Phantoms of the Moon

by Michael Ciardi

The spacecraft’s storage facility was nearly the size of a cathedral, replete with an arched ceiling inlaid with burnished silver tiles. Unlike the craft’s previous section, the facility was spacious and noticeably cooler in temperature. Its encompassing walls were completely illuminated on all sides. Angled support columns staggered throughout the interior and pulsated with violet-colored lights along the trusses in the floor. Between random shafts of light, huge containers had been set in rows throughout the room. A lime-colored fluid percolated within these massive compartments.

  As Evans studied the cavernous room, it only took him a few seconds to determine exactly what product the aliens stored in this facility. Hundreds of human organs filled these translucent canisters. The unknown substance in which these organs floated was apparently used as a preservative. Nearly the entire room had been devoted to this task. Some smaller compartments displayed lungs and hearts, while others housed kidneys, spleens, and livers. But the focal point to the macabre surroundings existed in a collection of human brains, which was unveiled in hundreds of stacked containers that erected toward the ceiling’s shimmering tiles.

  Evans and Hailey clung closely to one another, allowing Ryan to lead them as far as he was able. The doctor, however, found it impossible to conceal his disgust. He turned to Ryan for answers to this savagery. “Look at this horror,” he sneered. “It’s all true.”

  “Did you think I was lying to you, Doctor Evans?” Ryan asked, not truly expecting a reply from the distraught man.

  “How long has this been going on?”

  “They didn’t tell me,” said Ryan. “But I’d guess they’ve been here since the beginning.”

  “The beginning of what?” Hailey asked, frightfully.

  “Time,” said Ryan. “Or at least time as we define it.”

  “You mean—”

  “Yes, Hailey,” Ryan answered, finalizing her thought. “These aliens have been among us since human beings evolved. Their presence is as old and established as anything built or conceived here on this Earth.”

  “But where are they hiding?” Evans pondered aloud.

  “We’re all so busy gawking at the stars,” explained Ryan. “After all, it seemed like a logical place to start searching for alien invaders. I’m guilty of this, too. I’ve perused the evening sky for my entire lifetime, Doctor Evans. But I, like so many before and after me, never realized that I was looking in the wrong direction.” Ryan’s eyes then lowered to his feet.

  Evans’s eyes slowly followed the boy’s line of sight, and suddenly the impossible seemed probable. “They’re already here,” muttered Evans. “Here—and living beneath the ground in crafts similar to this one.”

  “Yes,” confirmed Ryan. “And my guess is that they’ll continue to be here long after the last human perishes from this world.”

  “This is madness!” Hailey wailed. “How could you be a part of this, Ryan?”

  “My part is irrelevant. It’s merely a matter of preservation for the aliens,” said Ryan calmly. “Two hundred years ago they were dying in droves. Finding a way to replenish their numbers became vital. The alternative was to face extinction.”

  “But why us?” Evans shouted, gesticulating to the containers on all sides of him. “Look at this place, Ryan! People are being systematically murdered—innocent people like your parents and twin brother.”

  Normally, Ryan would have reacted emotionally upon the realization of this statement, but he remained oddly apathetic now. “The aliens couldn’t incubate life within their own species,” he said. “When their females became incapable of carrying the embryos to sustain life, they needed a replacement.”

  “So they chose our planet—our females?” Evans asked.

  “That’s correct, Doctor Evans. While exploring this solar system for a suitable match for their zygotic cells, the aliens happened upon this little, blue and green planet—an insignificant fleck of debris to them in every conceivable way but one. As good fortune would have it, Earth’s females support wombs similar to the alien species.”

  “So they’ve used our women to reproduce their own kind?”

  “Exactly. The mortal female carries the child to conception. In some cases, such as mine, she’s permitted to nurture the progeny as her own for a short period of time,” said Ryan.

  “But how does that justify all this killing?” Hailey jumped in. “Why take their organs?”

  Ryan halted his progress momentarily and stared at the immense collection of brains overshadowing them as they crossed the metal planks. “Doctor Evans should appreciate this,” said Ryan. He then extended his arms and motioned to the canisters raised behind him. “It’s all about research. The aliens planned to replenish their species by using mortal females as vessels, so they instituted an ongoing experimentation for the entire species. In this way, they’d learn every aspect of human creation in order to ward off the diseases and infections that exterminate so many here on Earth.”

  “Why do you accept this so easily? Hailey asked mournfully.

  “He accepts it,” Evans interrupted, “because he is a part of it.”

  Hailey’s expression crumpled into terror upon this pronouncement. It was as though her heart had been wrenched from her body as she wept at the boy she stood beside. “Please—tell me it’s not true,” she begged Ryan. “None of this is real—right?” When Ryan neglected to respond, Hailey pivoted towards Evans and asked, “Can’t you do anything to help him?”

  “I’m not sure he wants my assistance,” replied Evans tonelessly. “But the fact that we’re still alive says something for his humanity. Ryan will have to determine the rest for himself.”

  “A part of me is still like you,” Ryan confessed. “I still sense the mortal blood mixing with my own, but I’m not sure how much longer I can claim as such.”

  At this point, Ryan held forth his bare arms, exposing them for his companions’ inspection. Beneath a soft lavender glow flickering throughout the room, silver fluid oozed from the pores of his flesh. “You see,” he said, while smearing some of the leakage away. The pewter material dripped heavily from his body now; it was no longer the consistency of dust. “It’s getting thicker,” he continued. “My body’s chemistry is metamorphosing even as we stand here now.”

  “It’s changing?” Hailey winced at the sight of Ryan’s condition. The silver sludge appeared like blood seeping through severed wounds. “What’s happening to you?”

  “It’s my life fluid,” said Ryan. “I’m nearing final processing.”

  “His blood is transforming,” Evans clarified. “He’s becoming what he was always meant to be.”

  “It’s true,” Ryan verified. “I don’t know how much time I have left before this mutation is complete, but more importantly, I don’t know how much longer I can protect either of you.”

  “From the aliens?” Hailey asked.

  “No,” replied Ryan regretfully. “From me.”

  An intense vibration suddenly shook the facility’s confines, causing Hailey to cling to Evans more vigorously than before. Ryan was certain that alien reinforcements were nearby, and a fortification of the viable exits was now inevitable.

  “We have to keep moving,” Ryan then informed Evans. “The only way out of here is through the hub at the ship’s uppermost level.”

  “Is there another elevator to take us there?” Evans asked.

  “Yes, but they’ve no doubt deactivated them by now. But if we make it to the hub, you can still get out through the ventilation ports,” said Ryan.

  The craft’s alarms grew louder again, creating a sense of panic between Evans and Hailey. “My guess is that they let us get this far for a reason,” Evans mentioned. “Once they run out of reasons, they’ll no longer need to keep us alive.”

  “What should we do?” Hailey asked, hoping either Evans or Ryan had the best solution.

  “We’ll do what Ryan tells us,” said Evans worriedly as he peered at the containers. “Otherwise, we’re destined to become a
permanent part of this exhibition.”

  Before they managed another step of progress, the facility’s walls rumbled again. In the aftermath, four additional spheres glided into the room, surrounding the escapees on all sides. Ryan scanned the probes’ positioning for a potential breach in their ranks, but all exit panels were simultaneously sealed.

  “What options do we have now?” Evans asked Ryan.

  “Please—do something,” Hailey added.

  “Get behind me,” Ryan advised them both. “I’ll try to negotiate with them.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Evans snapped. “Judging by what I’ve witnessed, these aliens don’t seem like the bargaining type.”

  “Just stand behind me,” Ryan repeated, “and do precisely as I tell you.”

  With no other recourse to deliberate, Evans and Hailey obeyed Ryan’s instruction. But as the spheres maneuvered into closer range, the outlook appeared bleak for them. The spheres unleashed four beams of silver light into Ryan’s body. Once these rays reflected against Ryan’s skin, he became immobilized instantaneously. Within seconds, the spheres had seemingly regained dominance of the situation.

  The Voice, which was thus far the sole indicator of the aliens’ presence within the spacecraft, amplified from the spheres once again. “Subject X1707, you are instructed to return the specimens to the dissection chamber immediately.” Ryan did not respond. The silver light may have temporarily restricted his movement, but it had not yet manipulated his thoughts. The Voice then continued, “Identify your intentions, Subject X1707.”

  As Ryan resisted the Voice’s influence, his eyes flashed blue, then back to a shade of gray. The silver fluid beneath his skin became increasingly apparent in these seconds. No matter what physical alterations took place within him, he combated his conflicted thoughts as staunchly as he ever fought anything in his life.

  “R…release…them…release…my friends,” stammered Ryan.

  The spheres’ lights intensified now, sending sparks of fissured energy streaming off his body and colliding into the metal girders at his feet. The Voice continued in the same emotionless monotone. “Your request is denied, Subject X1707. Return the specimens to the dissection chamber at once.”

  Ryan’s voice ached with a resistance never heard before when he bellowed, “Never! I’d sooner die than let you have them! They are my friends.”

  Before Ryan finished clarifying his resistance, the spheres’ lights dissipated. Ryan instantly hunched to the floor, thoroughly exhausted from the battle he waged within himself. Evans and Hailey could not do anything to shelter him now. As they had demonstrated previously, the spheres began to communicate through a sequence of pulsating lights. Ryan knew the aliens were deliberating their next course of action.

  The Voice soon made its objective audible. “Subject X1707, you are in violation of specimen processing procedures. Identify your intentions.”

  “He doesn’t want to be like you!” Hailey exclaimed, but the aliens did not acknowledge her efforts.

  “Identify your intentions, Subject X1707,” the Voice repeated.

  “Set us free,” Evans hollered. “Can his intentions be any clearer than that?”

  By now, Evans and Hailey saw Ryan’s body quaking frenziedly. Every nerve beneath his flesh struggled for survival as silvery fluid exuded from his flesh. This spillage oozed from beneath his clothing, while streaming over his cheeks and through the veins in his neck. This transformation occurred too quickly for Evans to attempt to stop its progression.

  The Voice prepared Ryan with the details of his present condition. “Subject X1707, your cellular structure has been accelerated for final processing. The specimens can now see you for what you truly are. Identify your intentions, X1707.”

  When Ryan regained enough composure to reassess his position, he lifted his head toward the spheres. His body was mantled in the life fluid now. It began to solidify on his skin’s surface, leaving no trace of the supple flesh he had known for over seventeen years. Despite his unearthly appearance, Ryan rose from a hardening puddle of muck and clenched his fists in defiance. His eyes simultaneously flashed within their sockets like two stones of polished silver.

  “My intentions are to free my friends,” Ryan declared in a voice that sounded only partially similar to what it had been previously.

  “Your request is denied, Subject X1707,” responded the Voice.

  “My…name…is Ryan!”

  The Voice silenced. Ryan wavered in his stance, but he made certain to stay close to Evans and Hailey. Although Ryan was no longer visibly human, a trace of morality still existed at his soul’s core. He was not capable of letting his friends perish aboard this spacecraft, even at the cost of his own existence.

  The aliens had no alternative but to evaluate Subject X1707 as a botched experiment in their project’s framework. Procedures for such failures did not surprise Ryan. The Voice then proceeded to explain their methods. “Subject X1707, you are in violation of specimen processing. Present life form status has been deemed unacceptable. Prepare for termination.”

  “You’re forgetting one thing,” Ryan retaliated. “I’m one of you now.”

  With the utterance of those words, Ryan seemed rejuvenated in thought and action. He closed his eyes as if to generate a surge of incalculable energy. Within seconds, this source of power made itself known to all those in company. When Ryan reopened his eyes, two streams of silver light shot forth from his retinas. The destructive nature of these ocular lasers astonished everyone, especially the sphere in which was first targeted. The lasers’ strike immediately imploded the alien probe, causing it to plummet like an iron weight to the metal girders. Its functionless remnants fizzled and sparked into silence.

  Retaliation came swiftly from the remaining spheres, but not speedier than Ryan’s anticipatory reflexes. Before the spheres were able to mount an effective defense, Ryan relied on his newfound power to upset the environment in his favor. This time his laser beams pinpointed the facility’s collection of hearts and kidneys. The containers within range of this immediate impact exploded, propelling fragments of organs and green fluid throughout the room. The aliens then attempted a laser strike of their own, but a malfunction in the probes’ sensors caused a misfire with their weaponry.

  “We have to move now,” Ryan yelled to Evans and Hailey. Though Ryan was not the boy they presumed him to be, they would have been foolhardy to ignore his desire to help them in these frantic moments. Evans and Hailey followed Ryan’s movement across the facility’s girders, being mindful to stay within inches of his position. In order to create another diversion, Ryan focused on the brains’ canisters, which still loomed as an enormous obstacle in front of them.

  “Hold onto Hailey,” Ryan advised Evans, while eyeing the towering display of encased brains. “If there’s a way out of here, it’s behind that wall—”

  Evans eyes followed Ryan’s stare to the referenced wall of brains and asked, “What are you going to do now?”

  “Make a big mess,” said Ryan as he closed his eyes to summon the energy churning within his body. “Hold on tight and close your eyes!”

  As Evans and Hailey shut their eyes on command, Ryan reopened his own. The lasers flared from both his retinas again, this time centering on the highest canisters in the arrangement of brains. These clear containers burst in sequence, sending gobs of liquid and decimated bits of gray matter raining down upon the facility’s flooring. Without hesitation or thought for his own safety, Ryan refocused the rays upon the canisters, each one with devastating accuracy. Morsels of brains and chemicals splashed over them all and oozed between the girders at their feet. The spheres attempted another attack, but the sheer amount of organ tissue and fluid prevented a projectile from connecting with Ryan or those whom he protected.

  Just as Ryan suspected, after the wall of canisters had been leveled to a bubbling pile of goop and twisted metal, a narrow bridge of steel planks was revealed. In order to escape from the facility a
nd potentially reach the craft’s hub, they needed to cross this expanse. Ryan knew that he had to send Evans and Hailey in front of him if they planned to be successful.

  “You’ll need to go ahead,” Ryan instructed Evans. “I’ll hold them off.”

  “Aren’t you coming with us?” Evans asked, tentatively glancing at the fifty-foot stretch of planking in front of him.

  “I’ll catch up with you,” Ryan assured him. “But you must cross the bridge with Hailey first.”

  As Evans and Hailey balanced on the planks, the splattered residue of brains and fluid washed beneath their feet, making their progress a precarious venture. If they slipped from the planking at this height, the indeterminable drop between the ship’s rafters guaranteed certain death for them both.

  “Don’t look down,” Evans instructed Hailey as the tried to balance on the planks. The surface was slick and gushing with the organs’ particles at this point. Hailey kept moving in sequence with the doctor’s footsteps, seemingly unnerved by the present circumstances. She never lowered her eyes to observe what stirred below her.

  Ryan still lagged behind them, preparing for another skirmish with the aliens’ spheres. Silver and red lights zapped and hissed throughout the confines. An infusion of smoke and purple sparks circulated on all sides. Lasers ricocheted off columns and arched in multicolored plumes into the ceiling’s pewter tiles. These tiles dislodged and plunged like steel rivets to the havoc below. Most of these tiles miraculously missed Evans and Hailey, but a few deflected off the doctor’s shoulders, almost causing him to lose his footing.

  Random fires ignited at various portions within the room, ensuring a complete annihilation of this craft’s storage facility. When the smoke and flames dissipated, Ryan noticed that the spheres had retreated once again. The aliens may have temporarily regrouped to reassess the damage, but Ryan had no disillusions about proclaiming an early victory. He knew that for as long as the human beings remained within the spacecraft, the aliens would not desist in their efforts to destroy them.

  At the very least, Ryan’s valiant pursuit created enough of a deterrent for them to progress over the bridge and get within range of the ship’s final level. If they hoped to reach the craft’s hub, they needed to access a spiral stairwell on the opposite side of the precipice. Though Evans and Hailey were visibly exhausted after crossing the planks safely, Ryan suspected that they did not have much time to rest.

  Ryan approached his friends assuming they did not have the strength or motivation to continue, but he only needed to gesture to the staircase once. Despite their obvious fatigue, Evans and Hailey ascended the treads as intrepidly as they had navigated the planks leading them to this destination. If Hailey was still frightened, she refused to express her emotions. Evans sensed that she had surpassed the state of fear long ago. Only sheer adrenaline and an inherent urge for survival kept her pushing onward now.

  Evans emerged first through the stairwell, which extended into yet another expansive tunnel. This corridor, however, differed from the others in its interior structure. A track of glowing red lights aligned the passageway on all sides of the cylinder-shaped area. Evans rushed to the tunnel’s far end with the presumption that yet another access panel barricaded them from the ship’s hub. He was not surprised to discover the panel in place.

  Within the cherry-colored reflection cast from the tunnel’s lights, both Evans and Hailey winced at Ryan’s appearance. They did not intend to be cruel, but the mere shock of observing the boy in such a physical state had not registered clearly in their minds until now. A silver shell had hardened over Ryan’s entire body, and his face appeared as featureless as a blank piece of paper.

  “Don’t look at me,” Ryan commanded them both. “You’ll only be afraid of me if you do.”

  In disgust and pity, Hailey turned away from Ryan and covered her eyes with her hands, but Evans found himself too mesmerized with intrigue to simply avert his vision. As Ryan moved closer to him, Evans distinguished a slight metallic odor accompanying his steps. The boy’s clothing had either been torn or melted away. What remained was a dreadful pewter casing, which did not emit an ounce of texture or warmth. It was as if had been dipped in a dense, gray cask.

  “Dear God, Ryan,” Evans muttered aloud. “What have you become?”

  “One of them,” answered Ryan tonelessly. His voice was more alien than human now, and his lips no longer moved when he spoke. “They’ve done their best to destroy the person I was,” he added, “but they can’t take everything from me—they can’t claim what’s left of my humanity.”

  “Is there anyway to reverse the process?” asked Evans, perhaps a bit naively. Even though he felt compassionate toward the boy, he still did not feel comfortable enough to touch the figure before him.

  “I’m afraid not, Doctor Evans. In a physical sense, the person you knew no longer exists,” explained Ryan. “There’s nothing you can do to save me, but that does not mean I can’t still help you.”

  “We can’t get out,” Hailey commented, while leaning against the panel. “We’re trapped—again.”

  Ryan edged toward the panel and looked for a sequence pad. When he saw nothing useful on or near the wall, he ordered Hailey to step away from the area. She rejoined Evans and huddled next to his shoulder.

  “Hit the damn thing with your laser beams,” Evans suggested. “You nearly knocked down the whole room back there.”

  “I’ll try,” said Ryan, but he already guessed the aliens had prepared for such a tactic.

  While not knowing exactly what to expect, Evans grasped Hailey around her shoulder and directed her to the tunnel’s opposite end. Without telling her, the doctor simultaneously picked portions of brain scrap from her hair. She seemed oblivious to everything but his protective touch in these moments.

  Once Evans and Hailey had secured themselves away from the panel, Ryan called upon his internal powers once again. In one sudden burst, he released two more lasers of silver light from his eyes. The beams collided against the panel, but became instantly absorbed by the material. No visible damage had been achieved. Ryan duplicated these lasers again, but his efforts were ineffective.

  “They’ve activated the ship’s energy bands,” Ryan announced. “I can’t break through the panel.”

  “What are our choices now?” Evans asked, progressing hurriedly back to Ryan’s side. Before Ryan fathomed a reasonable reply, the tunnel’s floor began to vibrate. The force was strong enough to send them all reeling into different directions within the tunnel. Hailey had rushed back to Evans side at this point, trembling in the man’s arms.

  “W…What’s—happening?” Evans asked, his voice shaking nearly as violently as the surroundings. “Are we in another elevator?”

  “No,” Ryan remarked, feeling the tunnel’s walls shaking. The red lights flickered and dulled as the entire ship began to dislodge itself from beneath the ground. “We’re rising,” said Ryan. “They must be aborting the mission entirely.”

  Evans’s attention reverted to the seemingly impervious panel. He pounded his fists on its surface in a hopeless bid to trigger some reaction. The panel did not budge, but the ship continued to emerge from its shelter.

  “Please—help us, Doctor Evans,” Hailey screeched, holding him as though he had the physical or mental capacity to save her. Ryan stood beside her utterly emotionless, but somewhere behind his silver-plated eyes a teardrop must have formed.

  Evans rarely offered a promise of any magnitude unless he wholeheartedly intended to keep it. Until now, he had sworn none but to himself. But at this moment, when it seemed as though they were entirely at the mercy of their captors, Evans took the girl by both her shoulders and peered directly at her tender face. His glare was almost haunting to her eyes.

  “Listen to me, Hailey,” he said unfalteringly. “You’re going to get out of here alive—I’ll do everything within my power to ensure that. You must trust me.”

  Admittedly, the present circumstances were n
ot favorable in terms of preserving Evans’s own existence, but a premonition of hope had already rooted in his mind. Nothing that the aliens attempted from this stage dissuaded Evans from his willingness to make mankind’s supreme sacrifice.