Tunnels 03, Freefall

outline of the creature's wings, and this impression was further enhanced as it flapped them once, and Will heard their leathery beat.
    There was a hiss as Martha fired a bolt straight at the creature. Although it had been perhaps no more than twenty meters above the tower, the bolt encountered nothing but air. The creature had simply disappeared.
    "What!" Will exclaimed. He was sure he hadn't blinked -- and even if he had, these creatures were preternaturally fast.
    He heard another beat of its wings. It reappeared again, this time to the left of the tower, and closer. And this time Will happened to have his lantern up, so that the creature was caught in the full glare of its beam.
    Its head was not dissimilar to the size and shape of a rugby ball, with a small coiled proboscis dead center, beneath which lay a mouth packed with rows of savage-looking, pearl-white teeth. And right above its proboscis were a pair of silvery discs -- Will knew that these probably weren't eyes, but something similar to the 'ears' Martha had shown him on he dead spider-monkey.
    This time Will did blink as he was so surprised, but the creature was still there when he opened his eyes. The oddest thing was that its features strongly suggested a face. And stranger still, on the very top of its head there was what appeared to be an oscillating disc -- a circular structure that emitted a light which seemed to pulse in intensity. Will instinctively knew this must be some kind of lure, to draw its prey to it in the darkness.
    With this glimpse of the creature Will also saw that it had its wings drawn back as if in a dive.
    A dive towards him and Martha.
    Will was rooted to the spot by the apparition, but Martha again fired her crossbow. For a second time the creature simply vanished, leaving Will staring at thin air. It took a frantic shout from Martha to bring him back to his senses.
    "Get in!" he screamed, bundling him into the opening by her feet. His lantern spun out of his grip, falling below where he heard it clatter. Will too would have fallen, if he hadn't by sheer luck caught hold of a metal ladder. He managed to climb down a few rungs before Martha, descending with all the delicacy of a stampeding hippo, trod on his fingers.
    "Ow!" he cried, extricating his hand as she slammed the hatch shut above them and secured it by turning the circular locking mechanism.
    "What the hell was that thing out there?" he exclaimed, flexing his fingers to ease the pain as he scanned around the confined space he found himself in. "No way was it a spider-monkey!" he added as he realized he was now inside the 'tower' of the ship. It was oval-shaped and numerous pipes and conduits ran down the sides.
    "It was a Bright," she said breathlessly. "I told you they nest here. They're a very different kettle of fish to the spiders -- they can fly."
    "You don't say," Will mumbled to himself as he descended to the bottom of the ladder, passing through another hatch on the way. As he dropped lower, he noticed the air had a staleness to it, and he smelt traces of damp and mildew. His feet clanged down on a metal-grilled floor. It was at an angle and he assumed that was because of the way the ship had settled when it had fallen down the void. As he stooped to retrieve his lantern, Chester rushed up to him.
    Will tried to tell him about the flying creature. "You'll never--"
    "Will! Will! Chester interrupted, gabbling in his excitement. "This isn't any old ship! It's a bloody submarine . And a new one at that!" He raised his light so Will could see what lay around him.
    "Wild!" Will said, laughing with the strangeness of it all. It reminded him of a scene from a film. He looked at the panels of electronic equipment, all completely dark and dust covered. And although it appeared very modern and complex, there were the stubs of burnt-down candles on some of the flat surfaces. Around them were pools of melted wax, which had formed long strings as it had dripped to the floor. "They didn't have any power," he noted, then stepped to the center of the space in which there was a column that could have been the periscope, and a small desk above which a Perspex sheet was suspended in a frame. It had contour lines drawn on it as if it was a map, although the sheet was shattered and some of the map was missing.
    "A submarine," he said, not really taking in what he was saying. "So we just entered through what must be the conning tower. And this is the control room or... or the