BENEATH - A Novel (35 page)

The vomit on her face mask oozed onto her face. The warm wretch and acidic stinging smell made her want to puke again, but she managed to hold it in, concentrating on seeing what was outside her facemask. As the mask cleared, Choi saw a jet black nothingness in the sky above. She was facing up.

Twisting open the valve, Choi let the compressed air fly. She immediately began descending towards the moon's surface. Using the compressed air as a guidance system, she rotated herself around so that she was facing the Europhid field again. She was shocked to see that the Europhids were still dying off. It was like a wave of death spreading out in a perfect circle. The field was vibrant with red one second, ash black the next.

She descended toward the field, hoping the soft Europhids would cushion her impact. If the Europhids in her landing zone had died before she arrived, she would smash into solid ice.

It seemed like an eternity had passed and that she should already be dead. The pain pounding throughout her body supported the idea. But she'd only been exposed to the radiation for two minutes now. She still had four to find safe shelter.

Her thoughts returned to the Europhids. She watched as the black death consuming the field spread out towards her. As she fell it appeared that the dying Europhids were racing ahead to meet her.

Forty feet from the ice, Choi witnessed an unbelievable act of sacrifice that saved her life and the lives of millions of Europhids all across the surface of the moon. A ring of Europhids, perhaps five feet across and twenty feet from the spreading infection, suddenly swelled to the breaking point and burst, sending plumes of red guts arcing high in the low gravity. Choi splashed through a geyser of entrails and continued toward the surface. As she passed by the barrier of exploded Europhids, Choi noticed that the infection had stopped at the edge. The violent gambit had worked. The Europhids stopped the infection by quarantining the area. Choi realized that if faced with the same circumstances, she would have made the same choice. The Europhids were smart.

The force of returning to the surface knocked the wind from Choi's lungs, but as she had hoped, the still living field of Europhids cushioned the impact. She stopped moving after sliding thirty feet. She sat up and looked at the thirty foot swath of crushed Europhids that had taken the brunt of the impact from her fall. Beyond she saw a black expanse of dead Europhids, perhaps a mile around.

Choi's body shook with a violent chill. If the Europhids experienced emotions like people, they were going to be pissed.

Choi's muscles twanged with pain, but the malicious flu-like symptoms caused by radiation exposure had all faded. This didn't mean her body wasn't being irradiated, just that she was so far gone already that her nerves were no longer transmitting her internal discomfort.

Desperate for security, Choi crawled through the Europhid field, crushing a number of them as she did. On her hands and knees, her view was just over the top of the tallest Europhids. She was headed for what looked like clear ice.

Pushing and shoving her way through the red forest, the hopelessness she felt while cruising over Europa's surface returned. She knew what dying from radiation exposure would be like. Six minutes was the time you had to escape radiation…not because you'd die in six minutes, but because you'd pass the point of no return. You wouldn't be dead, you'd be dying…and short of a bullet in the head, there was nothing anyone could do to stop it, or ease your suffering.

Choi charged, head down, casting Europhids aside like a bull running the streets of
Pamplona
. With her eyes cast downward, Choi didn't see the field clear and tumbled forward over the empty ice. She lay still for a moment, gasping for air. Four minutes. The number ran through her head, telling how long she had been exposed to the radiation. Two minutes to go…two minutes until the real torture began. She hadn't realized she'd been keeping track.

The countdown spurred her on. She pushed up on her arms and rose from the ice. Her muscles protested the motion, but in the low gravity, it wasn't too hard. She got to her feet and looked out over the Europhid field. A perfectly round patch of darkness revealed where she'd unleashed her toxic potential. Extending straight toward her was a smooth, crushed line in the field where she'd slid to a stop. From there, a mash of crushed and fallen Europhids lay askew, revealing her mad crawl to the edge of the field.

With all the changes to the field, Choi never realized how familiar the view was…not until she turned around.

Not ten feet from where she emerged sat the ATV, lights out, but still emitting its protective electromagnetic shield. She was safe…and had been for at least the past minute. Choi ran to the ATV, plugged her com system in to the onboard transmitter, hoping to boost her signal.

"TES team, this is Choi. Do you read me? Over." Choi waited ten seconds for a response and got none. "TES team, come in." Choi's voice took on a desperate tone as her voice was projected on multiple channels across the surface of Europa. "TES team, if you can hear me, the Europhids…they're dangerous…violent…and they have control of Peterson. I think he's on his way to you. Do not trust him. I repeat, do not trust Peterson."

Choi continued transmitting. She thought about racing across the ice in an effort to overtake and subdue Peterson, but she was nowhere near a physical match for him and she had no idea how long she'd been unconscious. For all she knew, they were already dead.

She wouldn't accept that. "Connelly, this is Choi. Do you read? Respond, dammit!"

Choi looked up as she spoke and remembered that things were only going to get worse. The cloud of charged particles were still gliding slowly toward the Surveyor. Even if they survived further attacks from the Europhids and Peterson, if the Surveyor was brought down with Harris unable to correct the situation, they might all be trapped on the moon's surface with no hope of rescue.

"Please, God, someone respond."

*
  
*
  
*
  
*
  
*

The muscles in Willard's back became taut to the point of nearly snapping. So far the mass of creatures clinging to the nested wall had paid no attention to the three of them, but he wasn't sure that would last, especially if they tried to exit the way they came in. Their best bet might be to slip out another exit without being seen and try to make it back to TES another way. He found his way through the cave system before. He could do it again.

He relayed his plan to the others and they both agreed, but before they could execute the scheme a crackling voice interrupted his thoughts. It was faint and full of static. "Choi…"

Connelly glanced at Willard. "What? Are we leaving?"

They hadn't heard it. "Stop talking and boost your com volume. I thought I heard Choi."

All three made the adjustments, moving slowly so as to not attract attention from the wall of beasts. Choi's voice came through again, this time much clearer. "Please respond…TES team…If anyone can hear this…respond. Over."

"Reading you now, Choi," Willard said. "Over."

"Thank God." Willard had never heard so much emotion poured into Choi's normally reserved voice. Something was wrong.

"What's your situation?" Willard asked. "Are you okay?"

The com crackled for a moment and then cleared. "…fine. But you're all in danger."

Tell me about it, Willard thought.

"The Europhids," Choi said, "stay away from them."

Willard squinted and glanced from side to side. They were surrounded by Europhids. "Why?"

"They're…they're dangerous."

"Outside of our experiment with the plant incubator they haven't shown any signs of malicious behavior," Connelly said. "They can't even move."

"Wrong on both counts, Dr. Connelly," Choi said. "They Europhids
are
capable of movement, though limited. And I've seen signs of human level intelligence and strategic thinking."

Connelly became rigid. "That's not possible."

"They nearly killed me," Choi said, her voice flat. "And they have control of Peterson."

Robert began to fidget. "Ahh, can you elaborate on 'have control of Peterson.' He's on Surveyor…in the Med-lab, right?"

"Peterson is topside and headed towards TES. I don't know what he did with Harris, but I suspect the worst. Listen, if you are not topside, you need to get there ASAP. I think Peterson might try to sabotage TES. Where are you?"

"We're in a cave system below the Europian ocean," Willard said. "And we're in a bit of a bind. Might be a while before we make it back to the surface."

There was a silence on the other end. When Choi spoke again, her voice was hard, borderline furious, but she didn't express her feelings in words, simply assimilated the information and moved on. "I'll see if I can slow him down. Get to the surface. That is your number one priority."

Willard shot Connelly a stern look. "Has been for a while."

"Once I get moving," Choi said, "I won't be able to transmit at this power level. We will be cut off again. Contact me upon reaching the surface. If I do not respond, assume I'm dead, return to the lander and head for the Surveyor. If she's still in orbit, dock and wait for my signal."

"You got it," Willard said. "Anything else before we cut off?"

"Yeah," Choi said, "If the Europhids can control Peterson, its logical to assume they can control creatures of lesser intelligence. If you run into anything down there, avoid it at all costs. If they're under Europhid control, they will respond violently to your presence."

Willard's eyes trailed up the living wall of creatures. "Un-fucking-believable."

"What?" Choi asked.

"Nothing," Willard said. "We'll see you topside, but we need to move. Now."

"Good luck," Choi said. "Over and out."

Willard knew the warning came too late. During the conversation he had secretly watched as several shadows dodged in and out of Europhid patches, making their way toward their location. He reached over to Robert's hand and slowly took the ice pick.

"What are you doing?" Robert asked, his eyes still on the wall of alien nests.

Willard tightened his grip around the ice pick, yanked it out of Robert's hand and swung it up towards Robert's head. He missed Robert's skull by inches and connected with one of the aliens that had launched out of a nearby Europhid patch. The ice pick punctured the creature through the chest. It squirmed and shrieked for several seconds and then fell limp, hanging from the end of the improvised weapon.

Moving slowly, Willard placed the creature on the cave floor, planted his foot on top of it, and pulled the pick from its back. A blackish liquid chugged from the wound, pooling around the small body. Willard returned his eyes to the nest wall. Every one of the creatures had stopped moving. He could barely see them on the wall, but he knew they were there.

Willard was thankful that he didn't have to speak to Robert or Connelly to get them moving. They both turned tail and started running for the far wall. Three more of the creatures jumped out and began to pursue. "Keep running," he said. "I'll be right behind you."

Willard glanced over his shoulder to make sure they were listening. They were. Willard turned back in time to deflect a launched alien. The second attacked with its fangs, shooting them out on the ends of two long tendrils. He wasn't sure if they could pierce the PMS, but didn't feel like finding out. He jumped to the side dodging the attack.

The third creature appeared at his feet. Without thought, he lifted up his foot and brought it down with a crushing force. Whatever bone or internal structure the creature possessed was pulverized by the force of the blow. Its legs twitched madly before it died. The other two creatures pressed the attack again.

Moving quickly, Willard struck out at one of the creatures and severed one of its four legs. It squealed as it ran in circles, oozing black liquid. The last of the three leapt at Willard's head, shooting out its dart-like tendrils. Willard leaned back, avoiding the attack while at the same time reaching up and catching the beast by the ribs. He cupped the creature in one arm, spun around to gain momentum and let it fly like an Olympic discus thrower. The creature flew away from him in the low gravity.

Willard's heart hammered like an eight cylinder engine, coursing adrenaline-laden blood to his muscles. He was ready for more. Looking down, prepared for another attack, he found the creature with the severed limb lying at his feet, dead. They were done.

Willard turned to chase after Connelly and Robert, but before leaving chanced a glance back at the nest wall. He could clearly see the thousands of creatures again. They were streaming down the wall like a water fall. After reaching the floor, they leapt forward in packs, giving chase.

He still felt ready for more…but not this much more. Willard turned and ran as fast as he could, knowing that outrunning these creatures, which were adapted to traveling in low gravity would be all but impossible for the three slow moving, clumsy humans. His only hope was that the beast's best attacks couldn't damage the PMS's protective skin.