:: chapter nine ::
He had finally managed to settle
down and focus his full attention on the proximity radar when he
heard it – the same scuttling noise that he’d heard in the caravel,
and again in the corridor earlier. It was a noise that normally
wouldn’t concern him, but right now it was making the hairs on the
back of his neck stand on end.
“I just heard that scuttling sound again,” he said, doing his best not to sound thoroughly freaked out. “Oh man. This is the first time I’ve heard it when the lights have been on. It’s so much worse now that I can actually see what’s going on.” He shuddered a little as a ripple of what could only be described as fear went down his back. “I might actually be able to see whatever the hell it is that’s been making that noise. Whatever it is that ran into me earlier.” He swallowed hard. “Whatever it is that has glowing green eyes. Do I even want to see whatever it is this thing turns out to be?”
Where is the sound coming from?
“I think it’s coming from-” He broke off as the scuttling sound started up again, his gaze going right to the bank of monitors in front of him. “I think it’s behind the monitors. Whatever it is, it’s running around in the wiring.”
Go looking for it.
For the first time since he had got in contact with Meredith, he didn’t question being told what to do. “This is crazy,” he said as he got to his feet and peered over the proximity radar. “This is utterly crazy. Why the fuck am I actively hunting some creepy alien creature that’s scampering around in the wiring?” He shook his head a little. “I think I mentioned before that I’ve seen an awful lot of sci-fi and horror movies. And over the last couple of days, it’s become pretty obvious that I’ve seen way too many. Probably a lot more than was good for me.” Not finding anything behind the proximity radar, he turned his attention back to the monitor with the pulse countdown. “But I know very well that this scenario never ends well for the person wearing the ‘Hello, My Name Is Taylor’ nametag. I can tell you that much.”
Here he cocked his head a little and squinted, listening hard. “Okay, it’s…it’s louder here, behind the pulse countdown computer.” He studied the wall behind the computer, eyeing the row of metal plating that ran behind the monitors. “I think that if I can just get my fingertips behind this plating, I can-”
Right as he was saying this, a familiar white head with a little brown patch above its right eye poked out from a hole beneath one of the plates, and he very nearly fell backwards out of shock.
“Holy shit!”
What? What happened?
“One of them just stuck its head out!” He let out an almost hysterical laugh, just as two more heads poked themselves out. Out of nothing more than instinct he promptly backed away, nearly tripping over his feet as he moved. “It’s…it’s the things that were making all that racket – the things that ran by me earlier. It’s my lab rats.”
Are you absolutely certain?
“Oh yeah. Definitely certain. The first one who stuck his head out, that’s Patch. I called him that because he was all white, all except for this one spot of brown right over his right eye. It looks sort of like a checkmark, or a pirate’s eye patch – it’s really distinctive. There’s no question, it’s him.”
And here he swallowed hard again, a cold knot of fear forming deep in the pit of his stomach. “Except that patch used to be over a little pink eye, like all Sprague Dawley rats have. And now…” Another ripple of fear slithered down his back. “That eye is glowing bright green. Same green I keep seeing everywhere. And it’s looking right at me.”
Are all your rats there?
“I…I think so? Patch and Runt stuck their heads out first, and I just about tripped over myself backing away from them. Then Logan nosed his way between those two, and I can still hear more scrabbling noises behind the monitor. I have to assume that’s Wildboy, so everyone’s accounted for.”
He shook his head a little, trying to make sense of what was happening. “This is…in an unbroken string of bizarre events on this moon, this one is right at the top of the heap.”
Yeah, there’s no debating that. This is unbelievable.
“I swear to you Mere, if I somehow make it back from here alive, they’re going to have to shelve my memoirs in the Fantasy section of the bookstore. Because honestly? Nobody is going to believe even half a fraction of the shit I’ve experienced here.”
What are your rats doing?
Instead of answering right away, Taylor studied his rats. He knew his rats almost intimately, something that came from having worked with them for the last couple of months. He was almost tempted to reach out and pick them up, but something deep inside stopped him – what it was exactly, he wasn’t quite sure.
“They’re acting like rats,” he replied at last. “It’s seriously unsettling. I mean, apart from the eyes they look exactly like they always did. But then they turn and stare at me, and they seem so…eerie. Almost otherworldly.” He paused almost hesitantly, unwilling to say what was on his mind. “Alien,” he finally continued. “This whole thing with my rats, on top of everything else that’s happening – the computers in this fucking mountain, the visitors that are still on their way here, the time slash space disappearance…” He wrapped his arms around himself and shook his head again. “I-I just need a few minutes to process all of this.”
And with those words he muted his communicator and sat back down in front of the proximity radar, and focused on the one constant in his life at that moment – the four almost-impossible figures headed straight for the peak.
“I just heard that scuttling sound again,” he said, doing his best not to sound thoroughly freaked out. “Oh man. This is the first time I’ve heard it when the lights have been on. It’s so much worse now that I can actually see what’s going on.” He shuddered a little as a ripple of what could only be described as fear went down his back. “I might actually be able to see whatever the hell it is that’s been making that noise. Whatever it is that ran into me earlier.” He swallowed hard. “Whatever it is that has glowing green eyes. Do I even want to see whatever it is this thing turns out to be?”
Where is the sound coming from?
“I think it’s coming from-” He broke off as the scuttling sound started up again, his gaze going right to the bank of monitors in front of him. “I think it’s behind the monitors. Whatever it is, it’s running around in the wiring.”
Go looking for it.
For the first time since he had got in contact with Meredith, he didn’t question being told what to do. “This is crazy,” he said as he got to his feet and peered over the proximity radar. “This is utterly crazy. Why the fuck am I actively hunting some creepy alien creature that’s scampering around in the wiring?” He shook his head a little. “I think I mentioned before that I’ve seen an awful lot of sci-fi and horror movies. And over the last couple of days, it’s become pretty obvious that I’ve seen way too many. Probably a lot more than was good for me.” Not finding anything behind the proximity radar, he turned his attention back to the monitor with the pulse countdown. “But I know very well that this scenario never ends well for the person wearing the ‘Hello, My Name Is Taylor’ nametag. I can tell you that much.”
Here he cocked his head a little and squinted, listening hard. “Okay, it’s…it’s louder here, behind the pulse countdown computer.” He studied the wall behind the computer, eyeing the row of metal plating that ran behind the monitors. “I think that if I can just get my fingertips behind this plating, I can-”
Right as he was saying this, a familiar white head with a little brown patch above its right eye poked out from a hole beneath one of the plates, and he very nearly fell backwards out of shock.
“Holy shit!”
What? What happened?
“One of them just stuck its head out!” He let out an almost hysterical laugh, just as two more heads poked themselves out. Out of nothing more than instinct he promptly backed away, nearly tripping over his feet as he moved. “It’s…it’s the things that were making all that racket – the things that ran by me earlier. It’s my lab rats.”
Are you absolutely certain?
“Oh yeah. Definitely certain. The first one who stuck his head out, that’s Patch. I called him that because he was all white, all except for this one spot of brown right over his right eye. It looks sort of like a checkmark, or a pirate’s eye patch – it’s really distinctive. There’s no question, it’s him.”
And here he swallowed hard again, a cold knot of fear forming deep in the pit of his stomach. “Except that patch used to be over a little pink eye, like all Sprague Dawley rats have. And now…” Another ripple of fear slithered down his back. “That eye is glowing bright green. Same green I keep seeing everywhere. And it’s looking right at me.”
Are all your rats there?
“I…I think so? Patch and Runt stuck their heads out first, and I just about tripped over myself backing away from them. Then Logan nosed his way between those two, and I can still hear more scrabbling noises behind the monitor. I have to assume that’s Wildboy, so everyone’s accounted for.”
He shook his head a little, trying to make sense of what was happening. “This is…in an unbroken string of bizarre events on this moon, this one is right at the top of the heap.”
Yeah, there’s no debating that. This is unbelievable.
“I swear to you Mere, if I somehow make it back from here alive, they’re going to have to shelve my memoirs in the Fantasy section of the bookstore. Because honestly? Nobody is going to believe even half a fraction of the shit I’ve experienced here.”
What are your rats doing?
Instead of answering right away, Taylor studied his rats. He knew his rats almost intimately, something that came from having worked with them for the last couple of months. He was almost tempted to reach out and pick them up, but something deep inside stopped him – what it was exactly, he wasn’t quite sure.
“They’re acting like rats,” he replied at last. “It’s seriously unsettling. I mean, apart from the eyes they look exactly like they always did. But then they turn and stare at me, and they seem so…eerie. Almost otherworldly.” He paused almost hesitantly, unwilling to say what was on his mind. “Alien,” he finally continued. “This whole thing with my rats, on top of everything else that’s happening – the computers in this fucking mountain, the visitors that are still on their way here, the time slash space disappearance…” He wrapped his arms around himself and shook his head again. “I-I just need a few minutes to process all of this.”
And with those words he muted his communicator and sat back down in front of the proximity radar, and focused on the one constant in his life at that moment – the four almost-impossible figures headed straight for the peak.
She had just made up her mind to head downstairs to her building’s communal kitchen when her phone chimed. She snatched it up off her desk and quickly opened the Lifeline app, to find that Taylor’s busy message had vanished. In its place was a new message – one that gave Meredith hope for the first time that her friend would be rescued.
A ship. Holy shit Mere, there’s a ship!
“Are you sure?”
I’m fucking positive. There is a ship IN THIS SECTOR! I can see it on the radar and everything. There was a pause, and Meredith was almost certain she could see Taylor squinting at the radar, trying to figure out exactly what he was seeing. I can’t tell...I mean, it’s too early to know whether they’re on an arc to this moon, whether they got my SOS. But they entered the sector map, and the monitor lit up like a freaking Christmas tree. I imagine my eyes did too.
Meredith cracked a small smile. “That’s great news, Tay.”
I know right? I’ve been sort of slowly pacing the room for the last few minutes, just trying to keep my distance from the rats, but I went running over to check it out in a heartbeat. Creepy space rodents be damned. Because this is fucking HUGE news. Please, please, PLEASE let them pick up my SOS. Please let them get me off this godforsaken rock. All I ask is that-
He broke off here, but only for a moment – nowhere near long enough for the feeling of fear that Meredith had felt so often lately to take hold.
Okay, THAT doesn’t seem good.
“What is it?”
There’s, um...there’s something on the other computer. The one that keeps counting down to a pulse. It just lit right up with new text on the screen, and I don’t like the way it sounds.
“What’s it say?”
I’ll type it. Hang on.
Another pause, then three lines of text appeared on her screen.
[
SECTOR BREACHED ]
[ TARGET ACQUIRED ]
[ TRACKING... ]
[ TARGET ACQUIRED ]
[ TRACKING... ]
I think it’s reasonable to assume that it’s referring to the new ship. The one that’s potentially coming to rescue me. The one that I would REALLY prefer not to be a target.
“Crap.”
That about sums it up.
“Do you think you can warn the ship?”
I don’t know. Taylor’s words seemed hesitant, even a little unsure. I guess I could try. Just send another general message, like I did with the SOS. I’d just have to hope they read English. It’s just...
“What?”
I don’t even know what I’d be warning them of, really. I have no idea what’s targeting them, Missiles, some sort of projectile, or-
And with these words, Meredith could almost see Taylor facepalming. She hid a grin.
No, of course not. Taylor, you idiot. It’s a PULSE. Most likely an electromagnetic pulse. Some kind of directed-energy weapon, like, I don’t know, a particle beam? Jesus Christ. A strong enough energy beam, set loose in the vacuum of space, you could really do some serious damage. You could tear a spaceship like the Varia clean in half.
“That must be what happened.”
Yeah. The Varia, and who the fuck knows how many more. All those bright green bricks I saw on the map screen. Why, though? What possible reason could there be for blasting ships out of the sky and then just leaving them to rot? It doesn’t make any sense!
“I honestly couldn’t tell you,” Meredith admitted. “But yeah, it makes zero sense.”
Just like everything else around here. I swear that if I somehow make it home in one piece, I’m going to have the same kind of PTSD that the kids who visited Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory probably ended up with.
“Do you think you can override the pulse?”
I don’t know. I’d love to, but unlike in all those B-grade sci-fi movies I love so much there’s no big red button with the words MANUAL OVERRIDE stamped on it here. I know enough about computers to torrent TV shows or program little ‘choose your own adventure’ games in my spare time, but trying to hack into this thing and override an entire weapons system? Unless the password ends up just being ‘password’, I might be out of luck. His next words seemed like they were an afterthought. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to TRY.
“I hope it works.”
Yeah, you and me both. If you’re the praying type, I’d take some of those too. Hopefully they’ll make up for all the swearing I did in the cold last night when that fucking proximity alarm woke me up. Not to mention all the swearing I’ve done up until now.
“Hey, swear all you need. How close are your visitors?”
Ten minutes away, maybe? I’m just going to stay right where I am. No way am I going to go out and meet them. Besides, between keeping an eye on the rats and trying to keep my potential rescuers from being shot out of the sky, I’ve got plenty on my hands already.
“What about your rats? How’re they doing?”
Meredith knew Taylor about as well as it was possible to, considering that they had never met in person and their only contact so far was over text. There was no possible way for him to display any sort of emotion or feeling unless he outright said so, but even so she immediately picked up on the tone of his next message.
Uneasy.
I’ll be perfectly honest with you, Mere – I know that these are my rats, but I don’t think I want to get too close to them anymore. There’s just something...wrong about them. I don’t know what, but whatever it is I don’t like it.
Meredith bit down on her bottom lip briefly. “Yeah, me neither, Tay,” she admitted. “Me neither.”
What are you going to do now? Meredith asked.
“I need to keep my rats occupied and out of my way while I fiddle with the computers,” he replied, eyeing the rats out of the corner of his eye as he spoke. “I could feed them, I suppose – leave some rat pellets across the room for them to snack on. I mean, they’re probably starving by now. I have no idea what they’ve survived on over the last couple of days.”
You should eat too.
“I’m really not hungry right now. Plus my stomach is in some serious knots. I doubt I could keep anything down even if I had to.” He picked up his backpack and dug around inside once it was unzipped, coming up with the food pellets he had picked up on his first day on the moon. “I appreciate you thinking of my well-being, though, so thanks for that.” He opened the bag of pellets and tipped them out onto the floor on the opposite side of the room. The rats immediately scampered down off the wiring and across the room, and set upon the pellets like they hadn’t eaten in days. “And while they’re eating,” he continued as he stashed the empty bag back in his backpack, “I’m going to break out my hacking skills, such as they are, and do my best not to throw up out of sheer nerves.”
He sat back down at the broadcasting monitor and studied its screen. “Right, so the good news is that I already know how to break into the broadcast and get my own message into the feed.”
I’m sensing a ‘but’ here.
“Mmm. Major ‘but’. Nothing here has me convinced that there is any way for that ship to respond to me. I don’t know if they actually received my original SOS message, as opposed to just chancing upon the sector, and I have absolutely no way of knowing if they’ll be able to pick up whatever warning I can send out. So all of this ‘desperately trying to reprogram the mysterious computer system’ could all be in vain.”
Keep at it, though. Just in case.
“Oh yeah, of course. I mean, I’ve got a tonne of nervous energy right now. I have to burn it off somehow. I’m better off making an attempt at doing something proactive with the computers, rather than, I don’t know…” He drew a momentary blank and quickly racked his brain for something to say. “Heroically twiddling my thumbs, or bravely picking my nose, or whatever.”
Lovely imagery there, Taylor.
He managed the smallest of grins. “I do my best. Anyway, just gimme a minute or two here.”
He muted his communicator again and input the keyboard shortcut that had allowed him to break into the broadcast earlier. A few moments of thought later, he came up with a new message to send.
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. ATTENTION. BE ADVISED THAT A PULSE WEAPON IS TARGETING SHIPS ENTERING THIS SECTOR. THIS WEAPON CANNOT BE OVERRIDDEN. CADET HANSON OUT.
“Okay, it’s sent,” he said almost at the second he had unmuted his communicator once again. “Whoever’s out there in that starship, I hope you got my message, and I hope you’re on your way to rescue me.” Here he cast his gaze upward to the ceiling. “But I really hope you’ve got a good defence system at the ready, ‘cause this fucking mountain is targeting you. And I hope you can defend against whatever the weapon is, since I don’t really know its nature or its power. Other than it being powerful enough to rip ships out of the sky and tear them in half,” he added as he looked back down again.
That’s a whole lotta hope.
“Yeah, well, my grandma told me more than once – ‘hope costs nothing. Some French chick said that’. And yes, that was the whole quote from my grandma. She studied literature. Though I guess not very hard.” Just as these words left his mouth, the proximity radar beeped, and he looked over at it. “Oh man. The visitors are almost here. I feel cold all over, and there’s a lump in my throat that has absolutely nothing to do with the godawful meals I’ve managed to choke down recently. I don’t think I’ve ever been this anxious in my entire-”
And that was when the shrieking started.
“Taylor?” Meredith asked tentatively. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”
There was this godawful squealing sound, coming from where the rats are eating. They must have been really hungry, because they got through the pellets pretty fast. I look over at them, and I see Wildboy and Patch fighting over the last scraps of it. But it’s – ahh! – escalating, and fast. Went from normal rat squeaks to...the only way I can describe it is that they’re SHRIEKING. It’s fucking painful – it’s literally making the fillings in my teeth vibrate, that’s how loud it is!
She winced in sympathy, thankful that she couldn’t hear the noises that Taylor’s rats were making. “Ouch.”
That’s an understatement. Be thankful you can’t hear it.
“What are the other two doing?”
They’re shrieking too. And they’re circling around, like they’re cheering fans at a boxing match. It’d almost be funny if it wasn’t causing me so much pain.
“You need to back away. Now.”
You don’t have to tell me twice! I was already doing that. There was a pause. It’s funny, you know.
“What is?”
I left my notes back at the Varia, yeah? And now I’m really wishing I hadn’t, because I should be adding all of this to them. This whole thing DEFINITELY qualifies as atypical behaviour for these little guys. But I can’t see anything to write with or on around h- OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL AM I LOOKING AT?
“Text only, remember? Tell me what you’re seeing!”
They’re...they’re KILLING each other!
“They’re what?”
I mean that completely literally, Mere. These...they were the gentlest and sweetest two rats of the test group, and...oh fuck, I can’t watch this. Even as Taylor was saying this, though, a vision of him with his hands over his eyes popped into Meredith’s head, and she was almost certain she could see him peeking through the gaps between his fingers. The sound is...Jesus Christ...they’re just ripping into one another, there should be...
“There should be what?”
There should be blood everywhere, but there isn’t. There isn’t any AT ALL.
“What the actual fuck?”
I just...what the FUCK is going on here? Why has EVERY SINGLE FUCKING THING gone off the goddamn deep end ever since I got to the peak?
“Tay, calm down. Breathe, okay?”
That’s just it, Mere. I’m too scared to even do that much. I-I keep waking up with green spit in my mouth – it’s the same colour green that’s in the rats’ eyes, don’t think I hadn’t noticed THAT – and the best I can figure out is that it’s a side-effect of whatever’s in the atmosphere. Whatever it is that I’m breathing. Is that how the rats got that way? And does that mean that I’M going to turn out that way too, if I keep on breathing this air? Because I don’t know if I could handle that. I don’t think I could keep breathing, knowing the whole time that I’m going to turn into...THAT.
“You have to keep breathing.”
I know I do. I know. And you know, maybe I’ll get lucky. I’m a lot bigger than the rats. Maybe I’d have to breathe a whole lot more of this air before I start experiencing the side effects. Not knowing for sure though...THAT’S what’s killing me at the moment. I just wish – OH MY GOD HANG ON
He broke off again, and not for the first time Meredith wished that Taylor wasn’t having to go through this whole thing by himself. He had Meredith to talk to, that was true, but it wasn’t a patch on having someone there with him.
Sorry. I couldn’t stop my gag reflex.
“It’s okay. What happened?”
Patch just tore right into Wildboy, and I pretty much turned around and threw up. Which I think is fair, given the circumstances. It was kind of green, so my mind is churning over the implications of that. For fuck’s sake, can they just stop SCREAMING already?
“Maybe they’re still hungry,” Meredith offered. “You could throw them some more food.”
Yeah, good idea. Normally I’d be wary of using up my rations like this, but I know I can get more from the caravel. And the rats were quiet while they were eating earlier. Right now, apart from getting myself rescued, all I want is for them to stop making that hideous noise.
“Is it working?” Meredith asked after a few moments.
Yeah, it seems to be. They’re kind of in a frenzy over the food, but they’re quiet. And at least they’re leaving Wildboy’s body alone.
“I can’t believe they did that to him.”
Me neither. He was such a sweetheart. He didn’t...fuck, NOBODY deserves to go out the way he did. Also, I am currently getting very panicky over the possibility that I might go out the same way. Which is something I am NOT keen on happening.
“Yeah, me neither. So what happens now?”
Well, there’s only the one corridor into and out of this control room. The proximity monitor tells me that, whoever or whatever the four people – please, PLEASE let them be people – outside are, they’ll be here in literally minutes. If I hauled ass, I think I could sprint out of here and make it outside before they get to the doorway.
“What then? Doesn’t give you long to figure out what’s what.”
Yeah, I know. I’d have, what, seconds to assess the situation, figure out if they’re a threat or not, and if they are...then I’d pretty much have to opt for ‘flight’, because fighting isn’t an option when it’s four against one.
“I think you’re better off staying where you are.”
I...okay, yeah. I was actually going to argue with you over this, but maybe staying put is the right idea. I mean, maybe I’m freaking myself out for no reason at all, you know? Wouldn’t the odds overwhelmingly support the idea that they’re not hostile? That they’re either a rescue team – please, PLEASE let them be here to rescue me – or even survivors of another crash or are in the same predicament as me, or in even worse shape? Maybe they need food or pain meds more than I do, and I can help them with that. And hell, maybe I’m the one who ends up rescuing THEM, and we keep on broadcasting an SOS until somebody hears us.
It didn’t take an idiot to figure out just what Taylor was doing. He was talking himself down off a ledge, trying to calm himself down. So Meredith kept quiet, letting him talk – if that was what helped him to feel less panicky, then she wasn’t about to interrupt.
Okay. All of this makes so much more sens- OH MY GOD WILDBOY
“Tay? What just happened?”
There...there’s something...green...crawling out from his body. I think I’m going to be sick.