by Carl Conrad
“Roger, Marty,” Scott agreed.
Chapter 5 – Encountering Alien Life
The men turned, checked their compasses, and hobbled back across the Venusian soil toward their craft. Scott stopped from time to time to take photographs, but the surface was so flat and unchanging that many were repetitious. Still, it was their goal to bring back to Earth as much information as they could and it was easy enough to overlook something important when you didn’t have time to study it. So, Scott included as many different angles and views as he could, knowing that more could always be learned in a laboratory than could ever be learned on a field expedition.
But, as they crossed the Venusian terrain, getting closer to the ship, the ground trembled and split in front of them.
“Hold it, Marty!” Scott yelled. “It’s breaking up again!”
But, Marty had already stopped. He froze in his tracks, watching the strange phenomenon for the first time. Lines zigzagged across the soil, sectioning the area into symmetrical quadrants, then widened and split. What could have caused it this time? It wasn’t their body weight because they were still twenty feet away from the cracks. No holes, no pressure.... And, this was the second time it had happened. What if it spread to the ship?
Marty advanced a few feet more, prepared to go around the area if it appeared safe to the sides, when suddenly it split enormously wide. The crust sagged and collapsed, leaving a hole fifteen or twenty feet across with the thick, oily liquid bubbling up near the surface. It buffeted from side to side, much the way water does when a pan is rocked slowly back and forth, then seemed to congeal, to harden along the walls of the pool.
“Look at that!” Scott admonished, amazed by the spectacle. “It’s a pool of some kind!”
Marty remained silent, observing the strange phenomenon wide-eyed in an attempt to learn as much about it as he could. He watched as the surface rose like a giant bubble, split into five sections, then watched as the pieces sank into the dark liquid.
“Those pieces didn’t break away like that before,” Scott added. “It’s happening differently this time. I don’t understand it.”
“Are you getting pictures?” Marty asked. It was an effort to conceal his anxiety.
“Affirmative. I’m shooting as fast as I can. But, I can’t get a good fix on where it’s going to happen next, Marty. It’s happening too fast.”
“Just keep shooting. I want to see this when I have more time to study it. It... it’s almost as if it... it’s... thawing, breaking up the way ice does.”
Marty paused for a long moment, staring unwaveringly at the surface of the rising liquid. But, as he watched, he could hardly believe his eyes.
“Scott? Are you watching this? Are you... Look. Right in the center of the pool. Do you see anything? Do you see anything strange? Does it look like it... it’s getting darker to you? Thicker? Right in the center. Do you see it? Do you... It’s almost like it...”
There was no need for him to finish his sentence. Both watched as a dark, bulbous lump formed in the middle of the pool. It seemed to have no definite shape or outline, appearing only as a rising, undulating glob of gelatin, changing its color and configuration like the slow ripple of a wave. Its contours rolled forward and backward in perpetual motion, and its surface color changed from dark to darker to dark again with each movement. It was composed of the same oily, gelatin-like material as the pool, yet it was more cohesive, more fluid, more mobile, seeming almost as if it could breathe....
Marty and Scott were entranced by its slow undulation. Was it alive, they wondered? Did it know they were present? Where did it come from? How was it formed? Were there others? How did it move? What caused it to change colors? There were so many questions, so many things to learn, a multitude of unexplained possibilities – yet, there was so little time left.
“Scott, we’ve only got twenty-five minutes of oxygen left. Let’s move along the outer edge so we don’t get cut off,” Marty suggested.
The ship was a mere twenty-five or thirty yards ahead and the need to return pressed upon them even greater, but the pool loomed directly in their path.
“Just give me a few more seconds,” Scott said, continuing to photograph the strange phenomenon. “I’ve got to get a couple more.”
“We haven’t got time, Scott. You’ve got enough already. Come on, we’ve got to get back to the ship.”
But, Scott continued to film the strange bubbling shape, waiting for its steady roll to break at the right angle for the best photograph. He clicked off three, four, five more frames. Marty was impatient.
“Scott! We haven’t got...”
“There,” he said with finality. “That’s it, Marty. The digital magazine is full.”
“Then, let’s head back.”
Scott swung the camera out of the way, clamping the hinged extension arm against his life support unit to keep it from interfering with his movements. Then the men shuffled off to the right of the pool, watching as the substance continued to undulate in its murky rhythm. Scott stopped.
“Hold it, Marty!” he yelled abruptly. “Look! It’s splitting again!”
The ground to the right of the first pool cracked, split, and divided into segments exactly as the first had done, then the sections fell away revealing another pool of shimmering liquid. Slowly, the center darkened until another glob formed on the surface. The astronauts shuffled back from it.
“Look at that,” Marty breathed, a tinge of anxiety creeping into his voice. “Another one.”
Ominously, the two creatures – whatever they were – throbbed rhythmically between the astronauts and their ship, blocking any attempt to advance.
“Do you think they’re alive?” Scott asked. “Look at how they seem to follow us when we move. It’s as if they know we’re here!”
“They... they can’t be,” was Marty’s answer. Still, as he watched the two shapeless globs, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. He felt as if they were leering at him, staring, carefully appraising his movements to determine what, or who, he was. Yet, even his uneasiness was a mixture of fear and fascination. If they were alive – could it really be, he thought? – would they attack? Neither Scott nor Marty had weapons. They would be helpless, defenseless. Yet, the creatures seemed so harmless, so quiet, so... curious. Were they trying to communicate? Could they communicate? If only....
Scott interrupted his thoughts.
“Marty, let’s try this way.” He nudged Marty’s shoulder, pointing to the left of the pools. “I’ve only got twenty minutes of air left. We’ve got to get back to the ship.”
Marty understood and followed as Scott started off to the left. He was reluctant to leave but knew that each minute they delayed their oxygen supply would be that much less. He looked down at his own indicator, noting twenty-one minutes left. Apparently he wasn’t using as much oxygen as Scott was.
They moved cautiously to the left, trying not to attract undue attention, but with little change in the creatures in front of them. The creatures continued to undulate and change colors with the same regularity as before. It was almost as if the creatures could sense them! No, it couldn’t be, Marty thought.
Scott stopped. Marty looked ahead to see why, and watched as the ground severed then collapsed in their path. They were blocked off again. Seams radiated out from a spot fifteen feet in front of them, cracked, separated, then dropped away. They were trapped.
Scott stared at the hole in bewilderment. The liquid rose until it was level with the planet’s surface, then bubbled and darkened as a third creature emerged.
“There’s another one, Scott!” Marty yelled.
Marty’s voice was strained. There was a hint of panic, of frustration in it; a futility which quickened his heartbeat.
“They’re blocking us off, Scott! They’re not going to let us get to the ship!”
It was moments like these when Scott had to rely on all his self-control to keep calm. They were in trouble, severe trouble, and only a calm, scie
ntific mind could accurately appraise the situation. But, a tremor of fear, of helplessness, shuddered through his limbs. Pull yourself together, he thought. Keep control. Analyze, evaluate... THINK!
He turned to Marty, a slight trace of fear still remaining in his voice.
“We’re scientists, Marty. There’s got to be an answer to this, something we can do. Just stay calm, don’t give up.” He glanced down at his watch. Seventeen minutes left.
A thought occurred to him. “What if they are alive, Marty? What if they know exactly what they’re doing? That would mean that they must have an intelligence of some kind, some way of thinking. If they do, maybe we can communicate with them, make them understand what they’re doing to us.”
“How?” Marty asked. The word stabbed through them both with the deftness of a knife, echoing through their minds over and over again – how? how? how? How could they communicate with a throbbing glob of... whatever it was?
“We’ve never even seen anything like this before,” Marty added. “How are we going to communicate with them?”
“They’ve never seen us before, either. We’re just as strange to them as they are to us. They’re probably just curious.”
”But, Scott! We could die out here!”
“I know...”
The seriousness of the situation returned to him with the abruptness of Marty’s words. He was right. They could die out here. But, there had to be something they could do!
The three shapeless globs remained pulsating in the pools, neither appearing hostile nor frightened by the astronauts. They merely shimmered in the same rhythmic patterns, changing colors and shape in the slimy gelatin with the ripple of each wave.
“Do you suppose they can see us?” Marty asked, feeling the hypnotic effect of the pools growing more intense. “If they can, maybe they would understand gestures, or something.”
“I doubt it. They don’t appear to have any optic organs or feelers. If they can see at all, it’s probably by some kind of sonar or radar. Watch... Make a movement to the side.”
Marty stepped to his right, watching as the center glob oozed in his direction. It changed shape, then color, but all the time seemed to sense where Marty moved.
“See... I’m sure they know we’re here. But, how?” Scott asked. “If we can only figure that out, maybe we can...”
“What good will that do? They’re not going to understand us,” Marty chided. “And, if we make any strange kind of motions, what do we do if they think we’re going to attack them? They could try to kill us!”
Scott was intrigued by Marty’s proposition. Would they try to kill them? “Let’s move a little closer, Marty, and see if you’re right.”
“Wait a minute! What if they retaliate? Scott, we haven’t got any weapons. We’d be helpless.”
“I know, but we don’t have time to worry about it. Let’s go.” Another minute had slipped by, and necessity began to replace their better judgment.
Moving with extreme caution, so as not to crack the surface around the creatures or fall into some loose chasm of empty powder, Scott and Marty advanced toward the pools. The liquid grew thicker and darker as they approached, and the astronauts felt almost as if they could hear the bubbling sounds of the pools lapping and smacking along the crater edge, mooring the dark, gelatinous creatures in their liquid pens. But, as they moved almost to the crater edge, one of the globs grew larger and more ominous, rising upward in a sort of frozen tidal wave position, threatening any further advance.
“I don’t think they want us to come any closer, Scott,” Marty noted, controlling himself. His voice had calmed, partly from fear, partly from amazement, but his heart still raced with an ever-increasing rhythm.
“...Or, maybe they’re just trying to communicate with us,” Scott replied, seeming almost hypnotized by the monstrous curl and roll of the creature. He took another step forward.
“Hold it, Scott! Stop! Stop!” He stopped, and Marty breathed a sigh of relief. “Let’s not take any unnecessary chances. Let’s toss them something instead. We don’t have to get killed to find out if they’re hostile. Try throwing them your extractor. If they react, then we’ll know their intentions. But, if one of us goes, Scott, the other one will be next. Be careful. It takes two men to fly that ship. I don’t want to try it alone.”
“Roger,” Scott answered. He knew Marty was right.
Scott removed the extractor from the belt of his suit and swung it several times like a pendulum before releasing it. With a full extension of his arm, he tossed it into the middle pool, watching it tumble through the air, end over end. The looming creature in the center ravenously smothered it as if recovering a loose fumble, then slowly oozed to its normal size. That was the last they saw of the extractor.
“What now, Scott?” There was depression in Marty’s voice. He glanced down at his oxygen indicator. “We’ve only got twelve and a half minutes left. We can’t wait. We’ve got to get back to the ship!”
“I know, Marty. I know...”
Chapter 6 – Trying To Communicate
Scott was aware of the time. He knew how urgent it was that they return to the ship, but he was also overwhelmed by the idea of making contact with the creatures. If only they could establish contact, communicate in some way, make them understand that they were friendly, that they didn’t want to harm them, it would be the most dramatic event in the history of mankind. Think of it – actually communicating with another, completely different form of life! But, how? How could they get through to them? They didn’t know if the creatures were friendly or hostile, if they were even intelligent! Perhaps this was some form of natural quagmire, something like quicksand on Earth, just a lifeless pit of sludge spelling doom for anyone trapped in it. Or, the creatures could be mindless, unthinking, insatiable sponges, feeling no more than the pangs of their stomachs, seeking no more than growth and nourishment.
If only they knew what was going on in those pools. If they could just understand how, and if, the creatures communicated. But, Venus was so much different from Earth, so alien and unpredictable. After millions of years of evolution, humans were finally beginning to understand the workings of their own planet – its uses and dangers – and now, were these two astronauts expected to fathom the mysteries of yet another world in the scope of twelve minutes... or perish?
But, this was so strange, so infinitely different from Earth, that Scott felt fatigue and frustration at the same time. There was so much he didn’t know, so much still to learn. Earth wasn’t the only way things could be arranged. There had to be as many varieties of life in the universe as there were stars in the sky, or grains of sand on the beach – so many different ways to organize things, to harmonize, to arrange and rearrange them – yet, there was so little time to understand even these creatures.
What can we do? Scott thought. We have to get back to the ship. But, should we fight them, try to battle our way back? They may be even more intelligent than we are and retaliate if we attack. But, if they don’t let us pass, we’ll suffocate out here!
Scott looked over at Marty, seeing him still intently focused on the pools. Both knew that they had to find an answer and find it fast!
“What do you suppose made them surface in the first place, Marty? Do you think
they were curious, or... hungry? Or maybe both?” Scott was looking for a clue, some thread that might unravel the entire mystery. He was trying to remain calm but felt the weight of time pressing ever greater on him. They had to find an answer!
“I don’t know, Scott. I don’t know. What difference does it make, anyway? We’ve got to get out of here. We haven’t got time to...”
“Marty!” Scott yelled. Marty was startled by the force of Scott’s voice and broke off in mid-sentence. “Marty, listen to me! That’s the only way we’re going to get out of here – to use our heads, to figure out what they are or why they’re here. I’m not playing a quiz game – we’ve got to know! Think! Don’t just stand there – think! Why
are they here? What do they want? Anything – spill it. Anything you’ve seen, you’ve noticed...”
Marty turned back to look at the creatures, staring, thinking. “It’s impossible, Scott. There’s no sense to it, no reason. It’s useless. They must be intelligent, but... how? What? What does it mean? What good is it up here?”
Marty continued to watch them slowly undulate in the pools, watching closely, thinking, looking for a clue, an indication of some kind.
“I’m sure they’re intelligent, Scott. At least they must be able to communicate with each other. Look at them – how they seem to sense each other, how they change colors all the time. It... it’s like they’re talking, like they’re alive. I think they’re intelligent, Scott, I really do. And, I’ll bet we can communicate with them if we try. But, how?”
“Colors! Maybe colors will do it,” Scott suggested. “The way they’re always changing colors, maybe that’s how they communicate. It’s worth a try, anyway. They seem to...”
“But how, Scott? We don’t have anything out here to make colors with. Besides, what colors? How? We can’t just...”
“Well think, Marty! Think! There must be something. We don’t have much time left... How about shapes, or size, or... or... shade? That’s it – shade! If we can use our shadows, get them to block out the Sun, maybe we can get them to understand that we don’t want to harm them. Or, maybe it’ll frighten them off and they’ll leave us alone.”
Marty’s eyes skipped across the surface. “We can’t Scott. The Sun’s almost directly overhead. We’d have to get above them to do that.”
“What about an awning, or sunshade of some kind? If we could only... The sample bags!” Scott thought aloud, suddenly. “Marty, we could use the sample bags!”
“It would never work, Scott. We couldn’t get close enough to them to do any good. You saw how they reacted when we tried it before.”