back to dragging Gared's body. "Fin, are you still there?"
"Myami? Damn it, lady, if I wasn't so glad to hear your voice, I'd be extremely angry at you right now."
"Well, now that you've heard it, you can get angry."
He didn't waste any time. "What in the bloody Hell did you think you were doing? The first aliens our race has ever met and you blew them up?"
She saw an image of a fish in her hands. It still wasn't screaming. "I know, Fin, but I just...had...to."
He sighed. "As much as I'd like to, I only vaguely understand that. Your career is in shambles. They'll be pulling you back to Earth right away. You'll be lucky to be allowed to look at the stars again, much less leave the planet. If I didn't know you better, I'd shackle you up and confine you to quarters. You say you had to, but was it really worth it?"
She compared the sentence he'd just proclaimed to a lifelong prison in her mind, mentally looking up at a screaming person and doing nothing but blinking and working her mouth. She nodded. "Yes, Fin. It was."The End
Copyright Michael P. Calligaro
All Rights Reserved
Back to Stories