The No Names

by Frank Albelo

  “Fitting, considering the ridiculous quest we found ourselves in.” I managed to slur out some words as my head dropped down from the exhaustion of the day.

  ● ● ●

  I drifted through space absently in my dream. As I moved I saw visions of stars colliding, sprays of light and waves of energy crashing through me. I felt almost at home amidst the kaleidoscopic void. The galaxy around me seemed to expand with every second I spent floating. After some time of mute amazement I realized I could feel some of the individual stars somehow, a vague tugging deep in my chest. When I focused on that sensation I flew through space and realized I was hovering over Dun Lund. I reached out my hand towards the moon...

  ● ● ●

  While I would have loved to keep resting and deciphering my strange dream, Dun Lund had other plans. The ATC, Marvin, I remembered, was shaking my arm. “I sense some kind of life form approaching.” I shook off sleep and gripped the pipe wrench tightly. I moved as quietly as I could over to the other sleeping Digits while waking them up on the comms.

  “Guys. I think we have company,” I told them briefly. “Marvin, which direction and how far.”

  “Five life forms due east. Distance: five hundred feet,” the mech responded in its stock voice as it hummed quietly.

  There was little preparation that could be done, but I gestured for the others to grab rocks and be prepared to throw them.

  As the other moved on with the task as quietly as they could, I climbed one of the larger boulders. I could see just a bit farther than from where the crevasse had formed, but I assumed that was where the life forms where coming from. There was no evidence of travel near us, but the echoing of rocks and ice grinding told me that something was indeed coming. I laid prone on one of the boulders, waiting to pounce on whatever came close to our group. I knew that if it came to a straight up fight with another of those crazy monsters I would lose a strength contest.

  I was prepared to leverage my height advantage and crush whatever came around the corner. As I saw a planet lit shadow I crouched up from prone and readied the wrench… only to deflate.

  The life forms Marvin had sensed were some kind of mammalian and reptilian sheep. They ambled slowly around the bend. The sheep creatures had two pairs of horizontal irised eyes and light scales that reflected light off of their heads and legs. The sheep were also larger than any that lived on Earth, about five feet tall at the shoulder.

  I remained somewhat ready to pounce, but when the creatures bleated and looked in our direction they just laid down. Looking at the sheep creatures was striking, since they were just minding their own business on this hellish moon. While I thought about what to do from atop the boulder, I noticed Beta moving slowly around the rocks to investigate the bleating. I wanted to tell him to be careful, but the moment he saw them he rushed forward.

  The sheep bleated confusedly at the human that suddenly jumped on them and rubbed his face on their woolly backs. Considering the lack of death on Beta’s part, I imagined the sheep would be peaceful. Taking care not to hurt the sheep, I dropped down from the boulder where I was hiding.

  This particular meeting did not go well with the sheep. They panicked and started running around in frantic circles, easily climbing up onto boulders and jumping to and fro. I could hear the disappointment in Beta’s voice when the sheep he had been holding wiggled out of his grasp. Moments later, it pushed him out of the way as it bucked and kicked him with its rear hooves.

  The kick left grooves in his front armor, and I was thankful it had not hit one of the unprotected sections. I rushed over to Beta as the others made their way to us with their rocks. I waved them down when they tried throwing rocks, and checked on Beta. He was catching his breath after getting it knocked out, but he was okay. After a few minutes I helped him to is feet and we looked at the fleeing sheep running all over the moraine with ease.

  “That… was not what I expected…” I heard Beta croak through the comms. I withdrew my helmet and looked at him.

  “You thought running out and hugging alien sheep was a good idea?” I said with a deadpan look on my face. It took a second for the others to realize I had made a joke, but they busted out laughing right after. My expression cracked and I also started laughing. The stress of the past day and the loss of so many people so quickly had left us a bit loopy.

  Beta wanted to keep his frown, but when he retracted his helmet he was smiling widely. I helped him to his feet and we all got situated back at our small clearing. While there was a bit of light starting to peek over the ridge, I figured we could get at least an hour more of rest. As everyone settled down to sleep, I noticed more markings on one of the nearby boulders.

  I didn’t recognize any of the shapes or lines. While I wasn’t an avid hunter or tracker, one of my miner coworkers had blown all of his wages on antique guides for big game and powder powered guns. Sufficient to say, he splurged on one too many of them and could not afford to pay his loans. I never heard from him again, but I did read through most of the ones he left lying around the mining rig.

  I lost myself with thoughts of the Compound and the occasional thought about my parents. I rarely had time outside of work to think about just how much the Government had taken from me, that was how they kept much of the population under control. People can’t be opposed to laws if they are too tired to find out about them.

  After some time I had dozed off, but when the light rose over the ridge it hit my eyes, waking me up quickly. A couple of minutes later, the rest of the Digits were up. As everyone gathered around the Marvin, who had stood next to me the entire night, I suggested that we follow the markings along the ridge. Having no other suggestions to give, the others nodded their agreement while they chewed on their meals.

  I’d rationed morning meals to half portions; it was a bittersweet thought that we had extra to add a bland breakfast to our rations. The exhaustions from climbing up and down the rocks and boulders in the moraine had left everyone worn down and in need of nutrition. I felt more or less okay, if a bit sore. Once everyone was done, we silently made our way to the northern side of the ridge.

  There were only a few markings here and there, like with the area closer to the crevasse. However the more we moved to the portion of the moraine where Beta and Epsilon had descended to meet up, the more scratches that were in the stones.

  “I think I found something!” shouted Gamma as she moved over a boulder.

  The rest of us crowded around to see what she could have possibly found. On the ground was a small pool of frozen blood. There were several rocks splattered with the stuff. With the freezing temperatures, the pool would have frozen almost as soon as it touched a surface. As I looked around, there were several other pools leading away from where we were.

  “Marvin, can you identify the blood?” I asked the ATC.

  It was a long shot, but the fact that it could power itself from my blood and that it somehow could ‘bind’ to an owner’s DNA signature, made the odds that it could identify the blood higher. The mech stood over the larger pool and one of the needles that had drawn my blood shot into it.

  After a minute of whirling, Marvin responded. “Sample two. DNA contains human markers. DNA contains bovidae markers. DNA contains unknown markers.” As soon as Marvin stopped speaking there was complete silence except for the wind howling over the moraine ridge.

  “Marvin… What is bovidae?” I heard Beta ask the mech.

  “Bovidae. A family category of classification for cloven-hoofed mammals.”

  “The sheep…” replied Beta with a slight gasp. The other survivors shared looks of concern at the prospects that another morphed human could be around.

  “I suggest we follow the trail. We need to kill these things in order to keep receiving food rations. I think finding it before it finds us will be a better alternative.” I said while gesturing to another smaller pool of blood and splatterings on the nearby rocks. Beta’s enthusiasm after getting kicked by the alien sheep had
been severely curbed. The youth plopped down on one of the nearby rocks while the others discussed what I had suggested.

  While the others had been jumping at my ideas, their sense of self-preservation was definitely arguing with their hunger about that particular plan.

  I approached the youth. I wanted to get on our way to find the creature, as well as some answers, but I knew that forcing the group into danger would only lead to more of them getting hurt… or dying.

  “What’s on your mind, Beta?” I sat on the rock next to his.

  “I… It just reminds me of home. I used to work at one of the food plants. I always hated putting down the animals, sheep in particular. They always looked happy when I shaved their wool and then raced off… to the butchers” With the youth’s helmet retracted, I could see the faraway look in his eyes as he remembered his life probably not long ago.

  “I use to set’em free.” He continued. “Their little eyes seemed to scream at me to save them. I was smart, I would only let them out every so often and the handlers didn’t catch on. When they changed the manager to an Official… well he did not take a Digit messing up well.” There were tears forming in his face as he finished his story. I hesitantly put my arm around the youth, who in turn buried his face in my armored chest and cried.

  “It’s going to be okay, Beta. I’m dying before you, don’t think about getting out of line.” My voice threatened to crack with emotion, but I kept a strong edge on it. Beta, as well as the other survivors, needed someone that could understand their fears while remaining strong. As his crying eased, the others huddled around and placed their hands on the youth.

  “Lead the way, please.” Gamma said as she looked in my eyes. She was youngest after Beta and I imagined it was taking a heavy toll on her to remain composed.

  I stood and motioned the group forward while activating my helmet. The others followed suit and Marvin hovered silently behind me as we moved along the ridge wall.

  ● ● ●

  While the trail thinned, we were able to follow it for about a half hour. The markings however, increased in density as we moved up the incline. When we stopped to drink water, I noticed that a portion of the ridge wall was completely smooth and free of markings. The unnaturally smooth wall had a ring of markings around it, but nothing else. As the others chatted quietly, I moved closer to the wall.

  I had always gotten in trouble in my trade because I liked to put my hands right on the business end of my work. When I ran my hand along the smooth surface, markings lit up underneath the gray-black surface and a slab of stone swung out of the wall.

 

 

  Rotating on silent hinges, the slab moved to reveal a pitch dark passageway that inclined into the rock. The others jumped to their feet as the doorway slab swung out, expecting some kind of confrontation. After a couple of minutes of intense staring, I lowered my wrench. The others also dropped the rocks they had been holding, moving closer to the opening where I stood.

  I was increasingly more suspicious of the whispering in my head. The fact that something on the moon had reacted to whatever was going on with me scared me more than I cared to admit. I shook my head to clear away the concerns; telling the Digits about some strange voice in my head was not the most appropriate course of action.

  “Hey, Marvin, got a light?” I said while pointing at the darkness. The next instant, the scratched interface screen on the machine lit up the darkness to reveal identically smooth walls that stretched beyond the illumination. “I guess you are taking point. Everyone grab some rocks, just in case.” I propped my pipe wrench on my shoulder, as Marvin slowly moved forward into the depths. The others each held two large rocks, ready to toss them at a moment’s notice.

  For a good hundred feet nothing changed. The light from the opening was starting to fade, leaving Marvin’s interface as the only light. The smooth walls continued and so did we.

  While Marvin provided decent illumination, there were bits of debris accumulated along the floor of the passage. Gamma stumbled and caught herself on the wall. The instant her hand touched the wall, an entire section of the ceiling lit up with fluorescent light. After a moment wincing at the sudden brightness, everyone in the group looked to one another in surprise, but we touched the other adjacent wall sections and sure enough the ceiling lit up.

  We backtracked quickly, touching the walls to illuminate the passage. I wasn’t sure how long the fluorescence would last, but it was worth having light.

  The presence of the lights also concerned me.

  It could have been the Officials that set up this place, but the technology of the lighting and the ATC was all new to me, especially the degree of learning Marvin’s AI seemed capable of. Not to mention the strange connection between the whispers in my head and the entrance. I had worked with plenty of machines at the rigs, replacing their energy cores, and at the plant, making and fitting those cores, so I was pretty much up to date on Earth tech. This was not Earth technology.

  Delta had to shake me to get my attention. I was concerned that I was spacing out more while thinking, but I attributed it to the stress of the situation. The rest of the group had gone a bit ahead with Marvin and they had found something.

  I jogged down the slope to Zeta and Gamma as they looked at more detailed forms of the markings we had seen outside. The markings outside of the passageway had been ‘scribbled’ so to speak. The one in the passage were made up of sharp lines and small circles.

  I called for our food break, but simply continued to stare and run my hands over the markings. The mysteries related to Dun Lund only deepened. While engrossed, I hear Gamma and Zeta say they need to relieve themselves.

  “Marvin, anything in range that might cause an issue?” I said while turning from the wall slightly.

  “No life forms within my detection range,” came the robotic reply. I noted that the ATC provided mechanical answers to direct questions, but seemed to be learning as we interacted with it.

  “You guys head to the surface with Marvin, I will be a bit but then I will join you. No use holding it if we plan to go deeper,” I said while turning back to look at the symbols.

  I heard the others grumble slightly, but I smiled to myself. A group willing to complain was a group that was alive.

  As soon as the group exited the passageway and their voices faded away, an eerie silence reigned. I focused on the stone, attempting to distract myself from the ringing in my ears that started thanks to the silence. After about a minute, I heard a quiet chittering in the distance. I quickly grabbed my wrench from the floor at my feet, holding it at the ready.

  After a few more seconds, a trio of rat looking creatures with furry coats scurried from the darkened depths where we hadn’t lit the lights. I relaxed as the rats passed me and headed to the surface. Only a moment later, the world turned horizontal.

  Something had swept me off my feet and was dragging me. I was face down and struggling to turn over as I was dragged into the dark portion of the tunnel. I screamed as loudly as I could, sending the message into the comms and hoping the other Digits were in range to hear. I tried to use my pipe wrench to catch on to the loose rocks or floor sections, but the smoothness of the floor was working against me. I only managed to turn onto my back and see a scaly hand wrapped around my right leg. I tried to struggle but the creature had an iron grip, slowly pulling me into the darkness.

  I felt my heart jump in my chest. I could barely form a thought outside of ‘I am going to die’ as the unknown creature pulled me into the twilight region of light. When the fading light glinted off of the creature’s arm I had an idea.

  I stopped struggling, the creature dragging me faster, but I held the pipe wrench with both arms. The metal on stone grinding of my armor made it difficult to concentrate, but I managed to open up the jaws of my pipe wrench a bit wider. Just as we were entering complete darkness, I put the joint of the limb holding me between the vice.
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  When I was sure it was secured enough, I twisted my entire body to the left as much as I could.

  The damage that resulted from my twisty maneuver resulted in an unnatural screeching that echoed off the passage. As the arm tried to retract, I held the wrench firm. After shaking me like a ragdoll, the joint snapped off completely and the hand that had been holding me dropped to the ground.

  Once free, I started to scurry back on my ass. As I got nearer the lit passage I saw a slight glint in the shadows. I reflexively put up my wrench as my back hit the floor. Another scaly arm shot out of the darkness, pinning me to the ground. The talons on the hand left slight grooves on my chest plates as I pushed the arm back with my wrench.

  As I struggled against the impaling talons, light suddenly rushed around me.

  What the fluorescent ceilings revealed was a malformed woman spilling black-green blood all over the ground. She had two oversized arms that would have dragged on the floor by several feet if she wasn’t trying to cover her face from the light.