The Void

CHAPTER 29

“Sam, Monroe, Franks, with me.” Alex looked at Russell. “And going to need your expertise as well, Mister Burrows.”

“Me?” Russell Burrows’ mouth dropped open.

“You bet. It’s your bus,” Casey sneered.

“Everyone else, once we go through that door, lay flat on the ground,” Alex said — no one needed to ask why.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Sam asked, rolling huge shoulders.

“We ask nicely.” Alex readied himself. “Once.” He reached out a hand to the door-locking button. He held up three fingers, counting them down. Then he punched it.

Alex went in first to the bay area of the Orlando shuttle. The mist here was thicker inside than out.

Sam was beside him and the NASA engineer was nervously trying to see around one of the enormous HAWC’s armored shoulders. Alex saw that the Russians had sealed the rip in the side of the craft using metal rods and spare panels and all lashed together with cable. They were obviously intent on keeping something out.

Alex held up a hand, and the HAWCs stopped to stare. The three hulking men all had their backs turned and were gathered around something at the rear of the bay area.

“What the fu…” Casey pointed her RG3, but Alex waved it down.

“Wait here.”

Alex eased up behind the men and saw they were fixated on some sort of long, dark rock. He immediately felt the warmth coming off it, and it made his skin tingle — radiation.

He leaned toward Russell. “Mister Burrows, stay back. There’s radiation coming off this thing. Our suits will give us some protection, yours won’t.”

Russell fumbled a small Geiger counter from his pack, and held it up. “This must be it; the asteroid fragment that the Orlando crew recovered from space. I remember…” His voice fell away for a moment, as his mind probably took him back to the event. He pointed to toward the long rock. “I remember watching them grab it from space. We expected it to be radioactive. But it’s tolerable, for a while. Wouldn’t want to stay to close for too long, but we’re okay for now.” He lowered his arm. “Recovering this was the last thing they did.”

Sam nodded. “Just before everything went to shit.”

“Yes.” Russell waved his hand in front of himself, making the fog swirl. “This has got to be where the gas is emanating from. Whatever is inside that space rock, it’s reacting with the Earth’s atmosphere, oxidizing somehow, and creating a chemical imbalance and biological reaction.” He craned forward and his brows pulled together. “What the hell is that?”

Alex turned, but the three Russians seemed to close ranks even more. Whatever was inside was more important to the Russians than worrying about the HAWCs.

“Hey, step aside,” Alex demanded.

Sam came and stood at his shoulder. “You heard the man, step the hell aside.”

One of the Russians turned; his totally dark eyes seemed to swim as if he was drugged. Sam stepped up, grabbed his shoulder and tugged him back a step. The Russian seemed in a trance, and even though Sam had pulled him back another few feet, he just turned once again to the rock.

“They’ve zoned out.” Sam looked down at the rock, and then staggered back. “What the hell?”

Alex felt his skin crawl. The surface of the dark purplish rock glittered with some sort of crystalline composition, but there was a rent in its side, and a cavity where within its depths something throbbed with a revolting life. It looked like a giant blob of mucus-covered jelly.

“Looks like a freaking brain,” Sam said and lifted his weapon.

The biggest of the Russians, Zlatan he had said his name was, spun, and then stepped in front of Sam. “No!”

Alex looked from the blob to the Russian. The huge man stared, large eyes now almost lidless. His other men still stood staring down at the glistening blob of jelly, as if its rhythmic beating transfixed them.

Alex pointed with his gun. “What is it?”

“I, I don’t know.” The Russian shrugged massive lumped shoulders. “I can’t explain. But it’s calling to us.”

“Calling to you? To do what?” Sam asked.

Zlatan turned his huge browed forehead. “To join with it…” He shook his head slowly. “It sings.” He lapsed into silence.

Russell tried to edge closer, but found it difficult to move past the Russians. He settled for holding out a long slim probe. We waved aside the gas that was rising from it. “I think this is also where the mold is coming from. It’s the source of both the atmosphere change and the growth.” He indicated where the slime-coated cavity was spilling some of its contents to the floor.

“Looks like we found our genesis point,” Alex said.

Casey snorted. “This shuttle crashed less than three days ago. And already this crap has spread over several miles. What in the world grows like that?”

Russell retreated a few steps. “Well actually, some molds can spread below forest floors for hundreds of miles.” He turned back. “But you’re right, nothing at all spreads at this rate.” He looked up. “On this world anyway.”

Alex grunted. “It’s affecting everything and everyone here that’s been exposed to it.” He looked again at Zlatan, and then at the fragment. “We need to destroy it.”

Zlatan and his men spun then, and stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a wall of flesh in front of it.

Sam lowered his brow. “Seems our new buddies might have a problem with that.”

Casey pointed at them. “And I have a fucking problem with them.”

“We just want the satellite data.” Alex looked at each of the hulking, deformed men — they seemed even bigger and more monstrous. He was still prepared to take them on, but knew now there’d be a good chance his team could get a tear in their suits, and end up exposed like the Russians.

Zlatan continued to stare with his lidless black eyes. “They’ll be coming back soon.”

Alex looked to the makeshift barriers over the hole in the bay area wall. “You’ve sealed them out.”

“We put a few holes in them,” said Casey. “They’ll think twice about trying anything again soon.”

“They haven’t gone anywhere,” Zlatan said. He pointed to a pile of bones and cloth material heaped in the corner. “Because this is their home.”

Alex saw the wads of insulating foam rubber, soiled and torn spacesuit material, and other debris, and he knew Zlatan was right.

Alex felt the urgency burning inside him. “We just want the…”

Zlatan turned away from him, staring toward the makeshift barrier. “And now, you have only minutes before they return.”

“Oh god.” Russell started to edge back toward the door to the command cabin. “We need to leave.”

“Boss, we can’t fight ’em all.” Sam kept his eyes on the Russians. “Live to fight another day.”

The buzzing in Alex’s head grew louder, more insistent. The Russians parted slightly and Sam made a guttural sound in his throat. “Ah… that thing.” He lifted his arm in front of his face to shield it.

Alex turned to the meteorite fragment and grimaced. The foul, pulsating sack inside quivered slightly. He could feel a tingling running through his stomach and tickling in his head — he didn’t like it.

“Let’s get out of here; that thing is giving off some sort of wave-like pulse and it’s giving me the creeps.”

Casey pointed with two fingers at the throbbing entity. “We should just fucking destroy—” She abruptly stopped and a bewildered look came over her. “What did I…?”

The weird buzzing deep inside Alex’s head rose to become like a blizzard of noise. He turned to Casey, and was about to ask what she meant, when he simply… forgot.

He gritted his teeth, blocking it out. Sam was right; if they engaged, they’d struggle just to take down the Russians. But what if the Morg decided to bust in while they were locked in? They wouldn’t survive being attacked by both groups.

Alex pointed at Zlatan. “Enjoy the satellite data while you can.” He started to back toward the door. “You aren’t going home anyway.”

Alex and the team crept out, as Zlatan and his men turned back to the glowing asteroid fragment. Alex paused to watch them for a moment; the frightening thing was Zlatan had said the weird blob had sung to him.

Now Alex could hear it too.