The cargo vessel in which Wazdog materializes is called a Gichcqoan. Roughly the size of a small plane (although it lacks wings, so using a yacht to describe its form is perhaps better), it looks like a red cone-shaped dried up sea cucumber that spins laterally through space. The ship’s interior is mostly made of calcium carbonate, but it is also partly alive, slowly moulting. Its external hull, in fact, is an exoskeleton. The entire ship is coated in a polymer of glucosamine. But to the human eye, Kraey ships are usually invisible, cloaked by Kraeytian technology, and even when they are not cloaked, the psionic containment on Earth makes it nigh impossible to see what Kraey ships look like. (In fact, historically, most extraterrestrial vehicles that were witnessed in the past, belonged to another extraterrestrial species and human breakaway civilizations.) Most humans on Earth, however, either see nothing, or witness a glowing ball of light, and many who see something more than that are overtaken by an artificially induced anxiety which rationalizes away the experience. Although the term ‘cognitive dissonance’ is useful to explain this phenomenon, that is but part of the problem. The psionic abilities of humans on Earth—their “sixth sense” if you will—are actively suppressed by a complex Kraeytian network of control, most of it upheld by Hierarchy sattelites in orbit around the planet Earth that forms a sublunar layer in resonance with Kraeytian systems on the moon. The human brain’s inherent psionic capabilities are nullified by this containment layer (i.e. humanity is mentally handicapped). Those whose psionic potential is not fully sedated, are often mistaken for paranoid schizophrenics or religious fanatics. Needless to say, developing your psionic talent in such an environment is very difficult and partly dependent on the patient’s genetic background. Moreover, even if one has a high level of awareness, that does not mean the patient has the inherent talent for magick. Sorcery requires more than training. Wazdog, for example, cannot use the Art, although the patriarchy trained him. He is, however, probably the best weapons expert among the orthodox. It is this combat experience which makes him the best man for this job, because a Gichcqoan is usually inhabited by the Kraey who built it. In this case, a particularly nasty alien of the genus gecarcinididae.
Wazdog will now fight this monster. Not to gain control of the ship, but purely for survival. (Technically speaking, Wazdog’s enemy is not a pilot because Kraey ships are symbiotic—partly dormant biomass, partly technologically enhanced, partly psionic. One might say this is as much the vehicle as it is the nest of an alien.) Wazdog must climb, crawl, maybe even swim his way through the ship’s internal cavities before its inhabitant becomes aware of Wazdog’s presence, and kill the Kraey without suffering a wound. Even the tiniest scratch will infect and kill a human within days. Besides their speed and reach, Kraey also feed on psionic energy. Which is actually why the Kraey created the Hierarchy; To domesticate the humanity and cultivate our psionic talent. The Kraey’s hunger for psionic energy is why the orthodox selected a warrior like Wazdog for this mission instead of a witch or warlock. Although a sorcerer has immense power on the battlefield, using magick against a Kraey is like throwing wood onto a fire. As mentioned, the Kraey are also formidable enemies in close combat, both due to their many limbs and the fact that many are as large as a wolf or a cow. (Through remote viewing, oracles have witnessed even larger Kraey, and there is a genus on Mars, commonly referred to as ‘longlegs’, that despite their tiny bodies are as tall as a skyscraper on Earth.) Because of their speed, reach, and size, close combat is avoided. Bullets, bolts, or harpoons are a better choice than swords or spears against such monsters.
If you have never seen a Kraey of the genus gecarcinididae; Like most Kraey, these are best portrayed as an oceanic amoeba infesting the segmented body of a reddish brown centipede from which eight crab legs protrude. The species can stand on its four hind legs when threatened, to slash at prey with its four front legs—all of which are very sharp. From its cloaca, located on the front (it resembles a gaping stinking wound where one would expect a humanoid’s head) on the upper segment of the body, the amoeba regularly emerges in violent spurts during a process xenobiologists call self-evisceration. It is during these eruptions that the creature ejaculates its internal respiratory organs to manipulate machinery and perform tasks for which its legs are too big or sharp. Wazdog will take zero risk in dealing with such a monster. He has killed Kraey before. He knows where to pierce the creature’s cuticle and exploit a weakness in the chitin layer below the nervous system. He must shoot immediately, before the Kraey gets close. If the creature sees him first, it will unleash a telepathic attack on Wazdog’s brain—an awful alien screeching inside the mind. Wazdog meets the invertebrate in the main cavity of the ship, which is an environment fully bathed in haemolymph (a fluid which provides oxygen and nutrients), making it harder for Wazdog to approach. He is, however, at all times aware of his surroundings.
The creature was hiding inside the ceiling. When it hears Wazdog, it crawls legs-first out of a hole. But it fails to surprise Wazdog. Almost as if it were a routine job, the human immediately raises his rifle at the alien invertebrate and perforates it with bullets. After a guttural sound, followed by silence, its corpse slides out of the ceiling and collapses onto a wall.