“What the hell happened, Pierce?” Block asked.
“I ran into something. Something big. Like a worm. But with teeth.”
As Block came closer, Pierce could see the frown on his face. “You losing your shit, Pierce?” he asked.
“No, Sergeant.” She pointed to the lumps of black flesh glistening under their headlamps.
“What the hell?” Korbin asked.
“Wong,” Block said. “You get that net relay set up?”
“Affirmative, Sergeant,” came Wong’s reply.
“Did you find a reference to that minnow thing?”
“Minhocão,” Wong replied. “Yes, Sergeant. It is a reference to a creature of South American legend.”
“Some kind of oversized worm?” Block asked.
“Minhocão means Big Earthworm, in Portuguese. Their existence has never been proven. Though there are numerous reports of damage being attributed to their tunneling activities.”
“Pierce may have found one.”
“That is interesting, Sergeant. I have taken the liberty of bringing your helmet cam feed on screen. If a sample could be taken, it would provoke interest in the scientific community—”
“Yeah, whatever. Wong, it looks like one or more of these worm things might have done for the prospector crew.”
“May I have permission to come to your position and assess the specimen?”
“Knock yourself out, Wong. Any word from Howard or Gordy?
“Negative. However, the activation of the satellite uplink would suggest that Gordinski has completed her assigned task.”
“Goddamn, Barbie dolls,” Korbin muttered.
Pierce shot him a look, which he ignored. Having an artificial like Wong on the crew took some getting used to. After three months, only his formal mode of speech made him stand out from his human comrades. Pierce didn’t get bothered by having a robot with a human face in the team. Korbin was one of those people who didn’t like working with artificials.
“Alright, Korbin, Pierce, we’ll find out what’s happened to Gordy and Howard. Wong can cut himself some worm steaks and then we’ll regroup at the primary camp. Got it?”
“Hooh-rah,” Korbin and Pierce said immediately.
“Wong, we’re moving out. Going to find Gordy and Howard. Get your samples and return to primary site.”
“Yes, Sergeant,” Wong replied.
“Follow me,” Block said and tramped past the splattered carcass.
“We’re going around the outside?” Korbin asked.
“Yes, goddamnit,” Block snapped. “Gordy and Howard should be at the satellite relay tower, which is part of the surface infrastructure. That means outside the complex. If they’ve moved, or are injured, they’ll still be out here somewhere.”
Korbin didn’t look convinced. He held his rifle ready and followed the sergeant. Pierce took a deep breath and exhaled as Block led them into a stairwell and they headed up towards the surface. She tried not to think about the black sky they would walk under.
Block keyed in the access code to open the interior airlock door. They cycled through the chamber and stepped out onto the soft dust. The satellite relay station was several hundred meters away, a dome with metal fingers pointing to the sky and the familiar dish shapes of signal receivers.
Pierce noticed Korbin’s footprints shuddering. Tiny avalanches of particles falling into the impressions filled the grooves of his boot marks.
“Sarge!” she yelled, knowing what the tremors heralded. The ground rippled and the three of them stumbled as a boil of grey sand and rock swelled under Block’s feet. He fell backwards, landing hard on the ground. A gigantic, dust-coated, black slug burst from the ground. Mouth parts spreading wide as its tongue-tentacles flailed through the empty space, searching for prey.
Pierce dropped to one knee on the quivering soil and fired at the massive target. Korbin opened fire, a silent blast of projectiles blossoming along the worm’s side. Block rolled to his feet and fired. The creature convulsed, sweeping around and knocking Korbin off his feet. Pierce leapt and rolled, the lunar dust behind her exploding with the impact of Korbin’s stray shots.
She came up in a firing position, lunar silt blurring her face plate. Pierce fired at the dark mass until Block gave the order to cease fire.
“Fuck me—” he said.
“Korbin?” Pierce wiped the dust off her visor and stood up. “Korbin?” Block moved around the still creature.
“Shit. Korbin’s down. Wong? Life-signs check on Korbin. Stat.”
“Private Korbin is registering as alive, with significant crush trauma and suppressed respiration.”
Block dropped to his knees and scraped at the lunar dust. “Pierce, give me a hand for fuck’s sake.”
Pierce unclipped a tool from her belt, unfolding it into a wide-mouthed shovel with a handle as long as her arm. Digging their way under the collapsed worm, they uncovered the sleeve of Korbin’s suit. She put the shovel aside and dug his arm out by hand. Finding his glove, she squeezed it reassuringly while trying to get a verbal response over the comms channel.
Pierce hesitated in her efforts as the ground shuddered. Snatching up her rifle, she scanned the surroundings for movement.
A geyser of dust erupted from under the dead worm and Korbin’s arm jerked out of sight.
“Korbin!” Block yelled. “Hang in there, soldier. We’ll get you out. Pierce, help me shift this piece of shit.”
With lunar gravity less than 85 % of earth, the massive creature was light enough for the two soldiers to roll aside though Pierce felt her muscles scream at the strain.
Where Korbin had fallen a circular shaft had opened up. Pierce recognized it immediately. “Sarge, the prospector shafts, what if they’re made by these things?”
“Korbin!” Block was on his hands and knees, broadcasting his comms transmission down into the cold darkness without response.
“Sarge, we should get to the satellite relay. We need to report this.”
“Right, yes. Fuck!” Block shuffled backwards and stood up, the grey dust clinging to his suit in a random camouflage pattern. “Wong? Get a comms link established to GC. They need to know what we’ve found.”
Pierce felt the vibration through her boots and saw the fine lunar dust quivering a moment before the ground collapsed under her feet.
Her vision went dark in the cloud of dust. The sensation of falling was familiar, though the reduced gravity made it feel weird. Completely blinded, Pierce crashed against the wall of the worm’s shaft. The impact sent her tumbling against another wall and then finally, shaken, disorientated, and tasting blood, she hit the ground.
Lying face down, Pierce groaned and took stock, checking her suit sensors. Nothing broken or torn.
“Sarge?” Pierce said into the open comms channel.
Block groaned and crawled out of a drift of lunar dirt. “Goddamn amateur hour. Wong, you receiving?”
Silence hissed in Pierce’s earpiece. Climbing to her feet, she looked up to the faint ring of sunlight visible at the top of the shaft. The worm that had made the hole had vanished.
“Pierce? You alive?” Block asked.
“Hell yeah, Sarge.”
“Fuckin’ A. Now let’s get our asses out of this hole.”
“We’d need a line or something, Sarge.”
Block stood up and tilted back to stare at the hole high above them. “Well fuck,” he announced.
Pierce wondered how the giant worms could have existed in the lunar environment undetected for all this time. The creatures had no eyes and only the probing snake-like tongues. Did they sense vibration, or body heat? There was no sound in a vacuum, and they seemed to cope just fine in the extreme temperature fluctuations of the lunar surface. What did they feed on? Where did they get water?