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  “Or we can’t breathe air?” Svet said.

  “Possible, but unless one of you can see something I can’t, we have but one option. We need to put on our spacesuits, abandon the station, and go planet side.”

  Hawk let that idea sit out there like a fart in church. Both Svet and Max were military trained space veterans, and giving up just wasn’t in their DNA, so the debate didn’t last long. After they rested they’d begin preparations to abandon the space station, the place they’d called home for almost a year. Using the Soyuz capsule docked at the station as a lifeboat, the two astronauts and one cosmonaut would fall to an Earth they no longer recognized as their home, leaving the remains of their friend behind in his orbiting grave.

  As Svet pointed out, they weren’t certain what the air composition was on the planet’s surface, and thankfully the space station was equipped with spacesuits that had been designed for the Mars mission and were much more advanced than the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacefarers had used for many years. The new suits were much lighter, had a sleeker life support backpack, and could provide air into perpetuity via advanced oxygen scrubbers. Everything was powered by a new top-secret high-tech battery locked into the life support backpack so it couldn’t be examined.

  As he waited, Hawk felt the stars looking at him like millions of dead eyes. He peered down through the thick glass and saw the giant volcano spewing orange lava. About fifty clicks to the east the light beacon sparkled like a diamond.

  Hawk would figure out what it was, or die in the attempt. He had nothing left to lose.

  “Brace for impact!” Hawk said.

  Their morning had started with an early scare when the electronic docking claw wouldn’t work. After two hours of rerouting systems they finally managed to free themselves and begin their voyage. They had breathed pure oxygen while Svet played with the landing claw, so Hawk had ordered them to put on their spacesuit helmets and life-support backpacks as a precaution.

  Hawk’s fear that the landing parachutes that would allow the capsule to soft land had been damaged, or were covered in ice, proved unwarranted. When they had opened, and he felt the pull of tension on his harness, Hawk forgot, for a couple of minutes, what might await them upon landing.

  All space station modules had been closed off, and all systems turned over to the computer, so Michel’s tomb could theoretically remain in orbit for years due to the large solar arrays that captured the sun's energy above the horizon. With the station modules sealed from one another, it could sustain damage in one part but still not be destroyed.

  Hawk shifted in his harness. His spacesuit was uncomfortable and he hated wearing it, but the precaution was worth the inconvenience. The capsule shook and vibrated until it thumped upon impact with the Earth. For an instant, the ship teetered and Hawk thought the capsule was going to tip over. After a few tense seconds the ship settled itself, but on a fifteen-degree incline. They had landed on something.

  The capsule rocked like it was hit with a battering ram. The space ship fell on its side leaving Max and Svet looking down at Hawk as they hung in their seat harnesses. “What the hell…” said Max. The interior of their vessel echoed as something pounded on the hull. Hawk strained to see through the tiny porthole in the hatch, but saw only blue sky and white clouds.

  An eye filled the porthole, and Hawk yelled. A red pupil rolled against a black cornea and settled on him, then narrowed. The capsule shook, and the eye splattered against the window, pieces of red skin and black eyeball sticking to the glass. They were jerked in their harnesses as the ship was lifted from the ground, and then they were free falling. Hawk and Max realized what was happening before Svet and they held tight to their restraints.

  The capsule landed on its side and Svet shrieked when metal crunched. Silence fell, and they waited for several long minutes, expecting at any moment to be tossed like a pebble. Red light from the warning klaxon spilled across the cabin, painting everything in a ghostly red glow.

  The capsule vibrated and the sound of thunder echoed through the cabin and Hawk jumped. The sound was unmistakable. A huge beast had just cried out in anger or pain or fear. Blood and blue sky filled the porthole, but it darkened as it fell into shadow. Another roar, and this time it was much closer. Hawk held his breath. Svet had her eyes squeezed closed and Max looked like he was praying, though Hawk knew the scientist wasn’t religious.

  The vibration eased, the thunder faded. The red alarm klaxon and rays of sunlight sent daggers through the capsule. Several minutes passed. Hawk said, “Check yourself out before you climb out of your harness. Make sure all the seals on your suits are tip-top.” He snapped free of his harness.

  Static filled Hawk’s headset, then “Yup,” from Max, and “10-4,” from Svet. Hawk pulled a key from the pocket of his spacesuit using a short tether, and unlocked the storage container bolted under his seat. Within were two Ash 12 machine guns and an MP-446C Viking handgun, a spare magazine, related holster and shoulder straps, ammunition, a knife, and a bottle of Russian vodka. Hawk smiled at the thought of the anonymous soldier at Roscosmos that had put the vodka in their last shipment of food and supplies.

  The guns had been a different matter. Firearms in space were frowned upon and the International Space Station didn’t stock weapons. Svet had found the machine guns and pistol hidden in her personal locker with a note from her husband. The cloud had everyone on edge, and Vladimir wanted her to have protection because he couldn’t be there. Svet informed Hawk as soon as she’d found the guns, and they’d told Max and Michel.

  Hawk strapped on a leg holster he’d modified to fit over his spacesuit and slipped the loaded Viking into its cradle. Then he slammed a magazine containing lightweight supersonic bullets with aluminum cores into one of the Ash 12s and pulled back the bolt, loading a round into the chamber. They would load all the weapons, but they would be fired only when necessary. They needed to conserve ammo and reloading would be difficult while wearing spacesuit gloves. They’d wrapped their trigger fingers tightly with duct-tape, which made it possible to fire the weapons with their gloves on, but it was a challenge.

  “Are we where we want to be?” Hawk asked. They had plotted a course to touch down as close to the light anomaly as possible. Their plan was to utilize the capsule as a base, and search the area.

  “Think so. We were tossed pretty good, but we should be pretty close to our mark,” Max said.

  “We’re dead here, Hawk, nothing but a trickle. Going short range suit-to-suit,” said Svet, static filling the comm channel. “We got nothing left. All systems are down. The batteries must have been damaged. We’ve used up what little juice we had, so we’re gonna have to pop the hatch manually.”

  Hawk nodded. Svet and Max collected their weapons and the three spacefarers fumbled around the cabin and each other. The spacesuits were difficult to maneuver in, especially in tight spaces, but thankfully their years of training had made functioning in them like riding a bike.

  “Everyone ready?” Hawk asked.

  Svet popped the hatch, and air rushed into the capsule.

  3

  Jungle sounds filtered into the capsule, a great braying and squawking and roaring. Something large and green circled in the clouds above the open hatch. Hawk breathed easy. His suit didn’t show any warning lights, and he looked at each of his shipmates and smiled.

  “As you can hear, we’re entering an environment filled with unknowns. Heads on a swivel,” Hawk said.

  Svet inched through the hatch, then disappeared as something with coarse yellow skin darted across the hull and grabbed her like she was a ragdoll.

  “SHIIIIIIT,” yelled Hawk. He thrust himself along the steel footholds until he was halfway through the hatch. The capsule leaned on an angle, one side crushed against a tree, and he used the metal ladder on the ship’s side to get down.

  Lush and abundant tropical jungle filled every empty space as the plants fought for access to sunlight. The spaceship had left a trail of br
oken trees and flattened vegetation where it tumbled, but the sea of green went on and on.

  A horse-sized beast stood over Svet, slime dripping from its tooth-filled maw. The creature had a short neck and a long yellow and green striped head. Its tail shot out like an arrow as it bent over, and short arms pressed Svet to the ground as it prepared to take a bite out of her.

  Hawk drew down and opened up with the Viking, peppering the creature with bullets. He cringed behind his tinted visor as he fired, the empty shells bouncing off his boots. Mindful of wasting ammo, he stopped firing after four headshots. The creature fell to the ground and Svet pulled herself out from under the animal, moving like a child who’d been bundled up by her mother so she could play in the snow.

  Hawk ran to her, straining beneath the bulk of the spacesuit. Max followed, and in the space of a minute, the two astronauts were at Svet’s side.

  “Are you alright?” Max said.

  “I think so.” She was breathing hard, and her faceplate fogged as she sucked for air. “Just got… the air… knocked out.”

  “Easy,” Max said.

  A tree branch snapped. Hawk’s head jerked toward the sound, but there was nothing there but a wall of green leaves and palm fronds. “Can you walk?” he said.

  She nodded as Hawk helped her to her feet, and the two astronauts and one cosmonaut put their backs to the capsule and peered into the green gloom of the primordial jungle.

  “That was close,” said Svet. She turned to Hawk. “Thanks.”

  Hawk wondered if he’d done the woman a favor, or a disservice. “Don’t thank me yet.”

  A lizard the size of a cat bolted through the foliage on its hind legs and hissed at them as it tore past. Insects hummed and buzzed, and the dense tropical canopy blotted out the sky except over their trail of destruction. There, a streak of blue cloud-filled sky cut through the greenery, revealing huge creatures with tent wings gliding in circles over their position. Rodents and small dog-like animals crawled from the jungle, and several ostrich beasts with dark gray leathery skin inched tentatively out of the underbrush, heads bobbing as they stared at the newcomers. Hawk felt like Bambi when the animals of the forest emerged to examine the new oddity. Pain danced down his back. Every creature for twenty clicks had seen where they landed.

  “I think we should retreat into the ship. Re-evaluate,” Hawk said.

  “Da.”

  “We might have underestimated the wildlife,” Max said.

  “You think?” Svet said.

  “Yes… I… Do,” Max said, doing his best Chandler Bing impersonation and failing miserably.

  Everything went still.

  Hawk looked at his mates.

  The insects had stopped trilling. There was no screeching, no grunts or whomps or clicks. Nothing pecked at wood. No birds fought. Only a gentle undercurrent of wind pushed through the forest, rustling large green leaves and rattling palm fronds. All living things had suddenly become one, and agreed to be silent.

  The party kept their backs to the capsule and worked their way around to the metal ladder that led to the hatch. Max and Svet climbed aboard while Hawk covered them. Sweat inched down Hawk’s back and his body itched beneath his spacesuit. Pain crept up his legs as his feet shriveled in his damp socks. When Svet and Max were inside he holstered the Viking and started to climb, each movement heavy and cumbersome in the spacesuit.

  Hawk was half way up the ladder, his back to the jungle, when he felt vibration in the metal rungs. He paused, his instincts and training ahead of his thought process. If he stayed still the world might not see him and forget he was there. In the distance a sound like mortars exploding accompanied the trembling earth. It was growing stronger and steadier like a heartbeat.

  Hawk rotated his head and looked over his shoulder, but saw only a wall of green. Beneath the shade of the thick canopy, Hawk lost his sense of direction. He pulled himself up the last few rungs and dropped into the capsule.

  “What is it?” Max said.

  “Don’t know. Couldn’t see. Probably the thing that tossed us.”

  “I think we were wrong. We should leave. Da?” Svet said.

  Hawk’s sigh echoed over the suit comm. Svet had a point. They needed to blend in, disappear, and staying in the capsule made them stand out like a cockroach on a baby’s ass. But it did provide protection. “That reevaluation didn’t take long,” Hawk said.

  “Make a bad decision, make another decision,” Max said.

  “Aye,” Hawk said. “Grab what you can. We’re gone in thirty seconds.”

  The earth trembled hard, branches cracked and the patch of blue cloud-filled-sky visible through the hatch was obscured by green and black striped skin. The spacefarers scrambled to gather their belongings, but a roar froze Hawk in place.

  The capsule was knocked on its side, and Hawk, Svet and Max piled-up in the nosecone as the ship came to rest with a shuddering screech of metal. Another primal bellow of fury filled the world as fangs punctured the hull. Metal bent as the creature crushed the spacecraft, and the ship rolled and landed in loose mud. Dark brown dirt oozed in through the open hatch, filling the cabin.

  “Let’s go. Stay out of sight in the mud as much as you can. It’ll hide you. Hurry now,” Hawk said. He pushed Max toward the hatch and mud poured on the physicist as he wiggled out. Svet followed and dirt-sludge rose to Hawk’s knees as he trailed after his mates. He was almost to the hatch when the hull jerked and he flew across the cabin, crashing into the control panel. The capsule rolled again and the inflow of mud stopped. Blue sky filled the hatch, and dust filtered sunlight streamed through rents in the hull.

  Gunshots rang out. Hawk expected to get flicked like a booger at any moment. A guttural snarl echoed through the cabin as he sloshed through the mud, grabbing handholds and pulling himself through the shifting sludge. His faceplate was covered in grime and the jungle outside was cast in dripping sepia tone.

  Hawk emerged from the capsule next to a huge claw.

  He’d seen Jurassic Park, the new one and the original. He could pass Dinosaur 101. A three-story tyrannosaurus rex, or a closely related genus, stood over him, its long tail taut. Two fingered hands hung from stunted arms, and claw-like feet with razor sharp talons raked at the ground as if spoiling to run. Thick black legs supported a green, yellow and black streaked torso, and muscles heaved and pulled beneath the leathery skin. The dinosaur’s thick neck pointed toward the jungle, its head lurching back and forth in spasmodic jerks as it listened for the source of the gunshots.

  Hawk backed away, taking advantage of the diversion, eyes up, the T-Rex’s torso undulating above him as it shifted its weight back and forth. A long scar ran along the beast’s right leg, and bone poked through the darkened wound.

  Hawk was exposed and had to move. If he could go unnoticed for a few more seconds he might slip into the jungle before the beast turned its attention back to the capsule. That plan lasted five seconds.

  A flock of lizard-like beasts the size of chickens exploded from the foliage, yipping and puffing. They had gray feathers that appeared slick with water, and their red eyes were circled in rings of white. The T-Rex pulled its attention from the jungle and looked down at them with its dark eyes. The beast roared, and lifted a leg and stomped. The ground shook and Hawk staggered as the chicken-lizards scattered and disappeared back into the dense vegetation.

  The T-Rex eased back with two thunderous steps and bent over, its jaws chomping and searching for Hawk. Teeth five feet long bit the air next to him. Hawk ran, not paying attention to his direction, what lay before him, or what might be waiting within the dark confines of the primeval jungle. The dinosaur bellowed again, and rose to its full height, whipping its tale in a wide arc that cracked against a tree as Hawk dove into the forest. Wood splintered, and trees fell around Hawk as he ran, leaves and branches falling like rain. The earth shook and the pounding of great footfalls filled the world. Vines and leaves ripped at his faceplate and spacesuit, and each step becam
e more labored.

  A gloved hand reached out and grabbed him, but Hawk instinctively pulled free.

  “It’s us. Here.” Hiding within the cleft of a tree were Max and Svet.

  “It’s coming this way!” Hawk said, but the beast had already arrived.

  The trees behind them parted and the dinosaur’s head poked through the branches. It screamed in anger and whipped its tail, breaking the tree Max and Svet hid within. They ran blindly, pouring through the trees with reckless abandon, fear propelling them forward.

  “Ahhhhh,” Max yelled. He was down, clutching his knee.

  Svet helped him up, but Max couldn’t run, and as the two hobbled before the T-Rex, Hawk knew he had to do something or his companions would be lost.

  Hawk did a one-eighty and bolted past his mates, between the T-Rex’s legs, and under the beast as it pushed between two large trees. Branches fell, and the animal didn’t appear to notice him, so Hawk yelled as he passed beneath the goliath.

  The T-Rex cried out again, lifted a leg and tried to stomp Hawk as he passed. When it missed, the beast swung its massive tail, but Hawk pulled and juked, lumbering along as fast as his spacesuit would allow. He climbed over fallen trees as the beast tried to turn around in the tight forest and give chase. His suit fan was running full tilt, but Hawk was sweating profusely and struggling to breathe.

  Hawk got back to the capsule, but there was no good place to hide so he dove into a mud puddle. The dinosaur shrieked, and when it couldn’t find him it turned its attention back to the capsule. Its massive jaws crunched down on the spaceship, digging into the metal like meat. The T-Rex lifted its head and shook the capsule side to side, tearing at it with its massive teeth. The sound of ripping metal screeched and whined, and the dinosaur dropped the ship. It landed with a final crunch and looked like a flattened tin can.

  Hawk crawled and slithered through the mud into the jungle, and he realized he still had one of the supply bags tied to a lanyard on his spacesuit. He hoped it was the one with the vodka in it.