LARC Transmissions - An Anki Legacies Science Fantasy Anthology for Young Adults

Life within Enceladus

Christy wondered what color the creature would be under sunlight. In the alien sea, the oceanographer's biomechanical eyes fixed on a deep green exoskeleton mottled with vibrant blue. She glanced at Rob, who had finally taken notice of the strange animal. Rob's synthetic gills flared open above his collarbone in a gasp for breath. Bubbles escaped his mouth as he spoke into the microphone implanted in his throat.

"That could be the biggest thing in Enceladus, " Rob said.

Christy heard through the receiver implanted in her ear.

"Those pincers could lop your leg off, " Christy replied.

Her short blond hair rippled. Christy and Rob departed before they could encounter the creature. Its fish tail beat the sea bed and sent plumes of silt up, partially obscuring features. Two knobbed thick shoulders above arms ending in pincers connected a plated lobster shell back with a rounded, neckless, head. On its belly dozens of little arms worked rapidly to capture fish to pass into a dart lined maw. The creature stretched ten feet from tail tip to searing yellow eyes, eyes that snapped to attention and locked on the two humans.

"We discovered aliens! This guy looks like a lobster on top and a dolphin on the bottom. Do you think we can talk to them? People back on Earth can talk with dolphins right?" Rob asked.

"We might be able to communicate, but it may decide we are a meal. Let's take caution and give this thing some space. He'd be better observed from the sea rover, " Christy replied.

Rob put a hand to his laser drill. The mining tool could bore through solid rock, and it would defend against this creature's pincers. Christy motioned for her partner to back away. They swam above the cave entrance without turning their backs to the animal. It remained motionless, and seemed to approve of their retreat.

The explorers used their synthetic fins, which connected at rib and forearm, to push away. Altered feet with long narrow webbed toes allowed Christy and Rob to double the distance between the creature and themselves in a second. Their eyes, gills, flipper feet, and arm fin implants proved necessary to live in the subterranean ocean nestled under the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The moon's elliptical orbit caused friction which warmed the water.

Christy had mapped a hundred geysers nearby whose temperature would spike to nearly two hundred degrees Fahrenheit, at a moment's notice. If the unfortunate passerby didn't boil, they got ejected onto the frozen lunar surface or directly into the vacuum of space.

Their expedition, the first, sought alien life and samples of silica, iron, and any precious metal which might be discovered. The League altered thirty men and women for the mission.

Rob and Christy continued their retreat, tripled and then quadrupled the distance, and the creature remained motionless. A shrill, rapid burst of sound resonated from the direction they headed toward. The explorers halted. A response chimed faintly to their left, and another still fainter to their right.

The green-blue creature lunged for Rob, pincers snapping violently. Rob dodged, but the creature continued to snap and lunge toward the man. The creature shrilled a cry in response to its partners.

"Christy, we have to swim. Maybe the both of us could take one, but I think we're surrounded."

Robert Mullen did not avoid a fight. A lifelong Jui Jitsu grappler and former rescue diver prior to the mission; Christy guessed that Rob had never run from anything.

"Up. Let's go straight up and hope these bottom feeders aren't able to get close to the ice ceiling, " Christy replied.

The pair pushed off the ocean bed and plumed a haze of silt in their wake. They stroked with every bit of strength and haste for long minutes. Rob planted an anchor into the ice roof of the ocean and the pair clipped carabiners on, allowing for a rest.

They peered into the depths for the strange creatures, and strained to hear their cries, reminiscent of dolphin song.

Tense minutes passed. Only the rapid inhalation of oxygen through gill slits could be heard. Only the glow of their own body heat could be seen. Perhaps the creature and its unseen companions did not dare to leave the ocean floor after all.

Their sea rover waited miles away, unmanned and nestled in a desolate valley on the ocean floor. The excursion had taken them farther than any group had ventured in the short weeks since their arrival.

Christy smiled at her partner. In sunlight her skin shone a deep tanned olive, indicative of her Greek heritage. Down here, with synthetic lenses, she looked a much deeper green.

He returned her grin, his paler complexion shone closer to lime. He ran a hand across his brow, a nervous gesture Christy recognized from their space journey.

Christy began to speak when multiple shrills cut in. The noise came from three sides and below them. Their respite enabled the creatures to surround them. The motion of a mottled shell and tail appeared from below.

Christy's face froze in horror. Rob unclipped from their anchor and grasped the laser drill.

"Stay right above me, " he said, pushing off the ice roof above. He bore down upon the back of the creature not more than fifty feet under. Rob stabbed with the laser drill.

The creature screamed in alarm and a tiny stream of dark fluid trailed out from the wound. A powerful smack of its tail knocked Rob on the base of his skull. He smacked into its approaching partner, the tracking device on his wrist crunched by the contact.

Rob went limp, Christy screamed and clutched her partner under his arms. She kicked furiously and attempted to escape. She felt the grasp of a dozen thin arms embrace her as another creature pulled Rob from her grip. Christy struggled against the grip until it squeezed so tightly she lost her breath. She faded into unconsciousness.

A pincer tore her tracking device free and examined it next to Rob's crushed unit for a moment, then both drifted to the ocean floor.

Christy dreamed of their first days on Enceladus. She heard herself murmur and the drowsed voice of Rob shared the dream of weeks past.

A shrill call kept the dreams focused upon their arrival and objectives.

She murmured that their homes came along with the explorers in vacuum sealed canisters that Rob kept calling coffee cans. They released the lids in an area close enough to a geyser for the shuttle to slip in and out, yet far enough to avoid the harmful temperature spikes and seismic activity.

Their outpost grew in an hour's time before their eyes. The crew marveled as a small city expanded and solidified despite foreknowledge of the genetically modified lifeform.

LARC Enceladan Outpost, was the colonial league's aquatic dwelling prototype. Scientists back on Earth had manipulated polyps to rapidly produce coral in the shapes of dwellings and to resume their natural lifespans after. The method's original purpose preserved the coral reefs that harbor much of the life in Earth's oceans. It not only housed the explorers but would potentially bring alien life to them.

******

Rob and Christy remained in their unconscious dream-like state for weeks. Their captors fed them a sea grass they had long used to place members of their species in a suggestive state to harmlessly hold, interrogate, and sustain them. The method worked well on these strange, soft, intruders.

The creatures listened to their deep, slow speech until they understood a few of their words, and then imitated the sounds. Others among their tribe followed Christy and Rob's directions to the outpost and spied upon the explorers who built a strange city where their people had gathered food since time before awareness.

They relished the word for their world and took to calling themselves Enceladans when they practiced communication in the human method.

A few Enceladans became fascinated with the creatures and kept Rob and Christy beyond when their tribe determined humans posed no threat.

******

"Speak of Earth, " a shrill voice directed.

"Most of Earth is covered in oceans, " Christy stammered. In the back of her mind, the explorer harbored suspicions of her long sleep. The dolphin shrieks had changed to requests for the most mundane information.

"Men and women live on the rocky surface, " Rob put in.

Having been under the influence of sea grass for long weeks, their bodies began to develop immunity to its effects. After a long, uneventful series of questions Christy's eyes flitted open and she watched as their captor swam off to forage.

In the desperate moments of realization that followed, her body began to slowly regain motor function. Beside her, Rob also began to stir. He reached out and grasped her hand. The pair exchanged desperate looks until able to speak to each other.

"Christy, how long have we been like this?"

"I don't know, but it must have been a long time. I swear that thing spoke to us."

Uncounted minutes passed while the two sat and attempted to wiggle fingers and toes. Eventually they stroked slowly to the mouth of a shallow cave. Christy pulled a slate from her utility pouch and located the sea rover in relation to their current position. The two slid quietly through the dark water, thankful to be on the outskirts of a community of the creatures.

Christy and Rob swam a few miles without break. After their long span of inactivity, neither would stop until the landscape became familiar. Muscles burned and synthetic gills pulled for ragged breath until at last a rocky outcropping provided a landmark, and hope for a return to their outpost.

The two hid within a knuckle in the formation and regained composure in silence for long minutes. When their breath rose and fell at regular intervals unstrained by exertion, Christy peered in the direction they had come from.

"I don't see anything."

"I swear I heard one of them speak to us. Not that high pitched whistle, but English. It asked us about Earth, " Rob shuddered as he spoke.

"I heard it too. That plant it kept feeding us must be like a drug. They must have wanted us to talk about ourselves until they understood."

"There are at least as many of these as there are people back at the base. What would happen if they decided we were anything but an amusement? Christy, we have to warn the others before those things find the base."

"We've been gone a long time. I hope it's not already too late." Christy reached for her slate to key in a message, but a shrill call froze her.

Somewhere ahead of them, a whistle answered in reply. The creatures had surrounded them once again. The pair stared into one another's shocked faces for a long moment before resolve hardened their features. Christy unclipped her belt knife and Rob grabbed at the empty holster for the laser drill, he had dropped it during their fight. Christy pointed and Rob grabbed a large stone near to hand.

Tense seconds passed.

The swish of the creatures sounded from two sides overhead. Rob signaled a three count and the pair launched off the sea bed toward their once and would be captors.

Both creatures stopped their approach. Rob's blow deflected harmlessly off the creature's raised pincer. The water's friction diminished much of the force. Christy buried her knife to the hilt in her target's belly between feelers. It belted an agonized shriek and fled desperately toward the surface out of sight, knife still embedded.

Rob rounded the stone back upon his pursuer and crashed down a blow on one eye, even as his opponent slashed on his shin. The creature was stunned and drifted into the outcropping of rock, where Rob and Christy hid seconds before. Blood coalesced lazily from the tear in Rob's wetsuit. He looked ready to faint, but Christy was there. She wrapped his arm around her and they swam until she saw a small cave.