On the moon, daylight lasts fourteen Earth days, and so do the nights. Moonbase crews always use Greenwich Mean Time to keep some semblance of normal sleep, relaxation and work periods. Crystal knew this which meant that her LRP did too.
The EVA airlock, when opened from outside the dome, usually ran a pump to cycle the air back into the main facility. The pump could be heard throughout the Moonbase corridors and in rooms adjacent to its housing. The sound would be enough to alert any guards on duty. Crystal was using an emergency valve to allow the air to vent into space, from the dome to the moon. If done slowly it was almost silent. It took much longer, and it seemed an age before the red light flicked over to green. The black woman’s face inside the helmet looked at the door opening mechanism. The change of light colour meant that there was vacuum inside the EVA dome.
Crystal swung over the safety lever and turned the spigot-like control which unsealed the door. She did everything slowly and quietly, knowing that noises could travel through the building itself, even if silent in the vacuum of space.
Her gloved hand grasped the handle and she pulled. Initially there was a little resistance, then the silicone seal released its grip and the door opened. Roy joined her at the door and the two infected astronauts entered the dome.
Very slowly, and as stealthily as possible, Crystal closed the outer door and sealed it, and Roy pressed the large green button on the inner wall which allowed air to fill the dome from the general Moonbase supply. Unlike the garage dome, the small EVA dome did not need pumps to pressurise, so repressurisation was almost silent. One minute later it matched Moonbase.
Roy wiped the glazed section of the inner airlock door which had developed some misting from the humidity in the atmosphere of the main dome. He peered into the corridor. One space-suited person was sitting about fifteen metres along the main corridor looking at a handheld tablet. Roy watched him or her for a while and saw the regular movements of the fingers of the right hand which indicated that the person was changing pages, so probably reading an ebook.
Crystal took a sampling container from a pouch on her hip. It was about twenty-five centimetres long and maybe ten in diameter. She unscrewed the lid.
Roy cracked open the door, stopping and looking at the guard. No movement. He opened it a little further and checked again. Still no movement. He repeated the process until the door was open about twelve centimetres. Still no movement from the guard.
Crystal dropped to her knees and placed the open cylinder into the gap. Forty almost invisible transparent LRPs were quickly out of it and rapidly climbing the walls of the central corridor, their movement a cross between a jet-propelled slug and a supercharged inchworm. They concealed themselves beside light fittings and electrical trunking.
Roy pulled the door closed and sealed it.
Crystal walked to the other end of the EVA dome and turned the spigot which allowed the air in the dome to leach out into the vacuum of space very slowly, again avoiding the use of the pump. Their suits began to swell as the pressure dropped.
Soon the door was open. Crystal closed the spigot and they both left the dome. Together, they sealed the airlock, closed the outer spigot and pressed the repressurise button. They waited until the red light came on to indicate that the dome was repressurising, then made their way back to buggy two which was sitting, facing away from Moonbase, ready to go.
As if in a silent movie, the space-age buggy drove away from Moonbase towards the Asimov Rille.
Inside Moonbase, fully aware of how to control human beings, one LRP was already climbing the guard’s back. It knew there would be one dangerous moment. When it slithered over the lip of the faceplate it would be visible. It readied itself. The guard, Gillian, clicked to turn the page of the ebook.
Whether or not, for a moment, she saw the LRP, there was still no time to react. In an instant, it was on her cheek, through her skin, controlling the central nervous system and paralysing her.
Gillian jerked and twisted on the seat. The Kindle clattered to the floor and then it was over. The LRP, now in control, reached down and collected the ereader.
Another guard appeared beside her. ‘You okay? Heard a noise.’
‘Nodded off and dropped my Kindle,’ she said.
‘Boring this.’
‘Yes.’
‘Going to get a coffee. Want one?’
‘Good idea. Might wake me up.’
Mikhail turned towards the common room. Four LRPs hitchhiked on his suit.