Chapter 16
The captain of the search team raised the binoculars to his eyes inside the Jeep that was making its way in the desert, reporting to his recorder as he scanned the area around them: “Day Eight. Hour 2310. We spread the search area, in a circle with a radius of 2 kilometers, in stage three of the search mission. No signs of collision or fall. Everything looks normal. The radar didn’t see anything except big rocks and sand.”
“Do you think this will lead us to anything, sir?” The driver cleared his throat as he asked cautiously.
“We are just doing our duty.” His captain shrugged, pursing his lips.
“But it’s obvious, sir.” The driver insisted, looking frustrated and bored. “That meteor exploded before reaching the earth, scattering to millions of pieces, spreading in an area we certainly had checked and passed already.”
“That’s highly unlikely.” The captain shook his head, looking unconvinced. “If that thing had exploded at any point in its fall before it reached the desert’s sand, we would have caught that explosion on our machines, and it would have left a trace on the sand one way or another.”
“Maybe it exploded in midair, far from the earth.” The driver pointed out nervously.
“Then why didn’t we catch that so-called explosion as we monitored its fall?” the captain raised an eyebrow at him, unimpressed, before raising his binoculars to his eyes again. “No, man. That meteor didn’t explode. Not in midair and certainly not-“
He cut himself off as he shot forward in his seat sharply, yelling: “Stop the car! Stop it right now!”
The driver pressed the brakes without thinking, so the car stopped abruptly, causing them all to get thrown forward, almost crashing into the front glass.
“What? What is it, sir?!” the driver exclaimed frantically, as he stopped himself from hitting the stirring wheel head first.
The captain ignored his question as he turned towards the Radar Operator, who was silent this whole time. “Focus the radar over there, at North East. 2 O’clock. Does everything look normal to you?”
The operator obeyed, turning the radar where his captain told him, frowning as he checked the screen. “It’s a group of large rocks, with different sizes and shapes.”
“Exactly!” The captain confirmed as he kept staring at that spot with his binoculars. “And in the middle of these rocks, there is one the size of a car. Does it look different?”
“Wait, yes! Yes, sir!” The operator confirmed, getting excited suddenly. “Its density is less than the other rocks. As if-as if it’s-“
“As if it is hollow, right?” The captain finished his thought, looking over at him with a gleam in his eyes.
“Exactly!” The operator exclaimed excitedly, then turned to his captain in awe. “But how did it catch your attention, sir?”
“We could have passed right next to it and away, without noticing it at all, only if it hadn’t moved!” The captain answered immediately, as he stared hard at the rock.
“It moved?!” both the driver and the operator exclaimed together with wide eyes.
“It was a stupid move.” The captain said as he took the communication device attached to the car. “But we are lucky that it happened at the right moment.”
He pressed the communicator’s button and started to report back to the base. “Day Eight. Hour 2320. A suspicious body has been detected. Its features match the target. We are heading towards it now.”
He started sending their specific coordinates, then described the location they were in accurately, reporting it all back in their base in SHIELD headquarters. At the same moment, three packed cars drove towards the location. It took them only 20 minutes to reach the location, stopping 32 feet away from the suspicious rock.
The captain raised the communication device to his lips and started his report. “Day Eight. Hour 2343. We are 32 feet away from the target. Outside inspection reveals nothing. But the radar inspection suggests that we are in front of an ordinary rock. It’s just an outside look, while on the inside it is hollow. Residing between a group of rocks for camouflage. We will try to do more inspections before dealing with it directly. But everything suggests that we are in front of the right target. May we get our orders?”
A few silent moments had passed before the answer came back firmly. “Stay in position. Do not engage with the target no matter what. wait until reinforcements come. I repeat. Do not engage with the target no matter what.”
The leader pursed his lips indignantly, before muttering: “Yes, sir.”
He ended the call only to grumble in frustration. “What an attitude! We did what the others couldn’t, but didn’t get even a word of gratitude. Now what are we supposed to do until reinforcements come? Do we drink coffee, or watch a movie or something? This is ridiculous, we-“
“Oh God, sir, look!” the driver cut him off in panic as he pointed towards the rock.
Right in front of their eyes, the rock started to shake slowly. The shaking gets faster and faster as the seconds go by.
“Shit. It is moving in front of us again like it doesn’t care about our presence.” The captain muttered nervously, as he took the communication device again. “Day Eight. Hour 2358. The target started to move! Its speed increases by a second. Shit! It is rising from the ground! Are we still ordered to not engage or-!”
Before he finished his report, the rock was high in the air around 9 feet high, then stopped, as the answer came back from base. “Repeat! Do not engage! Whatever the reasons! We still don’t know how it will react! For your safety, do not engage!”
“What if it got away and we lost its track again?!” The captain exclaimed indignantly.
“Do not engage! Orders are clear about that! No matter what, do not engage!” the same voice repeated even more firmly now.
The captain furrowed his brows even more as he watched the rock, which was rotating around itself slowly like it was scanning its surroundings.
“What if we lost its track?” the captain repeated under his breath again. Then he pulled out a special gun and pushed inside it a small tracker.
“Sir, our orders are-“ the driver started to murmur nervously, watching his captain.
“Shut up.” his Captain snapped, shutting him up, as he raised his gun towards the rock. “We can’t let it get away again.”
He pulled the trigger, and the tracker was shot. Inserting itself in the rock’s body.
At the same moment, the rock started to shake violently, its front proceeded to glow in bright red light.
“Sir! What’s happening, sir?!” the driver screamed in panic, as everyone started to freak out and retreat in fear.
Then, from the front of the rock, three big Fireballs were shot.
Everyone’s eyes widened in pure fear, as screams of panic echoed through the desert, along with the deafening sound of three big explosions.
The remains of the three Jeep cars scattered on the desert’s sand in a wide range.
Even before the explosions were done, the fake rock turned around, the red glow disappearing from it, as it flew away to merge and disappear in the desert again without a trace.
***
Bruce took a long, analyzing look at the creature’s dead body, lying on the table in front of him in the morgue.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Bruce murmured, exchanging a look with Castiel, before he approached the body, to start his inspection and dissection.
“The body is certainly not an Earthen creature,” Bruce murmured his findings, mostly to himself than to Castiel, who was standing a few feet away from him. “It is more than seven feet tall. Its entire body is covered with small green scales, which must be responsible for the rebound of the bullets of its body that the security guards shot at it. The face looks like a snake’s face. No ears or nose. Just a wide mouth with no lips, and two big eyes split like a snake’s eye. The head is completely bald. A thin membrane connects the fingers in its feet and fingers, like in amphibians. It is hard to tell its sex from just an outside inspection since there are no genital organs. In conclusion, we are standing in front of a big reptile.”
“There is an old theory,” Castiel murmured absentmindedly after he listened to Bruce’s initial inspection. “About the possibility of life forms on other planets, in different kinds of evolution. Instead of monkeys, it’s reptiles, and so on.”
“Do you really believe that, Castiel?” Bruce smiled, as he took his scalpel.
“I am an angel, Bruce. I actually saw the beginning. I know how it all begins.” Castiel replied, managing to sound as old as he implied. His voice seemed far away. So old. So ancient. He was a being born before the beginning of time. He saw the Earth, the stars the universe being created. He saw everything. Literally everything. Yet, it all didn’t seem to matter to him right now. “I know for a fact how you humans came to be. I saw it personally. You can have your beliefs about the beginning and evolution, but it will never be the same as seeing it personally.”
“Sometimes I forget how old you are, Castiel,” Bruce murmured, eyeing the angel from the corner of his eyes. “It is intimidating when I think about it carefully. It always looks like you will always know more than all of us.”
He had to admit that sometimes, Bruce tries not to think about that. That Castiel was literally a being of pure celestial energy, a storm as ancient as the dirt that made up this planet, confined inside a human body. Castiel was larger than all of them combined. He could end an entire city if he wished. Maybe an entire country if he was really dedicated.
It was hard to remember all that sometimes, from how warm and human he was. He was more human than half the humans Bruce met in his life. He was kind. Warm. Loyal. Compassionate. Braver than each one of them. It was hard to imagine him as an emotionless angel, that didn’t know how emotions compute. He came very far. So far, he surpassed everyone in his humanity. Making him more real. Making him easy to love. Bruce cherished his friendship with Castiel. Honored to have that warm, kind being as a part of his family.
“All that knowledge seems useless now,” Castiel commented grimly, eyes looking far away and lost. “Useless if it can’t protect the people most important to me.”
Bruce swallowed through the lump in his throat, as his words banged in the room, making it seem even more colder, as their loneliness pressed down on them, at the thought of their scattered, comatose family.
“Well, let me give you a piece of new knowledge.” Bruce changed the subject, as he moved his scalpel towards the creature’s body. “Do you think this scalpel will cut through these scales?”
“Of course not. If the bullets couldn’t pierce through it, then obviously the scalpel can’t.” Castiel answered easily with a shrug.
“That’s what it seems, theoretically.” Bruce pointed out with a smile. “But practically, these scales can resist the strongest bullets, if they hit it vertically. However, if you placed the scalpel underneath one scale, like that, and moved it towards the meeting point of its neighbor, in a right angle, you can remove it very easily.”
He showed him as he explained, actually removing one of the scales, revealing the soft part underneath it.
“See?” Bruce turned to grin at him proudly.
“Your brain never fails to awe me, Bruce.” Castiel returned his smile faintly, actually impressed by the scientist’s presentation.
“The best thing about science is that it makes what seems impossible at first, possible and easy to achieve if you really think about it. Proving that power is not the only way to achieve anything,” Bruce murmured with a smile, as he used his method to remove an entire row of the scales, at the center of the creature’s middle.
“Yes, especially in this era,” Castiel confirmed softly, watching Bruce’s work with interest.
“Exactly. Science proved that we-“ Bruce cut off his words with a sharp gasp, flinching as he stared down at the creature with wide eyes.
“What is it? Bruce?” Castiel straightened up immediately, looking at Bruce with worry.
“Impossible! This is just impossible!” Bruce murmured with wide eyes, unable to believe whatever he was seeing.
“Burce?” Castiel marched towards him, his heart beating loudly, fearing the worst.
“All the tissues are real and normal! That I didn’t- I didn’t expect-“ Bruce breathed hard, taking a few steps back away from the body, still staring at it with wide eyes.
“What didn’t you expect?” Castiel frowned as he looked at the part that Bruce opened in the Creature’s middle.
The moment he laid eyes on the open middle, they widened to match Bruce’s, staring in pure shock.
Because, what came out of the creature’s opened gut, proved it wasn’t human.
In fact, it wasn’t even a living being in any way.
It was a machine.
Not human. Not an alien. Not a reptile.
It was just a robot.