Alpha 5 has no axial tilt to speak of and consequently has no real seasons, if you ignored the astronomical phenomenon known as ‘Light-out’, that is. But there were slight variations in average temperature over time during the Alphane year. Today was what passed for a warm summer day!
Marta was with Han in the impact crater known as Carl Sagan minor, ten kliks from the Dome. Carl Sagan was about five kliks across, quite small by A5 standards. It seemed immeasurably ancient to the children, but was probably no more than 50,000 years old. The children were there to do a survey of the feature, using ground penetrating radar and the good old-fashioned geological hammer…! Han’s other specialism was planetary geomorphology, so he was taking the lead on this mission. Marta was to take soil samples to assist her with her research on climate change on Alpha 5, but her main responsibility was security. She carried the rifle and scanned the surrounding territory…

Carl Sagan was filled with a low, ground hugging variety of the ubiquitous pods…except for an area near the South rim which lay in permanent shadow. These pseudo-plants differed from the larger tree-like structures in that they were a pale maroon colour, rather than the deeper purple of the bigger plants. Marta thought they reminded her of the coral reefs she’d seen in documentaries and lesson materials provided by Mission AI, as the plants were formed of thousands of small tubes pressed close together…but this particular reef was above water…!
But mainly she was glad that the low growth would provide no cover for a lurking ‘crusty’ to sneak up on them…Marta felt she could relax and bask in Alpha’s orange sunlight. After a while she found herself gazing up at the lilac sky. The colour of Alpha B even at its zenith was rather similar to a video she had seen of sunset on Earth. As the star sank this would deepen to red, and take on a purplish hue just before sunset.

The other thing you noticed immediately when Out, was the smell…a fragrant aroma which she couldn’t identify, but which Six Gee had told her was like something called ‘cinnamon’. Gee said that the scent came from the untold billions of spores released by the pods as part of their reproductive cycle. As A5 had no seasons this process went on almost constantly… Nurse Gee had told the children that the atmosphere was safe, there being no evidence of poisons or pathogens, although Mission constantly monitored the children for any signs of long term damage or the buildup of toxins. A5 wasn’t even allergenic, the biology of the pods being too different from anything that came from Earth.
Apart from the gentle sighing of the wind, Alpha 5 was a silent world. Disregarding the occasional hiss, or the soft wheezing sound made by their primitive bellows-like lungs, even the large arthropods made no discernable sound. It was assumed that the crusties were sexual beings and must communicate in some way, even if this was only when they needed to mate. But the truth is we didn’t know…

Life on Alpha 5 had never conquered the air, so the whirr and hum of beating wings was also absent…
Carl Sagan had a large discontinuity in its crater wall, the result of a softer stratum of rock eroding more quickly than the surrounding material. On a previous mission they’d been able to move a number of large rocks and boulders blocking this natural pass, and as a result were now able to drive right into the crater itself. Their rova was parked in an open, pod-free area close to where Han was conducting his experiments…

Marta found herself thinking about Han…not something she’d really done before….! Han was paler and slighter than Rai, but she found herself watching how the wiry muscles in his arms flexed as he worked the radar transponder, and to her embarrassment wishing he would take off his shirt so she could see more…! She found herself blushing and quickly turned away. Han appeared not to notice, but she found herself wishing that he would…that he would notice her…!

Marta had recently admitted to herself that despite his hostility she rather liked Rai, in a strange kind of way…but she had also concluded that Rai’s hostility was not an act, he would never like her…and in any case only had eyes for Jorja, despite any plans the Nurses might have… So that left Han!
The problem for Marta was she had no idea what to do next! A good first step would be to start a conversation. If she talked to him he’d have to notice her. The problem was that Han didn’t really talk much to the girls. In fact, apart from the usual Mission stuff, the only person he really talked to was Rai.
But what to talk about! ‘I know, I’ll ask him about Rai!’ she decided at length.

It turned out that Rai had been receiving visitors before his release from the infirmary (or wherever the Nurses had been keeping him). Both Han and Jorja had visited him, Jorja on a regular basis. This came as a complete shock to Marta, and to Sal and Priya. Thinking about it later, she felt that a gulf was opening up between her, Sal and Priya on one side and Rai, Jorja and Han on the other. This made her feel really uncomfortable, and she couldn’t understand why the Nurses permitted it.
On the day of his return, Marta had followed Priya back to the recreation area and Rai was there with Jorja, Han…and Sal,
“Namas, hom! Ke us?”
“Coo fem! Coo!”

Marta hoped her use of Grok would break the ice, but Rai spent the minimum time possible talking to her before turning back to Jorja, who’d been looking disdainfully at Marta during this short exchange. After hanging around on the fringes of the conversation for a few minutes, Marta made an excuse and left. It had become clear to her during her short time in the room that this wasn’t the first time Jorja and Han had seen the boy since their rescue. She asked Gee about this later, and the nursemaid had confirmed that both had been in to see him, at his request.
Marta had been so lost in this memory that it took her a while to recognise that Han was in fact looking at her with a puzzled expression on his face,
“I said…! I‘ve finished now, so I’ll have the rifle while you get your samples…!”
Marta, to her embarrassment, hadn’t even registered that he’d spoken to her,
“Sorry…! I was miles away…”
“Han…! How is Rai…?” she then asked.
Han immediately looked wary,
“Fine…! Why do you ask?”
“…because…! Because he’s one of us…! And we both nearly died…!” she spluttered.
Marta felt obscurely angry, ‘why was Han so defensive all the time? This was not going well…!’
“Never mind!” she said handing over the rifle, “If I make this quick, maybe we can get back for dinner…!”
She was still fuming when she noticed the first ‘crusty’.
She had been filling the last of her sample jars and thinking how useless boys were when she noticed a black shape about five hundred metres away. She wondered how she’d missed it, but then realised that there was a slight depression in the crater floor over that direction. It looked like the arthropod had used this as cover to hide its approach,
“Han…! There’s a crusty over there…!”
Han started, and it occurred to Marta he hadn’t really been concentrating on his sentry duty. Swinging around, she noticed another pseudo-crustacean to their East, further away but definitely moving towards them,
“Han, I don’t like this…! Let’s get back to the rova…!”
It took them a few minutes to get their stuff stowed and get underway. The creatures didn’t move that quickly but both had got considerably closer by the time they started back towards the pass. Worse was to follow! Coming up the slope towards the gap, they could see their path was blocked by a number of the creatures massing in the entrance…
“What do I do? What do I do…?” this from Han, Marta could see he was starting to panic. She knew she had to be decisive,
“Take the rifle…! I’ll drive…!”
They swapped,
“I’ll have to reverse until the trail gets wider…! Keep a look out behind….! If you see one of them fire at it…!”
Han looked at her questioningly,
“Aim to miss, they should back off…!”

Fortunately the rova travelled as quickly in reverse as forwards, fast enough to outpace the crusties, some of which had started to move towards them.
Nevertheless Marta was glad when she was able to swing the vehicle ‘round and drive in the direction she was facing. The two crusties she’d seen earlier had nearly reached the point where the trail up from the crater floor started,
‘Surely not!’ she thought, ‘they can’t have planned this…! They’re not intelligent…!’
“Han, we’ve got to stop them cutting us off…! Fire some warning shots…!”
Han had opened the side window but seemed to be having trouble handling the rifle. Marta realised he’d forgotten to take the safety off,
“Never mind! Give to it me…!”
She raised the rifle to her shoulder and fired two shots…! As she anticipated both arthropods stopped,
‘Not good enough!’ she thought.
She aimed at the nearer animal again. Too close this time…! The shot had struck one of the creature’s legs… Hissing loudly, it backed off…!
“Go…! Go…!” she told Han urgently. There was now enough room for them to get through… She didn’t think the crusties would be able to get into the cab…but they were too big to knock out of the way with the rova, and Marta was alarmed by how they seemed to be working together…! Up to now they’d thought of them as solitary creatures, but today’s events indicated an alarming degree of cooperation, suggesting that they were in fact social animals!
Marta thought how ironic it was that Han was in charge of security! Given his apparent inability to react to the threat they faced,
“What do we do now…?” asked Han. Marta noticed he was very pale and didn’t seem to be coping at all well with the situation! ‘He must be in shock!’ she thought,
“…not sure…! Get well clear and radio for help, I guess!” she paused to think,
“We’ll need to get part of the way up the South slope to get a signal…!”
At their top speed of fifteen km ph they were easily outpacing the pseudo-crustaceans, several of which had appeared on the crater floor,
“Maybe we should swing around them and head back to the pass…” said Han,
“No…I don’t think so…! In fact, I think that’s what they want…!”
“But…you don’t think that they’re planning this, do you? Surely they’re just…animals…!”
“You’ll notice, Han, that not all of the crusties are following us…Meaning that some of them have stayed by the pass…to stop us getting out…!”
This shut him up and the rest of the journey passed in silence. Almost imperceptibly the crater floor started to slope upwards as they neared the South rim. This part of the crater lay permanently in shadow. In this twilight zone the normal vegetation ceased, replaced by a purplish mould-like organism that coated the rocks,
“This should be high enough…!” said Han, who appeared to have recovered his composure. Marta thought it best to let him take over… Han was able to raise Mission AI which said it would send help,
“What are they going to do…?” she asked,
“They’re going to send a drone…!” replied Han,
“What’s one of those…?
“You’ll see…!” said Han smugly.
The drone appeared as a small dot over the far crater wall, resolving into a small aircraft as it got closer. It whined as it banked sharply over their position,
“Not a moment too soon.” said Marta quietly, pointing back down the slope. The lead pseudo-crustaceans had reached the edge of the crater floor and were starting to climb…others were fanning out behind them,
“I never thought there were that many…” whispered Han in amazement,
“We’d better get higher…!” said Marta.
Progress in the rova got slower as the gradient increased, and soon it was clear that the vehicle could go no further. Han was getting nervous again,
“What do we do now…?”
“Perhaps you could ask the drone to help…!” said Marta with a slight edge of sarcasm to her voice. Han spoke briefly into his mic,
“The drone says there’s a ravine that leads through the rim further up on our left….it thinks we should be able to get through on foot!”
“We better get going, then…” said Marta. Han immediately started to gather up his samples,
“Leave those!” ordered Marta, “Take only what we need and you can carry easily…..food, water, medical kit…the tent in case we have to stay out overnight… And the rifle and ammunition…”
“What about the radio…shouldn’t we stay near the vehicle…?” Han was looking panicky again,
“One of us can use our ‘face to relay a message via the drone…”
The climb quickly became a hard slog, soon after leaving the rova they entered a scree slope, and had to pick their way carefully through the debris to avoid sliding back,
“They’re gaining on us…” said Han. And it was true! The arthropods with ten legs each seemed to have the advantage and were getting steadily closer…
“Can’t the drone do anything…!” asked Marta, who was becoming increasingly alarmed.
Han conferred briefly,
“Apparently it is armed…and it has asked Mission AI for permission to use force…”
“Oh Christ…!” said Marta in exasperation, “Why does it need to ask?”
“The drone says control has been handed over to us…” Han looked expectantly at Marta,
“Fine, make it attack then…!”
The drone which had been circling above the rim suddenly banked and headed toward the approaching arthropods. The children heard a rattling sound above the whine, and saw the results as a line of small explosions appeared in front of the lead animals. They stopped.
“OK, that was good…! If it can keep doing that…!
A few more minutes of muscle shredding effort and Marta felt she couldn’t go on much longer…
“Han, are we near the ravine…?”
“The drone says we should head for that spur of rock at eleven o’clock…that leads to the start of the ravine…”
Again they climbed, leg muscles burning with the effort…twice more the drone attacked, stopping the arthropods in their tracks…but the interval before they resumed moving got shorter after each attack…and they were keeping pace with the children…
“The drone says it’s out of ammunition…its power is also depleted and it will have to land soon…if necessary it is prepared to sacrifice itself to help us…”
Marta thought about this, concluding grimly that this noble gesture wasn’t going to help much…at most the crashing aircraft would be able to kill one arthropod. That left plenty of others…!
“Let it go!” she said.
They could see the spur clearly now, no more than fifty metres ahead. Time for more drastic action…! She raised her rifle to her shoulder once more and fired at the lead crusty, deliberately targeting one of the creature’s legs… A splash of purplish liquid indicated a hit…its loud hiss pierced the silence of the crater…! The creature, now unbalanced turned in a half-circle and slid part of the way down the slope…the rest stopped!
“Out of ammo!” said Marta tersely, looking expectantly at Han
“I thought you had it…” said the boy,
“Never mind, call the drone back!”
Han spoke briefly but shook his head,
“I can’t raise it…it must be out of range!”
“Look, we’ve got to get to the ravine……we’ll be able to move faster and if it’s narrow enough they’ll only be able come through one at a time…”
How they were going to stop even one of the armoured monsters without a rifle was not clear to her ‘though…
The next few minutes were a particular kind of hell. Their legs shook, their lungs burned, their muscles screamed. But fear and adrenaline drove them on, and they reached the outcrop… Marta noticed through the sweat running down into her eyes that they’d kept pace with the arthropods which were no nearer.
Unfortunately, they would have to climb the rock to get to the ravine…and they were both no condition to do that…not yet…!
‘Think, for Christ’s sake, Marta! There must be something we can do…!’ she berated herself. She suddenly had an idea,
“Han! I’m going to try something…!” she managed to gasp out between breaths, “You’re going to have to hold me…hold on to my belt and grab hold of the rock….!”
“I won’t be able to hold on…!” he wailed.
Marta remembered something she’d seen in an Earth documentary…about mountain climbing!
“Han, slide your hand into that crack in the rock…and then make a fist…!” the boy did so,
“If you keep making that fist, then your hand won’t come free…! Have you got that…!” the boy nodded, “now grab my belt…!”
Marta had noticed that both they and the pseudo-crustaceans had started small landslides as they climbed the scree. Some of the larger, heavier creatures had even slipped back from time to time. Maybe if she could start a bigger landslide…
There were lots of small boulders by the outcrop, and she started pushing and rolling these down the slope… And slowly…imperceptibly at first…It began…! A series of small landslides gradually coalesced into one big landslip… Sensing the danger, the crusties started to move left and right…hissing as they did so…! But to no avail…as the rockslide caught them all and swept them back down the slope… The children cheered fiercely…!
A pall of dust obscured the slope…as it gradually cleared, the results were even better than she dared hope…none of the creatures were close at hand. They all seemed to have been swept back down nearly to the crater floor by the force of the ’slide… Marta could see that some of the black shapes were not moving, and felt a pang of conscience,
‘It was either us or them!’ she told herself.
“Are you ready to go?” she asked Han who nodded wearily. The climb and the journey through the canyon was uneventful, and after an hour they found themselves on the outer slope of the crater,
“We’re not out of the woods, yet!” she said quietly. But Han was able to make contact with the drone, which informed them that the other rova would pick them up.
‘Not a moment too soon!’ thought Marta, as Alpha B now hung low in the sky….
Jorja was waiting in rova two at the bottom of the slope,
“Things always seem to go wrong when you’re Out, Marta.” This was said with a smile, but there was no mistaking the edge in Jorja’s voice, “Maybe Rai’s right, you do bring do ha…!”
Marta was too exhausted to respond…

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In the days that followed, all further expeditions planetside were cancelled as the Nurses re-evaluated the threat posed to the children by the pseudo-crustaceans. Nurse Six Gee was appalled by the loss of indigenous life forms, as this went against all the precepts on which the Mission was based. Marta was personally mortified that she should be responsible for the deaths of any of these unique creatures. And yet…when all was said and done, everyone recognised that she had had no choice…! The Mission simply could not afford to lose them…and the horror of their deaths had the creatures reached them could only be imagined…
It turned out that only two of the crusties had actually been killed by Marta’s rockslide. The remaining creatures (some after an interval of time) had merely righted themselves, dug their way out of the rubble and gone about their business, minus the odd leg here and there. As Nurse Gee commented they were ‘very durable life forms.’
It appeared that the creatures had returned to their previous solitary ways. It was then decided by Mission AI that all pseudo-crustaceans within a hundred kilometre radius of the Dome would now be tracked individually by Earthcom. This would give advance warning if the animals decided to join forces again. What had prompted their change in behaviour was the subject of much speculation, but no firm conclusions…
After a period of four weeks it was judged safe to re-commence normal work and the children were released from the captivity of the Dome. The arthropods had shown no interest in the abandoned rova which was eventually recovered along with the children’s samples.
But the shadow of these events remained. Nobody needed to be reminded of the importance of Alphane life, both from a scientific standpoint…and crucially from a philosophical perspective…! These humble, unbeautiful creatures were the answer to the age old question… Is humankind alone in the universe?
The Mission had proved that we weren’t…

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Chapter 4. History Lesson >>