The Valiant, Earth orbit
8 years 2 months 3 days after Eridani landing
Wandering time [283 years]
“Hello from the moon!”
Ranlin replayed the message again for Maunt and everyone else on the bridge. She couldn’t help but smile as it played. She had been right! Humanity was still alive, and they were calling out to them!
“This is authentic?” asked Maunt.
“As in?” asked Ranlin.
“This isn’t a rebroadcast?”
Ranlin shrugged, “It came in a few hours after I beamed messages and data towards the Moon, on a hunch that Drienil and I came up with.”
The Captain of the Valiant turned to look at the computer technician, who simply shrugged. “An activity that would normally have required my authorization codes to access the communications array. I suppose we’ll have to discuss that later, though.”
Ranlin nodded. “We will. Permission to take a shuttle to the transmission source?” she asked, her ears going up in eagerness.
Maunt groaned. “Slow down. Has anything else been transmitted?”
Ranlin shook her head. “No, this was all I got, and it was just before we passed out of range in our orbit, to the other side of the planet.” She glanced at the time. “And I only got this maybe [ten minutes] ago.”
She looked over at Drienil, who nodded in agreement.
“So by the time we come back into range, we could have a shuttle ready to go!”
Maunt looked around at the other members of the bridge crew, all of whom seemed to be similarly amused by the young woman’s enthusiasm.
“You will take a squad with you just in case, but fine. Yes.”
Ranlin frowned. “You don’t want to meet them?”
“Eventually, yes, but I do have to finish repairing this ship. Even if it was an automated system that attacked us, I am going to have a few questions for the Humans.”
“Their entire planet was wiped out by the Empire! They have every reason to be suspicious.”
Maunt raised a hand to stop her. “I understand that. Still my entire crew was put in danger, you included. So forgive me if I feel it necessary to exercise some caution. Something I hope you remember to utilize as well. These Humans, if there are any on the moon, will have survived the destruction of their home world and most of their species. They might not be very welcoming of us.”
Ranlin nodded and jumped up, still eager. “Alright!”
Grabbing Drienil’s hand, she dragged the woman off the bridge, excited to meet her first Human.
Mare Tranquillitatis, Moon
Lying on the rocks, Allen stared up at the sky, enjoying the view that the universe was affording him.
It was amazing to look up at. Somewhere out there among the stars was another group of Humans. The ones who had escaped during the battle of Mars. He liked to think they were still alive, but then they wouldn’t know for a few more years, so as a matter of pragmatism the last few Humans in the solar system had assumed they were all that was left. That they had to survive so that the species did not die.
Even ignoring the fact that the other Humans might not be alive, aliens and other intelligent life inhabited the stars. Where the aliens he was talking to came from, he had no idea, but it gave him hope. Not every alien in the sky could be out to kill them, right? If even just one of them wanted to say hello, well, it was worth his life at least.
Looking back up at the sky, Allen continued to watch the stars, as well as the many satellites that were still in orbit of the moon, along with the plethora of debris from what remained of places like Aldrin station. After a moment, though, Allen frowned, his attention suddenly focused. One of the bright specks was turning and decelerating; not something that orbital assets usually did.
The aliens.
For the first time, it hit him. He was going to be meeting aliens!
It was an event that had been imagined throughout history. A million different scenarios had been played out in every form of media. The older stories had turned out to be the correct ones, with the aliens showing up and destroying Humanity. Still, he liked to think this would be different. The first peaceful contact.
Allen frowned. If what the aliens had transmitted was true, this would actually be the third ‘first contact’. The Human on the shuttle was from three hundred years ago, before even the first Martian colony. He had had the dubious honor of meeting the first alien in Human history.
The small shuttle was arcing almost straight for him. As it came closer, Allen was able to start making it details. The hull looked just like the larger ship – a patchwork of metal and repairs. That didn’t seem to affect its operations, though; it glided smoothly over the surface of the moon and drifted to a stop over a patch of lunar regolith that was free of boulders, about 30 yards away from Allen down the hill from where he was laying. The engines, or whatever was used to keep the craft aloft in the limited gravity, hardly kicked up any dust; it was only at the last moments that a small cloud of the stuff formed.
Allen stared, now completely at a loss for what to do.
The back ramp of the craft slowly opened and several suited figures were exposed. Like on the video, they were humanoid. Perhaps a little thinner than most Humans, but definitely within the regular morphology of his species.
Moving without thinking, Allen found himself slowly walking down the small incline towards the ship. The local radio link wasn’t active, as it would have been with anyone else, so the aliens didn’t have the specifications for that system. Which wasn’t that surprising if all the data they had was three hundred years old.
As he approached the shuttle, several of the larger aliens raised weapons for a moment. A smaller and undeniably female form moved in front of them and forced the weapons back down.
Allen tried to appear as non-threatening as possible. As he approached, he hopped up high and twirled in the low gravity with the grace of someone who had been living in it for years, showing the aliens that he wasn’t armed. That would hopefully stop them from shooting him, not that he could really do anything if they did.
The female stepped out of the shuttle as he approached. Taking a few small steps into the regolith past the edge of the ramp, she extended her hand out.
Stopping in front of the woman, Allen looked at her. It was the same woman from the video, the one who had been begging for peace. She looked even worse now, bags under her eyes and green bloodshot sclera. Despite that, she still looked determined.
Allen hadn’t been paying attention in the video, but it was obvious now. The woman was beautiful. Her face was angular, and her body smaller than his own average frame. He could have picked her up with ease and swung her around, even in Earth gravity.
Extending his own hand, Allen placed it in hers and the two of them slowly shook hands.
The woman leaned forwards, her eyes flicking to the top of her helmet.
Allen’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward as well the two placed their helmets together. The contact was just enough for vibrations to pass through the materials.
“Peace?” shouted the alien, her voice sounded distant and tinny, but nonetheless audible in his helmet.
“Peace!” shouted Allen in response, and the two of them smiled. Allen noticed that her canines were slightly longer than normal, for Humans at least. Nothing that made her look like a fictitious vampire, but long enough to give her a slightly more predatory visage. It only enhanced the exotic beauty in front of him.
It didn’t really help that there weren’t any women on the lunar base.
Stepping back, the alien woman pointed at the shuttle, where her companions were still standing and watching the two of them. She kept her hand in Allen’s and started back towards it. One of the men in the back of the shuttle mimed taking his helmet off and Allen nodded. Without radio channels to communicate, they weren’t going to get past pantomiming in a zero atmosphere environment.
Allen followed the woman back up the ramp into the shuttle. It closed behind him, and Allen swallowed in apprehension. The larger of the aliens, the men from what he could tell, were all still looking at him with their hands on their weapons.
They were about as big as he was. Allen didn’t know if the small stature of the woman was an individual trait, or a dimorphism of the genders in the species. She was short, but still within what would be the normal Human range.
The atmosphere was cycled back, and the calm silence that had been present since he had stepped out of the bunker was replaced by a steady hum from some system inside the vehicle.
The aliens all quickly removed their helmets and turned to look at him.
Allen looked out at their faces for a moment, stunned. The ears had been apparent in the videos, but seeing them in person was something different. They were emotive; even without a cultural background, he could read the intentions behind the movements. The ears of the woman who had shook his hand were up, and twitching in apprehension. The men around him had ears that were pressed back to their skulls like an angered cat.
Glancing down at his wrist computer, Allen confirmed that the atmosphere was for all intents and purposes normal. There was a little more oxygen than was strictly required, but that was a better option than something like too much Co2.
Reaching up with shaky hands, Allen pulled at the release for the helmet. The computer double checked that there was some sort of atmosphere and released the lock.
There was a faint hiss, and air rushed over his face. Allen realized he was holding his breath, and slowly exhaled as he removed the helmet.
The aliens all looked at him for a moment, with what he figured was an expression similar to his own. Their eyes flicked to his ears, which under all of the scrutiny were turning a vibrant red.
Taking in a breath, Allen blinked. Something in the air smelled amazing!
“Wow.” He whispered, his voice cracking. Taking another hesitant breath Allen’s eyes widened at the smell.
The aliens looked at one another, and the woman in front of him smiled. She pulled out some sort of data pad and tapped at it for a moment, then held it up.
“You alright?” it read, in English.
She held the pad out to him, and Allen saw rows of buttons with English characters on it. Not in a standard keyboard layout, but in what he assumed was some analogous set up to the alien’s alphabet.
Taking it, Allen typed out his own message as quickly as he could.
“I am, I just don’t know what to say.”
He held the tablet back out, and the woman took it. She smiled and laughed after she read it. It was a beautiful sound, and Allen shook his head trying to focus. Something was off, but he couldn’t place what it was. Was the woman simply too much of a woman? Allen tried to pin what it was, but couldn’t. For the moment he chalked it up to the fact that he hadn’t seen a woman – of any species – in nearly eight years.
“What is your name?” asked Ranlin, through the tablet.
“Allen, yours?”
“Ranlin.”
“Roghnlin?” asked Allen, mispronouncing her name.
“Ranlin,” she said as she put her hand on her suit, then put her hand on his suit. “Alnin.”
“Allen,” he said, correcting her pronunciation.
The names resolved, Ranlin held on to the tablet for a moment, unsure what to say next.
Allen reached over and took it from her, typing out his own question slowly on the awkward keyboard layout.
“Have you met any others like me? Humans?”
Ranlin read the question on the screen and frowned. She pressed a button and spoke out loud, the tablet now picking up her words. When she finished, the tablet read her words out in passable, although halting, English.
“No, we only have data from the Lover’s shuttle. We also extracted the data of the escape around the other planet from your satellites. We know some Humans escaped.”
Ranlin set the tablet down between them and indicated that he should speak. Allen glanced down at the tablet and continued the conversation, the computer translating what was said as each one finished speaking.
“So you know who attacked us?” Allen asked.
“They are the Empire, they did something similar to our world long ago. Destroyed most of us, forced the rest of us to leave our world. They are not our friends.”
Allen nodded. He’d seen mention of that in the data that had been transmitted to the bunker, although it had not been very detailed.
“So we might be all that is left?”
“We haven’t encountered others. That does not preclude the possibility that they might still be alive.” Ranlin paused for a moment, and asked another question once the tablet finished translating. “How many Humans are left in this system?”
Allen sighed and leaned back against the metal wall of the shuttle. “To the best of my knowledge, there are nineteen other Humans left in the system. When the Ark first jumped, there were 50 million of us. Earth was gone, but the mining facilities and the cities and bunkers on Mars were all still inhabited.”
He hesitated and closed his eyes.
“They wiped out the cities on Mars, and then we were only 20,000 strong. A quarter of those who were left were in mining facilities that weren’t designed to be cut off from supply lines. They died off first. We were left at 10,000. The aliens laid siege to the Martian bunker and searched the rest of the system for facilities that had been hidden, other bunkers. They destroyed the ones on Europa, and the other Jupiter moons. They found the intermediary station in orbit between Mars and Jupiter, and they found a few on the moon.”
Allen paused again.
“By the time the Mars bunker fell, a facility on Phobos were all that was left besides us, that we know of. We lost contact with the Phobos facility three months ago. So Humanity is at the grand total of 20.”
Ranlin’s mouth fell open as the computer finished translating. It wasn’t conveying the emotion in his voice, but that was evident even without understanding the language.
“Twenty?” said a larger alien, his hand still on his weapon.
Ranlin shot him a dirty look, but the solider stepped forwards towards Allen.
“We came all this way, got shot by your antique missiles, and there are only twenty of you left?”
“I’m sorry the near extinction of my species is a disappointment,” shot Allen, who immediately began to berate himself for his lack of diplomacy. Something was wrong, though; he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
The larger alien’s ears drooped slightly, and he mumbled something to himself as he stepped back again, his hands still resting on the rifle hanging from his vest.
“Why are you the only one here?” asked Ranlin. She had thought that when she eventually met the Humans it would be with more than just a single individual.
“I’m the only one who was willing to make contact, in case this was another attack.”
Ranlin quickly shook her head. “Never. We are in similar situations. The Empire, those aliens that attacked you, took away our world nearly three hundred years ago. Since then we have been wandering the stars in ships that we commandeered, scavenging and running to survive.”
“As refugees, no one will help you? No other nation would take you in?”
“The only government in the area of space open to Tachyon relays is the Empire. There are criminals and mercenary groups, but no other governments. The Empire would never tolerate that.”
“Then we have to fight them if we want to live?”
Ranlin opened her mouth for a moment, thinking of what she could say. Thinking back to what literature she had gone over in the Human data archives, what her ancestor had said about her Human lover, the dichotomy that rested inside of Humanity. They strove for peace, but were constantly at war. It was familiar to them. Yet unlike so many other class C species, her own included, Humanity had never lusted after war, never been comfortable with what it entailed. But at the same time, they had also never been afraid to accept its burden.
“The Empire rules over thousands of star systems. They have the resources of thousands of worlds, we do not even have one. We cannot fight them.”
Allen’s face turned sour.
“More hiding. I’ve wasted enough of my life doing that.”
The Human stood, and the military-minded men in the back of the shuttle tensed slightly, unsure of what he was doing.
Allen closed his eyes and took several steadying breaths. “We tried hiding, and now there are only twenty of us left. Surely you have suffered losses if you’ve been hiding for three hundred years. Do you want to fade off into nothing, a decrepit shadow compared to what you once were?”
Ranlin sighed. “We were never glorious, Allen. Not like Humanity was.” The eyes of one of the men behind her narrowed and glared at her at that comment.
“Surely you didn’t deserve to be attacked? No more than we did?”
“We never got past our distrust of those in our own species who were different. Not until the very end, after we destroyed our own world. When the Empire attacked we were living in the ruins of our cities, in what was left after…” Ranlin thought for a moment, trying to remember the Human’s term for it, since there was not a direct translation. “After a nuclear holocaust.”
Allen considered her as she continued. “I’ve read your history. Humanity had the power to destroy itself for generations, yet you never did. Every other class C species that has attained the ability to destroy themselves has done so. For some reason, though, Humanity did not.”
“We still fought. Still had wars.”
“You did, but you never completely ignored your enemies. Never did you reduce them in your minds to creatures that deserved death. You still thought of your enemy as sentient.”
Allen looked at her, and then around the cabin at the others. “Is that so strange?” he asked.
“Sadly.”
Allen looked around at all of them, and then down at his own wrist computer. “Now what?”
“What do you mean?” asked Ranlin.
“You came looking for Humanity. You’ve found us; what’s left at least. Now what?”
Ranlin swallowed and her ears fell down. “I’m not sure. We were hoping to find an ally. Not that twenty people aren’t appreciated, but it’s hardly enough to make a difference on an interstellar scale.”
Allen scoffed. “No, I guess not.”
The back of the shuttle fell silent.
“These two lovers, the Human and the,” Allen hesitated, “Vakurian? Am I saying that right?”
Ranlin nodded.
“They left Earth almost three hundred years ago. If they had made it, that might have changed things for the better. As it stands, though, Humanity’s not going to be much help.”
“Your FTL technology, what about that? If we could adapt it to work with our ships, that would give us a massive tactical advantage. It might even allow us to search for the other Humans, the ones who did manage to escape.”
“That information was classified at the highest levels, and as soon as it became apparent that it was what the Empire was after, every single copy of the data was completely destroyed. Even the most heavily encrypted ones. I don’t have any more of an idea about how it works than you do.”
Another female, one not in a suit, stepped out from the front of the shuttle. Allen paused, looking at her. It seemed all of the females of the species were beautiful.
“What about the encrypted military data? We have a cache of it from the surface, but we can’t decrypt it. Even if it doesn’t contain the FTL technology, it could still be useful.”
“Uh, I don’t know. I’m not military.”
“Not military? What did you do then?”
“I was a contractor. I rebuilt and refurbished space structures.”
“You’re not a military leader? What about the others on your base? The other nineteen?” Ranlin asked.
Allen shrugged. “None of us were really important before the attack. We were just incredibly lucky.”
“Your species did not try to save its politicians?” asked the larger Vakurian with the weapon.
“Tried. Didn’t work though.”
“So we came all this way and we got twenty random humans. Great.”
Ranlin slowly turned to glare at the large man again, and seemingly quelled, he backed up again. Allen glanced between the aliens. He wasn’t an expert, but he could sense some tension there. Exactly what type of tension it was he wasn’t sure, sexual maybe? The ears were really throwing him off, they seemed to be more expressive than their faces.
“Look, I know we’re not what you were expecting, but we’re all that’s left only so far as we know. Some of the other installations might have just lost communications. If your ship can investigate them, there might be more of us still alive.”
“What about ships? Weapons?” asked the large Vakurian.
“Handheld weapons maybe, but I’m not sure what good ships would do. Nothing we have can go to FTL, and our weapons were useless against the shields of the alien ship that attacked.”
“Well shit.”
Allen smiled at that. “Yeah. Shit.”
The Vakurians ears went up and he snorted.
“You know Ranlin, I think I’m starting to get what you see in these guys.”
Ranlin simply rolled her eyes and her ears wiggled.
“I need to get back in contact with the bunker, tell them that I have made peaceful contact.”
Reaching out, Allen picked his helmet back up, then hesitated. “You uh, you aren’t going to leave? Like I said we’ve only got twenty guys, but leave us here and we’re going to go insane.” A small amount of desperation filtered into his voice.
“No, we’re not leaving you. We met Humanity far too late because of the Empire. I’m not going to let that hamper our relations.”
Ranlin picked up her helmet as well.
Everyone else in the back of the shuttle quickly grabbed their own and donned them.
Allen felt his head immediately begin to clear as his suit cycled on and filtered fresh air into his helmet. It seemed like the atmospheric mix the Vakurians preferred, although survivable, was going to give him headaches.
“I’ll go with him,” said Ranlin.
“No,” both Allen and the large Vakurian responded at the same time. Allen glanced over at him and raised an eyebrow.
“Why not?” Ranlin asked Allen, ignoring her crewmate.
“I uh, didn’t tell anyone else I was coming out here. They were already afraid enough with you guys in orbit. I show up back at the bunker with an alien, even one as beautiful as you, Pastore will just order that you be shot.”
Ranlin blinked, and her ears, although confined inside the helmet, still managed to wiggle somewhat. She wasn’t sure what to say after the compliment.
“Leave the radio on,” Allen pointed at the small box. “I’ll contact you through that. Do not under any circumstances approach the base without my contacting you. Everyone’s going to be a little skittish.”
The large Vakurian went over and picked up the radio.
“Understood.”
Allen gestured at the back of the shuttle.
Ranlin hesitated, but hit the release. The atmosphere was compressed back into storage, and the back of the shuttle opened. Allen held up the small computer from her. Ranlin quickly nodded, and holding it in his hand he slowly walked back down the short ramp to the surface of the moon. Hesitating for only a moment, he stepped back into the lunar regolith and glanced back at the aliens.
This was going to take some explaining.
The shuttle ramp resealed and the atmosphere quickly filtered back in.
“I think that went well,” said Ranlin.
“There’s only twenty of them left? What use are they going to be?” asked Klyn as he tossed the radio unit back onto the seat.
“It’s not about usefulness, Klyn.”
“Then what has this all been about? We were hoping Humanity might have developed from what they were three hundred years ago. Well guess what – they did! And the empire still killed them! We’re picking up the few stragglers who managed to survive, and doing what? Giving them a place to live? We going to let them on the Valiant?”
“What, you want to just leave them here? They might actually have the FTL technology, I sure wouldn’t tell some aliens I just met anything about it!” said Ranlin, turning on the solider.
“So we drag them along with us, let them waste our resources, on the off chance that they are helpful?”
“We’re not so strapped for resources that another twenty people will be a burden, Klyn,” growled Ranlin, her ears going flat.
“If we find more of them? Then what?”
“We came to Humanity looking for help. Are you saying we can’t do the same for them?” Ranlin turned back away from him, looking off into a corner. “Hopefully the Humans who escaped are out there. If they’re outside the Tachyon network, they’ll be working to take revenge for Humanity. If you need justification to help them, think about that. “
Klyn pointed at the radio. “Last time we tried to help another Class C species, we lost a quarter of the fleet! The idiots wanted to try and destroy the Empire! These Humans blew up their own world rather than let the Empire have it. I don’t want to be on a ship with them when they decide it’s time for a suicide run!”
Ranlin sighed and sat back down.
“The Humans don’t like suicide runs, but they used them because nothing else worked! Have you looked at the footage? Looked at the communication logs between all the ships when they were battling the Empire ship?”
“No,” admitted Klyn.
Grabbing another tablet, Ranlin pulled up the footage they had extracted from the satellite. Skipping through it, she paused where ship after ship, all of them badly damaged, were plunging into the shields of the Empire vessel.
“Humanity just lost their home system. You don’t think the first generation of our ancestors were insane? We did similar things to take the ships in the fleet. People ran at the Imperial troops and blew themselves up just to serve as distractions. Are they any less noble?”
Klyn groaned and shook his head, “I’m not saying we should leave them here. I’m trying to get you to be cautious. You’ve been infatuated with the idea of meeting Humans since we first discovered the shuttle – you’re dangerously close to obsessed, and it doesn’t help that you’re near heat!”
Klyn stopped suddenly, his ears drooping at the faux paus.
Ranlin’s face flushed green slightly, and everyone else in the back of the shuttle suddenly turned away from the argument, the status readouts for the shuttle suddenly very interesting.
Stalking over to him, Ranlin grabbed his collar and dragged him down putting her face directly in front of his. “Just because I chose you last time, does not give you the right!” she hissed angrily.
“It’s a little hard to avoid noticing it when we’re stuck in a shuttle together,” he hissed back, not looking at her.
Ranlin let a growl form in her throat, but kept it at that. Stalking back over to her seat, she sat down and set the radio in her lap. Fuming, she started to study the modern Human technology. Just because she was close to her mating time, and just because Klyn had been the one she had dragged into her quarters last time, and the time before that, did not mean she would chose him again!
In any case, she didn’t have to take anyone to her quarters. She would be perfectly fine on her own.
Releasing his collar she turned away from him and picked up the Human radio unit. It was the only link she had to them at the moment, and she wasn’t going to let go.
Bouncing back along the lunar rocks and regolith, Allen approached the entrance to the bunker. The base was buried in ancient lava tubes, specifically designed to be impossible to find. It was completely invisible on the surface; were it not for the few patches of moon dust where footprints had been left in the dust, he never would have found it. Somewhere there was a landing platform for ships, but that too was hidden beneath lunar dust and hadn’t been opened in years.
Entering the lava tube and slowly sliding down towards the airlock, Allen winced. The lights inside the tunnel had been switched on, and the airlock door that he had purposefully left open for his own return was closed.
The local comm crackled to life in Allen’s helmet.
“I am going to kill you,” Pastore growled through the radio link.
Allen felt the hair on the back of his neck go up at that.
“They’re peaceful, I talked to them! They’re like us! The same aliens that attacked us also attacked them and destroyed their world!” Allen replied as he finished the trudge down the incline to the airlock.
A small screen flickered on, showing Pastore as well as everyone else in the base inside the command center.
“It’s a trick, you idiot!” shouted Pastore. His face was red, and he looked incensed – almost mad.
“It’s not a trick!” roared Allen, shouting back at the man, wincing slightly as his own voice reverberated through his helmet.
The two men glared at one another for several moments through the communication link.
“Are you going to leave me to die out here?” asked Allen.
Pastore grit his teeth and shook his head. “Mack, open the airlock. I want a full scan before you open the inner door, make sure nothing is transmitting, nothing chemical or biological is on his suit, the works.”
“Roger,” said Mack.
The outer airlock door opened, and hopping inside, Allen switched his glare to the next monitor.
The pressure inside the airlock quickly returned and Allen pulled off his helmet.
Taking a breath of the cold air, he stalked over to the monitor.
“Pastore, they are friendly! With their ships we might even be able to find out what happened to the Ark, or hell, figure out what happened to Phobos! We can’t stay hidden down here for the rest of our lives!” said Allen.
Pastore looked like he was going to say something, but then paused as something flashed on the monitor in front of him.
“Mack?” asked Pastore, turning to look at the man.
Mack’s eyes were wide and he was reading through whatever was on the monitor in front of him.
“What’s going on, guys?” asked Allen.
“You’ve got an unknown biological agent inside the airlock with you. One that he computer had flagged as having neurological hooks.”
Allen blinked. “What?”
“You took your helmet off around the aliens, didn’t you!?” shouted Pastore, rounding back to the screen, his already loud shouting somehow managing to increase even further in volume.
“Kind of hard to make first contact through a helmet!” Allen retorted.
“They infected you with a virus! Hell it could be the same virus that wiped out Earth!”
“Then why am I not dead already?”
“They made it slow acting so you would kill the rest of us!”
Allen looked at Mack, and the man shrugged. “It’s possible. This doesn’t look like a pathogen, though. It looks, well,” he paused and laughed nervously, “it looks alien.”
Allen groaned and leaned up against the wall of the airlock.
“Fine, can you figure out what it is? I’m guessing I won’t be allowed back in the base until you do,” Allen said.
“Damn right!” growled Pastore.
Allen shook his head. “I’ve already proven we’re still alive here. If they wanted to kill us, why not attack now? It’s not like we’re that well-hidden. I’m telling you, these aliens are peaceful!”
“We can’t trust anything you’re saying. For all we know, this biological agent is messing with your head,” growled Mack.
Allen glared at the man through the communication channel, but he ignored it and continued to type away at the workstation in front of him.
Before anyone could say anything else, another communication line crackled on.
“Allen? You hear me?” came the mechanical translated voice, although Allen had no doubt that Ranlin was on the other end.
He swore, reaching for his helmet to key his mike, and gasped. He could see a small haze filtering in through the airlock’s ducts. Allen immediately exhaled like he would for a decompress emergency and turned to the monitor.
Mack was looking stunned, his eyes on Pastore, who had hit something on the console in front of him.
“We can’t have you talking to them!” said Pastore.
“You could have just cut his link unit! Knocking him out isn’t going to help things! We have no idea how the gas will act with the alien biological agent!” Mack yelled back at Pastore.
“Better safe than sorry,” Pastore affirmed.
“Fuck you!” rasped Allen as he used up what little air was left in his lungs.
Unable to fight the need any longer, he slowly breathed in, tasting the gas.
“Seriously, fuck you, Pastore.”
Allen could taste the chemical. Reaching down, he grabbed his helmet and slipped it on over his head. The seals engaged and the atmosphere was purged. Still, he had to have inhaled at least a little of it.
The outer airlock doors were closing. Disoriented, Allen stumbled towards them. His head was beginning to spin and his vision was cutting in and out. Allen pitched forwards into the lunar regolith just as the airlock doors trundled closed behind him.