Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 34 - Radio

Aron drove the four-seater buggy confidently along the main corridor, heading back towards the Arcadian. Beside him, in the front passenger seat, sat commander Gordon who he felt had been oddly subdued since their encounter with the cat people vessel.

The commander had refused to let him or anyone else go aboard the vessel again after the two L.E.O.s had completed their fruitless search, but at least he had succeeded in persuading him not to have the vessel blown up, for now at least. The two L.E.O.s were sitting silently in the back seats with Bettino squeezed in between them. He did not know if Bettino was silent or not as he had again switched off his radio.

He had been wondering about trying to strike up a conversation to break the awkward silence when the display in his helmet visor flashed up a message that it had detected another radio source. There was no identifying tag, but it was on the correct frequency for their suit radios.

"Are you getting some sort of radio transmission?" he asked the commander.

"Yes, but it doesn't say what it is."

"My radio's not getting complete packets," Aron said.

"Could it be our ship?"

"I don't think so," Aron replied. "We've never picked up anything from the ship this side of the airlock."

"It's a local signal?"

"It has to be."

"But from where? Everyone this side of the airlock is on this buggy."

Just then, they heard a snippet of a word, not enough to catch what was being said, but enough to tell them it was human.

"We're getting closer to the source," said Aron.

"Could it be Commander Lewis?" asked the commander.

"I thought she was dead?" said L.E.O. Cohen.

"No, I don't think so," replied Aron to the commander, "The suit ID in the meta is Walter's."

"I thought he was dead too!" exclaimed L.E.O. Cohen.

"Me too, but I don't think we can assume anything in this place."

Aron fell silent, as there was more distorted speech over the radio. It was still impossible to make out more than fragments of words, but he was sure that what he could hear was English.

"We're definitely getting closer to the transmitter," Aron announced. "He must be in this corridor."

"My radio reckons there're two radios transmitting," said Commander Gordon. "Whose is that second suit ID?"

"That's Megan's," Aron chuckled. "Sorry, I mean 'Commander Lewis'."

Aron pressed his booted foot harder on the accelerator pedal. He was not sure he dared believe that Megan was somehow not dead, but he wanted to find out as soon as possible.

"I thought you said her oxygen would have run out by now, Mr Nowak?"

"It has, at least, it should have run out hours ago. And I saw Walter die right in front of me."

"Could this be some sort of alien trick?"

"I really don't think so," Aron chortled. "Megan, can you hear me? If we're receiving you, you should be getting us."

There were some staccato syllables then a couple of seconds of silence.

"Megan? Walter? Are you receiving me?"

"...es...Aron is...oo..." came the fractured reply.

"Where are you?" he shouted excitedly. He willed the buggy to go faster but the pedal was already to the floor. "You can't be far from here if we can receive you."