“It’s the wrong place, then,” Jupe returned to him with force. “Congratulations, we have discovered a black and gloomy coldrock. Anyone want to fight over who we name it after? How about you, Morgan? How much can you sell it for?”
“Man, what have we done?” Rolondo said with his eyes shut tight, his hands rubbing his head. “This boy’s taken us on some mystery ride far into outer space? He doesn’t know where we are, in deep space! Deep space!”
“Don’t believe me, see if I care,” said Jupe.
“I think we need to be calm here,” said Rebbi. “This is clearly not Ancia. I agree with Morgan; something must be wrong with your charts. I don’t see how you can think otherwise. Let’s just take another look. See if we can figure out where Ancia actually is.”
“The readouts are saying this is Ancia,” insisted Jupe. “See for yourself. Ancia. Ancia. Ancia. This is Ancia.”
“Then they’re wrong,” said Rebbi.
Jupe groaned and said to himself, “I should have never taken this job.”
No one spoke for a while as they watched the rugged and lifeless surface of the second moon get closer.
“If no one objects,” Morgan said, breaking the weary silence, “I volunteer the name Morgan, for the planet, and Calp for the previous moon. It is a new planet, and I believe protocol calls for the naming of a new planet, upon discovery. No one objects?”
No one did.
The ships’ computers scanned the new moon and found it to be solid rock, full of craters and deep caverns, but no sand, and safe enough to land the ship. Jupe approved of the selected landing site and they all watched in silence as the ship landed itself, carefully and without fuss. They were on an alien world, a dark and cold place, far from any known civilisation and other human contact. Under better circumstances, they should have been celebrating their achievement.
“Can this moon be named Taylor?” Morgan asked.
No one gave him an answer as they all just sat and stared out at the lifeless rock. The red star Pyronna rose over the horizon, seemingly angry, like they were intruding, and breaking the natural order and peace of its rock-moons and nothing-planets.
* * * *
When Jupe said that he wanted to suit-up and go out to see what he could find with his own eyes, Rolondo was right behind him. It wasn’t so much as support on Rolondo’s part, but more suspicion, as if Jupe might make a break for it or something. He had not stopped eyeing Jupe and suspected that it was all some scheme to rob them, as TC had tried.
Rebbi initially thought that it was all a bad idea, and she told that to Rolondo the entire time he struggled to put on his airsuit. The suit was a little bit too small for him, and Jupe could not resist doing nothing to help, as he watched his struggle. He was annoyed with the way he was being treated, like he was hiding something from them, and just brought them all to this wasted place as some sort of con. The con artist had been TC, not him. He was trying to help them, to get them to their prized world, and now he regretted it. He also felt like he had been hoodwinked by UDE, and the Bests, and even TC himself, and they had been led to another star, and the real Ancia was many light years away. If he didn’t know the ship’s charts as well as he did, he would have believed that.
The two gingerly set foot on the alien moon. Jupe was first, and then came Rolondo, keen to not let him get too far away. The estimations from the computers were correct and the gravity was adequate enough for them to walk. They slowly edged away from the safety of the ship, as if they were doing a balancing act on the edge of a high edifice, fearing that the wrong move would result in death.
It came as a sudden realisation to Morgan that he was making a serious mistake by hanging back and letting them go out first. He hurried to get into his own suit, ignoring Rebbi’s curious look. He was not wanting to have to explain his action to her, since she could message it to Rolondo. The moon did not look like much, but Morgan knew that there were plenty of occasions when great value came from ordinary things. If there was anything valuable, he wanted to be the first to discover it.
Rebbi shook her head as Morgan made his way out and then ran to catch the two. She glanced to Real to see what he thought, and found that he had slipped away unseen. She had learned that was typical behaviour for him, and she considered him to be the worst loner she had ever met. She sent a comlink to Rolondo and Jupe to tell them that Morgan was coming up behind them. Then she watched on the monitors that they had both stopped and were waiting for him.
All of a sudden, without any warning, Rebbi became overwhelmed in fear. Seeing most of her friends far off on an alien world, without anyone near her for the first time in nearly two years, it all became too much. She sent an urgent message to Rolondo for him to hurry back to the ship. He wanted to know what was wrong. She gave him no answer except he should hurry. Knowing her, he asked if she was feeling scared. When she admitted it, he said that she should come out and join them, that the view was great, and there was nothing to fear. She told him she would, but then regretted it. She fumbled at putting on her suit, and started to cry because she couldn’t get it on quickly enough. But then she managed to find the arms and legs, and soon left the ship to join them. By the time she reached them she was shaking and crying.
* * * *
Real just stood and stared. The freezing-unit showed no signs of problems, that its occupant was fully protected, as well as when she first went in, still unconscious from the drugs he forced on her, so long ago, back on Earth. He could have set her free at T Station, and at least given her the opportunity to return to Earth. But all he could see was a better opportunity for the two of them on Ancia, so he left her there, with an unknowable amount of time left to survive. Now they were at a nowhere planet, he could see no other option of what he must do with her. His plans felt as wasted as the so-called Ancian world below them. So much for getting her into a safe place to let her out, he thought, since there was no hope for that now. He knew that if he plugged the freezer into the ship’s mains, that might alert Jupe. The only other possibility was to let her out of the freezer right then and there, and welcome her to her new world, whatever that was. Every time he thought of doing such a thing, and know that he would have to look into her eyes to see her horror, the sense of shame became too much. There remained one option, and he knew that with most of the passengers off the ship, this was his best opportunity.
He pushed the freezer to the drop-hatch, the same place from where it had been loaded, and pushed the necessary buttons. As the motors whirred and the large box sank down below the floor, it gave the appearance of a coffin being lowered into the ground. Real could not help his eyes from watering as he watched her go.
“Goodbye, K,” he whispered, and that made him cry with shattering sobs.
* * * *
By the time Rebbi caught up with the group, they had started asking themselves if they should turn back. Jupe, showing far more of an adventurous spirit than the others, wanted to go nearer to a high ridge that he guessed overlooked one of the moon’s many craters. Morgan was trying to convince the others that they should be exploring down one of the moon’s caves, as he predicted that it was more likely to find any evidence of life in such places, and not on such a barren surface. Rolondo caught the fear from Rebbi’s voice and was starting to not see the lack of logic of them being out there at all.
In one of the black shadows something moved. They all saw it and it made them freeze in their tracks, to wait to see it again, to prove that they saw it at all. The more they waited, the more their terror built up.
Rolondo was the first to speak, and that was because he was the first to panic. “That was something alive! Did you see that? Something’s alive!”
He caused Rebbi to start panicking too. “Are you kidding me?” she shrieked. “What was it?”
“How should I know?” Rolondo yelled, so loud it distorted their headphones.
“We need to get out of here,” said Jupe.
“You know what
it is?” Morgan asked Jupe, somehow reasoning that since he was a space pilot, he would know.
“What, are you kidding?” Jupe yelled at him. “I have no idea! Run!”
“But you know all about things like that, don’t you?” Morgan protested, still debating if this was a good or bad thing. He took hold of Jupe’s arm as the others headed to the ship, trying to hold him back. “TC would have told you?”
“I said I don’t know, all right?” Jupe said, also starting to lose his cool and feel the blind fear of the others.
Rolondo and Rebbi ran ahead. They were followed by Jupe and a strangely reluctant Morgan, who then realised that he was lagging behind and screamed that they all stop to wait for him to catch up, which they didn’t do. As soon as the ship’s airlock opened, they burst through and up into the main ship, none of them stopping to change from their airsuits. They scrambled for the flight deck and strapped themselves to the seats, as if that would be enough to protect them.
“It was an alien, right?” Rebbi asked, gasping. “Right?”
“We’ve got to get out of here,” said Rolondo, looking over the controls like he could operate them if he really had to.
“We can’t go yet,” said Jupe, angry with himself that he was shaking.
“We’re going, you hear me?” Rolondo ordered, ready to hit him if his disagreed.
“It’s not that easy.”
“Get this ship out of here!” Rolondo was becoming hysterical.
“Calm down, will you?” said Jupe, first to him and then to the rest. “It’s not that simple. Once the ship lands, the engines cool. I can’t fire them up too soon or they run the risk of cracking.”
From the hold, Real ran up to the flight deck, hearing their shouts, worried that something had gone wrong with a suit, or something like that. He was secretly fearing that they had seen K’s freezer being unloaded from the ship.
“What’s happened?” he asked.
“Something was out there,” said Morgan. “We’re not sure what.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Yeah, we’re sure,” Rolondo countered. “Aliens are out there. I’m not kidding. This is the real thing.”
A cold fear engulfed Real. “What you say?”
“Aliens!” Rolondo yelled at him like it was his fault.
“We don’t know what it was,” said Jupe.
“Yeah we do, aliens!” yelled Rolondo.
“Can you make him calm down?” Jupe asked Rebbi.
“Calm down?” she yelled back. “Why?”
“No, I think Jupe is right,” said Morgan. “We need to think about this.”
“Are you serious?” asked Real. “Aliens are out there? Aliens?”
“Yes!” they all yelled at him.
“Do we have guns?” asked Rolondo.
“What do we want guns for?” asked Jupe, remembering TC’s Kel-Tec tucked away in the secret drawer.
“The aliens!” Rolondo said like he was stupid.
“Is the ship secure?” asked Rebbi. “Make sure they can’t get in. They can’t get in, can they?”
“Take it easy, can you?” said Jupe.
“What did it look like?” asked Real.
Rebbi went to tell him, but the fear made her start to scream, a high-pitched cry, followed by deep sobs, and she then madly hugged Rolondo, who looked accusingly at Jupe.
“What’s with her?” asked Real.
“Hysteria,” Morgan said thoughtfully. “Normal response to unreasonably abnormal circumstance.”
“I heard, they can smell fear,” said Real.
Jupe looked at Real in disbelief.
“Why are you being so calm?” Rolondo demanded of Morgan.
“Because I realise what a magnificent opportunity we have here,” he said, already beginning to imagine how much money he might make for himself.
“We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” said Jupe, knowing that he needed to calm everyone down, including himself. “For all we know, it was just shadows.”
“Shadows,” repeated Rolondo, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“No, I agree,” said Morgan. “It would be irresponsible for us to rush to conclusions and leave. There are too many unanswered questions. We need to know why Ancia is not here when the charts say it is, and these moons are in its place. That is before we try to guess whatever it was we saw out there; shadow or something else.”
“What do you mean, they can smell fear?” Rebbi asked Real, now that she had calmed down enough to talk.
“You think that was shadows?” Rolondo asked Jupe. “You need to take a closer look.”
“What are you not telling us, Jupe?” asked Rebbi. “He knows more than he’s letting on, Ro. Look at him, he’s way too at ease with the situation.”
“Trust me, I’m as much in the dark on this one as you,” Jupe assured.
“Now we are all beginning to calm down and think about this reasonably,” said Morgan, “let’s look at where we are. Turning tail and jetting out is not the answer. Shadows, alien life, or something else, our duty is to investigate. This could be a major discovery, and I, for one, am not prepared to let this opportunity pass us by.”
“Our duty?” Rebbi asked, incredulous. “Did you say duty?”
“This ship’s safe, right?” asked Rolondo.
“I can’t see anything out there,” Real said at one of the side windows. “How big you say this thing was?”
“This could be an important discovery,” Morgan continued. “Probably the most important in all space exploration history.”
“That’s good,” Rolondo said to him. “Then you go investigate and send your report back to us, all about it.”
“Well, let’s not rush into anything,” said Morgan. “We need to discuss.”
Jupe looked at them and laughed. They reacted with outrage, and that made him laugh more. “Imagine if this was actual alien contact,” he said as he regained his composure. “First Contact, and all that. What a bunch of cowards we are, running away and just wanting to leave. Don’t think that’ll be recorded in history books of the future. Take me to your leader, it says, but oh wait, they’ve all run off.”
“I fail to see the humour here,” said Real, still looking out the window.
“You’re stalling,” Rolondo said to Jupe.
“I’m not stalling,” he said.
“No, you are,” said Rolondo. “Go investigate. We’ll all be here when you get back, I promise.”
“I’m prepared to go,” said Morgan.
“Ok, then, go,” said Rolondo.
“I need someone to go with me,” said Morgan.
“To hold your hand?” asked Rolondo.
“No, he’s right,” said Jupe. “Someone needs to go see whatever it was. It can’t be me, though.”
“Why can’t it be you?” asked Rebbi.
“Did you want to lose the only one who can pilot this ship,” he said, “because he fell into a crevasse, and none of his fellow cremates knew about it or were too scared to leave the ship to help him?”
“Someone should go, I agree,” said Real, still unconvinced at their story, but not so much that he wanted to go outside. “We’ll send one, keep in comlink contact, so it’s safe.”
“We’ll find a volunteer,” said Jupe. “End of discussion.”
“Where do you keep the straws?” asked Morgan.
Both Rolondo and Rebbi thought Morgan was joking. Jupe thought for a moment and headed to the mess. The drinking straws had hardly been touched during the voyage, until Westminster Calp decided he wanted to drink with them, and then all three of the children started fighting over them, forcing them to be packed away. Jupe brought back a handful, with one cut shorter than the rest. He handed them to Morgan.
“You are actually going to do the straw thing?” asked Rolondo. “There’s aliens crawling around outside and we’re playing games with straws?”
“Drawing straws,” said Jupe. “I don’t think it w
as these kind, in the straw-drawing thing. But it’s all we have, so let’s get it over with.”
Morgan mixed them up behind his back. Jupe went first, drawing long. Rolondo was next, also drawing long. Rebbi looked at Rolondo, shook her head at the whole idea and drew a short straw. She cried when she saw it, the fear beginning to get to her again.
“That isn’t right,” Rolondo said as he took the straw from her. “I’ll go in your place, babe.”
“Can he do that?” Real asked, and then realised he missed out on drawing and he should keep his mouth shut.
Morgan took the straws from Rolondo and Jupe and resorted them in his hand. The others were confused as to what he was doing. “Now again, to see who goes with Ro.”
“Wait on,” said Real. “We know who’s going with Ro. It’s you.”
“I didn’t say anything about that,” said Morgan, holding the straws for someone to pick from.
“It was your idea to go back out there,” Real said, angry at him.
“You’re as scared as we are, Morgan,” said Rebbi. “All that talk about making money, and great opportunity, it’s just to hide that fact that you’re as scared as all of us.”
“What if I am?” he asked, unfazed. “Draw again.” He motioned to Jupe.
“You weren’t in the first draw,” Jupe pointed out.
“I’ll be in this one,” he said.
Rolondo grabbed one, drawing long. Real took a breath and grabbed one, long. Jupe was still partly amused with Morgan, and thought it was a pointless exercise as he drew one, and it was the short one.
“We have our two,” said Morgan.
“You know what?” said Rolondo, tossing his straw to the ground. “We should leave right now, forget all this straw nonsense. Get out of here, get back to Earth. What do you say, Jupe?”
“Are you not the least bit curious about all this?” Morgan asked him. “It was certainly non-human life.”
“I agree we should leave,” said Jupe. “Not our world. Not Ancia either.”
“Think about this,” Morgan pressed, seeing that his chance at fame was slipping away. “This may be the actual First Contact, human to alien. Such an event is incredibly momentous, an encounter like this.”
“Encounter?” asked Rebbi. “We could have walked on that thing if it hadn’t moved.”