Trapped on Venus

by Carl Conrad

  Stimson realized how ominous that might sound. As if the astronauts didn’t have enough to worry about without being on the alert for an attack of some kind of creatures from overhead.

  Considering the emotional condition the astronauts might be in, Stimson asked if they wanted to continue? “How do you guys feel?” he asked. “Do you want to go on, or do you think you need to return to the ship?”

  That was a big question for both of the astronauts. So much had happened – so much in just the blink of an eye! – that it left them tense and alert. “We’ve got to go on, John,” Scott answered. “Don’t you think so, Marty?”

  “Yes, I know it could be dangerous... even foolish,” Marty answered. “But if we don’t do this now, the chance will pass us by. I’m ready for anything,” he concluded. “All we’ve got are the extractor rods to fight off any intruders, so we’re at a disadvantage. But, maybe they’re not predators, anyway. I can’t say this was an aggressive attack. The thing just flew into our ship. He ... she... it – whatever it was – was probably as surprised by us as we were by it. Come on, Scott. Let’s get the extractor rods out of the equipment locker and get started.”

  Scott agreed as they both turned to the equipment locker that was built into the side of the landing craft. They swung open the door of the compartment, then each grabbed a three foot long thermal plastic rod, with a handle that could be squeezed on one end and two pinch prongs that could be used to pick things up on the other end, and pressed them into the clamps that were built into the legs of the side of their suits.

  “Ok, we’re armed and ready,” Marty joked with a sense of irony in his voice. “If anything bigger than a Venusian mouse comes after us, we’re probably doomed!”

  As Scott pulled his extractor rod out of the compartment, he also thought of taking the tool box with them. “Shall we take this, too, Marty?” he asked. “Never can tell what we might need to get that monitoring equipment working.”

  “Hey, yeah. There’s a hammer and some duct tape in there,” Marty added. “Give me those two things and I can fix anything!”

  Scott pulled the small kit out of the compartment. It was not much bigger than a carry-on bag for the airport, but it did have some helpful gadgets in it. It wasn’t particularly heavy, but there were two fairly large “Venus wheels”, about 4” in diameter with a broad roller base, that could be fitted onto it to make it easier to maneuver.

  “Attach that collection kit to it, Marty,” Scott instructed. The small but durable case was made to fit interchangeably on the tool box, and allowed them to travel as a unit.

  “I just wish one of these things had a gun with a scope on it,” Marty joked as he snapped the wheels in place and extended the handle so that it could be pulled.

  “Yes, I know you’ve got to feel a sense of vulnerability,” Stimson consoled them. “But you’re scientists not big game hunters. We don’t want you killing anything anyway. You’re on a mission of peace.”

  “It’s not US killing THEM that I’m worried about, John,” Marty said as Scott closed the door of the equipment locker. Then the astronauts took a few cautious steps away from the ship.

  “Which way are we heading, John?” Scott asked as he looked at the terrain around them.

  It was as if they were inside the rim of a small valley wall that varied in height from about two or three meters at its lowest to as high as eight or ten meters. There were gaps in the wall where it had been eroded in places, and it was thought that the astronauts could exit the crater through one of those places.

  “Do you see that wide gap in the rim of the wall just to the south and east of your lander?” Stimson asked.

  “The one with that angular rock formation just to the right of it from where we are?” Scott said, identifying it further.

  “Yes,” Stimson confirmed. “That should take you out of the crater so you can see the site where you were before.”

  “Although, we won’t know what kind of condition that area is in until we get there,” added Marty.

  “That’s right,” Stimson cautioned. “You said the ground was breaking up beneath your ship when you took off. It could be just a pile of rubble.”

  Professor Andrus, the Polish chemist and expert on extraterrestrial life, attempted to add to their expectations.

  “As much as vee can tell,” he said, “it may be coom-pleet-ly covered over and smoove again. Vee half a teery daat it is a hard crust daat is baked by the heat. Maybe eet is displaced by moove-ment beneet dah surf-as, but eet is steel solid enuff to walk on, and eefen to support your ship.”

  “So what he’s saying,” Stimson clarified, “is that they believe the ground may just bake itself closed again if it breaks apart. There may not even be any trace of where you were before. We’re hoping that at least the monitoring equipment you left will be there, but we won’t know that until you get there.”

  “Then, I guess we should get going,” Scott concluded. “We’ll see what we can do, and we’ll be alert for anything that might happen.”

  “You can say that again,” Marty added. “Could be things in the air or under the ground. I’m beginning to feel like this is a busy place!”

  The men smiled a little nervously at the accuracy of Marty’s joke, but they also felt the stress of venturing into such uncertainty. There was no way to anticipate what they would encounter. In fact, there wasn’t even a certainty that they would see anything at all which might be an even bigger disappointment than finding something. But, they started in the direction of the gap in the wall.

  The ground was dusty and soft, much like a flat desert, but the murkiness of the atmosphere made it seem almost like the bottom of a lake. The astronauts shuffled along carefully, spaced several meters apart in case the ground should suddenly open up or give way, but nothing happened. Both Marty and Scott also let their eyes scan the skies in front of them as they glanced up and down in an effort to be ready for anything that might happen.

  “Can you describe what you’re seeing for us?” Stimson asked. “Remember, we don’t have any visuals without the cameras. We’re tracking your movement by radar, but we can’t tell what you’re seeing.”

  “It’s all pretty much the same, John,” Scott reported. “Looks like sand... kind of like sand on the bottom of a lake or the ocean. I can feel the heat – it’s very intense – but my suit is still cool.... How about you, Marty? You’re the geologist. Anything in particular you notice?”

  “It’s so unusual... unique,” Marty answered as he let his eyes look around. I think Professor Andrus’ theory about the surface being baked makes a lot of sense. There are very few undulations... no vegetation, of course. I have been interested in some of those sort of boulder groupings near the edge of the rim. They look like they might have been here for a while. If I could get a couple samples from them, I’m sure it would be helpful to know what kind of minerals they’re made of. Could be a kind of silicon... could be a metal, or just sand. I can’t tell without chipping a piece off.”

  “Maybe on the way back, Marty,” Stimson acknowledged. “Right now, I just want to get you back by your original landing site to see if the equipment is there, and what it looks like. Your first objective is to reset the monitoring equipment you put there the first time you landed. Then, our second priority will be to see if you can find those creatures – either the ones under the surface, or those in the air. If you can get a sample of either one of them, you’ll push science ahead by decades!”

  “Yes, I know that would be important, John,” Scott concurred. “But we don’t even know how we’re going to collect a sample. And, if they’re not very friendly about it, it may be harder.”

  There was no more talking for a minute or so, then Marty broke in. “Hey, what’s that up by the rim, Scott?” The astronauts were almost at the rim of the crater they had landed in when Marty saw a pool of liquid starting to form on the inside of the wall. It wasn’t very large, maybe only ten feet in diameter, but it was definitely
a liquid pool of some kind. “Shall we get closer to it, Scott?” Marty asked.

  Stimson was quick to intervene. “No, guys! I know it sounds tempting, but we’ve got to get to that equipment first.”

  “There’s undoubtedly something there, John,” Marty pleaded. “If you want us to make contact with the creatures, this might be an opportunity to do that.”

  “I know it sounds like a lost opportunity, Marty, but it may also mean that you’ll never get to the equipment if anything happens. How far are you from that gap in the rim of the crater?” Stimson asked.

  “We’re pretty much there, John,” Scott replied. “It’s right here to my left.”

  Just then, another pool of liquid began to emerge to the left of the astronauts. It was about ten or twelve meters away.

  “Stimson,” Scott alerted him. “There’s another pool forming to the left of us.”

  “What?” Stimson reacted. “There are pools on both sides of you?”

  “Yes,” Scott answered then began to try to assess the situation. “There are pools on either side of the gap in the rim.”

  “Can you make out anything in them?” Stimson asked.

  “Negative, John,” Scott responded. “It’s a pretty dark liquid. I can’t see into it – especially from this angle – but it’s sort of rolling like a liquid in a tank.”

  “Just leave them, Scott,” Stimson instructed them. “Go through the gap and get out of the crater.”

  It was a difficult choice to make. The Mission Commander knew that they might be missing an opportunity of tremendous importance by leaving the pools of liquid behind, but he weighed that against the possibility of years of data streaming back to Earth after they left the planet.

  “Alright. Here we go,” Scott said as he walked through the opening in the rim and into the area where they had been when they had to blast off previously. Scott was astonished at what he saw, but not surprised. “Marty... it’s gone!”

  Marty stepped through the opening to join Scott. As he looked at the area in front of him, he knew what Scott was talking about. There was nothing there! “It’s like we were never here!” he admonished.

  Stimson tried to clarify what he thought they were seeing. “You mean it’s... undisturbed? You can’t even see any undulations or ripples in the surface?”

  “Affirmative, Earth,” Scott replied. The astronauts panned the surface. “I do see the SAM,” Scott continued as he referred to the Seismic and Atmospheric Monitoring equipment that was probably 40 or 50 yards away from them. “And, there’s the HuRT unit,” Marty added as he saw the Heat and Radar Telemeter unit tipped on its side twenty or thirty yards in another direction.

  “Good,” Stimson said approvingly. “Get to those first, then we’ll see what we can do next.”

  Although, just at that moment, a larger pool of liquid began to appear and expand between the astronauts and the equipment they were going to try to reach!

  Chapter 14 – We Come In Peace

  “Scott! Look at that?” Marty said in astonishment. “It’s like... it’s happening all over again!”

  “What is it, guys?” Stimson asked. “What’s happening?”

  “It’s those creatures again,” Scott answered in an almost trance-like voice.

  “What? Do you see them?” Stimson asked. He knew the problems that could potentially result.

  “It’s a pool... about twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter,” Scott explained.

  “There! Do you see that, Scott?” Marty said anxiously as he pointed at the pool.

  And, Scott did see it. There was a thickening in the liquid, then some kind of object seemed to push its way up out of the liquid. It didn’t have any identifiable features, it was more like a large bubble of mud or the bubbling surface of some lava.

  “There’s something there,” Scott said to Marty and he acknowledged it. “I know,” Marty replied. “Stimson,” Scott went on. “We’ve made contact. They’re here.”

  “What is it, Scott?” Stimson asked. “Can you tell?”

  Both Scott and Marty looked at the pool that had expanded to an even larger size. It was perhaps forty or maybe even fifty feet in diameter now, and there appeared to be at least three – maybe four or five, it was hard to tell – separate objects looming in the pool. The undulations of the liquid made it difficult to tell more precisely.

  “It’s hard to explain, John,” Scott said as he stared at the creatures in the pool. “They don’t really have any identifiable features except that they keep moving.”

  “Daat might be from zee heat,” Professor Andrus interrupted. “Zay may keep moofing to keep from crusting ofer.”

  “Yes, that might be it,” Scott replied. “It does seem like it’s more of an undulating motion than that they’re moving,” he added. “They might be just keeping the liquid from stabilizing. If it stopped moving, maybe a crust would form.”

  “Yess,” Professor Andrus agreed. “Like ice. If eets cold enuf, eet wheel freeze over very queekly. Same wit Venus; eet is so hot eet wheel form crust.”

  What an incredible conclusion! It might be just like a reaction to extreme cold. Only this time, it was a reaction to extreme heat!

  “Are they looking at you?” Stimson asked.

  “I can’t tell,” Scott answered. “But, I have the feeling that they’re definitely aware of us. Do you think they see us, or sense us, Marty?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “I’ve been watching that one farthest to our left, Scott. “It seems a little bigger than the others, and it’s a little darker in color.”

  “Are they doing anything except staying there?” Stimson asked.

  “Roger,” Scott answered. “That seems to be all they’re doing... just watching... or, maybe they’re waiting.”

  “Waiting for what?” Stimson wondered out loud.

  “That’s what we need to know,” Scott replied. “It appears that they can penetrate the crust whenever – and probably wherever – they want to. They’ve got a pretty big pool going here, but that may just be because there are so many of them.”

  “Scott...” Marty said. “I’m going to move out over to the right. I think I can get to the

  HRT unit without getting too near to the pool. “ The Heat and Radar Telemeter, sometimes called the HuRT or the H.R.T., was tipped on its side but it wasn’t a large piece of equipment so Marty thought he could reset it and get it sending off signals again.

  Scott wasn’t sure if Marty’s decision was a prudent one, but he knew they had to do something if they were going to reset the equipment. Alertly he watched Marty shuffle off to his right at the same time that he watched the pool for any signs of a change. Marty was about halfway to the HRT equipment when there seemed to be a shift in the location of the creatures in the pool. All of them seemed to cluster along the edge where Marty was walking.

  “Marty... They’re watching you,” Scott warned him. “They’ve moved to your side of the pool. Maybe you should stop to let them adjust to what you’re doing.”

  “I’d rather keep going, Scott,” Marty answered. He was breathing a little heavier from the exertion of his movements in the bulky suit as well as pulling the tool case with the

  collection kit on it along with him. “But, why don’t you start off for the SAM.”

  The Seismic and Atmospheric Monitor (SAM) was a little wider unit than the HRT so it was less likely to tip on its side even with all the calamity of the astronaut’s previously hasty blastoff from Venus. It also looked to be a shorter distance from where Scott was standing than the HRT was from Marty, but Scott would have to swing out around the left side of the pool to reach it.

  “Ok, Marty, I’m going to the SAM,” Scott answered.

  “What seems to be going on in the pool?” Stimson asked from Earth Control One. “Is there any movement? Any change?”

  As he shuffled off toward the SAM equipment, Scott kept glancing at the undulating motions in the pool. “I don’t see anything yet, Stimson... But, wa
it. Do you see what’s happening, Marty? Do you see a change in color?”

  “Yes, I do, Scott,” the astronaut replied very matter-of-factly. “There’s more of a bluish color... no... a kind of purple. But it’s only in that first one... the one farthest from me. The others seem to be getting lighter... like a sort of gray or tan.”

  Scott continued walking. His path took him out a little from a straight path to the SAM unit, but as he looked over at the pool, another large bubble appeared to rise nearer him. At first it surprised him, then the creature seemed to swell larger than the others and turned a sort of shiny black color. It also rose much higher out of the liquid than the others. Scott stopped.

  “Marty... something’s happening,” Scott said to Marty from almost directly across the pool.

  But, Marty had noticed it, too. “I see it, Scott. It’s bigger than the others.” But the pool also seemed to have expanded outward toward Scott. The pool and the creature were expanding toward him so that Scott altered his path outward a little more.

  “Is it coming toward me?” Scott asked. “It seems like the pool is widening a little more... and this creature... it’s getting... larger... Isn’t it?”

  “You’d better go back, Scott,” Marty concluded. He had already reached the HRT unit and tipped it back up on its base when he noticed that things were changing in the pool. The colors and shapes of the creatures were changing in ways that started to make the astronauts uncomfortable.

  “Scott... You’d better turn around until you know what’s happening,” Stimson instructed him. “Maybe they don’t want you to go toward the SAM.”

  “I don’t think that’s it, John,” Scott told Stimson. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the SAM. I think it’s just coming... toward me.”

  “Maybe you should stop and see what it does,” Stimson offered as a suggestion to Scott.

  “I can’t,” Scott replied. “It’s moving too fast toward me. I’ve got to keep backing away or I’ll get too close to the pool.”