Emerging, hands and arms trembling from effort, Sasha patted Rachel on the shoulder. “Almost over,” she said.
As promised, moments later Zack slid the shovel toward Harley. “That’s it,” he said.
Sasha reached the bundle that held Megan’s body before Zack did. Rachel did, too. It seemed to her that Zack hesitated…as if relishing this last moment of contact, no matter how bizarre.
Finally, moving carefully, the three gently lowered the remains into the grave. Zack stepped back. Sasha looked so drained that Rachel picked up the shovel and began covering the body.
Zack took over, and then it was all done.
Except for the words. “Do you want to say something?” Harley said. His voice was so gentle he didn’t sound like Harley Drake.
Zack took a big breath, his chest swelling, and said, “I don’t think I can.” And then he simply broke down.
Which triggered unstoppable tears in Rachel, too. In her head, she was hearing Megan’s voice again…not the weird way it had sounded during their last exchange via NASA TV, or the sharp tones of a mother-to-teen-daughter, but the voice Rachel had heard as a child, being rocked to sleep or comforted after a nightmare. “There, there, baby girl.”
Zack pulled her to him, and there they stood…two sobbing wrecks.
“I’ll say something.” It was Harley Drake. “‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust’…it’s not just words, it’s a commandment. Rest in peace, Megan Doyle Stewart. You’ve earned it.”
Almost on command, the group of five turned and began walking or rolling away. Only Camilla lingered, staring at the grave, making a sad little gesture with her hands.
Rachel shook her head, trying to stop weeping. And found herself laughing.
“What’s that?” Zack said, his eyes red.
“Don’t you think it’s funny, Daddy?”
“Funny?”
“You’ve buried Mom twice now, on two different planets.”
Her father stared at her. His eyes went wide, an expression Rachel had rarely seen, and always feared. But in an instant the scary face was gone, replaced by something more benign. He simply hugged her—
Suddenly they heard a terrifying sound—a raspy screech, like the cry of a demented eagle. Only there couldn’t be eagles here…certainly nothing was flying. “Jesus Christ!” Harley said. “What was that?”
Sasha pointed, just as, quicker than any human had ever moved, a creature shot out of the trees and snatched one of the red melons from Camilla’s hands. It ran toward the Beehive.
“Come on,” Zack said. He was going to follow it.
Harley snapped, “Why do we care? Let it eat the thing!”
“I want to know what that animal is,” Zack said. “And whether or not that melon is poisonous.” He headed off, showing more energy than Rachel had yet seen. She and the others followed, an increasing distance behind.
“Not to be argumentative,” Sasha said, “but that animal might be able to eat all kinds of things that would kill us.”
“Not if it’s a monkey,” Rachel said. She had spotted it again…the creature was perched atop a good-sized boulder near the Beehive entrance, banging the melon until it broke open.
“I don’t know if that’s a monkey,” Zack said. “Its skin looked too smooth…oh.”
Now they all had a good view of the creature on the rock, which was greedily stuffing melon guts into its monkey face.
“It’s a vervet monkey,” Sasha said. She turned to Rachel. “Good eyes.”
Rachel couldn’t have named the creature, but something about its head shape, hands, tail, and running posture had just said “monkey.”
“Don’t they have fur?” Harley said.
“It’s probably got fur under that harder second skin,” Zack said. “When things come out of the Beehive, that’s what they wear…at least a couple of layers, like diving suits.”
“How do we know it came from the Beehive?” Harley said.
Sasha pointed at relatively fresh tracks that led back into the Beehive. “Look for yourself.”
“Does that mean this little guy was resurrected?” Harley said.
“It might,” Zack said. He turned to Rachel. “Where on Earth are vervet monkeys found?”
Now she was embarrassed, because she didn’t know. But Sasha rescued her. “They’re found in the Far East, particularly India.”
Harley and Zack exchanged looks. “That sort of fits,” Zack said. He nodded to Camilla. “So far we’ve only seen humans being brought back, and every one of those had a direct personal link to one of the humans here.”
Harley snorted. “So, if I get this…we’re wondering which of the Bangalore people is hot for a monkey?”
Sasha slapped Harley on the shoulder. Meanwhile, Rachel was keeping an eye on the monkey…which was busy devouring the melon while staying vigilant.
Zack was heading deeper into the Beehive. “I wonder what else is in here?” Rachel found the whole place creepy in the extreme, but she wasn’t going to let her father out of her sight.
She followed. So did Camilla, closely, then Harley and Sasha.
The Beehive was dark, except for light from the large opening into the habitat itself, and from a weird glow emanating from the hexagonal things along the walls.
Camilla made a sound and clutched Rachel’s hand. “Daddy, what are these things?”
“We called them cells,” Zack said. “They’re some kind of incubators.”
“And Mom is one of these?”
Zack nodded. The whole idea made Rachel shudder. “You know, Daddy—”
She and the others heard another strange sound. But this wasn’t the screeching of a reborn vervet monkey…this was a pitiful yowl.
“God, there wouldn’t be a baby here?” Sasha said.
Harley rolled forward and around a corner. “No, I think we’ve got that covered elsewhere.” Rachel knew that the Bangalore object had brought a mother and newborn child to Keanu. “Zack!”
Zack had been searching down another alley in the Beehive. Now he ran to Harley. Rachel wasn’t in a hurry, however; she wasn’t sure she wanted to see what was making that awful sound.
It was coming from a cell a meter off the ground…there was light inside as well as the shadow of a creature—another animal, Rachel thought—thrashing in agony. “Let’s get it out of there,” Zack said, chipping away at the cell’s membrane with the shovel.
As soon as he’d created a tear, he and Sasha peeled back the membrane and reached inside.
They pulled out a dog.
Or what looked and sounded like a dog that had lost its master. The creature had a snout and four legs but was encased in the same leathery second skin as the monkey, coated in slime from the cell. Which the dog immediately showered on Rachel and the others as it thrashed and shook itself. With Sasha pinning the animal, Zack managed to peel the second skin away from its face.
Able to breathe and see, the animal calmed down. “Anybody here a dog person?” Zack said.
“I grew up with a border collie,” Sasha said. She was making soothing sounds as she gently peeled away more of the covering.
“I was actually wondering what breed this was.”
“Looks like a golden-Lab mix,” Harley said. “Not that I’m an expert.”
Just then the dog wrestled itself out of Zack and Sasha’s grasp and performed a violent shiver, obviously trying to free itself of what remained of the second skin.
“Poor thing,” Rachel said. Not that she was a dog fan.
“I wonder who this guy belongs to,” Sasha said.
The dog looked right at Rachel…tongue hanging out. Here he comes, she thought, ready to back away.
But the dog only took a step toward Rachel. And she couldn’t help reaching out to pat his head. The dog responded by licking her hand.
“Well,” Zack said, “we know who he belongs to for the moment.”
“Rachel, you ought to give your dog a name,” Harley said.
“He’s not my dog!” The only dog Rachel had ever liked had been in some old television show. “All right, call him ‘Cowboy.’”