“You defecated on the aliens?” asked the dumbfounded Qz@px.
“They were throwing it at each other,” said Gx!pk defensively.
“And what's this about them throwing food at you?”
“Well I was sticking half off the platform when something hit me—hard. I mean it stung like getting hit by a small asteroid.”
“There were several other aliens on the next lower platform we hadn't noticed,” Kq*zt explained, “they were the ones who hit us with the food.”
“You got hit too?”
“Yes, when Gx!pk began bouncing around and moaning I looked over the edge. I got hit by six or seven pellets myself.”
“And you say these pellets were made of food? What type of food?”
“Mostly U-238.”
“The aliens gave you U-238? For free?”
“I don't think 'give' is the right word, Qz@px. They threw it at us really hard,” sniffed Gx!pk.
“It did sting a lot,” his friend agreed. “I think the food pellets came out of the long things they are holding with their appendages.”
All the lava creatures present looked more closely at the three aliens huddled around the tunnel entrance at the top of the chamber. They had never heard of such a thing, pelting people with food pellets so hard they stung!
“Those things they are holding must be some form of weapon,” Qz@px mused, “but why would they throw food? These aliens are the strangest creatures I have ever heard of.”
* * * * *
In the tunnel recently vacated by the wounded aliens, the two Marines and two sailors of the putative rescue party carefully crept closer to the chamber. Since the aliens seemed to communicate using radio signals, all four Earthlings were linked by thin strands of fiber optic cable, allowing them to maintain radio silence.
Sergeant Kwan was on point. He had assumed the leadership of the combined Drainpipe units and was now using Drainpipe One as his call sign. When he noticed a dim glow from the tunnel ahead, Kato held up a fist to signal those following to stop. Over the secured comm link he spoke to his fellows in a hushed voice.
“Look like there is light in the chamber ahead. I don't want to send my mini-bot forward, the aliens might notice.”
“Why are you whispering? We're inside space suits in a vacuum, talking over optical fiber,” observed Hitch.
“Force of habit,” Kato confessed.
“Why not use a camera snake?” suggested Bosco. A camera snake was a lens mounted on a flexible length of black-clad glass fiber. It was used to snoop around corners without exposing its owner to enemy observation or, more importantly, weapons fire.
“I'm already working a snake forward. I'll patch the signal to you over the optic link.” The men were quiet as Kato wrestled the tip of the snake to the edge of the tunnel opening where its hemispherical lens could capture the entire chamber. Software in their suits allowed each to select a point of view, removing the distortion of the half-ball lens.
“Look! There's the Gunny and the rest, over by that tunnel.”
“Yeah, and there's a clown bot too.” added Jacobs. He was bringing up the tail end of the four man formation and was happy to finally see what was going on at the front.
“Man, there's a shitpot of those boulder creatures in there,” observed Hitch, “just look at 'em all!”
“Yeah, and it looks like the boulder creatures have the others surrounded.” Kato fiddled with the comm hookup until he could call the outside world, passing the signal back through the fiber cables and then the chain of relays. “Shuttle One, Drainpipe One, over.”
“Go Drainpipe One.” The voice was Cmdr. Danner's.
“We have eyes on Drainpipe Leader. They are pinned down next to a tunnel opening at the upper end of the large chamber. They all appear to be unharmed. There is a recon drone with them as well.”
“Roger. What is your position with respect to the others?”
“We are in a side tunnel about one third of the way down the chamber wall, maybe 90 meters from the others. We are observing the chamber using a fiber-optic probe to avoid being seen by the creatures. I am patching the video feed through to you now.”
“Roger that, Drainpipe. Wait one.”
Shuttle One
Bobby and Mizuki stared at the scene from the boulder filled chamber, kilometers below the surface of the moon. The motile rock creatures hemmed the Gunny's party in on all sides, though they were keeping their distance, particularly from Umky.
“I don't see how the three trapped in the chamber can make it to the tunnel where Drainpipe One is hiding, do you Mizuki?”
“There are so many of the creatures, I do not think the Marines could all cross the chamber to the other tunnel without being intercepted. Peggy Sue says the creatures are probably molten inside?”
“Yeah, moving blobs of lava with a hard rock cover—I wonder how much they weigh?”
“A one meter boulder would mass approximately 10,000 kilograms,” Mizuki replied, doing a quick calculation in her head.
“Ten tons? And that's for the small ones! The Marines' armor is tough but I don't think they want to try dodging a living landslide.”
“I would be more concerned about being enveloped by the molten rock inside of the creatures. From the sensor data it looks like the recon drone we lost was surrounded by lava and melted.”
“Let's see if the Captain or Beth have any ideas. Peggy Sue, Shuttle one, over.”
“Go, Shuttle One,” came the immediate reply.
“We've found our missing Marines, but the situation is still precarious. Our people are surrounded by moving, multiton boulders. We think their way out is blocked and there is little hope of them making it to the tunnel Drainpipe One is hiding in without getting mobbed by the lava creatures. If you have any ideas, we'd love to hear them.”
“We understand. Beth and I have been looking at the tactical displays and haven't come up with anything ourselves.”
“Roger that, Peggy Sue.”
“The only possible bright spot is that the computer is making progress decoding the creatures' speech. It looks like they use a kind of spread spectrum RF to talk and microwaves to see with, based on readings from the encounter at the gem pit.”
“Can we communicate with them?”
“That's still a negative, Shuttle One. We need more sample signals and the ability to interact with the creatures so we can more quickly nail down the translation algorithm.”
“Roger, Peggy Sue. Wait one.” Bobby muted the comm. “Mizuki, I have an idea.”
“Yes, Bobby?” She gazed at him, her eyes wide, a serious look on her face.
“Somebody needs to go down to reestablish broadband communication to the computer and try to talk with the boulder creatures.”
“But that will take an hour or more.”
“Not with what I have in mind.”
“So we are going to go and rescue the Marines?”
Bobby looked into his beloved's eyes and realized that there was no way he could make Mizuki stay behind if he was going to go in harm's way. In fact, telling her he was going to go alone might be more dangerous than facing the lava creatures themselves. Surrendering to inevitability, he smiled and said, “Let me tell you what I have in mind.”
CIC, Peggy Sue
“You want to do what?” demanded the Captain.
“Mizuki and I are going to take one of the hover sleds down the tunnel that Drainpipe Leader went down, until we make contact.”
“Is he daft? We already have most of our expeditionary force trapped inside that metal rabbit warren,” Beth hissed at her husband.
Billy Ray held up his hand, forestalling further commentary, and said, “Let's hear him out.”
“Tell us what you have in mind, Shuttle One.”
“Roger. I went over the telemetry from the two drones and Drainpipe Leader's descent into the central tunnel. It is big enough for a hover sled all the way to the chamber. I figure we can reach the chamber in about eight minutes.”
“Why do I have visions of you smeared all over the tunnel wall, pardner?”
“Naw, it's all good. I ran simulations on the flight deck computer three times. We just use the sled's attitude to keep its bottom repulsors in opposition to the G forces. It'll be just like a theme park ride. In fact, the sled could probably make the run on its own. Let me send you the simulation runs.”
“Roger, Shuttle One. Receiving now.”
Beth and Billy Ray fell silent as they watched the computer simulation of the proposed descent on the CIC monitors. Beth shook her head and marveled.
“He's insane, totally barking mad.”
“Well, darlin', if it was anyone but Bobby I would have my doubts, but he is the best pilot I've ever known.”
“Why is he taking Mizuki with him?”
“Do you honestly think she would let him go on a dangerous mission without her? Hell, he's the less adventurous of the two.”
“I just don't want to lose half our crew and our two best friends down some alien death trap.”
“Right.” Billy Ray took the comm off mute. “Shuttle One. Tell me again why it has to be you two who make this little foray?”
“Peggy Sue, I am the only one qualified to fly the sled, particularly in tight quarters. And Mizuki and I are the only experienced, combat trained personnel left down here. Captain, I sent them into that maze; I have to try and get them back out.”
Muting the comm the Captain turned to his First Officer. “Well, he's not wrong about that. You know if our positions were reversed we'd try something to get our people back.”
“Something not quite this dangerous, I should hope,” said Beth, resignation in her voice. “At this point I don't think we could stop them anyway.”
Billy Ray nodded.
“Shuttle One, Peggy Sue. Yer a go on this sled thing. Do not make me regret it, pardner.”
“Roger that, Peggy Sue. We'll be careful.”
“In a pig's eye,” Beth said under her breath.
Surface, Metal Moon
It took only a few minutes for Mizuki and Bobby to don their suits of standard armor and unship the hover sled. The sled was a simple open platform with low sides and repulsors mounted on its bottom, enabling it to fly over rough terrain. Other repulsors were mounted fore and aft and along the sides to allow maneuvering in tight quarters.
On the back of the sled, Taylor and Wilson, the two sailors who rounded out the shuttle's crew, mounted a hatbox shaped container that held within it a coil of thin wire, similar to the guidance wire on naval torpedoes. The idea was that the wire would provide a harder to detect, and hence less likely to be disrupted, communications channel back to the surface.
“You're good to go, Mr. Danner,” reported Tamara Wilson. “Are you sure you don't want us to go with you, Sir?”
“We've been over that,” Bobby replied. “I want you two on the shuttle's flight deck ready to provide covering fire if we come back out hot. Or to get the shuttle out of here if we screw the pooch. We still have a couple of science section types on board and they didn't really sign up to fight lava filled boulders inside a metal termite mound.”
“Aye, aye, Sir.”
“So you two are clear on your orders? Wait for us to come back to the surface as long as we remain in contact. If you lose comm head back to the Peggy Sue to regroup.”
“Aye, Commander, she'll be right,” said Jay Taylor, “it's a box of birds.”
“A box of what?” asked Mizuki.
“Sorry, Ma'am, my gran was a Kiwi and that was one of her sayings. It means it's all good.”
“Ah,” Mizuki replied with a smile. “We used to have an Australian pilot named Sandy, and she had all sorts of colorful sayings.”
“Yeah,” added Bobby, “but she did it on purpose to mess with us Yanks, at least until everyone on board was speaking in Aussie slang. Damn good pilot though. All right, Dr. Ogawa, your carriage awaits.”
Bobby followed Mizuki onto the floating sled and worked his way to the front. Once they were both aboard they laid down on the floor of the open conveyance, hoping for some minimal protection from the sled's low sides.
“Peggy Sue, Slider is ready to depart.”
“Roger, Slider. God speed.
As the two sailors reboarded the shuttle, Tamara spoke to Jay on suit-to-suit. “I hope nothing bad happens to them, or the others.”
“Too right, Tamara. God help 'em if they get into an argy-bargy with a bunch of rocks.”
Chapter 16
Slider Descending
The tunnel raced toward them like a bobsled run covered in black ice. Bobby's gloved hands rested lightly on the sled's controls, only occasionally making a correction, letting the guidance program he had downloaded into their transport's autopilot do most of the work. Mizuki was snatching occasional peeks over Bobby's horizontal form, mostly keeping her head down as the speeding sled twisted its way deeper into the metal moon.
“I told you this would work, Mizuki-chan. We are making close to a hundred kilometers an hour.”
“Great, Bobby. Just don't run into anything.”
“I'm trying not to, sweetheart.”
The sled rolled right, then left and then right again, as Bobby kept the skittish craft's bottom repulsors in opposition to the G forces caused by the turns. The forces came on suddenly, rapidly building to three or four Earth gravities and then just as suddenly dropping back to zero. Another sequence of turns threw the sled into a corkscrew eliciting a protest from Mizuki.
“
Teishi! Watashi wa byōki ni nari-sōda.
”
As the racing craft entered another welcome straight stretch Bobby replied, “what was that?”
“I said I'm going to throw up if this keeps up much longer.”
“Sorry, I'll throttle back a bit, but I can't change the shape of the tunnel.”
Mizuki's response was a muffled whimper. She was not overly susceptible to motion-sickness but this was like a carnival ride gone amok. Being thrown from side to side by the cornering forces was not as bad as the transitions to and from zero G. Making matters worse, there was no point of reference, no horizon in the dark tunnel to fix on. Mizuki swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut.