“Pyroclastic venting—”

“—Would have blown them sideways, yes. Though I’ve got to tell you, Taj, I don’t think you get a lot of pyroclastic pressure when you’re in a vacuum. Even so, I would think we’d see cut cable or a camera smashed against a wall.”

“Here’s something else,” Taj said. “Listen.”

The dominant sound in Tea’s earphones was her own near-panicked breathing. But, yes, there was a click-click-clicking sound, at the rate of almost one per second. “What is it?”

“Geiger counter. It’s on my chest pack.”

“Did it do that when we came through here earlier?”

“ No.”

“So now there’s radiation?”

“Low-level, and very inconsistent. The rate rises and falls every few steps.”

Tea considered this. “Heat, overpressure, radiation. Call me a pessimist, but it’s as if someone set off a nuke.”

Taj stopped in his tracks and turned toward her. “I think so, too.”

“The Architects have their own anti-missile system?”

“That would be rather less startling than most of what we’ve seen.”

Tea saw no point in going farther. “I’m not getting anything from Venture.”

“No response from Brahma.”

“If there’s serious damage to either vehicle, we are in a world of shit.”

Now Taj laughed out loud, a harsh, unfriendly sound. “We have been in a world of shit since we landed here!” He seemed more hunched over than usual. “Houston and Bangalore will be working the problem.”

“You guys have a rescue vehicle anywhere close to launch?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Good point,” Tea said. “But since we can’t go forward, I suggest that in the great explorer tradition, we go back where we came from.”

They made a quick return through both membranes to the Keanu interior and rover Buzz. Once they had opened their suits and removed helmets and gloves, Tea insisted that Taj share water and food. “We need it, and God only knows when we’ll have it again.”

“I was thinking of the others.”

“There’s not enough for everyone, no matter what we do. We’re going to have to find some sort of nourishment here.” Tea had not really considered the possibility until she heard herself say it. The thought frightened and depressed her. It was bad enough to consider the many ways you could die on a spaceflight—getting blown up or depressurized merely the top of the list. She hadn’t thought to add starvation.

She continued to remove her suit, then started in on the crusty undergarment.

“What are you doing?”

“Stripping.” It was clear Taj had no idea why. “So I can run better, Taj. We have no other way to contact Zack, so we’re doing it old-school.” She smiled. “They can’t be far, maybe a couple of clicks. I know they’re headed for the Temple. I can get there in twenty minutes.”

“So fast?”

“I ran the eight hundred in high school and college.”

“What should I do?”

“I’d keep working the radios. Come to think of it, let me see that dealie.” She gestured for Taj’s magic Zeiss radio/camera. “You know, we’ve got the rover as well as our suits. We should be able to talk to the vehicles and mission control without this.”

“Yes,” Taj said. “What is the point of your observation?”

“Let me take this thing.”

She expected an argument, but all the vyomanaut said was, “Be sure to bring it back.”

“Cross my heart.”

“Any other suggestions for me while you’re gone?” Taj’s English grew wobbly with fatigue, but he still managed to do sarcasm.

“Yeah, given what’s happened, make sure somebody doesn’t come along and tirejack the rover.”

Destiny-7 EVA manager Mariah Nelson and her team have worked TIRELESSLY to support suited crew ops on Keanu. Her conclusion is that all astronauts should have expired at least four hours prior to end of Stay-2. That they have not, at last report, indicates that we are breaking new ground. Please share ANY THOUGHTS AND INFORMATION with Mariah.

NASA MISSION OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE, STAY-2 SHIFT STATUS,

AUGUST 23, 2019

“Do you see it yet?”

Zachary Stewart’s ragtag team of five—there was no other phrase in his increasingly tired mind—had covered several hundred yards of Keanu real estate, heading deeper into the interior. They should have been closing in on the Temple.

“No,” Megan said. She had taken the lead, causing Zack to wonder if she was following some memory—or just being Megan, the woman who loved maps and happily gave directions. “If what Tea and Taj said was right, we probably still have a hundred meters to cover.”

Zack regretted not having Taj, or especially Tea, with him, at least to serve as cavalry scout. For that matter, he was also wishing he hadn’t left the helmets and suits behind at the campsite, even though they were nothing more than dead weight. Taj had been able to punch through the rock and membrane with his Zeiss radio, but even with Houston theoretically reachable, Zack would still have to be able to get a signal to Venture, and he couldn’t do that until he returned to the other side of the membrane.

No, he had put together the best plan for the circumstances. And dealing with both Megan and Tea was beyond him right now. They would all be back at the membrane soon enough....

For an instant, the glowworms went dark, as if they’d had their plugs pulled.

Natalia stopped. “What was that?”

“The beginning of night?” Lucas said.

Zack wasn’t sure the momentary shadow meant anything, until a gentle breeze started up and began to gust.

More from habit than any other impulse, he looked at Megan, who was standing still, facing away from him, eyes closed and head down.

Camilla was in the same posture.

“Megan,” he said.

Megan literally shuddered, then opened her eyes. “Oh, fuck.”

The wind had continued to rise. The dense foliage all around them waved. It was like being on the leading edge of a tropical storm, the kind that blew through Houston every few years.

The air even began to smell different . . . moist, thick.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Something bad happened.”

“What?”

“On the surface.” Megan was pressing her fingers to her temples, as if trying to tune in a poor signal. Then she abruptly dropped her hands and looked at him, wide-eyed. “Did you have a bomb?”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s so damn weird . . . like, like you just picked up an old family album and remembered some uncle.” She pointed to the glowworms, then at the waving, windblown trees. “The light faded for a moment, and then I knew that something had gone boom. Something you brought.”

Camilla started clutching at Lucas, talking to him in Portuguese.

“And she knows, too?” Zack said.

Lucas held the girl, listening briefly, then said, “Yes, something bad happened. She’s very afraid.”

Zack turned to Megan. “I didn’t bring a bomb.” Even as he said it, he could easily imagine two possibilities: One, Brahma had a weapon. Two, Venture did, too . . . but the commander never knew.

There was a sound from somewhere nearby, a deep, guttural noise. Like a giant clearing his throat, Zack thought.

The others heard it, too. “Zack, what do we do?” Natalia asked.

“For the moment, record it,” he said, wondering at the sad sound of his own voice. He looked at Lucas, who had his camera out. Then at Megan. “Unless we should run. . . .”

Megan looked as numb as Zack felt. She could only shrug as, with no warning, two giant watery globes appeared from the woods.

They stopped, dissolved, and disgorged a Sentry each. The beings looked identical in size and coloring. The only difference was in their vest belts; one of them looked worn and used, the other straight from the box.