Thanks to the camera on Marcus’ suit, I could see what he saw—gray mountains covered in dust surrounded where they stood, all free of greenery and life.
The stars above hung in a black sky without clouds or a hint of water.
They were on top of a mountain. The surface slanted without turning into a sheer drop. It wasn’t a cliff there, but if he ran in any direction there would be a drop into the darkness below soon enough. Continue reading Moon: Part 12
Activating my rocket pack, I flew toward them as Jaclyn raced across the ground, moving slower and more carefully than usual to avoid launching herself into the ceiling.
I’d done the same with the rockets without thought.
The Xiniti implants helped with that, implanting that skill along with all the other knowledge we had available.
As good as that was, it meant we weren’t moving as quickly as we could on Earth, giving us time to watch the inevitable. Continue reading Moon: Part 11
Pushing myself up and jumping to the side, I dodged another punch from Victor, who’d closed the distance in a step.
I fired off two boombots at him. Both hit, throwing him backward into a blue/gray metal device shaped like a doorless refrigerator.
I didn’t want to kill him. I also couldn’t think of an obvious way to prevent it. I hadn’t brought many goobots on this mission and didn’t think they’d do much good against someone with Jaclyn’s strength.
On the other hand, I realized, it might give me time to think of something better. Continue reading Moon: Part 10
Plan b was to use an object that the Artificers had designed to end civilizations. It wasn’t a question of whether that would be bad for us, but whether the effect would be to empower Victor or to infect us.
“Not good,” Jaclyn muttered and her hands twitched, activating a new feature of her suit, which I’d described as “essentially a gumball dispenser.”
With a hand motion, she could cause dense balls of an alien-designed alloy to roll out of her suit and land in her hands. Then she could throw it. Continue reading Moon: Part 9
Over the comm, I asked, “Was that you?”
“Me?” Marcus shook his head, “No. I just connected.”
Victor stared at me and looked over at Rachel. Then he shouted, “I see you for what you are—avatars of the Artificers. Die!”
Then all the lights winked out as the doors on the boxes that Cassie called “psychotic monkey boxes” opened. For the record, they weren’t monkeys. They were bipedal, but they had two extra arms compared to regular monkeys. They also had tails, but that wasn’t weird.
What was weird is that they didn’t have fur. They had dark, gray skin, glistening with what I assumed to be moisture, but didn’t have to be water. My gut feeling was that it was some kind of oil. Continue reading Moon: Part 8
Cassie didn’t hesitate to respond, treating a conversation with a time traveler (I guess) trapped on the Moon like a normal thing.
“We need to get into the equipment in this room. Someone’s shut off access and I’m assuming it’s you.”
Victor eyed her, “Who sent you?”
Furrowing her brow, Cassie said, “Sent us? No one. We’re here on our own.” Continue reading Moon: Part 7
I used the Rocket suit’s sensors to see if I couldn’t make the sound clearer. When I did, I learned something.
It still didn’t make sense.
Querying my implant, I checked if it might be another language. My implant identified bits of Sumerian, a variant of pidgin Abominator used by their human servants, English, and several ancient human languages that must have been common when the Abominators were on Earth.
Translated into modern English, the mass of words was still gibberish. Continue reading Moon: Part 6
Zooming in with the Rocket suit’s sensors, I realized something. I knew this guy. I’d last seen him while fighting Rook and other operatives of the Nine at another lab analyzing alien technology, that one on Earth.
I’d worked for a company called Higher Ground and this guy, Victor, had been my co-worker, mentor, and semi-supervisor in an internship that was an undercover mission. Victor had seemed nice enough at first. Continue reading Moon: Part 5
I couldn’t rule out the possibility that some were literally in our basement or one of our storage rooms. The original team confiscated a lot of technology from supervillains that they didn’t feel comfortable handing over to the government.
I also hadn’t forgotten that Yoselin’s father and Russian Victory had also brought some home from the Moon.
I’d always assumed it had been Abominator tech, but seeing the room, it could have been Artificer tech. There were enough empty spots to be nervous about. Continue reading Moon: Part 4
Marcus shook his head, “That does not look good. I hope whatever did it is gone. Hey, Accelerando, any idea what killed them?”
Shooting him a look, Jaclyn said, “I’m training to be a doctor, not a forensic pathologist. I have no idea. Without an internship in alien autopsies, I can’t even guess whether it was the Abominators’ defenses or another creature.”
She leaned forward to inspect the bodies anyway and her eyes glazed over as she took what had to be a massive download from her implant. Continue reading Moon: Part 3