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b'Episode Notes
A crew has landed on a new planet hoping to find sanctuary, but what they find is a monstrosity beyond all earthly imagination.
The Faithful by David O\'Hanlon
Music by Ray Mattis
http://raymattispresents.bandcamp.com
Produced by Daniel Wilder
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Transcription:
\\u201cHow long has it been since the gods answered a prayer?\\u201d Rayburn Halsey checked his watch.\\xa0
It was still on Mars time and had been for thirty-seven years since the flight began. \\u201cMore than six hours, that\\u2019s for sure. For thousands of years, every culture on Earth reported interactions with gods. And then one day, they just stopped talking to us. Go to your room, Creation. You\\u2019re grounded. Maybe we had it coming.\\u201d\\xa0
Halsey sipped the juice packet and stared at the planet on his monitor. Swirling clouds obstructed any view of the surface, just as they had since their arrival. He tapped his fingers nervously on the console.\\xa0
\\u201cPilot Amber Mitchell deployed to the surface of Baron-117 exactly five-hours ago. According to our most recent calculations, we have less than twenty-six weeks of supplies. There are nineteen planets and thirty-seven moons in the quarantine zone. That\\u2019s not counting four outlying planetoids. Historical records are shady, to say the least. Five-hundred years will do that. We must take the chance that whatever our forebears were afraid of didn\\u2019t cover the entire system. It\\u2019s illogical to even think it could.\\u201d
The door dilated behind him and Mike Delaine leaned in. \\u201cAny word from Mitchell?\\u201d
Halsey flicked off the flight recorder. \\u201cPreliminary numbers look good. It\\u2019s cold, but above freezing. The atmosphere is breathable for the most part. Helium levels are a little higher, oxygen a little lower, so I want helmets on. I\\u2019m adjusting the ship\\u2019s gravity slowly to match surface numbers. I don\\u2019t want anyone face planting as soon as we hit the ground.\\u201d
\\u201cDoes that mean we\\u2019re going?\\u201d Delaine\\u2019s question was stained with uncertainty.
\\u201cGot any other ideas? We\\u2019re still thirteen months from our destination. We have a hold full of colonists that need to properly defrost. If we wait any longer, we\\u2019re not going to have the supplies to do that. I\\u2019m not murdering two-thousand people because something went wrong out here during the Dark Age of Space. Records show three planets and two moons were affected by the incident, but that\\u2019s about all we\\u2019ve got to go on. It literally says \\u2018the incident\\u2019 with no further information.\\u201d
\\u201cA lot of records were lost during the War. People rushed to save our history and our art and forgot about things like NASA communication records.\\u201d Delaine shook his head and sighed. \\u201cKind of wish that were the other way around right about now. I mean, whatever it was made them quarantine an entire solar system and we\\u2019re smackdab in the middle of it all. But hey,\\u201d Delaine clapped his hands together, \\u201cat least I saw that Warhol painting of some soup cans.\\u201d
\\u201cYeah.\\u201d Halsey stretched in his seat. \\u201cI\\u2019m going to start waking the rest of the crew. Prep the dropship, we\\u2019re going down to help Amber establish a landing zone.\\u201d
\\u201cWe\\u2019re not even waiting for them to wake up?\\u201d
\\u201cYou want to sit here for another thirty-six hours babysitting popsicles? We need to get down there and make sure we have a place to set down. The Eden module flies a little better than a dog in a jetpack, so I want to make sure we have a very wide margin for error.\\u201d\\xa0
\\u201cSure thing.\\u201d Delaine walked outside into the corridor and turned back. \\u201cHey, Rayburn.\\u201d
\\u201cYeah?\\u201d
\\u201cDo you think anyone will ever find us?\\u201d
The automated door closed before Halsey could tell him no. Maybe gods did still answer prayers.\\xa0

The dropship rocked on its landing struts.\\xa0
Halsey and Delaine watched through the viewscreen as the orange-brown dust settled and gave them their first clear view of the planet. There were tall, wide, coniferous trees spaced hundreds of yards apart. Yellow, egg-shaped cones sprouted from branches high above in nests of feathery, chartreuse leaves. Great, tentacle-like roots tore up the ground around them and joined together like a massive web. Each of the thick roots stood out of the dirt, two feet wide at their narrowest point and ten closest to the trunks.
\\u201cWell, looks like we have plenty of room to put the Eden down. No way we\\u2019re using rovers with those roots though.\\u201d Delaine looked over his shoulder at the six-wheeler. \\u201cI was really looking forward to something going smoothly.\\u201d
Halsey unclipped his harness and laughed softly. \\u201cDel, has it occurred to you that being stranded on a deserted planet is things going smoothly?\\u201d
\\u201cThat\\u2019s depressing.\\u201d Delaine removed his restraints and crawled into the cargo hold with the rover.\\xa0
Halsey squeezed through after him. \\u201cThat was a reentry vehicle that struck us. I played back the recording thirty times. Just some antique space junk that drifted into our lane. That kind of thing shouldn\\u2019t happen, especially out here. The odds of surviving it are even slimmer.\\u201d
\\u201cI know, Rayburn. We\\u2019re alive and we shouldn\\u2019t be. Maybe I should count us lucky, but I\\u2019m having a real hard time with that right about now. You know what I\\u2019m saying?\\u201d
\\u201cI do. Helmet on, we\\u2019re burning daylight.\\u201d\\xa0
Both men fastened their helmets into place on the aluminum rings of their atmospheric suits and proceeded through the smaller side door of the ship. Halsey stepped out first and let his legs adjust fully to the gravity before taking a few tentative steps forward. Delaine joined him and stretched, shaking his head as he did. The roots of the trees provided a constant obstacle as they advanced forward.\\xa0
\\u201cThat cloud coverage is really something.\\u201d Halsey watched the citrine sky swirl and then checked his wrist-mounted tablet. \\u201cWe\\u2019re almost a quarter-mile south of Amber\\u2019s lander. Strange.\\u201d
\\u201cNot really. Those clouds could really obscure a signal,\\u201d Delaine reassured him.
\\u201cNot that. Amber\\u2019s moving to the east for some reason.\\u201d He swiped a finger across the screen and sent the image over to his partner. A red blip moved across the screen with an ever-growing number above it. \\u201cShe\\u2019s moving at a pretty good clip.\\u201d
The navigational officer looked at the screen carefully and then up at the wild expanse of towering trees and rising, sweeping roots. \\u201cHow\\u2019s she moving that fast across this terrain?\\u201d
\\u201cThat\\u2019s a damn good question, Del. Want to hear a better one?\\u201d
Delaine nodded slowly, hesitantly. \\u201cShoot.\\u201d
\\u201cWhy is she moving that fast across this terrain?\\u201d Halsey unhooked the rifle from his air pack and pulled back the charging handle.
\\u201cI really just wanted something to go smooth.\\u201d Delaine ready his weapon as well.\\xa0
The two men started to jog, mindful of the difference in gravity. They weaved their way through the roots, looking for the low spots to hurdle whenever they could and boosting each other over the taller places.\\xa0
They arrived at Mitchell\\u2019s lander almost twenty minutes later and were already exhausted.\\xa0
Their first impression wasn\\u2019t a good one.\\xa0
The lander was a good size smaller than the dropship\\u2014they were designed to carry one member of the team to the planet and keep them alive for three days. It looked like an upside-down gemstone, pointed on the top and wide on the bottom. There was a chair that folded into something resembling a bed and around that was boxes fixed to the floor with food, water, basic medical supplies, and a carbine for defense. A big red box served as the base of the chair and contained all the necessary tools for demolishing anything that might hinder the landing of the larger dropship.\\xa0
A bloody handprint on the polished shell of the lander was their first clue that something was wrong.\\xa0
Halsey signaled for Delaine to move behind a root and cover him while he crept closer.\\xa0
The door squeaked on a light breeze, rocking softly on its hinge and through the gap Halsey could see brown hair splayed out across the floor. His stomach twisted in knots as he eased the door open with the barrel of his weapon.
The thing on the floor was not Amber Mitchell.\\xa0
In fact, despite the similar hair it was not even potentially the same species. It had two arms and two legs, but it was hard to tell where the furs it wore ended and its body hair began. A shock of brunette covered its face, or what was left of it. A few teeth and a dislodged eye were the only recognizable features anymore. A bloodied wrench was tossed into the corner. Everything else seemed to be in order.
\\u201cDel!\\u201d\\xa0
Delaine popped out from his cover and sprinted to the lander.
He looked inside and made an inarticulate squealing-cough as a word failed to make it past his throat.
\\u201cYeah, that\\u2019s what I thought.\\u201d Halsey checked the tracking application again and saw the pilot had stopped moving a little over three miles to the east. \\u201cWe\\u2019re not alone on this planet. That thing,\\u201d he jerked a thumb towards the corpse, \\u201chas friends. She left the water, carbine, and explosives. Amber\\u2019s being chased, I\\u2019d stake my life on it.\\u201d
\\u201cI had my choice of assignments and this is what I picked?\\u201d Delaine waved for Halsey to follow him and walked gingerly up a root until its tallest point. \\u201cThere\\u2019s no way to run over all of this. How was she moving that fast?\\u201d
\\u201cMaybe she ditched her environmental gear.\\u201d
\\u201cRayburn, we need to turn back.\\u201d
\\u201cAmber\\u2019s in trouble.\\u201d
\\u201cNo.\\u201d Delaine shook his head violently. \\u201cWe\\u2019re in trouble. There\\u2019s no way to move through this mess and when we do, we\\u2019re going to be too far behind. Comms aren\\u2019t working and we\\u2019re up against an indigenous force of unknown size and technology. We need to go back to the drop and rejoin the crew on the Wayfarer.\\u201d
\\u201cAnd Amber?\\u201d
\\u201cWe come back for her later, in greater numbers.\\u201d He put a hand on Halsey\\u2019s shoulder. \\u201cI know what she means to you, but we don\\u2019t have another option.\\u201d
Halsey walked eastward, shaking'