Transplant Read Online Free Page A

optics in this unit have malfunctioned and I am unable to observe the situation.’
    They all looked at one another in astonishment, the captain didn’t usually ask questions or require their help, he, if it was a ‘he’, just gave orders and made announcements.
    The other three looked at Glyn, Brendon raising his hands and shrugging his shoulders. Glyn realized that they had unanimously chosen him to be their spokesman on the subject of the chamber without saying a word.
    He quickly looked around the vast cavern of greenery to make sure he hadn’t missed anything important, and said,
    ‘This end of the chamber is nearly normal, as far as I can see, with only a few clumps of leaves showing signs of decay, but further on down the line I can see whole branches laden with a dirty green brown mess of decayed vegetation, some of it has actually turned into a liquid and is dripping off the ends of the branches. Good thing we can’t smell it.
    ‘There is a blockage further on down the chamber, I will try to get past it so that I can see what the rest of the chamber looks like.’ He walked up to the first branch which had bent right down to ground level, the slime from the dripping end forming a small pool of disgusting bubbling liquid which he was very careful not to tread in or get on his suit.
    Glyn went to push the blocking branch to one side, and as his hand touched it there was a soggy snapping sound and it fell to the ground, a thin drizzle of brown liquid oozing out of the broken end which was still attached to the main growth. The piece which had fallen split open along its length, adding more of the putrefying liquid to the slime pool in the middle of the path.
    He bent as close to the ruptured branch as his stomach would allow to see if there were any signs of living creatures in the remains which might have caused the disintegration, but nothing moved except the turgid liquid still oozing out of the collapsed branch.
    Carefully he stepped over the nauseous looking mess on the path and slowly walked on down between the towering ranks of plants, most of which showed signs of succumbing to the rot in varying degrees.
    Brendon had followed him a few paces down the track way and was getting nervous, calling over the radio link
    ‘You are disappearing into the mist, I can only just make out your shape. Do you think it wise to be out of sight?’
    Glyn hesitated for a moment, he didn’t like the idea of being out of sight just in case something went wrong, and no one knew about it.
    ‘OK, as the mist begins to hide me, come forward, keeping me just in sight, and then the others can do likewise as you begin to fade from sight. That way we shall all know what’s going on and can render help if necessary.’
    Slowly Glyn edged his way past fallen branches and pools of slime, which were becoming more numerous as he proceeded down the pathway between the towering plant growth.
    ‘What do you see now?’ the voice of the Captain sounded uneasy, but Glyn put it down to his imagination as he felt sure the Captain wasn’t really human.
    ‘More of the same, except that it is getting worse, every plant is affected to some degree, some have collapsed completely.’
    A few minutes later and the foursome had gone as far as they could, spread out along the pathway and keeping each other just in sight.
    Glyn had reached a point where he thought he could see the end of the chamber wall in the now very steamy conditions, and called back on the radio that he wasn’t going any further as his way was blocked by too many fallen branches.
    Again the attention getting ‘ping’ sounded, to be followed by the sonorous tones of the Captain.
    ‘Take the purple canister up to the end of the chamber, pull the tab on the top, the end will come off. This reveals a valve. Hold the canister vertically, turn the valve until the arrow points to the mark and then raise it up as high as you can. Turn to face the way back to the entrance port. Press