Touchdown on Selos

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

The ship had landed on the dawn side of the planet, but according
to my readout, five hours later, the exploration team hadn’t left yet. I packed
my medical kit and climbed down to the bridge to see what was going on.

The rest of the senior officers were gathered there, half of
them in exosuits. The room went silent at my arrival, but by the expression of
Dean’s face, I’d just missed the yelling.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Good! I for one would like Doc’s opinion on this before we
go,” Captain Zjeli said.

“Great!” Dean said, throwing up his hands. “Perhaps we can
talk about it for another hour. Daylight is burning up out there, and we’re
only approved for a three-day touchdown!” He was the team archeologist, a man normally
known for his patience. What could get him so upset?

“I still think we should just take off. That’s too weird,” Security
Chief Ryley said.

“What do you know about this planet, Doc?” Captain Zjeli asked.

“I read the report… A little higher oxygen than we’re used
to, a little more gravity as well. Eleven hour days. The big problem is the red
dwarf star spewing out radiation, but that’s nothing our suits can’t handle.
Why?”

“Have there been expeditions to this planet yet?”

“Nobody’s been out this far. We’re the first.”

“Are you sure?” the captain asked. He flipped on the
monitor. Mist rose from the ground in the late afternoon sun. No plants grew
anywhere, but statues of people—of actual humans—dotted the landscape. Children
jumping rope, elderly women carrying groceries, neighbors chatting.

“That’s not possible,” I said, but I caught myself. “But it’s
perfectly benign. why not explore? Solve this mystery?”

“Thank you!” Dean said, reaching for the helmet to his
exosuit.

“Because of this,” Chief Ryley said. He switched to another
scene. Another of the statues, this one wailing with grief. A human skull lay
half-buried in front of her.

“The skull? It’s another statue. Isn’t it?”

“That’s why I wanted your opinion. The other statues are all
gray the skull is more… ivory.”

I peered at it, but couldn’t make out any details that would
tell me one way or another. “Can you pull in closer?”

“Just a reminder,” Dean said, “it’s twenty minutes until
sunset. Can I please get out there and look at them?”

“I’m not letting anyone out unless I believe it is safe,”
the captain said.

The security chief handed me the camera control stick, and I
ran the camera over every exposed centimeter of the skull. “If this was
sculpted, the artist had an amazing attention to detail. The metopic and
coronal sutures aren’t fully closed, and here, you can see the third molar hasn’t
erupted. Oh, and that’s amazing. The Lacrimal bone shows signs of having been
broken in the past, but there’s new growth.”

“What does that mean, Doc?”

I stood up and faced the crew. Sometimes I forget not
everyone got the same education. “He’s broken his nose in the past. That’s a
teenage boy, and no, I don’t think it’s a sculpture. Too much meaningless
attention to detail.”

Everyone was silent, even Dean.

I looked from face to face. “Does that change things?
Someone managed to put all those statues here before even our ship got this
far. That same person placed a skull with them. Why is that any different?”

“That’s one possibility,” Chief Ryley said. “Here’s another
one. People were placing those statues all over, and maybe stopped paying
attention to the clock. The sun went down, and something that comes out at
night killed everyone. If we’d landed in a different spot, maybe we’d find a
lot more bones.”

“Alright,” the captain said. “We’re staying inside the ship
tonight. Everybody get some rest, we’ve got a little over five hours to
daybreak, and I want you all fresh. Cameras will run all night, and Chief Ryley
will go over the report during breakfast. We leave at dawn.”

#

Oola’s skin cooled and moistened as the sun disappeared
beyond the horizon. Another day had passed in the blink of an eye. But Torin
lay dead. She looked up at the monstrosity that had killed him, dropping from
the sky and spitting fire just before dawn. The tears flowed again.

He had been so curious, a light in the sky, he’d said. It
got brighter and larger. He was convinced it was going to land. But she hadn’t
paid attention to him until it was too late.

Oola ran when she saw it, but she was moments too late. The
sun crested the horizon and she felt herself stiffening, the calcite that
protected her from the sun’s rays during the day prevented her from reaching
her son in time.

And if that monstrosity had landed a few moments later,
Torin would have been protected too, but she was forced to watch as his skin
burned away, then his bones were buried by the blowing sand until only his
skull remained.

Her wailing brought others as she dug up his bones and
clutched them to her breast.

They stood around the monstrosity, having no words for the
grieving mother. “Bring the wise woman. She’ll know what to do,” someone said.
Whatever Gila said, it would not bring back Oola’s son.

She knew not how much time passed before Gila arrived, but
she felt the woman’s arthritic fingers on her shoulders. “This is not the first
ship to land here. This is what the Arc Chamber is for.”

Oola stood, holding her son’s skull, a determined look on
her face. Torin would be there when they opened the Chamber. When they focused
and directed the sun’s most harmful rays at the ‘ship.’

The people dispersed toward the cave entrances around them. Tomorrow would be spent below ground. They had a scant five hours to prepare the world’s machinery to wipe the monstrosity off the face of Selos.

~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you so much for reading, and thanks to those who purchased A Gentleman’s Wager. It got up to #9 on Amazon’s “30-Minute Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Short Reads” category. If you haven’t read it, please give it a look at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GYXWG7N
And if you have, please consider reviewing it.

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