Twenty minutes passed. The second away team of Varrez, Han, Talgold and Barrens sat in the shuttle suited up and harnessed in. Clearance was asked for and given, the hangar was vented, and the shuttle made another run for the moon’s surface, performing an overfly of the area before landing in a clearing south of the valley by the dune sea, creating a cloud of fine red dust.
“See you kids later” Ausmith said. “Remember your emergency channels.”
They stepped out onto a plain of sand and rocky outcroppings, and a soft, whispering wind. The terrain rose gradually ahead of them, building up to the near mountains. XH-Lambda loomed over the western skyline, waxing to a quarter-phase. Several other moons were also out, rising and falling in their separate arcs, ghostly pale in the haze. Varrez in particular was taken by the sight.
“It’s so primordial, like how Mars must have looked before it was terraformed –minus the gas giant, of course.”
“Yeah, imagine that” Barrens said. “Let’s roll out the rover and get going, the sooner the better.”
“What’s your hurry, sergeant?” Varrez said. “We can take a few minutes for sample gathering, can’t we?”
“I’m not saying you can’t play around in the dirt, doc” Barrens said. “But we’ve got a job to do, and we shouldn’t stay down here any longer than we have to.”
“It’ll only take a second” Varrez said, kneeling to collect some quick sand and mineral samples, and tucking them away in containers.
“Maybe we should get going” Talgold said. “The daylight’s looking a little dull, and the rover’s electric.”
“Actually” Varrez said. “Because XH is a twin-sun system true night is very seldom here, even less so with a gas giant hanging overhead. There’s probably no such thing as true night on this moon, for all we know.”
Dr. Han, not caring for the conversation, cranked the rover and backed it out from the shuttle, down the ramp, and skidded it to a halt. He set it in drive and revved it twice.
“There’s a possible alien anomaly just a few kilometers away from us, and you people are talking about rocks and sunlight? Let’s go!”
Barrens grinned. “Han, my man.”
The flatness of the lowlands went by quickly as the rover sped across the wastes toward the mountain valley, kicking up dust and pebbles with its ample treads. As they neared the valley, they noticed odd silhouettes in the hanging mist, tall and thin but otherwise unclear; they became steadily revealed as the team drove closer, and the mists passed further downrange.
It was a forest of sharp, angular pinnacles, hundreds of feet high, filling the entirety of the valley and climbing to its lower slopes; skeletal forms bleached and bone-dry, tree-like in structure yet also unsettlingly alien.
“Christ” Barrens said. “Captain, I hope you’re seeing this.”
“I am” Hindel said from the bridge. “And I don’t believe it.”
“What do you think it is?” Talgold said.
In the awestruck silence, Varrez spoke quietly.
“It’s beautiful, grotesquely beautiful.”
They drove to the outermost eaves of the forest, boneyard, whatever it was, and parked the rover under its shadows. The ‘trees’ were smooth with odd indentations along sections of their trunks, like bamboo stalks; they rose vertical and robust, tapering into fragile tufts of tendrils like cotton canopies seven to eight hundred feet over them. The air within was still, the soft wind dying outside the outer staggered groves. Varrez walked up to a trunk and touched it, feeling it scrape along her gauntlet.
“It’s very stony; looks organic enough, though.”
“Almost like that growth we found in the lab” Barrens said. “Maybe this is what it grows into?”
“Perhaps we can cross-analyze” Han said. “Varrez, do you have a scraper?”
“Several” Varrez said, opening a small kit and handing him one.
“Every good geologist does.”
“Thank you” he said, taking it with a curt bow.
Holding a container underneath, Han scraped off trace amounts of the ‘tree’ for further study, snapped the lid shut, and gave Varrez her tool back.
“How deep is the marker into this thing, captain?” Barrens said.
“Almost six hundred meters in” Hindel said. “Follow your HUDs, and you’ll get there.”
“Alright.” Barrens grabbed a large backpack from the rover’s bed and slung it over his shoulders, synching it firmly across his chest, patting down the locks.
“I’m taking point. No one leaves sight of anyone else, got it?”
“Yessir sergeant!” Varrez and Talgold said, saluting flippantly.
“Right behind you” Han said with a thumbs-up.
Not quite the responses he wanted, but Barrens expected as much from a bunch of civilians.
At his lead, they entered the forest. The ground was almost completely covered by slithering and overlapping roots, tripping them up somewhat, though progress was steady; they weren’t in any hurry, mostly for safety, but also for being in the midst of a giant environmental wonderland, once the shock of its foreignness became a wonder for it.
The meter count on their HUDs counted down. Light coming through the canopies was the color of a rich late sunset, if sunset it was, filtered by the cotton puffs into shifting beams touched with wafting motes in the dead air, blurring to a deep ruby hue in the darker parts of the forest that slowly enveloped them.
“You almost expect a deer or something to come leaping out at any moment” Varrez said aloud, to herself.
“What, like a space-deer?” Talgold said.
“I got bad news for you, Varrez; space-deer probably eat people.”
“Oh? how do you figure that?” Varrez said.
“We’re in uncharted space, the rules are inverted here. It’s basic physics.”
Varrez chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Well if we do run into something” Barrens said. “It’ll be running straight into this.”
He patted a side pocket on his backpack, indicating the folded shock rifle he was carrying with him.
“Fully charged and ready to go. I’ve got a pistol on my leg as well.”
“You really think you’ll need those?” Varrez said.
“I didn’t think we’d be strolling through a giant petrified forest in the middle of a desert moon” Barrens said. “Who knows what else we’ll run into here that we haven’t seen yet?”
“Let’s just hope you won’t have to use them” Han said, keeping on the periphery of conversation as he glanced up and around at the overbearing stalks, himself almost expecting to see some alien creature scurrying in the ruby half-light.
Thirty minutes passed on their mission clocks. The trees grew largest and thickest where the marker indicated the metallic presence, now only a few meters away.
“Something’s flickering” Barrens said. “Right ahead of us.”
A wall glinted in front of them through the stalks and roots of the forest, faintly iridescent. It was scratched by the gripping trees, partly subsumed by them, but there were still patches of it that shone like silver, if tinted by a ruddy hue.
“Ensign Komev?” Varrez said. “I think you owe Ellson a beer. I might too.”
The team tentatively approached, and discovered more than a simple wall. Rising with, and above many, of the trunks and eaves, angular and yet organic, smooth as polished stone and gray as steel, was a single spire tapered like an icicle, monolithic and austere, the wall surrounding it only one part of a greater monument.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me” Barrens said.
“Incredible” Han said. “Something this far out can’t be manmade.”
“Then who built it?” Talgold said. “And would they consider this trespassing?”
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s been home in a while” Varrez said. “Unless this is a typical aesthetic for them, whoever they are.”
“What, the whole ‘abandoned’ look?” Barrens said. “Always a crowd favorite.”
Captain Hindel chimed in. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. We’re potentially talking about one of the greatest discoveries in human history; it’s worth taking a moment to plan out our next move.”
“Next move?” Talgold said. “I thought that was finding a way inside, past the wall.”
“Even if there was a way in” Barrens said. “I wouldn’t be so eager trying to find one in something so dilapidated, nor would I advise it for this team.”
“You wouldn’t have to” Talgold said. “This is an exploratory survey, not a military foray. You can wait out here, if you want.”
Barrens shifted his stance. “The captain put me in charge of everyone’s safety out here, whether you like it or not, and I strongly advise waiting for a properly equipped excavation team to assume the risk of checking this thing out before we do anything.”
“It’ll take a full year for anyone else to get here” Talgold said. “Are you seriously prepared to wait that long? Besides, I don’t think the captain meant for run-of-the-mill safety concerns to interfere with scientific research of this magnitude, do you?”
“We’re talking about strolling our way into a bunch of alien ruins that could be dangerously unstable” Barrens said. “My concerns aren’t ‘run-of-the-mill’, doc.”
“It doesn’t look unstable” Varrez said. She approached the wall and ran her gauntlet along its dirty yet refractive surface like she did the tree trunk, wiping away centuries of dust.
“I can’t find a crack in it, despite its condition.”
“With all respect, this is not a democracy” Barrens said.
“You’re right, it isn’t” Han said. “Thoughts, captain?”
Their channel to the bridge was silent for a moment. Hindel sat back in her chair and weighed her options, wanting the ruins to be explored, but fearing for any unseen hazard they may walk into –and how bad it would look on a report after her first time in command. Yet credentials and commendations, as well as the thrill of exploration, leaned heaviest on her and tipped the scales away from overt concern.
“Exploring the anomaly was your primary mission, though I understand the sergeant’s caution; I share it, too. However, this opportunity we have to touch, to study and record something other than human, even superficially, can’t be passed up while we have it all to ourselves. I give permission to search for a way inside the wall, provided the danger is minimal.”
“We can look out for ourselves, captain” Talgold said, smiling at Barrens.
“We’ll be careful” Varrez said.
“I have complete faith in the sergeant’s abilities to keep us safe” Han said.
Barrens shook his head, muttering to himself.
“You may proceed” Hindel said.
The team began walking the perimeter of what proved to be a very formidable old wall: sixty feet high and a third in width, topped with geometric parapets laced with interweaving patterns; whether purely for decoration, or perhaps for defense, couldn’t be guessed. After much scouting and slipping over roots, following the curve south and east, they found an archway-shaped opening in the wall.
“Captain, we found a way in” Talgold said, rushing forward. “Can you see it?”
“I can” Hindel said. “Be careful.”
Barrens grabbed him and made him wait for the other two lagging behind. Together, the team passed the entrance into the interior space, estimated by their HUDs to be over one thousand feet across, and choked with twisting, calcified saplings clinging to the inner wall. The ‘plain’ within the wall was covered in the same dull burnished metal of the spire and complex, overrun by thick vine patches and other nodules resembling fungi and molds; some of them were smaller versions of the larger stalks that made up the forest, as tall or taller than the team, already sprouting their thin, dandelion-like tendrils. Talgold wandered in awe, muttering excitedly while recording everything in detail, while Varrez gingerly collected more samples.
There was an open doorway at the base of the spire, resembling a gaping mouth with inverted teeth; inside was pitch black except the first dozen or so feet, where a red haze filtered through, giving the impression of a large waiting throat.
“Is this where this whole forest came from?” Talgold said. “Plant nursery gone wrong?”
“It’s the Wanderer all over again” Barrens said to himself, subconsciously patting his suit to make sure his weapons were still on him.
Not sharing his concern, Talgold stepped up to the doorway of the spire and slowly panned his helmet, letting his light shine within; the first artificial light in who knew how long.
It was a hallway, or a cathedral, leading into a dark his light couldn’t penetrate. Vines continued along the floor and walls, covering over intricate murals of hieroglyphics mixed with geometric symbols. There were rows of chambers on either side.
He laughed from giddiness. “You guys have gotta see this!”
The others rushed up and peered in, stunned by what they saw.
“We have to check this out” Talgold said. “We have to.”
“Is it safe?” Varrez said.
“Seems intact” Talgold said. “Hasn’t fallen over yet, anyway.”
“We’ve gone this far” Han said. “We should be okay if we stick together.”
“You’re out of your damn mind” Barrens said. “There’s no way we’re going inside this.”
“Captain?” Talgold said. “Just a quick foray, please?”
Barrens sighed. Another silent moment passed on Hindel’s end.
“Stay within each other’s sight.”
They entered the black of the hallway, filing in behind the sergeant as he took point again, grumbling as he did. The outside world subsided into the background, taking all reddish daylight with it. Their visors adjusted accordingly, though only by so much. They switched to infrared, seeing that the way was straight, and that the ceiling was high and vaulted. It also reverberated with the slightest noise, carrying the echo of their footsteps, every scrape of their suits, to an uncomfortable degree. Though not pristine there was no speck of dust, no obvious decay, as if the spire and what happened here were frozen in instance, eternally preserved without resolve.
Seems to be a theme on this planet, Barrens thought.
Nerves aside, they passed by the hieroglyphic murals with fascination, a desire to touch and study them, but that all-too-human dread kept them from lingering, and no one wanted to fall behind even a few steps of the others.
“Oh, I wish we could understand these” Varrez said. “It’s so beautiful how they interflow with each other, scene into scene, like they’re all one long unbroken conversation.”
“I think you missed your calling, Varrez” Talgold said. “You should have been a writer.”
“By their reflective gleam” Han said. “I’m tempted to say that these pictograms are lined in gold, or a similar alloy. An interesting use.”
“Guess human beings aren’t the only species who enjoy decorating” Varrez said.
Barrens scoffed. “What I’d like to know is where the damn lights are. What’s the point of writing on the walls if you can’t see it?”
“Maybe they could see it just fine” Talgold said.
“Fine nothing” Barrens said. “No lights, a skeleton forest, a bunch of weird voodoo-shit on the walls…it’s as if this whole place was designed to scare the hell out of you.”
He decided to check in with the Wayfarer.
“Still with us, captain?”
“There’s a little interference, but I read you” Hindel said. “I’m sending your feeds directly to archive. The company will definitely want records of this.”
“Hear that, guys?” Talgold said. “Once we get home, we’re set for life!”
Talgold’s voice carried down the hall ahead of them, penetrating the dark and reverberating in an uncomfortable closeness despite the size of the complex. Barrens glared back at him, and he shrugged.
“How far in are you?” Hindel said.
“About fifty meters” Barrens said. “I’m not sure how far it goes, but we haven’t had any trouble yet.”
“I’ve got Ausmith on an open channel in case” Hindel said.
A few more meters of echoing darkness, and the team came to the edge of a vast spherical chamber that was the heart of the structure. Their HUDs showed it to be at least five hundred feet in circumference. The hallway split off along the sides, skirting the void, meeting on the other side to continue as another hallway. On both sides, however, were long thin platforms with what appeared to be daises perched out overlooking the bowl.
“Quite the room” Han said. “Wonder what it was for?”
“You’re the alien expert” Barrens said. “You tell us.”
“Xeno-biology, not xeno-archeology” Han said. “No such field has ever needed to exist, until now.”
The team began to spread out as they stepped into the chamber, Barrens and Han going left, Varrez and Talgold right, staying close to the walls. Unlike the hallway, the chamber had no murals of complex hieroglyphs or geometric signatures; it was bare, almost utilitarian, yet even here arms of fossilized vines slithered along the floor, to the edge of the pit where they seemed to stop abruptly, almost as if they were severed from it.
Talgold dared to step in for a closer look, crouching by the lip of the bowl, when a noise broke his concentration; a hum, very subtle, so much so that he almost didn’t catch it. He tapped the side of his helmet.
“Hear what?” Varrez said.
“That humming sound, kind of like a ship engine, only softer.”
“I don’t hear anything” Varrez said. “Could be interference.”
She did a quick check. “No.”
“Then I don’t think it’s that.”
Talgold kept crouched and listened. The sound remained.
“Get down, and keep still.”
Varrez complied, waiting a moment.
“But where’s it coming from?” Talgold said.
“Don’t ask me” Varrez said. “I would’ve missed it completely if you hadn’t pointed it out.”
Talgold stood up again, and the noise faded.
“It’s low level, like it’s coming from the floor.”
Varrez looked down, shifting her feet.
“You can’t be serious; this place is a ruin, how could anything still be running, assuming it even has a power source?”
Then, Talgold noticed another oddity. The beam of his helmet light faded out as he looked across the pit, but it too was subtle, something that also almost slipped by him. On a hunch, he reached out his hand and held it over the pit. A thin blue outline gave way, creating faint ripples in the air. He pulled back, and the air corrected itself.
“Dr. Han, Sergeant Barrens!” Verrez said. “Come here, quick!”
The two ran over, expecting to be shown some artifact or tool, a little disappointed to find their teammates seemingly milling about.
“What’s with all the ruckus?” Barrens said.
“Show them!” Varrez said, smiling widely.
Talgold reached out again and withdrew, creating the same disturbance as before.
“It has an effect on light too” he said. “Try it.”
They shone their lights across the void, and saw the beams distort and fade away before they could reach the other side.
“There’s a hum coming from the ground as well” Talgold said. “I bet the two are corollary.”
“A power source?” Han said.
Talgold glanced over to the platform and, without a word, walked towards it. He stepped onto the platform, approached the dais, and examined its smooth metallic surface. It had patterns similar to the hieroglyphs, arranged in sections separated by grooves and contained in blocks. Talgold studied them, his heartrate rising on his display.
“What are you doing?” Varrez said.
“What if this is some kind of control surface?” Talgold said.
“So what if it is?” Barrens said. “This place is ancient, kid. It’s not gonna work, and even if it did, I wouldn’t go messing with it.”
“I’m not” Talgold said. “I just want a visual record of it, for the archive.”
“Make it quick” Barrens said. “Then we’re leaving. I think we’ve explored enough for one day.”
“Sure, sure.” Talgold brushed his fingers on the dais, adjusting the brightness of his light.
“How’s that look, captain?”
“Like one for the history books” Hindel said. “Great job everyone. Tie up any loose ends and report back to the shuttle.”
A sudden deep groan went through the chamber, reverberating the hallways like they were hollow instruments. The team jumped, looking up and around nervously. All readouts rose sharply; Barrens hissed a sharp curse. A low rumbling continued, coming from the walls and vibrating them. The dais began to glow, illuminating the glyphs in a neon blue light. The force field over the pit shifted into visibility, humming ambiently as power fed into it once more.
“What happened? What’s going on?” Hindel said.
“There was a bit of a tremor, ma’am” Barrens said. “We’re getting out now, alert the shuttle.”
A pulse flashed from the dais, and the rumblings ceased. A small holographic sphere appeared from the glyph console, flickering and spinning serenely. Talgold watched it nervously.
The sphere stopped, registering his presence, and scanned his faceplate with a wide beam.
“Get down from there, Talgold!” Barrens said. “That’s an order!”
Before Talgold could comply, the hologram concentrated its beam into his eyes, holding him unmoving at first. Then he began to fidget, and tremble, and scream.
Barrens sprinted to the platform, leapt up the dais, and yanked Talgold free of the hologram, still screaming. His pupils were dilated, the sclera red from ruptured blood vessels. Tears streaked his face, and blood streamed from his nose. The sphere, interrupted from its attempted link, winked out and turned the console red, beginning a new wave of tremors.
Unseen doors closed, sealing off the chamber and hallways. A chill of dread gripped their spines. Varrez laughed nervously.
“Hey kid, kid, look at me!” Barrens said, cradling Talgold in his lap. He was still shaking, his eyes fixed on some far point, muttering incoherently.
Barrens unslung his backpack and rummaged quickly through his med-kit, prepping a syringe and injecting it through a special port in Talgold’s suit. He gasped, shuddered, and lay still. A good sign, hopefully.
“Sergeant!” Hindel said, her voice cutting out. “Situation report, now!”
“Things got real FUBAR real fast, ma’am, I’ll get back to you.”
There was no way to know if any of what he said got through before static overwhelmed his connection, cutting them off from the Wayfarer.
“I’m not picking them up anymore” Varrez said. “What do we do now?”
“Hindel knows were still inside the structure” Han said. “I’m sure she’ll get us out somehow.”
“One problem at a time!” Barrens said, trying to rouse Talgold from his shock. He dared to take another syringe, a stimulant, and inject a minute amount into the port. Talgold gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, fighting for speech that was slow to return, muttering frustrated strings of incomprehension.
He grimaced between breaths, trying to force out the words.
“Slow down, take your time” Barrens said. “We’ve got plenty of it.”
“N-no, we d-don’t” Talgold spat.
Talgold bolted up, heaved himself to his feet, and leaned over the console. Barrens moved to restrain him, but Talgold pushed him away, screaming.
“I know you’re not feeling right, kid” Barrens said. “But you need to calm down.”
“I n-need to s-save us!” Talgold said. “Save us!”
“That’s it” Barrens said. “Got no other choice.”
Barrens gripped Talgold in a pin, struggling to bring him to the floor as Talgold fought against it; he quickly swiped the shock pistol from the sergeant’s holster and shot a low-setting bolt into his leg, making Barrens drop as pain and numbness spread throughout his calf.
Talgold waved at the icons, bringing up and manipulating holograms as if he were suddenly an expert on them. Varrez and Han watched on in stunned silence.
“This p-place is a research facility” Talgold said. “They abandoned it, q-quarantined it…had to destroy it.”
Images flashed and faded. The force field shifted hue, and the chamber walls shuddered.
“It knows w-we’re intruders” Talgold said. “Can’t risk infection, g-gonna wipe this place c-clean again, and everyone s-stuck inside it.”
Tears welled in Varrez’s eyes as the weight of the moment, of Talgold’s words, sank in. Han clapped her shoulder in consolation, fighting his own rising panic.
“If I c-can convince it to override p-protocol, I c-can save us.”
“How are you going to do that?” Barrens said. Talgold didn’t answer.
A shadow moved down the chamber walls, ambling like a large spider, noiseless in its descent. As Talgold tapped and swiped away in madness, its skulking outline caught Varrez’s attention. Her heart skipped a beat; she pulled on Han’s arm.
It crouched on all fours, keeping as low and hidden as possible, stalking its way to the platform. Her eyes widened.
The creature sprinted, bounding its way up to the console; alerted by Varrez, Barrens snatched his pistol from under Talgold’s gaze and aimed, leading his shot, and fired into the creature’s chest. It recoiled and shrieked; an awful, ear-splitting wail of pain not only from the static bolt, but from the agony of its own existence.
Its full horridness was caught in their intersecting lights. Despite its animal-like demeanor it was bipedal, a mangled mess of carnage and physiology, unsettlingly humanoid; its bones were bent and dislocated, stained by dried gore, adorned with long sharp protrusions on its arms and backside. What was once a head was yanked back, the throat open and exposed; a mass of slithering feelers poked their way through the trachea as bare vocal cords screeched such an inhuman pitch of suffering, it froze the blood in their veins.
Barrens switched his pistol to its highest setting and fired again, then again. The creature stumbled, then redoubled to attack them. A fourth shot sent it over the platform and into the pit, landing with a sickening splat.
Varrez was sobbing as Han struggled to lead her to the chamber doors. Barrens grabbed Talgold and followed behind, stopping only to retrieve the rifle from his pack as more shadows moved around them.
“Han!” he said, tossing him his pistol. “Point and shoot, make’em count!”
Han nodded, though felt little assurance.
“The doors” Talgold said. “Get me to the d-doors.”
Barrens dragged him over as fast as he could, the creatures screaming as they closed in, punctuated by gagging and warbling noises.
“Hold him!” Barrens said to Varrez, handing Talgold off to her.
“Let’em do whatever he needs to do, we’ll cover you!”
Braced against Varrez’s shoulder, Talgold waved his hand beside the doors and activated a holographic pad.
“I can override the d-doors” he said. “It’s still g-gonna wipe the facility. We need to get out before it does.”
Barrens and Han started firing, and he hurried his fingers over the icons.
“Please, Talgold” Varrez said. “Please, oh God, please.”
The icons faded. The doors groaned and slid apart, opening to the hallway.
“We’re through!” Varrez said.
Without waiting she hurried herself and Talgold out of the chamber. Barrens and Han shuffled after, laying down a suppressive fire as the doors slowly closed again, sealing in whatever it was that attacked them.
“What the fuck?” Barrens said.
“Let’s try and get reception” Han said, panting. “Maybe we can get Ausmith to meet us outside the forest.”
They carried on as swiftly as they could go with Talgold in tow, continuing to talk under his breath.
“Used to be green, used to have water…they brought it here, studied it, wanted to understand its resilience, adaptability…outbreak, there was an outbreak, growing and growing, whole hemisphere compromised; planet cleansed, only way to be sure.”
“Can this wait until we’re back on the ship, Talgold?” Varrez said. “Kinda not in the mood for it right now.”
“The ship?” Talgold said, his voice clearer, stronger.
“Yes, get back to the ship, and leave. It’ll start here, but it’ll spread, cleanse everything.”
“Don’t have to say that twice” Barrens said.
They returned to the entrance, but found that it had closed itself off like the inner chamber. Again, Barrens and Han took defensive positions as Varrez steadied Talgold to work another holo-pad, now glowing by the door frame.
“So, uh, how much time do you think we have left?” she said.
“I’m assuming not much” Talgold said, cracking the locks and opening the doors; that familiar dull, dirty orange light spilled in, a sight the team couldn’t have found more beautiful or uplifting.
“Fuck this moon” Barrens said. “Let it get cleansed, whatever the hell that means.”
A creeping form clinging to the outer door frame swung down and jumped them. It swiped its arm at them, lashing with its sharp whip-like growths, slashing Talgold across his chest and tearing open his suit. Trails of blood seeped through before the underlayer of bio-foam could close it.
Varrez screamed and fell backwards with him, barely saving them from another vicious slash. Barrens and Han unloaded on it, firing until its flesh and exposed organs were literally burning. The creature hissed and writhed, shriveling into a heap, mercifully dying with a rasping wail.
Catching his breath, Barrens tried contacting the bridge again.
“Captain Hindel, come in. This is Sergeant Barrens; can you hear me?”
“I can now” she said. “What happened? We got cut off by some kind of power flux. Some of your readouts are still on the fritz, are you alright?”
“Talgold’s in critical condition” Barrens said. “If you could get Ausmith to swing by the forest, we’d appreciate it.”
“Done” Hindel said. “Alerting Dr. Walsh to prep for immediate surgery.”
“Prepare yourself for a hell of a briefing, ma’am” Barrens said. “And captain? It’s good to hear your voice again.”
“Likewise, sergeant. Hindel out.”
Talgold gasped for air as Varrez and Han carried him over their shoulders, stumbling in their haste but refusing to slow down. Barrens sprinted beside them, leveling his rifle at the forest’s crimson shadows and scanning for any sign of movement. They seemed to be alone, for what little comfort that offered. The forest was sinister thing again, now that they knew what dwelt within, or perhaps was itself; a parasite, a rampant fungus that gave birth to monstrosities no nightmare could fathom.
They hurried under its brooding canopy, not only for Talgold’s sake or his premonitions, but for their own pounding fears, distilled to their most primal essence, fears far worse than simply being hunted like prey; fears of mutilation, being hacked to pieces by an abomination far from home or help, your friends having no choice other than to leave you behind, because saving you would kill them too.
They reached the end of the forest with no further attacks. The rover sat untouched. Ausmith had the shuttle parked and ready, standing by the ramp as the engines idled. He ran over when he saw them dragging Talgold.
“Christ, what happened to him?”
“Get us back to the ship, lieutenant” Barrens said. “Now!”
Varrez and Han hurried Talgold into the cabin and lay him down, trying to keep him prone. The bio-foam seal was holding, though he had since relapsed into shock.
“He’s bleeding internally” Han said. “If he makes it, it’ll be close.”
“What about the rover?” Ausmith said.
“Fuck the rover!” Varrez screamed, spitting on her visor. “Take off!”
He gave a curt nod and darted for the cockpit, closing the ramp, throttling the engines, and lumbering them skyward in a cloud of dust, leaving XH-Ld behind in a jolting ascent.
Han grabbed a med-kit from the shuttle’s bulkhead and did every meager thing he could do, to no avail. Talgold slipped further and further away, his vitals dropping to their faintest ebbs.
“He’s not going to make it.”
Talgold coughed, shuddering, flexing his fingers.
“Varrez, please; I don’t want to die with my helmet on.”
Varrez nodded while shaking, unlocking his helmet and gently removing it, setting it aside; he took a deep breath of the cabin’s pressurized oxygen, coughing again.
“Hold on, Talgold” Varrez said, taking his hand.
“A few more minutes, okay? Please?”
Talgold said nothing. His eyes glazed over in a blank stare and his head turned away, rocked by the shuttle’s motion. His readout flatlined.
Varrez sobbed. Han bowed his head. Barrens sighed and looked down at his boots.
It proved a long, quiet return flight to the Wayfarer.
