Neptune Crossing

  *Maintain visual link.*

  He obeyed, and wished that he could somehow tell Charlie what was happening. Or Julie. He blinked back more tears.

  The surface loomed closer, closer . . . he felt as if he were falling into a vast maze of canyons. His wrists burned; he felt the ship’s gravity fluctuate momentarily; he was growing dizzy as he fell . . .

  The structure rushed up to meet him, and he could just make out the yellow blur of his spotlight on its surface. For a terrified instant he knew he was going to crash . . . and then something directly below him began changing shape, a shadowy cat’s eye dilating open, and inside the eye he glimpsed a flash of volcanic-red light, and then darkness. A heartbeat later he had fallen through the pupil, and was swallowed in the darkness.