BENEATH - A Novel (27 page)

Click, click, click.

The pain behind Robert's eyes became like a quickly repeating explosion inside his cranium. The son-of-a-bitch was hunting them!

Connelly bit her lip and furrowed her brow. "Then we'll have to outsmart it." She thrust the control stick forward and they shot into another rollercoaster drop.

Click, click, click.

The sound grew louder, closer.

Trying desperately not to vomit again, Robert gripped the side of his chair and watched with wide eyes as they rapidly approached the glowing ocean floor. "What in God's name are you doing?"

Connelly stabbed a finger out. "There!" She was pointing to a rocky outcrop, which appeared to hide a large cave. "I saw it while we were spinning."

"We don't know what's in there," Robert said, making no effort to conceal his worry.

"Would you prefer the alternative?"

The clicking grew louder, like tribal war drums.

Robert looked back over his shoulder at a blimp-sized shadow closing in on their position. "Go! Go! Go!"

Dodging the glowing coral, swaying plants and darting sea creatures that lit up the ocean floor like Christmas tree bulbs, Connelly steered straight for the cave. Robert chanced a second glance back. Blackness consumed the view. At first he thought the creature had given up, but then he realized he was starring into the dark void of the beast's throat.

The world suddenly grew bright and brown as the sphere was swallowed by the cave. As the creature pulled up and away from the ocean floor, its body churned water into the cave, surging the sphere forward, down into the hollow. Connelly struggled to regain control, but it was the walls of the cave that ultimately stopped them. A high pitched screech of metal on stone echoed through the sphere. Then they were stopped.

Robert searched for any signs of danger, but saw only brown stone. He felt some comfort at seeing the stone. It looked like any cave you might see on earth. Just water and stone. Robert let his muscles loosen. "Well, we survived." Robert noticed that Connelly did not look relieved. "What?"

"I didn't stop the sphere," Connelly said.

"So?"

Connelly pushed the controls forward and backward. A light crackling sound rang through the sphere, but it didn't budge. "We're stuck."

Robert no longer felt safe, and he became suddenly aware of how foul his own vomit smelled. He imagined asphyxiating to death in this foul smelling air and shuddered. He cast a sympathetic glance toward Connelly. "Sorry I threw up."

The tension in Willard's back felt as though a vice grip was attached to his shoulder blades, pulling them closer together with every passing minute. All his attempts to communicate with Connelly and Robert had gone unanswered. Since the moment the sphere had disconnected from the cable, he had been plagued with worry. And without any indication of what had happened, any action on his part would be foolish. Even though his heart screamed out the opposite, if Connelly and Robert were already dead, risking his own life in a totally unknown environment was not an option. With them gone, he was the next in line for taking charge of TES and he would make damn sure it was used in a way Connelly would see fit. He could do that much for them, at least.

During the time he had spent waiting for some signal from the sphere, Willard had prepared for every contingency. Extra air tanks lay on the TES platform. A personal propulsion unit, for single person underwater movement, was unpacked and ready to go. Assorted extra gear, emergency supplies and lights littered the TES platform next to the hole in the ice.

Normally, Willard hoped to never have to use any emergency equipment. On a good mission, his expertise was never needed. But now, after all this time waiting, he would be happy with a worst case scenario. Anything!

He got his wish three minutes later. "…onnelly to Willard…you read? Over."

Willard snapped to attention, standing quickly from his sitting position against the TES control panel. The motion of his quick stand send him a few feet into the air. He landed, balanced himself on the control panel and near shouted, "Kathy? Is that you?"

"…ank God. Willard, we're in…ave…stuck."

Willard glanced at the TES cable, hoping to see it taut with the weight of an attached sphere. But it gently ebbed back and forth in the water, signifying that the sphere was still water bound. "Your signal is weak, say again?"

"…old on…bert is boosting…OK, how's this? Can you hear me?" Connelly's voice came through loud and clear.

"Boss, where the hell are you two?"

"In a cave system…we're safe for now."

Willard could hear the nervousness in Connelly's voice. He had learned to recognize it, because it didn't show that often and when it did…. Willard took a deep breath. "Tell me the bad news."

There was a pause on the other end. "Listen. We were…something chased us into the cave. We didn't have any other option."

The vice on Willard's back screwed tighter. "And?"

"And we're stuck."

Willard new he had his worst case scenario. Two crew members were stuck in a cave at the bottom of an alien ocean hidden by miles of ice. And he hadn't missed the part about being chased into the cave. "What can you tell me about the something that chased you?"

"It was gargantuan!" Robert's voice came onto the line. "It dwarfed any and all Earthly creatures, prehistoric or current. Bigger than the blue whale and not nearly as docile."

Willard slowly rotated his head on his shoulders. He was beginning to run through a mental check list of everything he needed to do before taking action. "OK…anything else you want to tell me?"

"Yeah," Connelly said, her voice grim and cold, "We're running out of air."

Willard ran through his mental checklist.

Ice…water…high pressure…cold…giant killer predators…low air…and they're stuck…in a cave. Willard ran to the supplies he'd gathered and realized he'd need just about all of it.
Great
. "Connelly, activate your tracking beacon."

"Why?" The question was laced with suspicion.

"Just do it."

"You're not coming down here." It wasn't a question.

"The hell I'm not."

"I'm telling you, you're not."

"Look Connelly, you know as well as I do, when there is an emergency situation, I outrank you. I'm the boss. I'm in charge. You do what I say, dammit, and I say turn on the fucking beacon!" Willard felt some of the tension release from his back.

Dead silence followed.

Willard ignored the silence and began collecting the gear and attaching it to his suit. He felt thankful for Europa's low gravity. He could never carry all this gear back on Earth. And once he entered the water, he'd be weightless.

"Tracking beacon activated," Connelly finally said.

Willard didn't respond. He walked to the edge of the TES hole and looked at the placid water below.

Connelly's voice returned. "Ethan…be careful."

"I always am," Willard replied. He then leapt over the edge and into the alien waters.

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The ATV's headlights glared over the Europhid field, setting them ablaze with blood red shimmers. Choi had kept a careful vigil on the field, waiting for it to repeat its movement, hoping to observe the organisms' mode of locomotion. But nothing moved. Other the gentle sway of the Europhids, nothing budged.

Choi's impatience grew as she sat alone facing the field. She had yet to receive a check in from anyone. The fact that the entire TES crew and Harris had yet to check-in probably meant that something was interfering with the com signals. Most likely a solar storm being pulled through the system by Jupiter's gravity or increased radiation levels from Jupiter itself. Either way, she decided not to worry herself over it.

Throughout her career with the CDC, Choi hadn't been known for her patience. It was part of what made her such a lethal instrument when dealing with infectious diseases. She would persist, beating down every door until a solution was obtained. Sometimes each door opened would reveal part of the puzzle, a hint towards a solution. It was that same persistence—an overwhelming determination—that controlled her now.

She thought on the problems at hand and compartmentalized them in her mind.

First and foremost was her responsibility in handling the situation with Peterson. She was still unsure how the material injected into Peterson's system would affect him. She cursed herself again for leaving, but the truth was, she needed to be on the surface. She needed to understand the Europhids before she could determine their goal.

She knew the others would scoff at her assessment, that the Europhids had a goal, but it was a fact that every living thing, from humans to microbes, had goals. Some people longed to be painters. Elephants on the other hand, lived to eat. It is a simple rule of nature that she often faced when dealing with the microscopic world. The goal of a virus was to multiply and destroy.

Everything in nature acted towards goals. The question now was simple, yet a profound mystery; what do the Europhids want? How does injecting Peterson propel them towards their goal? And if the attack on Peterson was simply a case of mistaken identity, what else lived on the surface that required the Europhids to evolve stingers?

The muscles on the back of Choi's neck tingled and brought her attention back to the Europhids. Were they watching her? She turned around and saw nothing but the ice fields of Europa, covered with crags and spires. Nothing was there. She considered again that something else might dwell on the surface, something that the Europhids needed a defense against. Perhaps the stinger had a use after all?

All the speculation began to wear on Choi's nerves. Without testing, without evidence or new data, all the guesswork in the world wouldn't get her any closer to the answers she sought. She needed to take action.

Choi looked down at her suit, remembering its impregnable capabilities. If Peterson had been wearing a PMS at the time, the Europhid's stinger would have never pierced his hand. Choi stepped toward the Europhid field and stretched her legs.

Time to test a theory
.

If all the Europhids had the stinging ability and used it as a defense mechanism, they would defend themselves if attacked. Of course, she realized the flaw in her logic; they had been harvesting the Europhids without incident. But they had been transplanting the samples, not killing them. Choi lined up with one of the largest specimens at the border of the field. She remembered her childhood, playing soccer with her brothers. She could kick better than all three of them. She wondered if she still had the magic touch.

She was about to find out.

Bounding forward, Choi reached the Europhids in two long strides. She swung her leg forward and connected solidly with the large Europhid. The impact was both soft and solid. She could feel the outer layers of the Europhid tearing as her foot severed its flesh. As her kick followed through, Choi saw the Europhid tumble up and float away like a football toward the goal posts—oozing red fluid. It soared nearly one hundred feet before landing in a dense portion of the field.

Choi bent down to the ruined Europhid. Nothing had attacked her during the assault, and as she waved her hand over the site, the Europhids remained motionless. Not one of them showed signs of aggression.
 
"Huh…"

Choi stood up and prepared to kick a second Europhid. She thought a repeat attack might put them more on the defensive. Her muscles tensed as she took her first step forward.

A looming shadow arched across her path for just an instant, but it was enough to make Choi flinch and stumble. She fell to the ice, landing only inches away from the field. Her head pounded as her heart pumped hard. Her subconscious shouted at her consciousness:
you are not alone
!

Choi climbed to her feet, darting her eyes in every direction, searching for the source of the shadow. She realized that the shadow had been cast by the light of the ATV, meaning that whatever created it had passed between her and the vehicle, which was only feet away.

Wishing she could hear, but knowing it was impossible in the vacuum of space, Choi had to rely on her eyes to warn her of danger. She felt entirely underprepared. Sweat beaded on her forehead and rolled into her eyes, stinging them. She blinked to relieve the pain, unable to wipe her eyes through her facemask.

A shadow hovering behind a nearby spire of ice caught her attention. The shape looked darker than the view of space behind. It was absorbing the ambient starlight. Choi's mind struggled to comprehend what she was seeing. Was there really something there? Or was this an illusion exaggerated by her theories of other surface dwelling creatures?

Just before Choi dismissed the shadow as nothing, it moved.

She became rigid, focusing her eyes on the ice spire. She didn't know if she should move or not. Was she in danger? Would the creature attack? Choi had no idea. Alien creatures larger than a microbe were not within her field of expertise.