by Devin Hanson
“Will grant Petty Officer Sarah Aveline with full credit for the discovery,” Alastair cut him off.
“I think not! This is EMC property!”
“This mission is still under USS jurisdiction, and any discoveries found by my crew while operating under orders belong to the crew member.”
“Unless the mission is complete, and the AI is fully operational,” Eckhart said desperately, grasping after straws.
Alastair looked around the atrium pointedly. “It’s not.” He turned to Sarah, and a wide smile split his face. “Well done, Petty Officer. You’ll be famous once we get that footage back to the surface and can transmit to Earth.”
“There will be thousands of scientists flocking to Enceladus,” Dr. Chow said thoughtfully. “Sorry, Eckhart. I think your AI project will be terminated. Law is coming to Saturn.”
Eckhart pressed his lips together, his face pale with spots of hard color high on his cheeks. Sarah could see the understanding build behind his eyes. Not only did EMC miss out on the discovery of a lifetime, but their AI project would be put on indefinite hold while they found another secure location. She almost felt sorry for him, but couldn’t quite get the feeling past the euphoria of the discovery.
“What I don’t understand,” Dr. Chow said, “is how your crew failed to notice the aliens eating off the glass. Surely you wondered where the bacteria were getting to.”
“It was thought to be a growth cycle,” Vivian admitted. Unlike Eckhart, she had only wide-eyed enthusiasm for the discovery. “The bloom would happen, and then it would fade away. Nothing to remark upon. There is no nutrient content in the water column to sustain the bacteria, after all.”
“It doesn’t require organic nutrients to grow,” Dr. Chow said bitingly.
“But… what about trace minerals…” Vivian’s voice trailed off as she put it together.
Dr. Chow finished the thought for her. “It’s salt water out there, with heat provided by thermal vents. There’s no shortage of sulfur in the water column. There may not be traceable complex nitrogen compounds, but all the required building blocks are present. I have to say, if nobody connected the dots after decades of this station being in operation, then Sarah deserves the credit for the discovery.”
“Billions of dollars spent, decades of work, and some girl with a suit camera steals the show,” Eckhart said bitterly.
“That’s Petty Officer to you,” Sarah shot back.
Before Eckhart could open his mouth to escalate the argument further, Adam’s speakers cut on. The high-pitched shriek stabbed at their ears and brought the discussion to a halt. Gradually, the shriek modulated downward until it was clicking and warbling at comfortable levels.
Then, abruptly, the air pressure spiked upward and Sarah’s ears popped. Sudden weight crushed down on Sarah as the gravity generators fluctuated.
“Helmets!” Captain Alastair cried.
Sarah lunged toward where she had been sleeping, fighting the increased gravity, and snatched up her helmet. The air pressure spiked again and the lights went black. Water roared in the lower levels of the station as Sarah fit the helmet into the gasket and sealed it. Instantly, the agonizing pressure on her eardrums eased, and her ears popped again. She slapped on her suit lights and the brilliant white light stabbed outward.
The EMC crew scrabbled after their helmets as a geyser of water erupted from the atrium well. Seething, foaming water rushed across the floor, and a knee-high wave knocked Sarah staggering. She caught herself against a table as more suit lamps flicked on, stabbing dazzling beams of light chaotically about the atrium.
Another wave smashed into Sarah and one of the EMC crew crashed into her, knocking loose her grip on the table and sending them both sliding across the floor. Sarah struggled to her feet and helped Vivian stand. The woman hadn’t managed to get to her helmet in time, and she choked and sputtered on salt water. Another waved rushed toward them and Sarah turned her back to it, sheltering Vivian as best she could.
The water was shoulder deep now, and Vivian struggled to hold her head up above the waves. Like most people who went into space, she was barely over five feet tall. Sarah offered Vivian her arm and helped lift the woman’s head up above the water. Dark rivulets of blood ran down Vivian’s cheeks from her ears.
The geyser of water from the lower levels subsided. In the atrium well, the water seethed as trapped pockets of air throughout the station found their way up to the atrium. Slowly, the water receded as it found its level.
“Check in,” Captain Alastair called. His voice was calm, but urgency underlay his words.
“I’m fine,” Pascal said shortly.
“I’m okay,” Sarah said. “I have Vivian. She didn’t get to her helmet in time. Looks like the pressure may have ruptured her eardrums.”
“I will live,” Dr. Chow said tightly. “I think I broke my arm when a wave threw me against a console.”
“I am unhurt,” Eckhart said.
“As am I,” Anton reported.
There was silence on the air, then Alastair called, “Jayden, report.” More silence. “Jayden Ulrich, report in.”
Sarah turned. The water was chest high now, and she couldn’t see anything. Vivian was a dead weight in her arms and her head lolled. Sarah shifted the woman around so she was lying on her back and her face wasn’t in danger of getting submerged. She couldn’t do CPR or perform mouth to mouth. Taking her own helmet off was too dangerous. All she could do was hold the other woman’s head out of the water and hope the level dropped far enough to expose a tabletop.
“Has anyone seen Jayden?” Alastair called.
There was a chorus of negatives, then Anton said, “Wait, I think I see him.”
There was splashing and muffled cursing. Lights flickered around the atrium and Sarah made out the bulky form of the systems specialist closing in on something floating in the water. Anton bent over and hauled Jayden’s head up out of the water.
Jayden’s head lolled and blood stained the water about him, a glittering, ruby wash of color. Anton looked up and shook his head. “He’s gone.”
“What happened?” Dr. Chow asked, her voice tight with pain. “How could the station flood like that?”
“The rover bay,” Sarah suggested. “If the exterior hatch was opened while overriding the safety protocols, the station would flood.”
“That would require intimate knowledge of the system and complete control of the station’s various portals and airlocks,” Anton objected.
“Adam,” Sarah said, sudden understanding clutching tight about her throat. “Adam did this.”
“No, that’s impossible,” Anton said. “Adam has hard-coded rules that prevent him from causing harm to us!”
“Open your eyes, man!” Sarah shouted at him. “Jayden is dead. Vivian is unconscious. This is exactly what happened to the last crew!”
“I’ve seen enough,” Alastair said firmly. “We’re leaving.”
“You can’t!” Eckhart cried. “The station isn’t secure! Adam hasn’t been recovered!”
“Our mission was to restore functionality to the station,” Alastair reminded him. “Or, failing that, to determine what resources would be required. There was no mention of recovering an AI in my orders. We’re leaving, and the only way we’re coming back is with an EMP. Whatever happened to your pet AI, it’s a threat now. I won’t risk my people any further.”
Vivian struggled weakly in Sarah’s grip, and Sarah looked down to find the woman was awake again. The water level had retreated to waist deep and Sarah let the other woman go after watching to make sure she was steady on her feet. Vivian’s lips were blue and she shivered, but she waded slowly to her work station and retrieved her helmet.
When her helmet was on, Vivian’s voice came through, broken up by her chattering teeth. “We can’t leave.”
“This isn’t up for discussion,” Alastair said bluntly.
“No.” Vivian swallowed. “You misunderstand me. We can’t leave.�
� She pointed at the consoles, their screens blank. “There’s no power. Where’s Jayden?”
Vivian, Sarah thought to herself half an hour later, was dealing with Jayden’s death remarkably well. Learning of Jayden’s death had been a terrible blow to the woman, but she was pushing on with a sort of white-knuckled determination. There was a sunken resolve behind her eyes that drove her. Sarah wasn’t a psychologist by any description, but she thought the need to escape might be the only thing keeping the woman moving.
Sarah was having a terrible time swimming through the submerged hallways of the station. She wasn’t alone, of course. Pascal swam with her, with Vivian keeping pace between the two USS crew. The engineer swam easily through the crystal clear water, neutrally buoyant and unencumbered, while Sarah and Pascal struggled with their bulky suits and tendency to sink.
It was Vivian’s idea to swim down to the reactor and override Adam’s control. Sarah and Pascal went with her because they had already explored the station, and because Captain Alastair refused to let Vivian go alone.
Sarah was terrified. As she swam, she decided it was the logic of the AI that scared her. Whatever Adam was doing, it was doing it in response to its core commandments to preserve life. Somehow, the AI had come to the conclusion that the best way to preserve their lives was to crash-flood the station. There was a logical explanation for it somewhere but she couldn’t figure out what it might be. It was that unknown that scared her more than anything else. She kept scratching at the problem, trying to work out the logic behind the AI’s actions.
Pascal grabbed Sarah’s arm, making her yelp in surprise. “Look!” he said.
Sarah glared at him then followed his pointing finger. Ahead of them in the passageway, a ripple in the water caught her eye.
“An alien!” Vivian said, her voice soft with wonder.
The alien was slightly opaque with ingested bacteria, and it was sucking at the tiles, paying no mind to them. Sarah watched it, feeling the same awe as before. How had such a species come to be? They clearly ate, so they had to excrete as well. Why hadn’t the earlier scientists picked up their traces?
“It’s eating,” Pascal said suddenly.
“There’s no bacteria there,” Vivian said doubtfully.
Sarah realized what Pascal was referring to and her stomach twisted. “Not bacteria,” she said quietly. “Blood. One of the dead scientists had been lying in that spot.”
“Oh. I see.”
Sarah heard the click in Vivian’s throat and hoped the woman wasn’t going to throw up in her suit. Suddenly, the awe was gone. She felt the same righteous indignation that she would have felt at seeing a wild dog chewing on a dead man. Humans were the top of the food chain. No other species had the right to eat them!
“We’re wasting time,” Pascal said. “It doesn’t seem to care about us. Let’s just go past it.”
Sarah nodded, realized nobody would see the gesture, and said, “Okay. Right behind you.”
The alien paused as the humans drew close. Then it abandoned the traces of old blood, drifting up into the hallway to extend a pseudopod toward them as they passed. The creature quivered, and Sarah heard a keening sound come through the material of her helmet. The cry modulated up and down and finally died out in a series of compressed ticks.
When Vivian passed by the alien, it seemed to grow excited, darting around in the water column before settling down to glide along beside the engineer.
“It likes you,” Pascal said.
“Ugh.” Vivian gasped as the alien reached out and enveloped her leg. “Oh, how strange,” she said wonderingly. “It’s vibrating, enough to feel it through my suit. And it’s squeezing, quite forcefully. They look like little wisps of nothing much, but there’s strength in them.”
“Is it hurting you?” Pascal asked, drifting beside Vivian. His hands were half-spread, ready to jump to Vivian’s assistance.
“No, it feels like a massage.”
After a minute, the alien released Vivian and nosed about Sarah before drifting a few feet away. When the trio of humans resumed their swim toward the reactor, the alien followed along behind them. They reached the reactor soon after, and Pascal activated his radio.
“Captain, we’ve made it to the reactor room. We met an alien on the way. It’s strange, but harmless.”
“Acknowledged, Chief. Get that change made and get back up here. No fraternizing with the locals.”
Pascal chuckled and closed the connection. “Okay, Vivian. You’re the boss. Tell us what you need.”
“Just room to work,” the engineer said grimly. She had already removed a bulkhead covering. A diagram was open on her hand-held, and she was comparing it against the exposed wiring, tracing routes with a finger.
The alien drifted into the room and scooted about, pausing in front of various consoles, chirping softly.
“How intelligent are these things?” Pascal asked Sarah. “It looks like it is exploring.”
“I’ve no idea. It seems to have a quite complex vocalization range. I could imagine it being as intelligent as a dolphin?”
“Sounds a little bit like one too,” Pascal said.
“Okay, got it,” Vivian announced. “All I have to do is snip this wire, here, and it will cut Adam out of the loop. He won’t have access to the power controls anymore. Then I have to splice in my hand-held, and we’ll be able to relay commands. Anton will get the lift powered up and we’ll be home free.”
“Best news I’ve had all week,” Pascal said. “Make it happen.”
Vivian produced a wire cutter from her tool belt and cut the wire. Instantly, a speaker set high into the wall came to life, and Adam’s broken voice came down at them. Except now the speaker was under water, and the sound was different. It wasn’t a discordant shriek now, interspersed with static; it was a carefully modulated chirrup, rich with intonation.
The alien went berserk. Quick as a fish, it darted through the water and slammed into Vivian, knocking her away from the open bulkhead. Pascal shouted and lunged through the water, fists swinging. The alien darted through the big man’s blows and battered the chief repeatedly, knocking him back.
“Captain!” Sarah cried, swimming away as the alien continued to pummel Pascal and Vivian, keeping them away from the open bulkhead. “The alien is attacking us! Adam is speaking to them!”
“Do not engage!” Dr. Chow came back, overriding Alastair’s response. “Do not harm them! If they’re speaking, they’re sentient life. We can’t make our first contact one of bloodshed!”
“Sorry to break it to you, Doc,” Pascal grunted, “but they’ve already shed our blood.”
“Chief, this is an order,” Alastair said. “Protect yourself and the others. Get that power under our control.”
“Captain!” Dr. Chow shouted.
“Roger that, Captain,” Pascal said, and lunged to the open bulkhead. The alien slammed into his side, but the chief had already closed his fist around the loose wire Vivian had cut. The impact knocked Pascal to the side, and he tore free a long length of the plastic-coated wire.
“Don’t harm them!” Dr. Chow cried.
Pascal turned about in the water, got his feet planted firmly against a console and the wire wrapped around both fists with four feet of slack between his hands. He shoved off back toward the bulkhead and the alien darted at him again. This time, Pascal brought the wire into the alien’s path and yanked his arms apart, drawing the wire tight.
The alien plowed into the wire and it sliced deeply into its membranous flesh. A faint brown tint bloomed into the water, and the alien shrieked, convulsing madly. Adam’s speaker turned on again, screeching painfully loud. The alien shot for the open door and was gone, leaving behind a dispersing trail of brown.
“All right,” Pascal panted. “I’ll hold the door. Get that hand-held installed, Vivian.”
Vivian swam back to the bulkhead and set to work, her hands moving furiously. Sarah drifted, fear and horror warring within her. What h
ad they done? As far as she could see, there had been no other solution. Pascal was strong, but they were in the alien’s element. There was no effective way to fight it in the water without harming it.
“Okay,” Vivian said. “That’s it! We have control.” She set the bulkhead panel back in place and fastened it back down. “That should keep that slimy bastard out.”
“And now we retreat,” Pascal said grimly. “It’s a long way back to the atrium. If that alien objects to our leaving, we could be in for a rough trip.”
Pascal reported their status back to the captain as they filed out of the reactor room and started swimming back to the atrium. Sarah led the way, with Vivian behind her and Pascal bringing up the rear. Their suit lights cut through the water, casting harsh shadows that jumped and twisted. In every movement, Sarah expected to see the translucent form of the alien lunging toward her.
The trip back seemed endless. They passed through hallways and up ladder wells without encountering the alien again. Sarah felt the beginnings of optimism rise in her chest. They were almost there. They swam up through the ladder well into the second level, and the optimism shriveled and vanished.
The doors to the executive suites had been smashed in, and bulging, deep brown blobs surged and roiled within the rooms. This wasn’t just a single alien. There had to be dozens of them. The aliens had found the collected bodies of the dead EMC crew and were in a feeding frenzy, turning the water hazy with suspended blood and organic detritus.
“Oh my god,” Sarah whispered. “There are so many! Where did they come from?”
“Does it matter?” Pascal asked softly. “We need to keep moving. Do not bang into anything or attract their attention.”
Sarah pushed off the floor gently and took a long, gliding bound down the hallway. The ladder to the atrium was on the far side of the executive suites. The hallway was wide, with a row of benches running down the center, interspersed with potted trees, now dead of submersion and cold. Sarah made it to the first bench and brought herself to a halt with her hands, then turned back to watch the others.
Vivian’s suit wasn’t heavy enough to bring her down to the ground, and she had to swim instead. She pushed off the wall and swam slowly across the gap toward Sarah, moving her feet together in a dolphin kick. Seeing that Vivian was following, Sarah turned back and pushed off toward the next bench.