Chapter 1: Awakenings

           “Man”, thought John, “I really don’t want to be here, now. Phobos is just coming up over the horizon and I wanted to take Ariel to see it. But no, I had to be stuck here in this stupid cave, looking for dead Martians. At least, there’s no one here to bother me; especially Jenkins. Stupid idiot, always playing jokes on people… One of these days, I’ll get him for filling my suit up with dust.” John walked along the cave path, his suit-light illuminating the barren rocks around and over him. The path had been worn smooth centuries ago, the scientist-guys theorized, by the inhabitants dragging supplies inside the caves for storage during the brutal Martian winter. So far, no ‘supplies’ had been located…Most of the cave had been mapped, but there were a few side passages far underground that still needed checking.

          “OK, here we are… At least, if I’m reading the map correctly… this is the arm I’m supposed to check out…” “John to control, ya hear me? Over”

          “Control here… We read you loud and clear, John… Have you located the correct passage?”

          “Yes, control. I have the CORRECT passage… Sheesh, get lost three times and no one ever lets you forget it.”

          “I was just ribbing ya, Johnny! Turn on your suit-cam and I’ll start the recorders… Good luck.”

          “Suit-cam on… Over…” “I’m gonna need luck to find anything new in these old caves. They’ve been completely picked over since we landed here almost 100 years ago… One thing that does concern me is all the people who’ve gone missing down here… what is it, 37 by now? I DON’T want to be 38! I’ve got a date with the hottest lookin’ lady on Mars later tonight and I’m SURE not gonna be late for that!”

          John continued down the side passage, stopping every five steps and swinging the suit-cam from side to side, per standard exploratory procedure. After a half hour of NOTHING, John stopped and sat for the mandatory rest break. “I could keep going”, he thought,  “Stupid rest breaks… I’m acclimated to the cold and the thin air AND I’m over the surgery to adapt me to the atmosphere… I should just keep going… the sooner I’m done, the sooner I’m back on the surface…” John put his hand on the wall to help lever himself up. When he pushed, his hand made a hole in the rock wall. “What the heck? Stupid rocks! There must be ANOTHER passage behind here, too!” “Control… Come in… I’ve found another side passage here…lessee, it’s 620 steps down corridor 42beta, on the right hand side… Control? Did you get that? Over… Control?” “That’s odd.. Radio was working fine a minute ago…” “Control, come in…” “Aww, the heck with ‘em… I’ll check it out myself and report on it when I get back…They’ll never know I stepped off the path… I would like to see what’s in there. AND, maybe I’ll find the long lost Martians…”

          John started chipping at the hole with the hand axe, all thoughts of Ariel and Phobos gone from his mind. Soon he had a hole large enough to step through into the space behind the wall. Checking to be sure he could stand up after he got through, John shone the suit-light inside. “What the heck have I found…? I hope the suit-cam is getting all of this… That looks like a cavern or a grotto or something…Man, now the suit-cam isn’t working either… I’d better get out of here and get some bigwigs down here, pronto.” John started to turn to leave through the hole in the wall when he caught movement in the cavern out of the corner of his eye. Whipping around and shining the suit-light, John let out a startled yelp. “I’m sure I saw something move… Wonder what it was…I’ll just check it out before I go… give me something more to report when I get back.” John started across the cavern and suddenly stopped. “Waitaminite, did Jenkins know I was gonna be in this arm tonight? I don’t think so… And he’s pulled some doozies, but… coming all the way down here and cementing over a hole in the wall… This isn’t one of his practical jokes, I’m sure of it… But what did I see move over here?… It was by that tall hunk of rock that seems to grow on the wall”

          John stepped up in front of the hunk of rock and shone his suit-light up to the top. “Ohhhh DEAR GOD… I’ve got to get out of here!” he thought, backing away from the wall, unable to take his eyes off the face on top… It looked like a spider’s head… but with too many eyes… “But, spiders have a lot of eyes”, he thought, “that… thing… just has too many…Spiders’ eyes aren’t on stalks, either…It ain’t right… I’ve gotta get someone down here...” Then the eyes started to move…

          “Humannn…’, the voice seemed to echo in his head. “It …hasss beennn… a lonng time…”

        “What… What are you…?” John asked, rooted to the spot like a bird confronted by a cobra.

          “We’ve… beennn trapped… here forrr eonnss… Weee hungerrr…” The being lifted a leg from the wall and it came away with a sucking sound, the surrounding wall crumbling away. Slowly it flexed its multiple arms that seemed more like tentacles. John was reaching behind him to find the entrance with his hand, hoping he had time to dive out before the ‘thing’ got to him.

          “Weee Hunngerrrr…” The statue, moving quicker now, stepped over John and, lightning quick, the mouth opened up and a tongue like a siphon hose shot out and embedded itself in John’s shoulder.

          As he screamed in pain, the last thing he thought of, as the blood and other vital fluids were rapidly drained from his body, was that he would never see the Phoboian moon-rise again.

    “Control to John, come in John…John, are you there? You’ll get in trouble if you’re messing around, John… It’s a violation to turn off your suit radio at any time… And, turning off the suit-cam is gonna make the supervisor REAL annoyed with you… John? Are you there…? Better get the search teams ready… John’s gone and gotten lost again…”

Chapter 2: Discovery

            “This is where we found the body, sir. No one has touched anything, per your orders.”

          “Has the M.E. been here yet?”

          “Yes, sir. He said that the body had been drained of every trace of fluid… See the skin is flaking off…But you can tell by what’s left of the face that John was scared to death before… Whatever got him…”

          “Anyone have any clues…? Was anyone seen leaving the mine?”

          “No one has left the mine since we started searching for Mr. Rando. Since we can account for everyone. We think that… a Martian bear got him… and then the spider-leeches went to work on ‘im…”

          “There isn’t a bear within 300 Km of here! And the leeches leave rings where they attach. And no one has seen one of those since the drought… what 35 years ago… What crap are you trying to sell me here?”

          “That is only the working theory… Come over here for a second…” The inspector and the Captain of Explorers walked over near the wall, away from the rest of the technicians working around the body. “Actually”, The Captain said in a conspiratorial whisper, “We found some evidence that… something… large… was in here… and has since left… I was about to notify the Marine barracks.”

          “Like that will do a lot of good… They haven’t had much exercise since the food riots during the drought… I still believe that the murderer was human. Still, it would be good to have them on alert if there was something unusual here. Have you accessed the suit-recorder?”

          “Yes. It shows that Mr. John Rando stopped for his mandatory half hour break while on routine mining exploration… He mentions… something about getting started so he can get done sooner… Then there’s a lot of static on the disc. We’ve detected a residual electro-magnetic trace on the suit components. Whoever, whatever did this… knew how to hide it from the authorities…”

          “I’ll announce later this afternoon that we have a suspect in mind for the first murder on Mars in 20 years. That’ll allay any fears that something… native… has came to…”

          “Captain!”

          “What is it Jenkins?”

          “Captain, look at this… We put the disc from his suit in the replay drive and ran the rebuild program with reference to solar radiation… And we have a positive recording now!”

          “Excellent, Jenkins! Set it to threeD and broadcast it… Over there in that flat area… Everyone! Dim the lights! We’ve got a threeD image from the suit! Ready Jenkins? OK, QUIET everyone.” The image shows the cave path as John walked along, exploring the arm, all according to procedure. The playback fast-forwards to John’s half hour break and the image slows to a crawl as Jenkins pauses it for a second.

          “Here’s where we lose the sound, Captain.”

          “OK, Jenkins. Continue to play it back, but at half speed. Maybe we can make out the face of the killer…” Slowly the image shows John tipping backwards as his hand goes through the wall and then him working to enlarge the hole. “That’s his first mistake… Not reporting a deviation from the path…” The images show where John stepped into the cavern and looked around, but get increasingly scratchy. Jenkins, Refine the scan rate on the disk… see if you can get a cleaner image…” Jenkins pauses the image and tinkers with the player for a second.

          “Here we go, Captain. This is as clear as I can get it.” The playback resumes and shows John looking around wildly, then backing away from the wall. Part of the wall detaches itself and takes a step in his direction.

          “What in God’s name?” asks the Captain. Then the image, blurred even at half speed, shows the head of the ‘thing’ lunging at John and the sound kicks back in and John’s drawn out, dying scream is heard. Everyone started looking around wildly and one of the technician’s threw-up messily on the floor of the cavern. “Dear God… What was that? I’ve been on Mars for 40 years and I’ve never seen anything like that before. We have to get to the surface and notify the Marines, NOW! What ever that was, I don’t want it getting out of the mines.”

          “Everyone calm down!” said the inspector, trying to restore order to the nervous technicians. “Whatever that was… It’s gone now. Take your last recording of the scene and gather up your gear… We’ll proceed back to the surface and let the Marines handle this.”

          “Sir”, asked Jenkins, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? IF that is one of the native Martians… And the Marines gun it down… The bigwigs will be mad…”

          “I don’t care if it’s the Son of God himself! Did you see that… face…? It was pure evil… And it killed John Rando… I’m sure the Marines will try to capture it alive if they can… But I personally hope that they don’t leave enough alive to put in a lunch box!”

          “OK, Captain… All the techs are ready… What’s that noise…? “

          “Captain, did you leave a guard on the path outside?”

          “No, inspector. I didn’t think it was necessary.” The sound of something ‘large’ can be heard getting closer to the cavern. “Inspector, don’t you carry a weapon?”

          “I haven’t needed one in 10 years. I’d give my left leg for a lazer-pistol right now. The technicians were milling about, all staring at the entrance to the cavern. Suddenly the lights started getting dim and a sound seemed to echo into the cavern.

       “HUNGERRRRR…”

          Everyone retreated to the cave wall furthest from the entrance, most of them shaking in fright. One of the technicians fainted and fell to the cave floor un-noticed. The light shining through the entrance was blocked out and a massive ‘form’ seemed to flow into the cavern like an obscene fog. Two more techs fainted and one soiled himself. The inspector stepped forward and hurled a rock at the form and yelled “Begone demon!” The rock bounced harmlessly off the form and one of the forelegs snapped forward and impaled the inspector. Over the inspector’s short scream, the rest of the living heard a voice that sounded like an echo in their minds.

          “OURRR HUNGERRR WILLLL BEEE APPEASEDD… THE WORRRLD WILLLL KNOOOW THE TREADDD OFFF THE ANCIENT GODSSS AGAINNN…” Then, the being began to feed.

          “Major! We have a report from the Hydrogen mine, Sir.”

          “Give it to me here, Private.”

          “Sir, they report that they’ve lost contact with a search party below the surface, sir.”

          “When did they transmit the message, Private?”

          “Sir, we just received it, sir. They say they lost contact two hours ago.’

          “TWO HOURS AGO? Why didn’t they report sooner?” asked the Major, grateful for a distraction from routine duty.

          “Sir, I don’t know, sir. And Major… We’ve just lost contact with the mine as well…”

Continued in issue #2