Irrelevant Jack

  Irrelevant Jack

  By Prax Venter

  Cover by Jaka Prawira

  Edited by Celestian Rince

  Copyright © 2018 Prax Venter

  All rights reserved

  Author’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Characters with any resemblance to persons that exist now, or have ever existed, are purely coincidental.

  Special Thanks

  ~ Coffee ~

  “Thanks, coffee.”

  Table of Contents

  Irrelevant Jack

  Table of Contents

  - 1 -

  - 2 -

  - 3 -

  - 4 -

  - 5 -

  - 6 -

  - 7 -

  - 8 -

  - 9 -

  - 10 -

  - 11 -

  - 12 -

  - 13 -

  - 14 -

  - 15 -

  - 16 -

  - 17 -

  - 18 -

  - 19 -

  - 20 -

  - 21 -

  - 22 -

  - 23 -

  - 24 -

  - 25 -

  - 26 -

  - 27 -

  - 28 -

  The End

  - 1 -

  Jack grabbed the chrome railing with a worn work glove and propelled himself up the short set of metal stairs to the foreman’s trailer. The morning sun beat on the white-painted aluminum of the temporary structure reflecting its brilliant light into his eyes. He rapped his knuckles against the door and let himself in. The smell of contained body odor and cool plastic enveloped him as he entered the shade of the trailer. With his hard hat in his hands, Jack put on his best fake smile and addressed a balding man typing information into a computer.

  “Matt! How’s it going? You got a second?”

  The foreman continued to edit his spreadsheet as he mumbled a response. “Yeah, but don’t sit down. I want to make this quick.” The sweaty man grabbed the mouse, clicked a few times, and then spun his chair. “Now, what is it you wanted, Jack? You’ve got fifteen minutes before your survey team leaves.”

  “Yes sir. I’ll get right to it- we both know it’s time you assign me my own team. With more teams, we could map more tunnel per day, and we’d increase efficiency. I know the survey is behind schedule. Let me help us all make up lost time.”

  Jack was confident and focused. He needed to show his boss that he was indispensable. He wanted this.

  But the man in front of him was shaking his head in a way that indicated that he wasn’t going to get it.

  “I am just going to be blunt. You aren’t ready to lead your own team.”

  Jack’s smile fell off his face, and the foreman crossed his arms. “Do you know what makes a good team, Jack?”

  “A good leader?”

  “Good team members, Jack. Good. Team. Members. For a team to work right, everyone must be on the same page- all moving towards the same goal. You don’t always do that. Stevens was in here not more than a week ago saying how you were off on your own again.”

  “I found a nice fat deposit, Matt. Stevens might have missed it.”

  “This whole survey would slow to a standstill if you went missing in there, or worse. You know well-and-good you aren’t supposed to wander off, for any reason. You’re what- one more infraction from mandatory retraining classes? Jack, I like your enthusiasm, and I acknowledge your good instincts, but you aren’t ready to lead. See me in another six months.”

  Jack found himself standing out in the baking sunlight, staring at the gravel outside the foreman’s trailer. Eventually, the shuffling feet of other surveyors on the dusty road to the main elevator shaft pulled him from his self-wallowing, and he joined the stream of his co-workers headed to another day of work.

  As soon as he entered the shadow of the massive canopy built over the tunnel entrance, Jack broke away from the crowd and headed over to his team’s prep station. It was furnished with a folding table, some metal shelves stocked with supplies, and an outlet for recharging equipment, not to mention the all-essential coffee pot. Corey and Stevens were already there, and Jack saw his boss pouring out a cup as he walked up.

  Wordlessly, Stevens handed him the paper cup filled with coffee. Jack took it and promptly upended the steaming drink into his mouth. The bitter liquid was far too hot, and it hurt to drink, but he didn’t care.

  It had been a rough month for Jack. He loved his job, but he seemed to have a hard time controlling himself when he got underground. There were riches to be found around every corner and twist of the dark caves. Of course, he didn’t get to keep any of the silver they found in the caverns of this newly discovered, unmapped silver mine, but he was thrilled to be all the way out in the middle of South America to explore its depths. Jack, Corey, and Stevens had been a team for almost eight months, and they worked well together. As he looked up at the black-stubbled face of Corey on the other side of the table, Jack caught him staring back with a goofy lopsided grin.

  “I don’t know how you guys drink coffee in this heat. It’s like a million degrees out here.” Corey’s often-repeated coffee observation turned Jack’s attention to the tall, sandy blond man standing next to him, and he watched as Stevens dumped five packets of sugar into his cup.

  After a quick stir, their team leader took a gulp and let out a long, “Ahhh,” as he gazed down lovingly at the sugary concoction in his hand.

  “Some of us need a boost in the morning,” Stevens said. “And a little extra focus never hurts.” The man flicked his steady blue eyes to Jack when he said that last part. It was obviously meant as a dig, but Jack just finished the gritty remnants of his coffee and started strapping on his climbing gear.

  Stevens was a good guy, and Jack knew he was only doing his job. Although he was strict, it was the Team Lead’s responsibility if something happened to their crew. Jack honestly felt bad when he let the man down.

  Stevens and Corey finished checking their equipment as the three of them were called next for the elevator. After a ten-minute ride diagonally into the depths of the earth, the platform’s hydraulic brakes screeched and stuttered as it slowed their descent. The cage opened, and they stepped out into today’s entry point, the Chapela-East Subsection. Headlamps came on as they prepared to delve into the specific area of unmapped darkness they had been assigned to survey, and Stevens turned to face his team.

  “Stay within fifteen feet at all times. We are heading down into E5-G30. Map on X coordinate sweeps.”

  The two men nodded an acknowledgment and started walking down one of the branching tunnels.

  It was slow work. They set up one TST Imager, and then set up another within line-of-sight of the first. The pair of equipment used radio waves and 360-degree thermal cameras to store a detailed 3D map of the cave system. As long as the Imagers had an unobstructed view of each other, the team could leapfrog the equipment and track an unbroken path through the caves.

  The first hour was more exciting than most days as the team needed to climb down a few decently difficult vertical shafts to get to where they needed to go. The survey equipment slowed the process down, but Jack enjoyed this part the most. Setting up the tripods in vertical positions could be tricky, and Jack kept in pretty good shape just by doing his job.

  The last few hours, however, had been a boring stretch of a slightly downward sloping tunnel. It was practically a straight line. All they did was pick up the equipment and move it, over and over. While they waited for the scan to finish, Stevens was out scouting the possible branching paths for their next move.

  Jack called out to Corey standing by the Imager ahead of him.

  “Hey, this coffee wants out. I’m going over here,” he said as he pointed down a path to his right. It would
have taken too long to go back up for bathroom breaks, so they just relieved themselves in the cave.

  “Yup,” said Corey, waving him off with disinterest.

  Jack walked a few yards down an offshoot tunnel and found a small, shallow stream of water running over the rock. He passed his headlamp over a few colossal stalagmite formations looming up into the darkness as he searched for a good spot to relieve himself.

  He had his hand on his zipper when the light from his lamp reflected off something in the cave wall ahead of him. Jack instantly forgot about his biological need as he moved around the rocks to get a better look. The footing was tricky as the smooth stone under his boots was coated in the thinnest layer of running water, but he was determined to find the source of the glint. He had expected to find another vein of silver, but what Jack saw blew his mind.

  It was a doorway- a metal opening that led into pure darkness.

  Below it, a flat surface jutted out of the ground before the ominous passageway. Wires and tubes hung out from inside the jagged edges of metal as if a whole structure had been violently ripped away from somewhere. What was this? How did what appeared to be part of a modern submarine get down this far, lodged in rock? As there was nothing to see beyond the doorway, his ears strained to fill in the missing information, but all he could hear was the echoing drips of water in the cave behind him.

  Jack couldn’t help himself, and he stepped inside. The space beyond the perfect rectangle opening was a stark contrast from the rocky walls of narrow cave systems. The open area was a void of darkness in every direction. His head slowly swiveled around the cavernous chamber trying to light it up, but most of the walls were beyond the reach of his headlamp. He saw large square containers and metal debris strewn everywhere, and the place gave him the impression of a long-abandoned factory. The whole interior was slanted downward slightly and covered in sludge. He had to watch his footing so as not to slide further into this bizarre unknown place. A torn piece of metal on the ground nearby with some markings caught his eye, and Jack moved a few steps deeper into the mysterious underground vault to check it out. He squatted down, wiping the dirt off with his glove, and his headlamp lit up symbols he had never seen before.

  “Come in, Jack,” Stevens demanded loudly through the radio attached to Jack’s shoulder.

  Directly after his Team Leader spoke, the ground began to shake violently. Jack slipped backward onto the flat, metal floor and rolled over, instinctively putting his hands over his head. After the initial shock, he aimed his light at the door just in time to see it slowly sliding closed.

  Jack scrambled off the ground to reach it, but it was already too late. He watched as a plume of dust swirled in the beam of his headlamp as the wall sealed shut in front of him.

  - 2 -

  Jack pounded on the door, screaming at the top of his lungs to let Stevens and Corey know where he was and that he was alive- that is, if they were also alive. He could tell from the dust pouring in before the door closed that a part of the cave outside had come down too. There might be yards of rock between him and his team. Maybe more.

  The radio was unresponsive, and he could hear nothing on any channel. He pounded his fist against the door again. The metal was so thick that his most powerful strike only created a small and ineffective thud. Jack eventually gave up and sat with his back against the door, listening for any signs of activity in the cave.

  He heard nothing but silence.

  While he was sitting there, he came to the conclusion that this definitely had to be aliens. His flashlight revealed more of the strange writing on the walls, and the smooth glass panels embedded in the walls looked positively futuristic. Not to mention the door sealing him in automatically. With all the advanced-looking technology around him, he figured he was inside of an abandoned spaceship somehow buried a mile below the surface of the Earth. Maybe it was these guys who built the pyramids. He wondered if finding this ancient alien ship would make up for how much trouble he was in.

  Survey protocol dictated that employees needed to stay put and wait for rescue in the event of a cave-in. After twenty minutes passed, Jack could not sit and wait any longer. There was a chance that another part of this place was exposed to open tunnels, and he had to find his way out before his flashlight and headlamp ran out of power. That, and he needed to see more of this place.

  He tried to open a few of the four-foot, square containers with one of the hammer picks he normally used for spelunking, but neither prying nor smashing worked.

  Leaving the mysterious, alien boxed goods alone, Jack walked the edges of the mostly empty chamber. He only saw one open doorway and three others that were sealed shut. Ready to leave what he thought of as the cargo bay, he exited through the only open door.

  Jack passed more sealed doors to either side and eventually came to an intersection. He could go right or left. He was about to choose right when a white light mounted on the ceiling bathed the corridor to his left in a soft glow. He wondered if this was a coincidence- just a short in some wires after the door closed? A flurry of questions spun through Jack’s mind as he stood in front of the steady light illuminating the sleek, futuristic corridor ahead of him.

  “Hello? Is anyone there?” Jack asked raising his eyes up to the ceiling.

  Nothing. Maybe they didn’t speak his language. At least whatever this place was still had power, and that gave him a bit of hope, but also made him feel much more uneasy about the situation. He had seen plenty of Sunday afternoon, alien action movies where bloodthirsty space monsters or deadly robots stalked the unwitting hero from the shadows.

  Jack shined his flashlight down the other option, looking for a reason to explore the darkness in that direction. After some contemplation, he let go of his mounting paranoia and figured there was probably a motion sensor or something in the floor that triggered the light. Making his choice, he followed the light and turned left.

  He passed more closed doors and intersections with collapsed ceilings before the passage widened out to a hallway that seemed built to handle heavier foot traffic. There were benches and planters filled with dust symmetrically placed along the walls, and the passage reminded him of something out of a large school or hospital.

  As he came to another intersection, a larger door opened directly in front of him, letting out a brief hiss of air. To either side of him, the metallic walls and reflective panels continued straight as far as his flashlight could shine, leaving only untouched darkness beyond. He turned his light forward into the newly opened path and noticed that it was another large space like the cargo bay he had seen before.

  “Are you leading me somewhere?” Jack asked anyone that might be listening. Again, no one answered. With a shrug, he took the invitation and stepped through the door. Once inside, his flashlight passed over upended tables and chairs, and his brain had a moment to register the term “cafeteria” before the door quickly slid closed behind him.

  It became undeniable that someone was directing him somewhere, and the flesh on his arms tightened as goosebumps spread over them. He was getting a seriously bad vibe from this abandoned alien spaceship.

  Jack turned from the door and searched around slowly, the light from his flashlight drifting over piles of upended furniture. Despite all the tables and chairs bunched up in one corner, this was clearly a cafeteria or lunchroom. There was very little dust in here, and everything in the room had a too-smooth feel to it. Jack pondered if these ancient aliens looked human, but his thoughts were scattered when a bright light filled his vision.

  Softly glowing white rectangles were evenly spaced around the cafeteria, saturating every surface with illumination. With the area now lit up, Jack turned off his flashlight and let his eyes adjust while he got his bearings.

  “Hello?” he tried again. Turning in place, he saw windows along one of the walls with solid rock pressing in on them from the other side, and in the middle of the room stood a counter with recessed metal tubs individually formed into its sur
face. There was still no answer.

  Jack moved toward the center of the room with his flashlight held out, ready to be used as a club. He wasn’t sure what he expected to hit with it, but he just knew some horrible, alien monster with dripping jaws was lurking somewhere. He slowly approached what could only be an empty buffet. There was a sneeze guard and everything. Jack’s mind slipped its gears as his working description of what was going on switched from aliens to time travel.

  After searching the room and finding nothing interesting besides futuristically styled furniture, he decided to move forward. There was only one open door out of this room, and as he walked through, it slammed closed behind him, drenching him in darkness again. The doors seemed to be closing faster the deeper he went. With a sigh, he thumbed the button on his flashlight, and pushed forward into the dark corridor in front of him.

  Jack eventually came to a section of the hallway that was missing a large portion of the metal flooring, and below him was a very long drop. He could see a cross-section of floor upon floor below him, and they continued downward as far as his light could shine.

  He was used to spelunking in caves, so Jack didn’t hesitate as he climbed along the exposed circuits and tubing in the damaged wall, moving horizontally. A feeling of undefinable wrongness washed over him the moment he set his boots down on the other side, but Jack shook his head and chalked it up to an insane situation. Exploring this eerie and unexplainable structure had been exciting, but now it was time to find an exit. Stumbling around in these abandoned passageways when his batteries for his flashlight ran out was not really something he wanted to think about.

  There was a new dark purplish haze in the air, and it grew in density as he walked, and as Jack crept deeper into the immense underground structure, the uneasy feeling worming in his stomach increased.

  He stepped around a tangle of exposed wires hanging from the ceiling like a dead robot octopus and entered an area that had to be an engine room. Large machines loomed in the darkness, and Jack had never seen anything as complex. He approached the side of an enormous turbine-like component and stopped short when he saw movement crawling over its surface. Jack focused the light to get a better look and saw what appeared to be slimy black string with a faint purple glow. It made sickly slurping noises as the whole mass slowly writhed, and bile rose to the back of Jack’s throat. He backed away from the infested machine, his eyes wide.