:: chapter eight ::
The doorway into the peak opened
onto a long, nondescript hallway with rock on all sides. “It looks
like sandstone,” he commented. “The walls, I mean. I bet if I took
my gloves off I could find out for sure. I’m not going to,” he added
hurriedly, as if to reassure both himself and Meredith. “That’s
probably not the greatest idea on my part. But it’s seriously
tempting.”
Anything else special about it?
“Nope. It’s pretty ordinary, really. Well, unless you count the fact that the hallway’s at human scale, like the doorway,” he amended. “Which, okay, does actually seem like it’s something worth mentioning.”
You THINK?
“Yeah, okay smartass.” He bit back a small grin and kept walking down the hallway, doing his best to ignore the way it steadily grew darker the further he got from the doorway. “Oh, I really don’t like this,” he said as the light from outside finally tapered right off, plunging the hallway into darkness. “I just lost the light from outside and now it’s dark as pitch in here, which really isn’t helping my nerves right now. Really wishing my helmet light still worked.”
You could crack a glow rod, Meredith suggested.
“I could,” he agreed. “But I have no idea how much longer I’ll be stuck here on this stupid rock. And once the glow rods I have are gone, that’s it. I need all the light I can get.” He squinted a little at the patch of light that lay at the end of the hallway. “There’s light ahead, distantly, so I’ll aim for it.”
Just as he said this, he heard it – the same scuttling that he’d heard back at the caravel. He swept his gaze up and down the hallway until he saw it – a bunch of little lights heading right for him. “Oh holy shit what was that?” he just barely held himself back from yelling – right as something brushed up against his leg.
Something that, when he looked down toward his feet, was glowing a faint, poisonous green.
What? What just happened?
“Okay, yes, I know. It’s happened to me before. But it wasn’t this close until now.” A chill settled over him, and he shuddered. “I heard the echo bouncing off the walls before I even saw what it was coming from.” He shifted as close as he could to one of the walls of the hallway, pressing his back into the stone. “And I was looking around, trying to figure out where the fuck the noise was coming from – it was the same scuttling noise I heard back at the caravel – and I saw this green glow right near the floor.”
Okay, that’s fucking creepy.
“Yeah, no kidding! It took a second, but then the glow turned into…I swear to you, it looked like a bunch of little lights. No, not lights,” he corrected himself. “They looked like eyes. Don’t ask me why I thought they looked like that, I don’t want to think about it more than I have to.” He curled his hands into fists to stop them shaking. “And right as I’m trying to process that, one of…of whatever they are, the fucking thing goes and brushes up against my leg.”
Did it hurt you?
He shook his head, even though he knew full well Meredith couldn’t see him. “No, I’m okay. Shaken up, yeah, but it didn’t hurt me.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “It just kinda bounced right off me and kept on running with the rest of those…things, deeper into the mountain.” Out of nothing more than sheer terror tears pricked at his eyes, and he blinked hard to stave them off. “But this means I’m not alone in here, Mere. I liked it so much better when I was alone in here.”
Follow those...those things.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Taylor asked almost incredulously. “Like I want to follow them!”
You want to find out what the hell is going on, right?
“Yeah, of course I do.”
Then follow them. It’s probably your best chance of getting anything resembling answers.
He let out a sigh that was just barely shy of frustrated. Meredith was right – he wasn’t going to get the answers he was looking for, or at the very least something that resembled them, if he didn’t keep on going deeper into the mountain. And that meant following those creatures.
“Okay. Fine.” His helmet went back on, and out of nothing more than instinct he pulled the faceplate down and locked it into place. “This is a bad idea, just so you know.”
Yes, Taylor, I know.
“Those…creatures – it feels so weird saying that, definitely not a word I thought I’d be using on this moon – anyway, they went running toward the light. So I guess that’s where I’m going.”
Be careful. Please.
Taylor cracked a small smile. “I will.”
Anything else special about it?
“Nope. It’s pretty ordinary, really. Well, unless you count the fact that the hallway’s at human scale, like the doorway,” he amended. “Which, okay, does actually seem like it’s something worth mentioning.”
You THINK?
“Yeah, okay smartass.” He bit back a small grin and kept walking down the hallway, doing his best to ignore the way it steadily grew darker the further he got from the doorway. “Oh, I really don’t like this,” he said as the light from outside finally tapered right off, plunging the hallway into darkness. “I just lost the light from outside and now it’s dark as pitch in here, which really isn’t helping my nerves right now. Really wishing my helmet light still worked.”
You could crack a glow rod, Meredith suggested.
“I could,” he agreed. “But I have no idea how much longer I’ll be stuck here on this stupid rock. And once the glow rods I have are gone, that’s it. I need all the light I can get.” He squinted a little at the patch of light that lay at the end of the hallway. “There’s light ahead, distantly, so I’ll aim for it.”
Just as he said this, he heard it – the same scuttling that he’d heard back at the caravel. He swept his gaze up and down the hallway until he saw it – a bunch of little lights heading right for him. “Oh holy shit what was that?” he just barely held himself back from yelling – right as something brushed up against his leg.
Something that, when he looked down toward his feet, was glowing a faint, poisonous green.
What? What just happened?
“Okay, yes, I know. It’s happened to me before. But it wasn’t this close until now.” A chill settled over him, and he shuddered. “I heard the echo bouncing off the walls before I even saw what it was coming from.” He shifted as close as he could to one of the walls of the hallway, pressing his back into the stone. “And I was looking around, trying to figure out where the fuck the noise was coming from – it was the same scuttling noise I heard back at the caravel – and I saw this green glow right near the floor.”
Okay, that’s fucking creepy.
“Yeah, no kidding! It took a second, but then the glow turned into…I swear to you, it looked like a bunch of little lights. No, not lights,” he corrected himself. “They looked like eyes. Don’t ask me why I thought they looked like that, I don’t want to think about it more than I have to.” He curled his hands into fists to stop them shaking. “And right as I’m trying to process that, one of…of whatever they are, the fucking thing goes and brushes up against my leg.”
Did it hurt you?
He shook his head, even though he knew full well Meredith couldn’t see him. “No, I’m okay. Shaken up, yeah, but it didn’t hurt me.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “It just kinda bounced right off me and kept on running with the rest of those…things, deeper into the mountain.” Out of nothing more than sheer terror tears pricked at his eyes, and he blinked hard to stave them off. “But this means I’m not alone in here, Mere. I liked it so much better when I was alone in here.”
Follow those...those things.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Taylor asked almost incredulously. “Like I want to follow them!”
You want to find out what the hell is going on, right?
“Yeah, of course I do.”
Then follow them. It’s probably your best chance of getting anything resembling answers.
He let out a sigh that was just barely shy of frustrated. Meredith was right – he wasn’t going to get the answers he was looking for, or at the very least something that resembled them, if he didn’t keep on going deeper into the mountain. And that meant following those creatures.
“Okay. Fine.” His helmet went back on, and out of nothing more than instinct he pulled the faceplate down and locked it into place. “This is a bad idea, just so you know.”
Yes, Taylor, I know.
“Those…creatures – it feels so weird saying that, definitely not a word I thought I’d be using on this moon – anyway, they went running toward the light. So I guess that’s where I’m going.”
Be careful. Please.
Taylor cracked a small smile. “I will.”
“What makes zero sense?” Meredith asked without looking up from one of her class readings. She had worked out how to turn on text-to-speech for the Lifeline app (though it wasn’t something she would use outside of her dorm room) – while she knew that the voice she had picked for Taylor’s messages likely sounded nothing like her friend’s did, she had figured that it was a close enough approximation. It also gave her something to focus on other than assignments for class – with the semester quickly winding down, anything that let her brain take even just the shortest of breaks was a welcome distraction.
I’ve got light again. Not much of it, but still.
“But that’s a good thing, right?”
Normally I’d agree with you, but...why the hell would it get BRIGHTER the deeper you go inside a mountain? There’s just no way that even remotely makes sense.
He was quiet for a little while, and Meredith went back to her reading. She had just highlighted a particularly interesting paragraph when her phone chimed at her and started reading out a new message from Taylor.
Unless there were, I don’t know...ELECTRIC LIGHTS in here? What the actual FUCK?
Meredith almost dropped her tablet on the floor. “Are you shitting me right now?”
No, I am absolutely not. They’re those old fluorescent light strip thingies. This is...I’m not sure I can even describe this to you. What I wouldn’t give for a working helmet cam right now. The voice that was currently reading out Taylor’s messages didn’t convey emotion, but Meredith could just about see Taylor giving her a rueful smile. I-I don’t know what I was expecting to find when I got here, but it sure as hell wasn’t this!
“You’re going to have to describe it to me somehow,” Meredith reminded him. “I’m only getting text from you, remember?”
Okay. I’ll do my best. He went quiet, and Meredith was sure she could see him running his hands through his hair as he tried to figure out how to describe what he was seeing. I’m standing in a room – in the interior of a mountain, let’s not forget here. It’s...the best way I can describe it is that it’s a sort of control room. I dunno what exactly it’s controlling, but...I can tell you right now that there’s really no answer to that question that will make either of us feel any better about this whole thing.
“Maybe it’s monitoring something?” Meredith suggested. “Rather than controlling.”
Maybe, yeah. Because there’s all these computer systems in banks along the walls. FUNCTIONING computer systems.
Meredith almost dropped her tablet on the floor. “That should not be possible.”
I KNOW it shouldn’t be possible, and yet here we are. There’s even brand names I recognise. It’s a kind of mix-and-match patchwork of monitors and CPUs, and there’s even a couple of chairs in front of the computers. Whoever it was that put all this together, they went and poked around in some old starship flight deck and built a fucking workstation. ON A FREAKING MOON.
“Where did they find all of that?”
My best guess? Other ships, whether they crashed here or elsewhere. There was a short pause. Yeah, this is all definitely salvaged parts from ships. All the computers, the chained-together generators, the wiring...
Here he trailed off a little. Oh yeah. That’s the other thing. The wiring.
“What about it?”
Just...there’s TONNES of it. It’s all bunched up into a massive bundle, and it all leads out of the computer banks and up through a hole in the ceiling. No idea where it goes from there, because that hole is just barely big enough for that bundle of wires to fit through, and I don’t have anything that I could pick away at the ceiling with. And I don’t have any way of getting up that high, anyway.
Meredith almost told him to climb up on the workstation to try and reach the wiring, or even try to build something to stand on, but at the very last moment thought better of it. “Check out the computers,” she suggested instead.
All right. Gimme a sec.
Seconds stretched out into minutes. Meredith was about to ask if he was okay when a new message popped up on screen.
This...this is incredible.
“What is?”
This screen I’m looking at. It’s displaying a topographical map of this general area. Bit pixelated, and it’s all in green and black, but it’s pretty obvious what I’m looking at. And it’s centred on this peak, inside the giant crater that I just hiked halfway across. I can zoom out and scroll, so if I go...yep, there’s the wreck of the caravel. It shows up as this bright, broken spot against the moonscape.
“Try and find the Varia,” Meredith suggested.
On it. Panning to the south, past the crater and the canyon…and there’s the Varia. Two bright pieces, glowing back at me from the screen.
Here, Meredith could almost see Taylor shaking his head in disbelief. This is surreal. Where are these images even COMING from? Is there some sort of satellite up there in space? Like, a whole NETWORK of them?
“And if there is, how much of the moon is the satellite covering?”
Yeah, exactly. If I keep scrolling, will I – oh my God.
“What? What is it?”
There...there’s another bright green block. Southwest of the Varia crash site. And...oh no. There’s another one.
At these words, the sinking feeling that Meredith had felt disturbingly often over the past few days returned with a vengeance. “Please don’t tell me there’s more of them.”
Okay. I won’t.
“Sweet Jesus.”
I zoomed out as far as it would go, and...Mere, there’s DOZENS. Dozens of shipwrecks on this moon. I just...how? How is this even POSSIBLE?
“How many are we talking here?”
I lost count at thirty. And I still haven’t had a look at the whole surface of this fucking moon yet. Jesus Christ. How many ships have been downed here? And how the hell have we not heard anything about it in the news? This moon is like the fucking Bermuda Triangle of outer space!
“I honestly don’t know, Tay. I wish I did. Anything else interesting?”
Yeah, there’s a couple of other monitors. One nearest me is idle.
“We’re both probably going to regret this, but…” Meredith took a deep, steadying breath. “Wake it up.”
This keeps getting weirder and weirder.
“You’re telling me. I’m gonna go with ‘English’, since it’s right there at the top. And it’s what I speak.”
What’s it saying?
For a few moments, Taylor wasn’t sure how to answer. “I should probably type it,” he replied at last. “It probably won’t make much sense otherwise.” Without really thinking about it, he unlatched his right glove from the right wrist of his IEVA suit, worked his hand out of it and shook his fingers out a few times before quickly typing the words on the monitor into his wrist communicator.
[
ALL SYSTEMS: OPERATIONAL ]
[ BROADCASTING ]
[ TIME TO PULSE: ]
[ BROADCASTING ]
[ TIME TO PULSE: ]
“And then there’s a sequence of numbers moving so quickly that I can’t read them,” he added as he pulled his glove back on and latched it back into place. “Whatever the ‘TIME TO PULSE’ thing means, this monitor is counting down to it. I can’t tell you that it fills me with any measure of confidence.”
Me neither.
“Monitor next to this one is idle too – I’m gonna wake it up.” Another tap of a spacebar, this time on the monitor on the right-hand side of the one counting down, brought up a familiar-looking screen. “This one looks a lot like the proximity alarm I set up back at the caravel. I think it’s a slightly different model, though – different bells and whistles. But I definitely know what I’m looking at, so that’s somewhat reassuring.”
Is it working?
“Yeah, it is actually. Which-”
And here he broke off, barely able to believe what he was seeing. “No. No way.”
What are you looking at?
“On the screen of the proximity alarm, there’s, um…” He swallowed hard. “There’s something moving.”
What the actual FUCK?
“I’m not kidding. There’s something outside, moving toward the peak.” A chill settled over him. “Moving toward me.”
What does it look like?
“I-I know I said this already and dismissed it completely. But I’m absolutely certain this time.” He lifted the faceplate of his helmet and scrubbed a gloved hand over his face. “It’s human-shaped.”
How is that even possible?
“How is any of this possible? How am I in a computer control room in the centre of a mountain on a moon littered with wrecked spaceships? None of what’s happening to me makes any sense, but it’s happening. That is a person. And that person is coming here.”
Stay right where you are. I don’t like this one bit.
“Yeah. That might be the best plan. Give myself a little while to mentally prepare for this.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “As if there were any way to mentally prepare for this. Because there’s absolutely no doubt, they’re heading right for where I am.”
And then what?
“I don’t know.” He shifted a little in his seat, wishing it was a little more comfortable. “Am I rescued?”
I hope so.
“Yeah, me too.” He tucked his hands under his knees and studied the proximity alarm. “I’ve got some time until they get here. Might as well see what else I can do with these computers, hey?”
Sure, see what’s what.
“Okay, let’s see what we have here…” He made a show of cracking his knuckles and turned his attention to the monitor that sat to his left. “Oh man, I might’ve just hit paydirt,” he said once he’d woken it up and realised just what he was looking at. “This one’s a sector-wide scanner.” His gaze tracked upward from the monitor to the bundle of wires that led up through the ceiling. “It’s also the one that the majority of the wires seem to be coming out of.”
What do you think it is?
“I think those wires are a broadcasting antenna. So that means that this peak, this whole structure…it’s gotta be some sort of broadcasting tower. One that’s seated right at the centre of an enormous crater that…I don’t know, maybe it’s a sort of parabolic reflector?”
It’s a satellite dish.
Taylor nodded, even though he knew Meredith couldn’t see him. “It’s a satellite dish! An absolutely massive one, at least five miles across. I’d go looking for the premium cable channels if it weren’t for the fact that my mind is melting right now.”
So if it’s broadcasting...
“And it is, and I have access to the broadcasting centre – which I do – then every second I’m not sending out an SOS is a second I’m wasting. Gimme a minute to see if I can dig into things.”
He didn’t waste another moment. The second he finished speaking he muted his communicator and started typing away at the keyboard of the broadcast monitor, fingers flying over its keys like they were possessed. Somehow he managed to hit on the keyboard shortcut that interrupted the feed, and typed out a quick SOS message.
MAYDAY. MAYDAY. MAYDAY. STARSHIP VARIA CRASHED ON UNKNOWN MOON. TWO SURVIVORS, ONE CRITICALLY INJURED – CAPTAIN RENEE AYA AND CADET TAYLOR HANSON.
“Why don’t I know what SOS is in anything other than English?” he asked himself as he read his message one last time. “Guess I’d better hope that’s what they speak.” He hit the Enter key to send his message, then the keyboard shortcut that had let him break into the feed. The scanner display came back onscreen almost as soon as he lifted his hands off the keyboard.
“I did it!” he cheered triumphantly once he had unmuted his communicator. “I managed to interrupt the feed and send an SOS, then I got the feed broadcasting again. If anyone stumbles through this sector – or hell, maybe even just brushes up against it, I don’t know how powerful the signal is – they’ll know that I’m here. Even if I’m not totally sure where ‘here’ is.”
He let out an almost-relieved laugh. “This is great, Mere. In spite of all this weirdness, I actually have hope for the first-”
With those words, the bottom fell right out of the world – and Taylor fell right along with it.
[
communication interrupted ]
[ date/time stamp invalid ]
[ searching… ]
[ date/time stamp invalid ]
[ searching… ]
The terror that Meredith felt when she lost contact with Taylor was all-encompassing. The cold knot of fear that she had felt right before she had found out the truth about what had happened to her friend returned in full measure, and she found herself praying to any deity that would listen that Taylor was okay.
Almost as soon as he dropped out of contact, her prayers were answered.
[
reacquiring signal ]
[ establishing connection ]
[ receiving message ]
[ establishing connection ]
[ receiving message ]
-is happening? Hello? HELLO?
“Tay, it’s okay,” Meredith reassured Taylor. “I’m here.”
Oh thank goodness. You have no idea how glad I am to hear that. Or read. Whatever. Because for a minute there, you weren’t. Or maybe I wasn’t.
“It was like ten seconds on my side.”
It felt a whole lot longer than that for me. I don’t know what that looked like for you, but from where I’m standing – okay, let’s be honest, from where I’m crumpled into a nervous heap on one of these salvaged command deck chairs – there was this weird sort of humming noise that was sudden and fucking EVERYWHERE, and my vision started to go a little swimmy. I had just enough time to look at the monitors, and I saw that the countdown was all zeroed out. And then it was like the whole world just...fell apart.
“Jesus,” Meredith whispered.
It was like everything moved away from me and I moved away from it, simultaneously and instantaneously. And before I even knew it was happening, it was over. Everything was back to normal – and believe me, I use that word VERY loosely.
Here, Meredith was sure she could see Taylor scrubbing a hand across his face. I think I just experienced what happened when I was outside the peak, and it shimmered and disappeared – except this time, I was INSIDE the peak. And I shimmered and disappeared along with it.
“Do you feel okay?”
I...guess so? Like I said, it happened so fast. I didn’t really have time to react. If I stopped to consider what just happened to me, I’d probably end up with motion sickness. There was a pause, almost as if Taylor was considering this. Can you even GET motion sickness from shifting out of phase with reality?
“I have no idea, and I really don’t ever want to find out.”
I do NOT blame you. Another pause. My communicator has an ‘invalid date slash time stamp’ message. So what date and time WAS it reading? This is…it’s freaky as fuck.
“Yeah, no kidding.”
Oh, hey, I’ve got some news to report. Not entirely sure where it lands on the whole ‘good news bad news’ spectrum, though.
“Lay it on me,” Meredith said. Almost out of reflex, she braced herself – if the last couple of days had taught her anything, when Taylor said that he had news it was rarely anything that could be considered good.
Okay, well, I’m not exactly sure what to make of this. Best case scenario? I’m about to get really, REALLY rescued. Because where there used to be one human shape approaching my location...well, now there’s four.
“Stay right where you are,” Meredith said immediately, echoing her earlier words.
Yeah, absolutely. I am DEFINITELY gonna stay here. If this IS a rescue team, and I’m really hoping that’s what it is, I can wait a few extra minutes to get rescued. I’ve made it this far already. And if it’s stragglers from another downed ship...they might be crazed from wandering through the desert for days, or maybe even weeks. I mean, I’ve only been wandering since, what, day before yesterday, and I think I’m about half-crazed myself.
“I think you’re about as sane as I am.”
Thanks. I think.
“Seriously. My mom had me tested.”
Meredith could almost hear Taylor burst out laughing at this. I needed that. Thank you.
“No problem.”
Anyway, if they’re stranded like me, I figure I’d rather wait and see how they react to this place. Make sure they know I’m a stranger here too.
A thought popped into Meredith’s head just then – one that she hadn’t even wanted to consider. “And what if it’s neither? What if they’re not rescuers or survivors?”
Then I sure as hell don’t want to deliver myself into their arms.
“Excellent logic, I’d say.”
I thought so. I’ve got absolutely not precedent for this kind of situation, as I imagine most people don’t, so it’s reassuring to see someone else telling me that what I’m saying isn’t complete nonsense.
There was more quiet after this, almost as if Taylor was intent on studying the monitors before him. Here’s the thing, though, he continued at last. As weird as it sounds, I can’t shake the possibility that these humans could be...well, NOT human. Like they’re some sort of native creature that sees me as a threat. Or worse, as a meal. Almost as an afterthought, he added, Not that I’d make much of a meal. I was skinny as hell before I went on this mission, and I’m probably even skinnier now.
“I’d really rather not think about you getting eaten, thanks.”
Sorry. It’s totally unrealistic, though – even I know that. This moon hasn’t exactly given me much reason to believe it can support life. I haven’t seen any evidence of water – no rivers, no ponds, no clouds. And no vegetation either.
“Breathable air, though.”
There is that, he conceded. The atmosphere IS breathable – for me, at any rate. Primarily nitrogen, according to my suit, but there’s enough oxygen that my brain and my lungs are happy, and I don’t have to rely on my suit’s oxygen tank to breathe. And there’s next to zero carbon dioxide, so that’s good.
“What about those creatures you keep seeing though?”
I didn’t imagine those either. I KNOW I didn’t. But they were small. Like, inches and ounces small. Whatever’s approaching the peak right now...they’re as big as I am.
“They might still be people,” Meredith offered hopefully.
But on the other hand, they might not be. And that’s what’s keeping me from rushing out there with open arms.
Meredith could almost hear Taylor letting out a sigh after this. I’m just gonna settle in and get comfortable. Or as comfortable as I can get, because right now I am about as unsettled and uncomfortable as I have ever been in my life.
“Keep me updated, yeah?”
Always, Mere.
The second she had fully registered what it said, she quickly pressed a button on her wrist communicator. “Captain?”
“Yes, Mari?”
Mari looked back at the transceiver just briefly. “We just received a message. I think you should get up here.”
“On my way.”
It didn’t take long for the captain to make her way up to the cockpit. “What do you have for me, Mari?” Elaina asked as she settled into her usual seat next to Mari.
“Do you remember the ship that went missing two years ago? The Varia?”
“Of course.” Everyone in the Jupiter Mining Corporation knew about the Varia – about the mystery surrounding its disappearance just five weeks into its journey, with the loss of all crew members. The whole solar system knew about it.
Without another word, Mari gestured to the transceiver’s screen and its message, and the captain leaned forward to read it. “Where exactly did this come from?” she asked as she scanned the message.
“Coordinates place it somewhere in the region of Tau Ceti VI.”
“Which is where the Varia was headed when it vanished,” Elaina realised. “He’s been there all this time?”
“Seems that way,” Mari replied with a slight shrug.
Elaina considered the message for a few moments. “How are we doing for supplies?”
Instead of answering right away, Mari set her fingers to flying across the keyboard of one of the cockpit’s other computers. “Things will be tight until we get back home,” she replied finally, “but we can spare it.”
“All I need to know.” Elaina reached over and clapped Mari on the shoulder. “All right, Mari. Let’s go rescue him.”