by Mark Harritt
Tom agreed, “That’s a pretty simple plan.”
“We’ll have to be in front, since we have the advanced body armor and the Contai don’t,” Mickey continued.
Tom shook his head, “Latricia is gonna be pissed.”
Mickey grinned, “Do what I do. Don’t tell her.”
Tom grinned back at Mickey, “Yeah right. If she finds out from someone else, it will be even worse when I have to explain to her what the hell happened. It’s better if I get ahead of that situation and tell her myself.”
Mickey smiled to himself, thinking of his wife, “When Tracy finds out what I’ve been up to, she just shakes her head and stares at me like I’m mentally incompetent.”
Tom nodded and grinned, “I can’t blame her. I’ve been thinking the same thing for years.”
Mickey laughed out loud, eliciting strange looks from the Contai. Mickey pointed at Tom, “You know, you and Tracy might be on to something.”
Tom shrugged, “Well, you might be a mental case, but I can’t claim to be any better. I’m the one going along with your plan to open that damn hatch to see what’s on the other side.”
Mickey chuckled, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Of course, that would describe the entire team.”
“I wonder how Everett’s doing,” Tom mused.
They both grew quiet for a few steps, thinking about their fallen brothers, and then Mickey replied, “Well, he’s doing okay or he’s not. If we can ever get the hell out of here, we might find out.”
“I wonder if there’s any chance that Mike or the others survived the crash,” Tom started.
Mickey shook his head, “There’s no way any of them survived that. The shuttle went down hard. And, even if they did, the green men were all around them.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t want Mike to go, but at the time, there weren’t any other choices,” Mickey replied.
They both fell silent as they continued toward the hatch. This trip was much quicker than the last, since they walked directly to the hatch. The light illuminated the area before they reached it. They could see movement behind the windows, possibly drawn by the light. Something was there, whether the previous monster or another. As they approached, they saw that, indeed, it was the same tentacled monster as before.
Thick ropes of dark, muscular tentacles punctuated by the light blue glowing circles explored the windows, trying to find a way into the room beyond, the room that Mickey and Tom were in. Mickey and Tom, prepared for the monster this time, walked up to the window to see if they could get a better idea of the hellish creature beyond the thick glass. Hidden teeth darted out of suckers clinging against glass as the tentacles played across the window.
“Once again, let me say that I’m against this course of action,” Tom muttered as he watched the tentacles.
Mickey stared at the writhing tentacles as well, “For the record?”
Tom nodded, “For the record.”
They stared at the tentacles a little longer, and then Tom spoke, “Well, we’re not getting any younger. Let’s saddle this horse and ride. How do you want to do this?”
Mickey pondered the possibilities for a moment, “You and I have the body armor, so I want us between that,” he pointed at the windows, “and them.” He finished by hooking his thumb over his shoulder back at the Contai. “I’ll open the doo . . .”
Tom didn’t let Mickey finish, “The hell you will.”
Mickey looked at Tom confused, “What? Why not?”
Tom explained, “Look, I know that would probably be the right call in some situations, but not here. You’re our only medic. If you go down, we’re screwed. If you get killed, and we get hurt, we’re going to have a lot of dead people. Besides, you’re the toughest son of bitch here. You need to be between that thing,” Tom inclined his head toward the window, and then looked back at Sorinm, “and them.”
Mickey studied Tom, and then nodded, “Okay. We’ll play it that way then. You open the door, get the hell out of the way, and then we hit it with everything we’ve got.”
A wry smile crept across Tom’s face, “Oh, don’t worry. I don’t plan on lingering.”
Mickey looked at Tom’s rifle, “Swap rifles then?”
Tom nodded, “Yeah, you’ll need a little more fire power to take on that critter. Those small caliber rifles from the Turinzoni might take down a man, but they won’t do much against that thing.”
Tom pulled off his rifle and handed it to Mickey. Mickey gave Tom his rifle in return.
Tom turned to the hatch, “Alright, let’s do this.” His helmet was hanging by the strap on his equipment, and he pulled it off and slipped over his head, cinching up the strap under his jaw.
Mickey turned around to talk to the Contai. What he saw didn’t encourage him. The Contai were all staring at the window with wide eyes. Mickey was concerned, but he knew they wouldn’t run. He knew the Contai, and most especially, these Contai, Caul’s finest warriors.
Mickey held up his hand to get everybody’s attention, “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” Mickey pointed at Tom, “Tom’s going to open the hatch.”
Contai eyes grew wider as they appraised Tom. From the look on their faces, his reputation had just gone up considerably.
Mickey continued, “And then, Tom’s going to get the hell out of there, and we’re going to blow the hell out of whatever that thing is.” Mickey hooked his thumb over his shoulder without looking back, “Sorinm and I will be standing in the middle with this,” Mickey patted Tom’s rifle, and then pointed at the maser that Sorinm was holding, “and that.” He motioned at the two men holding the flame throwers, “You two will be right next to us on both sides. The rest of you will fan out on either side so that you have clear shots at the monster coming through the hatch.”
Faces turned to look nervously at the hatch.
“But don’t fire until I give the signal. I want to make sure that Tom’s completely out of danger before we fire.”
Tom was standing at the hatch, “I agree with that last part. I’m out of danger before you start firing.”
There were a few nervous grins on Contai faces with Tom’s declaration.
“So, should we get started?” Tom asked.
Mickey nodded, “Yeah, we should.”
Mickey motioned for people to move to their positions. He indicated four people on each side, “Okay boys, you’re my grenadiers. You’re going to stand ready with concussion grenades. The rest of you, be ready to shoot that damn thing, whatever it is. We aren’t going to screw around with this. We’re going to hit it with everything we’ve got. Sorinm and I will start the dance when we shoot. You hear my rifle go off, then you start shooting. Make sure that Tom’s out of the line of fire.”
Once again, Tom reiterated what Mickey said, “Yes! Make sure that I’m out of the line of fire. If you shoot me, you’ll have to deal with Latricia, and she’ll make your life a living hell.”
Mickey looked around at the Contai soldiers. Now that things were becoming a reality, and they knew they were about to fight the beast on the other side of the glass, they’d settled down. Serious looks betrayed serious intentions.
Mickey’s helmet was attached to his chest rig. He pulled it off the chest rig and put it on, “Alright, are you all ready?”
Mickey looked each one in the eye, getting a head nod or some other indication that they were ready. Mickey was happy with what he saw. He walked over and took his position.
“Alright Tom, are you ready to go?”
Tom was tense, not knowing what they were dealing with and knowing that he was going to be the one closest to the danger. That tenseness melted away as he put his hands on the handle of the door, ready for combat. He ran the scenario through his mind, concentrating on what he needed to do to get the hatch open and to get away safely. He nodded, and yelled back to Mickey, “Yeah, Mick, I’m ready.”
Mickey stared at Tom’s back. Different scenarios ran through his mind
. He hoped that their situation would be straight forward, but who the hell knew with that damn thing on the other side. He slipped the helmet on, secured the strap, and then checked the rifle to make sure there was a round in the chamber. Once he was satisfied, he held it in the low ready position to engage the beast behind the hatch.
“Alright, everybody. On my mark, at the count of three, we go. Watch Tom! Once he gets the door open, we’ll know what we’re dealing with.” Mickey paused in case someone had something to say, but nobody spoke up, “Here we go! Three, two, one, . . . Go!”
----------------------------------------------------
The three of them were pecking at keyboards, trying to understand what this place was. They’d found schematics. They’d found lists of supplies coming in, but very little going out. It was disconcerting.
Weitz was in his element. He loved hacking into systems to see what was there, “Look, I found the billeting list. There were forty thousand people here at one time. There were a lot of children as well. I think people lived here on a permanent basis.”
Bobby nodded, “Question is, why? Why would they want to live in an underground facility on the moon?”
“Are you certain we’re on the moon?” Mike asked.
All three of the programmers looked up. Bobby looked at Russell, and then looked at Weitz. All of them nodded. Randall looked down at her computer and started typing again. Bobby spoke for them, “Yeah, we’ve each found different documents that indicate this base is on, I mean, in the moon.”
Bob had a quizzical look on his face, “Shouldn’t we be lighter then? The moon has much less matter and isn’t as dense as the Earth. Plus, we’re far underground, which means that we have matter pulling against us in all directions. It doesn’t make sense.”
Weitz pointed at the floor of the shuttle, “This thing is built like a brick. There’s no way it should fly. But it does. It uses some kind of anti-gravity. Maybe they can do the same thing here, but in reverse.”
Bob stared at Weitz for a moment, and then nodded his head, “Good point, Josh. Maybe you’re right.”
Weitz, uncharacteristically, smiled at the praise. He bowed his head and the sound of his fingers hitting the keyboard joined that of Russell’s.
Things got quiet again as the three concentrated on their work. People were spread out across the deck, trying to relax while they could. Hank looked at Ed. “How’s he doing?” He asked Bob.
Bob looked down at Ed, “Well, he seems to be resting now. The tremors and rapid eye movement have stopped. I hope he’s okay, but we won’t know until he wakes up.”
“Oh God! Oh Jesus! We have to stop them!”
All eyes were drawn to Randall.
Bobby looked over at her, “What’s up?”
Randall was ghostly pale, “I know what this facility used to be.”
Bobby was concerned, “What did you find?”
Randall turned her computer and pointed at the screen. Weitz was looking over Bobby’s shoulder and they both turned white. Bobby looked up at Daijj and yelled, “Tell them not to open the hatch!”
“What the hell’s going on?” Hank yelled.
Bobby stared at Hank, fear on his face, “This is a biological weapons lab. Something got loose. Maybe, a lot of somethings.”
----------------------------------------------------
Tom grabbed the handles and simultaneously pulled with one hand while he pushed with the other to turn them. He felt a click, and he pulled the hatch to open it. A sliver of darkness defined the edge, and then the hatch slammed open with such violence that he was tossed through the air like a rag doll. He slid a few feet as landed, the air knocked out of him.
He could hear the sound of guns firing. He couldn’t get up to run because he was afraid that he’d move into someone’s line of fire. The original plan had him running across the wall until he got away from the door. He was too far from the wall for that to happen now. He scrambled across the floor as he heard Mickey yell, “Tom! Come to me!”
Tom felt something grab his leg, and he was pulled back as he scrambled to find a purchase on the floor. That was impossible, though, the floor completely flat with nothing that he could grasp. He rolled over and pulled his pistol, the Turinzoni rifle tangled up behind him. He stared into the maw of a monstrosity that made his mind gibber in horror. He pulled the trigger, emptying the entire magazine into the monster. His training kicked in and he dropped the magazine from his pistol and quickly replaced it, shooting again. The monster’s bulk filled the open hatch.
The skin was dark, but colors radiated across it in a phosphorescent display. The maw of the beast looked like a sea anemone, but it had the muscularity and questing tentacles of an octopus. The tentacles were covered with grasping suckers lined with yellow gnashing beaks. The open gullet was lined with spikes that pointed back down the throat, making it a one-way trip for anything unlucky enough to be stuffed into the gaping throat. Unlike an octopus, it had no eyes, and Tom couldn’t figure out how it saw anything around it. Tom kept shooting, knowing that he was slated as this creature’s next meal. Around him, the smell of ballistic explosives filled the air as a hail of bullets seemed to do little damage to the thing.
Concussion grenades flew over Tom’s head. The grenadiers were aiming high, trying to get the grenades past the monster. One of the grenades flew through the monster’s questing maw, and a few seconds later, the overpressure of expanding gas from the grenade made the monster swell up. Slime belched forward from the beast’s mouth as overpressure expelled from the monster’s mouth. Tom knew there had to be internal damage, but there was no evidence of it. In fact, the explosions seemed to have pissed off the monster even more. A high-pitched keening sounded as more of the grenades went off around it. Tom felt the over pressure hit him, knocking him around in the tentacle of the monster.
Tom was picked up off the ground and slung around like a toy as the monster tried to deal with the damage it was taking. Flames licked out from the flamethrowers dancing across the monster’s hide. The fire landed on it and charring flesh pealed from its tentacles. The monster screamed like a boiling teapot and Tom slammed into the ground. He was more fearful of the flames from the flamethrowers, though, than he was of the monster. The flames traveled on flammable liquid, and he was afraid that some of it on the ground would get on him.
He pointed his pistol to shoot at it, but he couldn’t get a consistent sight picture, and he was afraid that, with all the movement, he might hit one of his own men. More grenades flew through the air, and more liquid fire immolated the massive beast. Tom screamed, worried about both the monster and the gunfire from his own men. He feared the monster, and he feared stray bullets and being immersed in flame as well. Tom could hear Mickey yelling, but he couldn’t make out the words.
Tossed back and forth as the monster twitched with pain, Tom was finally able to see it again, wreathed in flames. The liquid that Mike and Bob had concocted was no joke. It stuck to skin and burned until the liquid fuel was completely used up.
The monster disappeared back into the open hatch, and Tom scrambled for a purchase on the floor. None were found and he was again dragged across the floor toward the open hatch. The monster had enough and now it was retreating, but it didn’t want to let go of its meal. Tom shot at it again with the pistol, and he may have hit it, but he wasn’t sure.
Suddenly, a shadow large shadow blocked the light as Mickey fell across him. Mickey had jumped on top of him and was doing everything he possible could do to keep Tom from being pulled through the hatch. They slid across the floor together. Mickey rotated his body so that his feet were pointed toward the door. They hit the side of the hatch with feet out to anchor themselves. Mickey had his arms locked around Tom. More grenades flew through the door. One of the Contai with a flame thrower ran forward to stand in the hatch, shooting fire into the other room to bath the entire area in flame.
As Tom stared at his death, he could see that the beast was even lar
ger than they’d thought, an immense worm with an anemone head. The beast danced in the throes of agony as fire inundated it. Tom’s leg was in agony. He knew that he would have been ripped in half already had it not been for the graphite clothing and armor that he was wearing.
Someone grabbed the hatch and started slamming it into the tentacle that was wrapped around Tom’s leg, the only part of the beast still in the shuttle bay. The tentacle didn’t let go, but Tom could feel that it was weakening. More people added their weight to the hatch and the tentacle was trapped. The other Contai started hacking at the tentacle to get it off Tom. The damn thing wouldn’t let go. Finally, the meat of the tentacle tore, and the rest of the tentacle retreated. The Contai slammed the hatch closed and dogged the hatch shut. The severed tentacle dropped from Tom’s leg and flopped around on the floor, the sucker beaks gnashing and grasping at air. Tom kicked it away from them. It slid to a stop next to the wall.
Suddenly, everything was quiet, no gunfire, no screaming or yelling, and only the sound of heavy breathing could be heard.
Tom and Mickey lay in a pile, Mickey’s arms still wrapped under Tom’s arms. Tom turned to Mickey, “How ‘bout we not do that again?”
“What the hell was that?” Mickey asked.
Tom shook his head, “I have no idea, but I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.”
Mickey nodded, understanding the movie reference, “Yeah, or more likely, a better weapon system to deal with that damn thing. We’re going to have to rethink our entire approach to this problem.”
Suddenly, Daijj was shouting over the comms system, “Don’t open the hatch! It’s not safe! Don’t open the hatch!”
Tom leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling, “Well, I give him an ‘A’ for effort, but his timing really sucks.”
Mickey chuckled and pulled his helmet off, gasping and sucking in deep breaths of air. Tom did the same. Tom pointed at the hatch, “Is that damn thing locked?”
Multiple heads nodded. Tom and Mickey started extricating themselves from each other, and Tom stood up and held out his hand for Mickey to grasp. Mickey took the proffered hand and used it to lever himself back up to his feet.
