By Jacqueline Seewald

Kate Patterson sat straight up in bed at the midnight hour screaming, her nightgown soaked with sweat. She realized she’d been dreaming again. Lately, nightmares had become more frequent. The beast was after her, wanting to devour her. She shuddered. It was only an absurd dream. She tried to shake off the sense of weirdness. Still, she couldn’t get back to sleep. It seemed so real. She wondered if dreams were prophetic as claimed in the Bible.

By the following evening, Kate had almost forgotten her unsettling nightmare. She found herself chatting with geeky professor Richard Hayes at the university social gathering to welcome new science faculty.  Hayes didn’t flirt. He only talked science which Kate didn’t really mind. She felt relieved by his manner and conversation. Too many fellow professors tried hitting on her. She hadn’t been interested in anyone, not since her husband Bill died prematurely in an auto accident a year earlier. However, her widowed status seemed to make her fair game among male faculty members.

“There are a great many theories regarding dark matter in the universe but no real explanations,” Dr. Hayes observed.

“And that is important to know why?” Kate asked, knowing she was baiting him.

The professor gifted her with a tolerant smile and raised one patrician brow. “When you consider that approximately twenty-three per cent of our universe is composed of dark matter, yes, I would say that the knowledge becomes important.” 

Of course, Kate understood that as an astrophysicist Professor Hayes would consider such information of vital importance. As a biologist, it seemed of less import for her. She dealt in empirical observation and factual data rather than conjectural hypotheses.

“By fitting a theoretical model of the composition of the Universe to the combined set of cosmological observations, we scientists have come up with the astounding information that the universe is composed of 70% dark energy, 25% dark matter, and only 5% normal matter.”

“And our planet is made up entirely of normal matter?”

Hayes nodded his shaved head which reminded her of a hard-boiled egg. “Precisely. Out in space, there are many unanswered questions. For instance, we are more certain what dark matter is not than what it is.”

 “So this is some sort of mystery that needs further investigation?”

Richard Hayes gave her a pleased smile as if she were a dog that had fetched a stick.  She half expected him to pat her on the head and say, “good puppy.” But instead he droned on in his self-important manner.

“Einstein’s theory of gravity contained what was called a cosmological constant. His exact theory was discarded long ago. However, there is no denying that the universe is expanding at a faster and faster rate of acceleration. There may possibly be some strange kind of energy fluid filling space.”

“And that would go back to Big Bang theory?”

The professor tasted his wine with a thoughtful expression. “A distinct possibility,” he agreed.

“Creepy,” she said with a small shudder. There could be all sorts of unimaginable monsters out there in the universe composed of dark matter. She thought of last night’s dream. Some of this unknown dark matter could possibly annihilate the entire planet. A horrifying thought.

The professor lifted one elegant eyebrow. “It’s been proven that threads of dark matter connect the galaxies.”

“But no one fully understands it?”

“That would be correct.”

She sipped her cola which had gone flat and bitter. “As a biologist, I need to deal in facts rather than mere theories.”

She did not like to ponder such things as they tended to remind her of how minutely inconsequential man and the planet Earth really were in the scheme of things. It both frightened and depressed her, much like her nightmare of the previous night. She allowed herself a small shiver of fear. Darkness enveloped her later as she walked to her car.

***

 A few weeks passed before Kate had reason to recall her conversation with Dr. Hayes. She was called upon by Homeland Security to help work on a secret project. Apparently, the matter was strictly classified on a need to know basis. Why the spooks had selected her for such work was puzzling. But she was curious enough to accept.

Kate was to work with Dr. Randall Jenner.  She knew him by reputation only since they had never met. Jenner was a wood anatomist and a forensic biologist like herself. The difference was Kate worked as a forensic pathologist while Randall Jenner worked mostly with wood and plants rather than human species.

“An unusual case,” Jenner said. He was holding a magnifying glass over what appeared to be a small section of matter. He reminded Kate of a Sherlock Holmes clone. He wasn’t a handsome man by any means, but he did have arresting features. Some silver at the temples gave him a distinguished air, although he couldn’t have been more than forty-five, which would make him about ten years older than herself.

            “Aren’t you going to examine that sample more scientifically?” She tried her best not to sound critical, after all he was known to have a brilliant intellect and was highly regarded in scientific circles.

            He smiled up at her, a dimple winking in his cheek. “Of course, I’ll do a thorough inspection, but I like to take my first look at a problem with a handheld magnifying glass. You’d be surprised what you can tell right away.”

            “If you say so,” she said. Kate might be a tad skeptical, but she had no intention of arguing. She was more interested in studying Jenner’s methods than criticizing him.

            “Ye of little faith. Okay, I’ll take it over to the electron microscope and scan it, but most of these cases, even tough ones like this, still depend on spotting quirks at tissue and cellular levels.”

            Kate had no intention of arguing with the man. He was a much-admired professor with a reputation as an outstanding forensic botanist, a plant anatomist who had worked with investigators several dozen times. This was her first time dealing with national security. She was aware of being the rookie here.

“I was pulled into this case by the government,” he said. “I assume you were too?”

            It was a rhetorical question. He was far too intelligent not to know why she’d been chosen to work with him on this project. He also had to know how frightened Washington was from the President on down. Even the press was co-operating to avoid general panic. Something had been discovered that was out of the norm or natural realm. Their job would be to analyze the thing from a biological standpoint and offer an opinion of what it constituted. She had been vetted and given security clearance along with Jenner and any others associated with the secret matter.

“As I understand it, no one has a clue what the creature is or where it came from. Could be anything. Could even be an alien for all we know.”

            Now it was his turn to give her a skeptical look. “Yeah, right.”

            “Hey, got a better answer? I’m open to all manner of suggestions.”

            “Might just,” he said.

Definitely cocky, she decided. Just a little too full of himself.  Still, she drew closer. His charisma and self-confidence appealed to her.

“Show me what you got,” she said lifting her chin in a challenging manner.

“First, we have to dress for our work.”  Jenner rummaged through a cabinet and brought out two peculiar garments. He tossed her one.

“Spacesuits?” she said in disbelief.

“Not exactly. They’re special suits that NASA developed. However, these have been modified. For one thing, the material’s much lighter.”

They helped each other into the suits which were white in color and roomy though a bit awkward to move around in. But there was ventilation, and she discovered there was oxygen to breathe—and they were even equipped with gas masks just in case.

Good Lord, what were they going to examine? She threw a questioning look in Dr. Jenner’s direction. But he merely gave her a sheepish shrug.

            “As my dear mother has always said, better safe than sorry. Now we’re prepared to examine the creature,” he said.

            “I thought you’d already begun the process.”

            “Only in the most preliminary way. Now that you’re here, I thought we’d do a thorough dissection.”

            Jenner went to a desk and hit an intercom. “We’re ready,” he announced.

            In a matter of minutes two men dressed much in the same manner as they were entered Jenner’s laboratory. They were pushing a gurney on which had been placed an immense freezer bag.

            “I merely removed a small section of the specimen for preliminary examination earlier,” he explained. “Now we’re going to thaw our subject of interest to better determine its origin and species.” He turned to the two men. “You can go now.”

The men exchanged glances. They were large and looked capable and fit as if they had military training. Clearly, they didn’t much like being dismissed by a civilian.

“We have orders to remain with it,” the senior of the two men said, his voice gravel.

            “You’ll just be in the way here in the lab. Why don’t you stay close and we’ll buzz if we need you.”

            The senior in authority gave a curt nod and the two men left.

            “Much better,” Jenner said with an air of satisfaction.  “I don’t care much for spooks.” He immediately began cutting open the large freezer bag with a sharp scalpel.

            “Why is the thing frozen?” Kate asked.

            “I suppose they didn’t explain. Typical. It was found frozen in Antarctica. Probably the thing would never have been found if it hadn’t been for global warming. It would have been too deeply imbedded in the ice. Who knows what catastrophes will occur as global warming intensifies?”

She felt a chill. There was nothing certain but change—and these environmental changes could not be for the better.

“Apparently the location of this thing intersects with a point where a huge meteorite collided with earth. A group of scientists located it. They weren’t certain what it was. Hence our enlistment.”

            Her heart skipped a beat. “So it’s thought we might have discovered an extinct species?”

            “Or something,” he responded vaguely.

            Of course, if it were merely thought to be some extinct species, Homeland Security would not have been called in. No, there was much more going on here, she reasoned. Dr. Jenner was just being cagey.

“Don’t meteorites burn up when they enter the earth’s gravitational pull?”

“Not completely if they’re really large. Witness what happened in Russia.”

“So this thing, whatever it is might have been encapsulated in the meteor?”

The doctor shrugged. “Anything is possible, I suppose. We won’t know until we do a thorough inspection.”

            Jenner expertly prepared the specimen for further examination. Kate’s first actual look at it made her mouth drop open in shock. It was a large mass like nothing she’d ever seen before. Her closest analogy was to a giant ameba, a gelatinous substance of some sort. She had the strangest feeling of being cast in a Hollywood horror movie of the late 1950’s.  Again, life imitating art. How weird.

            “God, it’s a monster!” she blurted staring at the huge, ugly, colorless creature.

            Jenner gave a quick nod. “Bizarre, but then many things in nature are unusual. That’s why our work is so interesting, isn’t it?”

            Kate frowned. She wasn’t getting a good feeling about this and she always trusted her instincts.

            “When it’s fully thawed, we’ll begin our dissection. In the meantime, my assistant should be ready with the prelim report.” Jenner buzzed. “Franco, do you have the information I requested?” He received an affirmative response.

            A few minutes later, a short, stocky man of swarthy appearance entered the lab and handed Jenner a report. He gave a nervous glance in the direction of the specimen.

            “Will you need my help in here?”

            “As we don’t have an extra suit, I believe Dr. Patterson will be assisting me. But I’ll buzz if I need you.”

            Franco’s features registered relief as he hurried out of the lab, firmly shutting the door behind him. As Jenner glanced down at the report, his eyebrows lifted.

            “What does it say?”

            “There’s no connection to any known species on the earth. The origins of the matter are unknown.”

            She thought immediately of what Dr. Hayes had told her of dark matter, alien matter of unknown origin. This amorphous creature, lacking form and structure, was proof of it to her mind. “Perhaps we should not be dissecting it,” she said.

            “It’s been frozen for God knows how long. It’s dead. There’s no harm in our giving it a full autopsy, now is there?” Jenner was the soul of patience and reason.

            But Kate wasn’t feeling reasonable. She wasn’t going to play Watson to his Holmes if she could help it. “I believe it’s a mistake,” she said in a firm voice.

            Dr. Jenner let out a deep sigh. “I disagree and I out rank you. Our government wants and needs answers.”

            As he spoke, the specimen began to gyrate, and the outer ice layer cracked apart.

            “It’s alive!” she said in amazement.

            Jenner shook his head in disbelief. “That can’t be. It’s an illusion, just part of the melting process.”

            “But it can be alive. This thing isn’t composed of earth matter. We don’t know its origins. Could it be composed of dark matter? If so, there are infinite possibilities.”

            “We don’t know what dark matter is composed of though, do we?”

            She licked her lips which felt dry. “That’s exactly my point.”

            Jenner, ignoring her protest, prepared a small section for closer scrutiny. She protested again but he ignored her. He took his sharp scalpel and cut through with the careful skill and precision of a surgeon. As he did so, the creature began to stir again. Then a deafening high-pitched sound reverberated throughout the lab. Kate gasped placing her hands over her ears.  The sound was coming from the creature. It was like nothing she had ever heard in her life before.

            Suddenly, the specimen began writhing on the gurney. It was enlarging, doubling in size before her eyes, and then it split into two creatures.

            “Impossible,” Jenner said. “It can’t do that.”

            “It’s alive all right. The ice didn’t kill whatever it is. The thing, the blob, was merely dormant. It is an alien, alternate life form.”

            At that moment, Jenner’s assistant opened the door to the lab. “I heard a strange, loud noise. Do you need me?” Those were his last words.

The creatures, now four in number, surrounded Franco. Before Kate’s horrified gaze, they attacked him. He screamed as they enveloped his body, attempting to absorb him within their amorphous systems. Jenner picked up a large knife, using the blade to stab at one of the creatures, trying to free his assistant who fell to the floor gasping and bleeding. Jenner attempted to slice them to bits. But from one grew many, and each segment became yet another monster. Kate shuddered violently at the grotesque sight. The disgusting creatures continued to multiply and grow in size.

Now they turned their attentions to Jenner. Their engorging systems appeared to have both the appetite and the ability to consume human flesh. She turned toward the marble countertop searching for a weapon and caught sight of a Bunsen burner. Fire! Could that be the answer? She turned it on and attacked one of the creatures. It caught fire and burned.

“An acetylene torch! We need one. Do you have it?”

“There,” Jenner pointed to the countertop area behind her.

As she turned, Kate saw what she needed and grabbed it. She switched on the torch with shaking hands and immediately went after the giant monster that was just about to engulf Dr. Jenner. She somehow managed to destroy each creature quickly, methodically and thoroughly. By the time she was done, there was nothing left of the monstrous mutants. She collapsed on the floor, weak and sweating beside Jenner and his dying assistant.

Dr. Jenner lifted himself and Kate from the floor. There was slime everywhere. The stench of death made her stomach heave. The monsters left a vile odor behind.

“So gross,” she said in disgust.

“You saved our lives.” Jenner stared at her in something akin to awe.

“Not your assistant’s life though.” She stared at Franco’s lifeless body—what was left of it. “Poor fellow,” she muttered.

“He sacrificed his life for science and the common good.”

“Martyrdom is passé.”

“I still can’t believe this happened in my lab,” he said, shaking his head.

“Those men out there won’t either.” She shuddered.

“We’ll give them the job of cleaning up. Nothing like it for delivering a dose of reality,” Jenner said grimly.  He rang for help.

The two security men entered the lab and stared in shock.

“Come on,” he said grabbing her hand. “While they take care of the mess, let’s escape this disaster.”

She agreed. “My stomach’s pretty weak right now.  I’m thinking of taking up smoking. Today would have been a good day to have a cigarette lighter handy.” She couldn’t stop shaking.

Dr. Jenner took her arm, leading her away from the carnage. Kate, still semi-dazed, thought about what happened. No doubt about it, they’d had a close call.

The universe held many secrets, the creation of matter being one of the most baffling and complex. Out there could be myriad life forms. They could collide with earth again at any time. What would be the results? More of the same could still be buried in the darkness of the frozen tundra waiting to be discovered and resurrected, transforming into a dangerous threat to humanity.  Kate trembled, zero at the bone.