THE LAST OF WHAT IS SPOKEN by H.R. Owen
MACALLA (v.o.) Rain. Real rain, real actual rain falling in fat, beautiful drops that bounced off my suit and left streaks on my visor. Even through the layers of my iso suit I imagined I could feel the ghostly, cold brush of the water on my skin. I reached out my hands and tipped back my head, drops pinging off the plastic of my visor.
[SFX: RAIN]
MACALLA (v.o.) I couldn’t remember the last time I stood under a sky – any sky, anything that wasn’t metal and plastic and didn’t hum with constant engines, the tinnital buzz of other people’s lives. I stood there, listening to the drumming of small fingered, alien rain. I’d be back aboard the pod soon enough, preparing for the short flight back up the Narcissus – back to civilisation, people, roofs and walls and stale, recycled air. But for now there was time, and space, and an entire planet to myself. I sighed, and the hiss of my microphone blended perfectly with the sound of rain on grass.Once the rain stopped, I got to work in earnest. I spent a week taking samples, making recordings, uploading my findings to the pod at the end of each day. The Narcissus, orbiting far above, uploaded the reports whenever it was in range of the pod’s signal. I’d send them on to my employers once I was back aboard. By rights, this should have been a two-person job - one to go down to the planet and perform the field survey, another to file the reports as they came in and mind the ship. But I preferred working alone. I wasn’t one for small talk, and besides, no partner means nobody to split the pay cheque with. My employers didn’t mind, they were more interested in results than protocol. They usually were.
MACALLA (v.o.) I was taking a soil sample when I saw it. Something moving against the waves of the grass. I looked, and saw three wet, unblinking eyes, shimmering like oil on water. I shrieked, falling backwards and dropping my sample kit.
MACALLA (v.o.) I landed hard in the wet mud, the cold of it cutting through the suit. The thing lurched out of the grass towards me. It was making an awful noise, shrieking over and over. I held my hands up in what I hoped would be a pacifying gesture, though God only knew how intelligent the creature was.
MACALLA (cont'd)
Stop, it’s OK! You surprised me, that’s all. Wait, are you...?
CREATURE
(strange mimic of Macalla's voice)
...surprised me, that’s all. Wait, are you...? Surprised me, that’s all. Wait, are you...?
MACALLA (v.o.)
I stared at it, transfixed by the sound of my own voice coming out of this alien body.
MACALLA
...hello?
MACALLA (v.o.)
Immediately, the creature began to repeat.
CREATURE
Hello? Hello? Hello?
MACALLA (v.o.)
It was a perfect mimic, my voice replicated exactly and repeated back to me. Otherwise, the creature hardly seemed to know I was there. Its three eyes stared at me in bland indifference, and I had the horrible sensation they were looking straight through me.
CREATURE (cont'd)
Hello? Hello? Hello?
MACALLA (v.o.)
It looked a little like a toad, though far, far bigger – almost the size of a dog, heavy and squat on six powerfully-muscled legs. It had a great, blunt head with a wide mouth that worked mechanically under those staring eyes. The repetition was starting to grate.
MACALLA
Hey!
CREATURE
Hey. Hey. Hey.
MACALLA
Give over for a second. Do you understand... Look, my name’s Macalla.
CREATURE
Understand. My name’s Macalla.
MACALLA (v.o.)
It repeated, and I decided I didn’t like that one bit, now I came to think of it, my name in its mouth.
MACALLA
I’m a human.
MACALLA (v.o.)
That was even worse. It was so utterly, abjectly alien, hearing it say otherwise felt akin to blasphemy. Before I could think of something else to say, it blinked wetly at me, all three eyes a little out of sync. Then it turned and hopped away, its voice getting quieter and quieter as it retreated into the distance.
CREATURE
I’m a human. I’m a human. I’m a human...
MACALLA (v.o.)
I watched it go, swallowing against a sick, swimmy feeling in my gut. Then I fished myself and my sample kit out of the puddle, and slurped back to the pod.
MACALLA (v.o.)
The next day, I heard chanting as I climbed out of the pod’s airlock.
CREATURE (cont'd)
I’m a human. I’m a human. I’m a human.
MACALLA (v.o.)
It was louder than I remembered, the sound of its – my – voice reaching me easily from where it sat on a rock at the edge of the landing zone. I had planned to take samples from the opposite side of the meadow that morning. Instead, I stood at the foot of the ladder, chewing my lip.
MACALLA (v.o.)
All night, I’d fought to keep the creature out of mind, struggled not to see its dark, squat shape in the shadows. My thoughts kept returning to it like a tongue to a sore tooth, prodding and pushing to see if it might give way. Part of me wanted to run, hide, turn off my microphone and silence that incessant repetition. But another part, deeper and harder to explain, was drawn to the thing like a plant to sunlight – or a moth to flame.
I was moving before I realised I’d made a decision. I picked my way over to the rock, strands of wet grass wrapping around my legs. As I drew near, another one of the creatures came into view, sitting beside the rock, its flabby mouth moving in time with the first. I’d learnt my lesson from yesterday.
MACALLA
Ribbit.
MACALLA (v.o.)
Ribbit, I called as soon as I was in earshot. Relief washed over me as they started to repeat. It was still uncanny – they weren’t actually ribbiting, after all, just saying the word over and over like someone badly disguised as a frog. But it was an improvement all the same. I trod carefully, the ground slippery beneath my feet. The rational part of me wondered if I might be able to get hold of one of them, take some samples. It would complicate the survey assessment, but that was someone else’s problem, and alien biology always fetched a good price at auction. But the thought of touching one of them, even with the thick gloves of my suit, of holding it against my body long enough to insert a biopsy needle, feeling its muscles flex and work beneath that shimmering skin... I swallowed against a sudden shiver of nausea.
[SFX: MOVEMENT OF CREATURE]
MACALLA (v.o.)
When I reached the two creatures, the one on the rock turned and jumped into the grass. But the newcomer sat blinking past me, mouth working as if on autopilot. I blinked back. How much, I wondered, did it understand of what it saw? Was there intelligence in those oily eyes? Did it realise what I was, what my presence meant for its future - for the future of its entire planet?
CREATURE
Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit.
MACALLA (v.o.)
In a sudden surge of motion, it turned and took off in the same direction as its companion. I watched them go, propelling themselves on those powerful legs. Even through the long grass, they were easy to spot, dark smears against the rippling pink. I swallowed again, my stomach still uneasy. Then my feet began to move. I started jogging, then running to keep up, feet slurping in the mud. I tried to tell myself it was for the survey, that I was gathering necessary information even if I couldn’t get a sample. But then the two things surged with speed and a sharp spike of panic shot through me. In a split second of forgetfulness, I called out to them.
MACALLA
Hey! Wait up!
MACALLA (v.o.)
They called back to me immediately.
CREATURE
Hey! Wait up! Hey! Wait up!
MACALLA (v.o.)
I cringed. But before I could correct myself, we tumbled out past the edge of the meadow. I’d never come this far before. It was some kind of forest, but the trees seemed fat and stunted to my eye, the proportions all wrong. The leaves were blood red, stark against black trunks, and blocked out the sun, making a red-tinged twilight under their low canopy. Squat shapes hunched and cringed in the gloom at the edges of my vision. More trees, I assumed. Or hoped.
MACALLA (v.o.)
I snapped my attention back to the creatures I was following - but they were nowhere to be seen. They couldn't have outpaced me so fast, I’d only looked away for a moment. My steps slowed and came to a reluctant stop.
MACALLA (v.o.)
My heart beat so hard the front of my suit moved with it, not from exertion but from the fear that was rising through me, gathering speed as I whipped my head around and squinted back the way we’d come.
MACALLA (v.o.)
I watched the forest, desperate for a flash of oily light on wet skin, the shift of muscle in the shadows. There was a rhythmic, steady hissing - my breath, audible over my microphone.
MACALLA
Hello? Hello? Are you there?
MACALLA (v.o.)
I cranked up the volume in my helmet, straining my ears. The rustle of a wind I couldn’t feel. Shifting wetness beneath my feet. Something that might have been running water... And then, there, on the very edge of hearing:
CREATURE
Hello? Are you there?
MACALLA (v.o.)
I started towards the noise, rushing in my desperate need to not be alone, to be anything but alone in that awful, distorted place. I crashed through the undergrowth, stumbling over unseen roots, dead branches cracking underfoot. I could still hear them, distant but getting closer, repeating over and over again.
CREATURE (cont'd)
Hello? Are you there?
CREATURE (cont'd)
Hello? Are you there? Hello? Are you there? Hello?
MACALLA (v.o.) The fear had its roots in me now. It wrapped around my heart with cold fingers and squeezed. My vision narrowed, awareness sharpened to a pinpoint. In a burst of branches, I broke out of the undergrowth and spotted one of the creatures squatting some distance away, staring placidly in my direction. I stepped towards it – and the ground fell away beneath my feet. It kept staring even as I fell, tumbling into a crevasse I hadn’t known was there until it swallowed me. I was too surprised to scream. The last thing I knew before the dark closed round me was a set of oily eyes, and the sound of my own voice calling.
CREATURE (cont'd)
Hello? Are you there?
MACALLA (v.o.) I came to sprawled on my front. For one perfect moment I forgot where I was. I was wrapped in the sweet smell of wet earth, a simple joy after months of sterile, filtered air. I moved my head to look – and was hit with successive blows of pain and horror. I reeled sideways, spitting blood and dirt. My lips were coated in both, contaminated with alien soil, teeming with things my unsuspecting body couldn’t hope to fight. As soon as I moved, a surge of pain shot through me, a mindless, animal searing that swallowed me whole. I opened my mouth to cry out, but my vision throbbed and blurred, and I was unconscious again before I could make a sound.
MACALLA (v.o.) My second waking went little better than the first. I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious. The dark was final and absolute. I had no sense of where I was or how far I’d fallen. Every part of me hurt, with a white-hot concentration of pain in my left leg. I don’t know how long I lay there, face down in the dirt, trying to remember how to breath. The pain left no room for conscious thought. I don’t even know if I stayed conscious, there was no difference between having my eyes open or closed.
MACALLA
(pain sounds)
MACALLA (v.o.)
Eventually, I managed to twist my torso around so my weight was on my left shoulder, my hips still square to the earth. The pain in my thigh was too much to think about right now – like the silence, like the distance to the surface, like the dark. I tried to spit again but only succeeded in dribbling over my own chin. A careful exploration with shaking fingers revealed a hole the size of a tennis ball in the lower part of my visor. Shards of broken plastic had showered inwards on impact, hiding themselves in the neck of my suit, cutting my under-shirt - and any exposed skin - to ribbons. I tried not to think about what might have found its way into my bloodstream as I’d lain unconscious in the dirt. After a time, I could just make out the shape of my own hand in front of me, glove light against the gloom. Something told me not to try the torch on my helmet. I couldn’t be sure what kind of attention the light might attract. The pod. I needed to get back to the pod. The thought shivered, fragile and golden. Back to the pod, and its sterilisation protocols, and its painkillers, and its beautiful shining blue signal to the Narcissus. My thigh was pulsing white. It set my jaw on edge. I knew that any attempt to move it would go... badly. But I needed to try. I took one breath, then another, told myself I would move on the count of three. One, two...
MACALLA (cont'd)
(big pain sounds trying to move)
MACALLA (v.o.)
Bolts of pain shot through my whole left side as I hauled myself onto my back. I bit my lip to keep from crying out, and didn’t know if the blood I tasted was fresh or dried. Sweat flushed across my upper lip and forehead, my heart beating so hard I thought it might cave my chest in. I took a deep breath, and another. And another. Finally, I managed to drag myself up to sitting. If I could strap the leg up, somehow, perhaps find something to splint it against... My eyes took a moment to focus in the blue dark, picking out the shape of my leg against the cavern floor. When they finally did, the frail, golden hope that had been blossoming in my chest disintegrated like so much spider thread. The leg was... wrong. Bent in a way bones should never bend. A sickening lump showed even through the material of my suit. Splint or not, I’d never be able to stand on it, let alone drag it out of this cave, through the forest, over the meadow, all the way to the pod... For the first time since I fell, I felt tears brimming in my eyes.
MACALLA (cont'd)
Oh God.
MACALLA (v.o.)
I gasped, the sound echoing around the walls of the cave.
MACALLA (cont'd)
God save me...
CREATURE
Save me...
CREATURE (cont'd)
God save me...
MACALLA (v.o.)
Save me... breathed the echo. And on the susurrating tide came a cold, liquid dread. The echo whispered all around me, slowly gathering volume. I closed my eyes, tried not to hear, not to know. But the whispering only grew louder, reaching to me through the dark above and all around. I raised my head, and looked.
MACALLA (v.o.)
All around me, row on row, climbing up the walls of the crevasse until they caught the dim light that filtered through from the world above - hundreds of golden eyes, glistening like oil.
CREATURE (cont'd)
Save me... Save me. Save me.
MACALLA (v.o.)
More flickered into sight even as I watched, woken by the sound of my voice carrying from mouth to mouth on a wave of mindless repetition. Behind the eyes, the bodies hunched heavy, dark and still.
MACALLA
Please. Please, help me!
MACALLA (v.o.)
My voice came back to me a hundred times, repeating over and over, the volume increasing until my teeth rang with it.
CREATURE
Please! Please, help me!
CREATURE (cont'd)
Please! Please, help me!
CREATURE (cont'd)
Please! Please, help me!
MACALLA (v.o.)
Please! Please, help me! called the creatures, mocking me with my own desperation. Something lurched out of the dark towards me, I felt the sudden weight of a heavy, living body against my good leg. I kicked instinctively, catching the thing square in the side and shoving it away. It didn’t make a sound, save to repeat my own fear back to me in a thoughtless, unbroken stream. The others were still, unmoving, unmoved.
MACALLA (v.o.)
Far above, the Narcissus span through its silent orbit, waiting for a signal that would never come. Below, I screamed, and the world, unblinking, screamed with me.
MACALLA
No! No!
CREATURE
No! No!
