What Lies Beneath

The immaculate white airlock door looked brand new, and that surprised her. She thought the moon was surely a dirty place. But perhaps this airlock door was kept far enough away from the blast ejecta of launching and landing Eagles that by the time the causeway was ready to extend, all the moondust had settled again and there was little remaining to grime it up. The door gave a deep grunt, slid aside on unseen rails—with a twin behind it sliding the other direction—and she looked into the moonbase for the first time.

There was a young woman there waiting to greet her, smiling. She was slender and tall, with long dark hair, laying gently over her shoulders. At a guess, she appeared around twenty-four, wearing a standard Alphan duty uniform: beige with a matching turtleneck undershirt, with a long blue stripe down her left arm, the color of Research Section. She wore an Alphan patch on her shoulder and had a wide glossy belt around her waist, to which was clipped two small blocky devices. Each had a little keypad, an emitter on one end, and a three-inch hooded display screen on the other. And then there was that tiny, tiny little miniskirt, leaving almost none of her long, perfectly turned legs to the imagination. Her feet were clad in simple beige heels.

"Specialist Chase," she said with a smile. "Welcome to Plato! I'm Corrine McDonough, I'll be working with you." She held out her hand.

"Please, call me Marcie," said the new arrival, still wearing her blue NASA jumper. Marcie stepped across the threshold into her new home, and took Corrine's hand, squeezing gently. She couldn't help but be taken aback by how lovely Corrine was, how honest and genuine her smile, how perfectly feminine her posture. Marcie returned the smile gratefully. "It's wonderful to be here. I'm not used to space travel."

Corrine's smile softened, sympathetically. She could tell that was Marcie's way of saying she had been ill for most of the trip, if not all of it. This wasn't uncommon. "Neither am I," she admitted. "I'm always reluctant to get on board those ugly Eagles. Fortunately you and I are geologists and so we shouldn't have much need to go careening around in space very often."

"Small mercies," Marcie agreed, grateful. She was glad to learn this beautiful woman was going to be on her team, and she instantly felt that she would likely be one of her closest friends here. "I'm sure I'll miss Earth, but for the time being I'm happy to have my feet on the ground again."

"Feels like Earth gravity, doesn't it?" Corrine said cheerfully. "The base was built on a mascon, a positive gravitational anomaly. The towers around the perimeter of the base amplify the natural effects to bring the actual gravity up to very near Earth-norm. Come on, I'll show you to your living space. You're going to like it here," Corrine grinned as she turned and led Marcie into the busy lunar installation. Marcie repositioned the bag strap on her shoulder and followed after her.

Moonbase Alpha seemed a maze of corridors to the uninitiated, but Marcie had been studying the base layout and had a general idea where most of the important facilities were situated. The base was arranged in a series of concentric circles connected with an array of lateral transit tunnels, all converging on the central base structure. In the middle of this structure on the upper two floors stood Main Mission, the base's command center. Marcie hoped to get to see it, but didn't think it was likely for at least a few weeks, unless one of her colleagues had reason to sneak her in. Main Mission was for department heads and security and people well above her pay grade; she was just a lowly scientist with a very lowly job: the lowest job one could have on Moonbase Alpha.

"How far down has the excavation team got?" Marcie couldn't help asking as Corrine ducked around another communications station. It puzzled her why these stations were positioned in the middle of the corridors, instead of out of the way of traffic.

"Nearly fifteen hundred meters," Corrine answered. "But they've shut down the digger since last Wednesday. Something is... happening down there."

Marcie didn't like the way Corrine had said that. "What?"

"Tell you what," the slender woman said, finally coming to a stop in front of a door. "Here's your living quarters. Your uniforms are inside and your belongings have been transferred over from the shuttle. Take an hour getting settled in, and meet me in Geology, on sublevel two. I'll fill you in." She had an odd expression.

Marcie's eyebrows knitted. "Is something wrong?"

Corrine lowered her voice. "Come find me in an hour, okay? Oh, this is yours." She unclipped one of the devices on her belt and offered it to Marcie. "It's your commlock. Enter your STUTS-ID number on the pad. Once registered to you, it will open any door that you have clearance to pass. It also serves as your personal communicator, so be sure not to misplace it."

Marcie nodded and took the device, having been anxious to be issued her very own commlock, representing her acceptance into this elite community of scientists and explorers. The little unit already had her picture in the little plastic window on the side. She couldn't hide her smile.

Corrine beamed. "Guess you were looking forward to that."

"I was," Marcie nodded. She quickly entered her 10-digit ID number and pressed the door key. The door slid open.

"See you in the lab in an hour," Corrine said, and left Marcie to get unpacked and changed.

* * *

Marcie entered the lab through the double doors, holding her prized commlock and wearing one of her brand new, custom-fitted Alphan uniforms. Corrine McDonough looked up from her workstation, seeing her and smiling.

"Well look at you," she said, admiring her. She knew Marcie wouldn't be here if she wasn't in top physical shape, but she couldn't help a lingering gaze at the lovely shape of her young new colleague.

"I don't know if I'll get used to this," Marcie said, pulling at the hem of her skirt, her knees turned inward. "How do we even sit?"

Corrine laughed. "Oh, you will. They're surprisingly comfortable, once you're used to them. And the men here are entirely professional. No one seems to mind that the women here all get to strut around in skimpy little skirts."

"When in Rome," Marcie said, trying to put aside how vulnerable the uniform made her feel. One of the time-honored tenets of astronaut culture was that women were treated no differently than men, regardless of age, marital status or circumstance. For as long as Marcie had spent training for this assignment and preparing her experiments at Space Station V, no one had ever made her feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.

"It does seem," Marcie continued, slipping her prized commlock onto her belt, "that everyone is very serious about their duties here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well on the way down here, I just picked up a vibe... kind of a downer, actually."

Corrine took a deep breath. "News travels fast."

Marcie looked around the lab. It was a spacious chamber full of control panels with blinking lights, switches and buttons, dials and levers. There was a heavy fire axe in a clear plastic box on the wall beside the door, and a row of lockers with digital keypads on each. Corrine was seated on a plain round stool at a workstation against one wall, most of which was actually a window to another chamber. As Marcie entered the room she could see better into the chamber, which appeared to be a sealed room quarried out of the stone, with unfinished walls. A heavy, imposing, red metal door within the chamber was closed; the red beacon directly above it was dark. The door had a circular metal doorwheel, with thick steel spokes. The room looked to be a quarantined, pressurized area. Marcie noticed the airlock leading into it, and wondered if one had to be wearing an environment suit to go in there.

"What news?" she asked as she stood beside Corrine, examining the mysterious stone chamber with fascination.

Corrine's voice was somber. "The disappearances."

At this, Marcie gaped at her new friend. "What?"

"Three people have disappeared since Wednesday. Two of them were operating in that chamber," Corrine pointed through the window. "They were down the tunnel, which is currently sealed off. They were both technicians servicing the digging equipment. Two days later, another tech, my friend Mirial, disappeared. We don't know from where; all we know is she wasn't in the catacombs, she was somewhere on the base."

Marcie slowly sat down on the stool beside Specialist McDonough, staring in disbelief. "How could anyone just disappear from Alpha? Is that even possible?"

"There's more," Corrine went on. "Very few people know this but our section, Commander Koenig and Professor Bergman. You need to keep this under wraps, Marcie, promise me."

Marcie nodded, leaning forward.

The dark-haired scientist looked worried. "Lately we've seen some seismic activity beneath Alpha," she began. "Moonquakes. At first we thought it had to be thermal, since the Plato crater is nowhere near any known volcanic zones. But rotation didn't jive with that theory. Then we were thinking it could be a basaltic intrusive coming from a previously unknown magma chamber, but this was ruled out too with seismic reflectivity. Plus the 'duh' factor, that Alpha is built atop a known, well-extinct lava tube. Any magma chambers beneath Plato would have emptied eons ago."

"How far down does the tube go?"

"Thirty kilometers, at its deepest."

"Thirty?" Marcie exclaimed. "That isn't possible."

A new voice entered the conversation. "It shouldn't be. But it is."

Corrine and Marcie were both startled by the arrival of an older woman, appearing mid-40s, wearing the same color as Corrine down her sleeve except the color bar was joined by a gold accent. She was the Research Section Chief, their boss, standing at the door to the lab office opposite the window.

Corrine blushed, looking guilty. The older woman smiled.

"It's all right, Corrine. Rumors are spreading. It's natural. Besides, we weren't going to not tell her." She turned to Marcie. "Specialist, it's wonderful to have you here. We've been looking forward to your arrival." Her voice was soothing and confident.

Corrine gave an apologetic smile. "Marcie, Dr. Lauren Galloway."

"Dr. Galloway!" Marcie stood so fast she almost tipped her stool over. "It's... it's such an honor to be working with you."

"Please, call me Lauren. Commander Koenig outranks me, and prefers to call me Dr. Galloway. I insist no one else does."

Marcie smiled. "Well, you can call me Marcie, of course." Like her colleagues, Lauren Galloway was in exceptional physical shape, and if she wasn't gifted with such an impressive intellect she could easily have made a career for herself modeling. Lauren's thick, hair was deep red and cut to just beneath the chin, with loose, gently swooping locks. Marcie also noticed the diamond wedding ring on her left hand, and hoped her husband was also on the base somewhere instead of back on earth.

"As you were saying, it normally wouldn't be possible for a lava tube to reach so far deep beneath the moon's surface. But exploratory probes have confirmed that depth. It's the deepest such tube ever found on the moon, one of the lesser known reasons Alpha was built here. That access point there," she gestured through the window, "leads to the equipment excavating the Osgood branch, which leads to the vertical primary conduit."

"So, what's the current working theory on the moonquakes?" Marcie was tantalized by the idea of unexplained phenomena, but her excitement was tempered by the fact that it came with the disappearance of moonbase personnel.

Lauren's tone was even. "There isn't one. We don't know. There are a number of wild theories, though."

"Like what?" Marcie asked.

"A tunneling vehicle of some kind, belonging to some other entity that isn't part of Alpha or the Lunar Consortium. Something designed to spy on us, or maybe even blow us up."

"You can't be serious."

Lauren shrugged. Corrine piped up. "Military experiments, is another one. Some kind of new bomb they're testing outside the base perimeter. At this point, all theories are valid until proven invalid. The last quake was yesterday, and it was big enough that the whole base felt it. I don't have to tell you, if they continue to happen and get stronger, we may be looking at a temporary evacuation to the Space Dock until they figure out for sure where they're coming from."

"Oh my god." Marcie's voice grew softer as the implications sunk in. "Why has no one else been informed about any of this?"

"Because communications have been—"

Before Dr. Galloway could finish her sentence, the room suddenly flooded with red light and the blare of the tritone alarm. The room seemed to shudder suddenly, instruments rattling atop the tables. Corrine and Marcie grabbed at the edge of the workstation to steady themselves; Dr. Galloway widened her stance and held her arms out for balance. After a few frightening moments, the tremor subsided, but the red light remained.

"That was different," Lauren said. "The alarm went off before the tremor started."

"Look!" Marcie exclaimed, pointing into the sealed tunnel entrance chamber. The wheel on the door was slowly turning.

"Someone's coming out!" Corrine said.

"I'm suiting up," said Dr. Galloway, hurrying over to the environment suit locker. "Start the EQ cycle." Marcie and Corrine stared at the door wheel, turning, stopping, then turning again, just as if someone was repositioning their hands on the wheel with each labored spin. Corrine hurried over to a large console attached to the wall beside the window, protected by a plastic window. She turned a small key at the bottom of the console, slid the plastic window upward and began pushing large colored buttons, as plumes of gases erupted in the door chamber. The readout on the display read: EQ CYCLE: 5%

By the time Dr. Galloway had finished drawing an orange suit around herself and was zipping up the inner layer, the massive door leading to the underground tunnels was swinging open toward the window, obscuring whoever was on the other side.

"It's opening..." Marcie said nervously. "Someone's coming out!"

"Corrine, I need you," said Dr. Galloway. The tall brunette rushed over to her and helped her fix the outer layer seal of her CBRN suit, the strongest environment suit available to moonbase personnel short of a full EVA suit for exposure to space. While the lava tube extended deep into the moon, the isolation chamber designed to protect access to the excavation was well-shielded beneath the base's upper levels.

Corrine helped situate the bulbous helmet over Dr. Galloway's head and shoulders, securing it with four interlocking latches. When the fourth latch was secure, a tiny light inside the helmet glowed green: the suit's seal was confirmed.

"Comm check?" Lauren said into the tiny microphone built into the base of her helmet. Her voice sounded from the console speakers.

"Loud and clear," said Marcie. Dr. Galloway nodded and hurried over to the airlock as fast as the suit would let her. Even in the bulky orange suit, her trim, womanly figure was obvious. "You know the reason why women on the base wear these tiny skirts, and men wish they could?" she asked Marcie as she began opening the outer airlock door. "Because we can get in and out of CBRNs without having to take them off." She smiled.

Marcie knew instantly the purpose of the otherwise irrelevant information: to relax her nerves. She knew Dr. Galloway would be a good friend, as well. She couldn't help but smile to herself a little at the kindness of her new boss' gesture.

The smile vanished immediately as Corrine exclaimed, "Oh my God, Mirial!"

Marcie spun and stared into the chamber as Corrine pressed both hands to the glass window. A woman was emerging from behind the door, crawling on all fours. Her uniform had been torn, hanging loose from her body, exposing her breasts and upper left hip. Her medium length brown hair hung loose around her head, obscuring her face as she crawled weakly out of the tunnel.

"Stay inside until EQ is complete," warned Dr. Galloway as she emerged from the airlock inside the isolation room, sealed the inner door behind her and hurried over to the woman. "Call Dr. Russell, medical emergency," she added after kneeling over Mirial's form. Corrine hurriedly turned on the live microphones in the chamber and turned the gain up, hoping to hear her friend say she was all right.

Mirial looked up at Dr. Galloway with pained eyes.

"Are you all right?" the older woman asked.

Mirial seemed to struggle for words. "It's.... it's... inside..."

"What's inside?" Lauren asked.

"Ohhhhh!" Mirial suddenly exclaimed, collapsing again and clutching her stomach as she writhed around in apparent pain... or was it something else?

"Lauren, what's wrong with her?" Corrine pleaded over the comm.

"I don't know! She's holding her abdomen as if she's in pain..." she trailed off as she watched Mirial's hand slip down her body between her legs, rolling her hips and moaning.

"What is that...?" Marcie asked, looking curious toward the door. Corrine listened. Outside, they heard shouts, panicked shouts. Then a sound neither of them had heard before: the sound of a stun gun being fired. The screech of the energy bolt being unleashed had a tingling effect on them, the air full of a sudden electricity.

"What is going on out there?" Corrine wondered aloud.

"What is it?" asked Dr. Galloway.

"There's some kind of commotion, and we heard someone using a stun gun." The screech sounded again, this time three times, in rapid succession, followed by cries of pain. "Oh my god, there it is again."

"Call up the video feed."

Corrine spun back to her console and entered computer commands. After a few swift instructions she looked up at the large monitor. The video switched to a feed from one of the corridor cameras. Both women stared in horror at the sight of moonbase denizens running and screaming as several men, seemingly possessed, were attacking any woman they could get their hands on. Seizing a screaming petite girl with short black hair, the man tore open her uniform and wrenched her panties off as she kicked and fought. She screamed as he buried his cock inside her and began thrusting. Another woman, armed with a stun gun, appeared down the corridor and fired twice. The man roared in anger and continued thrusting, taking four more shots before collapsing from the effect of the weapon, falling out of the frame. As the two women backed away from him, they screamed in horror at something, turned and fled.

"Oh my god," Marcie whispered. "Can you pan the camera?"

Corrine's trembling fingers keyed in another command and moved to a tiny joystick on the console. Guiding the camera to the right and down, they saw the stunned rapist's body, laying unconscious where he had fallen... but something else was there. A creature, looking like a black snake with a long, bullet-shaped head, was slithering over him.

"Look!" Corrine pointed at the screen. Marcie stared. The snake-creature was emerging from the man's open pants. It moved off his body and disappeared.

Corrine changed feeds. All over the base, there was pandemonium. Men raping women, women writhing on the ground, black snake creatures swiftly slithering through the halls unimpeded. They watched several men firing plasma weapons at the snakes, to no effect. As they stared, one snake launched itself through the air at one of the men, sinking its teeth into his arm as he tried to shield his face. He collapsed quickly, motionless in the corridor. The snake released its grip on his arm, then began working its way beneath his uniform. Corrine zoomed in, watching the shifting movements of the fabric as the creature moved beneath, down the man's torso, slipping beneath his trousers and between his legs. It seemed to wrap around behind him. Then his body began to twitch and convulse, rolling over to his stomach. Marcie and Corrine gasped horrified as they watched the snake creature clearly forcing its way into the man's body, disappearing fully within. After a few more convulsions, the man slowly got to his feet, looking around with a darkness in his eyes.