Venus Rising

Chapter 4: Midnight Depths

My hand is tightly clasped around Peter's as the ARC we're in slowly descends to the ground of the mountain, dropping down with a jerk. My stomach twists in nervousness. I found a data pad in the ARC bay before we left. It had instructions for flying an ARC that Captain Meyers used. The last entry was edited, leaving mostly gibberish, but the phrases 'Be Reborn' and 'Please Don't Make Me' were repeated over and over again.

It worries me. I asked if we could investigate more into this, the madness, before going out to find Commander Sissay. With how he sounded and acted, I highly doubt he's a corporate spy, especially since he knows that coms are down, and he didn't know that Amelia's codes could do an access and reinstall. Whatever contagion Amelia spoke of must have affected Sissay somehow. Although if so, I can't understand how it hasn't affected any of us yet, since we've all essentially been in the same place.

What has he done that we haven't?

Whatever the case may be, madness seems to have overtaken him, and even though I asked, Meyers was insistent on leaving as quickly as possible, saying we could come up with a plan on our way to the mountain. We haven't really come up with one, since we don't know what to expect.

I don't like this, and with how tightly Peter is squeezing my hand, he doesn't like this either.

"Landing complete," Meyers says with a sigh. "We've touched down on a plateau towards the summit of the alien mountain. I'm extending the ARC ramp now. Helmets on. Everybody out."

We all click on our helmets and secure them before heading towards the exit and opening the hatch at the far side of the door. I was surprised just how big these ARCs were once we were actually inside them, although it's a bit hard to gawk at something like this when our situation feels so dire.

"I can't believe it," Pro. Maxted gasps when she steps off the ramp. "The surface of an alien world. We're the first humans to ever set foot here!"

"Yeah, if you call this mysterious, forty-kilometer-tall rock on Venus a surface," Peter grumbles, looking even more upset when I pull his hand from mine when Amelia steps out of the ARC. "All I see is jagged stones and yellow fog."

"Mission recap," Meyers states. "Steve had a breakdown and fled here, along with the data he mistakenly took from Miss Spens. We're gonna retrieve them both."

Amelia scoffs. "Mistakenly my eye."

"Captain Meyers, I am scanning you through the ARC sensors," VR1-ICA announces through coms. "I have rebooted my orbital satellite using corporate access codes provided by Miss Spens. Communication with earth is hours away."

"I still think we should have stayed in the colony, Miss Spens," Peter says. "One of our people is ill and came here because this type of strain wasn't something she expected to go through on this mission. It was safer at the colony for all of us, and we could have waited and made sure we sent out a distress call to earth."

Amelia glares at him. "While other people are the first humans to enter an alien structure? While other people get my data and first claim on whatever lies inside? Do try harder to impress me, Mr. Simons. Also, if Miss Glover is as sick as you claim she is, then she shouldn't have come on this mission. Tell me, Glover, how did you manage to pass a physical, and why did you want to come here anyway when it's clear you have weeks of life left at most?"

I swallow. "Um..."

"There's no time for this," Captain Meyers interrupts, much to my relief. "We can't leave the ARC for long in these acidic winds. It'll degrade quickly in this environment. This stretch is the flattest part of the mountain top." She points ahead. "Steve's ARC is parked along the ridge, and I can see the caverns nearby."