Aurorae Ii

By Maggi O'Mally

T.M. professed his love for Mouse but she brushed it off. During a mission, he split the team to explore some caves. Her team was violently attacked. T.M. fought his way to her and found her near death. Will Mouse survive and be the same woman he loved? Will the scars in her mind pull her away from him? Will she find trust enough to let him help her? Can she admit to loving him? Join their journey of hope and horror, laughter and loss, as they try to find and hold on to love.

Warning: For mature readers only.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483685625

Maggi O'Mally

Ms. O’Mally grew up an avid reader. She didn’t care if the books she read taught her something or just took her away on flights of fancy. As a teen, she would read to her younger brother or make up stories to make him giggle. When she had children, she read to them to instill the love of reading to the next generation. As her eyesight declined, she decided to try writing poetry and prose and has found it as enjoyable as reading. She enjoys it so much she’s been encouraging her sister and son to try it. (Without success…yet.)

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Maggi O’Mally.

Cover art by C Mike Williams

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013914900

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4836-8561-8

   Softcover   978-1-4836-8560-1

   Ebook   978-1-4836-8562-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Warning: This novel contains graphic language, explicit sex, violence, and adult situations.

It is not suitable for readers under the age of 18.

Rev. date: 08/19/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

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CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CREW ROSTER

For Cooper Reid and Alexander Orion

Thank you, MaryLou, Mike and Marie, and Michelle

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

I ’m glad you enjoyed the first book enough to pick up the second. I hope you like this one well enough to pick up the third. I do have a couple of things to clear up, though.

First, I want to apologize. Due to my diabetes, I have lost much of my eyesight. I overlooked a few typos. I know how much that used to drive me crazy when I could read. I have enlisted the help of a couple friends and hope this book and the ensuing books will not have any. (Though I cannot promise this… they tell me they sometimes get so wrapped up in the story they forget to mark the typos.)

Second, I’m not going to give you a pop quiz. You don’t need to remember every character. If a character is coming into play, I’ll give you the info you need on them. Otherwise, think of them as extras. You know, like on TV. You don’t have to know everything about everyone who crosses in front of the camera. They’re there as filler or background, to show that the main characters aren’t alone. Just because I give them a name doesn’t mean they’re important to the storyline. (Just don’t tell them that.) It just means they’re not a nobody. Using ‘crewman #4’ or ‘guard #2’ might work when rolling credits, but it’s kind of strange for a book. This is a work of fiction. That means ‘not real’. I don’t want to strain your brain; I just want to entertain you. Just sit back and enjoy. If you really feel like reading a book you have to memorize, try ‘Computations on Algebraic Numeration as Established for Metabolic Scientology’. (I don’t know if that’s a real book, it’s probably not, but if it is… to the author: you’re welcome for the PR.)

Third, writing this book doesn’t make me ‘worldly’ as opposed to ‘spiritual’ (for those of you who read my bio and said… ‘a preacher wrote this?’). As a matter of fact, we’re all here to enjoy the life our Creator gave us. If you created all the wonders of the universe and then added an intelligent species to experience it, wouldn’t you want them to enjoy it? Of course you would. If we follow the guidelines set down for us, we’ll find that life is eminently joyful. If we care for one another and build relationships with love, our lives will be filled with hope, joy, and love. And, while I don’t condone sex being a part of every relationship you have, I do advocate mutually fulfilling sexual intimacy between non-coerced, consenting adults. Just because I enjoy what I’ve been given does not mean I can’t be spiritual. If everyone who enjoyed any of the people, places, times, or circumstances of their lives were crossed off the spiritual list… Heaven would be a very lonely place.

And finally, yes, I love (and hate) cliffhangers. Unless it’s truly 100% THE END, I love knowing that there’s more on the way. I understand that when you get to the end and you’re left hanging, you scream, NO!!! I do, too. But, it just means we get to look forward to more. If the book ends with all the questions answered… who cares if another gets written or not? So, as long as I leave you hanging… you’ll know another installment is on the way. However, I’ve realized that I should probably write a brief synopsis book. In case I die. That way my children could publish it and you’ll at least have closure.

Okay, back to the book. I’ve had so much fun with these characters and have tried valiantly to write down their escapades for you. It seems, though, the more I write, the more they have to tell me. I think they like to surprise me as much as I enjoy surprising you with what they do. Take for instance in this book… the crew plans a field mission to go to a planet under cover of darkness to steal some meat and DNA. That, they told me. I wrote it down. But then they continued on and what they said next broke me up… but not as much as what they said after that! One of the other tenants in my building asked me how my book was going. He said he heard me laughing so hard he could hear me in the hall. It may have been that scene or one of many others.

I know there are people who’ve bought this book just for the sex scenes. But, if you talk with me about it, I’ll ramble on about what happens between those scenes. Their lives are important to me and I enjoy hearing their stories. Yes, the sex scenes are fun and it’s nice to watch them grow in intimacy. But, life is about so much more. I hope reading their stories helps you in some way in your own life. Even if it’s just to get away for a moment. But, who wants to hear an author ramble on? On with their stories…

PROLOGUE

(CHAPTER 25, BOOK 1)

*T.M.*

I gave the order to go to high orbit around the third planet and take more thorough sensor readings. These readings wouldn’t give us all the information we needed, but they’d allow us to know if it was safe enough to take a field team down. This would take us nearly six hours after arriving in high orbit. I chose sixteen possible crew for first field and notified them so they could rest until the final count was in. The final count would be myself, Mouse, and eight other crew, including two security.

The high orbit sensor sweeps showed the planet was nearly barren of life. There were areas which had some higher concentrations of animal life, but all life signs received were of lower level species. It appeared the animal life hadn’t evolved far enough for civilization. Therefore, we could choose our landing site by proximity to areas we wished to observe. There was vegetation and free-flowing water and the higher concentrations of life were gathered in those areas. All this information would help me decide our landing point.

A botanist, a zoologist, a geologist, three science assistants, two security, Mouse and myself would shuttle down. I informed the sixteen and told the eight to prep in Freedom’s prep room.

After the announcement was made for the field team composition, those chosen began to congregate in the prep room, gathering the items they’d be taking along. All of the items that were needed were gone over three times. When we were sufficiently prepped, we entered the causeway to the shuttle. There was extra crew to help store all the items so the shuttle was very crowded for a time.

When the excess crew had exited, the provisions were gone over one last time. The shuttle hatch sealed and the causeway retracted. The shuttle was launched. I chose coordinates on the planet that were near the mountainous zone on the eastern side of the northern continent where readings were high in silver and lead. It was also not far from a water source, but not close enough that I thought we’d scare off the indigenous life forms. The shuttle entered the atmosphere and we landed without incident.

We landed in the forested area in a clearing within a half klick of the mountain range to one side and free-flowing water within three quarters klick in the other direction. We took sensor readings while still within the shuttle and found the atmosphere to be near Earth quality. Actually, better since there was no smog. The only problem was the radiation. It was higher than I would’ve liked, but the scientists informed me that we should be okay for about twelve hours. The shuttle was little deterrent to the radiation so we needed to be off planet and back in the Aurorae within that time. I informed the team that they had eight hours to gather specimens and take thorough readings. I wanted to leave leeway in case of trouble.

We opened the hatch and began to set up outside the shuttle. The botanist, Desiree, was already busy taking samples and generally being a scientist. Not surprising, since even my scientific interest was roused by the similarities that were so different. It was like a mirror to Earth, but skewed. The trees looked like trees and the grass like grass, but the leaves and all the visible vegetation had a bluish hue while the water seemed to be tinted green. It was just enough off normal to be unnerving. I hoped the water, vegetation, and especially the animal life wouldn’t be unusable; we still needed to restock. It would probably depend upon how much radiation things here absorbed and whether we could neutralize it.

I left Desi to it and began assigning tasks. I assigned T.J. to stay with the shuttle while Whit, his assistant and I headed for the cliffs. I assigned Cupie to Desi and her assistant, Jermaine. Dr. Busri decided to tag along with my group since there were no nearby life signs of animals where we settled. They had most likely been spooked by the shuttle landing. I hoped they’d return for study before we had to depart. Mouse and Casey were assigned to his group and so the six of us slung the gear and started off.

As we walked through the trees we didn’t see or hear any movement. Our scanners picked up no life signs, however, they did show nesting areas. We almost certainly scared off the indigenous life as we landed. We neared the edge of the tree line and could see a plain between us and the mountain range. It shot straight up from the plain. There were no rolling hills leading up to it.

As we exited the tree line and approached the cliffs, Mouse saw movement near the base of the rocks off to the right. We trained our sensors on it and it seemed to be a warm-blooded biped. It disappeared into the rock face before we could get much on its physical construction. We followed cautiously. It seemed to have some fear of us, the way it darted away, but that didn’t mean everything would.

As we neared the cave entrance where it seemed to disappear, the sensors detected large traces of some type of life form, but at varying decay levels. Either this creature had traipsed in and out of this cave a dozen times in the last few hours, or there were more of them. More of them was more likely.

Busri wanted to pursue it immediately, but I had reservations. Something felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. My gut was telling me something was wrong. Maybe it was because this place looked so much like Earth, but the colors were off enough to make you think your eyes were playing tricks on you.

The mouth of the cave was about three meters high and so light shone a good ways in. But there was no sign of movement and no sounds emanating from the cave. The sensors hadn’t shown signs of civilization denoting intelligence. There weren’t any signs of violence around. But still, my gut wasn’t happy.

I had us fall back to the tree line and drop our supplies. Anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary for going in was repacked and covered. I wanted to travel light when we went in.

I called the shuttle and let them know where we were going in. T.J. responded that they’d seen what looked like a cross between a boar and a hippo amble by about sixty meters away in the opposite direction from where we headed. It was big, but didn’t seem to pay them any particular attention. I checked with Busri to see if he wanted to return, but he figured the animal would be long gone by the time he got there and most likely we’d see others upon our return. He preferred to follow the one we’d seen. I let T.J. know we’d make contact in half an hour. Then we grabbed the essentials and headed for the cave.

*Mouse*

My eyes are better at night than human’s but my day vision is nearly the same. So, when I saw the movement, I wasn’t able to get a good look at it before it disappeared. I only saw it because it was steel gray moving against the milky grey of the rock face. I worried more about training my sensor on it than trying to appraise it with my eyes. It didn’t give much more information than my eyes did. But it did tell us it was warm-blooded. That meant we weren’t following a rock monster, even if that’s what my eyes had told me it was.

When we arrived at the spot where I’d seen the creature, I estimated its height at around one and a quarter meters, judging this by the height of the rocks present and how much of it I had seen above them. It seemed to be alone, so Booboo thought it was probably an adult of the species. That was a relief, because if it was a child, the adults were likely to be much larger than us. I didn’t want a huge rock monster looming over me.

The cave entrance was at least three meters high and ample light entered the first section of the cave, We took readings and figured there must be more of them inside. After going back to the tree line to drop extra weight and only carry essentials, we returned to the cave and headed toward the back wall. T.M. said we didn’t know how many there were or how big they might be so we needed to be on high alert. For rock monsters? I was already on high alert.

The cavern was empty of life and as we neared the back wall it shrank to a tunnel a bit over two and a half meters high, still high enough for our whole group to walk upright and wide enough that we could all stand abreast. The light continued into the tunnel for another twenty meters and then we took out our flat lanterns. Only Whit didn’t pull his lantern, he continued to take readings as we went.

After another fifty meters with no contact the tunnel split. The decay signs were confusing at that point so T.M. decided to split us, three to a tunnel. He contacted T.J. and let him know what we were doing and where we were.

T.J. conveyed to us that birds had been sighted. He said they looked like bats because they appeared to have no feathers, just gray, leathery skin like the hippo-boar they’d seen, but that they had beaks and claws like birds.

The transmitter had static, but we were still able to understand it easily, which was strange at this depth into the rock and the lead content levels. T.M. thought there should’ve been more static or even no contact at all. T.M. acknowledged him and said we’d make a half hour foray in and try to contact him. If the com units didn’t work, we’d come back for contact so it may be an hour before next contact.

T.M. asked Whit why the communication seemed better than expected. Whit said the scanner detected some strange metals in the rock in this area, but it may or may not extend further into the cave. We may or may not have communication at various points inside. Then we split up and headed into our tunnels.

Booboo, Casey and I were assigned the left tunnel and proceeded down it. I told Booboo and Casey to keep their lights on and I’d switch over to sensor. Neither the walls nor the ceiling closed in on us, though it did gently slope down and have quite a few curves that, without the sensor, we wouldn’t’ve been able to tell we were moving constantly southerly. It remained a little over two meters high and about the same in width.

We’d been walking about twenty minutes with no changes and no contact. I hoped T.M.’s group was having better luck. I was thinking this wasn’t natural, that it had to be constructed, it remained too even, though the ground hadn’t been smoothed, when my sensor detected something unusual. I was trying to get the sensor to define it better when I realized it was a trip switch. I yelled, Stop!, but Busri was already bisecting the beams.

For a second there was no response. We stopped, listening and watching for something to happen. There were no alarms, no attack, nothing. Then we heard a rumbling behind us.

Booboo looked at me questioningly, Cave-in?

I looked at him for a second, listening, and realized it wasn’t rocks falling. No. Trap door. Run!

We turned and ran. It was two curves back, about fifty meters. We were coming around the second curve and could see the door, closing. We were still four meters away when it shut completely. If I hadn’t’ve let us pause to figure it out, we’d’ve made it.

*T.M.*

Whit, Ralph and I headed down the right hand tunnel. After about five minutes the tunnel started to get shorter and more downward sloping, in some places quite steeply. The walls remained at a fairly steady width. The ceiling got lower until it was nearly brushing our heads. But we were still able to walk upright so it didn’t slow our progress. There were no anomalies, no openings, no signs of habitation, just rock and more rock.

A little more than fifteen minutes in we stopped abruptly. The tunnel ended at a pit that was full of bones and other items which we couldn’t tell right off what they were. But the amount of bones in the pit was astounding. Some of them were nearly twice as long as my arm and almost as thick. Whatever animal had those bones was large. It didn’t just wander in here, fall in the pit and die. Something killed it. And the fact that the bones were visible, not buried deep, meant that those creatures were most likely still roaming the planet along with its killer.

T.J. and the group still at the shuttle landing area hadn’t seen anything that large by the time we entered the tunnels, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t run into them by now. The next question was… who or what had killed it, and where were they now?

I tried calling T.J. while Whit and Ralph continued examining the area. All I could get was static. Not open air which would mean I connected but no one was answering. I tried Mouse. Same results. Whit had told us we may not have contact as we moved father into the caves, so the inability to make contact didn’t surprise me, but those bones worried me.

It had been only a little over twenty minutes, just under ten to go for check-in. Mouse may not have had reason to use her com and may not know it wouldn’t work. Then again, it might be this tunnel jamming it and hers might work.

No, that was highly unlikely and I was going to start assuming the worst. Her com won’t work and, since this was a dead end tunnel, she was walking right into whatever threw these bones here. We had to go, now. I told Whit and Ralph to finish up, we were leaving. If we had time, we’d come back and they could get more readings.

I have some interesting readings already, T.M. It seems there’s another exit to this pit area on the other side, under the pile of bones. This side of the wall is sheared… not naturally, and the walls seem to have been purposefully widened. Ralph was lying down, hanging over the edge of the pit and was looking at his sensor as he spoke to me.

Whit was standing about two meters from the pit, facing back the way we’d come. I was so surprised by the pit I didn’t initially notice the tunnel got higher again, just before this point. And these readings show that the ground in the tunnel has been filled in with loose rock, probably from excavating the pit area. I didn’t notice it before because it was all the same rock. I just figured they hadn’t finished clearing it. But by adding Ralph’s information with this, it appears as if someone was trying to keep something fairly large on that side of the tunnel and out of this one.

So they made the tunnel smaller and harder to get to as a barrier? That was no comfort to me. If the creatures on this side, who could kill something with bones as large as some of those in the pit, were afraid of the things on the other side… I certainly did not want to run into the other things.

Hmmm. Yes. I would say that seems to be a good conclusion for this evidence. Whit seemed more curious than concerned. I shook my head. Sometimes scientists were the oddest people.

We have to go. I had us running back up the tunnel. Running on the loose rock slowed us some and we also had to jog up the slopes now instead of bounding down them. Still, we made slightly better time going out than coming in.

*Mouse*

We looked for any way to open the door. There seemed to be no lever or handhold to pry it open.

I tried contacting T.M. and got nothing but static. The same happened when I tried the shuttle. I knew the door was a little more than twenty minutes into the tunnel. But we could only hope that T.M.’s group heard the rumbling and would come back to investigate. Since the door had a trip beam that couldn’t be bypassed, there must be a switch of some type to open it.

We started back down the tunnel hoping to find the release mechanism on this side of the trip beam. I wondered how a species that didn’t appear to have higher intelligence could create this. There was no other technology apparent on the planet. At least none our sensors detected. Even my sensor hadn’t fully detected the trip beam from less than half a meter away. I concluded that the technology wasn’t theirs and if they could find a mechanism to open the door, so could we.

I was wondering if a subterranean culture of higher intelligence that we couldn’t sense with our equipment was still present. If so, we needed to depart ASAP. Interacting with a sentient, civilized species without prior authorization was against regulations.

As we turned the final corner before the place where we tripped the door, we heard something coming up the tunnel.

We still had our stun pistols out and started backing up. Around the next corner came creatures that looked like the one we followed, only bigger There wasn’t much space above their heads and the two of them together were almost three quarters of the tunnel wide. Their skin appeared to be made of rock, but my sensor showed it wasn’t rock… very dry, dense, and leathery, but still organic.

I was hoping the sensor could make out some of the words the creatures were saying, if they were indeed words, but it had no information to compare it to.

The creatures saw us and immediately started what looked like bowing. They’d touch their heads and then their chests and bob their heads nearly to the floor. It seemed like they wanted to let us know they wouldn’t hurt us. I got no clear sense of their emotions, but what I could sense was telling me they wanted us to like them. Like children finding a new animal and wanting it to like them. Putting out their hands and cooing. Only their ‘cooing’ shook our whole bodies.

They moved slowly toward us still bent over, I held my stun pistol in front of me and told them to stop. They paused looked at me. Then they began the touching and bowing again and then continued forward, slowly.

Suggestions? I asked the others. Booboo? You’re the zoologist.

Booboo responded, That they didn’t rush up and attack is a good sign. They seem to be curious about us and want to find out what we are. But the motions they’re making seem to be submissive type behavior. They’re not displaying aggressive posturing. I’d say they were nervous and a bit afraid of us. We probably look just as strange to them as they look to us.

Casey? I needed a second opinion. Busri didn’t seem concerned at all, just interested.

I think I’d have to agree with Dr. Busri. It seems like they want us to not hurt them and are trying to tell us they won’t hurt us. Gods, did these things not creep either of the scientific people out? My whole being was revolted by them.

I don’t know. I don’t think they fear us but they do seem to be curious. I have a strange feeling though. Don’t let your guard down and we’ll see where this goes. We didn’t have any other choice, the door was shut behind us.

The creatures continued forward, bowing and supplicating until they were within arms length. There they stopped. Arm’s length for them was longer than arm’s length for us so they didn’t invade our personal space and trigger fight or flight alarms in us.

The larger of the two reached out and touched my shoulder with one finger. I flinched, but then tried to stand my ground. The bony protrusions he had on all his joints, including his fingers, made me nervous, but I didn’t want to overreact and start an incident if it wasn’t warranted.

When he drew his arm back he started muttering to the other one. The sounds they made set my bones to vibrating and my skull’s shaking was beginning to rattle my brain. It felt like I was spinning in circles. My reflexes seemed slow and my thoughts were getting muddled. I was trying to stay at high alert while I felt like I wouldn’t be able to figure out what two plus two was.

The first creature lifted his hand again and drew the pads of his fingers down my face and continued down my chest. He plucked at my shirt. It seemed he wasn’t sure what it was. The other one reached out and plucked at it as well. Their confusion over a simple garment seemed to amuse Casey. She let out a small giggle and quickly covered it.

They muttered again. I wished they’d stop muttering because my head was getting very fuzzy from it. It was like a low, vibrating drone. If we were on the ship, in a relaxed atmosphere, it’d probably feel good. But we were in an unknown situation and we needed to be able to think straight. I kept recording everything on the sensor for further study. I just hoped the physical vibrations they set off with their vocalizations weren’t messing up the scanner as much as they were my head.

The first one reached up to me again and continued his exploration of me all the way down to my boots. I wasn’t very happy when he felt my breasts and between my legs and each time swatted at his arm. It was like swatting a huge piece of sandsheet. The creature completely ignored, or didn’t understand, the fact that I didn’t like what he was doing.

I examined them visually as they stood in front of us. Their leathery skin draped in folds over them and looked like they were made of rock. They didn’t appear to be wearing any type of clothing. They had spiny protrusions at each of their joints. Even the spines looked like they were made of rock. I usually don’t expect rocks to move about like these did or speak to each other, so that was also a bit disconcerting. I felt like Alice down the rabbit hole.

The one touching me pulled back and muttered something else to his companion. Then he touched Booboo the same as he had me while the other touched Casey. I could tell she was creeped out like I had been so I motioned her to remain calm. I shuddered remembering their touch, but they hadn’t hurt me. It seemed Booboo and Casey were right, the creatures weren’t aggressive.

When they finished, they turned to each other and rumbled some more. Then, moving so quick it was a blur, the first one reached up and snapped Booboo’s neck. So much for not being aggressive. As Booboo fell to the ground I shot the creature.

CHAPTER 1

*Ship Logs*

"Shuttle log, Tyrone Ruso reporting. It’s been thirty minutes and there’s been no communication from the teams that went out. The captain did say that we may not hear from them for an hour. But some of the things we’ve sighted here are beginning to make me nervous. So far they haven’t paid us any attention. They may not see us as a threat or as a food source, but it seems they should at least be curious about something strange in their territory. The looks of the plants and trees and the apparent disinterest of the animal life is setting my nerves on edge.

"I’m going to start preparing for worst case. I’d have to grab the team outside and get them in and take off. Cupie, sorry… Quella would be furious for leaving the other two teams, but I have to ensure the safety of the shuttle and the team here. She has rank on me so I’ll need to discuss this with her before it becomes time to act.

"If we’re safe and the other two teams need assistance, I don’t know whether I should bring Jermaine or leave him here with Desiree. He’d be a help in the rescue party, but that would mean leaving Desiree here alone, since Quella would certainly be going along. Desiree could remain in the shuttle and await our return, but she’s a scientist and with nothing threatening us here, she may feel safe enough to go out and continue her explorations. I’m not even sure leaving Jermaine here would keep her in the shuttle.

"We haven’t seen anything that’s been aggressive towards us, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be. We’ve seen animals of various sizes, but they all seem to have the same type of skin. It seems strange they’d all have the same type of skin. Is it the environment or the strange radiation? I’ll have Desiree look into it. She’d rather be looking at the plants, but we need information.

When the next thirty minutes is up, if there’s still no contact, I’ll have to choose who goes to find the other members of our group.

*T.M.*

The tunnel seemed longer on the way out than on the way in. The thirty minute warning went off and I ignored it. Then I thought we may be far enough out to communicate with the shuttle or Mouse’s team. Still jogging, I pulled out my com and tried T.J. No response. I tried Mouse as well, just in case. No response there either.

Just a couple of minutes later we heard a low rumble. We stopped to listen and judge where it was. It wasn’t very loud and we couldn’t place a direction for it. I asked Whit if there might’ve been a cave-in. He acknowledged the possibility, but thought it was too steady a sound and had clean start and stop sounds. He said the closest thing he could guess for it would be a door. But it didn’t recur. He thought a door that opened would then shut. For it to happen just once was a puzzle. Not to me. I hoped Mouse had found a door and opened it, but my gut said she was shut in behind it.

We continued on. Just over five minutes later we reached the point where we’d split. We’d been able to call T.J. from here, so I did.

I let him know what we’d found and surmised and told him to keep a sharp eye out I told him what we thought Mouse may be walking into and that she had more than a half hour head start on us.

I instructed him to get the gear packed, the scientists secured and shuttle closed. Then he and Cupie should start heading this way and take the left tunnel if we hadn’t reached the entrance to it before them.

T.J. informed me of the creatures they’d seen, that they didn’t seem curious and all of them had the scaly, leathery skin. I didn’t have time to think about that at the moment. I acknowledged him and signed off.

Then we set off down the tunnel at a run.

*Mouse*

My shot hit the creature in the upper right chest and seemed to have no effect. I didn’t get a second shot off because he backhanded me in the side, knocking my arm across my chest and sending my stunner flying.

Everything happened in a millisecond after that. I watched my stunner bounce off the wall and felt his hand roll over to land flat on my back and follow the momentum of my body as it spun to push me facedown on the ground. I could feel the gashes in my arm and side where his spines had torn through my uniform and into me. I could feel the weight of his hand on my back. His hand was nearly as large as my whole torso. I grabbed for my stunner but it was out of reach.

I turned my head to look at Casey to see if she was doing any better. She was pressed flat to the ground as well, but she was face up. She still had her pistol and was repeatedly firing it but it had no more effect than a toy zap gun.

The creature over her was feeling between her legs and then turned his hand over and with the spiny protrusion on the back of his finger, ripped the crotch of her uniform open.

As he bent down and pressed his body between her legs, she screamed. That scream would’ve made the hair on my back stand straight up, if I’d had any left.

I turned back, frantically trying to reach the stunner I knew was out of reach. I felt the crotch of my uniform tear and struggled to move my body just enough to grab my weapon and the creature pressed down harder on my back. I heard at least two of my ribs break. It suddenly became hard to breathe.

I was Command, I would not stop trying. My crew was in peril, I had to help. I tried stretching my neck in the direction of my weapon trying to make my arm just that little bit longer. It was still too far and the creature responded by knocking my head down and crushing it into the ground. I felt the rocks bite into my face and prayed he wouldn’t crush my head. Then he wrenched my legs apart with his, finished ripping open the crotch of my uniform, bent down, and shoved himself into me. My prayer changed.

*Ship Logs*

"Crewman two Ruso, reporting to shuttle’s log. The captain has been in touch and issued orders.

"I’ve informed Quella, Desiree, and Jermaine we were to pack up and secure the shuttle. I had no answer for their questions other than ‘Captain’s orders’. All the evidence we had left us with no answers, only questions and worries. I didn’t want to scare them to the point that Jermaine would insist on helping with the rescue and leave Desiree unattended, even if she was locked in the shuttle.

"Desiree and Jermaine had trapped a couple of the smaller animals for Booboo, sorry, Dr. Busri, and I’ll have to contemplate whether it would be a good idea to have them in the shuttle while Quella and I are gone. Their noises may draw predators, even if they hadn’t so far.

And if the captain has concerns, we all should.

*Mouse*

I heard a terrifying howl and realized it was coming from me. His sex organ, I’m guessing that’s what it was, was like a huge, round, dirty, steel file being rammed up inside me. I thought he was going to split me right in half and prayed my skull would be crushed before I