At first, what Lamont’s eyes told him he was seeing was a giant millipede. He quickly realized that he had to force himself to notice a multitude of details before his brain was willing to begin creating a new category for the creatures.
“Good heavens,” Captain Carter whispered as he turned in the direction Lamont was facing. Lamont could see the captain’s hand momentarily flicker toward the flap of his coat under which his pistol was holstered, before apparently recalling Rosemary’s words. Instead, he raised his hands, palms outward, to indicate peaceful intentions. There was no telling whether the creatures that were emerging from the holes in the ground could make sense of such a gesture or, indeed, properly see it at all.
At first, what Lamont’s eyes told him he was seeing was a giant millipede. He quickly realized that he had to force himself to notice a multitude of details before his brain was willing to begin creating a new category for the creatures. They did, in fact, have an elongated shape and multiple legs. Their outer bodies looked hard and shell-like, and were divided into three distinct segments, something like three crabs linked together in a line. The color of the shells was dark and indistinct, but flecked abundantly with tiny markings that phosphoresced in the dimly lit cavern.
There were three of the creatures. As they approached, they made clicking, clattering sounds, not all of which seemed to be attributable to the movement of their legs. They stopped about two yards short of the explorers and lifted up two of their three segments to a height of about five feet, in what Lamont guessed was equivalent to a standing position. Each of the two lower segments appeared to possess several short legs that were used for locomotion and two long, complex limbs used for stabilization or articulation. The undersides of their bodies, now partially exposed to the men, were pale in color and fleshy, complicated with a variety of animated folds and ridges. Most of the sounds they were making seemed to come from a comb-like organ situated roughly at the top of their middle segments.
“We come in peace,” Francis said, keeping his voice very level. “I am Captain Carter of the United Space Ship Westward, which is currently in orbit around your planet.”
As soon as he began to speak, the foremost of the three creatures moved backward a few inches. The fine teeth of the comb-like organ rippled rhythmically in conjunction with a tympanic membrane that deepened and blended the clicks into something that sounded unnervingly like a human voice speaking gibberish.
“Well,” Said Carter, “They certainly have the faculty of hearing.”
“Hearing ain’t understanding,” Lamont observed from the side of his mouth. “How are we supposed to tell them what we want, or find out what they want?”
The three creatures twisted their segmented bodies toward each other in what Lamont guessed might have been a form of conference, making rapid, high-pitched clicking sounds. Then the leader, as Lamont suspected it to be, slowly extended one of its long, articulated limbs toward Francis. It looked to Lamont’s eyes something like a tentacle made of a dozen or so short, hard segments. In this way, the creature spanned about half the distance between them.
Carter, in turn, slowly extended his own hand outward. After a brief apparent hesitation, in which the creature’s limb twitched backward an inch or two, several delicate, frond-like appendages emerged from the hollow end of the limb, gently weaving between the captain’s outspread fingers.
Captain Carter’s jaw opened as he processed the sensation, his eyes wide. “Remarkable,” he whispered.
Next: Into the Shadows
This gradually keeps getting better.
Especially liking the way you unfold the details without a hyperbole of tension or cliffhangers. Unpredicatable story for me, so very rewarding to read each installment, here's to hoping writing each gives you as much joy. Greetings from The Netherlands, Wiebren