Real Name - Nick Esselman

Background

I began getting interested in rocketry and space travel when someone gave me a Saturn Lander (4th re-release by Estes). It was a cool model rocket that flew on Estes E17's and Quest F31's. The rocket would split into two parts, one returning inside inflatable balloon landing bubbles, and the other utilizing a B1-15 ReverseThrust™ Motor to bring it in softly… any ways, I digress. This got me interested. From then on I pursued my desire to be part of off-earth activity.

Act of Volunteering

I was watching T.V. and during a DeVry Space and Astronautic Technical College commercial, they played the Mars Endurance Base commercial. That was it. I had to get it. So immediately after my 2.5 year degree from DeVry, I signed up.

Assignment at Mars Endurance Base

My assignment, not very prestigious I guess, but important. I was an… well, a… basically I was an elevator operator. Yep, I ran the Primary Shaft E71, Core Base Elevator. Again, not very prestigious, but important. Oh, don't get me wrong, it was not important to the success of the Endurance Base, but it was important to many lives on the planet. Let me explain.

Story

Day to day operation of the Primary Shaft E17, Core Base elevator was simply me accepting the various destination levels: "175 please", "Ring Lab, 250", "Base Operations 45 straight-away", etc. And I would then push the button and set the speed and rotation for the correct exit side and level. Being here every day allowed me to "hear" things. After all, no one ever thought much of the elevator Operator.

Anyhow, some of the things I was starting to hear were now being whispered, although not hidden from a quiet man, like myself, standing in the corner pushing buttons. Things like, "Who knows about it?" and "Is it contained?". Many times the answers were, "Not now" or "I'm not authorized to discuss this". Something was definitely happening.

Another strong indicator was that the amount of traffic on the elevator was increasing. People I had never seen before. "They felt I needed to be here". "Specialist in sub-terrestrial". "Genetics research is necessary".

In addition, more and more equipment was being brought in, especially to level 50, which in itself was nothing but a Geological Lab and Operations level. Very interesting equipment. The piece that really caught my eye was something that looked like the chain from an old ocean liner of the 20th century with what appeared to be the largest set of handcuffs ever created; six of them.

This is when I was able to piece it all together. They, the infamous they, had found something… alive and it was enormous. I had this confirmed with some other things that were said in front of the insignificant elevator operator over the next several days. One conversation in particular:

"Did you see it?", "Yes, it is amazing… and amazingly ugly and fierce looking.", "I know, strange for something to look so ugly but still be so docile."

My head was spinning. I had to see this… thing. I just had to.

That evening, just before shift change, I took the elevator to level 50. I set the elevator to maintenance mode which means that anyone wanting to go down would need to utilize F17 and walk through the Connection Corridor. As for me, I followed the corridors to the Lab and discovered that it was now barricaded and the windows were blackened out. There was no way to get inside!

Thinking all was lost, I returned to the elevator. That's when I remembered the Lab's maintenance entrance. Hadn't been used in years, really ever since the original Core Bore had been assembled that was used to establish this level and the corridors. I set the elevator coordinates and soon arrived at that Maintenance entrance. When the doors opened, I received the shock of my life. Within feet of me, was the largest set of eyes, attached to an equally large set of ragged, sharp teeth. I gasped just due to it being so close.

It heard me and lunged only to be tripped up by the massive chains and "cuffs" that I had seen before. "Docile" they had said, I wouldn't have come to that conclusion from what I just experienced. "Ugly and fierce" they had said. Those simple words do not even begin to define this creature.

It sort of looked like an inverted octopus but with only six crab-like legs that opened from the top to the outside. From the center a gigantic mouth, reminiscent of the flower on the Little Shop of Horrors. Filled with teeth that were, no doubt, used for cutting through the mars dirt as well as whatever it consumed. Its eyes were most consuming though. They had a yellowish tint and a horse-shoe pattern on the inside. They were hypnotic, and it was difficult not to look at them.

I closed the doors and panicking, just as a child would that saw something he wasn't supposed to, directed the elevator back to the surface. I ran to my quarters with my head spinning from the horror I had seen. Or was it the magnificence of what I'd seen? Those eyes… there was intelligence… it had lunged… flashes, jerks, cold sweat….

I returned to my assignment the next morning trying to ignore the events of the evening. The normal morning traffic was not a problem, but toward mid-morning more and more traffic was coming and going to level 50. The murmurs we now asking, "How?", "What changed?", "What does it mean?", and "Should we warn the base?".

It was the last one that was about to make me speak, but before I could, base alarms sounded and all evacuation sequences began. This drove the elevator to level 50 since protocol is to go to the level with the most people. The doors opened and people rushed to get into the elevator. Some were trampled. The squeezing and pressure was tremendous. The doors closed and the elevator returned to ground level.

"Level 50 Locked-Down" blared through the All-Personnel Transmission Announcement (APTA). That was it, no one could enter or leave. According to the monitor, seventeen people remained on level 50.

Seventeen people. Lives. Human lives. I had to act, so I stepped back into the elevator and directed it to the Lab's Maintenance entrance again. Heart pounding in my chest, drowning out the sounds of the breathing apparatus, I pressed Door Open.

The beast, creature, life-form or whatever, was gone. The chains and "cuffs" were obliterated and there were no signs of life. I stepped off of the elevator and walked through the Lab. On the opposite side, I began to walk down the corridor. Slowly, while scanning my head side-to-side.

Suddenly, five people came out from under the Communication Cabinet and ran to me. I pointed to the Lab and they ran there. (The elevator was disengaged with my access code, so that no one could take off. Especially without me!).

As I continued to head down the corridor that connects to F17. In a side meeting room the creature had 10 more people cornered, while two others lay on the floor.

Without thinking, I did a local APTA telling them where to reach the elevator and ran across the meeting room to the opposite corridor. There I stopped and did an external PA to the creature. It turned and seemingly recognized me. It lunged again. I backed up and PA'd, "Come on! You can do better than that!". It stepped toward me. I backed further into the corridor (okay, where was this one heading…. Yes, Environmental Controls and then back to the F17 connection).

I PA'd again. It moved again. It then began a determined path toward me. The 10 people ran across the conference room and disappeared into the corridor heading back to the elevator. I turned my back and ran with the creature behind me. I reached the F17 connection, turned back toward E71 and the Lab.

As I was approaching the Lab and all of our escape, I turned back to look over my shoulder. To my surprise the creature was close, but it stopped and looked at me… and I back at it. Those eyes. I was stuck, just looking. What seemed like hours the two of us stared at each other. Studying. Analyzing. Questioning.

The life-support system and main illumination was shutdown per Lock-Down protocol. That broke the spell and I ran across the Lab, closed the doors and directed the elevator to the surface.

The creature is Locked-Down and contained. All but two lives were saved!

Me? I'm an elevator operator. Not very prestigious, but important. Especially to those folks wanting to get to the observation tower here in the Empire States Building in New York.