by Rick Chesler
Both astronauts stared at him as though they had witnessed a dog speak English. Dallas recovered first. “Mr. Burton has a point.”
Caitlin pointed through the ship walls to the Black Sky LEM. “They have a relatively small leak, though—one that over days leaked a substantial amount of oxygen, but you’re talking about suddenly releasing the entire volume of air in the ship? That’ll be like ringing a dinner bell. I can’t say for sure how many of these things will be attracted to that and how aggressive they’re likely to be.”
Dallas withdrew his hand from the first of the switches necessary to begin the venting process. “I’ll leave it up to you, Caitlin.”
James’ eyes widened as he looked from Dallas to Caitlin, who walked up to the switch. “I suppose once we get over there, we’re going to need every edge we can get. Give me a three minute head start to get out to the rover and get it started up.”
Dallas consulted his wristwatch while she made her way to the airlock. After an uncomfortable three minutes during which James Burton made frequent eye contact with him through their faceplates but said nothing, Dallas’ hands got busy on the control console. He executed the series of actions required to open the valve that vented the LEM’s cabin air supply to space, flooding the moon with gasses the barren world would ordinarily never be exposed to.
A red flashing light went off and Dallas stood. “Party’s over here. Let’s get over to our new home on the moon, shall we?” With that, he and James exited the craft. With a last look at Martin’s lifeless body—soon to be worm food, Dallas reflected—they moved quickly to the rover, where Caitlin waited at the controls as promised. Dallas took the front passenger seat while James climbed in back.
Caitlin put the buggy into gear. “Fasten your seatbelts, boys. I have a feeling this is gonna be one helluva ride.”
38| Fight
They didn’t speak much in the rover. Caitlin was focused on driving and following her own rover tracks back to Black Sky’s LEM while Dallas and James obsessively monitored the landscape for signs of the creatures, knowing they had baited them with oxygen. They had gone almost halfway and still seen nothing out of the ordinary. But Just as Dallas was about to question the effectiveness of the deliberate air-leak, Caitlin slowed the rover gradually until she came to a complete stop.
“What’s up?” James said from the back seat, looking all about. Caitlin pointed straight ahead. “Ground’s moving up ahead. See that?”
Ripples of motion stirred the lunar floor in the distance.
“Still pretty far away,” Dallas commented.
Caitlin nodded. “Could mean they’re big ones. Really big.”
“Can we go around them?” James asked, a quiver of fear in his voice.
“I can try. No point just sitting around waiting for them to get to us.” Caitlin put the rover back into gear and angled left, taking them off the path they had been on. She drove without mishap until reaching the area where they’d sighted the disturbance. Although they were off to the left of it, immediately they could see that the upheaval was occurring over a very large area, and not simply in “the road” they had chosen based on the rover’s previous tracks.
“They’re here, too,” she said, slowing the rover.
James’ voice made her jump. “There’s one behind us! Go!”
Caitlin glanced into the rear view mirror and saw one of the gargantuan slug-like beasts burrowing into the ground, then rising out of it again, porpoising through the soil like a dolphin in slow motion. She set the vehicle into forward motion again, knowing that not far in front of them was an entire underground wall of the frenzied alien animals.
And then James yelled again, something unintelligible this time, but it mattered little what he actually said. She looked back through the mirror and saw the massive worm animal jump through the airless void as if attempting to land on the moon buggy. She made a sharp right and the creature landed where the rover had been mere seconds earlier, thudding into the ground with a spray of gray dust.
“Watch it: one o’clock.” Dallas’ voice was calm and low. Caitlin eyeballed the direction he indicated and there—perhaps forty feet away—another humongous worm-thing reared up out of the soil. Dozens of little ones wriggled around its fleshy, waddling base, like drops of water into a lake. Caitlin veered left, wishing to steer well-clear of that one. But as soon as she did, a barrier of medium-sized animals cropped up, perhaps the size of bean bags. They rolled along, easily as high as the rover and in some cases piled two or three individuals high.
She veered back to the right, but the sudden maneuvering caused the rover to fishtail, and when she hit the hippo-sized worm that suddenly breached out of the soil, the vehicle was already unstable. The beast pushed up and out of the ground beneath the left front wheel, flipping the moon buggy onto its side.
The web harnesses kept the vehicle’s occupants inside the rover, which was good since the moon buggy was ringed with snuffling worms of various sizes. Dallas was first to unhook his harness and scramble out of the car. James managed to crawl out on his own, but Caitlin was suspended in the driver seat, which was on the side not in contact with the ground.
She got her harness unclipped and Dallas began pulling her out through the upended side of the vehicle, rather than let her fall to the ground and risk damaging her suit.
“Hurry!” James sounded panicked. “They’re all around us!”
Caitlin lifted one leg out through the doorless vehicle, then the other, and Dallas set her onto the moon feet first. Then both of them turned around to see what they were facing.
It wasn’t good.
A thick ring of animals surrounded the upturned rover, with a few creatures already inside the ring.
“Look for gaps!” Dallas commanded, head on a swivel as he scanned the perimeter of animals for a weak point. He’d looked almost all the way around when he spotted small one. Maybe a two-foot gap, but it was the weakest point. “Let’s go. There!”
He led the three of them toward the opening but the animals closed it off before they had even gone four steps. He looked around the circle again for another opening. Found one, even smaller than the last time, in the opposite direction on the other side of the rover.
“We could tip the rover back and try to drive out!” Caitlin suggested.
James was all for that suggestion, already putting his hands on the vehicle while bracing his feet against the moon.
“I’m afraid to turn my back to these things!” Dallas uttered. “See if you two can right it while I keep an eye on them.”
Caitlin got into position alongside James on the other end of the rover. Together, they started to push. Even in the weak gravity of the moon, the rover was still a small car and not all that light for two people to lift. While they pushed it, a worm the same height as a medium sized dog, but much longer, rolled sideways toward Dallas, its gristly proboscis opening and closing as it went.
Dallas was caught by surprise at how fast it moved. He attempted a high jump as it rolled up to him, and while his right foot cleared the worm, his left tripped up on its upper surface, knocking him onto the creature’s fleshy topside.
“Need help!” Dallas managed as he fell off the worm while it rolled on without him. Caitlin turned to look back at Dallas and she lost her grip on the rover, causing it to knock into her and James.
“Watch it!” the FAA man shouted. “Push up!” But the momentum was too much and the car fell back on them, upside down. Meanwhile, Dallas rolled off the worm he landed on, sprawling onto the moon’s flat surface. He moved to right himself but the creatures converged on him, smothering him while he was still on his hands and knees.
“Caitlin!”
But it was James Burton who reached him first. He lashed out with a foot, delivering a vicious kick to a large animal slithering over Dallas’ neck. The creature recoiled, its reactive wriggling atop Dallas’ back flattening the astronaut to the ground. Then Caitlin arrived and delivered another kick to
the same worm, this time causing it to slither away from Dallas.
Burton whirled back around and ran to the rover, trying to right it himself. “They’re closing in! C’mon, let’s get this thing going!”
Caitlin was about to help him when the ground opened up right in front of her. Dallas was in the process of pushing up with his arms to get his feet, when suddenly he fell into the open, gooey maw of a strange worm. While substantial, it was not nearly as big as the one that had integrated Suzette to its physiology, nor even as large as the one that had consumed Asami. It was about twice as thick as a human, but Caitlin couldn’t see how long it was because only part of its body was above ground.
Its mouth opened wide enough to envelop Dallas Tanner. The great worm erupted from the ground with explosive force, punching through the moon’s surface with ease as Dallas fell into its mouth, his arms and legs dangling outside.
Then the creature’s mouth snapped shut, leaving only the astronaut’s limbs protruding. They could still hear Dallas, though, screaming now, pleading for help as he was contorted into bone-breaking positions. Caitlin reached out and punched the creature in the side, but it had little effect. When she saw another worm the same size as the one that had grabbed Dallas homing in on her, she stepped back.
James was still trying to get the rover upright, but now a group of smaller worms plagued his efforts, cascading down on him from the rover itself.
“Forget it, James! We go on foot.”
“Are you crazy?”
Caitlin took a precious second to glance toward the Black Sky LEM. She saw a glint of light from its metallic surface. “I see the LEM. C’mon, they’ll get us if we stay here. We have to run.”
“Dallas?” He turned to look for him but couldn’t find him. “What—”
“He’s gone. Let’s go James, or we’re next.”
That was all he needed. He saw the spare oxygen canister on the ground next to the rover and snatched it up. Then he stepped up onto one of the rover’s roll bars and leapt from it, over a group of creatures. Fortunately for Caitlin, the worm with Dallas in its maw attracted many of the others. They shuffled about as if in competition for the strange new resource.
“Don’t leave me! Caitlin! Mr. Burton!” Dallas was still transmitting from his helmet even though he was now entirely contained within the worm’s body. Caitlin wondered with a shudder, even as she ran for the opening left when many worms moved to the one that had ingested Dallas, if he was destined to become like Suzette, entwined with this monstrosity; dead, but still alive, or if he would suffer a mercifully quick death like Asami, his helmet crushing under the predator’s teeth.
“Caitlin!” Dallas wailed.
She was swamped with dread, a pity beyond words at having to leave him behind, but to stay was without a doubt to end her own life and that of Burton. She almost said goodbye to him, but then stopped. If she said nothing, he might think the worm’s body was blocking his transmission and that’s why no one replied. She would rather have him think that as his last thought than know that she left him behind. But then she broke out sobbing with the pettiness of her rationale, with the shame of thinking about herself when he was going through such unimaginable Hell.
“I hear you, Caitlin! I can hear you crying!”
“Caitlin let’s go!” This from James Burton, who now stood safely, for the time being anyway, beyond the circle of worm-like beasts, beckoning to her with an arm.
“Don’t leave me! It’s eating me...it’s...doing something...” He emitted a strangely piercing scream, laden with emotion.
“Dallas...”
His anguish rang inside her helmet as she trampled over a litter of small worms while she ran to James, who looked ahead toward the Black Sky LEM. “Caitlin, they’re still coming for us this way, too!” He began to run back toward her, stopping when he realized they were trapped on both sides—in the direction of either LEM—by the creatures. It looked to him like they might be able to head off toward the crater mountains to the north, but if the worms pushed them too far in that direction they would simply run out of air and die.
Then Dallas’ voice pierced the comm channel again. “My air! It ruptured my tank! My—”
All went quiet on the channel, and in a few seconds the frenzy of organisms around the one that had consumed Dallas grew even more hyperactive as the big worm belched out the air from Dallas’ suit.
“At least it’s over for him now,” James said, taking Caitlin’s hand. “Let’s go, while they’re distracted.”
He and Caitlin set off in the direction of the Black Sky LEM, easily sidestepping the worms, who now seemed to have no interest in them, wanting only to pile onto the one that had swallowed Dallas. They had been walking for perhaps two minutes when they heard Dallas’ voice again.
“Are you still here? Caitlin? James? Don’t leave me! I don’t know how...oh it hurts so bad...but I’m...still...alive…” He trailed off into a cry of pure agony.
“What the...” James whispered.
Caitlin froze in her tracks. She whispered back, “It’s doing what the other one did to Suzette. Making him a part of itself.”
“It’s what?!” Dallas sobbed. “Oh God no...please help me...it hurts! How am I still alive...I can’t feel anything except pain...” He choked off into a gut-wrenching scream that went on for some time.
James looked at Caitlin and shook his head while cradling the oxygen can. What can we do?
Caitlin, also not wanting to say anything else that would tell Dallas they were going to leave him, pointed toward the Black Sky LEM. Off they walked.
39| Hoofing It
Caitlin and James took giant strides across the moon, dodging occasional pothole-like craters that threatened to turn an ankle. The sun was setting now, urging them to pick up the pace lest they still be on EVA at night. They didn’t know if the creatures became more or less active after the sun went down, but they knew one thing: if they became any more active it would spell the end for the humans.
They kept a constant eye out for any kind of motion. With no wind or even air to create motion, the moon was a perfectly still environment. Any kind of movement would indicate the presence of the creatures. After a while, the sound of Dallas’ tortured screams stopped—whether because he died or they were out of radio range, they didn’t know, but hoped for the former.
The pair had gone about a quarter of the distance to the LEM when they came into contact with a new procession of animals. This one was wider than the other they’d seen; less a straight line and more of an advancing horizontal swath.
“Starting to think it wasn’t such a good idea to vent the lander.” James stopped walking to survey the approaching throng of aliens.
“We’ll be glad we did when we get to the other lander.” Caitlin hoped this was true, anyway. Dallas thought it was a good idea, and he was almost always right about everything...Thoughts of his worm ingestion nearly paralyzed her with anxiety and she forced herself to study the moonscape just ahead—the way to the new lander.
“They’re in a wide line but spaced out more,” James observed. “Looks like there are gaps we can fit through.”
“Remember, they can be underground, too. That’s how they got Dallas.” She shoved aside the visual of the astronaut falling into ground that opened up like a sinkhole, without warning, without sound, without hope of escape...
“Caitlin! C’mon, stay focused!” The FAA man brought her back to their unpleasant reality. “Where do we try to get through?”
Caitlin scanned the pack of animals that were just ahead and moving toward them. She pointed to a gap in the line off to their left. “Looks like they thin out that way.”
The unlikely duo set out toward the advancing phalanx of underground creatures. “Try to tread lightly if you can,” Caitlin said, easing a foot to the ground. “They can probably detect the vibrations of our footfalls.”
James agreed and also made an effort to be light-footed. Looking off to their
right, the line of animals extended all the way into the mountainous crater region, while to the left it thinned out. They continued to skirt around to the left, taking them farther from the LEM in order to avoid a confrontation with the creatures. When they reached an area where they could only see a sparse population of worms, with five-to-ten-foot gaps in between each individual, on the surface, at least, they decided to go for it.
They approached side by side, Caitlin looking to the right and James left. Straight ahead was clear. Behind was clear. Nothing but flat moon. But right and left the soil rippled with activity. As they neared the creatures, they began to run, not wanting to stay in one place for too long and present a target. The mad dash worked. Both of them emerged on the other side of the line unscathed. They didn’t stop running, though, wanting to put as much distance between themselves and the animals as possible.
After a few minutes on the move, they paused to evaluate their progress. The line of worms was behind them and they could detect no soil movement ahead of them. The LEM stood in the distance, but closer now, the setting sun beaming off its metallic structure. They trudged on, the novelty of trekking on the moon having somewhat worn thin by now, replaced by the drudgery common to long-distance walking anywhere. Still, they had to keep a sharp eye out for danger, but the lengthy low gravity hike gradually took its toll, sapping their strength.
It was difficult to judge exactly how far away the lander was, and for a while it didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Perhaps they were walking around it instead of in a straight line towards it? James mentioned how they should have brought a compass, and Caitlin explained to him that compasses don’t work well on the moon because the strength of its magnetic field is too low. Something Dallas had once explained to her in great detail, but she dared not dredge up those memories now and left it at that.
They were relieved when sometime later they began hearing radio transmissions. At first they assumed they were from the Black Sky LEM, meaning they were close, but as they listened and the transmissions grew clearer, it became apparent they were listening to Mission Control back in New Mexico. Caitlin could barely discern Ray’s voice through all the static, but to her it was unmistakable nonetheless, and buoyed her spirits. “Ray? Ray It’s Caitlin, you copy me?”
