THE UNKNOWN CELL
The Present Day
Conner stood with his back to the wall, he risked a peak around the door frame and down the Prison Corridor.
He saw his opponent and whipped his head back so that he wasn't seen.
Conner tightened his grip on his weapon and then jumped and pointed his spear down the corridor at his enemy.
Blog heard his feet hit the metal deck plates when Conner landed and the small blob of goo twisted round to stare at him.
Conner then fired a blue net of energy from his spear.
Blog smiled and leapt right at the net of energy.
The net cut through his body, but the mucus like substance he was made of just reformed around the strips of energy that made up the net.
Blog went right through the net and was still loose and unbound.
Conner threw his spear to one side knowing it would be useless.
He charged down the corridor and dived at Blog.
His hands closed around the creature and he squeezed it tightly, determined not to let go.
Blog however just pushed himself through the small gaps in Conner’s hands.
When he was whole again he slapped Conner across the face with a gooey tentacle.
The tentacle then shot up to the ceiling and like Spiderman Blog was catapulted upwards by the tentacle towards the ceiling.
Blog reformed on the ceiling and looked down at Conner.
Conner jumped upwards and tried to grab him, however Blog was far out of reach.
He stared up at the blob and frowned, then he smiled.
“You win again, I just can't catch you,” Conner said.
Blog smiled at him.
“Another try just to make sure?” Conner added.
Blog nodded.
Conner fetched his spear and pointed it up at Blog, “get away from this,” he said.
Blog just smiled then did the weirdest thing.
The ceiling of the Prison Corridor was one piece of solid metal, however Blog started to disappear into it. Conner watched as it looked like the blob was being absorbed by the metal or pushing himself through a tiny hole.
When Blog had completely vanished Conner stared at the metal ceiling. He couldn't see any line, join or hole that Blog could have used.
“Mach,” he shouted out down the corridor.
The Guard Robot joined him and followed Conner's gaze towards the ceiling.
“It’s a ceiling Conner, don' humans have those?” he asked.
“A second ago Blog was right there then he disappeared into the ceiling as if he was being soaked up by the metal,” Conner said.
“Impossible this ceiling is one piece of solid metal. It’s designed to be that way since it helps to maintain the security of the prison
cells.”
“I'm telling you the truth, Blog was absorbed by the ceiling like a sponge absorbing water,” Conner repeated.
Mach looked back up at the ceiling. His eyes turned green, then blue, then pink.
“I can detect a very thin gap in the metal ceiling. It’s only one atom wide, enough for Blog to get through, but not wide enough for us to see,” Mach said.
“Is it a hole?” Conner asked.
“No the gap extends around in a circle,” Mach said.
The robot twisted round as his head followed the circular gap in the ceiling.
“It looks like a hatch,” he said.
“Wait, didn't you know it was there?” Conner asked.
“No I didn't,” Mach replied.
“But this is your ship?” Conner said.
“We have to open it and see what's inside,” Mach said. “I don't like the idea of there being something on my ship that I'm not aware of.”
“How do we get it open?” Conner said.
“I know of no controls to open it,” Mach said. “Take you spear and place a rope of energy where I point.”
Conner nodded and as Mach traced a circular line on the ceiling Conner fired a rope of blue energy onto it. Eventually he had created a glowing blue circle in the metal. As Mach was standing under it made it look like the robot had a halo.
“Will the rope to fill the gap,” Mach said.
Conner focused on the blue circle and the energy flattened out and went into the metal.
“Now together we will pull on the energy rope and hopefully the hatch will come free,” Mach said.
Conner and Mach held onto the spear and started backing away from the hatch so it wouldn’t fall on them.
They then started pulling.
On the first, pull the hatch came out of the ceiling a little bit, it was like someone was pulling a cork from a bottle.
Another pull from them both opened the hatch even more.
“One last pull I think,” Mach said.
They both braced themselves.
Suddenly Elise appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Hi guys, I had to finish my homework before coming out here,” she said. She walked down the corridor without stopping and was almost right under the hatch.
Conner shouted, “Stop!” just as Mach continued to pull on the rope.
The hatch came free.
It dropped down to the floor with a crash, followed by a box that also crashed onto the hatch that had been holding it up.
On top of the box was Blog, who was starring wide eyed at Conner and Mach.
“Elise,” Conner called out.
She appeared from behind the box.
“Are you trying to kill me?” she asked.
Conner sighed in relief.
“What are you doing anyway what is this?”
Mach started to inspect the box, was covered in grime and dust and there were holes the width of pins dotted around its surface, as if someone had been pinning notices to the box.
“Cargo?” Conner asked.
“I don't think so,” Mach said and he whiped grime off a raised section of the box.
He revealed a small plaque.
It was written in the same style as all the other plaques that identified the cells of each of the aliens in the Prison Corridor.
“An Eleventh Prisoner!” Mach said.
Conner and Elise’s jaws dropped.
“Excuse me?” Conner spluttered.
