“You hit something?”

“Yeah, and it did not feel at all like rock. It gave a little, like it was flexible.”

As the other crew members crowded around, Ivan cleared the gravel and sand-like particulates from what looked for all the world like a walnut the size of a watermelon.

Tenn muttered, “We might want to be careful, here, guys.”

Ivan grinned. “Aw, come on, Tex. How bad can it be?”

With that, he reached down to pick up the anomaly.

10.Infection

10.Infection

There was a snapping motion—a blur, as if the object had abruptly changed shape. Ivan jerked and, suddenly, his right arm inexplicably felt hot. He looked at his space suit and saw a gray substance spreading onto his hand and forearm.

Ivan’s vision narrowed to a tunnel view, centered on his arm. Scenes from horror movies, both old and recent, played in his mind. He heard a scream, and realized an infinite time later that it came from inside his helmet.

Davies’s voice came loud over the radio. “This is Tennison Davies. Mayday! Mayday! We have a crew injury. We need immediate transport and medical standing by.”

“What is your location, and what is the nature of the injury?” Albert Micoroski responded.

“We’re on the Baby Rock. Ivan Pritchard found the anomaly, and something has glued itself to his arm. He’s screaming, but we’re not sure if it’s pain or panic.” There was dead air for a moment, then Davies continued, “The scooter is coming in to our position now. We’ll tie up and let her tow us in to the Astra. Stand by.”

“The captain wants details, Mr. Davies.” The voice of the Mad Astra’s pilot was dead calm.

“We dug up the anomaly that Cirila detected on the Baby Rock. It was small, about the size of a basketball. Pritchard reached down to pick it up and something came out of the thing and wrapped itself around his right arm.”

“Is he in pain?”

“Don’t think so. He panicked when it happened. He’s calmer now.”

A small part of Ivan’s mind, that little voice that insisted on ironic commentary on everything, noted that paralyzed with fear wasn’t the same as calmer.

“Mr. Davies, this is the captain. I want a video camera trained on the substance on his arm. Chief Engineer MacNeil will evaluate the situation, and we will then decide how to proceed.”

“Captain, we have to get him into sick bay so we can get this thing off—”

“You have the order of events wrong, Mr. Davies. He will not be going into sick bay, or coming into the ship at all, until either the substance is removed, or Mr. MacNeil assures me it is safe. This is not a negotiable item.”

“Yes sir.”

MacNeil’s voice cut in. “I’m sending a video camera and remote sensor over. Please train them on the anomaly when you get them.”

“Sir.”