The Silent Scream

by: Dennis R. Humphreys (the DreamWriter)

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. It took a deaf stowaway on a space shuttle, by the name of Sonia Lansing to prove otherwise. The sixteen year old insisted there were other ways to hear besides ears, and other ways to transmit sound. She made all the logical arguments but her teachers stood by the argument that sound was dependent on using molecules of air as a medium, to be heard. Regardless, she had her own ideas. She was stubborn about things, once an opinion or idea coalesced in her head.

Perhaps itwas the day an astronaut by the name of George Fallon came to speak at her school about NASA, space and a private industry career as an astronaut that inspired her most recent thoughts. It was more likely George Fallon himself, that did, for she immediately became smitten that Friday, as he spoke in front of the auditorium at Houston High School, late in April. All she talked about was the astronaut that weekend to her parents who couldn't wait until the weekend was over and Sonia returned to school. By the end of that Monday, her fellow students couldn't wait until the weekend came.

Sonia had been born deaf. It was a condition doctors could not rectify. She made up for her inability to hear by talking incessantly. The fact that she never heard the spoken word and spoke as clearly, and incessantly as she did, amazed doctors who didn't understand how she achieved this feat. Sonia claimed she didn't experience sound like others, but she could still hear. Everyone viewed that response as nonsense, including the specialists that had studied Sonia over the years.

Sonia began following the career closely of the young astronaut and when she heard he was contracted to go into space to the far side of the moon for mineral exploration by a large mining company, she became excited for him. At first, her desire was to see him again. She decided to become an astronaut somehow. She knew her hearing deficit would rule her out initially but there had to be a way. The announcement said he would be leaving in several weeks and it was then she decided to stow away to meet the astronaut and be with him, while getting a taste of what it was like to be an astronaut. Perhaps the ensuing publicity, exposing her career desire, might make it happen.

The odds were astronomical she would ever make it, but that didn't deter her to try. Her thoughts were like many successful people who said they were too stupid not to try. If they knew more, they would have talked themselves out of ever attempting what they succeeded at.

August 10th was the scheduled day at nine in the morning. The ship was large and two others were accompanying George Fallon. The last several launches into space had used what was called a Plasma 1 technology which was powerful, efficient, cheap and as close to an unlimited power source that there was. Size and space was no longer a concern with space travel. George Fallon's ship was going to be powered by and even greater power source dubbed Plasma 2 technology, that had not been explained by anyone to the public and was being kept quiet. Many were concerned why it was being kept secret. Was t a danger to the public and the Earth, and perhaps even to the universe? They were to be gone for three weeks. Their mission was to take and test many samples, while bringing many more samples back for more tests. They would be taking and leaving mining robots and other equipment as part of their payload if their initial tests looked good, to establish a mining site.

Sonia decided it made more sense to climb inside one of the pieces of equipment meant to go on the flight rather than the almost impossible feat of sneaking directly on board the ship itself. She found schematics of the rover on line and knew she had enough room with her small, five foot-two frame to accomplish the feat. She figured with that many young people present for the tour, security would be lax and no one would notice an extra head in the crowd, especially someone as small as she was and innocuous. She'd slip away from the group and climb under the rover and up under the passenger seats between the lines of batteries and wait. Once the ship took off and got to the moon, she'd make herself known.

* * *

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?” the astronaut asked the young girl he caught, as she emerged from under the rover in the bay, where he came to make an inspection after he and the others heard a noise outside of the ship. They were all inspecting various parts of the ship not understanding what it was.

“I'm Sonia Lansing. I sort of... stowed away on your shuttle,” she answered him embarrassingly.

“Sort of? Sort of! Who the hell are you? Wait a minute. I know you. You're the girl in that high school in Houston I spoke at a few, months ago asking all those questions,” he realized.

“I'm interested in science and would like to become an astronaut but I'm deaf. They'll never let me become one. I'll never get a chance to get into space,” she answered.

“So you thought you'd get there this way?” Fallon asked her incredulously, perhaps a bit admirably.

About that time the other astronauts walked through the door into the bay. Sonia looked at them as George ran his right hand through his his short black hair wondering if the mission would be scrapped and if he would take the heat for it. Everyone would want to lay the blame somewhere and since he was in charge in space, he would most likely be the one.

“What have we here... an alien that sneaked on board. Was that the noise?” Harris Armstrong quipped to his commander, jokingly.

“I wish. That would be something the company would love to have happen for publicity. This will be an embarrassment... some teenage girl getting past security and climbing aboard the ship!” Fallon announced.

“They'll scrub the mission,” Tony Sterling said matter-of-factually. “I'd better call this in right away.”

The youngest of the three and a computer, communications wizard with a degree in geology, turned and left the room to call the company. They were supposed to anyway when they landed but the unusual noise on landing, took precedence.

“Why can't I just stay?” Sonia asked innocently.

“I won't even answer a stupid question like that. I think you're smart enough to answer that question yourself,” Fallon insulted the stowaway.

“I could do the cooking,” Sonia suggested.

“We eat from a tube,” Armstrong interjected to displace his commander's noticeable, rising anger.

“You've just cost my company millions of dollars. You're in deep shit,” Fallon warned her as he walked out of the room.

“I'd stay clear of him for awhile. He's really pissed,” the last astronaut in the room, told her.

It was the last thing she wanted to do but she wanted to be noticed by him, regardless of the results. That she accomplished. She wanted to be here too.; Her attraction to the young astronaut only exasperated things.

“George. I can't get through. Either something is wrong with the satellite or the tower,” Sterling announced.

“The satellite was working an hour ago. It has to be the tower or our transmitter,” George replied with something Sterling already surmised.

They were on the dark side of the moon and unable to communicate with earth via satellite because the satellites' paths were lower and closer to earth. There was an extremely tall tower built on the other side in line with Earth and its satellites. It was tall enough that they could transmit to it and reach it from where they were, over the curve of the surface, and then relay messages by way of a satellite.

“I'll take the rover and look. The tower's about six miles from here,” Sterling estimated.

“You can't go alone. Take Harris with you,” he ordered.

“Under the circumstances... you think that's wise?” Sterling asked.

“That's protocol. Under the circumstances, unless I'm told otherwise that's what we follow,” Fallon said emphatically.

“Yes, sir,” Sterling answered apologetically.

Within minutes they were suited and had opened the bay doors while Fallon and Sonia watched them from another room through a port window. The door closed automatically behind them as they left the bay on the rover. They still had their own communications intact so the astronauts could talk to each other wherever they were within a twelve mile radius.

“We have a limited supply of materials, so hopefully the tower won't need much to become operable,” he told Sonia as they sat in the pilot area and followed the two's progress via a camera, one of six that were in the fuselage. Sonia found herself staring at George Fallon in a young crush's fashion as he talked openly while looking at the screen. Then they were gone behind lunar rocks. When he readdressed his attention since they couldn't be seen anymore, he caught Sonia watching him making her quickly turn away.

Fallon began scanning pages of information on the computer intently then, ignoring Sonia.

“Did you hear that?” Sonia suddenly quipped.

“Hear what? I thought you were deaf,” Fallon asked suspiciously, turning to her.

“I am but sometimes I can hear certain things somehow,” she informed him.

“Well there's just you and me in here and I didn't say anything. It could only have come from outside and that's not possible since sound doesn't travel there,” he informed her and went back to reading.

“I did hear something,” Sonia insisted. “I just couldn't understand what was said.”

“It was someone talking?” Fallon asked, glancing at her momentarily.

“Yes,” she said, realizing he didn't believe her. He most likely felt she was an idiot. She decided to keep quiet then and leave Fallon to his reading.

As he read she watched him a few minutes and then turned her attention to the flight area. There were tons of dials and switches... not digital stuff or the like. Oftentimes when things went wrong, the displays went blank. They were not dependable in real time use so old fashioned displays were installed, easily read in dim light or bright, close or distant and they were dependable. Things were sleek without edges or corners... easy to clean and less likely to harm someone if they were roughly jostled around. It was pretty austere without any personal touches whatsoever. She could determine nothing more about George Fallon or his two associates in that room.

“Rover to Fallon... over,” Armstrong's voice crackled over the intercom. Fallon immediately grabbed the microphone and replied.

“Fallon here, what do you have... over,” he questioned.

“George, if I didn't know better, I'd say someone deliberately dropped our tower... over,” the man commented.

“You mean it's physically down? We flew over it not long ago. It was clearly standing and it was casting a long shadow... over,” Fallon commented. Sonia looked at the frown on his face and thought it made him cuter.

“That's what I mean. It looks as if something melted the support legs at the ground level and it collapsed, or it was pushed over... over,” he commented.

“There isn't anyone else up here. The company needs to know about this and reverify no one else is up here. Is it fixable? Otherwise we have no way of communicating without moving the ship over from the dark side... over,” Fallon told him.

“That would solve two problems. Even at one sixth gravity this tower is to heavy to raise upright without some help. You could move the ship over here to position the tower back in place while I weld it. Then you could message Earth... over,” Armstrong suggested.

“I'll be right there as soon as I can... over and out,” Fallon promised as he began moving around the console. “Buckle up.”

He buckled himself then to prepare moving the shuttle and looked over at Sonia to insure she did as well. She buckled herself into the chair and pulled the strap tight. Then she glanced at Fallon as he started the engines and moved it gently.

“Stop right there!” the voice over the radio demanded. “I'll connect the cable to the top of the tower and to the ship. I'll direct you when we're ready... over,” Armstrong told the leader.

Within the hour, Fallon had righted the tower with the shuttle and put it into place where he held it suspended, so the two men could weld the legs to the heavy metal pad that was in turn, welded to four metal posts sunk deeply into the lunar surface.

“That's done. You're good to go. We want to check something out we saw on the way here in the dark side, near where we were... over,” Armstrong told him.

“Alright then. I'm taking the shuttle back to the same place and parking it, so we'll see you there when you get back... over and out,” Fallon.

“What do you think they saw?” Sonia asked to make small talk and break the tension.

“Well, I don't know. If I did, it would be a waste of time telling me,” George said sarcastically.

Her feeling's hurt, Sonia returned to studying the room. Then once again, she heard someone talking. She listened as closely as she could but George began a transmission with the Earth now the tower was fixed and she wanted to see if she could tune into what he said

“Lunar Mission Virgo, can you hear me... out?” Fallon began.

“Hello, George. How's it going out there. We thought we might hear from you before now. Everything OK... over?” the man on Earth asked.

“Just peachy. Out tower was down and we had to repair it. On top of it all we had some crazy... “ Fallon was in the middle of explaining when the radio went dead. “What the hell! Now what? Don't tell me the thing's down again?”

George shifted to the other radio then to speak with with Armstrong and tell him to get back to the tower.

“Rover One, come in. Can you hear me Rover One? Come in please... over,” Fallon sounded.

“Got you George. What's the matter? You sound pissed... over,” Armstrong spoke.

“The tower's down again. Go back and take a look... over,” Fallon ordered.

“Will do, but we're standing here looking at what we thought we saw, and came to investigate. Turn your camera on and see what we see... over,” Armstrong told the leader.

“Shit! It looks like the debris from some space ship that crashed... over,” Fallon commented amazed.

“That's exactly what it is,” Sterling announced as he jumped into the discussion. “It ain't one of ours... and what I mean by that, it's not an Earth ship. There's no telling how long it's been here... over.”

“What makes you think it's an alien ship... over?” Fallon asked him. Sonia was getting excited since she was a spectator to something odd.

Sonia was still trying to listen to the the talking she heard but it was difficult. It wasn't clear and with the radio talking going on, understanding anything was complicated.

“The design, mainly. There's writing of some sort on the side too... definitely not anything I recognize... over,” Sterling answered.

“Get samples and head over to the tower... over and out,” Fallon ordered.

“I'm still hearing something,” Sonia told George.

He just looked at her without belief. After a moment he spoke.

“As soon as we can transmit and receive I'll find out what to do with you. Don't get your hopes up about staying,” he warned her. “Someone's going to be responsible for what you did. You cost my company a lot of money if they tell us to abort.”

“I'm still hearing something,” she added defiantly, assuming his statement was supposed to be threatening.

The communications clicked and Armstrong's voice came over it loud and clear.

“George. The tower's down again. This time it's been all but dismantled. I can't repair this in a month of Sundays. Obviously someone besides us is here and they don't want us to contact Earth. The question is why... over,” Armstrong told the leader.

“OK... get your asses back here. I'm aborting this mission. When we leave and in range, I'll contact Earth and fill them in about our situation. They'll probably want us to stay in orbit while they send in space military to clean things up before we go back down, We may have company while we're here... over and out,” Fallon commanded.

“Besides Sonia,” Sterling joked trying to get in the last word before Fallon signed off. Fallon heard the comment but reserved any answer.

Fallon went about preparing for take off so when the two returned there wouldn't be any wasted time.

“Well Sonia, it looks like you may avoid all the heat if we have to abort. If they plan on sending military they might want us to wait, unless you're the fly in the ointment,” he told her looking at the various gauges.

“Is that what you think of me as... a fly?” she asked angrily but hurt.

“Well... maybe more like a tic,” he told her without giving her any attention.

Sonia stormed off the bridge not wanting to stay in the same room. She went down the hall and into one of the bedrooms there and went to the port window to look out. As she stood there looking she caught a movement off to the side, so she looked there, straining to see if there was anything. There was... two insect-like creatures... preying mantis to be exact. They walked on hind legs, erect. They were about five feet high and a shiny bluish gray. They saw her at the window and immediately moved towards her. She wasn't afraid, but fascinated.

She watched them as they approached. Their faces were emotionless so she couldn't detect their intent. The came to the window, flailing their top legs as they looked back at Sonia. Their mouths moved, or at least their lip like structures moved to the sounds they emitted. It was the talking she heard earlier coordinated to their lip movements, so they were physically communicating not telepathically, Their sounds were muffled coming from the other side of the window, but they were in a language that was incomprehensible. It was hard to tell but they seemed... fearful by their rapid arm movements.

She watched as they tried communicating. Their sound became louder as they spoke. Then Sonia saw movement behind them. Suddenly their heads were gone and their bodies fell below the window. She jumped from the window and continued looking, The legs of another creature appeared, only seeing it from the hips down. It was much larger. Then it stooped to peer into the window. A single large dark eye focused on her as she stepped further back. It was what appeared to be another insect much larger than the previous two, but similar, with iridescent dark blue skin. It wasn't a mantis but it was similar with minor differences, primarily the size.

It stared a moment and then left. Sonia looked after it and went to the window to watch where it was going. She had to tell Fallon but he wouldn't believe her. He probably wouldn't even go to check this side of the ship if she told him there were two alien bodies there to prove what she said. Then she heard Sterling and Armstrong pull into the bay and the door close. She left the bedroom about the time they came through the decontamination room, removing their helmets.

“George... something is here and it made trash of the tower. It did it in less than two hours after we fixed it,” cried Armstrong.

“The lunar dust was pretty disturbed and our tracks were obliterated we left earlier,” Sterling informed his boss.

“We're aborting this mission and going into orbit to await orders. With this and our stow away, it'll be up to them to determine what happens,” Fallon alerted them.

“I've been hearing talking,” Sonia explained, “then I watched something just happen out side one of the windows. A large alien killed two other aliens and left the bodies there. You need proof, it's there,” she said affirmatively, coming into the command center behind the men.

They looked at her dumbfounded. Sterling and Armstrong were ready to put their helmets back on and go outside the ship but Fallon put a stop to them.

“Just get ready to leave. I don't want to spend any more time here,” he declared as he turned to flip the switch to start the engines and do pre-flight checks. When he did, nothing happened. He tried again... nothing. He had to wait three minutes now before flipping the switch. But he turned around to look for the others. Only Sonia was standing there watching as Armstrong and Sterling took off their suits in the bay area where the other four suits hung. It was mandatory each man have a suit and a spare while on board.

“Sorry I didn't believe you. It appears whatever is here doesn't want us to leave. Could you understand anything that you heard?” he asked the girl.

“Nothing,” Sonia answered as she began to worry now what she had gotten herself into.

“What were these aliens like that you saw?” he asked her.

“The first two that came to the window looked like preying mantis and they were my size. They seemed upset and then something much larger, like another type of mantis came up behind them and cut off their heads. Their bodies are still out there. The large one bent over and looked in the window at me... it had a single large eye,” she informed him.

“That's creepy. The one redeeming thing is about protocol... if they don't hear confirmation from us that we landed for a forty-eight hour period they will send out a small military contingent... six men. Our short, disrupted communication earlier won't count. It's been five hours. It's going to be a long wait. Let me try the engines again...” Fallon told her as the other two men came into the room.

There wasn't a sound. There should have been a click and then a very light, deep hum but there was nothing.

“I guess we're dead in the water, huh boss?” Sterling asked taking the copilot seat.

“It'll be about forty-six hours before we see a rescue team. We might as well stay busy in the meantime. Set out the lasers in case we have to take defensive action. While you're out there you might as well retrieve one of the alien bodies and bring it inside to inspect. We'll bag it for Earth,” Fallon told them.

Sterling and Armstrong once again left the ship and set the six lasers that could be activated from inside to fire at a moving object. Each had a small camera so someone inside could see what the laser saw. I didn't take long and within a short while they were reentering the bay doors carrying one of the bodies in a zippered bag. They unzipped it and opened it to be decontaminated as well.

After decontamination, the men undressed and hung their suits. They carted the bag to a small lab at the back of the shuttle and placed it on the stainless steel table there.

“I know we followed protocol here, coming in with this thing, and decontaminating, but it's insides aren't decontaminated,” Armstrong observed.

“We'll seal the room off in a minute and decontaminate. I wanted to see this thing,” Fallon explained.

Fallon looked over the carcass a moment after putting on gloves. When he touched the dismembered head, it moved... startling everyone in the room. Then the eyes opened and peered eerily at each of them, inspecting them.

“Good God... it's a robot! Something's pulled a Trojan Horse on us to get in here. But why?” Fallon blurted.

by: Dennis R. Humphreys (the DreamWriter)

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. It took a deaf stowaway on a space shuttle, by the name of Sonia Lansing to prove otherwise. The sixteen year old insisted there were other ways to hear besides ears, and other ways to transmit sound. She made all the logical arguments but her teachers stood by the argument that sound was dependent on using molecules of air as a medium, to be heard. Regardless, she had her own ideas. She was stubborn about things, once an opinion or idea coalesced in her head.

Perhaps itwas the day an astronaut by the name of George Fallon came to speak at her school about NASA, space and a private industry career as an astronaut that inspired her most recent thoughts. It was more likely George Fallon himself, that did, for she immediately became smitten that Friday, as he spoke in front of the auditorium at Houston High School, late in April. All she talked about was the astronaut that weekend to her parents who couldn't wait until the weekend was over and Sonia returned to school. By the end of that Monday, her fellow students couldn't wait until the weekend came.

Sonia had been born deaf. It was a condition doctors could not rectify. She made up for her inability to hear by talking incessantly. The fact that she never heard the spoken word and spoke as clearly, and incessantly as she did, amazed doctors who didn't understand how she achieved this feat. Sonia claimed she didn't experience sound like others, but she could still hear. Everyone viewed that response as nonsense, including the specialists that had studied Sonia over the years.

Sonia began following the career closely of the young astronaut and when she heard he was contracted to go into space to the far side of the moon for mineral exploration by a large mining company, she became excited for him. At first, her desire was to see him again. She decided to become an astronaut somehow. She knew her hearing deficit would rule her out initially but there had to be a way. The announcement said he would be leaving in several weeks and it was then she decided to stow away to meet the astronaut and be with him, while getting a taste of what it was like to be an astronaut. Perhaps the ensuing publicity, exposing her career desire, might make it happen.

The odds were astronomical she would ever make it, but that didn't deter her to try. Her thoughts were like many successful people who said they were too stupid not to try. If they knew more, they would have talked themselves out of ever attempting what they succeeded at.

August 10th was the scheduled day at nine in the morning. The ship was large and two others were accompanying George Fallon. The last several launches into space had used what was called a Plasma 1 technology which was powerful, efficient, cheap and as close to an unlimited power source that there was. Size and space was no longer a concern with space travel. George Fallon's ship was going to be powered by and even greater power source dubbed Plasma 2 technology, that had not been explained by anyone to the public and was being kept quiet. Many were concerned why it was being kept secret. Was t a danger to the public and the Earth, and perhaps even to the universe? They were to be gone for three weeks. Their mission was to take and test many samples, while bringing many more samples back for more tests. They would be taking and leaving mining robots and other equipment as part of their payload if their initial tests looked good, to establish a mining site.

Sonia decided it made more sense to climb inside one of the pieces of equipment meant to go on the flight rather than the almost impossible feat of sneaking directly on board the ship itself. She found schematics of the rover on line and knew she had enough room with her small, five foot-two frame to accomplish the feat. She figured with that many young people present for the tour, security would be lax and no one would notice an extra head in the crowd, especially someone as small as she was and innocuous. She'd slip away from the group and climb under the rover and up under the passenger seats between the lines of batteries and wait. Once the ship took off and got to the moon, she'd make herself known.

* * *

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?” the astronaut asked the young girl he caught, as she emerged from under the rover in the bay, where he came to make an inspection after he and the others heard a noise outside of the ship. They were all inspecting various parts of the ship not understanding what it was.

“I'm Sonia Lansing. I sort of... stowed away on your shuttle,” she answered him embarrassingly.

“Sort of? Sort of! Who the hell are you? Wait a minute. I know you. You're the girl in that high school in Houston I spoke at a few, months ago asking all those questions,” he realized.

“I'm interested in science and would like to become an astronaut but I'm deaf. They'll never let me become one. I'll never get a chance to get into space,” she answered.

“So you thought you'd get there this way?” Fallon asked her incredulously, perhaps a bit admirably.

About that time the other astronauts walked through the door into the bay. Sonia looked at them as George ran his right hand through his his short black hair wondering if the mission would be scrapped and if he would take the heat for it. Everyone would want to lay the blame somewhere and since he was in charge in space, he would most likely be the one.

“What have we here... an alien that sneaked on board. Was that the noise?” Harris Armstrong quipped to his commander, jokingly.

“I wish. That would be something the company would love to have happen for publicity. This will be an embarrassment... some teenage girl getting past security and climbing aboard the ship!” Fallon announced.

“They'll scrub the mission,” Tony Sterling said matter-of-factually. “I'd better call this in right away.”

The youngest of the three and a computer, communications wizard with a degree in geology, turned and left the room to call the company. They were supposed to anyway when they landed but the unusual noise on landing, took precedence.

“Why can't I just stay?” Sonia asked innocently.

“I won't even answer a stupid question like that. I think you're smart enough to answer that question yourself,” Fallon insulted the stowaway.

“I could do the cooking,” Sonia suggested.

“We eat from a tube,” Armstrong interjected to displace his commander's noticeable, rising anger.

“You've just cost my company millions of dollars. You're in deep shit,” Fallon warned her as he walked out of the room.

“I'd stay clear of him for awhile. He's really pissed,” the last astronaut in the room, told her.

It was the last thing she wanted to do but she wanted to be noticed by him, regardless of the results. That she accomplished. She wanted to be here too.; Her attraction to the young astronaut only exasperated things.

“George. I can't get through. Either something is wrong with the satellite or the tower,” Sterling announced.

“The satellite was working an hour ago. It has to be the tower or our transmitter,” George replied with something Sterling already surmised.

They were on the dark side of the moon and unable to communicate with earth via satellite because the satellites' paths were lower and closer to earth. There was an extremely tall tower built on the other side in line with Earth and its satellites. It was tall enough that they could transmit to it and reach it from where they were, over the curve of the surface, and then relay messages by way of a satellite.

“I'll take the rover and look. The tower's about six miles from here,” Sterling estimated.

“You can't go alone. Take Harris with you,” he ordered.

“Under the circumstances... you think that's wise?” Sterling asked.

“That's protocol. Under the circumstances, unless I'm told otherwise that's what we follow,” Fallon said emphatically.

“Yes, sir,” Sterling answered apologetically.

Within minutes they were suited and had opened the bay doors while Fallon and Sonia watched them from another room through a port window. The door closed automatically behind them as they left the bay on the rover. They still had their own communications intact so the astronauts could talk to each other wherever they were within a twelve mile radius.

“We have a limited supply of materials, so hopefully the tower won't need much to become operable,” he told Sonia as they sat in the pilot area and followed the two's progress via a camera, one of six that were in the fuselage. Sonia found herself staring at George Fallon in a young crush's fashion as he talked openly while looking at the screen. Then they were gone behind lunar rocks. When he readdressed his attention since they couldn't be seen anymore, he caught Sonia watching him making her quickly turn away.

Fallon began scanning pages of information on the computer intently then, ignoring Sonia.

“Did you hear that?” Sonia suddenly quipped.

“Hear what? I thought you were deaf,” Fallon asked suspiciously, turning to her.

“I am but sometimes I can hear certain things somehow,” she informed him.

“Well there's just you and me in here and I didn't say anything. It could only have come from outside and that's not possible since sound doesn't travel there,” he informed her and went back to reading.

“I did hear something,” Sonia insisted. “I just couldn't understand what was said.”

“It was someone talking?” Fallon asked, glancing at her momentarily.

“Yes,” she said, realizing he didn't believe her. He most likely felt she was an idiot. She decided to keep quiet then and leave Fallon to his reading.

As he read she watched him a few minutes and then turned her attention to the flight area. There were tons of dials and switches... not digital stuff or the like. Oftentimes when things went wrong, the displays went blank. They were not dependable in real time use so old fashioned displays were installed, easily read in dim light or bright, close or distant and they were dependable. Things were sleek without edges or corners... easy to clean and less likely to harm someone if they were roughly jostled around. It was pretty austere without any personal touches whatsoever. She could determine nothing more about George Fallon or his two associates in that room.

“Rover to Fallon... over,” Armstrong's voice crackled over the intercom. Fallon immediately grabbed the microphone and replied.

“Fallon here, what do you have... over,” he questioned.

“George, if I didn't know better, I'd say someone deliberately dropped our tower... over,” the man commented.

“You mean it's physically down? We flew over it not long ago. It was clearly standing and it was casting a long shadow... over,” Fallon commented. Sonia looked at the frown on his face and thought it made him cuter.

“That's what I mean. It looks as if something melted the support legs at the ground level and it collapsed, or it was pushed over... over,” he commented.

“There isn't anyone else up here. The company needs to know about this and reverify no one else is up here. Is it fixable? Otherwise we have no way of communicating without moving the ship over from the dark side... over,” Fallon told him.

“That would solve two problems. Even at one sixth gravity this tower is to heavy to raise upright without some help. You could move the ship over here to position the tower back in place while I weld it. Then you could message Earth... over,” Armstrong suggested.

“I'll be right there as soon as I can... over and out,” Fallon promised as he began moving around the console. “Buckle up.”

He buckled himself then to prepare moving the shuttle and looked over at Sonia to insure she did as well. She buckled herself into the chair and pulled the strap tight. Then she glanced at Fallon as he started the engines and moved it gently.

“Stop right there!” the voice over the radio demanded. “I'll connect the cable to the top of the tower and to the ship. I'll direct you when we're ready... over,” Armstrong told the leader.

Within the hour, Fallon had righted the tower with the shuttle and put it into place where he held it suspended, so the two men could weld the legs to the heavy metal pad that was in turn, welded to four metal posts sunk deeply into the lunar surface.

“That's done. You're good to go. We want to check something out we saw on the way here in the dark side, near where we were... over,” Armstrong told him.

“Alright then. I'm taking the shuttle back to the same place and parking it, so we'll see you there when you get back... over and out,” Fallon.

“What do you think they saw?” Sonia asked to make small talk and break the tension.

“Well, I don't know. If I did, it would be a waste of time telling me,” George said sarcastically.

Her feeling's hurt, Sonia returned to studying the room. Then once again, she heard someone talking. She listened as closely as she could but George began a transmission with the Earth now the tower was fixed and she wanted to see if she could tune into what he said

“Lunar Mission Virgo, can you hear me... out?” Fallon began.

“Hello, George. How's it going out there. We thought we might hear from you before now. Everything OK... over?” the man on Earth asked.

“Just peachy. Out tower was down and we had to repair it. On top of it all we had some crazy... “ Fallon was in the middle of explaining when the radio went dead. “What the hell! Now what? Don't tell me the thing's down again?”

George shifted to the other radio then to speak with with Armstrong and tell him to get back to the tower.

“Rover One, come in. Can you hear me Rover One? Come in please... over,” Fallon sounded.

“Got you George. What's the matter? You sound pissed... over,” Armstrong spoke.

“The tower's down again. Go back and take a look... over,” Fallon ordered.

“Will do, but we're standing here looking at what we thought we saw, and came to investigate. Turn your camera on and see what we see... over,” Armstrong told the leader.

“Shit! It looks like the debris from some space ship that crashed... over,” Fallon commented amazed.

“That's exactly what it is,” Sterling announced as he jumped into the discussion. “It ain't one of ours... and what I mean by that, it's not an Earth ship. There's no telling how long it's been here... over.”

“What makes you think it's an alien ship... over?” Fallon asked him. Sonia was getting excited since she was a spectator to something odd.

Sonia was still trying to listen to the the talking she heard but it was difficult. It wasn't clear and with the radio talking going on, understanding anything was complicated.

“The design, mainly. There's writing of some sort on the side too... definitely not anything I recognize... over,” Sterling answered.

“Get samples and head over to the tower... over and out,” Fallon ordered.

“I'm still hearing something,” Sonia told George.

He just looked at her without belief. After a moment he spoke.

“As soon as we can transmit and receive I'll find out what to do with you. Don't get your hopes up about staying,” he warned her. “Someone's going to be responsible for what you did. You cost my company a lot of money if they tell us to abort.”

“I'm still hearing something,” she added defiantly, assuming his statement was supposed to be threatening.

The communications clicked and Armstrong's voice came over it loud and clear.

“George. The tower's down again. This time it's been all but dismantled. I can't repair this in a month of Sundays. Obviously someone besides us is here and they don't want us to contact Earth. The question is why... over,” Armstrong told the leader.

“OK... get your asses back here. I'm aborting this mission. When we leave and in range, I'll contact Earth and fill them in about our situation. They'll probably want us to stay in orbit while they send in space military to clean things up before we go back down, We may have company while we're here... over and out,” Fallon commanded.

“Besides Sonia,” Sterling joked trying to get in the last word before Fallon signed off. Fallon heard the comment but reserved any answer.

Fallon went about preparing for take off so when the two returned there wouldn't be any wasted time.

“Well Sonia, it looks like you may avoid all the heat if we have to abort. If they plan on sending military they might want us to wait, unless you're the fly in the ointment,” he told her looking at the various gauges.

“Is that what you think of me as... a fly?” she asked angrily but hurt.

“Well... maybe more like a tic,” he told her without giving her any attention.

Sonia stormed off the bridge not wanting to stay in the same room. She went down the hall and into one of the bedrooms there and went to the port window to look out. As she stood there looking she caught a movement off to the side, so she looked there, straining to see if there was anything. There was... two insect-like creatures... preying mantis to be exact. They walked on hind legs, erect. They were about five feet high and a shiny bluish gray. They saw her at the window and immediately moved towards her. She wasn't afraid, but fascinated.

She watched them as they approached. Their faces were emotionless so she couldn't detect their intent. The came to the window, flailing their top legs as they looked back at Sonia. Their mouths moved, or at least their lip like structures moved to the sounds they emitted. It was the talking she heard earlier coordinated to their lip movements, so they were physically communicating not telepathically, Their sounds were muffled coming from the other side of the window, but they were in a language that was incomprehensible. It was hard to tell but they seemed... fearful by their rapid arm movements.

She watched as they tried communicating. Their sound became louder as they spoke. Then Sonia saw movement behind them. Suddenly their heads were gone and their bodies fell below the window. She jumped from the window and continued looking, The legs of another creature appeared, only seeing it from the hips down. It was much larger. Then it stooped to peer into the window. A single large dark eye focused on her as she stepped further back. It was what appeared to be another insect much larger than the previous two, but similar, with iridescent dark blue skin. It wasn't a mantis but it was similar with minor differences, primarily the size.

It stared a moment and then left. Sonia looked after it and went to the window to watch where it was going. She had to tell Fallon but he wouldn't believe her. He probably wouldn't even go to check this side of the ship if she told him there were two alien bodies there to prove what she said. Then she heard Sterling and Armstrong pull into the bay and the door close. She left the bedroom about the time they came through the decontamination room, removing their helmets.

“George... something is here and it made trash of the tower. It did it in less than two hours after we fixed it,” cried Armstrong.

“The lunar dust was pretty disturbed and our tracks were obliterated we left earlier,” Sterling informed his boss.

“We're aborting this mission and going into orbit to await orders. With this and our stow away, it'll be up to them to determine what happens,” Fallon alerted them.

“I've been hearing talking,” Sonia explained, “then I watched something just happen out side one of the windows. A large alien killed two other aliens and left the bodies there. You need proof, it's there,” she said affirmatively, coming into the command center behind the men.

They looked at her dumbfounded. Sterling and Armstrong were ready to put their helmets back on and go outside the ship but Fallon put a stop to them.

“Just get ready to leave. I don't want to spend any more time here,” he declared as he turned to flip the switch to start the engines and do pre-flight checks. When he did, nothing happened. He tried again... nothing. He had to wait three minutes now before flipping the switch. But he turned around to look for the others. Only Sonia was standing there watching as Armstrong and Sterling took off their suits in the bay area where the other four suits hung. It was mandatory each man have a suit and a spare while on board.

“Sorry I didn't believe you. It appears whatever is here doesn't want us to leave. Could you understand anything that you heard?” he asked the girl.

“Nothing,” Sonia answered as she began to worry now what she had gotten herself into.

“What were these aliens like that you saw?” he asked her.

“The first two that came to the window looked like preying mantis and they were my size. They seemed upset and then something much larger, like another type of mantis came up behind them and cut off their heads. Their bodies are still out there. The large one bent over and looked in the window at me... it had a single large eye,” she informed him.

“That's creepy. The one redeeming thing is about protocol... if they don't hear confirmation from us that we landed for a forty-eight hour period they will send out a small military contingent... six men. Our short, disrupted communication earlier won't count. It's been five hours. It's going to be a long wait. Let me try the engines again...” Fallon told her as the other two men came into the room.

There wasn't a sound. There should have been a click and then a very light, deep hum but there was nothing.

“I guess we're dead in the water, huh boss?” Sterling asked taking the copilot seat.

“It'll be about forty-six hours before we see a rescue team. We might as well stay busy in the meantime. Set out the lasers in case we have to take defensive action. While you're out there you might as well retrieve one of the alien bodies and bring it inside to inspect. We'll bag it for Earth,” Fallon told them.

Sterling and Armstrong once again left the ship and set the six lasers that could be activated from inside to fire at a moving object. Each had a small camera so someone inside could see what the laser saw. I didn't take long and within a short while they were reentering the bay doors carrying one of the bodies in a zippered bag. They unzipped it and opened it to be decontaminated as well.

After decontamination, the men undressed and hung their suits. They carted the bag to a small lab at the back of the shuttle and placed it on the stainless steel table there.

“I know we followed protocol here, coming in with this thing, and decontaminating, but it's insides aren't decontaminated,” Armstrong observed.

“We'll seal the room off in a minute and decontaminate. I wanted to see this thing,” Fallon explained.

Fallon looked over the carcass a moment after putting on gloves. When he touched the dismembered head, it moved... startling everyone in the room. Then the eyes opened and peered eerily at each of them, inspecting them.

“Good God... it's a robot! Something's pulled a Trojan Horse on us to get in here. But why?” Fallon blurted.