Kuiper object recovery

"How is the seal?"

"You're good. Check electric and backup life support please."

After staying in lockdown for a week, the go-ahead to return to normal operations was finally given to all helium-3 extraction sites, along with some very special orders for both site 4 and 5. A recent asteroid shower had brought objects of Kuiper belt or possibly even extrasolar origin to their doorstep, and both sites had been tasked with the retrieval of such samples.

"Electric and backup life support systems are good. This is Isabelle for coms check, Tom are you there?"

As Max had finished his visible inspection of Isabelle's EVA suit, she checked in with Tom and Helen who would be monitoring them back from the base.

"Tom here, reading you perfectly. Isabelle and Max, you are both a go from Artemis central command, please make your way to the rover."

The EVA (extravehicular activities) suits Isabelle and Max wore were quite different from the normal vacuum suits that were their 'clothes' for normal daily operations, designed not to keep their wearer alive in the event of a catastrophic depressurization of the lunar habitat, they were instead made to be a self-contained habitat which surrounded the wearer.

"Are you with me Max?"

"Yeah, right behind you."

Being quite a bit clunkier than the normal wear it wasn't really that easy to turn herself around to check on Max who should be walking behind her towards the airlock, so instead, Isabelle asked him over the radio. A lot of seemingly normal things like that were extremely difficult to do when wearing an EVA suit, even just walking in it was an acquired skill that needed the assistance of multiple electrical servos to make even somewhat bearable.

(This really is like wearing a tank... Which is also strangely fitting for working in one of the most inhospitable work environments known to man… Until we finally become dumb enough to try and settle on Venus I guess.)

Stepping into the airlock Isabelle gradually noticed all external sounds disappear along with the outside atmosphere, suddenly it was just her and the suit. With nothing else to drown it out, she could suddenly hear her own heartbeat, along with all the minor sounds her suit made as it continued to function.

"We're depressurized, opening up the hatch."

Stepping out into the loading area, Max and Isabelle made their way to their moon rover which was more of a miniaturized and stripped-down miner with seats on it than anything else.

"Tom we're rolling, ETA should be around 20 minutes."

"Understood, be safe out there."

The moon's surface which greeted Isabelle and Max outside site 4 was both remarkable and bland at the same time. With no atmosphere to carry sound, colour the sky or even shield from cosmic radiation the luna surface was barren, pop marked with grey rocks and impact craters of various sizes.

(Just another day on the job… I wish I could take a selfie right now, it would be so perfect to piss off all my old classmates. But then again, you can't even see my face when the visor is down like this, I get the best I can do to earn more bragging rights is to be the first person to recover a Kuiper belt object, or it might even be extrasolar! This could land me and Max a freaking Nobel prize!~)

"So, are you stoked for this Isabelle?"

Even without being able to see Max's face due to the reflective visor, Isabelle could tell that her mission partner was very excited to get his hand on some samples, after all, they could be making history here.

"Of course I am Max! Let's hope there's something left to sample in the craters for us to collect."

"It's unlikely we'll see any intact samples for us to collect, those rocks hit the lunar surface at orbital velocities remember? But even if the rocks vaporized at impact there will be residuals to analyse."

With their rover being a repurposed mining drone, the pair of explorers spent most of their travel time idly chatting while the rover drove itself to the nearest impact area.

Little did the two of them know that they were about to make history, but not the kind of history they were going for.

"Well then, let's take a look at the first contestant. If you would Helen."

Having arrived at the first impact crater, Isabelle contacted Helen back at the base over the radio to have her take control of a small drone they had brought with them.

"Right away, all ion thrusters are good, telemetry too… Let's have a quick look from above."

With no sound carrying atmosphere, the only indication that the drone was working was the bright blue light from its central ion thruster which immediately propelled it into the 'air' as its laser array started producing a high-resolution scan of the brand new but otherwise insignificant-looking lunar crater a little over 35 metres in diameter.

"... Nothing here, looks like whatever rock hit vaporized entirely."

Although she knew it was unlikely, Helen was also hoping to find at least some fragment which they could bring back and analyse.

"But there should be enough residuals left to at least get some idea of what impacted. Time for me to work my magic!"

Sounding quite pleased with himself, Max immediately stepped off the rover and went into the crater to take samples. As Max worked on extracting samples from the surface of the crater he quietly started humming to himself, but as he mistakenly had left his radio open he was also performing for Isabelle who responded to the unexpected performance with a slight chuckle.

"I never heard you sing before Max, you're quite good."

"Ah, sorry. I used to work for days on end prospecting for rare earth deposits back on earth, This is just a bad habit I picked up somewhere along the way."

"It is fine, you can keep humming, I love it!"

Quite used to working together, Max and Isabelle continued prospecting empty craters and collecting samples while small talking.

That is until they found something truly remarkable.

"Guys… Is that a sensor error?"

"No Helen, we see it too."

About 4 craters before they were going to call it a day and head back to site 4, Max and Isabelle stumbled on a crater with a surviving fragment, only this fragment was nothing like what they had expected to find.

"Approximately 30 centimetres wide, the surface appears metallic… It must have been extremely dense to survive impact…"

Like Max described it, the fragment populating the crater he and Isabelle had just stumbled upon looked like a lump of smoothly polished grey metal which gleamed in the sunlight like a gemstone. Looking back on the event, Isabelle would admit that it really made for the perfect flytrap

"Tom?"

"Yeah, headquarters have already approved of your actions. Max, Isabelle, you are both all green for retrieval of the sample. I'll start prepping the lab right now, so get straight back here as soon as you collect it."

With orders from not only Tom but also up high in the command chain, Isabelle and Max immediately started preparations to retrieve the sample.

"You said it might be quite dense, think the arm can handle it?"

"Nope, we might need to help lift it out too."

"Agreed, let's go for the 60 cm collector, that one has points for attachment on both sides."

"Roger."

Quickly working out what they needed to do, both Max and Isabelle dismounted the rover and went to work. While Max started collecting samples from the surface of the crater, Isabelle went around the back of the rover to the external storage module.

('External storage module' my ass, just call it what it is. This is a car trunk, plain and simple…)

Gapping a meter long circular container that was open at the bottom, Isabelle attached it to a mechanical arm which was attached to the middle of the rover before using her wrist-mounted display to remote control the rover and park it right at the edge of the crater.

"Rover in position, stabilizing platform…"

Expecting the sample to be quite heavy (even in lunar gravity), Isabelle extended multiple anchoring supports on the rover which drilled quite a way down into the loosely packed lunar regolith. Walking over to the rover, Isabelle gave it a kick to see if it moved, then she started extending the robotic arm/crane all the way out to the middle of the crater before lowering the capsule on its end to a few metres above the sample.

"Ready for collection, how are you doing Max?"

"Just about done here too, let's get this sample bagged and get back to base."

With the go-ahead given by Max, Isabelle lowered the collection container down over the sample, as the collector hit the lunar regolith it started drilling its way through it. This was to not only excavate the sample itself, but also a few centimetres of the regolith beneath that in an effort to make sure that the sample didn't break apart if Isabelle just tried to grab it. Getting down into the crater herself, Isabelle moved to the side of the sample collector where she grabbed a handle on the side of it while Max grabbed one on the other side of the collector, if the sample was extremely dense like Max expected, the two of them could use their powered EVA suits to help lift it up on the rover.

"Ready."

"Same… On 3. 1… 2… 3…"

Commanding the robotic arm to start retrieving the sample, Isabelle and Max were ready to help lift too.

But strangely, that wasn't needed as the robotic arm easily lifted the collector with the sample inside.

"... Strange. Tom, Max here. We've recovered the sample, now proceeding to secure it in the external storage module-"

"Car trunk."

"-... Right the 'car trunk', We'll be back in a bit."

With Max flawlessly recovering from Isabelle's correction, Max had a wry smile on his face as he heard Tom's deep sigh over the radio.

"Roger, we'll be waiting."

With a relatively uneventful drive back to the base, neither Max nor Isabelle had any idea of the terrible series of events that were about to unfold.

If they did, the two of them would have left their 'sample' where it was, simply choosing to never disturb it and instead of filing a false report to Tom.

As Isabelle jumped down from the rover she immediately went to store the sample when a loud, high pitched static interference from her radio almost deafened her.

"AAW! WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Shouting over the screaming ringing in her ears, Isabelle's mind kicked into crisis mode as the training she had received kicked in and she quickly confirmed that the radio was down. Raising the UV screen on her visor, Isabelle signalled with her hands that the radio was down, Then she went over to Max and grabbed him by the shoulder. Turning her crewmate towards her, Isabelle pressed her own helmet to Max's, creating a connection for sound waves to travel from her suit to his.

"My radio is down!"

"Mine too! Get inside now and contact Tom and Helen! I'll store the sample!"

"But!-"

"No buts! You're the secondary pilot! Get in there now!"

As protocols dictated, Isabelle who was the secondary pilot should immediately consult with the primary pilot and team leader (Tom) in the event of an emergency. If any more than their radio's had just malfunctioned, Isabelle and the others might need to leave the base and evacuate to low orbit in a hurry. For all they knew, the reactor below the base could have just started a meltdown.

"Roger!"

Leaving Max to secure the sample, Isabelle turned towards the airlock and started running, something which looked kind of comical in the low gravity, but Isabelle wasn't in the mood to comment on that at the moment. Confirming Isabelle had started what she needed to do, Max turned to his job and grabbed the sample container out of the external storage module of the rover, but as he grabbed the handles on the sample container something strange happened.

"Ow!- What the-"

Feeling something akin to a rose thorn prick his finger and he attempted to lift the sample container, Max hardly had time to think before warning lights started to flash on the heads up display inside his helmet.

The warnings indicated a containment failure along with a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, or in layman's terms, there was a hole in his EVA suit.

"Puta!"

Dropping the sample container Max looked down at his hand just in time to see some kind of metallic-looking ferrofluid force its way into his suit like it had a mind of its own. Trying in vain to catch the slimy-looking thing from getting inside his suit, the next thing Max felt was a slimy, then burning sensation spreading up from his arm at the same time as something crawled into his skin, starting to resolve his muscles while crushing his bones. Screaming out in pain, the last thing Max saw was the same strange kind of metallic, slimy substance crawling over his face as it forced its way down his throat and into his ears and eyes.

"AAR-GH*#AaZzzzAR€%GaCHG!@-zZZzhAGH!"

As Isabelle's radio acted up again, her blood immediately turned cold as ice.

That static sounded like Max, what's worse it sounded like him screaming.

"MAX!?"

Having reached the half-way point between the airlock and the rover, Isabelle turned around to see Max standing completely still in front of the sample container. Unfortunately for Isabelle, she didn't notice the tiny, perfectly round hole in the said sample container.

"MAX! WHAT'S WRONG!?"

Forgetting that her radio was malfunctioning in the heat of the moment, Isabelle started running towards the unmoving Max, Isabelle stopped in her tracks when Max started moving again.

Only, there was something off about Max's movements. They were crude as if he had suddenly forgotten how to walk. Steadying himself on one leg, Max pivoted his other leg before sliding it across the ground towards Isabelle.

(No, it's more like something is trying to learn how to walk… Without a single point of reference.)

Alarm bells should have been ringing in Isabelle's head at this moment, but in the heat of the moment and out of concern for Max she started running towards Max again.

"Fuck, hvad fuck er det der sker her?"

Confused at the sudden emergency and the strange static which sounded like Max, Isabelle took another step towards 'Max', then another and another as 'Max' stopped moving.

"... Wait, Max? What the hell is wrong with you?"

With the alarm bells inside Isabelle's head finally ringing loud enough for her to notice something was really, seriously wrong with Max.

Then Max suddenly lunged at her, knocking Isabelle to the ground along with himself.

"What the fuck Max!?"

Initially confused about what the fuck was wrong with Max, the physical connection with Max's EVA suit made it possible for sound from his suit to pass into Isabelle's.

"AAAAAAAAARRRGHGH!"

As a feral sounding scream reached Isabelle's ears along with some kind of strange thumping sound she went into self-defence and tried to pry and push Max off her, but for some reason, he was way stronger than normal.

"Max! For fuck's sake calm down!"

With nothing but feral screaming and an ever-louder thumping sound which seemed to increase in frequency and magnitude as the only response to Isabelle's words, the young Dane really started freaking out. Getting first her knee, then her entire leg in between Max and herself, Isabelle finally succeeded in shoving Max at least a leg's distance away from her. As 'Max' flailed his arms in an eerily unnatural way that didn't seem to account for his bones at all, cracks started appearing in 'Max's' UV screen.

Those cracks weren't from Isabelle's and Max's scuffle, they seemed to be the result of something repeatedly pounding at it from the inside.

"Lort!"

Acting almost on instinct, Isabelle dodged to the side as Max's visor burst open from the inside as something priced the concrete ground where Isabelle's head had been just a few seconds earlier. As Max's visor broke, Isabelle was finally able to see his face, or what he had left of it anyways. At the halfway point between decay and rot, teeth were missing as some kind of black fluid was building up inside Max's open mouth.

His right eye was caving in on itself as blood freely poured out from it while his left eye was simply gone, replaced with some kind of spike made out of a strange metal-like substance that reached all the way into the ground right next to Isabelle.

"Jesus fucking hellige Kristus i himlen!"

Even while scared shitless and cursing widely in her native language, Isabelle instantly recognized the strange metallic gloss from the thing sticking out of Max's head to the sample they had just collected.

"What in the unholy fucking!-"

Scrambling to get back on her feet as the strange metal spike retracted back into what was left of Max's eye socket, Isabelle eventually got back on her feet only for the monster to try and tackle her to the ground again.

"Oh no, you freaking don't!"

Clenching all fingers but her pointing and long fingers on both hands, Isabelle activated the EVA suit's emergency reaction control thrusters to propel her out of the way.

"Ghu!- Shit!"

Crashing into the rover as she couldn't break in time, Isabelle scrambled to get out of the way of another charge. Getting the rover between herself and the strange rover, Isabelle almost clenched her jaw hard enough to crack her own teeth as she started thinking how she could make her way to the airlock which was now behind the monster.

Luckily, she didn't need to facilitate another miracle, as the monster seemed to suddenly find the rover a lot more interesting than Isabelle.

(What the fuck is it doing now!?)

Slowly backing away from the strange creature as it started tearing the rover apart, Isabelle decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth as she made her way around the rover and monster with a wide margin.

"Fuck! FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK! SHIT!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?!?"

As the atmosphere slowly started returning with the sound of the fist Isabelle repeatedly was banging into the floor in frustration, she felt her heart pound so hard in her chest that it hurt. Removing her helmet as tears started blinding her, Isabelle tasted the strong flavour of iron in her mouth before an overwhelming amount of dizziness made her fall to the floor as she puked the entirety of her breakfast.