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We Were Sent to Explore an Earth-Like Planet. The Sun Doesn't Move Here. · Creepy Stories to Fall Asleep To

0:00
I've been through a lot of atmospheric entries, but nothing
0:03
quite like Kepler 442B. The descent felt different from
0:08
the start, smoother. Somehow.
0:11
Our transport cut through those blue skies like they were made
0:14
of silk instead of the usual turbulence you'd expect on a new
0:18
world. Dana was running through the
0:21
mission brief while I pressed my face against the porthole.
0:25
She had that formal tone she always used for corporate
0:28
assignments. Primary objective remains
0:31
resource assessment and environmental cataloging, she
0:35
said, checking something on her tablet.
0:38
Orbital scans confirm no immediate threats.
0:42
I figured she was being careful with the language corporate
0:46
speak for. We're here to see what we can
0:48
strip mine. That's how these expeditions
0:51
usually went, but the view below had me distracted.
0:56
Rolling green forests stretched out in every direction, broken
1:00
up by rivers that looked like someone had drawn them with a
1:03
crystal clear pen. The trees reminded me of
1:07
redwoods, except bigger. Way bigger.
1:11
Some of those things had to be 300 feet tall.
1:15
No dangerous wildlife detected, Dana continued.
1:20
Atmosphere remains stable at 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen.
1:26
Lincoln was hunched over his communications array running
1:30
final checks. The guy always looked nervous
1:33
during landings, but his equipment never failed.
1:37
All systems green. He called out contact with
1:41
orbital station confirmed. That was good.
1:45
Victoria Hughes was up there coordinating from the main
1:48
vessel, and losing contact would have meant we were on our own
1:51
down there. Not something you wanted on a
1:55
first planetary survey. Robert was already eyeing the
1:59
terrain through his porthole, probably thinking about soil
2:02
composition and geological formations.
2:06
The guy lived for rock samples. Landing zone looks stable, he
2:12
said. Good drainage, solid ground.
2:16
Kennedy had her medical scanner out, double checking atmospheric
2:19
readings, even though we'd already confirmed them three
2:22
times. That's just how she worked,
2:26
thorough to the point of obsession.
2:30
No biological contaminants detected, she reported.
2:34
Bill was practically bouncing in his seat.
2:37
The botanist got excited about new plant life the way other
2:41
people got excited about winning the lottery.
2:44
Look at that diversity, he kept saying.
2:47
Those tree structures are incredible.
2:49
Elaine sat across from me, quiet and alert like always.
2:54
Security officers learned to watch everything during
2:56
landings. Her hand rested near her
2:59
sidearm, but I could tell she was relaxed.
3:03
The orbital scans really had shown nothing threatening.
3:07
The landing went smooth as butter.
3:10
Our pilot set us down in a clearing that looked like it had
3:13
been waiting for us. Perfectly flat, surrounded by
3:17
those massive trees, with a small stream running along the
3:22
eastern edge. The kind of spot you'd pick for
3:26
a camping trip, if camping trips involved $1,000,000 corporate
3:29
expeditions. Within an hour we had base camp
3:33
established. That's what eight people can do
3:36
when they know their jobs. Dana coordinated from the center
3:41
while the rest of us handled our specialties.
3:45
I helped Elaine set up the perimeter sensors, motion
3:48
detectors, heat scanners, the basic early warning stuff that
3:52
keeps you alive on new worlds. The air smelled clean, really
3:58
clean. Like after a thunderstorm back
4:01
home. I've been expecting something
4:04
off about it, some hint of alien chemistry, but it just smelled
4:08
like Earth forests, maybe a little sweeter.
4:13
Communications array is online. Lincoln announced, adjusting
4:17
something on his headset. Signal strength to orbital is
4:21
optimal. He was good at his job, I had to
4:24
give him that. The guy could make a tin can,
4:28
talk to satellites if he needed to.
4:31
Right now his equipment was humming quietly, maintaining our
4:35
link to Victoria and the main ship.
4:38
That connection was our lifeline.
4:42
Robert had already started collecting soil samples near the
4:45
stream. He worked methodically, filling
4:48
containers and labeling them with that careful handwriting of
4:51
his composition. Looks standard.
4:55
He called over carbon based organics mineral content within
4:59
normal ranges. Kennedy was taking atmospheric
5:03
readings every few minutes, building a baseline for
5:07
environmental changes. Her scanner beeped softly as she
5:11
moved around the perimeter. Everything's stable, she
5:15
reported to Dana. No fluctuations in air quality.
5:20
Bill had disappeared into the tree line with his collection
5:23
kit. I could hear him talking to
5:26
himself, probably naming things. The botanist had a habit of
5:31
giving unofficial names to new species before the scientific
5:34
classification got worked out. Made him happy.
5:39
Perimeters sweep in 10 minutes, Elaine said, checking her rifle.
5:44
She'd already done a visual scan of the area, but protocol called
5:47
for a full walkthrough before dark.
5:50
I nodded and grabbed my own gear.
5:53
The sidearm felt familiar on my hip.
5:57
Military habits die hard. We started at the northern edge
6:01
of the clearing and worked our way clockwise, staying about 50
6:05
meters out from base camp. The forest was quiet except for
6:10
small sounds in the underbrush, rustling leaves, maybe some kind
6:16
of small animals moving around, nothing that seemed interested
6:20
in us. The trees were even more
6:23
impressive up close. Their bark had this reddish tint
6:26
that reminded me of sequoias, but the texture was different.
6:30
Smoother movement at 2:00. Elaine said quietly.
6:38
I followed her gaze and saw them.
6:40
Small creatures about the size of rabbits with Gray fur and
6:44
oversized ears. They watched us for maybe 3
6:48
seconds before bolting deeper into the forest.
6:51
Fast little things, harmless. I said.
6:56
Elaine nodded but kept her weapon ready.
6:59
That was her job, assume everything was a threat until
7:02
proven otherwise. But these things were clearly
7:06
prey animals, the way they ran, the way they've been feeding on
7:10
what looked like berries near a fallen log.
7:13
Nothing predatory about them. We completed the circuit without
7:17
finding anything more dangerous than those rabid things.
7:22
The clearing really was isolated, protected by the
7:25
massive trees in the stream. Good defensive position if we
7:29
needed it, though the Orbital scan suggested we wouldn't.
7:34
Back at base camp, Dana was setting up the main command
7:37
station. Solar panels were already
7:40
charging our equipment and the shelter modules were configured
7:43
for an extended stay. Everything looked professional
7:47
and organized. First day assessment, Dana
7:51
announced as we gathered around the command station.
7:54
All departments report Lincoln checked his screens.
7:59
Communications optimal. Full contact with Orbital
8:02
maintained. Robert held up a soil sample
8:05
container. Geological Survey initiated.
8:09
Preliminary results show standard planetary composition.
8:14
Kennedy consulted her medical scanner.
8:17
Environmental condition stable, no health concerns detected.
8:22
Bill emerged from the forest carrying an arm load of plant
8:25
samples, grinning like he'd found treasure.
8:29
Botanical diversity exceeds expectations.
8:33
These species are fascinating. Elaine and I exchanged glances.
8:38
Perimeter secure. I reported local wildlife
8:42
appears non threatening. Dana made notes on her tablet.
8:48
Excellent progress. We'll maintain standard watch
8:51
rotation tonight and begin detailed surveys tomorrow.
8:55
The sun was starting to set, painting the sky in shades of
8:59
orange and purple that looked almost exactly like Earth
9:02
sunsets. That surprised me.
9:06
I'd expected alien skies to look, well, more alien.
9:13
As darkness settled over the clearing, our equipment hummed
9:16
quietly and the forest grew peaceful around us.
9:20
Those rabbit things had stopped moving around, probably bedded
9:24
down for the night. Everything felt safe and normal,
9:29
maybe too normal for a world 47 light years from home.
9:33
Those first three days, they felt like vacation.
9:37
Honestly, I'm not kidding. The whole team just kind of fell
9:42
into this routine where everything worked exactly like
9:45
it was supposed to. Donna had us up at dawn for
9:49
equipment checks, but even she seemed more relaxed than usual,
9:54
less of that tight lipped thing she does when she's stressed.
9:58
Lincoln was practically bouncing around Camp Guy loves his
10:02
gadgets, and every single piece of equipment was reading green.
10:06
Perfect atmospheric pressure, ideal temperature ranges, soil
10:11
composition that made Robert actually smile for once.
10:14
I caught Bill taking photos of some purple flowers that looked
10:17
like Earth daisies but weren't quite right, just different
10:21
enough to be interesting. This place is going to make us
10:25
rich. Kennedy said on Day 2, she was
10:29
running water samples through her portable lab setup.
10:32
Same routine she done on six other worlds, except this time
10:36
everything came back clean. No toxins, no weird minerals, no
10:41
bacterial nasties that'd kill you in 12 hours.
10:46
Early retirement bonus. Elaine agreed.
10:50
She was cleaning her sidearm, but I could tell she was just
10:53
going through the motions. Nothing to secure against here.
10:58
Those rabbit things kept their distance, and the biggest
11:01
predator we'd spotted was some kind of bird about the size of a
11:05
house cat. I figured they were right.
11:09
This was the kind of discovery that it Get your name in the
11:12
textbooks. Perfect human, compatible world,
11:16
47 light years from home. The corporate guys back on Earth
11:21
would lose their minds over the terraforming savings alone.
11:25
Lincoln kept his regular schedule with orbital contact
11:29
every morning at 800 hours. Every evening at 2000,
11:34
Victoria's voice came through clear as day.
11:37
No interference, no lag beyond the usual lightspeed delay.
11:42
He'd rattle off our daily findings in that fast way.
11:45
He talks when he's excited. Base camp established Day 2.
11:51
All environmental readings Nominal atmospheric oxygen at
11:55
20.4%, nitrogen 78.1, surface gravity 0.97.
12:03
Earth standard. Team morale high.
12:06
No medical issues reported. Victoria always sounded pleased
12:11
on the other end. Professional, but you could hear
12:14
the satisfaction. This was exactly the kind of
12:17
mission that made careers. Donna even started letting
12:22
people have coffee with dinner instead of sticking to the
12:24
regulation schedule. Small thing, but it meant she
12:30
was comfortable. When Dana's comfortable,
12:33
everybody's comfortable. I should have known it wouldn't
12:37
last. 4th morning, I was doing my usual patrol route around the
12:42
perimeter. Dawn was just starting to break,
12:45
those twin moons still visible as pale ghosts against the
12:49
brightening sky. I always check the stars first,
12:53
thing old habit from my service days.
12:57
You Orient yourself by what's above before you worry about
13:00
what's around you. That's when I saw it.
13:04
Orion was wrong. Not gone, just moved.
13:10
The whole constellation had shifted maybe 30° to the east.
13:14
I stood there, squinting up at the sky like an idiot, trying to
13:18
figure out if I was remembering wrong.
13:21
But you don't forget Orion. Three bright stars in a line
13:26
that distinctive hourglass shape.
13:29
I'd used it for navigation on too many night OPS to mess up
13:32
something that basic. The Big Dipper was off too,
13:37
still recognizable but tilted at an angle that made no sense.
13:42
And Polaris wasn't even close to true North anymore.
13:47
I kept walking the perimeter, but my eyes kept drifting up.
13:51
The more I looked, the worse it got.
13:54
It wasn't just a couple stars out of place.
13:57
Whole sections of sky had rearranged themselves overnight.
14:02
Dana was running diagnostics on the atmospheric sensors when I
14:05
found her. She had that focused look she
14:08
gets when she's trying to solve a problem.
14:11
Wire rimmed glasses sliding down her nose.
14:14
We've got an issue. I said she didn't look up from
14:18
her tablet. Define issue.
14:22
Star patterns moved overnight. Major constellations are in the
14:27
wrong positions. That got her attention.
14:32
She glanced up, then went back to her screen.
14:36
Disorientations normal on extended deployments.
14:39
Your circadian rhythm's probably off.
14:43
This isn't disorientation. Orion shifted 30° E.
14:48
She set down the tablet and gave me that look, the one that said
14:52
she was being patient with someone who didn't understand
14:54
science. Peter, stellar positions don't
14:58
change overnight. The physics doesn't work that
15:01
way. I know what I saw.
15:05
Fine, we'll check it. She pulled out the portable
15:08
astronomical unit. Thing was about the size of a
15:12
briefcase loaded with sensors that could map star positions
15:16
down to the arc. Second professional grade
15:19
equipment that cost more than my annual salary.
15:23
Dana powered it up and ran a full sky survey.
15:26
Took about 15 minutes. I watched her expression change
15:30
as the data came in, started confident, got puzzled, then
15:34
went completely blank. This is impossible, she said.
15:40
She ran the survey again, same results.
15:43
Every major constellation we've been using for navigation had
15:47
moved. Not drifted slowly like they
15:50
should over centuries, but jumped to completely new
15:53
positions overnight. The astronomical unit was cross
15:58
referencing its database and throwing error codes because the
16:01
star patterns didn't match anything in its memory.
16:04
Equipment malfunction, Dana said finally, but her voice didn't
16:10
sound convinced. By midday, things got worse.
16:14
I was helping Robert catalog soil samples when I noticed the
16:17
shadows hadn't moved at all. The sun had been sitting
16:22
directly overhead since around 1100 hours, and it was stuck
16:25
there, just frozen at zenith, like someone had hit a pause
16:30
button on the whole solar system.
16:33
Hey, I called to Lincoln. He was setting up the afternoon
16:38
communication array. What time you got?
16:42
He checked his watch. 1430 son's been in the same spot for three
16:47
hours. Lincoln looked up, squinted at
16:50
the sky, then checked his watch again.
16:53
That's not right. We all gathered around Dana's
16:56
equipment station. She had every sensor we'd
16:59
brought pointed at the sky, trying to make sense of readings
17:02
that violated basic physics. The sun wasn't moving, the star
17:07
patterns were wrong, and according to her instruments,
17:11
our planet had somehow stopped rotating entirely.
17:15
This is temporary, she kept saying.
17:19
Has to be temporary. Planetary rotation doesn't just
17:22
stop. But it had stopped.
17:26
We were stuck in perpetual twilight, the sun hanging
17:30
overhead like a bright coin someone had glued to the sky.
17:34
Temperature was holding steady, but that wouldn't last forever.
17:38
Without rotation, half the planet would freeze while the
17:42
other half burned. Lincoln tried to raise Victoria
17:45
for emergency contact. Standard procedure when things
17:49
go sideways. Nothing.
17:52
He adjusted frequencies, boosted signal strength, tried backup
17:56
channels. The orbital communicator was
17:59
working fine according to its diagnostics, but all he got back
18:03
was static, not even the usual carrier wave.
18:07
That meant someone was listening on the other end.
18:11
Victoria, this is Ground Team, do you copy?
18:15
His voice was getting tighter with each attempt.
18:19
Emergency contact priority Alpha, please respond.
18:25
Just electronic noise, the kind of interference you'd get if you
18:30
were trying to talk through a solar storm, except the
18:33
equipment wasn't showing any storm activity.
18:36
Lincoln worked at it for two hours, tried everything in the
18:39
manual and a few things that probably weren't.
18:43
By the time he gave up, his hands were shaking and his voice
18:46
had gone hoarse from repeating the same call over and over.
18:50
We're cut off, he said finally. That was it.
18:56
No ship overhead, no way home, and a planet that had apparently
19:01
forgotten how to spin. We were stuck on a world where
19:05
the laws of physics had taken a coffee break and nobody was
19:09
coming to help us figure out why.
19:12
Donna called the meeting that afternoon.
19:15
Emergency session, she said. All hands.
19:19
I figured it was about the communications blackout, maybe
19:22
some new plan to get our systems back online.
19:25
Should have known better. We gathered in the main habitat
19:29
module around that fold out table we've been using for meal
19:32
planning. Donna had her tablet out,
19:35
scrolling through data that probably didn't mean much
19:38
anymore. Lincoln was there, looking kind
19:42
of pale but alert. Robert had dirt under his
19:46
fingernails from his morning soil samples.
19:49
Kennedy sat with her medical kit beside her chair.
19:52
Like always. I'm going to be direct, Dana
19:56
said. She didn't look up from her
19:59
tablet. Our situation has become
20:02
critical. That got everyone's attention.
20:07
Donna never used words like critical unless things were
20:09
really bad. Lincoln shifted in his chair.
20:15
What about the backup transponders?
20:17
Dead. All of them.
20:20
Dana finally looked up. We're effectively stranded on
20:24
this planet. The silence that followed felt
20:28
heavy. Not the comfortable quiet we'd
20:31
gotten used to over the past few days, but something else,
20:36
something that pressed down on your chest, made you think about
20:39
how far 47 light years really was.
20:43
I've been in bad spots before, desert ambushes where the
20:47
extraction bird couldn't find us, mountain positions cut off
20:51
by weather for weeks. But this was different.
20:55
Those situations had endpoints. Radio checks every six hours.
21:00
Command knew where we were. How long?
21:03
Robert asked. Unknown, Dana said.
21:08
Could be days, could be longer, could be forever.
21:12
I thought she didn't say it, but we all heard it.
21:18
That was three days ago. Since then, things have gotten
21:21
weird. Not the planet itself.
21:25
The planet's still perfect. Still those rolling hills and
21:28
weird rabbit things and air that tastes like spring morning.
21:33
But Lincoln started acting different.
21:36
First thing I noticed was the cough started on day 4.
21:40
Just a little dry hack every now and then.
21:43
Nothing dramatic, but it had this quality to it that bugged
21:47
me. The sound echoed wrong in the
21:50
still air, like it was bouncing off something that wasn't there.
21:55
You getting sick? I asked him On day five.
21:59
We were doing equipment inventory outside the habitat
22:02
modules. Nah, he said, then immediately
22:06
coughed twice. Just dry throat.
22:10
But his fingernails were what really got my attention.
22:14
Lincoln always kept them trimmed short for equipment work.
22:17
Good practice when you're handling delicate electronics.
22:21
By day six, they were long enough to click against his
22:24
tablet screen. When's the last time you cut
22:27
those? I asked.
22:30
He looked down at his hands like he'd never seen them before.
22:34
Yesterday morning, same as always.
22:37
That didn't add up. Nobody's nails grow that fast.
22:42
I've seen guys let them go for weeks and not get the length
22:45
Lincoln was sporting After one day, Day seven, I watched him
22:49
trim them with his field scissors.
22:51
Clean cuts, neat and precise. Next morning they were long
22:56
again. Not just long, thick, kind of
22:59
yellowish. Kennedy noticed it, too.
23:04
She pulled Lincoln aside for a medical check while Robert and I
23:06
were setting up the atmospheric monitors.
23:10
Elevated temperature, she told me later. 99.6 pupils dilated,
23:17
but no obvious signs of illness. What about the fingernails?
23:23
Abnormal growth rate. I've never seen anything like
23:26
it. She paused, adjusting her
23:29
glasses. His breathing sounds clear
23:32
though. Heart rate normal, blood
23:35
pressure normal. Robert had theories.
23:38
Of course he did. Robert always had theories.
23:43
Planet's environment might be affecting our biology, he said.
23:47
That evening, we were sitting outside, watching those twin
23:51
moons rise over the horizon. Different atmospheric
23:56
composition, unique mineral content in the soil and water.
24:00
Our bodies could be adapting. Adapting to what?
24:05
I asked. Unknown variables.
24:08
This world's been isolated for millions of years.
24:11
Could have biological factors we've never encountered.
24:15
Lincoln coughed again. That same weird echo doesn't
24:19
feel like adapting, he said. His voice sounded scratchy.
24:24
Feels like something else. Day 8 brought the storm clouds.
24:30
I saw them first during my morning patrol.
24:33
Black mass building on the eastern horizon, maybe 30 miles
24:36
out. Not normal storm clouds either.
24:40
These moved wrong too fast and too organized, like they had
24:44
purpose. We need to secure everything.
24:49
As said when I reported back, if that system hits us, we could
24:53
lose equipment. So we spent the day battening
24:56
down. Move the sensitive electronics
24:59
into the reinforced habitat modules, tied down the
25:03
atmospheric processors. Double check the seal integrity
25:07
on our living quarters. Lincoln helped, but his
25:10
movements were getting jerky. That cough was almost constant
25:14
now, and every few minutes he'd stop working to scratch at his
25:18
arms. I caught sight of his
25:20
fingernails while he was coiling cable.
25:23
They looked more like claws. The storm hit around 1800 hours.
25:29
First thing that happened was the electrical interference
25:31
spiked through the roof. Every piece of electronic
25:35
equipment we had started throwing error messages.
25:38
The communication array went completely dead.
25:41
Even the basic environmental sensors inside our modules
25:44
started acting up. We're completely cut off now,
25:49
Lincoln said. Then he doubled over, coughing.
25:54
But this wasn't the same dry hack from before.
25:57
This was something deeper, violent spasms that shook his
26:01
whole body when left him gasping for air.
26:05
The sound echoed in our sealed habitat, like metal scraping
26:08
against stone. Kennedy was on him immediately
26:11
with her medical scanner temperatures spiking 103.8.
26:18
What's happening to him? Robert asked.
26:22
I don't know. Kennedy's voice was tight,
26:26
professional but scared. His respiratory system's under
26:31
stress, but I can't identify the cause.
26:35
Outside, the storm was building. Lightning flashes lit up our
26:40
reinforced windows every few seconds.
26:43
The wind howled against the module walls with a sound like
26:45
something alive and angry. Lincoln's coughing got worse.
26:51
Each spasm seemed to tear through him from the inside out.
26:55
His fingernails had grown another half inch since morning,
26:58
thick and yellowed like old bone.
27:01
When he tried to speak, only raspy gasps came out.
27:06
We need to get him isolated, Kennedy said.
27:10
Whatever this is, we can't risk exposure.
27:13
But looking at Lincoln writhing on that fold out cut, listening
27:17
to those wet grinding sounds coming from his chest, I had the
27:22
feeling isolation wasn't going to help.
27:25
Whatever was happening to him had already started and the
27:29
storm outside was just getting stronger.
27:32
The thing about violence is it happens way faster than you
27:35
think it will. One second Lincoln was sitting
27:39
there picking at his fingernails, making those weird
27:41
little whimpering sounds. The next second he was across
27:45
the room with his teeth in Robert's throat.
27:49
I mean, literally across the room, like he jumped or
27:52
something, but I didn't see him move.
27:56
Just that wet sound of contact. Then Robert making this
28:00
surprised choking noise. The blood hit the wall behind
28:04
them in this perfect arc, bright red against the beige polymer
28:09
panels we've been staring at for days.
28:12
Robert's hands went to his neck automatically, the way you'd
28:16
grab a cut finger. Except this wasn't a cut.
28:21
This was Lincoln's mouth locked on his throat like some kind of
28:24
animal. I just sat there for maybe 3
28:28
seconds. My brain kept trying to process
28:31
what I was seeing. Like when you're looking at one
28:34
of those optical illusion pictures and it suddenly flips
28:37
into something else. Lincoln attacking Robert.
28:42
That was the new picture, but it didn't make sense with anything
28:46
else I knew about either of them.
28:49
Robert went down hard, his knees hitting the floor with this
28:52
hollow sound. The habitat module wasn't that
28:56
big to begin with, maybe 12 feet across, so when he fell, he was
29:00
right there in front of me. I could see the puncture wounds
29:04
in his neck, four of them, clean and deep.
29:09
Lincoln had let go by then and was backing away, but there was
29:13
blood on his mouth, fresh blood still moving.
29:18
What the hell? I said, not a question, just
29:23
stating the obvious. Lincoln looked at me with these
29:26
wide eyes, like he was as surprised as I was.
29:31
His mouth was working, but no sound was coming out.
29:34
Then his head started doing this thing.
29:37
It's hard to describe what I saw next.
29:41
I've been in combat zones, seen guys take shrapnel to the face,
29:44
watch the Humvee roll over a landmine.
29:48
But this was different. This wasn't damage.
29:52
This was change. Lincoln's skull was getting
29:55
bigger, Not swelling like an injury, but actually expanding,
30:00
like something was pushing out from the inside.
30:03
Little bumps appeared along his forehead, then got bigger, then
30:08
turned into these Ridge like things that kept growing.
30:11
His scalp was stretching to accommodate whatever was
30:14
happening underneath. He started screaming then, Not
30:19
words, just this sound that went way higher than a human voice
30:23
should go. It filled up the whole shelter,
30:27
bounced off the walls, made my teeth hurt.
30:31
Through the storm noise outside, you could still hear it, this
30:35
endless whale that sounded like machinery breaking down.
30:38
Robert was on the ground next to me, both hands pressed to his
30:42
neck, blood seeping between his fingers.
30:46
He was trying to say something, but it just came out as bubbles.
30:50
I should have helped him, should have grabbed the medical kit or
30:54
called for Kennedy or done something useful.
30:58
Instead, I kept watching Lincoln turn into whatever he was
31:01
turning into. The rest of his body started
31:05
following his head's lead. His shoulders got broader than
31:09
his chest, like he was inflating from the inside.
31:13
I heard bones crack. Not breaking, exactly, more like
31:18
they were reshaping themselves to fit whatever new architecture
31:21
his body had in mind. His arms stretched longer,
31:25
fingers too, until his proportions looked all wrong.
31:30
His clothes didn't keep up. The standard issue jumpsuit tore
31:34
at the seams, fabric splitting along his expanding frame.
31:39
Underneath, his skin had this weird modeled look, like it
31:43
couldn't decide what color it wanted to be.
31:47
That's when I finally got my act together and went from my
31:50
sidearm. Military training kicked in, I
31:53
guess. Identify the threat.
31:56
Neutralize the threat. Lincoln had become a threat.
32:01
Whatever was happening to him, it had already killed Robert and
32:04
didn't look like it was planning to stop there.
32:07
I had my Beretta M9 in a shoulder holster under my
32:10
jacket, standard issue 15 round magazine, one in the chamber.
32:16
I'd cleaned it that morning out of habit, even though we weren't
32:19
supposed to need weapons on a peaceful survey mission.
32:23
The gun came out smooth, muscle memory taking over.
32:27
Lincoln was still screaming and growing, now maybe 7 feet tall
32:31
and getting taller. I aimed center mass the way they
32:35
teach you. 2 handed grip, steady breathing, squeeze, don't pull.
32:42
The shot was louder than Lincoln's screaming in that
32:45
small space. It felt like getting slapped in
32:48
both ears at once. The bullet caught him in the
32:51
chest, right where his heart should have been.
32:54
That's when things got really weird.
32:57
Instead of dropping or bleeding or doing anything a normal
33:00
person would do when shot, Lincoln's body started reacting
33:04
to the bullet like it was some kind of catalyst.
33:08
The entry wound bubbled up, flesh moving and reshaping
33:12
around the impact point. His chest expanded even faster,
33:16
ribs crackling as they stretched.
33:20
I fired again, same result. The bullets weren't stopping
33:25
him, they were making him worse. His face was barely recognizable
33:29
now, The features were still sort of there, but stretched and
33:33
distorted, like someone had taken a photo and pulled it in
33:36
all directions. His mouth had gotten bigger,
33:39
full of teeth that look too sharp and too many.
33:42
Through that twisted mouth, he spoke.
33:46
Peter. His voice was all wrong, too
33:50
deep and with this weird resonance, like he was talking
33:52
through water. Peter, you don't understand.
33:58
I kept the gun trained on him, but didn't fire.
34:01
He was still growing, had to be 8 feet tall now, but something
34:05
about hearing my name made me pause.
34:09
The planet, he said, each word taking effort like he was
34:12
pushing them through broken machinery.
34:15
It's alive Peter, it's been hunting us since we got here.
34:19
Shut up, I said. Just shut up, it gets inside
34:24
you, Lincoln continued. His eyes were still his eyes.
34:28
I realized. Same brown color, same shape.
34:32
That was the worst part. Changes you from the inside,
34:37
makes you into something you can use.
34:40
I emptied the rest of the magazine into him. 12 more
34:44
rounds, each one hitting center mass, each one making his
34:47
transformation worse instead of better.
34:51
His body absorbed the bullets like they were food, using them
34:54
to fuel whatever process was rebuilding him.
34:58
Finally, he stopped moving, stopped growing, stopped
35:02
screaming, stopped talking. Just collapsed in a heap that
35:06
didn't look like Lincoln anymore, didn't look like
35:09
anything that had ever been human.
35:11
The silence after all that noise felt weird.
35:16
I could hear the storm outside again, wind rattling the habitat
35:20
walls, could hear Robert's breathing, which had gotten real
35:23
shallow and wet sounding. I looked over at him.
35:29
Dana was there suddenly, must have come in during the
35:32
shooting. She had the medical kit open and
35:35
was working on his neck, but I could tell from her face it
35:39
wasn't going well. Too much blood loss, too much
35:42
damage. Stay with me, Robert, she was
35:46
saying. Keep your eyes open.
35:50
But he wasn't keeping his eyes open.
35:52
They'd rolled back, showing mostly white.
35:56
His breathing stopped while I was watching.
35:59
That's when Kennedy made this sound.
36:02
Not a scream like Lincoln had done, more like all the air
36:06
leaving her lungs at once. I turned around and she was
36:10
standing in the doorway, staring at what was left of Lincoln.
36:14
Her face had gone completely white.
36:17
She grabbed her chest with both hands, right over her heart,
36:21
took two steps backward, hit the wall and slid down.
36:24
It just sat there on the floor, looking at nothing.
36:29
Kennedy, Dana said. But Kennedy was already gone.
36:35
Heart attack, I figured. Too much shock, too much fear.
36:39
Her body had just decided it was done.
36:42
So that was it. Three of us dead in maybe 10
36:46
minutes, the storm still howling outside, and me standing there
36:50
with an empty gun wondering what the hell had just happened to my
36:53
team. The thing about digging graves
36:56
is you don't realize how hard it's going to be until you're
36:59
already doing it. I mean, I figured it would suck,
37:03
obviously, but the ground on Kepler 442B turned out to be
37:08
this weird mix of clay and something that felt like wet
37:12
sand, and every shovel full just kind of oozed back into the
37:16
hole. Dana found us some emergency
37:19
shelter tarps to wrap them in. Robert Lincoln, Kennedy.
37:24
We didn't have much choice about where to put them.
37:26
The storm was getting worse, and we needed to stay close to the
37:29
habitat, so we picked this spot maybe 50 yards out where the
37:35
ground looked a little more stable.
37:38
Bill helped me dig. Guy's stronger than he looks,
37:42
probably from all that field work he's always talking about.
37:46
Elaine stood guard, which seemed kind of pointless since we were
37:49
the only things moving for miles, but I got it.
37:54
She needed something to do with her hands.
37:57
The rain kept coming down sideways.
38:00
Not normal rain either. This stuff felt heavier, like
38:05
each drop weighed more than it should.
38:07
It soaked through my shirt in about 10 minutes and just stayed
38:11
there, cold and clingy. How deep?
38:16
Bill asked after we've been at it for maybe an hour.
38:19
Deep enough, I said. Military standard was 6 feet,
38:24
but we weren't exactly working with ideal conditions here.
38:29
Dana kept checking her instruments while we worked,
38:32
that little handheld scanner thing she'd been carrying around
38:35
since day one. Every few minutes she'd frown at
38:39
it and shake her head. Still nothing?
38:43
I asked during one of our breaks.
38:46
The magnetic readings are completely wrong, she said.
38:49
I mean completely. Like we're not even on the same
38:53
planet anymore. That's when it hit me.
38:57
Standing there with mud on my boots and rain running down my
39:00
face, looking at 3 tarp wrapped bodies and holes I just dug.
39:06
This whole thing had been planned.
39:08
The perfect weather those first few days, the cute little rabbit
39:13
things hopping around like we'd landed in some kind of nature
39:16
documentary, the way everything had felt so safe and normal.
39:21
It was bait, all of it. I kept digging, but my mind was
39:26
racing now. The creature that used to be
39:30
Lincoln had said something before I shot it.
39:33
Something about the planet hunting us.
39:37
At the time, I figured it was just crazy talk, the kind of
39:39
thing you hear when someone's brain is melting.
39:43
But what if it wasn't Peter? Elaine called out.
39:49
She was pointing up at the sky with her rifle.
39:52
Look at that. I followed her gaze through the
39:55
rain. The storm clouds were thick, but
39:58
there were gaps, and through those gaps I could see stars.
40:03
Wrong stars. I done enough navigation
40:06
training to recognize basic constellations.
40:09
Orion, the Big Dipper, stuff like that.
40:12
These weren't them. These were completely different
40:15
patterns, different brightness levels, different everything.
40:20
That's not our sky, I said. Dana looked up from her scanner.
40:25
What do you mean? Those constellations?
40:29
They're not the ones we should be seeing from Kepler 442B.
40:33
She stared up for a long moment, rain streaming down her glasses.
40:38
That's impossible. We can't have moved.
40:41
The transport dropped us exactly where it was supposed to, but we
40:44
had moved somehow, some way. We weren't where we'd started,
40:50
maybe not even in the same solar system anymore.
40:53
The sun that hadn't moved in four days.
40:56
The magnetic readings that made no sense.
40:59
The stars that belong to somebody else's sky.
41:03
We were lost. Not just communication.
41:06
Blackout. Lost.
41:07
Actually, physically, impossibly lost.
41:12
I finished covering Robert's grave while that thought settled
41:15
in, shovelled the wet alien dirt over the tarp and packed it down
41:19
tight. The rain washed the mud off my
41:22
hands almost immediately. How far do you think we are from
41:26
home? Bill asked quietly.
41:30
I looked at those foreign stars again, far enough that it
41:35
doesn't matter. Dana was still running
41:38
calculations on her scanner, probably trying to figure out
41:41
how this was possible, but I'd already done the math.
41:46
No communications. Half our team dead, stuck on a
41:50
planet that apparently like to play games with visiting crews,
41:54
and now we find out we're not even in our own corner of space
41:58
anymore. We weren't getting home, ever.
42:03
That's the kind of realization that should hit you like a punch
42:05
to the gut, should make you panic or scream or breakdown
42:09
crying. But standing there in the rain,
42:13
with three fresh graves at my feet, it just felt like one more
42:17
fact to file away. We'd come here expecting to
42:21
survey a new world and catalog some plants.
42:26
Instead, we'd walked into a trap that was way bigger and way
42:29
stranger than anything we trained for.
42:33
We should get inside. Elaine said.
42:36
She was shivering, rifle still ready.
42:39
This storm's getting worse. She was right.
42:44
The wind had picked up again, and I could hear something
42:47
creaking in the habitat structure.
42:49
We needed to secure our gear and figure out what came next.
42:53
The four of us trudged back through the mud.
42:56
Dana, Bill, Elaine, and me. That was it.
42:59
Now that was our whole crew. Four people in a world that had
43:04
spent the last few days pretending to be paradise while
43:07
it set us up for whatever this was supposed to be.
43:11
Inside the habitat, I toweled off and checked our supplies.
43:16
Food for maybe two weeks if we were careful.
43:19
Water recycling was still working, which was something.
43:23
Weapons were down to Elaine's rifle and my sidearm, plus
43:27
whatever makeshift stuff we could put together.
43:31
Not exactly a lot to work with. We need to make contact with the
43:35
orbital station. Dana said.
43:39
She'd spread her equipment out on the table and was going
43:42
through it piece by piece. Victoria needs to know what
43:46
happened here. With what?
43:49
I asked. Lincoln destroyed our comms
43:52
array when he went crazy, and even if we could fix it, we're
43:56
not where we're supposed to be anymore.
43:58
She looked up at me, water still dripping from her hair.
44:03
We have to try something. I got that.
44:08
The need to do something, anything, instead of just
44:11
sitting around waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
44:16
But I'd seen enough combat to know when you were past the
44:19
point where trying harder was going to help.
44:22
This planet had played us, lured us in with perfect conditions
44:27
and harmless wildlife, then flipped some kind of switch that
44:31
turned our teammate into a monster and transported us God
44:34
knows where. And according to that thing that
44:37
used to be Lincoln, this was just the beginning.
44:41
The storm hammered against the habitat walls, that grinding,
44:45
wet sound that didn't quite sound like normal weather.
44:49
I could hear pieces of debris hitting the exterior panels, but
44:53
nothing big enough to punch through yet.
44:57
I'm going to check the perimeter.
44:59
Elaine said she cleaned her rifle and was loading a fresh
45:03
magazine. Stay close, I told her, and if
45:08
you see anything that looks wrong, anything at all, you get
45:12
back here immediately. She nodded and headed for the
45:16
airlock. Bill was sitting at the far end
45:20
of the table, staring at some plant samples he'd collected
45:23
that first day, back when we thought this was going to be a
45:27
normal mission. They're all dead, he said
45:31
quietly. What?
45:35
The samples? Every single one.
45:38
They were healthy this morning, but now they're just gone, like
45:43
something sucked the life right out of them.
45:46
I looked at the brown withered stems in his collection
45:49
containers, more evidence that this world wasn't what it
45:53
seemed. Everything here was connected
45:56
somehow, part of some larger system that we didn't
46:00
understand. Dana was still fiddling with her
46:03
broken equipment, but I could see the frustration building in
46:07
her shoulders, the way she kept trying the same tests over and
46:12
over, hoping for different results.
46:16
We were in survival mode now, had been since the moment
46:20
Lincoln went crazy, but it was starting to sink in for all of
46:23
us. This wasn't a research mission
46:26
anymore. It wasn't even a rescue
46:29
situation where we just had to hold out until help arrived.
46:34
This was something else entirely.
46:36
The planet had shown us its real face, and we were stuck here
46:39
with it. No way home, no backup coming,
46:43
and no idea what it was planning to do with us next.
46:46
I checked my watch out of habit, then remembered it didn't matter
46:50
anymore. Time wasn't working the same way
46:53
here. The sun hadn't moved in four
46:56
days, and now we were under stars that belong to somebody
47:00
else's sky. The storm kept pounding the
47:03
habitat, that wet organic sound that made it seem like the
47:08
weather itself was alive, like it was testing our defenses,
47:13
looking for weak spots. I sat down across from Bill and
47:17
his dead plants. How long do you think we have?
47:22
He looked up at me with tired eyes.
47:24
Before what? Before this place decides it's
47:28
done playing with us. He was quiet for a long moment,
47:32
listening to the storm. I don't think it's done.
47:36
I think this is just the first round.
47:39
Yeah, that's what I figured, too.
47:43
Whatever had happened to Lincoln, whatever had
47:46
transported us to this wrong part of space, it was all
47:49
connected, all part of something bigger.
47:52
That we'd stumbled into the perfect world had been a lie, a
47:58
carefully constructed trap designed to make us comfortable
48:01
before the real game started. And now we were stuck here, four
48:07
people against an entire planet that apparently haunted visiting
48:10
crews for entertainment. Staying alive was going to be
48:14
the hardest thing any of us had ever done.