:: chapter seven ::
Meredith did her best to distract
herself during the half hour that Taylor was climbing down the
crater wall. It was the first time in the three days they’d known
each other that he had deliberately cut off contact between them –
while she knew why, and was completely fine with the reason, it
didn’t make her any less anxious. What he was currently attempting
to do was incredibly dangerous, and she knew that she wouldn’t be
able to breathe properly again until she knew that he had made it
safely to the bottom of the crater.
“I’m not going to tell him,” she said. She and Quinn had gone out to the courtyard at the back of the residence hall for some fresh air, knowing full well that Meredith wouldn’t be able to distract herself if she was cooped up in her dorm room with her laptop and tablet within reach. The sole electronic device that Quinn had allowed Meredith to take outside was her phone, so that she would know when Taylor checked back in again. “At least, not yet. He needs to concentrate on getting down that wall first.”
“That’s probably the best idea you’ve had all year,” Quinn teased her, and Meredith flipped her the bird. “But I get where you’re coming from – the fewer distractions he has right now, the better.” She traced a design that someone had scratched in the wooden table the two of them were sitting at, following the spiral with a fingernail. “What about after that, though? He needs to find out at some point.”
“I know he does. And I will tell him. I’d be the world’s worst friend if I didn’t.” Meredith dropped her gaze to her lap and started picking at a rip in the left knee of her jeans. “How could this happen, though? How does a starship just…disappear? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe it’s a sort of spacey Bermuda Triangle,” Quinn ventured.
“Maybe,” Meredith echoed. “But more to the point, how the hell has it been two years since that ship vanished, but I’m only just now talking to Taylor? That’s the bit I don’t understand.”
Whatever Quinn might have said next was interrupted by the familiar chime of the Lifeline app. “Hold that thought,” Meredith said as she grabbed her phone, unlocked it and swiped a thumb down from the top of the screen to open the notifications panel. Right there at the top, underneath her phone’s screen brightness meter, was a new message from Taylor.
I made it! Couple of minor mishaps along the way, but who doesn’t love a bit of an adrenaline rush from time to time?
“Thank goodness you’re all right,” Meredith said once she had the app properly open. “I was really worried, Tay.” Here she did a tiny double take. “Hang on, what do you mean by ‘mishaps’?”
I hurt my shoulder again. Pushed myself a lot harder than I intended to and now I’m really paying for it. Fucking thing’s screaming at me right now. I could really use a painkiller, in that I have pain that would benefit from being killed.
“How many do you have left again?”
Two. If I take one right now then I’ve only got one left after that.
“Take it, Tay. You sound like you really need it.”
I really, really do. Pretty sure the relief’s going to be worth it, though. I just hope it kicks in quickly because I can barely raise my left arm above shoulder height. I tried a few minutes ago and the pain was so bad that I almost passed out.
“You are going to need some serious physical therapy once you get back home.”
Yeah, no kidding. There was a short pause while – Meredith figured, anyway – Taylor took one of his remaining painkillers. I really can’t overstate how big of a bowl this crater is, especially now that I’m down inside of it. It’d take me hours to get to the other side. But the main thing is that the peak is finally within reach. That fucker isn’t going anywhere – as long as I keep walking in that direction, I’ll eventually get there. And my rattletrap compass tells me I’m still pointed north, so I guess I get my merit badge for that.
“So are you headed off now?”
Yep. I’ve got a long, slow walk ahead of me, so I’ll check back in when I’m a bit closer.
As soon as Taylor had set off again, Meredith put her head down on the table and just cried. All of the fear and anxiety she had felt over the last half an hour, coupled with the sheer relief that Taylor had survived his climb down into the crater, was almost too much for her to bear, and it all had to escape somehow.
Without even missing a beat Quinn got up from her seat on the other side of the table and hurried around to where Meredith sat. “Mere, he’s going to be all right,” she tried to reassure Meredith. “I promise, he’ll be okay.”
“I know,” Meredith mumbled. She pulled the left sleeve of her shirt down over her hand and wiped her face off on it. “Doesn’t stop me being worried about him.”
Quinn didn’t respond to this. Instead, she offered Meredith a smile that she very hesitantly tried to return. “Come on. You need to get out of here for a while. We’ll go get ice cream or something.”
“Yeah, okay,” Meredith agreed. “That sounds good to me.”
“I’m not going to tell him,” she said. She and Quinn had gone out to the courtyard at the back of the residence hall for some fresh air, knowing full well that Meredith wouldn’t be able to distract herself if she was cooped up in her dorm room with her laptop and tablet within reach. The sole electronic device that Quinn had allowed Meredith to take outside was her phone, so that she would know when Taylor checked back in again. “At least, not yet. He needs to concentrate on getting down that wall first.”
“That’s probably the best idea you’ve had all year,” Quinn teased her, and Meredith flipped her the bird. “But I get where you’re coming from – the fewer distractions he has right now, the better.” She traced a design that someone had scratched in the wooden table the two of them were sitting at, following the spiral with a fingernail. “What about after that, though? He needs to find out at some point.”
“I know he does. And I will tell him. I’d be the world’s worst friend if I didn’t.” Meredith dropped her gaze to her lap and started picking at a rip in the left knee of her jeans. “How could this happen, though? How does a starship just…disappear? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe it’s a sort of spacey Bermuda Triangle,” Quinn ventured.
“Maybe,” Meredith echoed. “But more to the point, how the hell has it been two years since that ship vanished, but I’m only just now talking to Taylor? That’s the bit I don’t understand.”
Whatever Quinn might have said next was interrupted by the familiar chime of the Lifeline app. “Hold that thought,” Meredith said as she grabbed her phone, unlocked it and swiped a thumb down from the top of the screen to open the notifications panel. Right there at the top, underneath her phone’s screen brightness meter, was a new message from Taylor.
I made it! Couple of minor mishaps along the way, but who doesn’t love a bit of an adrenaline rush from time to time?
“Thank goodness you’re all right,” Meredith said once she had the app properly open. “I was really worried, Tay.” Here she did a tiny double take. “Hang on, what do you mean by ‘mishaps’?”
I hurt my shoulder again. Pushed myself a lot harder than I intended to and now I’m really paying for it. Fucking thing’s screaming at me right now. I could really use a painkiller, in that I have pain that would benefit from being killed.
“How many do you have left again?”
Two. If I take one right now then I’ve only got one left after that.
“Take it, Tay. You sound like you really need it.”
I really, really do. Pretty sure the relief’s going to be worth it, though. I just hope it kicks in quickly because I can barely raise my left arm above shoulder height. I tried a few minutes ago and the pain was so bad that I almost passed out.
“You are going to need some serious physical therapy once you get back home.”
Yeah, no kidding. There was a short pause while – Meredith figured, anyway – Taylor took one of his remaining painkillers. I really can’t overstate how big of a bowl this crater is, especially now that I’m down inside of it. It’d take me hours to get to the other side. But the main thing is that the peak is finally within reach. That fucker isn’t going anywhere – as long as I keep walking in that direction, I’ll eventually get there. And my rattletrap compass tells me I’m still pointed north, so I guess I get my merit badge for that.
“So are you headed off now?”
Yep. I’ve got a long, slow walk ahead of me, so I’ll check back in when I’m a bit closer.
As soon as Taylor had set off again, Meredith put her head down on the table and just cried. All of the fear and anxiety she had felt over the last half an hour, coupled with the sheer relief that Taylor had survived his climb down into the crater, was almost too much for her to bear, and it all had to escape somehow.
Without even missing a beat Quinn got up from her seat on the other side of the table and hurried around to where Meredith sat. “Mere, he’s going to be all right,” she tried to reassure Meredith. “I promise, he’ll be okay.”
“I know,” Meredith mumbled. She pulled the left sleeve of her shirt down over her hand and wiped her face off on it. “Doesn’t stop me being worried about him.”
Quinn didn’t respond to this. Instead, she offered Meredith a smile that she very hesitantly tried to return. “Come on. You need to get out of here for a while. We’ll go get ice cream or something.”
“Yeah, okay,” Meredith agreed. “That sounds good to me.”
“Hey Mere? Things are…” He looked up at the peak again, feeling more than a little uneasy. “Things are a little weird. Mind if I unload?”
You know I don’t mind. Lay it on me.
“Thanks.” He tried his hardest not to sound too relieved, even though he knew it wouldn’t be obvious what he was feeling – as far as he was aware, all Meredith was getting from him was text, no sound or vision. “So…you know how this peak has seemed to sort of, I don’t know, stay just out of reach?”
Yeah...
“I thought it was just an optical illusion. Like, I had to be getting closer to it the further I walked, but all the hills and valleys on this stupid moon kept playing tricks with my perspective and making it seem like it was a lot further away than it actually was. But now I’m not so sure. And I know this sounds crazy, but…” He trailed off. “No, never mind. It sounds crazy because let’s face it – it is crazy.”
Oh come on, tell me. Please?
“You’re sure?”
You’ve told me lots of crazy shit the last few days. I think I can handle a bit more.
“Okay. But never say you weren’t warned.” Another glance up at the peak, almost as if he was making sure it was still there. “I think the peak might actually be sort of…wavering. In, like, an existential sense. I’ll be looking at it, then I’ll blink and for just a second, it won’t be there anymore. Then it reappears, and I start questioning my sanity. It’s happened something like half a dozen times since I got down into this crater.”
Okay, that IS weird.
“I know, right? It’s not the only batshit crazy thing, though. You might want to brace yourself.” As he was saying this, he lowered himself to his knees and rocked back a little. “Here’s what’s really tripping me out. I’ve been walking for about an hour now, maybe a bit more than that, more or less making a beeline for the peak. And just a minute ago I looked down, and there was another set of bootprints in the sand.” He resisted the temptation to reach out and touch the bootprints, as if that would make them more real. Just seeing them was freaking him the hell out. “I mean, they’re exactly the same size and shape as mine. It’s like I’m doubling back on my own path, even though I know I’m not. How the hell is that even possible?”
It definitely isn’t. Not as far as I know anyway.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell myself. I know they can’t be mine, but it’s freaking me the fuck out regardless. They’re exactly my size, exactly the same tread pattern that I’ve got on my boots.” He shook his head a little. “I don’t know. I’m not sure how I could be walking in a straight line, but at the same time be walking around in circles. It makes zero sense.”
He let out a sigh and got back to his feet, stretching a little as he moved. “Honestly, I don’t want to think about it anymore. I’m just gonna put my head back down and keep on walking forward.”
He did just that for the next three quarters of an hour – walking forward, one foot in front of the other, like he’d done during each of his hikes over the last few days. Like he’d done with the climb down the crater wall – something that neither of his parents were ever going to find out about. He knew he would never hear the end of it if they did.
The next time he looked up, it was to find a towering monolith of white stone rising up before him, and he sucked in a sharp, shocked breath. He’d known the peak was big, but not this big. “Holy shit,” he breathed as his eyes tracked upwards, trying to find the very top. He felt the same as he had with the crater the day before – that if not for the fact that he was still utterly terrified of the prospect of dying alone in deep space, he would be more than a little awed. “Mere, I’m here,” he said once he’d fumbled for his communicator. “I’m finally, actually here. I sort of can’t believe it.”
It’s about damn time.
“I know, right? And yeah, I know that a lot of the time people talk about how they thought they’d never achieve whatever goal they had, but I think that’s mostly hyperbole. Not for me, though. I literally never thought I’d make it here.”
What does it look like up close?
“Well for starters, it’s a lot bigger than I thought it was. It isn’t just taller, but it’s bigger around at the base.” He stepped back a little, trying not to crane his neck too much as he looked upwards. “And something like fifty yards to my left there’s this little recessed area in the rock. I’m not entirely sure I want to see what it is just yet, if it’s even anything. I just don’t want any more surprises, good or bad. I’m not entirely sure I could handle it. I’m gonna just scout the perimeter for now.”
And with those words he headed off to his right, trailing the fingers of his left hand along the side of the peak as he walked. No more surprises, he pleaded silently as he walked. Please.
“How do you mean?” Meredith asked, about half a second before starting in on her scoop of green tea ice cream.
It’s almost like it was CARVED out of the rock, rather than forming naturally. Mountains usually get that way through erosion and upheaval, not because someone went chipping away at it with a hammer and chisel. And yes, I am very aware that it sounds crazy to say that this peak looks built, but let’s face it – it’s not the craziest thing I’ve said so far. After a short pause, he added, That was supposed to sound comforting, but it definitely didn’t come out that way. Sorry. Anyway, the thing to keep in mind here is- HOLY SHIT.
“What? What is it?”
You’re not going to believe this. Not in a million years. Hell I’m looking at it right now, and I can barely believe what I’m seeing.
“Should I brace myself?”
Yeah, might be a good idea. You should probably be sitting down as well. Another pause. There’s writing on the outer wall of the peak.
Quinn very nearly spat out her mouthful of rocky road. “There’s what? Writing? Are you serious?”
I am deadly serious.
“How is that even possible?” Meredith asked. “You said it yourself, you’re the only living, conscious being on that moon right now.”
That I know of.
“Okay, yes, that you know of,” Meredith amended.
I swear to all that is holy, every moment I spend out here I feel like I ratchet up the crazy another ten degrees. I don’t know how much more of this I can take, Mere. I really don’t.
Just reading those words made Meredith want to give Taylor the biggest hug she was capable of. She was fairly sure he needed one, whether he knew it or not. “Jesus, Taylor,” Quinn whispered. Meredith found her hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.
Here’s the worst part about the writing, he continued. I have absolutely no idea what it says.
“Yeah, that’s not ominous at all,” Quinn commented.
It’s...I’m like ninety-nine percent sure it’s Chinese characters, which I absolutely do not read. And the caravel looked like it was of Chinese origin, if that bottle of painkillers I found is any indication. Does that mean...did someone actually SURVIVE that wreck? Did they make it to this peak? And how the fuck did we never hear about a Chinese ship being scuttled on this moon? ESPECIALLY if there was a survivor?
“Taylor, breathe,” Meredith said, hoping to stave off a panic attack.
I’m trying, Mere. I promise. It’s just...Jesus fucking Christ. Could their national space agency really have covered this up? WHY would they have covered up something like this?
“More to the point, what went wrong?” Quinn added.
Yeah, exactly. Maybe I’ll find out if I ever get off this stupid rock. Meredith swore she could hear Taylor let out a sigh at these words. I don’t think there’s much else I can do, other than keep on walking around this thing. Wish I had a Chinese-to-English dictionary on me. Hell, even a translator app thingamajig would do. I could really use either one right about now.
“I wish I could give him a hug,” Quinn said as Taylor went silent again. “He needs one.”
“That’s the first thing I’m doing once he’s home and I can meet up with him,” Meredith said. “I mean, if he lets me.”
“Oh yeah, of course. But I feel like he’s the sort of person who’d be up for a hug regardless.”
“I really hope so.”
The two of them were quiet while they finished their ice creams. “Do you regret it?” Quinn asked suddenly, and Meredith almost choked on a bit of waffle cone. “Answering him, I mean.”
“Honestly?”
Quinn raised a slender blonde eyebrow at Meredith. “I always want you to be honest, Mere.”
“Just checking.” Meredith considered her answer for a little while. “No. I don’t regret it. How could I? He needed help, and I get the impression that he really needed a friend as well. Especially after he found out that everyone else apart from his captain didn’t survive the crash. And he’s got both out of me.” She ducked her head a little. “I hope that after he makes it home he’ll still want me as a friend.”
“I’m sure he will, Mere. He’d be mad not to,” Quinn assured her, and she smiled.
Her ice cream finished, Meredith pushed her chair back from the table and stood up. “I need to go work on that essay for Adams,” she said. “I’d really rather not be scrambling to finish it the night before it’s due.”
“I’m betting you need a distraction from that as well,” Quinn said, motioning to Meredith’s phone.
“Yeah, a little bit,” Meredith admitted. She picked her phone up, locked it and slipped it into a pocket. “It’s just…it’s killing me, not being able to do anything to help him.”
“You’re making sure he survives,” Quinn said. “Physically as well as mentally. I wouldn’t say that’s not being able to do anything.”
“That’s true.” Meredith looked at Quinn. “What would I do without you?”
“Sit in a corner and go quietly mad, probably,” Quinn replied, before nodding in the general direction of their residence hall. “Come on. That essay ain’t gonna write itself.”
One moment, Taylor’s homemade compass had been working just fine – the next, its face had started spinning and jumping like a fish on the end of a line. “Oh no, no, no, no, don’t you fucking dare do this to me now,” he snapped at it. “Meredith? You there?”
Always, Tay. What’s up?
“I was just walking around the outside of the peak with my little makeshift compass, watching its face moving along with me like it’s supposed to” here he sent his compass a quick glare “when all of a sudden it started jumping backward and forward, and spinning all over the place like a kid at a dance party who’s taken some really good drugs. Not that I’d know anything about that,” he added hurriedly.
Of course you wouldn’t, Meredith replied, and Taylor bit back a small smile at how amused she seemed. Hang on, is it supposed to do that?
“No, it’s not. It is definitely not supposed to go spinning and jumping around like it’s a fish I just caught! This is exactly what my old compass…”
Here he trailed off, catching sight of a bright green shimmer just out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around just in time to see the green shimmer intensify to an almost blinding white, right before the peak vanished in less time than it would have taken him to blink.
Your old compass what? What’s going on?
“Um…” He reached out a hand to where the peak had been just seconds before and waved it around a bit. “The peak just…it’s gone. Vanished right in front of me – there’s nothing there.”
Did you see anything before it disappeared?
“Yeah, this bright green shimmer. Exactly the same colour as those lights I saw last night.” He shuddered a little. “This is creepy as fuck.”
Right as he spoke these words the green shimmer returned, and he yanked his hand away again – just in time for the peak to reappear, and for his compass to start working properly once more. “Okay, the peak’s back, and my compass is back to normal,” he said, the hairs on the back of his neck standing right on end. “I just…what the actual fuck was that?”
That is fucking insane.
“It is. It absolutely is insane. But I am definitely not insane. I couldn’t be more certain of what just happened. I could have believed that everything up until this point was nothing more than a very weird optical illusion – a trick of the light, maybe even my exhausted brain doing its best to put one over on me. But this?” He waved a hand at the peak, which by now had lost its green shimmer. “I was right here when it happened. Th-this was some next-level, otherworldly shit.”
No kidding. Are you all right, apart from being a bit freaked out?
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Just going to keep walking around the magic disappearing man-made moon mountain. That’s a normal thing people say, right?”
He couldn’t see or hear Meredith, but he was almost certain she had just burst out laughing, a thought that made him smile a little.
It wasn’t much longer after the disappearance and subsequent reappearance of the peak that he finished his walk around it. The bootprints he had left in the sand during his approach to the peak and as he had started his walk were still there, something he didn’t even pretend not to be relieved about. If he decided to back out here and now, he’d be able to retrace his steps back to the caravel wreckage.
“That’s it, then,” he said as he came to a stop. “I’ve made it all the way around the peak. Didn’t find any more writing on the walls, and there wasn’t any more temporospatial shifting.” He cracked a wry smile. “Let me tell you right now, that is a sentence I never dreamed I’d ever say. And that’s despite me winning a competition to go ride in a spaceship.”
Where are you now?
“Back at that recessed area I saw before. And I am going to do my best not to be thoroughly unsettled by this, but I gotta tell you – it’s gonna be a real uphill battle. Because that recess in the peak wall?”
Yeah?
“It’s a doorway.”
A WHAT?
“I’m not kidding. And I don’t mean, like, it’s a cave entrance that’s formed naturally in the rock, or anything like that. I literally mean that it’s a doorway. It’s got right angles and everything, and it’s at human scale. Built for someone exactly my size.” He frowned a little. “Huh. I wonder…”
He stepped up alongside the doorway and took his helmet off, holding it in one hand while he compared his height to that of the opening in the peak wall. The top of the doorway was about half a foot above his head. “Oh are you fucking kidding me right now? How is that even possible?”
What?
“I probably mentioned at one point that I’m not exactly short. I’m something like six foot two, give or take maybe half an inch. Tallest member of my family. Even my dad is shorter than I am, though not by much. If I hadn’t decided to go into science and I was actually good at sports, I might have taken up basketball or something. But anyway – I can’t help but wonder if this doorway was built for me.”
That can’t be possible.
“I know it can’t be possible, and yet here we are. That doorway is exactly my size. I just…what the hell do I even do with this information?” He let out a nearly hysterical laugh. “No way in hell am I going through it just yet. I’m just gonna sit here for a little bit and try to collect myself. Pretty sure I’ll have a panic attack if I try it right now.”
Are you sure going through the doorway is the best idea?
“Honestly? No, I absolutely do not think it’s the best idea. I am terrified.” As he said this he was settling himself down on the ground against the peak, legs stretched out in front of him. “I have never felt so nervous or anxious in all my life. My fucking goosebumps have goosebumps, that’s how much this is freaking me out.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “Gimme a few minutes and then…I dunno. I guess I’ll be ready to go inside.” He swallowed hard. “Or run screaming.”
Let’s hope it’s not the latter.
“Yeah, you and me both.”
He tipped his head back and let his eyes drift closed again, and focused on calming himself down. The panic he had been feeling gradually eased, he could feel his heart stop racing, and it got steadily easier to breathe. “Okay, I think I’m good,” he said once he felt like he was calm enough to keep going. “I mean, as good as I’m likely to get. I don’t think I’ll be completely good until I’m home again.”
Don’t go inside unless you’re absolutely sure.
“Of course I’m not fucking sure. How in the world could I be sure about something like this? For all I know, there’s a giant laser cannon with ‘Jordan Taylor Hanson’ etched into the side of its barrel, and it’ll blow my head off and cauterise the wound the second I step through that door!” He bit back a slightly hysterical laugh. “And you and I both know that would not be one iota crazier than anything else that’s happened today, let alone the last three days.” He eased himself upright and dusted himself off. “But I’ve come this far. I have to do this.”
He moved in front of the doorway, through which he could see a distant light almost beckoning him forward. Any other time he would have been relieved to see a light at the end of the tunnel that lay before him, but right now the sight of it was more than a little unnerving. He resisted the urge to turn tail and run in the opposite direction, and instead took a deep breath. “Right then. Here goes nothing.”