Children of the Dark World

by Will Townsend

  Because the moon holes were actually the collapsed portions of underground tunnels they had to proceed up the tunnel to the first wall built inside the complex. Any walls built in space had airtight hatches precisely because of the damage that was on display here. They entered into the tunnel and the light dimmed somewhat. Because the top of the tunnel was sixty meters high it allowed in a small bit of the light from the destroyed facility to penetrate it’s darkness. But they didn’t have far to go before they were standing in front of the hatch. Ming stepped forward.

  “This is the lock pick that Quincy made for us,” he said holding up a thirteen by thirteen centimeter flat metallic square that held the computing power of an mid twenty first century computer. Tegev stepped forward and placed an identical object against the door.

  “No atmosphere on the other side of the door Commander.” She stepped back and Ming then stepped forward and placed his computer against a flat opaque section of the door. It flickered briefly and then nothing. Tegev reached into the case she had brought along and pulled out a portable power box not much bigger than their handheld computers. She plugged a cable into a port at the bottom of the hatch and signaled Ming to try again which he did. The opaque area illuminated and when Ming’s handheld came within a centimeter of it, the locking mechanism audibly clicked. Ming replaced the device on his suit and pulled the door outward. The area ahead lay in a stygian darkness so complete that when they’d all entered and the hatch was shut, not even the lowlight sensors of their eye displays could make out any details.

  “Everyone, helmet lights on,” Farr ordered and instantly five beams illuminated the area in front of them. Farr knew the tunnel at this point must’ve been sixty meters high but his light disappeared into the tomblike darkness above. The monitor on his arm alerted and he glanced down.

  “Dr. Skorsson I need you to calm down a little bit, okay? Your pulse is up and your breathing is strained and you’re burning up O2. Just relax, we’ll take care of you.”

  “Sorry commander,” he said and Tegev moved up beside him and mimicked deep breathes keeping Skorsson’s eyes locked on hers and willing him to calm down. Farr noticed the readings dropping almost immediately. “Thanks, I’m good now.” Skorsson said. The other team member readings were stable and Skorsson’s was almost there so Farr continued on.

  “There should be a compression chamber coming up that’ll give us access to the living tunnels on the right.” Farr spotted it and led the way. The hatch was identical to the last. Once again Tegev reported no atmosphere and Ming’s computer opened the hatch and the team stepped in. It was a five meter by five meter station that could be pressurized to allow access to the living tunnels. Tegev immediately proceeded to the hatch on the opposite wall and tested for atmosphere beyond.

  “I’ve got pressure and atmosphere on the other side. Pressure is equivalent to five thousand meters altitude on Earth. I can’t sample the composition of the atmosphere until we’re on the other side. Temperature appears to be around 12 C.”

  “Atmosphere’s a little thin,” Farr said, thinking aloud.

  “Yeah,” Ming said. “The corps always did cut corners when it came to certain things, but all of the specifications I’ve seen put the atmospheric pressure at around a thousand meters, which didn’t even cause discomfort. If we take our helmets off we’ve got to be careful. We’re not used to this and hypobaropathy, altitude sickness, can set in anywhere after two thousand meters. As a matter of fact, this is probably what most doctors would consider borderline for human existence. I know on Earth people have climbed higher but they spent months conditioning themselves so they could accomplish that and they always had oxygen along just in case.”

  “Pressurize the room, but we’ll proceed along with suits on for now. Let’s adjust the suits to see how everyone handles it. Set your suit pressure to two thousand meters.”

  Everyone adjusted their suits and Ming went to the room’s control panel and used his computer to initiate pressurization. He then opened the hatch leading to the atmosphere regulated spaces. The party went through and Tegev closed the hatch and sealed it automatically. It was a trained response by anyone who’d spent any measurable time in space, and was mandatory aboard Farr’s ship, because he believed that laxness killed more people than any enemy who’d ever taken to the battlefield.

  “Atmosphere is thin but has all the earthly components. It’s breathable,” Tegev concluded scanning the readings. “Wait, everyone turn off your helmet lights, and switch to light gathering on your eyepieces.”

  Farr and Ming did so immediately and, to their credit, Takashi and Skorsson were not far behind them. Farr was satisfied with the response. When a team member felt an action was in order and stated an action to be performed, all members of the team immediately took the action. That was the difference sometimes between living and dying.

  Slowly, as their opticals began to function they could see the entire cavern they were within. It was perhaps fifteen meters high and fifty meters wide and led to the living quarters of the destroyed base Six. The walls were natural, roughhewn basalt, but the floor was smooth obviously made from a type of cement using the lunar soil. Farr noted a slight glow that came from the walls.

  “I’ve read about this, Commander,” Tegev said. “The corps were experimenting with bioluminescent bacteria to provide lighting. They were genetically engineering them to feed off of the rocks they lived on. It seems they succeeded.”

  “Good, it’s dim but manageable as long as we’ve got our lowlight. Should help us conserve the battery charge on our suits. How far is it to the living areas?”

  “About a kilometer ahead there should be another hatch that leads to a tunnel branching to the left. If we go that route we’ll go right past the living quarters of base six and be at the mouth of the tunnel that connects five and six.”

  “Okay, that’s the way we want to go. Is anyone having trouble with the altitude adjustment we made to the suits?” No one said anything so Farr personally inspected each member. “Tegev partner up with Skorsson. Ming you’ll partner up with Dr. Takashi. Examine each other every few minutes and be honest about your condition people. If you die on me I’ll court martial you.”

  They went through the hatch without incident and entered the living space of Lunar Base Six. It appeared to be empty as far as they could tell. The light was feeble here, but with the low light oculars they could easily view the entire area. This area was obviously manmade as it was a rectangular area about one hundred meters across and six hundred meters long, at least according to his ocular heads up display. The glasses were designed to give specific information on the wearer’s environment. Enclosed spaces were always reported by dimensions before any other data to give the wearer a heads up on what he was getting himself into.

  The space had the feel of a small town to Farr, which was what was intended by the corporations when they’d built them. Along each wall were square, plain looking structures that jutted out twenty meters, the living quarters for the workers. According to the data from Resolution’s old computer banks Lunar Base Six had housed three thousand workers along with their families, so probably at least seven thousand had called this home. There were banks of lights along the walls which were timed to simulate the daylight hours on Earth. These were dark now because the power source that had driven them had been destroyed when the ceilinged biodome had been breached.

  The abandoned living area reminded Farr of the desolate and abandoned towns of the Dying. The residents had simply left because the infrastructure that had allowed the towns to survive in that particular area had been swept away in the Calamity. The eeriness of an area designed specifically for human habitation, that now stood lifeless and empty, was somewhat disconcerting.

  “It looks like they packed up and left,” Ming said looking about. “There’s no debris, matter of fact there’s nothing, not even a scrap of paper.” He walked over to the nearest living quarters and stuck his head in cautiously. “
Clean as a whistle,” he announced, “they just left and took everything with them.”

  “Makes sense,” Farr said. “There was no power for this section so they migrated to Lunar Base Five. Let’s do a sweep and then head that direction. We’ll rest after the sweep before heading on,” Farr added. By Farr’s calculations they were four kilometers into the passageways and coupled with the excitement, the exertion might be a bit much for Skorsson and Takashi. Farr had seen men hyperventilate in environment suits with much less excitement. Faye called in at that point.

  “Away team this is home base. Your signal is starting to degrade,” he heard and the signal had indeed become scratchy, indicating they were at the end of communications range with the landing craft in this environment.

  “Understood home base, if we lose communications we’ll backtrack to this area and reestablish in six hours. Our goal is to reach the biodome of five and we should be able to contact Mama Bird on Base Five’s equipment and relay communications, over.”

  “This is home base, roger out.”

  “How far to the opening for Five Ming?”

  “About four kilometers along this tunnel and then another three along the adjacent tunnel,” Ming responded.

  “All right. These suits are good for fifteen hours tops unless we continue to reduce the atmosphere, so we’re going to make our suit environment three thousand meters. I need you to watch each other closely,” Farr informed the team, making eye contact with each.

  A sweep of the chamber confirmed Ming’s statement. The former occupants had departed and taken everything with them. Farr considered this to be an encouraging sign. That meant they left the chamber for a purpose, not because of some unknown disaster that had befallen them.

  The group started out at a leisurely walk along the trek to the bio dome after the brief rest period. Everyone seemed to be doing well, so Farr was optimistic, but the darkness was starting to intrude into his thoughts. It made the trek through the tunnels something akin to a surreal dream and Farr didn’t like the effect that could have on their reaction time. The mute basaltic walls of the tunnel were dark and silent, refusing to yield their secrets to the low light opticals. Any number of dangers could be hidden there, Farr knew, and the landing party would never know.

  About two kilometers into the walk communications was lost with the landing craft. “Everyone set your suit chronometers to three hours,” he ordered. “That’s about as far as we can go before I’ve got to send someone back to relay to Home Base.”

  “Alone?” Skorsson asked his eyes wide, eying the distorted shadows that played along the walls and the cavernous ceiling that disappeared into the darkness above.

  “No, doctor,” Farr replied slowly, “I was thinking of having you escort Tegev back.” This drew him a somewhat mutinous glare from Tegev, but she otherwise held her tongue. Good sailor, Farr thought. Ming grinned at her on the sly and she made a somewhat obscene gesture for his benefit alone, which only made him grin more. “What’s atmosphere doing, Tegev?” Farr asked to focus everyone again.

  “Better commander,” she said stiffly just to make her point. “Earth equivalent thirty-five hundred meters, should we take our suits up to match it?”

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation, “once again, watch each other. Are there any contaminants in the air?”

  “No, appears to be Earth normal, at least for this altitude.”

  “Good enough, let’s get going.”

  As they neared the junction of passageways Ming said. “There’s a bend in the tunnel just up ahead. After we round that it’s a straight shot down the other passageway to the dome.”

  Farr started to say something but stopped instead, and stood motionless, listening. The others noticed and did the same. Faint sounds of a far off scuffle drifted toward them.

  CHAPTER 8

  “Ming, follow me and Tegev you’re behind him. Doctors please stay back.” Farr called over his shoulder moving toward the sound of the far off scuffle at a decent one-sixth g jog. As he jogged along the tunnel he retrieved his handheld, wireless Taser and brought it to the ready. Ming and Tegev followed suit. As they rounded the bend they stumbled directly into the altercation that had drawn their attention. The situation which confronted them brought them to a skidding halt. Because the atmosphere was so thin the sounds of the fight had sounded much further away than it actually was.

  In less than a second Farr assessed the scene, although a few things about it had shocked him. The scene before him was a brutal one, and the actors on display before him were like nothing he’d ever seen before. Four impossibly tall men were putting chains on two impossibly tall men. A third impossibly tall man lay dying on the floor, his life’s blood staining the smooth floor of basaltic rock.

  Farr was approximately two meters tall. These men were all a good thirty centimeters taller at least. The ones in chains wore dirty rags and were emaciated, but their chests were barrel shaped. The four standing wore ratty coveralls but were obviously better fed, although they too were extremely thin by Earth standards. They possessed the same barrel shaped chests as the ones in chains. All of them had enormous eyes that dominated their faces. The four standing had weapons of some sort that they held like rifles. Farr had no idea who was right and who was wrong in this confrontation but the ones in chains had no weapons anywhere around them and one of their number lay dying.

  He had time for one more transient thought, something about how sound traveled in thin air, and then all hell broke loose when the leader of the four, obviously just as shocked at the team’s appearance, hesitatingly raised his gun and bellowed, “Get down on the…”

  He never finished the sentence. Farr didn’t hesitate as his arm came up and the Taser fired a blunt nosed super charged graphene slug at the leader of the assailants. The effect was quite dramatic.

  The graphene slug hit the man directly in the chest and discharged its considerable stored electrical capacity all at once, sending the man flying back across the tunnel, where he laid convulsing, his arms and legs gyrating wildly. The weapon he was holding discharged and the round flew past Farr’s head and fragmented on the wall behind him. The eyes of his men grew even larger, if that were possible, then they too raised their weapons to fire. But they had lost the initiative and Ming, moving to Farr’s left, was able to take one out, as was Tegev, moving right, with the same convulsive result.

  As the last man raised his weapon to fire, Takashi rounded the corner at a dead run and careened wildly into the startled man. The weapon flew from his grasp, loosing a round that disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels.

  They stared wildly at each other for a second and then both men moved desperately and simultaneously. The tall cadaverous man, his eyes wild, threw a poorly directed punch that Takashi ducked under. Takashi immediately assumed a martial arts stance and, leaping, slammed a roundhouse kick into the man’s midsection. The results of the blow were equally astonishing as the former assailant flew across the tunnel and slammed hard into the wall, while Takashi, having failed to take the lesser gravity into consideration, was hurled into the opposite side of the tunnel by the force of his kick. Neither one of them moved. Farr, Ming and Tegev were still in fighting stances.

  “Clear right,” Tegev said.

  “Clear left,” Ming responded.

  “All clear,” Farr acknowledged. “Tegev let’s get these men secured.”

  “Yes sir,” she said, moving back down the corridor to retrieve the box she had left behind.

  “What the hell happened?” Skorsson asked coming on the scene, his breath ragged and gasping.

  “It was one of those things that we were trying to warn you about doctor, you know, where the world goes to hell in twenty seconds,” Farr sighed. Ming’s eyes perked up at Farr’s use of the vernacular.

  “You see, there are times when that’s the only language that fits. Hope we didn’t just create an interplanetary incident,” Ming said looking around.

  “Since
this isn’t technically a planet I think we’re safe on that account, although I think we need to find out what just happened in a hurry. That one spoke English,” Farr said pointing to the leader who was still twitching from the after effects. “Not quite the accent we have, but that’s to be expected after a century. If he speaks English, then maybe the ones in chains do too.” Farr and Ming approached the prisoners in chains and as they did so, Farr noticed the one Takashi had slammed into the wall starting to rouse and pointed at him. Ming looked, lifted his Taser and fired a round, inducing the expected result from such an action.

  “Stay down,” he said as they walked past the man convulsing on the tunnel floor. Farr gave him a raised eyebrow.

  “A little harsh wasn’t that?”

  “I’m much more comfortable when my enemies are convulsing at my feet,” Ming replied blithely. Farr shrugged his shoulders and moved on to the chained men. He noticed that Skorsson had Takashi back on his feet next to the wall.

  “Do you speak English?”

  “We understand you, if that’s what you mean,” the youngest looking one said. There was a defiant and sullen look on his face as well as curiosity. Farr observed his surrealistically large eyes again and the almost skeletal appearance. There was something about him that reminded Farr of an adolescent but his height just wouldn’t let Farr consider it.

  “What just happened here?”

  He stared at Farr for a moment as if he were mad. Then he looked him up and down.

  “What are you? You’re not a machine and you’re not one of the Workers. The men you just interfered with are Suits so you’re not one of them either. Are you going to kill us?” Now it was Farr’s turn to look at the youth as if he were mad.

  “We’re not machines we’re men, just like you, although we may look a little different. And we don’t want to kill you, we’re just trying to understand what we stumbled onto,” Farr said. He then shut down his environmental suit and removed this helmet. Ming did the same. They both took a deep breath and immediately their faces contorted.