:: part one ::
I see the bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightning
I see bad times today
Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
:: chapter one ::
Dear
Ms. West,
Thank you for applying to volunteer with the Lifeline Communication and Support Network. I am pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You may download and install the Lifeline app on your mobile device at your leisure.
Your login details are:
Username: mere.west
Password: MKW050683
Please keep these login details in a safe place. Your password has been encrypted and cannot be retrieved.
Thank you again for joining the Lifeline Communication and Support Network. We appreciate your service.
Kind regards,
Liesel Barnes
Lifeline Recruitment
Thank you for applying to volunteer with the Lifeline Communication and Support Network. I am pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You may download and install the Lifeline app on your mobile device at your leisure.
Your login details are:
Username: mere.west
Password: MKW050683
Please keep these login details in a safe place. Your password has been encrypted and cannot be retrieved.
Thank you again for joining the Lifeline Communication and Support Network. We appreciate your service.
Kind regards,
Liesel Barnes
Lifeline Recruitment
“Hey Mere?”
Meredith looked up from her phone at the doorway of her bedroom. Leaning against the doorframe was her roommate, looking as if she’d just got home from a night out on the tiles.
“Yeah?”
“What’re you doing?”
“You know that thing I applied to join?”
Quinn squinted a little, an expression Meredith recognised as the one her roommate adopted when she was thinking. “The Lifeline thing?”
“Yeah, the Lifeline thing.” Meredith tapped out of her inbox and brought up her phone’s app store, and navigated through to her wishlist. “I just got an email – they’ve accepted me as a volunteer.”
“Oh, nice! Good one Mere.” Quinn grinned, one that Meredith returned. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah, sure you can.” Meredith nodded to her bed. “How was your date?” she asked once Quinn was settled cross-legged on the bed, leaning against the wall.
Quinn gave Meredith an almost dreamy smile. “It was so good. We hiked up to the observatory and did a bit of stargazing. She bought me ice cream afterward.”
“That’s great, Quinn.” By now Meredith had found the Lifeline app in her wishlist, and had installed it on her phone. She waved her phone at Quinn. “I’m going to see if I can find someone to chat to, if you still want to hang around.”
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere.” As if to make her point, Quinn grabbed one of the pillows off Meredith’s bed and dumped it in her lap. “Well, come on then. Find someone to chat to.”
“I won’t have any comments from the peanut gallery,” Meredith warned, and Quinn made a show of zipping her lips shut.
Meredith didn’t have long to wait to find someone to talk to. As soon as she had logged into the app, it connected and a message popped up on her phone’s screen.
[
incoming communication ]
[ establishing connection ]
[ receiving message ]
[ establishing connection ]
[ receiving message ]
Hello? Is this thing working? Can anyone read me?
“What the hell?” she whispered. “The fuck is this?”
“Mere?” Quinn asked.
Meredith held her phone out to Quinn. “I’m not sure this is how the app’s meant to work. Pretty sure I’m supposed to find someone to talk to, not the other way around!”
“Are you going to answer them?” Quinn asked.
“What?”
Quinn nodded at Meredith’s phone. “They clearly need someone to talk to. You gonna answer them?”
“Yeah, gimme a sec.” Meredith quickly tapped out an answer. I read you.
The reply that Meredith got, though it was just pixels on a screen, was clearly relieved. YES! Thank you, thank you, thank you…
Are you okay?
Yeah I’m fine. It’s just been hours since I was able to talk to anyone.
“Who are you talking to?”
Meredith shrugged a little. “Dunno. Haven’t asked them their name yet.” Who are you? she asked.
Right, sorry. Probably should have started with that. Meredith could almost see them smiling apologetically. I’m Taylor. I’m…I was an astronaut on the Varia.
What’s the Varia? she asked. “Quinn, look up something called the Varia for me? V-A-R-I-A.”
“On it.” Almost as an afterthought, Quinn added, “Why does that sound familiar?”
It’s – fuck, not IS. It was a starship, crew of less than a dozen. Mission to see if a planet called Tau Ceti IV could support human life.
That’s exciting.
Yeah, it was. Everything was going fine as far as I knew, and we were due to get there in six days. Only…
Only what?
I don’t know what happened, if we went off-course somehow or what. All I know is that we crashed on some moon somewhere. I don’t know where it is.
Meredith raised an eyebrow at this. “You don’t know? How the fuck can you not know?” she asked, not expecting an answer.
She got one anyway.
Why don’t I know? Why don’t I have this sector, hell the entire goddamn GALAXY memorised, like any astronaut worth a damn should? BECAUSE I’M A FUCKING STUDENT, OKAY?
“Whoa. Speech recognition. Didn’t expect that.”
Yep.
“Okay, so how does a student get onto a mission into outer space?”
Won a competition. Got picked out of, I don’t know, thousands of science students. I was running experiments in zero-G on rats and lichens and shit like that. Was supposed to be with a supervisor at all times, no matter what. I can pretty safely guess that crash landing on a goddamn MOON wasn’t covered anywhere in my student handbook!
“Okay, okay, calm down. It’s all right.”
In her mind’s eye Meredith could see Taylor pinching the bridge of their nose in what had to be frustration – and she wasn’t entirely sure she blamed them. Sorry, sorry. I’m just really freaked out right now. We went over a shitload of different protocols for what to do during potential disasters when I was in training for this mission, but a spaceship crash on some deserted moon in the middle of fucking NOWHERE definitely wasn’t one of them. There was a brief pause. But it’s okay. I’ll be okay. Just have to find the others, they’ll know what to do. They’ll be able to let Houston know that we crashed. Another pause. Only…
“What?”
What if nobody else survived the crash? What if I’m it?
He’d been sitting against the side of the escape pod on the hard, rocky ground for hours, ever since he’d woken up to find that he’d somehow managed to survive the crash. The pod was a little scorched from what he figured had to be re-entry, but it was otherwise intact. What he could see of the pod’s chute was torn and similarly scorched, the fabric pitted with burn marks.
Taylor, breathe. Just breathe. Can you do that for me?
“Yes. Yes, I can do that.” He took a deep breath and let it out shakily, the sound echoing inside his helmet. “Breathing. I’m breathing.”
Good. Keep doing that. Now, aside from the whole freaked out bit, are you all right?
He considered this for a little while. “Let’s see now. The ship I was on crashed on some moon in the middle of freaking nowhere. Nobody except for you is hailing on this or any other frequency – and believe me, I tried quite a few of those. And so far I haven’t seen any survivors aside from me, who just so happens to be the least prepared person in existence for this sort of emergency!” He let out a quiet, nearly hysterical laugh. “But I somehow managed to get out of this whole mess with nothing worse than a stubbed toe, so things could be worse.”
What do you mean, least prepared?
“This sort of thing definitely wasn’t on any science exam I ever took in high school. And I was in Advanced Placement!”
Ooh, we have a smart kid on our hands. Impressive.
“Right.” He scoffed a little at this. “Smart kid with a sore toe.”
Sorry about the toe, Einstein.
He let out another laugh, this one not quite as hysterical as the last. “Yeah, well, I have a habit of using sarcasm as a weapon, at least according to other people. And I’m not armed with anything else right now. So, you know…let’s just hope that if there’s some little green men waiting behind my escape pod to jump out and attack me the second I decide to move, they’re vulnerable to ironic comments and a whole lotta eye-rolling.” He grinned a little at this, even though the person he was talking to – his Lifeline – couldn’t see it.
That’s the spirit.
“Thanks.” He eased himself to his feet, stifling a groan as his muscles and joints protested. “Anyway, why don’t I tell you what I can see from here? Maybe you can give me an idea of where I should go.”
Sounds good to me.
“Right, so my escape pod came down in the middle of a desert or something like that. White rock with lots of cracks in it. And there’s a dirty great peak a few miles away by the looks of things – it’s almost perfectly symmetrical, so I don’t think it’s entirely natural. Compass on my IEVA suit – fancy name for a spacesuit – says the peak’s northeast of me.”
He turned around so that he was facing the crash site. “And in the opposite direction, south and southwest to be exact, there’s two columns of black smoke from what I’m assuming are the two pieces of the Varia.” He paused. “Best case scenario, it’s only in two pieces.”
Which one looks closer? Crash site or the peak?
“The crash site. So you think I should look there first?”
Yep. The peak can probably wait.
“Okay, yeah. That makes sense. There might be other survivors at the crash. Fingers crossed.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “It’s not actually possible to cross your fingers in an IEVA suit, so you’re gonna have to take my word for it.”
Fingers crossed here too.
“Appreciate it. At the very least, I know there’s stuff there I can use. Rations and shit like that, so I’m not gonna starve anytime soon.” He rolled his shoulders a little, wincing a little when he felt the joints crack. “All right. I’m heading south now. It looks like the crash site’s at least an hour away, so I’ll let you know when I get there.”
Okay. After a second or so, his Lifeline added, I’m Meredith, by the way. Girl. What about you – girl, guy, non-binary?
“Oh, um, guy.” He started heading for the crash site. “Nice to meet you, Meredith.”
You too, Taylor.
Meredith looked up at the sound of Quinn’s triumphant shout. Quinn looked very pleased with herself, the biggest grin Meredith had ever seen outside of Alice In Wonderland on her face. She was holding her phone up in the air, like it was a baseball she’d caught. “What sounds familiar?”
“The Varia! It got mentioned in the student newspaper ages ago. I dug into the archives and found an article about it.” Quinn cleared her throat. “‘Life Sciences sophomore Taylor Hanson has been selected out of thousands of science students nationwide to join the crew of the Varia, NASA’s first manned mission beyond the boundaries of our Solar System. The mission will be investigating the planet Tau Ceti VI and its potential for supporting human life.’”
“He goes to the same school as us?”
“Yep!”
“Talk about a small world.”
“Mmm.” Quinn stretched her arms out above her head before climbing down off Meredith’s bed. “I’m gonna go see if I can get a few hours’ sleep before class. See you when I surface.”
“See you.”
After Quinn left, the door snicking quietly closed behind her, Meredith pulled up Firefox on her laptop and found the article her roommate had dug up. Accompanying it was a colour photograph of a young man with a bright smile, dark blonde hair pulled back into a neat ponytail, and the brightest blue eyes that Meredith had ever seen. The photo’s caption named him as Taylor Hanson.
He was so young. The article didn’t say how old he was, but the description of him being a sophomore was a decent enough clue. He reminded Meredith of her younger brother – and if Fabian was the one stranded on a nameless moon, she knew that she would want someone to do everything in their power to get him back home.
A couple of hours later, while Meredith was doing some of her readings for class, her phone chimed at her. She put her tablet down on the bed beside her and unlocked her phone to find a new message from Taylor.
Holy SHIT. I have no idea how long I’ve been walking but my legs feel all shaky. If I don’t get there soon I think they’re going to give out from under me.
“It’s been about two hours,” Meredith replied.
Fucking hell. I could have sworn the crash site looked so much closer than this.
She let out a quiet chuckle. “Feel like a chat? I could do with a break from study.”
YES PLEASE. Anything to keep my mind off this interminable fucking walk. Taylor’s next words seemed inquisitive. What are you studying?
“Communication. I want to get into social work, and a Comms degree sounded like a decent starting point. If I pass all my classes I’ll graduate next year. What about you?”
Bachelor of Science, though you probably figured that out already. Major’s in Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution. I haven’t decided what I want to do after college yet.
“You’ll figure it out. You have plenty of time yet. Hell it took me until my junior year to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation.” Meredith picked her tablet back up and tapped her PDF reader’s save icon. “Mind if I ask a bit of a thorny question?”
This time he sounded very wary, and Meredith wasn’t sure she entirely blamed him. I suppose.
“How’d you survive the crash?”
He didn’t say anything for a while. I was asleep. Woke up when the alarm went off and Captain Aya ordered us to evacuate. Colby got my helmet on me and shoved me into an escape pod – she saved my life, basically. Last time I saw her, she was running back into the ship to see if she could help somehow. Blacked out right after the pod’s engine fired up, and when I came to I was here on this fucking moon.
“Do you want to talk about her? Colby, I mean.”
You don’t mind?
“Hell no.”
Thanks. I appreciate it. I think it might help a bit, actually. There was more silence from Taylor, but Meredith didn’t push him to talk – she figured he was probably gathering his thoughts. Colby was…I guess she was like the mother of the group. Reminded me a lot of my own mom, really. She was the nicest and the smartest of us all. Like…she didn’t show off how smart she was, but if something broke then she’d know how to fix it. Even though half the time the answer turned out to be duct tape.
Meredith snickered a bit at this. “Even on a starship?”
A multi-billion-dollar starship at that.
“Oh good Lord.”
Took the words right outta my mouth. But anyway…Colby, she was nice and sweet enough that she never made any of us feel stupid. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated it.
“I wish I could have met her. She sounds wonderful.”
She really was. And I know it’s probably wishful thinking, but I’m hoping like hell that Colby made it through this utter nightmare alive. I mean, okay, I hope everyone did. Obviously I’m hoping for that. But I’m hoping extra hard that she did.
“I hope so too.” Meredith studied the screen of her phone for a little while. “Thanks for sharing, Taylor.”
No, I should be thanking you for listening. So. Thank you. That felt…well, normal. Like I was telling my new friend about my old friend.
Meredith smiled. “You’re very welcome.”
And hey, if I do manage to somehow find a way off this effing rock and get home, maybe we can go get coffee sometime. I’m buying.
“It’s a deal.”
By the time the crash site finally came into view, Taylor was ready to collapse out of sheer exhaustion. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d walked so far without anything resembling a break. As soon as he’d stopped walking and had caught his breath, and once he’d checked that the atmosphere was breathable, he released the clamps on his helmet and lifted it off his head. “Meredith?” he asked as he set his helmet down on the ground beside his feet and pulled his hair out of its ponytail, running gloved fingers through it. “Meredith, are you there?”
Yep, I’m here.
“I’m at the crash site. Jesus effing Christ that was a hike and a half.”
What’s it look like?
“Like I thought it might – the Varia came down in two big pieces. Must have cracked in half when it hit the atmosphere.”
There’s an atmosphere there? On a moon?
“Yeah, and it’s breathable.”
You don’t think that’s a bit weird?
He considered this for a moment. “A bit, yeah. But I’m so not complaining, because I finally got to take my helmet off. Which feels fucking amazing, by the way.”
I bet! What else can you see?
“Aside from an absolute shitload of white rock?”
Meredith’s next words seemed amused. Yes, Taylor. Aside from that.
“Just checking.” He shaded his eyes with a hand. “There’s a tonne of debris scattered around the two halves of the ship. Makes it look post-apocalyptic and absolutely terrifying. And yes, in case you’re wondering I’m pretty damn terrified right now, so it’s working.”
Easy, Taylor. Deep breaths.
“Still breathing. Don’t worry.” He studied the crash site, trying to gauge the distance between the two halves of the Varia. “The flight deck came down pretty far from the crew quarters. Looks like it’s closest, though. I might have a look there first.”
Just be careful, okay?
“I will.” He quickly gathered his hair up and tied it back again, then bent down to pick up his helmet before heading for the wreckage of the flight deck. As he got closer he could clearly see how much damage the crash had caused, and he sucked in a shocked breath. What remained of the front half of the Varia looked like it had flown through a meteor storm. “Holy shit…”
Taylor?
“It, um…” He let out a quiet, almost hysterical laugh. “It looks like hell. Which, okay, I expected. Just a shock seeing it up close.” He ran a hand over the nearest section of the wreckage, instinctively wincing as his fingertips skirted over jagged edges. “Most of the heat shielding looks like it got stripped off during entry.” He stepped inside the flight deck. “The exterior of the ship seems to have taken the worst of the damage though – most of the instrumentation looks like it’s pretty much intact.” He cleared some of the debris off one of the crew seats and set his helmet down on it. “I’m gonna poke around in this mess, see what I can find.”
What are you looking for, specifically?
“Not sure. I’ll know what it is when I find it.” He crouched down and started sifting through the mess of wires, strips of metal and fluttery bits of cloth and paper that covered the floor of the flight deck. “Now, let’s see what I can dig up…”
As he pushed aside a crew seat that had been wrenched free of its moorings so that he could get at the bridge, he found something he wasn’t even searching for.
“Score! Meredith, we are in business!” he yelled triumphantly, and let out a cheer as he punched the air.
What did you find?
“I found a couple of things. First off, I found the ship’s distress beacon.” He gave the beacon a quick once-over as he straightened up. “And not that I know much about them, but from the looks of things it’s totally intact.”
That’s great news!
“I know, right? Means I might not be stuck here forever.” He carefully set the beacon down next to his helmet. “Secondly, one of the defence turrets is still working. Other two got totalled in the crash. Which, okay, wouldn’t normally be great, but there’s only one of me so it works out.”
So you can defend yourself?
“If need be, yep. I won’t have to rely on my arsenal of pop culture references in case any little green men around here turn out to be armed.” Right as he finished speaking reality came crashing down on him, and he let out a quietly defeated sigh. “There’s just one problem.”
Nothing to power them with?
“Nope. Reactor’s in the rear of the ship, and that came down separately from the flight deck. I’m fairly certain that we didn’t pack any extension cords that are long enough to bridge the distance between the two crashes. And even if we had packed them, I can pretty confidently say that the reactor isn’t in good enough shape to be able to power much of anything right now.” He closed his eyes and ran a hand over his face. “I’m gonna keep digging around in the flight deck. Who knows, I might find something I can use to give them a bit of juice.”
Good luck.
He managed a small smile, not even caring that Meredith was too far away to see it. “Thanks. I think I’m going to need it.”
Meredith, please tell me you’re there. This is really important.
“I’m here Taylor, what’s up?”
There was no answer for a little while, but she didn’t push Taylor to talk – at least not at first. “Taylor? Are you okay?”
Yeah. I’m okay. It’s just…oh, effing hell. She could imagine Taylor taking a very shuddery breath after this, as if he was trying not to break down. I haven’t found any of the crew yet. But, um…I just found Captain Aya.
“Oh no,” she whispered, her heart sinking.
Yeah. There’s so much blood, Meredith…
“Easy, Taylor. Easy. Deep breaths, okay?”
I’m breathing, I’m breat- He cut off suddenly, and for one long, horrible second Meredith thought something had happened to her new friend. SHE’S NOT DEAD! HOLY SHIT SHE’S NOT DEAD!
“No way,” Meredith breathed. “Are you absolutely sure?”
Of course I’m fucking sure. She’s still breathing. She’s got this motherfucking huge bit of metal through her side, though. It looks like a support strut or something. Meredith winced at this. What do I do, Meredith? Do I leave it in or pull it out?
“Leave it in!” she half-yelled. If there was anything she remembered from the first aid classes she’d taken in high school, it was that. “Don’t even think about pulling it out, you’ll kill her.”
Okay, yeah. Good idea. Meredith could almost see Taylor nodding at this. She’s not really bleeding too much right now anyway. I don’t want to make it worse. But her breathing is really shallow and kind of…rattling? That’s the best way I can think of to describe it.
“Do you have a medkit around anywhere? At the very least you should bandage the wound so it doesn’t get infected.”
There should be one on the flight deck somewhere. I just gotta find it. Gimme a few minutes. He was quiet for a little while – Meredith figured he was searching for a medkit. I’m not keeping you from anything, am I? he asked suddenly.
“I’m supposed to be in class soon, but you’re way more important.”
I feel special. Seriously.
“You should. I don’t contemplate skipping class for just anyone.” As she said this an image of Taylor blushing bright red popped into her head, and she bit back a grin. “Any luck finding a medkit?”
Not yet. I found the forward med cabinet, but it’s all scorched over and I can’t open it. I’d need a crowbar and a power drill just to have a hope of breaking it open. With any luck I’d be the one who needs patching up after that, not just the captain.
“Damn it.”
Yeah. There’s another cabinet in the rear of the ship though, near the crew quarters. I’ll go see if I can get into it.
“Good luck,” she said softly, hoping the microphone on her headphones had picked up her voice, and locked her phone before resuming her walk to class.
She had just settled into her usual seat in the lecture theatre for her Thursday Communication and Identity class when her phone chimed again. It was quiet, but loud enough to startle her into nearly dropping it. She quickly silenced her phone and opened Lifeline to find a new message from Taylor.
Effing hell. All this running between the crash sites is starting to wear me out.
You could take a break, Meredith suggested, deciding that typing was better than speaking right now.
Not yet. If I stop moving then Captain Aya is as good as dead. Right now for all I know, she’s all I’ve got on this stupid moon.
Okay, good point. But please tell me you’ll take a break soon.
You sound like my mom. But in a good way.
Someone has to. She shrugged a little as she sent those three words, even though she knew full well that Taylor couldn’t see it. How close to the rear of the ship are you?
Like, spitting distance. Not that I WOULD spit, that’s gross. But I’m really close. Before Meredith could respond to this, Taylor sent another message. Oh no.
Taylor?
I, um...I just found some of the crew. Wasn’t totally unexpected, but I still hoped. You know? Fucking hell…
“Shite,” Meredith whispered.
Sorry. Had to go throw up behind some moon rocks. But, um…I think there must have been a few crew members who were near the point where the hull broke. I can’t tell who they were or how many of them, they’re all sort of…fused to the metal, or to each other.
Jesus Christ.
Yeah. It…it’s not pretty. Plus I think we might have lost some of the others when the ship lost pressure.
The next message that Taylor sent just about broke Meredith’s heart.
I just managed to get the door to the crew quarters open. The rest of the crew’s there. Antoine, Trotter, Colby, Adair…they’re all dead.