Lunar Life

Jodie was excited to finally be on the Alpha base after being on standby for so long thanks to hurricane Spencer. It had taken her a year and a half to get on the rotation roster and another 7 months to actually get a launch date set. After that it was one delay after another until the she finally sat in the coveted Mission commanders’ chair. The trip from earth seemed to last a lifetime but here she finally was with her crew. She completed all her post flight checks of the shuttle so fast her co-pilot couldn’t help laughing and shaking her head. Pity I can’t kiss the moon! She thought. Her mission was a simple crew transport run with a shipment of equipment parts. She and her crew of 5 would complement the 15 men and women already on the moon.

With so many private space exploration companies now, the U.S Government had privately given prospecting licenses to a mining company to set up a secret mine for the purpose of finding more rare metals and minerals solely for the government, before another country got the chance to do it. The license was for the dark side of the moon so no one could suspect anything. The mining company, Geotrin, had managed to get the government to also sell them sole rights to some future sites on Mars, Jupiter, Jupiter’s moons, and Saturn. Needless to say, all those that were lobbied were set for life once the projects kicked off.

The secret nature of the project was due to the possible backlash from the rest of the world and even the American people because it implies the government believed the moon is its territory and not the world’s. This, alone, could spark a major conflict on multiple fronts.

So, the secret was only known to a few people on the mission and a handful in the White House.

Mapping the area to be mined was already done and some operations were already well on the way. They had discovered what looked like water and plants already in the designated area. The water was discovered after they began drilling and it was rather unexpected since there was no indication whatsoever on all the scans and tests that had been done up to that point. Naturally scans and tests were repeated and when those still did not detect any indication of the plants or water the request was put in for new equipment. Everything had been taken and tested, and while the plants were strange in structure and composition, the water seemed unimpressively identical to water on Earth.

The primary purpose of the base, as far as the world knew, was as an extension of the space station so a lab and observation post for astronomical studies. Now, it houses drilling equipment, extra communication equipment, and a state-of-the-art arsenal as well as a weapons test post.

The construction of the base was not without conflict because the other nations including Russia and China wanted to be a part of the space station causing the U.S to have to devise ways to keep the drilling site secret.

The diggers found water at a depth of 50 feet in a crater and they began to siphon it to storage tanks. After the water was moved the drilling went to 100feet because scans showed there might be some unknown materials at that depth. The water-cooled drill reached it in a matter of hours and took a sample for analysis but their results were inconclusive on what it was. It was carbon-based but also composed of other substances that were unknown. It didn’t react with any of their test reagents but after a while they noticed it slowly became more active and moving in a slow flowing spinning cloud look way. They still couldn’t figure out what it was so the rest of the samples transported down to earth for more tests.

Back at the drill site, the black substance had begun to ooze out of the hole left by the drill. It billowed like smoke as it developed protuberances like tentacles and made for the closest open door. As it reached the door to the enclosure, it found the door sealed and it stayed there billowing, waiting until someone opened the door and it engulfed her in an instant. As she screamed a couple of people heard and called out to her. Getting no response, they went to look for her and found a mangled mixture of her spacesuit and some flesh. There was, however, no trace of whatever attacked her. The first thing they did was check the lab where they found the sample of the creature safely locked up.

Moving through the enclosure the creature split itself into two separate entities and began to go to different areas. The first bit of the creature came upon the security offers in the security office and consumed them.

As it went from area to area it wiped out all those it made contact with.

Captain Jodie Silva wrote her report, transmitted it to mission control, and grumbled to herself “An astronaut is now nothing but a bloody airline pilot!” She stretched and went out in search of food.

She passed a couple of people who directed her to the “mess hall” where she found her crew finishing up their dinner.

“Hello Capt!” her co-pilot, Lt Naomi Chang hailed her.

“We were thinking you might have been overcome with excitement and passed out in your bunk. We were about to form a search party.” Her navigator, Joe Cullen joked.

“What do the natives have for our nourishment?” Jodie asked

“Believe it or not it’s steak and potatoes and it’s not bad but I was famished.” Naomi laughed.

She grabbed a packed meal and nuked it in the microwave. “Mm, smells wonderful. My stomach was about to start on my liver next. It already ate my spleen.” As she began to eat, they heard someone scream and a couple of seconds after that an alarm sounded.

Jodie and her crew sprang to their feet and made for the muster point. After a minute when no one joined them, Jodie said “Let’s find the station chief.” They made their way to the station commander’s office. They found no one there but they what looked to them like a mangled animal in some junked space suit.

“Security office!” exclaimed Naomi. They ran through the corridors and saw more mangled suits mixed with gore. They reached the office and once again saw no one there except gore. They checked the security screens and saw no one in any of the areas. “I think we have to assume what we have been seeing the remains of everyone on the base,” said Joe.

“Okay, we are leaving!” Jodie exclaimed. Naomi, tell Mission control the base has been compromised; we might have a life-threatening emergency and we are coming home! Joe and I will fire up the engines and try to find some weapons.”

“Should we split up?’ Joe asked

“Not a good idea since we don’t know what’s going on.” Jodie said.

Naomi made the transmission and they rushed out of the office as the creature sprang on Joe. Everyone screamed. The creature appeared to crushed Joe as Jodie and Naomi turned, and ran for the shuttle bay. As they rounded a corner, Naomi tripped and fell against a wall. Jodie stopped and helped her up. Limping a bit, they made it up the gangway leading to the shuttle. Naomi went up first and screamed. Jodie looked and saw the creature advancing on her. She ran around the shuttle and climbed under the ship and crawled to the other side. She found the door open and went in.