4

THEY WALKED PAST HUNDREDS OF bustling, agitated excavators, each with their own flurrying purpose. The entire floor was littered with bones.

“This isn’t a dig site,” Blake said, looking around in wonder. “It’s a goddamned tomb.”

Mad C and Norris exchanged a quick look, as if something in Blake’s words struck a nerve. Barbara couldn’t keep her eyes from the ground, her biologist brain kicking into overdrive as she recognized species after species.

“It’s Noah’s Ark up here,” she said, smiling, her fascination at the discovery overriding whatever mystery it revealed. “That’s a bear… and a lion,” she said, pointing to raw assemblages of bone structures laid out on temporary platforms around the site. “My god is that…” she said, pointing to a far-off stage where the creature was being rebuilt vertically, supported by a thin framework of metal mesh.

“Tyrannosaurus Rex,” Mad C said over her shoulder, as if naming a type of flower Barbara had noticed on their walk through the park. “And that’s a Brontosaurus bone,” she said, pointing to a three-foot long gray wedge walking by in the gloved hands of a young woman, who smiled and nodded as they passed.

Mad C continued. “We’ve also found species similar to Triceratops, Velociraptors, a Baryonix… thousands more or rare pre-Cambrian fossils.”

Barbara gave Mad C a quizzical look. “You said similar?”

Norris stepped up quickly, intervening.

“There will be time for you both to study all the remains we have discovered in this, rather bizarre, site. The most important thing you need to know, what has led you here, is that these fossils, although similar to those found on Earth, are not exactly the same as the species with which we are familiar.”

Mad C continued for him. “There are anomalies in every single sample. Mostly size related, like the giraffe. These creatures were…bigger, stronger. Some of the fossils, however, are smaller than the species we have on Earth. Some are different in other ways.” She shrugged. “More savage. More dominant. Smaller brains. Bigger brains. Too many feet.”

Norris pitched in. “What we do know for certain is that the creatures we have found here, well, they just wouldn’t work on Earth.”

Barbara stopped walking, rested a hand on Norris’s sleeve. “What do you mean, wouldn’t work?”

Norris shrugged. “For different reasons, our biologists have concluded that none of the species here, if brought to life on Earth, would survive. Or, at the least, thrive. They’d all be extinct within one or two generations at the most.” He looked blandly at what appeared to be a fossilized chimpanzee, as if considering it, then continued. “If these moon creatures were all we ever had on Earth, the entire planet would be quite barren.”

“Except for humans, of course,” Blake said quietly.

“I suppose,” Norris said, not sounding too sure.

“Okay, so I’ll ask again,” Blake said, annoyance now creeping into his voice. “What the hell is this place? These fossils, where did they come from? How are they here? I get there are variances, which, from a biological perspective, I appreciate. But if these creatures never lived on Earth, where did they live?”

Norris started to speak, but Blake held up a hand. Norris’s mouth shut.

“But those questions, to be frank, are just a trivial footnote to a bigger issue here.”

Norris sighed. “Which is?”

“That you two know more than you’re telling us,” Blake said, his tone now devoid of all humor, and patience. “I don’t like secrets. There’s a threat here.”

Norris gave him a pained smile but did not meet his eyes. “Quite observant. Luckily for you, we were just coming to that, commander.”

The quartet of scientists passed out of the large chamber and into a smoothly paved tunnel. Naked light bulbs were strung along the ceiling, now only ten feet above their heads. Blake looked at the smooth walls and his brows furrowed. There were etchings.

Blake stopped. “Wait,” he said.

Norris turned back to him impatiently. Mad C and Barbara paused a few yards ahead, their faces blurred shadows in the dimly lit corridor.

“I’m not going any further until you two start answering questions. I’m here as a representative of NASA and the United States Government. I’m not a schoolboy touring the Natural History Museum. Coyness is no longer an option.” He looked at their faces, landed on Norris. “Understand me, Dr. Norris, when I say I want you to answer my question, I mean right this goddamn second.”

Norris’s eyes shifted to Mad C, who had her fingers on her lips, mumbling quietly to herself. “Very well,” he said.

“Thank you,” Blake said, shifting his weight like a cop putting away his sidearm. He pointed to the etchings. “For starters, what are these markings? They’re not human.”

Norris didn’t look away from Blake. “We believe it is a calendar. Not unlike the ancient Mayan calendar. There are similar patterns. We’ve been studying them for years.”

Barbara moved to the wall, ran her fingers along the embedded string of interwoven shapes, a series of dots and lines running beneath it. “Some of these…yes, this is very close to the Mayan word for Male.” She moved down the hallway, pointed at another. “This one. It looks like….”

“Earth.”

They all looked at Blake, who had his finger planted on a triangle-shaped etching, intricate designs decorating its interior. Barbara nodded in agreement. “Possibly.”

Mad C put her hands together, a gesture of prayer. “Please, if you’ll just come with us. We have to show you and then you might understand. We hope you will. It’s why you are here.”

Blake fumed. He hated the idea of being toyed with, having information dangled and held back. He decided to play along a few moments more. If he still didn’t have the answers he wanted, he would move on to more dramatic means of inquiry. He smiled gamely. “Lead on, doctor.”

Mad C offered a slight bow and, turning, continued down the narrow corridor, going deeper and deeper toward the cold center of the moon. Blake followed, the scribbling of aliens chattering all around him, the mimicking skeletons of Earth’s beasts scattering the floor behind.

5

PAST THE END OF THE corridor was another large door. This one guarded by a hand sensor. Blake noticed it was the first to have this level of security and felt a surge of intensity. Wherever, or whatever, it was they were being led to, the destination was apparently now just the thickness of a steel door away. His hands clenched as Norris splayed his palm on the black pad adjacent to the door.

Mad C turned to Blake and Barbara, her lips twitching with unmistakable nervousness. Or excitement, Blake thought. Jesus, she’s sweating.

“You’ll both have a lot of questions. Please trust that we will tell you everything we know.” She looked at Blake, met his eyes momentarily. “Everything.”

Blake nodded. A loud beeping emanated from the door as it slid into the wall on silent rails.

For the first time, Blake noticed that Norris had lost some of his swagger. He swallowed, his hand not leaving the pad, and allowed Blake and Barbara to step into the room ahead of him.

“I’ve seen it,” he said, almost abashed, as if it were not an action he was eager to repeat.

Blake stepped inside, and his breath caught in his throat.

“My god,” Barbara said from just behind him.

Blake studied the far side of the chamber – a room a hundred yards wide and twice the height – and saw a glimmering outline of bones the size of a Chicago skyscraper. Massive spotlights buzzed like insect swarms as they blasted their beams skyward. Blake followed the light, his mind trying to understand the scope of the creature they were looking at. He felt more than heard Norris stepping up behind him.