“That’s not from Venera, is it?” asked Vee quietly.
“No,” answered Josh.
It was getting closer. Terry had seen it now. She also came to an abrupt halt with Troy right beside her.
“Adrian!” called Josh. Adrian stopped, teetered, and almost fell, but he righted himself, and he saw it too.
The thing flew like the wind. Silver scales covered its white skin. Bundles of red-brown cables held an enclosed gondola to the balloon. At first, Vee thought it was heading for them, but it wasn’t.
It was heading for Scarab Fourteen.
The balloon stopped, suddenly, as if it had hit a wall. From the bottom a flurry of…things emerged. They sparkled gold in the ashen light. Wings spread out from their oval torsos. Legs (arms?) hung under their bellies.
One carried a fold of cloth, one an egg, one a box, another a blob of gray jelly. They were followed by three others with empty hands. They all flew over Scarab Fourteen. The first of them dropped the cloth. The three with empty hands grasped the cloth and pulled it over the scarab, as if they were fitting a sheet to a bed. The cloth was transparent, but the dim light reflected off an oily sheen on the edges where they held it.
The creatures holding the cloth dropped to the ground. The cloth made a tent over the scarab. The one with the egg cracked it open. A gout of milky liquid poured over the cloth. It sluiced down the sides, becoming transparent as it did so. The creatures let go; the tent stayed where it was.
The creature with the box shriveled and drew in its wings. It sank until it hovered just above ground level. Now Vee saw a complex series of markings, or maybe wires, running across its body. It pressed the box against the tent and its muzzle moved. Vee tried to set her suit controls to pick up outside sound, but she couldn’t get her gaze to stay steady enough to activate the commands.
The one with the jelly blob joined the one by the box. It set its blob down. The blob had an eye and silver lines running through its body.
The blob moved.
It crawled into the box and emerged inside the tent. It lifted up into the air and became a jellyfish with tentacles hanging down, tipped with, what? Claws? Tools? It drifted unerringly toward Scarab Fourteen and slipped into the jagged, black crack in the hull.
Vee wanted to speak but had no words adequate to the task. This was unreal. Surreal. She was frightened, bemused, unbelieving. She wanted to laugh her head off. Her heart fluttered high in her throat and she could hear her blood singing in her ears.
One of the creatures (aliens? There are no aliens. The base is a fake. How can they be aliens?) was looking at her. It had two huge silver eyes, encased, she realized, behind something hard and clear, like a natural lens. But those were unmistakably eyes. She could distinguish the iris, pupil, and white. Huge eyes. Underneath its eyes, it had a wedge-shaped beak, like a bird’s beak, or maybe a dolphin’s.
It was beautiful. It was incomprehensible. It was looking right at her and she could tell nothing, nothing about what it saw.
Then, she realized it didn’t see her at all. It saw a suit, with a smooth plate where its face should be. Maybe it was just wondering what was in there.
Voices were babbling. Voices she knew, but there were too many of them and she couldn’t make out what they were saying. She didn’t even really want to try.
The creatures ferried more blobs out of their balloon. They put them up to the box to become jellyfish and enter the space under the tent and eventually the scarab. The creatures themselves flew all around the tent, angels, butterflies, prehistoric monsters glittering gold on a cloudy day. Except for the one that looked straight at her.
Was it trying to divine something? Send a telepathic message? Judge her for salt content? What? What did aliens do?
“Veronica, we’ve got to go, now!” It was Josh. He had his hand on her arm and he was trying to pull her away. But she wasn’t responding. She should respond. He was right. They needed to go, now, didn’t they? Did they?
The side of the scarab tore like paper.
“No!” screamed Adrian like it was the only word he had left.
Two jellyfish floated out of the hole in the scarab’s side. Their tentacles wrapped around something roughly oblong that shimmered.
It was Angela Cleary. Angela, who’d been helping Vee prove the Discovery was nothing but a fraud. Whom Vee had spent a whole week aboard the shuttle trying to get to know and failing without really realizing it. She’d respected that in a weird kind of way. Angela, who gave nothing away by accident. Angela, who had a sardonic grin and sharp eyes.
“Can’t be. She’d be pulp. Less than pulp.” murmured Josh. He wasn’t pulling on Vee anymore.
Angela wasn’t pulp. Something crystalline covered her, like the stuff that made the tent over the scarab or enclosed the alien’s silver eyes. The creatures flying over the tent cracked another egg. More milky liquid sluiced over the tent sides. The tent tore and fell away like cobwebs.