Dark Moon Rising

by Michael E. Gonzales

  As Bob uttered these words Mary noticed Hugh look up.

  "I figured that, very soon, I would be too drained to put up much of a fight," Bob continued, "I resolved to free myself or die trying. As luck would have it, on the day of our next move, he pocketed the gun before he untied me. He released my hands first then started on my feet. The instant the ties fell away, I kicked him as hard as I could in the face. He fell backward and I pounced on him. We scuffled for... I have no idea how long. He got something off the floor and struck me with it several times before it flew from his hand. I pushed him off me with both feet. When he hit the floor he hit head-first. This dazed him. I jumped on his chest and—"

  Tears welled up in his eyes and he began to shake. He lifted his hands up in front of his face and as he broke down he sobbed, "I strangled him to death with these."

  Mary took him by the shoulders.

  Balaji grasped his hand and said, "You did what you had to do to survive."

  "How did you know to come to this door?" Hugh asked.

  "I saw you leave. It was just luck that I had crawled to a point down the hallway to the right. You guys left here and took the larger straight hallway. I tried to shout, I just couldn't. I figured you'd return this way. At least, I hoped you would."

  "Where is Dr. Whitmore's body?" Hugh sounded stern.

  "It's...I think I could lead you there, I'm not sure I remember just where I was."

  "You're sure he's dead?"

  "Yeah, yeah I'm sure."

  "And the box with the nanobots in it?"

  "Still in that room, I guess."

  "That's enough for now," Mary said. "Let Bob rest."

  "I want to help with repairing the ship," Bob pleaded.

  "How do you know we're repairing the ship?" Hugh asked.

  "Whitmore—he said you were all fools for trying to repair the saucer."

  "That's it. No more talk. Bob, you need rest," Mary insisted.

  As they left Bob's room, Hugh was troubled.

  "What is on your mind Hugh?" Balaji asked.

  "The box. We're going to have to retrieve it, and Bob's not sure where he was held. I've already sent Pixie looking, but we're really going to need Bob to remember."

  "Hugh, let us concentrate on the spacecraft, shall we? Once it's ready, we will go look. But consider this: We can replicate our work without the nanobots. It will be a bit more difficult, but we can do it, particularly now that we have Bob back."

  As they all headed back toward the ship, Hugh stopped Balaji and whispered, "That was a mighty clear recollection for a man with a blurry memory, don't you think?"

  "I have no doubt the recollections came to him as he recalled the events," Balaji said.

  "Yeah, no doubt," Hugh responded.

  Chapter 33

  The construction of the filter element consumed considerably more time than Hugh expected it would.

  Larry's expertise again came into play as hair-thin wires needed to be micro-welded into place with surgical skill, then the liquid filled "wires" had to be woven through the filter material in precisely the right manner. A special attachment, removed from a device on the craft, that they were told would not be needed was cannibalized to complete the filter. This filter had to be in place, because the life support system had to detect air pressure on its surface before the ship would allow itself to be operated. The Nine agreed that it was not a necessary system, given that the trip to the surface would only take a few minutes and a trip to earth would take but a few minutes longer. However, there was no way to circumvent it.

  One last chore remained. Relocating The Nine to Zellat 43.

  Once disconnected from the network that allowed The Nine control over the entire alien facility, they would be plunged into total darkness. Everything would shut down, including the sphere in the ceiling of the cavern providing the exterior lighting. Doors would no longer open or close, there would be no food or water, or any contact with The Nine until they were connected to the spacecraft. At that point, The Nine would have control over the spacecraft, but little else.

  Their separation from the network would be permanent. The Nine would never again have control of the facility. Eventually, the air would become stagnant, the heat would dissipate, and slowly the cold of space would reclaim the lunar depths. Failure now meant certain death for all of them. The Nine advised Hugh to prepare as he saw fit.

  They had four lamps salvaged from their Ess-CEPS suits. Of these, two were low on power. They refilled all water containers, and planned to eat before they started out to retrieve The Nine and, thus, be able to wait awhile before eating again. Their next meal would be a nice juicy hamburger; dal makhani for Balaji.

  The good news was that the container within which The Nine and The One's AI were housed was located in the brain room. They were all quite happy not to be facing one of Hugh's forced marches. The bad news was that the container was almost two meters long and just over one in diameter. On Earth it would weigh close to one thousand one hundred thirty-six kilos, meaning on the moon it would still weigh over one hundred eighty. Being a cylinder with smooth sides, it would not be easy to grip.

  Hugh required all to rest before leaving to retrieve their hosts from the brain room. As the others slept, Hugh quizzed The Nine. His questions revolved around where he could gather materials necessary to construct a wheeled conveyance into which the group could cradle the cylinder for its trip to the spacecraft. They showed Hugh several available types but none would be strong enough to support the weight. Hugh realized that they might just have to manhandle the thing all the way to the spacecraft.

  The Nine planned to leave open only those doors which they would have to pass through. But Hugh asked them to leave all the doors, everywhere, open. He still had to search for the metal box.

  Hugh had also sent Pixie out on another reconnaissance mission, this time seeking out good strong pipe.

  After awakening, everyone gathered in Bob's room again. Bob was much improved, but not so much that Hugh wanted him along.

  Bob protested vehemently, but Hugh stood firm.

  "No, Bob, you're just not ready for this. Besides, when we return, you and I are going to go look for that box. I'll need you rested and ready."

  Hugh took the lead, of course, followed by Mary and Balaji, with Larry bringing up the rear. Hugh had the alien weapon over his shoulder.

  "Why?" Balaji asked. "What target could possibly present itself now?"

  "It's only as a precaution," Hugh explained. But there were other considerations on Hugh's mind as they set out to retrieve the alien intelligences who had promised to take them home.

  Hugh caught Balaji alone and told him of The Nine's lie of omission. "I had trusted them completely up to that point, Bal-ah-gee."

  "You should have told us before, Hugh. Our survival is not worth risking the entire human race."

  "I'm sorry Bal-ah-gee, but her survival is all that is important to me. I've been weighing my decision, trying to determine whether I trust them, and I've decided I do trust them. But there is that lingering doubt. I thought you should know."

  Balaji ran his fingers through his hair. "Hugh, I am filled with worry, now."

  "Look, Doc, I didn't tell you this to share the blame. If I'm wrong, it's all on me."

  "That will be of no consequence, if you are wrong."

  "Balaji, I still have a final option."

  "What option?" Balaji asked.

  "This." Hugh held up the alien weapon. "They explained that all their technology is vulnerable to the effects of this weapon. Worst case scenario, I shoot The Nine with this."

  Balaji looked at Hugh for several seconds in silence then simply nodded. A moment passed then Balaji said, "Hugh, my friend, our time here is drawing quickly to an end. If all goes as planned, we may very well be sleeping on Earth tonight. Do you not think it time you revealed your secret to Mary?"

  Hugh was prepared to defend his decision to trust The Nine, but he was unprepared for this qu
estion.

  "Balaji, I just—"

  "For God's sake man, you are sleeping with the woman. She is in love with you and she deserves to know—she deserves to hear it from you! What if, God forbid, something should happen to you? It then falls on me to tell her. Do you think that fair, to either of us?"

  "No." Hugh paused and looked down. "You're right. I'll tell her just as soon as I can." He then turned, and walked away.

  Having departed the Hotel Insularum, they past the alien infirmary, then went out into the large hallway. They soon reached that left turn which led to the tube that connected to the structure above. The climb was easy; Hugh tried to imagine descending it with a one hundred eighty kilo cylinder in tow. From the chamber above, they moved through the hallway.

  Several meters along, Hugh turned abruptly to the left.

  At the end of a short hallway Hugh led them into a room with a round hatch in the floor. "I asked the Square for something to help us. They sent Pixie out and she located these." Hugh then descended into the hatch. After a few minutes, he asked Larry to join him.

  Several more minutes passed before Larry's voice proclaimed, "Heads up!" From the hole on the floor came a long metal tube. "Hugh wants these stacked in the hallway," Larry shouted up again.

  In no time, five tubes were lying on the floor in the hallway, and then Larry and Hugh re-joined Mary and Balaji. Each was given one of the sturdy tubes to carry—Hugh carried two.

  Over their shoulders, he and Larry also carried a considerable length of coiled cable.

  They returned to their original course and soon arrived at the round door that led to the brain room. Finding it open, they proceeded down the long tunnel with its rippled, glassy walls. At last, they reached the room and found its door open, as well. The equations flashed across the ten monitors at the speed of light.

  Balaji stood watching the display a moment. He understood what the others did not; the alien computer had selected Hugh because of his enhanced biotronic brain which allowed him to calculate such advanced mathematics at such an incredible speed.

  Huge raised his left arm and pointed to a spot on the floor, he uttered one word, "There."

  As he did, the malleable floor covering began to move, looking like black coffee swirling down a drain. Then it parted and formed an oval in the floor's surface. It began to widen until the black surface material had pulled back to exposed the metal beneath it. At that point, the floor stopped moving and seemed to solidify.

  The exposed metal oval rose about thirty centimeters. There was a momentary pause, followed by the hissing sound of gas escaping under pressure. The top of the raised oval separated from the floor and rose straight up almost two meters. Following it, from below the floor, rose the cylinder, lying horizontally. The unique container was a blinding gold color. There were twelve round, clear depressions, each the size of a salad bowl, in the sides. Nine of them were flickering with a brilliant and iridescent light. Under each of these windows were a number of illuminated instruments.

  At each end of the cylinder were mounted what looked like stepped pyramids of three levels. Out of the top of each pyramid came a bundle of cables and tubes, some of which were producing a glaring light.

  Hugh studied the object. There was something familiar about it. "Bal-ah-gee, where have we seen lights like those before?"

  Balaji thought a moment. "Just a little beyond the infirmary-there was a room with these same domes on one wall."

  "That's right!" Mary's voice contained a hint of sadness. "Martha loved those iridescent colors. She said she'd like to have a necklace—" Mary's words trailed away as more equations flashed across the monitors again, and again, faster and faster. Then they stopped. A few more flashed, but then the monitors all went blank.

  "They can see us directly," Hugh said, "through those lenses. Okay, ready your lamps."

  First, the light in the cables at each end of the cylinder went out. Then there came a burst of steam and a shower of sparks as the cable bundles disconnected from each end. That's when the lights went out throughout the facility. The only light, until they turned on their lamps, was the odd iridescent light from the nine illuminated windows on the cylinder.

  Hugh called everyone to him and directed them to lay their tubes on the floor. "We're going to do this as the ancients did," he said. "We'll lay the cylinder across these pipes and we'll roll it forward. When it rolls off a pipe at the rear we'll bring that pipe forward and lay it down in front. That will be Larry's job to start with and we'll rotate everyone through that position."

  Just pulling the cylinder off its cradle was a massive effort. With that accomplished, they began to push. It was not as difficult as it would have been without the tubes. Nonetheless, their progress was slow.

  Everyone but Hugh was disoriented in the darkness with the beams of light flashing about. Of the four flashlights they only kept two on at a time, starting with those low on power.

  It seemed to take forever just to reach the end of the rippled glass tunnel. They negotiated the turn, and Hugh thought of the tube ahead, down which they would have to lower the cylinder.

  At their first rest break, Balaji put just that question before Hugh. "How are you planning to move this down the tube?" From his backpack, Hugh withdrew the two pieces of cable he brought from the dome and the two much longer cables he and Larry retrieved when they stopped for the tubes.

  "We're going to lower it," he said.

  Balaji sat quietly next to him for a few minutes. "Hugh, have you asked the aliens about the other lights we saw by the infirmary?"

  "Yes." Hugh didn't elaborate.

  "Well?" Balaji prodded.

  "It is a collection of twelve hundred minds from among their people. Entire memories and personalities preserved in exactly the same way The Nine were preserved."

  "They've said nothing about their fellows before?" Balaji asked.

  "No."

  "How do we move them aboard the Zellat 43?"

  "We don't."

  "They are going to return for them then?"

  "No."

  "Hugh, what is going on?"

  "It's hard to explain, Bal-ah-gee, but they are going to abandon them to oblivion. When the power eventually goes out completely here, those minds will cease to exist. I asked them why they would allow those people to die. I was told that the people were already dead, long ago. That what I was concerning myself with was nothing more than a sort of bio recording and not 'life'. I reminded them that they were also bio recordings, yet they were being permitted to live. Their explanation was that they were retaining power only to be able to convey their knowledge to their home world. They lectured me on their definition of life. Life, as they believe it to be, can only exist in biological creatures who pass on their genetic code from generation to generation; because, they believe, there is only a limited amount of life force in the universe. Life, it follows, cannot be possessed by non-biological intelligences, regardless of their sophistication or degree of self-awareness.”

  "That is their philosophy, Hugh, not ours. Do not let it trouble you," Balaji said.

  "It does trouble me though, very much. You see, I've been speaking to them. I don't feel any different than when I speak to you. What is the major difference? You have a biological mechanism that is the life support for your mind. They—and I—have a non-biological mechanism that supports our minds. The entity inside is unchanged.

  "Let me ask you," Hugh became very serious, "do you believe me to be a life form? Am I alive, or just a biological recording? If your brain were placed into a cybernetic body, would you be any less Bal-ah-gee?"

  "I think perhaps they were trying to describe to you their belief in a soul."

  Hugh looked at Balaji intently. "You think those twelve hundred and these nine are without souls? You think I have no soul? You're saying an entity aware of its own existence must be biological to possess a soul?"

  "My friend, since the dawn of awareness in man, we have tried to unde
rstand the soul. There are as many definitions and beliefs as there are men, I think."

  "What do you believe?"

  "I am a Hindu. We believe in reincarnation. A soul must pass through many lives before it is fit to reunite with its source. Bhagavad Gita tells us: Just as a man discards worn out clothes and puts on new clothes, the soul discards worn out bodies and wears new ones. I do not believe the soul would differentiate between natural fiber and a garment of man-made material."

  Hugh smiled weakly. "I just don't feel right about abandoning those other entities to their fate."

  "It is this quality that makes you human. Perhaps that is your answer."

  "I'd like to think so."

  "One problem at a time, my friend. Let us take this can back to the ship first. Then, I believe you want to attempt a retrieval of the lost nanobots. Am I right?"

  "Yeah."

  "Altruism, another sure sign of the divine spark in you."

  "Thanks, Balaji."

  "All right then," Balaji said, standing," let us move this thing and go home. It really does seem within reach now. When we left the dome back in the cave I did not believe we would make it."

  Hugh shot Balaji a questioning look.

  "Of course, I was not prepared to just sit still and give up," Balaji went on. "You displayed an indomitable spirit and will to live. Naturally, I followed you."

  "Spirit—that's the same as a soul isn't it?"

  Balaji noted just how very concerned Hugh was with this question of the soul. "In the connotation I used the word I meant—" Balaji detected a sort of longing in Hugh's eyes. "Yes, Hugh, it most certainly is."

  Chapter 34

  The break over, it was now Balaji's turn to relay the pipes on which the cylinder rolled. Soon, they were at the access tube. It was of sufficient diameter to allow the cylinder to pass, but at a considerable angle. Hugh secured his first cable very near the end that would be lowered first into the descending tube.

  They then rolled the cylinder up to the brink of the access. With two of the pipes, they began to pry at the back of the can until they lifted it enough to remove two more of the remaining three pipes. Larry and Balaji used leverage to lift the rear of the cylinder.