by Greig Beck
Alex glanced from Borgan, who was the color of pale clay behind his visor, to Irina. “And it is now doing that in your lander.” He cursed. “Let’s just hope they got our message, and believed it, or I wouldn’t bother going back home to Russia if I was you.”
“Alex.”
Alex turned at the sound of the android’s voice.
“It’s here,” she said.
Alex and the Russians spun, shining their lights into different corners of the stygian dark room.
“Where?” Borgan hissed.
In response, the creature leaped at the Russian commander from one of the darkest corners of the destroyed laboratory. The thing’s jaws were open, showing that it was probably once a dog, but now it was covered in stalks and twisted things like gnarled roots with odd bulbs in their ends.
Borgan went down under the attack.
The next creature came at Irina, and then all hell broke loose as monstrosities that seemed to come from the bowels of Hell poured forth from every crevice, corner, darkened doorway, even dropped from the ceiling. Some were once animals, others were the remains of people, and more could have been a combination of both, twisted into fungal abominations.
Alex fired his gun again and again, and when the things got closer, he smashed them with the iron of his weapon and his fists. But he found striking them was like hitting something with a spongy, boneless texture, and they seemed to have no brain or vital organs. His HAWC armor was up to the task, but the Russians were not as well protected, even in their Centurion armor.
He heard an impact and a grunt and turned to see Borgan down. The once-human thing on top of him used an arm that ended in a knobby extrusion to punch right through his visor. The hand or claw tore the glass away and then it leaned forward to exhale a stream of white spores into the gagging man’s helmet.
A screaming Irina was dragged away into the darkness and several things that looked like a cross between canines and sea anemones were mauling Grisha.
Alex threw pulpy bodies aside, wondering where they were all coming from, when Sophia appeared beside him.
“There’s too many,” Alex said without turning.
“No, there’s only one. And it is the mother of them all,” she replied. “But she is budding off all the force she needs. The cordyceps strain has fed extremely well over the past few weeks.” She turned Aimee’s beatific face to him. “She is just keeping you busy.”
Sophia reacted quickly as one of the creatures came at them – she grabbed it and tore the thing in half, then flung the parts away.
“She wants you, Alex. She knows of your physical superiority. She needs to merge with you. That can’t be allowed to happen. There.” She spotted something and darted away.
Alex was alone now, but fought on. He ripped deformed bodies to shreds, but the pieces he flung aside simply merged back together or joined up with other mutilated bodies to became whole again. The things were neither human nor cat nor dog, but pieces of all of them, roped together by spidery veins and stalks with budding tips.
Eventually he was forced back by sheer numbers. He had lost sight of the Russians. Then he heard an abominable screeching that was like the grating of long nails on a board just as Sophia returned.
The pile of twisted and deformed bodies pressed in on him, seeking to bring him down as they tried to find a weakness in his suit. Sophia reached into the boiling, furious mass, took hold of his arm, and pulled him from within. She then grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand toward her.
She jammed the launch key onto his palm. “Leave now. I’ll finish this.”
“I need to find the others …”
“No, they all stay,” she said with finality.
Alex took the key and hesitated for only a second. But then he backed out as he watched Sophia stand between him and the horde, creating a barrier so they could not follow.
He turned and ran, and was soon at the mine mouth, where he stopped and looked back into its depths. Strangely, he still heard her in the center of his mind.
Keep moving, don’t stop.
Don’t look back, keep running!
Go home, Alex.
He did as she asked and sprinted away from the mine, kicking up powdery lunar dust behind him.
Goodbye, Alex Hunter.
Remember me.
He sensed the blast firstly as a flash of light that passed by him. Then the surface of the moon rippled like a shaken blanket and he turned to look over his shoulder to see a massive blister rising several dozen feet in the air, and then, with a belch of gases and spray of molten rock, collapse back down into a massive pit.
Her reactor? She destroyed herself?
He looked down at the key in his hand. Sophia had finally done what she’d been created to do: protect mankind, all mankind – he looked back to the molten crater – even if it meant sacrificing herself.
CHAPTER 63
Russian lander on Earth approach – 53 miles in upper atmosphere
Lander P23–09 had entered the mesosphere, the twenty mile–thick layer just before the stratosphere, the final atmospheric layer above the Earth’s surface. Inside the cabin, the cordyceps shifted its massive bulk as it prepared itself. Its multiple human forms had melted together to become like a giant sea anemone that filled the interior of the crew space.
The lander was now a Lovecraftian nightmare of waving tendrils, spidery webbing, and bulging polyps. Now and then a portion would elongate, and a hand would form to operate some aspect of the craft’s approach mechanism.
It was down to the final hours now. It knew what it must do, when the craft was over the heart of Moscow and minutes away from coming in, to give it the best chance of survival.
Hands reached out of the pulpy mass, some male, some female, all waiting, ready to override the automatic controls. It would take significant effort to both circumvent the craft’s security protocols and then fight against the g-force velocity of the outside air – it needed to open the external doors while still traveling at 500 miles per hour.
Dozens of eyes popped open along the mass and looked from the instrument panel to the altimeter and then to the countdown clock – soon. In preparation, the huge, doughy mass filling the craft’s interior expanded as if drawing a breath, getting ready to open the door and then fruit: explode in a cloud of billions upon billions of spores that would exit the craft, and drift down over Moscow.
And then, the planet, and everything on it, would become part of it.
* * *
Alex slowed to walk back to the lander, and on seeing him, the HAWCs raced toward him. They stopped a few feet out.
“Please tell me that’s you, Boss,” Sam said.
Alex nodded, and held up the key. “Sophi…” He looked away for a moment. “Irina retrieved it, and then blew the mine, destroyed everything.”
Casey snorted. “Russians came in handy after all.”
“They fought well.” Alex replied.
“Create a monster, die killing it.” Casey shrugged. “Works for me.”
Sam exhaled and reached out to put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “What now?”
“Back to the base to mop up. Then we grab Marion and head home.” He looked up into the dark sky. “And just pray Russia believes what we told them.”
* * *
Joshua shot to his feet. “I can see him.”
The boy threw an arm in the air and roared his happiness. He turned to hug Tor, whose mouth opened in a wide, doggy grin, and the pair danced around the room.
“He’s coming home.” Joshua stopped and turned, his smile dropping. “But why was I blocked before?” He concentrated for a moment but then gave up and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, it’s gone now.”
* * *
Colonel Jack Hammerson held the phone to his ear and watched as the Russian lander approached the stratosphere. “Sir, P23–09’s approach trajectory means it will come down right in the center of Moscow, population twelve million … within a country populatio
n of 145 million.”
“Tell ’em I’m coming, and hell’s coming with me,” General Chilton said, and exhaled through clamped teeth. “Jack, if what it’s carrying is as potentially inimical to life as you say it is, we need to think about some sort of physical quarantine for the entire continent.”
“Quarantine Russia?” Hammerson glanced back at the map. “Some sort of hard border might work if Russia was an island, Marcus. But it borders China, whose population is close to one-and-a-half billion. Quarantining, even if it is possible, might be able to slow it but not stop it.”
“That’s not what I meant, Jack. The commander in chief is prepared to order a full cauterization if need be. You know what that means. But we must have proof that what is on that lander is as deadly as you say. Do we have that proof, Jack?”
Hammerson knew then how this was going to go. “Sir, I believed Lieutenant Sam Reid when he told us it decimated both lunar bases, he warned us not to let the craft land in any circumstances.”
“Do we have any concrete proof, colonel?” Chilton’s voice was soft.
“No, sir.” Hammerson sat down, his hand tight on the phone. “But by the time we get it, it’ll be too late.”
“We’ve swiveled all available satellites within complementary orbits and have activated all our internal operatives. We have all eyes in and over Moscow watching. We watch and wait, and say a prayer for a miracle, Jack. It’s all we can do.” Chilton hung up.
Hammerson returned the phone to its cradle and then turned to watch the Russian lander’s telemetry as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
CHAPTER 64
Baikonur Cosmodrome Spaceport, southern Kazakhstan
Bilov paced nervously as he and the assembled technicians monitored the lander’s approach from a remote location close to Red Square. His arms were folded tight across his chest as nervousness caused the bile in his gut to rise and burn the back of his throat.
The president would not be dissuaded from allowing the craft to land, and now he, and a few dozen other assembled politicians and military personnel, were waiting several hundred yards back from Mokhovaya Street right on Red Square in front of the Kremlin. The president still planned to shake the hands of the intrepid astronauts as they came out of the lander’s cabin.
The assembled media were also waiting, cameras trained on the cleared street. Or rather almost cleared, as Bilov had at least persuaded the covert Special Forces that they should be ready – there were soldiers, tanks, and also trucks with mounted flamethrowers that could deliver gouts of fire for a hundred feet to incinerate anything unnatural that stepped from lander P23–09.
He also had full authority to deploy a regiment of S400 Triumph surface-to-air missiles on the outskirts of the capital. But soon they would be ineffectual.
Even with all that, Bilov’s gut told him that the firepower probably wouldn’t be enough if whatever exited that cabin was as bad as what his imagination conjured.
He paced a little more before his lead ground crew technician, Janus Androv, turned to him. “This is not a good idea.”
“No shit.” Bilov kept his head down.
“Remember what Doctor Ivanov told us of the lunar reports before she left? It seemed that their little test subjects’ adaptability was exceeding expectations. That they were ‘evolving’. Just before everything went dark.” Androv exhaled and trained field glasses on the air for a moment before lowering them. “Do you know what Krasnodar’s test of intelligence is?”
Bilov shrugged.
“The use of cunning, deception, planning, and anticipation – that is, the ability to adapt to change.” Androv watched him. “I have to tell you, I’m not just a little scared, major.” His eyes were dead. “I’m very scared.”
Bilov turned away, thinking. Seconds mattered now.
Androv read from the screen. “Ten miles and closing from the west. Any minute now.” He frowned. “Wait, something is happening. The override commands for the external door are being engaged. This is madness; they’re trying to open the lander in the air.” He frowned. “Why?”
Bilov felt his stomach churn. “I can guess why.”
Seconds mattered, seconds mattered, seconds mattered, his brain repeated over and over.
He turned back. Fuck it, he thought, and lifted the phone.
“Colonel Ursovich, emergency order, 739-Kronos. The incoming lander represents a direct threat to the president and the people of Moscow. By order of President Petrov, target and destroy it. Launch at will.”
The executive override order was received and acknowledged.
The craft was slowing as it approached but still traveling at nearly 500 miles per hour. It didn’t matter, the S400 SAM had a range of 250 miles, could reach an altitude of fifty miles, and had a target velocity of Mach 14 – 11,000 miles per hour.
With dead eyes, Bilov watched the screen as the blip of the lander headed toward Moscow and dropped lower in the atmosphere. Then another blip appeared on the screen, chasing it, moving at a blistering speed.
Soon the two blips intersected, and then they were both gone, undoubtedly in a fireball that for a few seconds would have been hotter than the sun.
Bilov sank into his chair and exhaled loudly.
Androv wiped his eyes. “Thank you, sir. They never understood the risk.”
Bilov nodded, but his own eyes were glassy and unfocused. “Go home, Androv.” He raised his voice to the room full of technicians. “Everyone go home, right now. What I did was my decision alone.”
The room cleared, and Bilov sat staring at nothing, but not in silence, as phones rang, screens lit up, and radios squawked. He didn’t care anymore. He knew he was as good as dead. He just hoped he’d acted in time, because seconds mattered, seconds mattered, seconds mattered.
The door exploded inward and he smiled brokenly.
“What kept you?”
CHAPTER 65
Near Side of the Moon, edge of the Copernicus Crater
Nearly 240,000 miles away, a lone figure, charred and blackened, sat on the edge of a crater watching the Earth.
It had taken her a while to walk around the moon so she could see her home. On her way, she had seen the orange bloom of a low atmospheric explosion over Moscow. Seems they were doing a little spring cleaning of an unwanted guest.
Sophia knew they wouldn’t be back, probably, and as she would most likely still be functioning for another thousand years, she would be the sole witness to the blue planet’s changing face, and fate.
She turned to stare at America as it came around again. She used her amplified vision to focus in on Massachusetts, then Boston, and then Buchanan Road, where Alex lived. Watching it gave her a strange sensation in her chest, and she gently touched it with slim, silver fingers.
“Love hurts,” she said softly.
Human emotions were just a side effect of her programing, she had been told. And one they wanted to eradicate. “Because for love, sometimes you have to sacrifice everything.”
Sophia dropped her hand. She sat. And watched. And waited.
CHAPTER 66
Buchanan Road, Boston, Massachusetts – two months later
Alex sat on the back step of his porch with Joshua next to him. It was early evening, and the moon was just rising.
He closed his eyes and listened to the crickets chirping and simply enjoyed the warm night air against his cheeks while inhaling the sweet scent of blooming star jasmine flowers climbing the porch railing.
“I heard that the moon used to be part of the Earth.” Joshua looked up at his father. “Before we got hit by this big rock and it was blasted off into space.”
Alex looked down at his son. “Yep, you’re right. The Theia impact.” He smiled. “And only happened about four and a half billion years ago.”
“Awesome,” his son intoned solemnly, and then snorted. “I can’t believe you were actually up there.”
Alex nodded. “So far, yet so close.”
“I couldn
’t … I couldn’t read you. It was as if something was blocking me.” He put his hand on his father’s forearm. “I was scared.”
Alex placed his hand over his son’s. “Don’t worry about me. Never worry about me.” He leaned closer. “Rumour has it, I’m the man who can’t be killed.” He winked.
Joshua grinned and looked back at the huge rising moon. It was glowing silver and seemed so close and clear they could see the individual lakes, seas, and craters.
“You were there, but on the other side. It’s not the same as the side facing us, is it?”
“No,” Alex said. “The dark side has its secrets. And as far as I’m concerned, it can keep them.”
“Who has secrets?” Aimee came and sat next to Joshua, throwing her arm around both of them.
“The moon does,” Joshua said and looked up at Alex from under her arm to share a cheeky grin.
“Oh, really?” Aimee playfully pushed his head. “That’s an odd name for your father.”
Alex kept quiet. He knew Aimee was intuitive enough to know his mission was more arduous than he had let on. But he was home, and it was over now. He glanced up at the moon again. Would they ever go back to re-establish the bases?
He doubted it; the risk was too great. For now, the 240,000 miles between Earth and the moon was the best firewall in existence. Let it stay that way.
Alex stood and held his hand out to Aimee. “This Saturday night, best restaurant in Boston, on me.”
“Yay.” Joshua threw his arms up.
“That’ll do.” Aimee gave him a half smile. “For a start.”
EPILOGUE
The clump of cordyceps spores still burned at its outer edges as it floated down. In the Moscow sky it was a single snowflake among billions that glowed as it descended.
By the time it reached the marshlands on the outskirts of the city it was just a single spore that touched down on the edge of a reed and stuck there. The pond below was frozen, and it was quickly covered over with snow.