Chris had only been asleep maybe two hours when someone woke him by urgently shaking his shoulder and calling his name. It took a few seconds for him to wake up and even longer to open his eyes and identify who was shaking him.
"Commander!" whispered Hugo urgently. "This is going to sound mad, but we think there's someone outside."
"What time is it?" Chris groaned, struggling to sit up.
"Still middle of the night. We keep hearing noises from outside the ship, scratching and banging. We're debating whether we should open the inner airlock door."
"Don't do that," Chris growled, rolling onto his feet.
"Who's out there?" Hugo sounded puzzled.
"Whatever bothered us back at Supply Module 1, last night."
"What is it?"
"No idea. We hid from it. It tried to get into the supply module for hours, but failed."
"Tried to get in?!"
"Yes, it tried, repeatedly, to spin the wheel to unlock the hatch. We had to hold it shut from inside."
"Did you put the cover back over the external crank handle when you opened the outer airlock door last night, Commander?"
"I genuinely can't remember," Chris sighed. "We were tired and half-frozen. Putting things away wasn't foremost in my mind."
"If whatever's out there can open a hatch wheel, can it do a crank handle too?" Hugo asked.
"How can I know that?" Chris replied. "Is it there now? By the airlock I mean?"
"None of the ship's systems have power, so we can't see what's going on out there," Hugo sighed. "There's definitely sounds coming from that end."
"Let's get down there and have a look," said Chris, rolling his shoulders backwards to loosen up his stiff muscles.
They arrived to find the inner airlock door still safely sealed. Dan and Fletcher were already there, listening at the doors, and other members of the crew had gathered nearby, looking worried. They parted to let Chris and Hugo through.
"It's gone quiet now, Commander," Fletcher whispered, lifting his ear away from the door.
"You reckon it's the same thing we experienced back at the supply module?" Chris whispered.
"Aye, Commander. I don't know what else it can be. Unless that thing has friends?"
"And we can't tell whether it's just gone quiet, or it's left completely."
A voice cried out from the hatchway back to the Medi-Bay. "Something is scratching outside the Gym!"
Hugo shushed whoever it was, but Chris set off to investigate. He stopped as he reached the open hatch. "You're sure it's from outside the ship?"
"Sounds like they're trying to scrape their way through the hull."
"Fletcher, the Gym, it's about the middle of the Command Module?"
"Aye, about that, Commander."
"Hugo, take a couple of people up into the Control Room and bang on the walls. Make as much noise as you can at that end. We'll keep quiet down at this end."
"You want to attract it away from the airlock?"
"I figure, it's unlikely to get through the hull, but the airlock is an unknown."
"Commander, I've got an idea," Fletcher whispered.
Before Fletcher could reply, Hugo grabbed two handheld radios from an already open locker and thrust one towards Chris.
"We'll make as much noise as we can. Radio me when you want us to stop," he said, then set off at a pace towards the other end of the module.
"What's your idea, Fletcher?"
"Well. I've got a bottle of kerosene in my rucksack, Commander."
* * *
Chris's skin was already stinging from the cold before he climbed out of the airlock and into the darkness beyond. He dropped onto the rocky ground as quietly as he could, then helped Fletcher climb down too. Fletcher handed him one of the two handheld plasma cutters from the equipment lockers.
Chris had his torch in his pocket, but wanted to avoid using it as it would give away his position while blinding him to anything which was not lit by its beam. Starlight, brighter on Proxima C than any clear night on Earth, would have to be enough for now.
The dull banging and shouting from inside the Command Module was muffled at best but with no other sound, it was impossible to miss. It was impossible to tell if the sound had attracted the creature away or it was simply lying in wait for him in the darkness. He tried not to think about that.
"Do you want the kerosene bottle, sir?" Fletcher whispered, offering it to him.
"You did a great job with it last time," he replied.
"I'd prefer it if you did it, Commander."
Chris nodded and took the bottle, then held up his radio and hit the transmit button. "Okay, guys, kill the noise in there."
The silence that followed was eerie. Suddenly, every movement of his feet on the rock was too loud. He padded as quietly as he could across the loose surface, splitting his concentration between ensuring the rough terrain did not trip him up and listening for what had been making sounds against the outside of the hull.
The obvious tactic would be for one of them to take each side of the Command Module but as they did not know what they were up against, and they only had one bottle of kerosene, Chris signalled to Fletcher to follow him.
As the last sound had come from outside the left side of the module, that seemed the best place to begin. He was desperately trying not to admit to himself that facing this unknown entity in the darkness was terrifying. He would much rather attempt it in daylight but, last time, the creature did not stick around until sunrise.
He stared in silence along the side of the Command Module, but there was no movement in the many shadows ahead and all seemed to remain silent. He clenched his teeth and stepped forwards, wincing as his footfall on the stones seemed to echo off the side of the ship.
With no choice other than simply ignoring the crunching underfoot, he kept moving forward, holding the bottle of kerosene in his right hand and the plasma cutter in the left. Ideally, he would have liked a practice run with the improvised weapon, but he could not do that without instantly giving away his position and reducing his limited supply of accelerant.
He walked about five metres along the side of the module before he realised that the low light from the stars above was doing a beautiful job of illuminating the side of the Command Module, its shiny silver finish providing a condensed view of the sky above, but the rocks all around were silhouettes, at best. Anything crouching amongst them would be invisible.
Trying to ignore the danger, he kept moving, now closer to the side of the Command Module and looking out at the rocks to his left, scanning for any trace of movement. He could only hope that anything hiding amongst the rocks would give away its position by moving before it could attack him. It was not much comfort, and it did nothing to stop his heart pounding.
He kept edging forwards in the darkness. Beyond his own and Fletcher's footsteps, he could hear no sound at all. The icy night air was stiffening the exposed skin on his face. As per his training back on Earth, he was only breathing through his nose, but the discomfort caused, even with his H.E.P.O.'s built-in face scarf, was subconsciously causing him to hold his breath.
His imagination saw movement everywhere in the darkness, but there was no sound to corroborate it. He stopped moving to listen better. Fletcher stopped a step later. Chris's eyes were getting much more used to the starlight, but moonlight would still have been better for searching in the dark. Unfortunately, Proxima C had no moon large enough to be visible with the naked eye, let alone reflect light at the surface.
He almost jumped out of his skin when there was a sharp tap on his shoulder. He glanced around to see Fletcher, close behind, pointing frantically at the rocks to their left. He stared where Fletcher pointed but could see nothing beyond vague irregular shapes. Then something moved.
He could make out little in the dark, but he got the sensation that, whatever it was, was moving toward him and was not much more than a metre away. It was not lightning-fast, but speedy enough to maximise his panic. Forgetting Fletcher, he threw himself a few steps closer to the nose end of the Command Module before spinning around and spraying kerosene liberally in the creature's direction.
He could not even see which way the creature was facing, just a bulky shadow about the same size as Fletcher, but he was sure that it had turned and was heading towards him again. Fighting his impulse to run, he raised the handheld plasma cutter, flicked the safety cover out of the way and pulled the trigger. There was a solid click from the tool, but nothing happened; no jet of plasma appeared. Losing the battle against the urge to panic, he scrambled backwards to keep his distance from the looming creature and repeatedly clicked the useless trigger.
He was still trying to get the plasma cutter to fire up when the indistinct creature before him erupted in a powerful blue flame. Fletcher had got there before him. The flame spread rapidly to cover the whole creature, partially blinding him with its brightness. The creature emitted a screeching rasp noise before turning and staggering directly away from the Command Module. For the first time, he could see that it was bipedal, stumbling away on thick legs.
It passed two smaller rocks before stumbling over a third and falling heavily between more of the rocks. Blue flames splashed across the rocks, pouring over them and between them, brightly illuminating the surrounding area. The creature lurched upwards momentarily before collapsing back into the gap between the rocks. It did not move again.
Chris shielded his eyes from the brightness, then gave up and looked away. The large flames from the creature and where it had been standing when Chris sprayed it, and from spots of kerosene splashed further afield, reflected in the shiny steel side of the Control Module, giving the impression that everything was burning, including Fletcher. It was only Fletcher's hasty patting of his own front with his gloved hands that alerted Chris to the patches of actual flame across Fletcher's H.E.P.O..
"Get back away from the flames!" Chris shouted as he ran through the flames from the splashed kerosene to get to him.
Dropping and rolling would not work when much of the ground was alight too. Chris grabbed Fletcher's shoulders and dragged him away from the burning area, moving him closer to the airlock end of the module, before rapidly patting at the flames on Fletcher's H.E.P.O. himself. Between them, they extinguished Fletcher's outfit, but the obvious scorch marks on the front would be a permanent reminder of the fire.
"Sorry about that, Fletcher. In my rush, I didn't think about you standing behind that thing."
"No problem, Commander. I'd 'a done the same," Fletcher chuckled. "What was that thing?"
Chris looked back at the still-burning lump that lay between two of the rocks. It remained motionless, so he ventured cautiously closer, expecting it to leap back up at any moment. The mostly blue flames slowly petered out as they ran out of kerosene. The light level fell with them.
He took out his torch and shone it at the corpse. To see properly, he had to move closer still. The flames were out now, but smoke still poured from the remains, rising rapidly in the cold air. With everything extensively blackened, including the rocks on either side of it, it was hard to make out a proper shape. He could see that the creature had arms and legs, humanoid in layout, and a bulbous torso but no apparent head.
After stepping up onto the nearest rock beside the corpse, he stared down at it. He swept his torch beam up and down the blackened body. When he got to the feet, he froze. Both feet were clad in H.E.P.O. boots, mostly unaffected by the fire. The charred legs above them were bloated and misshapen, but the boots meant it just had to be one of their own crew. He knew there was too little evidence to confirm that he was looking at Melissa, but it seemed the obvious conclusion.
"Commander... Commander," Fletcher called. "We need to get back inside. It's too cold to stay out here any longer."
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