The Agathon: Book One (9 page)

4

“The Black” Cave

Time since Gamma
Event
-Three days

17:16 Martian Standard

T
he Black remained motionless as Lorenzo Fraine knelt at its edge. John Barrington only granted access to the cave in special circumstances and its sealed interior needed three identifiers in order to release the erected air lock. Retinal scans followed a DNA coder into the chamber, preventing any colonist from accidentally falling prey to the deadly substance. The geologist had been granted special permission to conduct seismic and acoustic tests. He had to focus on something other than the loss of his family in Caracas. While he was an unmarried man, his adventures on the red planet were shared on a daily basis by his nieces and little sister. He would bring them out on virtual driving tours, using his portable comm unit and show them all the experiments he was carrying out, by which they had seemed dazzled.

“How are we doing today, monster?” he whispered into the silence. The probe he had placed into the soft underbelly of the liquid was slowly sinking into nothingness, relaying its data before being consumed.

“Your sacrifice has not been in vain, my friend,” he told the doomed metallic pole, as it silently disappeared. His dark brown eyes watched patiently as the last signals from the probe sent a torrent of information into his wrist monitor. There was a light spark as the metal disintegrated and the last signal was sent. The absorption had been swift. Fraine had been fascinated with the fact that it never caused a single ripple. He had noted that the event had been akin to peristalsis in the human digestive system.

“Hungry today, aren’t we?” he asked. His soft Venezuelan accent permeated through the cave. It had been an interesting observation that there was very little reverberation within the cave walls themselves, with most of the soundwaves being absorbed. It was discovered to be an effect of the unique density of The Black. He had postulated that it had been a wonderful defence mechanism of the creature in order to disorientate its victims in a low light environment.

“Cool as a cucumber, cool as a cucumber,” he said. Soft footsteps came from the right. The skinny frame of Bobby Shields stood by his shoulder. His light skin and fire red hair made the inside of his faceplate glow, even in this environment.

“Ye gotta stop talkin’ to yourself, Frainey. You’ll go crazy.” Lorenzo ignored the young Englishman and continued on. He had requested to go out alone after the news of Earth, but Barrington had forbidden it.

“What are you doing anyway? Don’t really see the point in all this. We’re all fucked. Especially this horrible goo.”

Lorenzo strained against the
high
-pitched, nasal tone of the
thirty
-
one
-
year
-old pharmacologist. “I am trying to concentrate on these readings. Do you mind?” he said with irritation in his voice.

“Sorry, mate, just trying to ease the tension. This place gives me the creeps,” said Bobby, as he shuffled carefully away and made his way around the edge of the pool towards a seated area far from The Black. Lorenzo felt slightly bad about the way he had spoken to him, but quickly focused his attention back to his readings. He tried to quell thoughts of pushing the annoying little man into The Black to shut him up.

“Make yourself useful and grab me the infrasound accelerometer from over there, will you?” he called out to Bobby, who seemed delighted to be assigned any sort of task.

“Will do, Cap,” he responded. He made his way carefully around the pit and picked up a small
cube
-shaped object, with a protruding spike.

“This thing?” he asked. Lorenzo sighed.

“Yes, that thing. Give it here.” He handed over the instrument and stood waiting quietly. Lorenzo took a breath in to calm his irritation, but allowed him to watch, resigning himself to the situation.

“Okay, if you insist on annoying me, you may as well help. Take this sensor and place it on that ridge. Point the directional array towards the centre of The Black and lock it in position.”

Bobby could hardly contain his excitement as he trundled off with the long metallic pole. He did as requested and set up the device, using the struts attached to its base. The transparent head was coned and he pointed its tip at the centre of the black mass. With the tap of a button, a blue laser shot out of the device and rested firmly on the surface of The Black. Lorenzo watched intently. There was no reaction from the molten surface. The beam of light stood unchallenged.

“Okay, Bobby, come outta there. Make sure it’s not going to move, and position the second sensor directly opposite,” he said, pointing to the other side of the cave. The Englishman did as he was told and repeated the exercise. When he was finished the light of the two blue beams slowly bounced off the surrounding minerals in the rock. There was no reflection from the surface of The Black.

“Now what?” said Bobby, as he reached the scientist.

“We wait. Quietly!” responded Lorenzo. The pair watched as readings were taken. The silence was absolute.

“This stuff actually do anything besides melt everything it touches?” said Bobby, breaking the peace. Lorenzo sighed. He thought about pushing him into The Black.

“It emits vibrations when it senses certain frequencies. Right now, it is emitting the same
ultra
-low frequency acoustic signature that we have been observing since Jennifer Barrington discovered it. We don’t know what that means and we still don’t know the nature of The Black. I am about to test a theory of mine, that the vibrations are directly proportional to the ambient energy in the vicinity of The Black.”

“Eh. Right,” said Bobby, then paused. “Sorry, mate, meaning what exactly?” he continued.

“Meaning we don’t know why the hell this ‘stuff’ has been sitting here for millions of years, when its purpose seems to be to absorb organic and inorganic substances on contact.”

“If that’s true, then how come it hasn’t eaten through the cave floor straight into the planet’s core and out the other side?” said Bobby.

Lorenzo, surprised by the logic of the question, took a minute to answer. “The inside of these caves are laced with minerals that seem to be immune to the enzymatic reactions of The Black. It is probably why it has survived in here. Evolutionary luck.”

“So we still have no clue about what this is?” asked Bobby.

Lorenzo answered honestly. “None,” he said. The steady flow of data continued. “Okay, let’s turn up the volume.” Reaching down to the control panel he began to drag his finger across a screen, increasing the levels of both probes to twice their current amplitude. A small hum echoed from the upright stands as the pair watched.

“What are we hoping for here?” said Bobby.

“Not sure, to be honest, but the absorption of The Black of all ambient noise is interesting to me so I want to see what happens if...” Lorenzo’s sentence tailed off as the centre of the black fluid began to rise suddenly. The slow purposeful motion seemed controlled and made no sound. A snaking spiral began to form and solidify into a perfect tube shape. At about two meters in height it stopped. It held its position and waited.

“Fuck me!” said a clearly worried Bobby.

“Don’t move,” replied Lorenzo, who was clearly startled at the unexpected movement. “Don’t move a muscle. Stay perfectly still, Bobby.”

“What the hell is it doing?” Bobby whispered.

“It is reacting to the frequency.”

“Has it ever done that before?” Bobby added.

“No, never, and this is not the first time I’ve conducted this type of experiment.” They observed the perfectly still material. It remained in the shape it had just formed.

“We should get out of here, man, and get back up. I’m serious.” There was genuine fear in Bobby’s voice, but Lorenzo paid it no heed.

“It has stopped, Bobby. We are not in danger, it seems to be localising around the focal point of the two probes.”

“Then turn the fucking things off before it eats us!” replied Bobby frantically. Lorenzo shot him an angry look.

“Just calm yourself and stand back. I promise, if it makes any other movements towards us I’ll shut down the probes and we’ll get out of here. Okay?” he said. Bobby, clearly unconvinced, took several steps back towards the entrance of the cave and readied himself to run. Lorenzo, not entirely believing his own words either, took a step back from the edge of The Black and watched closely. The faceoff between the two life forms was a silent one.
You hear me, monster, don’t you
! he thought. Lorenzo took the control pad in his hand and swiped his finger across it. The hum from the two probes increased.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? What are you doing?” shouted Bobby. Lorenzo ignored him. The centre mass remained perfectly in shape and perfectly still. In one swift motion the entire pool of the black substance rose from the floor. Building on top of itself in layers, it emerged into a tower with perfectly smooth walls, which reached the height of the cave itself. Lorenzo was frozen in place at the sheer magnitude of the coordinated movement. After several seconds, the perfectly smooth surfaces that formed the membrane of the outer edge began to curve. At first Lorenzo thought it was an optical illusion, but then the walls became clearly convex. The fluidity of the motion of this now
cave
-sized mass was the most powerful thing Lorenzo had ever seen.

“Jesus Christ,” Lorenzo finally uttered. He looked behind him but Bobby was gone. He had seemingly made a run for it. The floating sphere stared at Lorenzo. It remained still. Lorenzo thought about running but his muscles would not move. All of a sudden the black orb started to move. First enveloping the probe on its left, then the one on its right. The two objects disappeared quickly from sight. Lorenzo now knew that he was in trouble and began to back away slowly. The giant black sphere gently began to move in his direction.

“Fuck,” Lorenzo finally said out loud. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” He turned and made for the exit. The sphere followed calmly, enveloping the surrounding equipment. Lorenzo, realising the change in the sphere’s speed, began to panic. “

“Oh no!” he shouted and began to sprint. With a sudden knock, his head hit off the lower edge of the rock face as he tumbled to the ground. His faceplate cracked and atmosphere began to seep into his lungs. Blood from the top of his head poured into his mouth and eyes, as his blurred vision watched the encroaching black mass. Only feet away, his vision was masked by the filling of tears and blood. The burning in his lungs began to intensify. There was only one warning he could give to Bobby if he was still nearby. He drew a breath as The Black touched his feet and began liquefying his flesh. He closed his eyes one final time and screamed.

Quarters of Carrie Barrington

17:45 Martian Standard

C
arrie woke suddenly and sat up, her soaked pillow falling away from her back. She felt like her heart was about to explode.

She heard a scream in her mind. The sadness and the terror of the voice chased by a dark monster lingered in her thoughts. Something terrible had just happened. She reached over to her comms panel beside her bunk.

“Carrie Barrington to John Barrington,” she said with upset in her voice. No answer.

“Carrie Barrington to John Barrington,” she repeated with more force in her voice. There was a beep from the panel.

“Go ahead. What’s up, Carrie?” The comfort of her father’s voice helped lower her heartrate.

“Father, something’s wrong. Something terrible has happened.”

“Slow down, Dice, take a breath. I’m on my way.”

“No,” she interrupted, “I’m coming to you. Where are you?”

“I am at the Aquaria command centre. What did you see?” he said softly.

“I think somebody has died. Has anyone gone to the Black Cave this morning?” There was a pause from her father.

“Meet me here as soon as you can. Barrington out.” The urgency in his voice told her all she needed to know. She jumped out of bed and slid straight into a jumpsuit.

Aquaria Base

18:01 Martian Standard

“B
arrington to Fraine,” the commander shouted into the comm panel. The uncomfortable déjà vu was all too obvious. He had lost another one on his watch. He knew that he should not have allowed the pair access at a time when most of the personnel were emotionally compromised.
Bad call, John
. No answer from the comms.

“Shit!” he said. The support staff manning the command centre looked at him.

“Prepare a rescue team,” he announced. “Now!” There was a bleep from the panel.

“Commander?” said a panicked English voice.

“Yes. Bobby? This is Barrington. Report!”

“He’s dead. He’s fucking dead. I had to run. I left him there. I heard him screaming. The fucking stuff is alive.” Barrington froze.

“Where are you, Bobby?” he asked.

“Inbound in the RV,” he sobbed. “I left him. Jesus, I just left him.” The door to the control room hissed open and Carrie appeared. Barrington locked eyes on her as she approached.

“Tell me, Carrie,” he whispered to her.

“It killed again, Father. It knew. It followed him and attacked.” Some of the staff stared over at the pair. Barrington ignored them and put a hand on Carrie.

“Bobby, keep coming. I’ll meet you at the RV bay. Stay calm, you’re okay.”

“I’m nearly there,” came the reply. Barrington looked out of the windows, which curved around the command centre. In the distance, he saw the red trail of an RV approaching at speed.

“Barrington to medical bay,” he said. The comms bleeped.

“Doctor Brubaker here.”

“Michelle, we have possible incoming wounded. I want him put into quarantine immediately. Under no circumstances is he to be touched until a full bio scan reveals no indication of infection.”

“Understood, John. What are we dealing with?” she said.