by Drew Cordell
“It’s incredible,” Jess said, slowing the ship further so Vinny and Chelsea could get their scans and send the data to the Delver.
“No power. The base isn’t responding to my pings, and I’m still not getting anything from the satellites either,” Chelsea said, trying to get a reading from the base. The beacons on Lunar Base Alpha were dead like everything else, and there was nothing she could do. Vinny completed the visual scans, but they still had no idea what the inside of the bases looked like or what was waiting for them. The last thought sent a chill down her spine, and Chelsea suppressed a shiver, instead focusing on the task at hand.
“You want me to make another pass?” Jess asked.
“Negative,” Chelsea and Vinny responded in unison. The structure of the base looked intact, and if the signal beacons weren’t working, then there was nothing another visual pass would accomplish. “Let’s keep going and see if we can get some feedback from the beacons on the other bases,” Vinny said.
“Copy,” Jess replied, adjusting the Hopper and punching the thrusters toward the second base. Alpha, Beta, and Charlie, and Delta were on the light side of the Moon, and Echo was built on the dark side of the Moon. While it wasn’t always dark, Captain Wallace had briefed them on the nature of the Phantom broadcast and the fact that it had non-encrypted location data that mentioned Lunar Base Echo. Chelsea knew Lunar Base Echo had been built to better scan the reaches of the space without interference from Earth. The region of the Moon where the base was located was never visible from Earth and was therefore the ideal site for the base which functioned as the primary research and communication hub for the rest of the galaxy. Chelsea knew they’d probably have to scout it out to make sure it was safe since it was specifically mentioned in the Phantom broadcast, but she didn’t want to.
Jess pulled Chelsea out of her thoughts. “Coming up on Beta, slowing her down.”
Vinny passed the optical scan data to Chelsea, and it looked more or less the same as the first base. This region of the Moon was still in its lunar day phase, and because of that, Chelsea knew that it would be a lot harder to get visual data on Lunar Base Echo which was currently in its night cycle. Chelsea passed the data to the Delver without a problem, and they moved on to Lunar Base Charlie. Charlie and Delta were just as intact and lifeless as the others, and they proceeded to run a visual scan on Echo. The trip to Echo took considerably longer, and they needed to conserve as much fuel as possible in case they weren’t able to make more at any of the bases. Chelsea looked back to check on Nick and saw he was asleep in his chair, barely illuminated by the faint glow of surrounding electronics in the cabin. They had passed into the opposite region of the Moon, and day had slowly faded to night. Now, they flew in almost pitch black, relying on the ship’s sensors to display their altitude and location in relation to where Lunar Base Echo should have been.
“Everyone holding up alright?” Jess asked, breaking the silence.
“Fine here, Nick fell asleep in the back, but I’ll wake him if anything interesting happens,” Chelsea said.
“I’m good, just studying the maps and records of the tech we had on Echo before they went dark,” Vinny replied.
After some time, Jess talked again, coaxing the Hopper down closer toward the surface. “Coming up on Echo, get those scanners ready.”
“IR thermal mapping and auxiliary scans ready to go,” Vinny said. “Do we still have comms with the Delver?”
“Crystal clear, ready to patch the scans through,” Chelsea responded. Nick was still asleep, and since there was nothing to see other than the scan data, she didn’t bother waking him up.
“What the hell?” Vinny said as the scan came through. “Look at this; it’s changed.”
Vinny passed the data over to Chelsea, and she pulled up the old images of the base before it went dark. While she couldn’t see the fine details with the scan, the overall structure had changed. It was bigger now, and there seemed to be additional modules that hadn’t been there before. “Survivors?” she asked.
“Looks like it,” Jess said, slowing the ship further and putting it into a slow stall so they could keep scanning.
“Not reading any power signatures from my scans, and I’m not able to get an internal temperature reading. Can’t tell if the inside is still pressurized either. Anything from the beacons?” Vinny asked.
“Nothing on my side either. It looks like someone built on this base, though. If there were survivors, it looks like they came here,” Chelsea said, still looking over the scans and trying to make sense of the structures. It didn’t look like patchwork engineering, but then again, she wasn’t an expert. There were covered domes, extra storage modules, living quarters, and more, all pieced together to more than double the original size of the base. People had lived here, but she wondered how all these modules were here when the rest of the bases looked intact. Had she missed something on the previous scans? She didn’t think so, but no one on the ISS had recorded another launch from Earth since 2039, and the only other place the modules could have come from was the Martian bases.
“We didn’t miss anything on the other visual checks, did we? All those bases looked intact, right?” she asked.
Vinny passed more data over to Chelsea. “I was just thinking the same thing. These are the only five bases on the Moon, so these modules must have come from Mars. That means something went wrong there as well, and they were forced to relocate here. They never communicated that information with us, and if they were here, it makes sense why we weren’t able to communicate with them. This side of the Moon is completely isolated from radio waves coming from Earth.”
“You think there are survivors?” Jess asked.
“I don’t know, but if there are, they’ll be here. I can’t understand how the Phantom broadcast from Earth would reach this base, though.”
“From what I understand, the broadcast only had a mention of this base, and without parsing the quantum code, there’s no way to know what the mention is about. In all likelihood, that information isn’t coming here because of the whole radio isolation issue,” Jess said.
“USS Hopper, picking up your signal. Please help us,” a weak voice crackled over comms. The signature displayed it was coming from Lunar Base Echo.
“Delver, are you reading this?” Chelsea asked.
“Loud and clear, we’re right behind you. Land and provide assistance, but be prepared for anything and leave if something doesn’t feel right,” Reggie responded. His voice was distorted, and it seemed like something was interfering with the radio signal.
“Landing now, Delver,” Jess said, moving the Hopper toward one of the landing pads on the base.
15
“What are they doing?” Reggie asked Monica, watching the Hopper descend in the blue light of the screen displaying the IR scan feed.
“It looks like they’re landing,” Monica said. “Do you think something is wrong with the Hopper?”
“Something must be broken if they’re landing, I gave clear instructions to wait for us to land. Radio comms are still down?” he asked.
“Yeah, I haven’t been able to reach them for about thirty minutes now.”
Something felt off. They had a clear line of sight with the Hopper from their position orbiting the Moon, and Reggie couldn’t understand what could be causing the interference. Maybe the issues of the Hopper extended to the onboard communication systems. In any case, Reggie needed to make a decision quickly.
“Jason, how long will it take us to get to Lunar Base Echo?” Reggie asked the rookie pilot.
“About thirty minutes, cap.”
“Take us down. Monica, keep working on trying to restore radio and keep them in our line of sight.”
“Yessir,” Monica said.
Reggie flipped up the internal comm switch and spoke to the remaining crew. “Op team, prepare for scouting Lunar Base Echo. The mission timeline has been pushed up. We’re thirty minutes out and need to go in and rescue the Hopper.
They’re landing on the base, and we think there is something wrong with their ship. Gear up in full vacuum suits with rifles and handguns. Engineering team, bring equipment to assess the state of the compound.”
16
Jess powered down the engines and pulled extended the airlock joystick while Chelsea and Vinny made sure Nick’s helmet was on securely. Jess coaxed the airlock into position manually and sealed it. While Lunar Base Echo didn’t have power, the airlock seal allowed Jess to transfer some power from the Hopper to the door itself, enabling her to check the diagnostics and assess the basic state of the interior of the base.
“No atmosphere inside, but there also isn’t any radiation. The reactor seems intact,” Jess reported, reading the data from the airlock. “Helmets on tight.”
“That reading could just be for this room. Every door in these bases is designed to provide a perfect pressure seal. Nothing from any of the survivors or the Delver?” Vinny asked.
“Negative,” Chelsea and Jess responded in unison.
Vinny adjusted his engineering tools in his backpack before throwing it over his shoulder. “Okay, it looks like the Delver is heading toward us as well, but we don’t have time to wait for them, apparently.”
“Lunar Base Echo, this is Sergeant Jessica Li of the USS Delver, commanding officer of the USS Hopper which now docked with your base. We’re coming in to provide assistance, please respond,” Jess said, waiting several seconds through the static crackle for anything other than silence. There was nothing.
“Keep your safety on,” Jess said, drawing her handgun and activating the bright flashlight on the bottom of the gun’s frame. Vinny and Chelsea activated their lights, grabbed the last of their equipment including a pack containing rations and medical supplies, and positioned themselves in front of the airlock.
“Got it. Nick, stay behind us, buddy, and if anything goes wrong, run to the Hopper as fast as you can and hide in the maintenance bay like I showed you,” Vinny said. Nick nodded and twisted his flashlight on.
Jess checked to make sure everyone was ready, and punched the button on the airlock, sealing them in the intermittent chamber between the Hopper’s atmosphere and the base. The pressure drained, and the door of the lunar base slid open with a sharp vibration that rocked through Jess’ heavy boots.
The inside of the base was dark and looked to be covered in a thin layer of frost. Their flashlight beams scanned the small hallway, searching for anything out of the ordinary. All the computer consoles in the hall and by the airlock they had come from were dead and covered in ice.
“Water leak before they lost atmosphere, it explains the ice,” Vinny said, pointing to a broken pipe on the ceiling.
They continued forward slowly, their boots somehow providing traction on the slick surface. Jess still wasn’t used to the Moon’s gravity, and her movements felt clumsy. The group approached the first door and found it locked in place.
“I’m not reading any radiation on the other side either, but there isn’t any pressure.”
“... USS Hopper, we can hear you. Please help,” the voice said, crackling off quickly again.
“We’re making our way through the base; where are you?” Jess asked. Again, there was no response.
“How can they hear us?” Chelsea asked.
“They could have their helmets up against the walls; the vibrations would travel through them,” Vinny offered, finishing up what he was doing with the second door.
Jess and Chelsea raised their weapons as the door slid open and revealed an empty mess hall. There was no ice in this room, but empty packages of food and water were strewn all over the place, and it didn’t look like anyone had been in here for a long time as a thin layer of dust rested on the surface of the sleek tables. They passed through the small mess hall toward the back where another door waited.
Jess tensed when her flashlight beam caught the door in the back. The top right corner was warped and bent downward at an unnatural angle, and there was a series of thick slashes that had cut deep into the metal on the face of the door. “What do you think caused that?”
“No idea, but it doesn’t look good. Let’s be cautious,” Vinny said.
They approached the door, and Vinny pulled it open with ease. Jess’ weapon light caught a figure standing in the hallway about twenty feet away wearing an EVA suit with an old helmet. The person in the suit was just standing there as if anchored to the floor of the base. The helmet they wore obscured their face and reflected the beam of their lights in a gold shimmer. Jess knew there was someone in the suit because the suit was fleshed out and wasn’t limp like it would be if it were empty.
Jess swore and kept her weapon trained on it, trying to communicate with them.
“Hello? Is your radio working?” Jess asked, her heart pounding in her chest. The figure remained motionless as if appraising them.
“I’m stuck,” a static voice replied, but there was no way to tell it was coming from the person in the EVA suit in front of them.
Vinny had moved in front of Nick, and it was clear he was feeling uneasy as well. Something felt wrong about this, and Jess wanted nothing more than to return to the Hopper and wait for the rest the Delver to arrive and provide backup. She was being silly, and she knew it. There hadn’t been a launch from Earth since 2039, and she knew there couldn’t be anything on this base other than survivors that were just like her. Still, what could have bent the frame of a door like that?
17
Vinny and Jess approached the person in the EVA suit while Chelsea stayed back with Nick. Vinny was on edge, but he knew he had to help this man.
“We’re taking precautions and have our weapons trained on you just in case. Please refrain from any sudden movements and keep still while we check your suit. Also, please lower your helmet’s solar shield,” Jess commanded.
“It’s stuck in place, and I can’t move,” the voice replied.
“You previously referred to yourself as us, are there other survivors on the base?” Jess asked.
“Yes, they’re a few rooms out, help me with this suit, and I’ll take you to them.”
Vinny and Jess moved to the man in the EVA suit, and Jess stood guard while Vinny checked the suit and pulled up a private radio connection with Chelsea, Nick, and Jess. “Air is good and at the halfway point. His suit’s battery is running on fumes, and it looks like there is something wrong with the joint locks. That explains why he can’t move.”
Vinny coupled the man’s battery on his suit to the spare he kept in his pack and ran a diagnostic scan. The suit had been powered on for twelve days. Even with the food and water stored inside the suit, it was a stretch for anyone to survive that long. It didn’t add up either. EVA suits didn’t have twelve days’ worth of air, and the mechanical gauge on his suit displayed that it was still half full.
“Either there’s something wrong with the OS on his suit, or something is very wrong here. Trying to get that visor down,” Vinny said over the private connection with his team. He managed to get the computer on the suit to respond and flipped the solar visor down.
“Shit!” Vinny screamed. The face in the helmet was frozen and shrunken in, the skin purple and papery underneath a layer of frost. Vinny frantically pushed the body away and raised his weapon. Jess screeched and clicked off the safety of her gun before scanning behind where the body had been standing. Vinny hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a slash on the back of the EVA suit, right under the air tank that was strapped to the back of the body. Something was horribly wrong, and they needed to get off this base now and warn the Delver it was a trap. Something wanted them to come here, and Vinny suspected something sinister was still lurking on the base. It was only a matter of time until it found them.
When they turned around, there was a large mechanical figure standing in the hallway, walking toward them in huge bounds as its metal feet crunched on the plas-mesh floor heavily. It wasn’t human, and it also wasn’t wearing a spacesuit. As it mov
ed forward, its eyes erupted into brilliant cyan halos, illuminating the space in front of the robot in bright light. It extended one of its arms to the side. The robot was holding something, but Vinny couldn’t make out what it was.
Suddenly, the edge of what must have been a sword ignited in a blinding blue burn.
“Go the other way!” Vinny yelled at the others, pulling himself out of the shock. He needed to get the others away from the monstrosity walking toward them. Bracing his back against a support beam in the hall, Vinny fired off several rounds from his gun with Chelsea and Jess. The bullets weren’t meant to pierce the interior hull of spacecraft, and it came as no surprise that the low-caliber handguns struggled to damage the metal chassis of the robot walking toward them.
The rounds only seemed to slow the robot at best, but Vinny had another plan. He checked the ammo count on the side of his gun: two rounds left. Kicking off the wall, Vinny launched himself into a dive toward the body in the EVA suit behind them. Fumbling with the latches and valve shutoff, Vinny disconnected the air tank and wrapped it under his arm before turning back toward the approaching robot.
“Get out of the way!” Vinny shouted, saying a silent prayer and trying to line up the back of the tank with the robot. As soon as Jess and Chelsea were out of the way, he placed the barrel of his gun on the main valve of the tank and pulled the trigger. The shot damaged the valve enough so that the internal pressure could blow it off completely. The makeshift missile rocketed through the air toward the robot in a frenzied spiral. It tried to move out of the way but was caught right in the center of its chest. The robot and the air tank were hurled toward the back of the base, and loud, crashing vibrations told Vinny that the robot had come to rest somewhere out of their vision. Their weapons weren’t doing much, and while the tank had been effective, he didn’t think the robot was destroyed. He still had no idea if there were more of those things on the base with them.
