‘My name is Mark. Who am I speaking to?’ I asked.
‘Roy Williams.’ God, it was my geology buddy.
‘Can we meet, Roy?’
‘You’re killing us. How can we trust you?’
‘We’ve the same problem. You dominate us if you touch us,’ I said.
‘We’ve learned to work with our hosts. We’re no longer a threat.’
‘But you made a major assault on us yesterday during our sleep period,’ I said.
‘Yes, we thought it would be easier to explain if we were inside your minds. We realise it was a mistake and now we don’t know how best to proceed to correct matters,’ said Roy’s voice.
‘Then let’s meet and talk. We have already spoken with one of you in Moonbase. We know you can free the host,’ I said.
‘Will you give us safe passage if we come to Moonbase?’
‘Why not here and now?’ I asked.
‘If we invited you inside, you could kill us all. We don’t have a defence against your radiation beams. We’re very vulnerable. We’re only protected by the airlock and the rock surrounding us.’
‘I could give our word,’ I said.
‘Not good enough. We’re mourning over forty of our kind. You’ve killed that many of us and we don’t know what orders you have had from NASA. Following orders might overrule your word. We can’t take that chance, but two of us will come to Moonbase to discuss matters if you guarantee safe passage.’
‘Only if you do not bring any more entities with you. We will provide safe passage for two of you to discuss the situation.’
‘Return to Moonbase. Two of us will follow for a meeting,’ said Roy’s voice.
‘What are you doing at the rille?’ I asked.
‘We’ll discuss it at Moonbase. We are placing a lot of trust in you as you can easily kill us with your beams. My host says I can trust you, but I’m wary.’
‘You can trust me. I promise. Allow an hour for us to prepare an area in Moonbase for the conference,’ I said.
Was Roy still alive and sharing his body with this LRP? If we got him back to Moonbase, even if the talks went badly, we could soon kill his entity and I’d have my great friend back to normal. I felt guilty thinking along such lines. I’d given my word, but these things were a nightmare.
‘You still monitoring the two LRPs?’ asked Doug on the secure channel.
Mikhail confirmed he was. ‘No change, just waiting.’
‘Okay, Roy, we’re returning to Moonbase. Allow an hour before following,’ I said.
‘We’ll allow an hour,’ said the LRP housed in Roy’s body.
We turned around in the tunnel and made our way towards the entrance, through which we could see the brilliant light of the lunar day. I must admit to being greatly relieved once we had left the cave.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
‘Buggy approaching,’ said Pete Hazel as he stood with Mike Robertson in the garage dome, looking out of the raised door. Two more Marines equipped with large projectors had taken up positions either side of the entrance. They all wore full pressure suits.
‘Copy that, Pete,’ I said from the geo dome where we’d set up the facilities for the secure meeting. We were having to record the session for NASA as we still had no high bandwidth connection to Earth from anywhere but the com dome.
The geo dome was the main laboratory for the bulk of moon research. The usual lab benches would allow three or four people to work with Bunsen burners, taps and sinks, microscopes, electron microscope, and all the equipment which might be found in a modern chemistry laboratory on Earth. In an area near the door, we had set up a table and a number of chairs for the first ever official meeting with alien intelligences. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a meeting with some sort of rebel human alliance, but with bona fide alien creatures.
‘Roy. Do you copy me?’ I asked.
‘Yes, Mark.’
‘When you enter the dome, you are to disembark and stand clear of the buggy. We intend to irradiate it to ensure you have not arrived with more entities.’
‘I understand,’ said the LRP who was using Roy.
We could see the interior of the garage dome on a monitor and watched buggy one enter and stop about five metres from the door, which began to close.
A few minutes later, when pressure had equalised, Roy and Crystal got out of the buggy, in lightweight helmetless pressure suits. They stood at the foot of the ladder and the Marines signalled them to move a few metres away from the buggy.
‘Mark,’ said Mike, ‘there is a bug on Roy’s shoulder, in full view.’
‘It is one of us and is normally in the buggy,’ said Roy. ‘Do not harm it. I’ve brought it out with me to ensure its safety.’
‘Okay, Mike. Leave it be. Irradiate the rest of the buggy,’ I said.
‘Wait,’ said Roy. ‘I’d like more distance between us and your beams. We’re too close.’
We watched the Marines as they allowed the alien delegation to move further away from the vehicle.
‘Far enough?’ asked Pete as the infected humans moved about five metres away from the buggy.
‘This will be a sufficient distance,’ said Roy. Somehow, they had worked out the range of the projectors. How had they done that?
One of the Marines began sweeping his projector over the outside of the buggy and followed that with comprehensive inside irradiation. ‘All clear,’ he said.
The inside door of the garage dome opened and Anna entered. With Mike, she collected the visitors and followed them into Moonbase, keeping them covered with small projectors. The geo dome door opened, and they all walked into the conference area.
Four Marines were standing guard against opposite walls. I sat with Bill Wright on one side of the table with a seat for Anna. Roy and Crystal would sit opposite us where Vicky Jones, the other infected astronaut also sat. Mike Robertson moved over to stand by two of the Marine guards. To their right was the multidirectional projector, our security blanket. In an instant we could kill all LRPs within the room.
They looked so ordinary. Roy had grown a beard. Crystal’s ebony skin contrasted with the white of the suit. I looked into their eyes and saw the slight blankness of their stare.
Before sitting, Roy offered his hand to me.
‘If you don’t mind, I’d rather not touch your skin at this time,’ I said. ‘If this is going to be meaningful, we need to be talking to your hosts, not their entities.’
Roy sat. His head remained still, but I could see his eyes become brighter and clearer. ‘This is me, Mark,’ he said.
The eyes had certainly changed and were full of life.
‘Okay, explain why we should not irradiate you. Tell us why you prefer to keep the parasite rather than rid yourself of it. All you need to do is say, “Do it,” and we’ll clear you right now.’
‘No, Mark. You mustn’t. You gave your word. I have grown to know the entity within me, and we work together far more effectively than alone. Apparently, we’re old friends from the dawn of humankind on Earth.’
This fitted in with what we knew about the creatures. They were similar looking to the hippocampi we already had in our brains. I wanted to hear their perspective on it. ‘Explain,’ I said.
‘The entities don’t know their origin,’ said Roy, ‘but the one inside me, the first of them, believes he was dormant in the regolith for millions of years. He thinks that vast hordes of them passed through the solar system. He was unfortunate enough to land on the moon. Most landed on Earth. They entered animals on Earth and discovered that they could work well with most mammals, improving their survival rates. Inside humans they were able to develop intelligence and improve memory, all of which helped animals develop and become more efficient hunters.’
‘But our hippocampi,’ Anna said, ‘don’t suddenly decide to jump ship and infect other people. They are part of us.’
‘It wasn’t always like that. At some point in the distant past on Earth, the entities must have become part of the animals they inhabited and were then already present in the brains of their hosts at birth. My entity doesn’t know how or when that happened. It would take much research on Earth, to discover the biological processes behind it. The fact it happened fascinates him and, to be fair, me too.’
I looked at his eyes again. ‘You’re saying that we owe our human faculties and abilities to them?’
‘Exactly,’ he said.
This was definitely Roy speaking, unless they’d found a way to stop the glazed expression. ‘So what benefit is it to you, Roy?’
‘My vision is clearer. I can control bodily functions better, slowing my heart when sleeping. My mathematics, logic and dexterity are much improved, and he gives me total recall of everything I have ever seen or learned,’ said Roy, ‘and that just brushes the surface.’
‘Total recall? I don’t believe it,’ said Anne.
‘Yes. Every last detail. Every fact learned. Anything ever seen or ever done,’ said Roy.
I could easily test this. I thought of a date when I knew Roy and I were together a few years previously. ‘What were you doing on twentieth March 2027?’
‘It was a pleasant Saturday, Mark. Which part of the day are you interested in?’
‘When we were together.’
‘We were together in the park and coffee shop between ten and twelve in the morning, and again when we flew over the Florida coast that afternoon and had the problem with the Cessna. I suspect that is your only memory of that day?’
Park? Coffee? That meant nothing to me, but the Florida flight was supremely memorable as we’d almost had to ditch the aircraft. I didn’t remember the park or coffee. ‘The park,’ I said.
‘You joined me while I walked Henry Matheson’s dog,’ said Roy. ‘He was in hospital. We crossed the road and entered the park. The leaves were just starting to bud. You were wearing jeans, a lumberjack shirt, a quilted black North Face jacket and a Pepsi baseball cap. You trod in a puddle and your foot was soaked. In the coffee shop you ordered a muffin which you complained was dry and got it replaced with a Danish pastry. You wouldn’t let me pay.’
‘Okay, okay. I hadn’t remembered any of that, but the wet foot brought it all vaguely back. You remembered what I was wearing? Even I don’t remember what I was wearing, but it sounds about right.’
‘Of course it is right,’ he said confidently. ‘My entity lets me actually see the event in my mind, but there’s much more. I could describe which windows were open in the surrounding buildings. I can see all the cars parked in the streets adjacent to the park. Everybody we saw I could describe in detail. In fact,’ he chuckled and continued, ‘I might be able to jog your memory over the two girls. Wonderful legs. One had blonde hair almost down to her ass, just your type, short denim skirt and blue tights. The other had a lilac bobble hat, a duffle coat and leggings with cowboy boots. Remember?’
I tried to recall the girls. ‘Yes, I vaguely remember the blonde, now you mention it.’
‘Well, you would, wouldn’t you?’ He laughed. ‘You’ve always drooled over blondes. Now do you believe me?’
Memories of Henry’s dog and one of the girls were there, but in no detail. ‘How far back can you remember?’ I asked.
‘Let me see, give me a moment,’ Roy said and closed his eyes to think. ‘Good God! I remember a warm and comfortable enclosure and, damn it all, the process of being born!’
‘No!’ said Anna.
‘Yes, and I’m not sure I’d like to retain that memory. And, my first steps, being fed, bathed, dressed.’
‘So why don’t our own hippocampi enhance our memories and faculties?’ I asked.
‘We’ve talked about that in the rille. Our entities think that as their ancestors became part of their hosts, they lost some of their abilities. They became complacent in the minds of what was, remember, Stone Age humankind. They lost their ability to improve their hosts. From Stone Age to present day, humankind made its own way forward. The hippocampi had provided the stimulus to “think”, but it was only a fraction of the spark we receive from our new friends now. Maybe we’ll need a reinvigoration process ourselves, but not for a few hundred thousand years.’
‘Free up Crystal,’ said Anna.
‘I’m here,’ said Crystal, and I noticed her eyes had cleared.
‘Did you have the same sort of memories?’ asked Anna.
‘Not sure I want vivid memories of being born, but, yes, I can zero in on any day of my life and see all the details, not just of me, but all of the people around me. Christmas dinner with my parents. First discovering my sexual orientation when I met Jenny during astronaut training and that explained so many of my anxieties as a teenager,’ Crystal said.
‘Okay. We accept the memory thing. What else is different?’ I asked.
Roy went on to talk about how it enabled him to link information together to improve his work, how his thoughts were extremely clear, and it was easier to concentrate.
‘Why do you allow the thing to ever become the dominant person, then?’ asked Bill.
‘It depends what we’re doing. It is not a permission thing, it is more natural than that,’ said Crystal.
‘We both see and do everything,’ added Roy. ‘There is no conscious decision who is in charge. We both are.’
‘So why the strange look in the eyes?’
‘It bothers you, not us,’ said Roy. ‘When you first amalgamate, it is necessary for the entity to take charge as the human component is in shock.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us all of this before Linda and I escaped?’
‘We didn’t know. They took us over, totally. We didn’t understand what was happening to us then. They controlled our minds tightly to prevent us communicating. My entity was too worried to release me, even for a moment. We were in a constant battle with each other and I was kept suppressed. It was awful. I can, of course, remember every detail of it, including hitting Linda and trying to incapacitate you. All against my will, which is probably why we failed that morning when you emerged from your cabin. The entity had to learn how to fight and I was resisting handing over the information. They thought it would be easier to just have total control and even I didn’t completely understand what was happening until several days later, Mark. Our entities had to start from the position of control. Ask this woman,’ he said, indicating Vicky.
I looked and could see her eyes were clear. ‘Well, Vicky, how do you feel about your LRP?’
She spoke hesitantly, ‘I was very afraid when I realised that I’d been infected and did everything I could to resist. Eventually, it explained and I understood.’
‘The entities now know to be gentle,’ said Roy. ‘They realise that once control has been achieved, it should be quickly released to allow them to work with us instead of against us. Mark, if my entity and I had worked together, there is no way you would have been able to beat me off that day outside your cabin. If they’d known as much about us then as they know now, they would not have taken me over in the way they did. Our resistance caused them to clamp down even more effectively on our free will.’
‘Let me hear you explain it, Vicky?’ Anna asked.
‘I felt a sharp pain as it entered me then a swelling sensation as it moved from my hand, through my arm and up to my head. I fell to the floor, unconscious.’
Anna continued, ‘What happened when you awoke?’
‘I was standing and tried to look around, but it wouldn’t let me. Gradually it eased its control and I could examine my surroundings. I was feeding the chickens. We, that is me and her, were seeing my past. A perfect vision of me came up from when, as a child, I was plucking a chicken with my grandmother. Every moment was real to me, even her chatting and sort of half singing, half humming a Beatles song, Norwegian Wood – I’m seeing and hearing it again now. It’s wonderful,’ said Vicky.
‘Plucking chickens!’ said Bill.
‘Well, the LRP was trying to find out what I knew about them. Austro was feeding in front of us – she’s always first to the food.’
‘Austro?’ Anna asked.
‘It’s an Australorp, a chicken breed. I didn’t know that. Oh, wait a minute… yes… I see… Actually, I did know that. I’d seen it in a book as a child. My entity found it there, in that memory of me, as an eight-year-old, looking at the book – oh, yes, it was called Raising Chickens – it showed rare chicken breeds. She didn’t know what a chicken was. It was just a strange alien creature to her,’ said Vicky. ‘The memory recall alone is wonderful.’
‘Would you like to change back, Vicky?’ asked Bill.
‘No. I don’t think so,’ she said.
‘What about—’ I said, but Vicky jumped back into the conversation.
‘No. I definitely would not like to change back. Thought I’d better clarify that,’ she said.
‘What about free will?’ I asked.
Roy replied, ‘It’s a little strange, realising that you’re no longer alone, but I now live happily with my entity. The benefits so outweigh any privacy issues which quickly fade into the background.’
‘It’s a bit odd at the moment,’ said Vicky, ‘but I’m getting used to it.’
I pointed over towards the Marine guards. ‘Roy. Do you see that plinth-like object?’
‘Yes,’ said Roy.
‘If we press the button on the top of it, your entities will instantly die, and we now have a simple medical procedure to remove them from you. Say the word and we’ll do it,’ I said.
Roy’s eyes reverted to the strange infected stare. ‘No. Don’t do that! We trusted you.’
‘Release Roy,’ I said.
His eyes cleared, ‘Mark, please don’t do this. The symbiosis with the entities is wonderful. I would hate to lose the connection. It would be like a bereavement. Believe me. My entity is extremely anxious and frightened that we shouldn’t have trusted you. I’m doing my best to calm him. You’re talking about killing a living, intelligent being. Please reassure us that you will not kill them, Mark. We trusted you. I trusted you. I expect you to live up to your promise.’
‘No. Don’t panic,’ I said. ‘I only wanted to ensure you knew that we could free you quite easily if that was what you wanted.’
‘Well,’ said Roy, his eyes bright and clear, ‘understand this, Mark. We most certainly do not need saving!’
‘Okay,’ I said and stood up. ‘We’re leaving here to discuss this further. Would you like some refreshments while we’re gone?’
‘That would be good,’ said Roy. ‘Linda’s brownies?’ He laughed.
‘She’s not on the moon this time, but we’ll find something,’ I said and left the geo dome with Anna and Bill.