‘Sorry, Neil,’ I said. ‘We’ll try to find out how it got recorded over. I’d have liked you to have been able to watch it. Over.’
‘You’re convinced the LRPs are no longer a danger to us, Mark? Over,’ he said.
‘Yes, pretty well. Let me say ninety-eight per cent but it would be very difficult to get to one hundred per cent with my own experience in the Orion with Linda. That gave me a rather jaundiced view of them. I’ll never forget that torture. Over.’
‘I’ll get back to you, Mark. Can I just point out that I have top brass military with me now, so the Moonstruck mission is no longer solely my responsibility? Over.’
‘Okay, Neil. Understood. Over.’
‘Make your judgement calls with care, won’t you? Over.’
‘Will do. Over,’ I said. I believed Neil was giving me a veiled warning.
‘Good luck. Out.’
I sat back in the chair.
‘Not good,’ said Bill.
‘It seems he is not too happy either,’ I said.
‘No. He definitely wanted you to read between the lines,’ said Anna.
‘Is that you or the LRP judging that?’
‘A bit of each. I seem to have more empathy with her being present. Also, I no longer like the LRP designation. It is not a parasite.’
‘You’re still convinced the symbiosis is just that, and not a parasitic take over?’ asked Bill.
‘Absolutely certain, Bill. I am thinking more clearly and slept extremely well last night. So refreshed when I awoke. My entity told me that she’d slowed my heart rate, lowered my temperature and lengthened my respiration.’
‘Sounds good,’ I said. ‘What are we going to do then?’
‘I’d like to try the bug myself,’ said Bill.
‘Okay, but we’ll need to keep ourselves well away from any chance of getting hit by a stray projector blast. Let’s leave it until later today so that we can have the evening and overnight to adapt. I’ll radio Roy and set up for us to visit the rille for some time tomorrow,’ I said. ‘That will give us at least another day before the military will act.’
‘You’re going to try it yourself?’ asked Anna.
‘I have to. I can’t just rely on you two.’
‘You’ll need to keep Doug in the picture somehow or he’ll get suspicious,’ said Anna.
‘He can’t be told about our becoming hosts,’ I said.
‘No, of course not. You’ll need to invent a story,’ she said.
‘Yes, I’ll tell him that visiting the rille is a reconnaissance and investigatory mission. That should give him reason to wait if there are already orders in the pipeline. He’d want to make use of our information as intelligence before starting an attack.’
‘He might want to provide cover for us,’ said Bill.
‘I’ll think of a way of getting around that,’ I said.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Later in the afternoon, I was in my cabin, as we called our personal quarters, with Bill and Anna. She sat on the chair while Bill and I used the bunk. We had a long hard talk with Anna about how the entity was changing her abilities. I too felt that “parasite” no longer applied to these creatures. The change in her went deeper than just her new abilities – I’d known Anna since I’d entered astronaut training, yet she was now making arguments which were certainly more carefully thought through and always positive. She hadn’t been so confident in the past. This indicated that the entity was affecting not only her mental abilities, but also her reasoning and understanding of situations.
‘My dexterity is better too,’ she said.
‘How do you mean?’ Bill asked.
‘Watch,’ she said and balanced a pen by its point on the tip of her finger.
‘We all know that’s easier on the moon,’ I said. ‘The lower gravity helps the pen resist leaning off centre quickly enough to fall and if you have good reactions, you can keep it upright.’
The pen sat, motionless on her fingertip. I couldn’t see her making any adjustments.
‘Okay. You do it, Mark,’ she challenged and tossed the pen over to me.
I placed it point down on my finger then released it. I could balance it, yes, but after a few seconds, my adjustments became ever more erratic until gravity finally won the tussle and the pen fell to the floor.
Bill picked it up. He was better than me, but he still lost it within about fifteen seconds.
Anna took the pen back. ‘Watch!’ she said.
She dropped the pen, point first, from a height of maybe ten centimetres, onto her finger. In two seconds, it was under control and motionless. She moved her finger upwards, slid her hand to the right and it descended on her second fingertip – again it was stationary in a couple of seconds. Same again onto her third finger, then her pinkie. She tossed it higher and it came down onto the back of her hand, where, in no time at all, it sat as if superglued into position.
‘Amazing,’ I said.
‘And memories, Mark,’ said Anna. ‘All my calculus from college is there at my beck and call. It’s astonishing. I really can believe they are working with five dimensional physics, especially with Mary in their midst. She’s a brilliant astrophysicist, you know.’
‘Yes, you’re probably right. Well, Bill, ready to take the plunge?’ I asked and took out Roy’s container.
‘Yes, ready,’ he said.
‘No turning back for any of us if we take this step,’ I said.
‘It is the right thing to do,’ said Bill.
The lid was on the large side of the box, so it opened very much like an old cigarette box. Within, four entities were moving around. It was interesting that there was no attempt to leap upon me or invade without permission. Was this the result of them growing within a symbiotic rather than a parasitic environment? Bill offered up the back of his hand and jerked as one of the entities jumped onto him and vanished within him; I steadied him with my other arm until he recovered. I looked at him. His eyes were clear. He nodded that he was okay.
I moved the box into my left hand and offered the back of my right. After the nightmare infection I’d had on the Orion on my return to Earth with Linda, what the hell was I doing? Surely this was a crazy action.
‘Ouch!’