Trapped on Venus (12 page)

 
“Affirmative, Earth,”
Scott replied. The astronauts panned the surface. “I do see the SAM,” Scott
continued as he referred to the Seismic and Atmospheric Monitoring equipment
that was probably 40 or 50 yards away from them. “And, there’s the HuRT unit,”
Marty added as he saw the Heat and Radar Telemeter unit tipped on its side
twenty or thirty yards in another direction.

 
“Good,” Stimson said
approvingly. “Get to those first, then we’ll see what we can do next.”

 
Although, just at that
moment, a larger pool of liquid began to appear and expand between the
astronauts and the equipment they were going to try to reach!

 
“Scott! Look at that?”
Marty said in astonishment. “It’s like... it’s happening all over again!”

 
“What is it, guys?”
Stimson asked. “What’s happening?”

 
“It’s those creatures
again,” Scott answered in an almost trance-like voice.

 
“What? Do you see
them?” Stimson asked. He knew the problems that could potentially result.

 
“It’s a pool... about
twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter,” Scott explained.

 
“There! Do you see
that, Scott?” Marty said anxiously as he pointed at the pool.

 
And, Scott did see it.
There was a thickening in the liquid, then some kind of object seemed to push
its way up out of the liquid. It didn’t have any identifiable features, it was
more like a large bubble of mud or the bubbling surface of some lava.

 
“There’s something
there,” Scott said to Marty and he acknowledged it. “I know,” Marty replied.
“Stimson,” Scott went on. “We’ve made contact. They’re here.”

 
“What is it, Scott?”
Stimson asked. “Can you tell?”

 
Both Scott and Marty
looked at the pool that had expanded to an even larger size. It was perhaps
forty or maybe even fifty feet in diameter now, and there appeared to be at
least three – maybe four or five, it was hard to tell – separate objects
looming in the pool. The undulations of the liquid made it difficult to tell
more precisely.

 
“It’s hard to explain,
John,” Scott said as he stared at the creatures in the pool. “They don’t really
have any identifiable features except that they keep moving.”

 
“Daat might be from
zee heat,” Professor Andrus interrupted. “Zay may keep moofing to keep from
crusting ofer.”

 
“Yes, that might be
it,” Scott replied. “It does seem like it’s more of an undulating motion than
that they’re moving,” he added. “They might be just keeping the liquid from
stabilizing. If it stopped moving, maybe a crust would form.”

 
“Yess,” Professor
Andrus agreed. “Like ice. If eets cold enuf, eet wheel freeze over very
queekly. Same wit Venus; eet is so hot eet wheel form crust.”

 
What an incredible
conclusion! It might be just like a reaction to extreme cold. Only this time,
it was a reaction to extreme heat!

 
“Are they looking at
you?” Stimson asked.

 
“I can’t tell,” Scott
answered. “But, I have the feeling that they’re definitely aware of us. Do you
think they see us, or sense us, Marty?”

 
“Yes,” he replied.
“I’ve been watching that one farthest to our left, Scott. “It seems a little
bigger than the others, and it’s a little darker in color.”

 
“Are they doing
anything except staying there?” Stimson asked.

 
“Roger,” Scott
answered. “That seems to be all they’re doing... just watching... or, maybe
they’re waiting.”

 
“Waiting for what?”
Stimson wondered out loud.

 
“That’s what we need
to know,” Scott replied. “It appears that they can penetrate the crust whenever
– and probably wherever – they want to.
 
They’ve got a pretty big pool going here, but that may just be because
there are so many of them.”

 
“Scott...” Marty said.
“I’m going to move out over to the right. I think I can get to the

HRT unit without getting too near to the pool. “ The Heat and
Radar Telemeter, sometimes called the HuRT or the H.R.T., was tipped on its
side but it wasn’t a large piece of equipment so Marty thought he could reset
it and get it sending off signals again.

 
Scott wasn’t sure if
Marty’s decision was a prudent one, but he knew they had to do something if
they were going to reset the equipment. Alertly he watched Marty shuffle off to
his right at the same time that he watched the pool for any signs of a change.
Marty was about halfway to the HRT equipment when there seemed to be a shift in
the location of the creatures in the pool. All of them seemed to cluster along
the edge where Marty was walking.

 
“Marty... They’re
watching you,” Scott warned him. “They’ve moved to your side of the pool. Maybe
you should stop to let them adjust to what you’re doing.”

 
“I’d rather keep
going, Scott,” Marty answered. He was breathing a little heavier from the
exertion of his movements in the bulky suit as well as pulling the tool case
with the

collection kit on it along with him. “But, why don’t you
start off for the SAM.”

 
The Seismic and
Atmospheric Monitor (SAM) was a little wider unit than the HRT so it was less likely
to tip on its side even with all the calamity of the astronaut’s previously
hasty blastoff from Venus. It also looked to be a shorter distance from where
Scott was standing than the HRT was from Marty, but Scott would have to swing
out around the left side of the pool to reach it.

 
“Ok, Marty, I’m going
to the SAM,” Scott answered.

 
“What seems to be
going on in the pool?” Stimson asked from Earth Control One. “Is there any
movement? Any change?”

 
As he shuffled off
toward the SAM equipment, Scott kept glancing at the undulating motions in the
pool. “I don’t see anything yet, Stimson... But, wait. Do you see what’s
happening, Marty? Do you see a change in color?”

 
“Yes, I do, Scott,”
the astronaut replied very matter-of-factly. “There’s more of a bluish color...
no... a kind of purple. But it’s only in that first one... the one farthest
from me. The others seem to be getting lighter... like a sort of gray or tan.”

 
Scott continued
walking. His path took him out a little from a straight path to the SAM unit,
but as he looked over at the pool, another large bubble appeared to rise nearer
him. At first it surprised him, then the creature seemed to swell larger than
the others and turned a sort of shiny black color. It also rose much higher out
of the liquid than the others. Scott stopped.

 
“Marty... something’s
happening,” Scott said to Marty from almost directly across the pool.

 
But, Marty had noticed
it, too. “I see it, Scott. It’s bigger than the others.” But the pool also
seemed to have expanded outward toward Scott. The pool and the creature were
expanding toward him so that Scott altered his path outward a little more.

 
“Is it coming toward
me?” Scott asked. “It seems like the pool is widening a little more... and this
creature... it’s getting... larger... Isn’t it?”

 
“You’d better go back,
Scott,” Marty concluded. He had already reached the HRT unit and tipped it back
up on its base when he noticed that things were changing in the pool. The
colors and shapes of the creatures were changing in ways that started to make
the astronauts uncomfortable.

 
“Scott... You’d better
turn around until you know what’s happening,” Stimson instructed him. “Maybe
they don’t want you to go toward the SAM.”

 
“I don’t think that’s
it, John,” Scott told Stimson. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the
SAM. I think it’s just coming... toward me.”

 
“Maybe you should stop
and see what it does,” Stimson offered as a suggestion to Scott.

 
“I can’t,” Scott
replied. “It’s moving too fast toward me. I’ve got to keep backing away or I’ll
get too close to the pool.”

 
Marty had opened the
tool case when he couldn’t get the door to open on the HRT so that he could
reset it. Then, suddenly Marty hit the cabinet with the hammer hard on the door
of the unit several times to see if that would loosen it up. It was stuck or
may have had some of the Venusian sand jammed in it after it tipped over
because it wouldn’t open. But the reaction of the creatures in the pool was
instantaneous. They quickly disappeared deeper into the liquid and the pool
began to recede a small amount all around the edges.

 
“Did you see that,
Marty?” Scott asked in astonishment. “You banged on the HRT unit, and the
creatures quickly retreated down into the liquid of their pool.”

 
“That’s incredible,
Scott,” Stimson reacted. “You mean the sound was transmitted through the
atmosphere?”

 
“Yes. It had to be
that,” Scott concluded. “It was at the first sound of Marty’s banging that they
vanished. I wonder if...”

 
“Yesss, it is
possible,” Professor Andrus interrupted. “From our analysis of the atmos-fere,
eet es entire-ly possible. Da atmos-fere es dense enuf to transmit zound.”

 
“Even I thought I
heard it,” Scott replied. “And I’ve got this helmet on!”

 
Marty had recalibrated
the equipment with just a few turns of some dials once he got the door of the
unit open. Then he closed the door, flipped a switch, and a green light went
on, indicating that the unit was now operational.

 
Marty hefted the
hammer in his right hand for a minute. “You know... maybe I should keep this
handy. Those things have probably never heard anything like that before!”

 
Scott had reached the
SAM unit by now. “Let’s see if I can get into this unit as easily as you did
yours,” he said as he opened the door of the equipment. He swung the door open,
then removed a small screwdriver from the handle of his extractor rod so that
he could make the necessary changes to the settings of the SAM. “There,” he
said as he closed the door again.

 
“We’re getting signals
from both units, guys,” Stimson confirmed. “Looks great. Now we just need you
to get a sample of that liquid in the pool. Marty, you’ve got two containers in
the Collection Kit that we’d like you to fill up. You should be able to attach
the jars, one at a time, to the extractor rod and scoop some liquid into them.”

 
Wondering whether he
could get that close to the pool of liquid, Marty asked: “Stimson? Are you sure
I can get that close without the ground breaking through?”

 
Before Stimson could
even respond, Scott added: “That might not be our biggest concern, Marty.
Look... They’ve returned.”

 
Marty looked up from
the open tool kit he was putting the hammer back into. He saw the pool start to
darken in places again, then the appearance of the shapes that had appeared in
it before. “I see what you mean,” he answered. “Should I get the hammer out
again?” he asked.

 
“No! Don’t frighten
them,” Scott cautioned him. “Let’s see if we can make contact with them.”

 
“Are you kidding!”
Marty admonished. “They were trying to kill you, Scott!”

 
“I don’t think that’s
what they were doing,” he replied calmly. “I think that big dark one was just
trying to get closer to me... probably trying to see who, or what, I am.”

 
“Even that could be
dangerous, you know,” Marty reminded him. “If they get too close, we’re going
to end up in that pool! Even if they are friendly, it’s too dangerous for us!”

 
“I know what you’re
saying, Marty,” Scott said carefully as he shuffled closer to the pool. “But,
if we don’t try something, we’re not going to find out.”

 
Stimson interrupted.
“Don’t take any unnecessary chances, Scott. If we can get a sample of that
liquid, we’ll have exceeded our expectations. Let’s see if they appear hostile.
Maybe you can even try communicating with them.”

 
“What do you have in
mind, John – a picnic?” Scott asked with some sarcasm.

 
“No, of course not.
But maybe you can indicate that you come in peace.” Stimson was going to
suggest something further when Dr. Betty Passatole, a biologist from the
University of Michigan, interrupted.

 
“An open hand is a
kind of universal gesture of peace, Scott.” She had known Scott since their
early days at NASA together. She had actually been a teacher in one of the
classes that the astronauts took about biology and alternative life forms. She
knew he would trust her and her judgment.

 
“What do you mean, Dr.
Passatole? Just hold up my hand?” Scott asked.

 
“Yes. Don’t walk
toward them or make any quick gestures. Just hold your hands up in the air to
let them see that you don’t mean them any harm.”

 
“Yes. Go ahead,
Scott,” Stimson concurred. “Set down your extractor rod and put your hands up
over your head.”

 
It certainly sounded
like an odd idea, and Scott could only surmise what it must have looked like to
the creatures in the pool of liquid, but he dropped the extractor rod from his
hand and did exactly as they had instructed him to do. Marty understood the
significance of what they were trying to do and did the same thing on the other
side of the pool although he added one additional quality as he said “We come
in peace” several times as he looked at them – motionless, except for this
gesture