by Mark Harritt
Tom had assurances, but since he’d almost been dragged to his death, he limped over and double checked the door to make sure that it was truly shut. Then he turned to Mickey and poked him in the chest, “See, I told you that was a bad idea.”
Mickey nodded, “You were right, I was wrong.”
Tom held his arms out, motioning around them, “And nobody from the team is around to hear you admit it.”
Mickey grinned, “And I ain’t going to every admit that I said it, either.”
Tom pointed at Sorinm, “Can I get a witness?”
Mickey turned to look at Sorinm, and grinned at him. Sorinm looked at Mickey, and then looked at Tom and slowly shook his head.
Mickey laughed out loud and walked over to clap Sorinm on the shoulder. Tom walked over toward them like he was going to join them, but then he stopped, put the Turinzoni rifle on Mickey’s shoulder, grabbed his own rifle, and started limping back to the shuttle.
Mickey watched Tom walk away, and then spread his hands, “So it’s like that?”
Tom didn’t look around, “Yep, it’s like that.”
Sorinm looked confused. He looked up at Mickey, “Is Tom upset with me?”
Mickey grinned, “Naw, he ain’t upset. He’s just messing with us.”
Mickey stepped off toward the shuttle. He turned slightly and nodded his head in the direction he was walking, “Come on, then.”
Sorinm waved at the rest to follow, and stepped off after Mickey. He was pleased to see his men fall into position, not too close to each other, but not too far away either, with good fields of fire. The men in the rear of the formation kept turning around to check their six, a movement with a lot more significance after their fight with the worm.
Tom walked slower, and Mickey caught up. “How the hell are we going to get out of here?” Mickey pondered.
Tom shook his head, and hooked a thumb over his shoulder, “I don’t know, but I think we can cross that off the list.”
Mickey nodded, “Yeah, you were right, it was a bad idea. I didn’t know what the hell else we can do, though.” He looked over at Tom, “I thought I lost you back there. That thing was pulling you too fast. I thought you were going to disappear through the door before I got to you. If it had gotten you through the door, I don’t think we would have been able to get you back.”
Tom nodded, and looked at Mickey, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. That thing scared the shit out of me. I thought I was a goner.” He slapped Mickey on the shoulder, “But, you got me. I owe you one.”
Mickey looked back over his shoulder, “If it looks like that, I hope you don’t have to pay me back anytime soon.”
Tom held his fist out, and Mickey brought his hand down to bump it, then held his out for Tom.
Mickey looked down at Tom’s leg, “How you feeling.”
Tom looked over at Mickey, and noticed where he was looking. After he returned the fist bump, he used the same hand to wave off Mickey’s concerns, “Don’t worry about it. It hurts like hell, but I don’t think there’s any major problems. I can still walk.” He thumped his hand against the carbon fiber suit, “This thing was the only thing that saved me. If I hadn’t been wearing it, that thing would have ripped me apart.”
Mickey was concerned about Tom’s limp, “Yeah, maybe. I want to check it when we get back to the shuttle. You may have a sprain. I’m going to check you out tomorrow also. Sometimes tendons or muscles will stiffen up later. If you’re hurt, I don’t want you walking around.”
Tom glanced over at Mickey, “Okay doc. You got a Motrin and water?”
Mickey grinned, “800 milligrams. You can have it when we get back to the shuttle. Change your socks also, that should take care of the pain.”
Tom grinned, “Damn Army doctors.”
Mickey nodded, “Yeah, we’re a bunch of hacks.”
Tom nodded also, “Return To Duty, get off your lazy ass.”
They stopped talking, both thinking about what had happened at the hatch, wondering what they were going to do now.
“So, how the hell are we going to figure this out?” Mickey asked.
Tom pointed at the shuttle, “Well, you and I aren’t going to figure out a damn thing. We’re going to have to use the head shed to figure things out for us. We’re just the hired muscle.”
Mickey grinned, “Ain’t that the truth.”
They got closer, and Mickey used his ear bud to contact Daijj, “Hey, we’re back, you can open up and lower the ramp.”
They stopped and waited patiently as the ramp lowered. Bobby, Bob, and Mike were standing next to Caul, waiting at the back of the shuttle. The ramp thumped against the deck, and Mickey waved.
Bobby stepped forward, “Did you get the message?”
Mickey nodded, “Yeah, we got it. A little late, but we got it.”
Bobby looked down to see Tom limping, “Are you okay?”
Tom stepped onto the ramp, “yeah, a little worse for wear, but nothings broken, if that’s what you mean.” Bob stepped out of the way so that Tom could move past him. Tom continued into the cabin, and then sat down, his leg stretched out in front of him.
Bob motioned toward Tom with his thumb. Mickey grinned, “Naw, he’s good. He took the brunt of the attack.”
Caul’s eyebrow arched. The others looked concerned.
“Attack?” Bobby blurted out.
Mickey nodded, standing on the incline of the ramp, “Yeah. Tom got the door open and the damn creature on the other side was better prepared than we anticipated. It pushed the door open and then grabbed Tom. It almost drug him through the hatch.”
“What was it? What attacked him?” Bob asked.
Mickey pointed at Bob, “That, sir, is a very good question. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life. It kind of had the body of a large worm. The head was different though. Octopus arms, no eyes, and a gullet with teeth pointed backwards. It was huge! Much bigger than we’d anticipated. If it had gotten Tom through the hatch, we’d never have seen him again. That damn thing could swallow him whole.”
Bob looked at Mike and then at Bobby. They all had concern in their eyes. Bob motioned toward Mickey, “You better tell him what you found out, Bobby.”
Bobby nodded, “This place is a lot bigger than I originally thought. It’s freaking huge. There could have been a billion people living here at one time. This place is a warren of connected habitats. There’s probably thousands of miles of tunnels in here. There are large open areas with standing water. Most of what they did was microgravity manufacturing. Elements react differently in microgravity, and this place took advantage of that fact.”
Mickey frowned, “Where are they then? Where are all the people?”
“Gone,” Bobby replied. “It wasn’t just microgravity manufacturing here. They also did bioengineering. It looks like they prepared different bio phenotypes to terra form planets throughout the galaxy. There was a problem, though. They were tired of the governments on earth telling them what to do. They tried to genetically engineer bio weapons to use against them. But they did something wrong, and the weapons got out. They had to flee the lunar colony. A lot of them didn’t make it. Imagine trying to evacuate a billion people with limited resources. I think that’s why we don’t see any other shuttles in this hanger.”
Mickey rubbed his jaw, “Well, that screws us. We can’t shut down the signal from here, and we can’t go out there to shut it down. I know I sure don’t want to face that thing again.”
Bobby crossed his arms, “I don’t know what we’re going to do, Mickey. Give us a few days to see what else we can find. The computer’s decoding more and more. I still don’t want to mess with the source code until I understand it better, but we might find something that can help us out.
Mickey nodded, “Yeah, that’s probably the best idea. We have enough food for about a week, and we can recycle the fluids. We’ll give it a few days, and hopefully you’ll figure something out.”
Mickey turned t
o Caul, “I’m pretty sure the integrity of this area hasn’t been compromised. We dogged the hatch, and Tom checked it to make sure, so I don’t think we have to worry, but . . . “
Caul nodded, “I know. And I agree. No one wanders around by themselves. I’ll make sure we have at least ten soldiers on guard at all times.” He motioned to the ramp, “What do you want to do about that?”
Mickey looked down, “Well, like I said, I think we haven’t lost the integrity of the seal here. I’m not expecting anything to come at us while we’re in the bay. Let’s keep it down for now. If there’s a problem, everybody gets their ass back inside the shuttle, and we shut the ramp.”
Caul nodded, and motioned for his soldiers to come with him so that he could explain the new guard shift. Bob, Mike and Bobby turned back into the shuttle. Mike and Bob went back to sit and watch Ed. Bobby went back to his computer. Mickey walked over and sat down next to Tom.
Mickey looked at Tom’s outstretched leg, “I need to have a look at that.”
Tom held up his hand, motioning for Mickey to wait, “Not tonight. There’s not a damn thing you can really do for me anyway.” He motioned toward Ed, lying on the floor, “Help Ed.”
Mickey looked over at Ed, “There’s not anything I can do for him right now, either.” He looked back at Tom, “At least let me help you out of your kit.”
Tom nodded, “Okay, I guess there is something you can do to help me.”
Mickey stood up and helped Tom to his feet. He helped Tom take the body armor off, and sat it on the floor next to him. There were gouges and scratches on the armor where the beaks in the suckers gnashed against the tough material. Mickey shook his head at the sight and then helped Tom sit back down. Mickey followed suit, taking his body armor off. When he was done, he sat back down next to Tom.
Tom patted the armor, “This stuff saved my life.”
Mickey looked down where Tom was patting, “You wouldn’t have needed that if I hadn’t been such an idiot.”
Tom looked over at Mickey, “Ah, it’s not all your fault, Mickey. I was the one that talked you into letting me open the door.”
Mickey hooked a thumb over at Bobby, “Did you hear what he said?”
Tom nodded, “Yeah, I heard. Thousands of miles of tunnels. Possibly a billion people crammed inside the moon. There could be entire new biological ecologies that have sprung up in here. God knows what the hell everything has evolved into. Especially if everything is dark all the time. There could be thousands of predators like that last one we ran across.”
Mickey yawned, “yeah, that could be a real problem. I’m sure that the three, I mean, two amigos are working on a better weapon already. But, you didn’t focus on the important part, Tom.”
Tom frowned and turned his head to look at Mickey, “What did I miss?”
“Well, this used to be a manufacturing center,” Mickey replied.
“Okay, and?”
“Well, there’s thousands of miles of corridors here, right?” Mickey asked.
Tom crossed his arms. He had no idea where Mickey was taking this, “And?”
Mickey grinned, “And not a grey or green man in sight. No Dostori Rev either. Plus, how we came here, they’d never find us.”
Mickey saw the light come on in Tom’s eyes.
“You’re saying that we could bring everybody here, and then hack out part of the jungle for our own use?” Tom asked.
Mickey nodded, “Yeah, if we can ever get out of here. Or, even if we just stayed in this hanger, we could bring everybody here, and then fly back to find food. Everybody would be safe. We wouldn’t have hunters and soldiers trying to track us down and kill us.”
Tom’s frown disappeared, but he still looked uncertain, “I don’t know, Mickey. If all the predators here are like that last one, I’m not sure we could make a dent in the local ecology.”
Mickey shrugged, “Still, there had to be housing, agriculture. If we could find the manufacturing facilities I’m sure the head shed can design better weapons for us to use.”
Tom shook his head, “I don’t know Mickey. Maybe we can bring everybody to this hanger, but the rest seems like a stretch. We don’t know how long this facility has been abandoned. The manufacturing areas could be rust for all we know. Hell, if the dust and dirt in that control room are any indication, this place has been abandoned for an incredibly long time.”
“Just think about it, Tom. Maybe Bobby can find some other way for us to get that navigation beacon shut off.”
Tom had a calculating look on his face, “Well, it looks like we have plenty of time for them to figure out something.”
Mickey nodded, “Yeah, it looks like we’re stuck here for a bit.”
There was a groan. Mickey looked over at Ed and saw him move his hands. Talk about the lunar facility was quickly forgotten. Mickey stood up and strode to Ed’s side. He knelt and started taking vitals. Everything seemed normal. Mickey took out his flashlight and then pulled back one of Ed’s eyelids. The irises contracted when the light hit them. The light also elicited another groan from Ed.
“Ed, can you hear me?” Mickey asked.
Bob and Mike watched while Mickey checked Ed’s vitals. “Is he going to be okay?” Bob asked.
Mickey looked up at Bob, “I don’t know. He seems to be better every time I check his vitals. Now he’s reacting to what I’m doing, which he was incapable of doing previously. Hopefully he gets better. His moaning is a good sign, as is the movement of his han . . .”
Mickey didn’t finish his sentence because, right at that moment, Ed opened his eyes, looked at Mickey, and shrieked. His arms came out from under the sleeping bag that had been placed over him to keep him warm, and he started pushing against Mickey. Mickey deflected Ed’s hands, but he could see that his closeness was causing Ed’s discomfort, so he stood up and moved away.
Ed levered himself up onto his elbows, looking wildly around the shuttle. Bob tried to reach down and console him, but Ed pulled away from Bob’s hands.
Mickey raised his hands, “Whoa, whoa, I think we’re frightening him. Let’s move away from him so he can get his bearings.”
Bob and Mike slid toward the front of the aircraft, and Bobby, Weitz, and Randall moved toward the back. Ed noticed them moving away, and he scrambled to get up onto the jump seat from the floor. Ed wasn’t a skinny man, and he had trouble getting up. Then he looked down and noticed that he was only wearing his underwear.
“Where are my clothes?” he asked, staring down at his stomach.
Mickey spoke, “Ed. Ed! Do you know who I am?”
Ed looked up at Mickey with a concerned look on his face, “Who? Who are you?”
Mickey was worried that there was brain damage, but then Ed snapped his fingers several times.
“Wait, wait, hang on! I know you. I know you. You’re Mitch, Mich, Mike?”
Mickey smiled, “I’m Mickey. Do you know who you are?”
Ed nodded, “yeah, I know who I am. I’m Ed.”
Mickey waved his hand toward the rest of the cabin, “Do you know anybody else?”
Ed looked around, “yeah, I know everybody but those people down there.” Ed waved toward Caul and his Contai soldiers.
Bob stepped closer, “Ed, do you remember me?”
Ed blinked myopically, “Of course I remember you, Bob. And that’s Mike standing right behind you.” He continued to look around the room and name people, “And that’s Daijj, Smarij and Zenj.” He pointed across the shuttle, “That’s Hank and Will.” Then he turned to look at the three programmers and noticed Randall. Ed’s face turned crimson as he remembered he wasn’t wearing clothes.
“Ah, where are my clothes?” he asked.
Mickey grinned, grabbed the clothes and handed them to Ed. He’d been worried about Ed, but it looked like he’d made a full recovery.
Ed put his shirt on first, and then started to pull his pants on. He looked at Mickey, “Where’d the angels go?”
Mickey stared at
Ed, “What angels?”
Ed waved his hand in the air, “The angels. I was surrounded by angels when I was laying here.” Ed pointed down at his makeshift bed.
“Well, hell,” Mickey thought.
----------------------------------------------------
Tekepli was a lucky woman. The grinder had been hot on her tail since it found her trail in the open area next to the lake. Tekepli had been in a quandary when she realized that she was being trailed by the big predator. It had blocked her path to the ducts that her people used as highways between the clans. Her people used the ducts to stay away from the larger predators, but this one had caught her out. She’d had two choices. Go back toward home where she had others that might help her fight the giant worm, or lead it further away and hope that she could find some way to outwit it. She didn’t want to put others in danger, so the second option was the only one for her. She’d darted through the darkened halls, the gloom pierced by the phosphoric light of lichen, fungi and molds.
As she thought all was lost, fate found a way for her to avoid if not escape the grinder. Tekepli had been just as curious as the grinder had been when they both spotted the light coming from the window, but she’d shied away, sensing the possibility of putting distance between herself and the worm while the grinder was attracted to the light.
Thankful for the light in the window, she’d hidden herself as far back into the open area as possible, searching for one of the small ducts. She’d found it and quickly climbed into it. Then she’d discovered that it was blocked about thirteen meters back. The light disappeared, and the grinder quickly turned back to its hunt for Tekepli. She was trapped, but it was a damn sight better to be trapped than be dead. She’d rather die of starvation than have her flesh ripped from her body and be stuffed down the gullet of the grinder. She shuddered to think about that fate.
She’d backed fully down the tunnel, her back against the debris that blocked her escape, watching the tentacles of the grinder searching for her flesh in the small tunnel, falling far short of her position. It knew she was there, though, sensing her through the suckers on its tentacles. So, she waited, fully expecting to die, her flesh dinner for the vermin that permeated the tunnels. While she waited to die, she thought about the light in the window and wondered where it came from, not that she’d ever figure out that mystery in the time left to her.
