Moon Fall
Chatper 3 - Ripples on the Surface

There was a beep sound and a red light blinked on his desk.

Sitting down he pressed it and put the collar back on.

“Yes?”

The screen slipped out of the desk again and an pudgy round mid forties face of a man he’d never met before. The name Professor Charles Gillespie was suddenly very familiar. He was a geologist, a professor of tectonics that went rogue a few years ago. By rogue meaning he set up a private dome near the equatorial line where the sands and the storms were at their weakest but at the limit of where many domes could be constructed. Most of his facility was underground, and he’d been vacant from all the science symposiums for the last five or so years. Something seemed wrong though, but Peiter wasn’t sure what it could be.

“Doctor Gillespie” Was all he could think to say.

“Yes, yes... I’m very aware of the time.” he said to somebody out of view of the screen.

Peiter frowned and ran a finger under the desk activating a silent channel overseer program. Another screen appeared to his right and it showed a diagram of the room the doctor was in. The program looped visual light signals through the recorder and sent a slight almost untraceable pulse into a room of the originating signal and that was turned into a rendering of the surroundings. There was no one else in the room, and the room was fairly small. Strange objects that appeared to be books were strewn across the floor. The image flickered for a second.

“No.” The doctor said, turning his face to the screen.”No, peeping.”

The sign image vanished, and Peiter could not bring up the image from the buffers.

“What do you want Doctor, people have been trying to get a hold of you for quiet some time. If I’m not mistaken you’ve cut off all ties with the local government, why are you contacting me?”

“You’ll see, you’ll see. Wanted to warn you.” The man was sweating badly, and his pupils seemed to dilate off and on as he spoke.

Peiter leaned in. “Doc... Charles. What’s going on?”

The twitching stopped suddenly. Dr. Charles Gillespie’s eyes focused on Peiter. “You... you know. I know you know, or you think you know. Sheila said you’d thought about it, she told me your dreams. Dreams of the water.”

Peiter’s breath caught in his chest. “Charles, Sheila’s been dead for...”

“No, not that. She told me, she told me about the.... The Coral, the silt, all of it. I worked with her.”

Gillespie had been a member of several rig assignments back in the early days so it was probably backed up in records that they’d worked together. It wasn’t a surprise just more of a surprise that this was the mention of Sheila twice in more than a day.

“Charles I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me.”

“I found it. The white... the white... white in white... they’re starting to come up. I see them clearly now, in everything.”

White in white... that’s what they called the glow from the white water. The water was clear, but when you shook it up it glowed off white. When whitewater was drilled at first it glowed, but then settled into a clear bubble from the surface.

“Doctor, have you been consuming pure whitewater? How? You can’t get...”

“I dug a hole.” The man giggled.

Besides being unable to take whitewater outside of the planets atmosphere the closer to the equatorial line you got the less whitewater you found, and as most of the rigs moved north or south towards that line they found they had to drill deeper and deeper to get it. Eventually no more drilling was necessary so they stopped drilling at new sights.

Gillespie was saying he’d drilled and come across a pocket of whitewater near the equatorial line.

“But doctor that’s amazing, we didn’t think the water...”

“Shh! Not about water, about blood, about white in the white...” He mashed his fingers together intertwining them

Peiter cleared his throat as best he could. “Doctor, what do you want? I can contact the president if you’d like, get a team out there to help..”

“No! No time. White things... white lines... they come out... they sing... you will see.”

“Doctor... we’ve never tested whitewater those close to the line before, if you’re drinking a water/solution mixture instead of water there could be ill...”

“But not now, soon . You’ll see. Sheila saw. Once, she saw. Deep Nine, very deep, gone now, but she saw. Told me.” The man fidgeted for a bit turning away from the screen again and again. “Peiter can replace, Peiter can see. That’s what she said. Peiter will replace it, he knows.”

“Charles, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Peiter ran his hands over the screen on the desk and activated a few windows to pop up. There was a white flash storm growing pretty intense around the doctors location. He almost did a double take at what the computer said the intensity was. It was one of the strongest storms recorded. Why hadn’t he heard about this? He brought up other windows.

“Doctor, I’m going to get a evacuation shuttle out there.”

“Peiter, it’s too late.” Charles said, his voice suddenly very calm. A loud thump resounded around him carried through the audio receptors. “There’s something I have to tell you.” He didn’t speak, but the voice he heard then made his jaw fall.

Sheila’s voice.

“Peiter, listen. It’s happening. We have to leave, we have to go. Please, you and me.”

Peiter’s face grew red. “Doctor, where did you get that recording.”

It was a recording of the last message he’d received from Sheila before she...

“Please, we have to go. I can feel it. I can feel it all around. It... I don’t want it... don’t wake.... don’t” And the audio had cut out, but this message went on. “don’t let it wake, not yet. Please Peiter, we have to stop it or we have to leave, please Peiter... please...”

“Where did you get that?” he shouted, his demeanor lost. His voice crackled under the collar.

“Old, old times, Sheila left it. I saved it. I sent, I sent it like she wanted. Now time to go.”

The drumming sound grew louder. The storm.

“Charles! Get to cover! I’m sending a team to get you.”

“Too late for Charles, too late for everyone but you. Sheila told me about your dreams Peiter. I didn’t trust her, not till she told me. Not till today. She misses you.” The screen flashed and a loud sound resonated before the signal was cut off.

Peiter slammed a fist on the table and called up an emergency evacuation team. Within twenty minutes he was on the shuttle launch pad in full reinforced exosuit.

A shuttle commander came up with a data-pad. “Sir, the storm is too strong. I can not get clearance to...”

Taking the data-pad he enacted several protocols and handed back the pad. “Commander, get your team on-board now.” The commanders eyes went wide and he nodded. The shuttle took off within five minutes.

It took two hours for the shuttle to arrive at the destination, the storm had peaked and was now moving on. In the distance he could see a deep crevice and as the shuttle touched down he could feel the shift of the sands under the ship.

“Sir, we can’t get any closer.”

“Drop a skiff commander and tether me. That’s an order.”

The commander nodded and the five men crew set up the ground tether to his suit and deployed a small boat like object called a skiff. He hadn’t used a skiff in years. The controls handle changed though.

As the hatch opened and the Coral sands whipped around the opening the commander’s voice called back warningly. “Winds are up to fifty miles per sir, the skiff is rated for seventy, if the winds pick up...”

“I know, you’ll be pulling back a shredded husk. I know what I’m doing commander. I cap at a level five on my physicals.”

Peiter wasn’t sure if it was the collar or his age but he’d recently been noticing people treating him as someone with a debilitation or handicap.

He gripped the skiffs controls and the small eight foot long oval disc covered itself with a clear glass coating protecting him from the winds and like a fish it dove into the sands and surfaced a few feet away, the metal woven whitewater coral tether was strapped to his waist but it made the skiff look like a lure at the end of a fishing line.

The skiff floating over the sands and accelerated towards the crater. He sat back and guided the skiff along with the current of the sands until he crested where the dome had been. Pushing the controls the skiff descended into the crater as the white sands washed overhead dampening the light.

Exterior lighting showed the dome had been swept away leaving just the walls and they were starting to vanish. Sonic depth scans showed the hard coral had been dug out into a several areas and he dove the skiff into the loose sands. He found hallway and followed it for a while until it opened into and unfilled passage. Scans of the area showed three rooms and no breaks from above. This was all that was left of the facility Dr. Gillespie had once lived in. There were signs of life.

The glass slid back and he stepped over the controls onto the floor. The outer temperature of the hall was warm, but decreasing as the domes heat sources had been cut off and though the white water lights could still be seen to glow dimly in their tubes, this whole place would be returning to the Coral and sands within a matter of hours. He didn’t have much time left.

He advanced down the hallway and came to two doors on either side. Pulling a three foot metal rod from the back of his suit he pressed the flat knife like edge of the smaller end into the crack in the door and wedged the door open. The hydroponics of the door were gone, motionless, but with the right force the doors opened slowly.

This was a study, the room was covered in paper. Pictures of the solar system, Whitehome, and it’s two moons. Someone had gutted the room of electronics and filled it with covered walls and ceilings of pictures and equations. The whitewater lights had been removed and the door pads had been broken. Under the papers he ran a finger and found the walls had been painted with some kind of powdery substance. He scraped a bit off into a vial and returned it to his suit. He wasn’t a scientist, not like Gillespie but he know all of this was going to vanish soon so he set his private scanner to copy everything in the room. He pulled out a silver ball and it into the air and it stopped half way through the room and started to glow.

This was old Earth tech, not many people still used it.

It followed him around as he looked at papers and alcoves looking for anything that popped out at him.

“Sir, we’re detecting a fusion device...”

“Doc Gillespie had an old atmospheric reclamator. That’s probably how he got his water.”

“That’s old tech, too bad it’s too far down, it could be a museum piece.” The commander commented.

It was a lie, they were reading his scanner but he wasn’t going to let them know that. Alexi would already be informed of the use of executive orders that he had been granted by the president in case of emergencies. The orders were several years old and Peiter had never used them but they still were active. Alexi must have forgotten. The orders were in case something happened to Sheila. It would get his attention, and he’d have to answer for their use when he got back.

“Sir... we’re receiving a message from Dome Command.”

Peiter cursed and muted his communications. Alexi knew.

“Sir, we’re getting a callback order.”

Turning the audio back on Peiter grit his teeth. “Commander, unless you plan on retracting the tether and ripping me through these walls, I’d suggest you delay those orders until I am done.”

“Sir, it’s a code 1 order. I can’t...”

“Commander. I have two more rooms to check.” He had to buy himself some time.

He closed his eyes and pulled off the helmet.

There was a shouting sound that came from the helmet in his left hand as the commander was probably having a fit. Without his helmet they couldn’t tether him back. He’d have to put his helmet back on, get back into the skiff or be taken out by other crew and since his skiff was parked right in the hallway there was no other entrance. So it was his choice to leave when he decided to.

He braced himself and let out his breath and took a small breath in. The air was dry and at first he caught something in his throat that almost made him put the helmet back on.

“Sir! Sir! Can you hear me?” he could hear the Commander shout through the coms.

“I’m good Commander, the air is still passable here. Stand by.”

“...Order... “ Peiter turned the audio off and stepped out of the room, the scanner following behind him filling the room with greenish blue light as it hummed away digitizing images of everything around him. Dust caught in his lungs and he coughed again but he managed to pry open the second door.

Inside this room every electronic advancement was removed but several tables were set up and it looked like someone was studying whitewater. Some of the tubes glowed.

As he entered the room he noticed something in one of the larger tanks off to the side. It was a human sized tank and it was filled with a yellowish liquid. On the side was a written notepad. He pulled it off and read what he could. Several kinds of earth based nutrients and radioactive isotopes had been mixed. The test was to see how whitewater reacted when this solution was injected into a pure sample of whitewater.

There was a faucet at the bottom and a small cup.

Peiter did two things. He viled several tubes of the solution and filled the cup with a small amount. The cup was made from tin, on it’s own it would cost a good amount as few tin objects were left in use.

Turning to the table he found papers strewn across and around bottles of whitewater with the black lettering of dates on each one. Several spots at the end of the table were covered with broken glass and black dried powder like ash. The closest bottle was about two feet tall and he uncapped it and poured the solution into the bottle.

At first nothing happened. The white water seemed to eat up the yellow tint and he could barely see the solution mix. At first it was like oil, it sat at the top of the bottle, but after a few seconds it seemed to seep down and desolve into the clear liquid.

Then he saw something... like a tail or a strange current in the bottle. White tendrils began to form like hairs in water flowing from side to side. He capped the bottle quickly as the white tendrils seemed to grows and fill the bottle. He stepped back, the white tendrils glowed like the whitewater and they shook together as if they were trying to escape. The lengths of the white strange seemed to glitter like diamonds, he wanted to reach the bottle, touch it. They were all free floating there was no center mass to them but they all flowed lengthwise along the bottle, like hair floating in water, shifting in a current.

The bottle shifted abruptly leaning towards him and he yanked his hand back. The jar shook violently, the top of the lid seemed to dent a few times as if the tendrils were trying to escape, then the jar burst. The tendrils blackened and there was a sizzling sound and a smell... a sickeningly sweet smell that caused him to almost vomit was immited. He had to run out of the room before he knew it he was trying to pry the door closed. He could still smell it, that strangely sickening scent. He felt covered in it, like something was coating him. It felt wrong, sick. His head swam as he slid down to the floor, his hand running through loose coral sands.

He shook his head, fighting back the swimming feeling. It was then that he realized he’d dropped the helmet back in the room. He picked himself up, still having a hard time breathing with the tainted feeling creeping up on him. He eyed the skiff and the door. The rod laying on the floor at his feet.

He picked it up and turned away and walked down the hallway. To the door at the end of the hallway.

This door was harder to open, he didn’t know if the air in the ruined underground area was getting thin or if it was the effects of what he’d done with the bottle but he felt weak. He put all of his remaining strength into getting the door open and when the door cracked there was a hissing sound, air burst through and he fell to his knees. It was so sweet, he breathed it in instinctively. There was light from the crack and he hurried to open it.

He got to his feet and growled as he pushed the door open.

Standing in front of the bright light emitted from the room he covered his eyes.

The room was circular and in the center was a large funnel like hole, a deep drilling laser hung from the vaulted ceiling. This was earth tech at it’s oldest. It was deactivated and the light wasn’t coming from above but from below.

Whitewater bubbled up in a glowing rush, but there was no sound. He couldn’t hear anything.

He saw the tendrils again, they sprouted from the hole and waved in the air, turning grown at the tips as they hit the air but strengthened by the connection to the white water they dove down again and reemerged.

A curled tendril of them curled into a larger strand and swept towards him, and he couldn’t move. It was like a moth staring into a flame, he wanted to move forward. He reached out for it. Inches away he felt it’s warmth pulsing around him. It felt as if his skin was ebbing caressed as he wrapped around his hands and arms and upper body. The glinting diamond specks felt hard at first but then felt warm and he felt energized. He felt himself growing warmer and warmer.

Suddenly there was a strange tug at his waste and a humming sound could be heard.

He was yanked, his breath escaping his body as he shot backwards, his hands and feet flailing all around. He kept his eyes on the white tendrils that waved back and forth and he screamed. He shouted as loud as he could but he felt himself slammed against the skiffs seat, the glass cover closing over him.

He wanted out, he wanted out but the skiff pulled back and he slammed his head against the controls and everything went black.

He woke several hours later just as the shuttle set down and he was removed and sent to the medical district. He was sedated as soon as he was pulled out of the shuttle and he only guessed at where he was going, but he saw Alexi staring down at him, a strange look on his face.