Horror Short Story

Planet Hope

By Sarah Compton

We didn’t know. How could we have? When we reached the seventh planet on this list, we expected yet another disappointment. We had hopes, of course. But we were women of science. We tempered our childish impulses with the strict lashes of facts and data. So our hopes we called instead “hypotheses” and down to the slate grey planet we descended. Even then, as our craft touched down on the seemingly virgin soil, even then in our bones we felt a vibration, a trill of fear. Fear? Poppycock. It must be excitement. Anticipation. Or perhaps there exists a planetary phenomenon causing a vibration or sound so deep we can only sense it, thus creating artificial unease. Yes, we told ourselves, each of us silently, that is the reason sweat drips in a long, cold line between my shoulder blades.

The Erebus Explorer was commissioned over a hundred and ten years ago by the last desperate people of a dying planet. It was part of a fleet of 80 vessels, sent out to find a new planet to colonize. Each ship's path of planets to explore was carefully charted, and the needs of the crews and the particular dangers they might face were researched extensively. These mini colonies could survive indefinitely in space, as long as they were able to mine solar wind and space rocks, and as long as the Captain maintained exact order.

Captain Henrietta, chief engineer of the Erebus, wondered how those other ships had fared. Had any found a new home? Did they still float along, attempting to complete the mission, as she did? Or were she and her crew alone, the final, abysmally small group of humans left in the galaxy?

Things had not gone according to plan, from what Henrietta had learned upon ascending to Captainship, and acquiring the logs. The first crew ran into an unexpected asteroid belt. The captain had to make the choice to run the field or spend years searching for a way around it. He chose the safety of his crew, but at the cost of those original, careful calculations. The first planet on the list was nowhere to be found. Despite all available knowledge and abilities, the crew could not determine where it was. After another year delay, hoping the planet would show itself eventually, they were forced to move on.

The next planet wasn’t rocky, as the data showed, instead it was formed of some heretofore unknown gelatinous substance. The substance acted as a solid planet, but was instead a dangerous and inescapable sphere. Luckily, only a probe was lost there.

As the second generation of space wayfarers grew, they reached the third planet. And lost yet another probe to this planet’s ink atmosphere. They sent one more in case it was simply an electrical error, but that probe also never returned hails.

The next planet's acidic weather patterns and unfortunately poisonous seas were unforeseen tragedies. The exploratory crew was lost on the fourth day.

When Henrietta was a child, they found the fifth planet. She still remembered the fear stinking from every adult’s pores. They’d blasted away from the planet, and there was no log of what had happened there, for the entire ground team had perished. Even worse, one of the samples brought up from the planet somehow cross contaminated another specimen. A plague ran through the ship, decimating the crew before a cure was created.

Henrietta had been old enough to join her aunt on the exploratory mission to the sixth planet. Though nothing untoward had occurred, the planet was far too resource poor. With a smaller crew and less supplies than anticipated, the terraforming project would be too great.

So here they were now, looking down at the seventh planet, a lightly glowing pink orb on Henrietta’s screen. Henrietta allowed herself a small sigh for the dire straits they were in. The original crew had a population of one hundred and fifty. After the various disasters and breeding constraints, they were down to six. Because the original crew’s DNA had been preserved, as long as the genetics station and a genetic scientist still existed, there was hope for building a colony, though it would be a slow and arduous process. But in her heart, Henrietta knew that this would have to be the last stop. If they lost anyone else, there simply would not be any hope.

But she had a duty to her crew. Henrietta could not bear the thought of being the captain who led the Erebus at last to its doom. With renewed resolve, she began to assemble her exo-suit.

***

“How is the weather looking, Florence?” Henrietta queried into her headset. Each of the remaining crew was forced to specialize in multiple disciplines, in order to continue to operate at normal functions. Florence was chiefly a meteorologist and geophysicist, though every woman aboard had studied genetics extensively. Even the two male staffers, Walter and Earl, had been taught enough basics to operate the machinery should the worst come to pass.

“Perfectly clear on this hemisphere of A16. That amazing pink color appears to be a result of the particulates and not a herald of any impeding weather pattern. Team advised to proceed,” Florence responded in her cheery way.

Henrietta turned left and right to look at the two women beside her. To her right was Viola. The biologist was curvy and short, giving her a somewhat nurturing look. But her shrewd brown eyes spoke to her no-nonsense spirit. She nodded to Henrietta.

Henrietta turned to her left and locked eyes with Myrtle, pale as a water cloud. The taller engineer gave a thumbs up, but her shaking hand and tight lips betrayed her nerves.

“Alright then. Let us proceed to the ridge and run our viability tests,” Henrietta proclaimed, trying to sound confident to boost team morale. She pressed the keypad and opened the door of their landing ship. A gust of wind shoved back into the door, causing the women to take a step back before stepping forward and out into the bright, pink horizon of planet A16.

They were followed closely by ALEXA, a planetary rover, the only remaining mobile robot on the Erebus. After a cursory check of the landing area, the ground crew set off towards a nearby ridge, spotted by telescope prior to landing. There they hoped to get a good lay of the land, before beginning a grueling series of tests to determine the viability of colonizing the planet.

As they walked, Henrietta observed the strange environment around her. The pink sky lent a strange tinge to everything, and the planet’s sun’s light was dim despite the lack of clouds in the sky. Alexa reported normal atmospheric levels, and Florence confirmed that no sandstorms, deadly glass rain or the like were imminent, though the crew was still warned to take precaution in case of non-weather related dangers.

The surface upon which they tread was made up of very small pebbles; not quite sand, not quite rock. They passed many small pools of water, each surrounded by what appeared to be jeweled purple fungus or plant-based life forms. Viola stopped to study one, bending near to peer at the alien thing. Something about the scene bothered Henrietta, though she couldn’t say what.

“The soil and atmosphere contain enough carbon, oxygen and nitrogen for our air reclaimers, Henrietta,” said Myrtle,calling Henrietta’s attention away from Viola. A shy smile was beginning to form on her bright face as fear gave way to tentative hope. Myrtle motioned to her handheld computer.

“According to this, we could even remove our suits at the moment if we wanted to, though of course I am not recommending we break protocol,” she finished hurriedly.

Henrietta smiled encouragingly, but before she could speak, Viola caught her attention.

“As encouraging as that may be, I think it’s rather odd that we have seen no fauna with such abundant resources,” Viola said. She indicated the fascinating purple fungus-like plant she was kneeling before.

That was the source of her unease, Henrietta realized. With the exception of the crunch of their boots and the sigh of the wind, the planet was silent, unmoving. There did not even appear to be insects. The only signs of life were the purple fungus and a strong, fern-like plant that grew beside every pool of water.

“Perhaps the noise of the landing frightened them off?” Henrietta postulated.

Viola shook her head, pursing her full lips.

“But most fungi feed on dead matter. There are no dead trees, no dead animals, no dead insects. Perhaps it’s just eating other dead fungi? Or perhaps it merely mimics traits common to fungi, but is something else entirely. Very strange, I must run tests” Viola muttered, gently prodding the plant.

A deep hiss followed her touch.

The three women jumped, though none quicker than Viola, who practically leaped backwards into Myrtle’s arms. The women moved into a defensive circle, backs to each other as they looked for the source of the noise.

“Henrietta,” Viola whispered, dread shaking her normally light voice, “Look at the fungus.”

Henrietta turned. She stared for a moment before she saw it. Teeth. The wide hood of the fungus had flipped upwards to reveal row after row of what looked astonishingly like human teeth. The center pulsated sickly and slowly, so slowly, something began to protrude from the center of the ghastly plant. The women backed away, disbelief on each of their faces.

“It can’t be,” Myrtle practically shrieked, though it seemed she had barely the air to form the words.

Those were fingers. Human fingers. And eventually, impossibly, an entire hand protruded from the center of the fungus. Henrietta felt sick. She could barely hear Florence chiming in on the headset, asking what was going on. Finally, she steeled herself.

“Hold your composure ladies,” she snapped, hoping to calm her compatriots with the rationale of science.

“There could be many answers here. But as it is let us not approach any more fungus for the remainder of our journey, and let us skirt this area. Come along, we will have time to study everything later.”

Viola made as if to argue, the scientist in her wanting to stay and watch and understand. Myrtle practically swayed on her feet. Henrietta grabbed both women firmly by the arm and dragged them towards the ridge. She looked for ALEXA, but did not see her. She turned to cast one last glance at the flora, then gasped in disbelief.

Viola and Myrtle turned.

“Are you seeing…” she began.

“It’s gone! How could it move so fast? You saw the teeth, didn’t you Henrietta? Did I…” Viola almost walked back towards the thing, Henrietta was barely able to stop her. She felt her trembling, all of them were trembling.

There was no sign of the obscenity of a moment before. Instead, it had reverted to the harmless looking purple fungus again.

“Dangerous flora and fauna are not enough to disqualify a planet, if they can be studied and contained. Our ancestors conquered Earth, did they not? We shall record this distressing dilemma but we must carry on for now,” Henrietta said, looking both women in the eye through the concave bubble of their clear helmets. They each nodded in turn.

“Good. We’re okay, we’re being careful, we need to move on. Now, where has that rover gone off to? ALEXA! ALEXA RETURN!” she called. Between the possibility of dangerous creatures and the many pools of water, there was a true potential for danger for a robotic rover.

Henrietta waited, straining to hear the sound of ALEXA’s wheels. Nothing.

“Florence? Can you pinpoint ALEXA’s location for me please.”

“One moment,” she responded. Then: “My display puts her less than a kilometer ahead in the direction you’re travelling.”

Henrietta frowned and Myrtle jerked in surprise. Alexa had a hearing radius of 1.73 kilometers. She had also been set to travel no more than a few feet from the crew for this mission. What was going on?

Henrietta’s feeling of unease seemed to dig into her stomach. Then it was replaced with a burning anger.

Again, another planet is testing us. Well I’m not afraid. We will conquer you, do you hear me?

For a moment, Henrietta thought she heard, no, more like felt, an answer, as if the planet personified had turned its eyes towards her. What a strange thought! The captain of the Erebus shook it off. Myrtle and Viola were clearly frightened and she could not afford to lose their confidence, not when so much relied on their crew. Perhaps the very fate of humanity.

“Well, let us catch up to our wayward rover. The ridge and our first camp are less than a kilometer away!” she said briskly.

***

When in doubt, a brisk tone and a statement of fact always calms the scientific minded, my mother used to say. I walked confidently towards the ridge, but in truth I was scanning the ground almost obsessively for any other fungi. Luckily, the larger ones appeared to be rare. At the ridge we found ALEXA perfectly intact. Myrtle checked her settings but could find no reason for our earlier abandonment. I put her in charge of keeping an eye on our last rover. There were several caves in the steep red hills before us. They were disturbingly circular, giving the ridge the look of a giant bug’s nest from my ancient Earth picture book. We found a cave shallow enough for our light to hit the back wall and set up camp. We spent the next eight hours running through our landing party protocol. Nothing untoward occurred. All protocols came back positive. I remember the pride near to bursting in my heart. I remember the joy. But most of all, I felt that illusive treasure: hope. Oh yes, we would need to run more tests, and be very cautious and careful over the next few weeks. But it looked like we had finally found a home. A place for the human race to start anew.

“Well, why don’t we pack it up for the night and head back to the ship ladies?” Henrietta said, sighing happily at the vista before her.

“Blood.”

Myrtle and Henrietta jumped, startled. The word hung in the air, dark and somehow ancient in tone. They turned to face the speaker.

Viola was standing stock still as she stared off at something unseen.

“What was that, Viola?” Myrtle asked, a frown creasing her face.

“Your blood. Give yourself to me and I will bring a chaos never before seen upon the stars.”

Myrtle and Henrietta were frozen in shock. Henrietta’s palms were slick with sweat, she felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach. Something about Viola’s nonsensical words rang through her ears like an electric shock.

“That’s not Viola,” Myrtle whispered.

Henrietta jerked back, noticing now what she had somehow missed. Viola’s eyes were red, dripping red orbs.

“What are you?” Henrietta screamed, unable to contain her fear any longer.

There was a loud noise from behind. Myrtle and Henrietta turned quickly to face the new threat, but it was just ALEXA, returning with another sample.

They turned back to Viola quickly, but she had fainted dead away.

***

We returned to the ship immediately, taking our samples and Viola’s limp form with us. Her eyes had returned to normal, and she was breathing on her own, but she did not waken until we arrived back on the ship. I sent her to the medbay and went to my quarters to update the captain’s log on all I had witnessed. I knew, in my heart, that we needed to leave. But I couldn’t let go of my dream. I was too selfish, too naive. I convinced myself that the fungus must have had some sort of hallucinogenic properties that had somehow contaminated us despite our exo suits. Yes, that was surely it. Viola could confirm it when she was revived.

There was a knock at Henrietta’s door.

“Come in,” she said, without looking up from her screen. So much new data to sort through!

“Hi Henrietta, just wanted to check in on you,” Walter said as he walked in. Walter was a good looking man in his 30s, with mahogany skin and long, tightly coiled hair. He had it pulled back at the moment. Despite her attraction to him, Henrietta was too closely related to him for there to be any sort of congress between them.

“Thank you for your concern Walter, but I’m fine. I think we may have had a breach in our exo suits though. I’m going down to look in a moment,” Henrietta replied with a smile. The crew must not be alarmed. She made as if to stand, but found she could not move. She tried again. Her arms did not budge from the chair. Fighting down panic, she tried to call out to Walter for assistance, but her lips would not obey her commands. She stared helplessly at the man, willing him to realize her predicament.

Walter was smiling ever so slightly. Henrietta felt again that punch of fear as goosebumps raised all along her arms and the hairs stood out on the back of her neck.

Walter’s eyes were red.

“Now you feel what I feel. To be trapped, unable to move, floating helpless through space,” Walter said, in a voice not his own. This was a voice of caverns and dread. The voice of the cold dark of deep space. It rang through her, shaking her very bones with its sepulchre tones.

The thing wearing Walter’s face smiled. It was an insane smile, somehow wider than his face. His skin cracked and oozed around it.

What do you want? Henrietta screamed helplessly in her mind, unable to even close her eyes to shut out the horrifying vision before her.

“Release me from this eternal prison.”

Visions flooded Henrietta’s mind. An ancient civilization. Strange creatures worshipping at an impossibly tall altar. Ritual sacrifice. Piles of hands consumed by the purple fungi. The fungi themselves were just a part of something monstrous. Something that moved in the dark places below the surface. But she musn’t look! Henrietta tried to shut it out, to look away from the madness before it revealed its true form. It turned its probing gaze towards her and then--

“Henrietta!”

Henrietta awoke with a start. It took her a moment to get her bearings and slow the racing of her heart. It had just been a dream. A nightmare. She almost cried with relief.

“Henrietta are you awake?” Florence’s voice crackled slightly over the intercom.

“Yes. Yes Florence, sorry. What is it?” Henrietta asked, slowly sitting up. She could move. Everything was fine.

“We need you at the survey station. It’s an emergency,” Florence’s voice cracked on the last word.

“What has happened?” Henrietta felt a stillness settle in her. She was unbearably cold.

“It’s Walter. Please hurry.”

The captain of the Erebus broke into a run.

***

It was all I could do to keep down my food when I saw him. Walter’s body lay twisted and broken on the floor. It looked like he had clawed his own eyes out before suffering some sort of heart attack. He held one of the mineral samples from the planet in his left hand. The rest of the crew moved about in suits, trying to contain this nightmare of a contamination. There was truly no telling how much of the ship could have been affected by this breach in security protocol. I tried to focus on the details, tried to separate my feelings from the work. My crew needed me now more than ever. I refused to even think of the dream. With only six crew members, it was statistically unlikely to have been of any significance that I happened to dream of the one who had brutally killed himself. That’s what I repeated every time the image of his blood red eyes appeared in my mind.

Henrietta sat with Florence, placing a comforting arm around her.

“He’ll never get to meet his child,” Florence whispered, voice and eyes full of tears. “Why would he do this? How could he be so selfish?” Her balled fists were placed protectively over her rounded stomach.

Henrietta said nothing. Her heart was broken in ways too painful to analyze. She needed to be strong for her crew. She needed to solve this puzzle. They would run every test imaginable. They would detect whatever was causing these hallucinations. Viola had awakened from her comatose state. In fact, she had been the one to discover Walter’s body as she went to experiment on the samples. She remembered nothing of the incident on the ridge.

With her resolve steeled by an actionable task, Henrietta untangled herself from Florence and stood, giving the other woman one last pat on the hand.

“I need to ensure nothing like this happens to anyone else aboard the ship. Please keep yourself and Earl confined to the bridge for now, and open the door for no one but myself. Consider the ship on Protocol 11 until I give you the Stand Down Key,” Henrietta took a deep breath. Florence stared up at her, her face an open book. She had so many questions. Henrietta would give her some answers.

“Immediately please, Florence. Myrtle, Viola and I will resolve this mystery.”

Florence closed her eyes for a moment. Henrietta wondered briefly if she was going to disobey. Then she opened them, and nodded. She had found her backbone. Just as Henrietta had done, Florence was pushing down her emotions. The discipline of ship life had ensured every woman on board knew how to carefully control her emotions. Henrietta felt a small burst of pride, and a fierce desire to protect this woman. No magical purple thing was going to hurt her crew.

Henrietta left her then, and went to meet with Viola and Myrtle in one of the empty research labs. However when she arrived, only Myrtle was there to meet her.

“Where’s Viola?” Henrietta asked, a puzzled frown creasing her ebony face.

“She said she just had one more test to complete before the meeting. Thought the results might have an impact on our plan,” Myrtle replied, her voice dull with grief.

“Ah.”

The two women waited in silence. Moments passed into minutes. Suddenly, an alarm blared into the intercom.

“Henrietta! Did you authorize the launch of the landing ship?” Florence’s voice was breathless.

The captain’s mouth hung open in shock before she recovered.

“No of course not. Who is manning it?”

“Viola.”

***

Hope hurts. It hurts worse than fear, worse than sorrow and anger. When you have hope, you have a weakness. You are taking a risk. Allowing yourself to feel a joy that could come crashing down, leaving you lower than if you’d never had any hope at all. So quickly, my dreams of colonizing a planet, of keeping humanity from extinction, were being ground to dust. Myrtle, ALEXA and I followed Viola down to the planet in our secondary landing craft. Before leaving, I gave the passwords over to Florence. I asked her not to use them unless we did not return. I also requested that she begin teaching Earl about genetics. Though there had not been a male scientist since the original crew, desperate times called for desperate measures. I did nothing to hide my fear from them, for it was no longer time for shows of bravado. Disaster was at our doorstep, and we either stopped it here or perished. Before we left, Myrtle asked me if I was sure it was not more logical to abandon Viola. Losing two crew members was preferable to losing four of them and our only remaining rover. I had thought of the same thing. But, strategically, if Viola and the ship could be saved, we need them. I did not mention that we would probably die either way, our crew inbred and tiny by the time we reached the next planet on the list.

“ALEXA has found the trail. She went this way,” Myrtle said, pointing to the starboard side of the abandoned landing ship. Henrietta had one more moment of hesitation. She could have Myrtle pilot the second ship, and they could return at least with that resource. But she was too close to give up on Viola. Everyone responded to grief in different ways. Maybe this egregious breach of protocol was merely the result of Walter’s shocking death, and not at all related to the hallucinations.

“Then let us bring our wayward sister home,” was all she said, as she passed Myrtle and followed the rover.

The trail led past many of the purple fungi, which the team were careful to avoid. They were headed in a direction they had not explored the day before. After a few miles, ALEXA stopped and beeped a warning noise. There was something impassable ahead.

Henrietta and Myrtle joined the rover, and gasped when they saw the great fissure in the ground.

Dropping hundreds of feet down, the crack in the earth sprawled to either side as far as they could see. The other side of the canyon was barely visible. Down in its dark depths, a massive temple, seemingly miles tall, rose from the canyon floor. It looked familiar to Henrietta, though she couldn’t imagine where she would have ever seen such a thing. It was made of huge blocks of stone, with crude carvings and odd angles that belied any sort of elegance such a monument might normally have.

The floor of the canyon was obscured by a thick, unmoving mist.

“There,” Myrtle pointed to a set of stairs carved into the side of the cliff. The two women leaned out to look down, and they saw Viola about halfway down the stairs, moving with reckless speed.

Henrietta leaned back and caught her breath. It was their last chance to turn back. Viola was clearly unhinged to run recklessly down the cliff.

But Henrietta could not come all this way simply to abandon her. She had known Viola her entire life. They were as close as siblings.

“Let’s go,” she said, sending ALEXA back to the ship. Myrtle and Henrietta labored down the steep stairs as fast as they could safely go, but Viola was getting further and further ahead of them.

When they finally reached the cavern floor, the sun was setting, and none of its light pierced the darkness of the fog. Their suit-lights were barely able to pierce the gloom a foot in front of their faces. Three steps from the stone steps were giant purple fungi, four times the size of any they had previously encountered. They stood like bloated sentries over stagnant pools of shallow water. There was no sign of Viola.

Without the wind, it was completely silent. Even their breath seemed too loud. Henrietta felt herself being watched, with pure malice behind the gaze.

“Henrietta. I’m afraid,” Myrtle whispered. Henrietta swallowed, her throat dry with fear. She could not even muster up any sort of comfort for the other woman.

Henrietta searched the ground for signs of Viola’s passage, spotting boot marks deep in the muck around them. She led the way, Myrtle following close behind, terrified to move forward but too scared to be left behind in the mist. Without warning, Henrietta slammed her knees into colossal stone steps. There was still no sign of Viola.

They crept up the stairs as well as they were able, mindful of their crumbling and uneven surface. Pools of stagnant water lay here and there, with more of the normal sized fungus around. The hissing of the purple creatures trilled along Henrietta’s skin. She’d never been more scared in her entire life.

Just when she thought she could bear it no more, they came across Viola, crouched down before a massive archway.

“Viola!” Myrtle cried, reaching out to grab the other woman. But as she did, Viola turned incredibly fast, too fast, and chopped off Myrtle’s hand.

Henrietta was too shocked to scream, and for a moment Myrtle was as well. And then she did scream. And scream and scream and scream. Henrietta grabbed her and pulled her away from Viola, who had picked up the hand and turned back to face the archway.

“We need to stop the bleeding. Hold on Myrtle I have bandages,” Henrietta finally got the latch of her pouch open and began to wrap the gushing stump. Only then did she realize the secondary danger. Myrtle’s exo suit had been breached. Myrtle abruptly stopped screaming.

Henrietta looked up, and her own brown eyes met Myrtle’s blood red gaze.

“Foolish creature, to think you could disobey my call,” Myrtle said in a voice not her own. “I will spread my spore far throughout the universe, they shall rue the day they betrayed me!”

Henrietta released Myrtle, who fell forward onto the rough stone, laughing hysterically. Viola stood suddenly and threw the hand through the arch into the darkness beyond. Slowly, Henrietta realized there was a noise coming from the portal, barely perceptible beneath Myrtle’s laughter.

Something was coming.

I can’t die here. They’re counting on me, she thought. She turned and ran, tears streaming from her eyes and sobs wracking her chest for the two women she left behind.

***

I ran, stumbling and heedless of my path, nearly falling a dozen times, barely avoiding the grasping reach of the fungi as they tried to stop my flight. I dared not turn back, not even when I heard Viola scream, or Myrtle’s laughter cut off as suddenly as a sword stroke. I ran, barely able to see past the tears. Whatever was behind me moved slowly, because I was halfway up the stairs before it had even reached the base of the canyon. My legs and arms felt like lead, I was exhausted, mentally and physically. But I had to keep going. If I stopped, I died. This I knew for a certainty. Somehow, I made it back to the ship. I had ALEXA disable the other one, though I doubted the massive creature following me could possibly squeeze its bulk into the tiny ship. Just as a monstrous black blob cleared the horizon, the ship was ready for take off. I escaped that day. Though we had lost Walter, Viola, Myrtle and our secondary landing ship, Earl, Florence and I still had our lives. Though it would be harder than ever before, we would find a new home. We would carry on the legacy of our species.

“Is this the last entry?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder what happened to them.”

Eugene, captain of the Moerae Mystery, looked around the sparse cabin one last time. They’d received the radio transmissions of a fellow human colony ship, and guided it back to their new home, Planet Ananke. But when they’d boarded, there was no trace of life, other than a single rover and dozens of beautiful red plants.

“Ah well. Let’s take it down and get it cleaned and refitted. We can always use another ship.”

Behind him, all unseen, one of the plants began to unfurl.

THE END