by Rick Chesler
“Blake, Caitlin here: Team Two is on the way to join you at your location with information, over.” With information was an Outer Limits code phrase that meant, we need to switch to a secure channel to discuss an issue not meant for outside ears. Not that Burton wasn’t already aware Suzette was missing, but still. She knew Blake would want privacy while they figured out how to deal with it.
Caitlin reached for the volume control to her earpiece as static crackled over the comm channel, probably because of the thick rock wall separating them. She heard Blake say, “…saw them once before but I…astrobiologist…”
Caitlin strode as fast as she dared, careful not to hit her head on the ceiling, while gesturing for James and Asami to follow her. They rounded the end of the rocky wall that separated their tunnels. She sidestepped around a jumble of loose rock on the tunnel floor and entered the stretch of tunnel where Blake’s team was supposed to be. She intended to interrupt whatever the hell they were doing; this was no time for courtesy. But she was not prepared for what she saw here.
Blake and Martin stood facing one another about four feet apart. Martin’s helmet light reflected off Blake’s faceplate in a brilliant starburst of light. But it wasn’t Blake’s head Caitlin was looking at.
His hands were held out in front of him, cupped together. In them, something squirmed and wriggled. Caitlin was still too far away to discern any detail. Whatever it was, it had the unwavering attention of both Martin and Blake, neither of whom appeared entirely comfortable with it. Martin shifted his weight from one foot to the other, as if ready to put distance between himself and Blake at any second, but unsure of which direction in which to go.
Whatever was going on was far too bizarre for Caitlin to make sense of immediately and she needed to act now. “Blake, listen to me.” She gave him a hand signal that meant to switch to a private channel. Blake either ignored her or didn’t see it, because he continued his animated conversation with Martin.
“Just look at it! It’s harmless, at least with your suit on.”
“I really don’t recommend coming into contact with it even through a suit, Blake. Whatever it is—”
To hell with the private channel, Caitlin thought. “BLAKE! SUZETTE IS MISSING!”
Blake slid one of his feet back on the tunnel floor as he crouched down and scooped up some dust in one hand while bobbling the object in his other.
“They get nervous without the dust,” he said, pouring the regolith onto the thing, which appeared to be moving, but it was difficult for Caitlin to be sure because Blake himself was also in motion, in some kind of lunar balancing act. “Almost like a fish out of water,” Blake continued, dumping more gray dust onto his cupped hand until it was full and rained in slow motion from his gloved fingers back to the cave floor.
“Blake, her camera is lying on the floor of a tunnel below us, and I saw the floor move!” At this, Martin looked away from the spectacle of Blake and the thing and turned toward Caitlin.
“I hear you, Caitlin,” Blake said, his face unreadable behind his helmet.
“Maybe we should split up and go looking for her,” Martin suggested.
“No splitting up.” Blake reached into a vest pocket of his suit. The motion threw him off balance and he almost fell over as he juggled the object in his palm. “Martin, reach into my front left chest pocket, please, and pull out the sample container.”
“I think you should let it go, Blake,” Martin said. “We’re not properly equipped for live biological specimen collection. We’ll need to—”
“Whoa, wait a minute, did you just say ‘live biological specimen?’” Asami asked, rounding the rock wall into view. “What is that in your hand, Blake?”
“This, my friends, is E. fucking T. The first ever extraterrestrial life, documented and witnessed by scientific professionals on this very mission. And it appears to be multi-cellular at that. All of you are making history.”
“Suzette?” Caitlin reminded Blake.
“Let’s go down into the cave you found and get her,” Blake said. Martin reached a hand into Blake’s suit pocket and removed a clear plastic cube. He stepped back from Blake and turned the container over in his hands.
“Put some dust in it,” Blake said, before adding, “Caitlin, please take your team into the tunnel to get Suzette. We will be right behind you.”
Martin knelt and put the cube to the ground. “This doesn’t look like any bio-specimen container I’ve ever seen, Blake,” he said, dragging the box through the lunar dust.
“About two-thirds full,” Blake said, before addressing Caitlin. “Go now, Caitlin!”
The astronaut fought an upwelling of mixed emotions raging inside her. Blake had found some kind of life on the moon! She wanted to revel in the moment, to reflect on what this milestone meant for her life and career, and indeed, for humanity, but there was not time. She turned and headed back toward the mysterious opening.
Asami skipped after her, saying, “You said you saw the floor move. Could be a moonquake, although that thought is less than comforting down here. But seismic activity is quite common on the moon, and some quakes would register a 5.5 on our Richter scale back on Earth.”
“It’s for geologic specimens,” Blake said as Martin rose to his feet, “but it’s airtight, it has a locking lid, it’s sturdy and it’s chemically inert.”
“And it’s all we’ve got, right?” Martin said, walking over to Blake with the dust-filled cube.
“Right.”
“All right, I’m on board. I would give my left nut to get some DNA from this thing. If it has DNA. Drop the critter in.” Martin held the cube poised beneath Blake’s hand.
“I’d like to go back to the lander now,” James announced. He stood motionless behind Asami, where he’d been silently observing the goings on for some time.
At this, Caitlin turned around in time to see Blake fumble the creature as he looked up at James. Martin deftly maneuvered the container in time to catch it, snapping the lid down with soundless finality. She saw Blake nod thanks to Martin while a flurry of soil roiled inside the acrylic cube like a dust devil in miniature.
“Is something wrong, James? We need to find Suzette now.” Blake took the specimen in its cube from Martin and placed it carefully into his own suit pocket.
“I don’t need to go cave exploring anymore,” James replied, his voice low and calm. “I came this far, I saw this much, and that’s enough for me. Earlier you told me that anytime anyone wanted to go back to the lander, for any reason, that you would have Caitlin escort them back. You said that’s how the tourist trips will work, too. So, let’s see it. I want to go back now. ”
18 | Life
Although James was glad to shake Blake up with his request to go back to the rover, the singular thought continuously refreshing itself in his mind was that writhing animal thing. That’s not microbial! A lot of people expected the discovery of life outside Earth to be first seen under a microscope. He wasn’t sure what the hell this thing was, that was for sure; he was no scientist. But he knew a wiggling animal when he saw one.
He could barely pay attention to the outrage expressed by Martin Hughes after being blindsided by Blake’s find. Apparently Blake knew about these...creatures...from previous trips up here and had suppressed the news thus far, saving it for when he would have the corroboration of top scientists. I can’t wait to put this in my report. But even James knew the stunning implications of the find.
That’s not microscopic. A full-on animal found living on the moon!
He tried to tune out Blake and Caitlin arguing as he thought about it while both teams made their way through the tunnels.
Whatever it was, it was alive. The entity was either worm or insect or something in between.
But how? There’s no atmosphere here on the moon.
That didn’t change the facts, though. In Blake’s possession was a life form from another world. He couldn’t yet fathom the implications, not just for how people regard
ed the moon and taking trips to it, but for how our species regarded Earth – and itself.
What else might reside in these subterranean walls?
“Caitlin,” Blake said into his comm unit, “meet me at the outside entrance to the tunnels.”
“Blake,” she protested, “I’m not going anywhere until we find Suzette.”
Suzette. That’s right. Blake’s VP of Marketing had gone missing somewhere in the next tunnel over. That would absolutely have to find its way into his report, too, Burton thought. No doubt the walls were simply too thick in some areas to communicate via the radios. How far could she have wandered off?
“We are going to find Suzette,” Blake said. “But first, we are going to escort Mr. Burton to the surface per his deliberately untimely request. Then you are going to drive him in a rover back to the LEM while Asami, Martin and I go back to get Suzette.”
As James, Asami and Caitlin moved through the tunnel, James again felt out of breath. Maybe that’s why you asked to leave the tunnels? Maybe you really are scared? Can’t hack it anymore? He turned to check his oxygen gauge. When he did, his headlamp shone on the wall to his right. The rock appeared to shift ever so slightly. Seeing things. Gotta get out of here before I pass out.
When he reached the exit to the parallel tunnels, Blake and Martin were already there, standing on the crater’s interior slope. Behind his helmet, Burton’s eyes narrowed while he waited for Blake to meet his stare. Instead, Blake simply offered his hand. “James, we’ll see you back at the LEM.”
Burton shook his hand but didn’t say anything as Blake walked around to the exit of the other tunnel, Martin Hughes trailing him by several feet. Just up ahead a single headlamp beamed in their direction. Blake waved at it.
“Asami, lead us to the spot where you last saw Suzette.”
19 | Car Trouble
Outside of the tunnel, Caitlin picked her way toward the crater’s rim. After the darkness of the subterranean labyrinth, the glare of the sun off the moon’s surface was as brilliant as a ski slope on the brightest of days. Still, she was glad to be out of the dungeon-like environment. Glad, that is, except for the company of James Burton. He was doing a weird sideways hopping move as opposed to Caitlin’s steady long strides, but it was getting him up the crater.
“Everything seems okay with your suit, Mr. Burton. You feel okay? Claustrophobic down there? You can answer truthfully, they can’t hear us over the comm, it doesn’t penetrate underground.”
“Nah, I was fine. I wanted to prove a point to Blake that it’s not as simple as it seems to give people the choice of leaving once they get so far from the LEM, especially underground.”
Caitlin stopped her forward progress about twenty feet from the crater rim. She grabbed Burton’s arm as he went hopping past and turned him back toward her.
“You asshole! Suzette is missing down there! We should both be searching for her. This is not the time to try and prove some petty point. I’m going back down and you’re coming with me.”
“Take it easy. I’m exaggerating a little. It’s not like I had to go running out of there or anything, but I have no interest in exploring the tunnels. It wasn’t even in the itinerary. And that strange life down there—”
“Blake wanted it to be a surprise.”
“He certainly succeeded on that score. Even the exobiologist didn’t seem too happy about being taken for a loop like that. I was surprised Blake brought us all down there. Let him be surprised that I wanted to leave early.” Burton hopped off again, breaking free from Caitlin’s grip as he bounded toward the rim. Caitlin started after him.
“It was a mistake for Blake to even allow you to escort me out of here alone,” Burton continued.
“Why is that?” Caitlin swallowed hard as the Earth came into view above the crater rim. Ray...
“What if I just completely freaked out? Could you really control me? I must outweigh you by a good fifty pounds!”
“Stop it, Mr. Burton, you’re scaring me.”
“Well, think about it! Suppose I’m Joe Tourist and I’ve come this far but all of a sudden I’m not comfortable anymore and I just…WANT TO GO BACK HOME!”
Caitlin winced in pain with Burton’s sudden yelling and clawed at her comm unit’s volume control. “What the hell’s the matter with you?” she said but she was drowned out by Burton, who now pointed at the Earth, screaming, “TAKE ME HOME! I WANT TO GO NOW, WANNA GO RIGHT FUCKING NOW TAKE ME HOME!” He jumped up and down, rising high in the weak gravity before landing again, sending a loose jumble of gray rocks and soil sliding a little ways down the crater.
Caitlin hurried past Burton to the lip of the crater. “Are you done?” she asked when he stopped yelling.
“I think I’ve made my point.”
“We have psych tests to predict that kind of behavior in potential clients. You took them yourself.”
“Easy to fake your way through. And not only that, but they can be plain wrong. Psychology is certainly not what you would call an exact science. In fact, some would argue it’s not really a science at all.”
“Just don’t do anything like that again, okay? You’ve made enough points for one afternoon. I won’t—holy shit....” She paused, staring down the outside of the crater.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” Alarm crept into Burton’s voice as he moved to Caitlin’s side. When an astronaut said, holy shit, it wasn’t going to be a good thing. But then he thought about it...“Oh, wait… I see. Good one! Giving me a little scare back, are you? Fair enough.”
Caitlin swung her helmet side to side, pointing down the crater. “We’re missing a rover.”
Burton followed her finger with his eyes until he spotted the lone moon buggy parked about twenty feet down from the rim. “What? Where is it?”
“Down there,” Caitlin said, pointing all the way to the crater’s base, where the other vehicle lay on its side.
“My God. How did that happen?”
Caitlin almost told Burton about how she had placed the wheel chocks, but decided she didn’t want to give him any more ammo against Blake. Maybe she hadn’t been careful enough about it because Blake was rushing her back into the crater, Burton would allege. This was bad enough.
“Got me. It rolled down the crater, obviously. Some loose rock must have slipped out from under the wheels, disturbed by our passage, I guess. Let’s ride this one down and check it out.”
Caitlin climbed into the rover behind the joystick control. James walked around to the other side while Caitlin’s earpiece crackled with Dallas’ voice.
“Well, hello again, darlin’. Good to have you back in comm range. Everything copacetic, over?”
“I copy you, Dallas. Switch to Q-band, please, over.” James would know she’d just went to a private channel with Dallas, but that was too bad. She made the frequency change while the FAA man took a seat beside her. She ignored his look and put the rover into gear.
“What’s up?” Dallas asked. “How was the crater?”
“Lot going on, Dallas, and most of it not good. Burton and I are taking one of the rovers back to the LEM now. The others are still in the tunnels. Blake discovered some kind of small life form and he and Martin captured it in a specimen box. Also, Suzette—”
“Say again, Caitlin? Life?”
As she drove down the crater’s outer slope, Caitlin recounted events for Dallas.
“You did the right thing,” he said when she finished. “If somebody says they want to go back to the LEM, take them back to the LEM. Even if they say they’re joking. It’s nothing to mess with. Blake will find Suzette. She’s probably updating her social network status with how we go to the bathroom up here or something like that.”
Caitlin laughed out loud as she leveled out the rover after navigating around a large boulder. James pointed wordlessly off to their right.
“I can see the other rover now,” Caitlin said to Dallas.
“Before you switch back to the party channel, I promi
sed Ray that I’d relay his message to you, although it’s too late now, anyway.”
Caitlin’s breath caught at the mention of Ray’s name. She stole a glance at her home planet before returning her attention to the lunar terrain beneath her wheels. “What’d he say?”
“He said to get you back to the LEM as soon as possible, that you should stay out of the tunnels. Sounded highly concerned. Something I don’t know about?”
Caitlin pulled up to Blake’s rover, wondering how Ray could have known about those living things in the tunnels. Or maybe it was just general concern about doing a subterranean EVA so far from the LEM?
The rover lay on its side, two of its wheels still spinning with no air resistance to counteract their motion. “Tell him I’m heading back to the lander, and I’m fine. First, I’m going to check out Blake’s rover, see if it’s salvageable.”
She pulled her rover to a stop and walked to the overturned moon buggy. She felt her stomach clench as she surveyed the damage. It wasn’t good. The battery casing had cracked, and she could see flammable electrolyte leaking into the lunar soil. Great. We’re polluting the moon already. The electrical wires leading from the battery had been ripped from their connections. Even worse, the rear axle had been severely bent.
Caitlin was about to speak over the common frequency when an anomaly on the moon’s surface caught her eye. It was in the distance, about halfway between the wrecked rover and... the other LEM. Black Sky’s lander. She focused on the object for a bit and saw that it was really two objects. Bouncing, moving. Hopping.
Spacesuits!
Two space-suited figures were making their way toward the Black Sky LEM.
Caitlin’s blood ran as cold as the space around her. She looked back up the crater, carefully examining the ground. There! Extra sets of boot prints.
“What’s wrong?” James asked, watching her silently gaze up the hill.