The silvery ship slid across the surface of the moon like grease across a hot manifold. They were making good time and coming up on the mountains quickly, they could go a little faster but the very slight hills set off a bobbing effect that caused the ship to get rather unstable at higher speeds. Ray didn’t know how there were going to achieve lift velocity at this rate. They were going to need a much smoother runway for sure and that meant they were going to have to head back to town for anything resembling a road.

They slowed down as they approached the foothills of the mountains and took the ship in as far as they could. Dreagar who was getting pretty comfortable with the controls whipped the ship around pointing it out away from the mountains and set it down. The landing gear bit a little harder than expected and the whole ship lurched to a stop.

“Easy there, don’t flip my ship you idiot.” Ray fired off and ran to the small cargo bay.

“I meant to do that.” Dreagar retorted while unstrapping himself from the pilot’s seat and trying to catch up to her.

They unhitched Dreagar’s cargo skiff, fired it up and drove it out the bay.

“Stay with the ship, get her ready to go when you see us coming!” Ray yelled to Jimmy as they tore away up the narrow pass between two peaks. They came upon the coordinates within minutes but it took another 15 minutes of poking around in the early morning light to find what they were looking for. When they did, they hooked up the skiff and drug the sand covered door aside revealing the small hidey-hole that Flynn had made out here back, who knows when.

Ray looked around as the wind began to kick up around them. They had beaten the weather but just barely. Ray felt a drop of rain and then another. The moisture in the air felt amazing against her dusty dry skin, but she knew the mud that followed would slow them down. She kicked it into doubletime.

Behind the piece of paneling they had removed was a mesh gate with a long chain wrapped around it in every direction. The two ends came together where they had been welded. Even if she blasted that weld it would take forever to unwrap this chain. Flynn had secured this better than he thought. Or maybe someone else had…

“What are we gonna do, Ray? This storm is right on us!” Dreagar yelled.

“Yea, I know, give me a parsec to think.”

She stood back and analyzed the situation for a moment, seeing the mechanical side of it. They needed to get in there in the least amount of time. What tools did she have on hand? There was the plasma cutter but that was back on the ship. The blaster on her side was similar but much higher output for much shorter duration. Hmm, she’d just have to arc it a little bit. She also really wanted to shoot the thing and see what it could do.

“Think we can yank it out with the skiff?” Dreagar yelled.

That was an idea! But no, she was pretty sure even that wouldn’t be enough. As she examined the moorings she realized that the chain was only wrapped around the outer cage. The cage was cemented into the cave walls at two points on the top, two on the bottom and one on each side.

“Stand back!” she yelled to Dreagar and pulled out the blaster. It had three settings and was currently on 1. She aimed it at the leftmost post and squeezed the trigger.

“BRAZZZZAT!” spat the gun and an ark of bluegreen light grazed the post taking a small chunk out of the edge of it.

Ok, she could make this work. It took five more shots at the first post to get cleanly through it. She flicked it to level 2 and took out the two upper posts with three and then two shots respectively. It was noticeably more power but still quite manageable.

“Wonder what level 3 can do?” She flicked the switch all the way up, took aim and depressed the trigger.

“VAAAAT!!” The kickback was considerable and pushed her back drawing her aim upward. “Booosshhh” went the hillside sending a shower of rocks and gravel everywhere. She had grazed her target removing most of it, but there was still a couple tinches of metal securely cemented to the wall. Above it was a large gap in the hillside.

“Crap!” she spat and reset the gun to level 1. She held the weapon as steady as possible with both hands, took careful aim, putting the front sight on the target and then bringing the rear sight up in line with the front. She squeezed the trigger carefully being sure not to yank her aim off target.

“Beepbeepbeep” said the gun.

“Shite! Not now!” she shook the gun as if that might knock some of the electrons in it’s drained battery loose. She aimed and fired again.

“Beepbeepbeep” said the gun again.

“Shatted Shite!” That level 3 blast must have emptied it. “Alright Dreagar we’re gonna have to do the last bit your way. Lets hook up the skiff!” She clicked the weapon off and clipped it securely back into it’s holster. Only about 10-20 shots on low and medium, she estimated. And who knows what on level 3, maybe 2 or 3? She wished Flynn had given her another power pak for it.

After the third yank they stopped, it just wasn’t gonna go, and they were loosing traction by the minute. They had the far corner bent out a bit but not enough to get crates though.

“Hold on!” yelled Ray. She pulled out the blaster again, turned it over and removed it’s power pack. She noticed it was still a little warm and so started swinging it around in the cool damp air as she walked back up to the gate. She knew old used up power paks well, sometimes just sometimes you could squeeze a little more out of one. She popped it back in, clicked the gun to level 1 and with one outstreatched arm held it at point blank range against the stubborn thread of metal. She turned her head away and squeezed the trigger.

“BRAZZZAT!” it spat sending a spray of molten sparks and plasma in all directions. She felt the heat as one little piece burrowed though the shoulder of her coveralls. She shook it off before it reached skin. Some splatter had caught a couple knuckles too but that was a familiar kind of pain, she flexed her fingers and dismissed it.

“Ok Dreagar, yank it again and give it all you got, She should go this time.” She yelled while getting out of the way.

Dreagar gunned the engine and the treads dug hard. “Brrrroooooowww!” went the screeching sound as the lower posts bent and the cage folded out flat.

“Good, good!” Ray yelled. “That’s all we need.”

They hauled out the four standard black cargo containers just as the rain started pouring down. They were heavy and the two of them alone could just barely lift one. Well Dreagar didn’t seem to be having as much trouble with his end but she was struggling. Maybe she shouldn’t have left Jimmy at the ship afterall. He and her both might have been a closer match strength-wise to Dreagar. He was strong, she tried unsuccessfully not to notice how his muscles flexed as he heaved the heavy containers.

Dreagar had proved that he really was a good guy, sure he wasn’t everything that she might want in a… what? Lover? Boyfriend maybe? But he had a good heart and had held up to his promise of looking out for her. Ray suddenly felt an almost uncontrollable urge to do something very out of the norm for her. Probably just all this danger and excitement, she thought to herself. It had a way of bringing most beings basic instincts to the surface.

Perhaps it was fate that Jimmy wasn’t here. If they were going to space now with a large group of people, she may not have another chance. On an impulse Ray walked back into the shelter of the hidey-hole as Dreagar finished securing the last container to the sled. She didn’t want to miss her opportunity, it was now or quite possibly never.

“Hey Dre, can you come here for a minute?” she called to him.

“Yea Ray what do you need?” he said as he ducked in out of the rain. He was wearing overalls but had them undone at the top so they hung down from his waist to around his knees. He always looked so silly like that, how could he even walk? Underneath the overalls all he had on was a white sleeveless tunic which was now dirt stained and wet. The water and sweat on his skin reflected what light was present highlighting his masculine bulging muscles.

He walked toward her and she backed into the darkest corner of the small cut out.

“Ray, you ok? I can’t see you too well back there.” She could see him just fine, at least his outline that stood out in curving contrast against the dawn-light imbued rain outside.

“Yea Dreagar, I’m fine.” This was it, do or die time. She reached out and took one of his large hands holding it with both of hers. It was solid and rough but the moisture made it soft to the touch.

“Drea, I’ve got something I’ve been wanting to do and now that it looks like we’re gonna be in orbit for a while, we might not have much privacy so…” Dreagar reached around her and gently but firmly pulled her close to him. Their eyes met in the dim light for just an instant and then she tilted her head upward as he descended upon her. Their mouths collided a little too suddenly, teeth clashing against teeth and they both pulled away abruptly.

“Sorry.” Said Dreagor.

“It’s ok.” Ray smiled “you can try aga…” She didn’t get the word out in time. Dreagor’s lips were moist and warm. He tasted a little like dirty sweat, or sweaty dirt, she couldn’t decide. It was also a little sweet and strangely metallic, kinda like licking a battery. The thought struck her as quite funny and and she let out a giggle.

“What’s so funny?” Asked Dreagor far too seriously.

“I was just thinking that you tasted like a battery. I kinda like it.”

“You’re so weird.” Dreagor said and then reached down around her waist and picked her up like she was nothing. She instinctively wrapped her legs around him but there was no need, he had her securely. She could just see the single small patch of wispy chesthair poking out of his low cut tunic. She found it both silly and adorable.

She was above him now and leaned down for another pass when a loud gust of wind whipped though the cut out and a spot light lit up the entrance outside. The “wooshing” sound continued steadily. They both ran out of the little cave to see The Widowers Way circle the area and put down right next to the cargo skiff. The landing gear was in the pincer mode and stabbed into the sandy dirt coming to a rest half way up a hill.

Ray found herself outside the small cave and realized she was still holding Dreagar’s hand. She lightly squeezed and then pulled her hand away and ran to the ship as the main cargo ramp came down.

Jimmy was there waiting for them. “What are you guys doing?! We have to go now, you’re not gonna believe what’s going on out there!”

They started to drive the sled up into the bay but Jimmy stopped them. “I don’t think she’ll lift on one engine and hauling the skiff, we’ll have to ditch it.”

Dreagar got a disappointed look on his face but immediately began transferring the crates to the ship.

“Sorry Drea, we’ll get you another one.”

“Doesn’t matter, it’s useless without somewhere to drive it.” He said and flashed her a wry smile. Ray left Dreagar securing the crates and followed Jimmy to the cockpit.

“I told you guys that all we needed was more lift, she’s a little sluggish but she flys just fine at low speed. Jimmy was saying as he climbed back into the pilots seat and strapped in. Ray didn’t mind too much, Jimmy seemed to have figured out the controls the best so far.

He brought the engine up to full power and the ship lifted straight up into the air. Ray noticed the power adjustment was at 95% lift and only 5% thrust. Jimmy edged the yoke forward and the ship began to move while still slowly gaining altitude. He moved the power lever gradually toward thrust until they were flying level and even faster than they could across the ground. Ray took note of the levels and watched Jimmy’s slow smooth inputs on each control.

“Hey you’re pretty good at that.” She told him.

“Uh, lifting off is easy, it’s the landing part that’s tricky. Took me three passes to get around to… There! Did you see that!?” Jimmy interrupted himself.

“No what?”

“Just keep looking out at the horizon, it happens in a pattern.”

“What happens?” Dreagar asked from behind them as he climbed into the cockpit.

“I don’t know how to describe it, there’s kindof a little spark like lightning but it’s fainter and much closer to the ground. Before the rain hit it was really obvious, but now that it’s getting brighter we may not be able to see it. You can see what it does though. It’s changing the surface of the planet, one little piece at a time.”

“I don’t see anything really.” Dreagar said.

“Get on the scope then. See what looks like waves over there? I think that’s some sort of vegetation, but bigger than the grass we saw in town. It’s wet from the rain and the wind is blowing it.”

Dreagar manned the scope, pushing his face into the rubber surround intended to block out the light of the cabin. Ray turned on the spotlight and panned it across the ground. They were a little too high for it to be effective but she could still make out the strange patches that hadn’t been there an hour before.

“Look! Are those trees?” Ray asked, she had never seen trees except in vids.

“Yea I think they are.” Said Dreagar

“It’s getting faster too guys, look how quickly they’re growing.”

Jimmy was right, when Ray focused on just one swatch of a different pattern she could see it. It was like a little bit more was added to one of the edges every few seconds.

“I been thinking about it and I believe that whoever did the atmospheric terraforming on this little moon, you know way back whenever… Well it’s my theory that they’re back.”

“Who are?” asked Dreagar suspiciously.

“I don’t know, the owners, the builders, whoever or whatever they are, they just happened to chose right now to start phase II.”

The theory made some sort of sense, it was better than anything else they had so far.

“They must be really advanced to be able to transmogrify matter like that, especially living matter.”

“Yea, super-advanced! Way past anything that I’ve ever heard of, even God-tech.” Jimmy was always so taken in by those bizarre stories of magic and mystical alien technology.

“God-tech is a myth, something they tell little kids about at bed time.” Dreagar corrected him.

“Well then how else do you explain what we’ve seen?” Jimmy retorted.

“Honestly, I got no idea.” Dreagar conceded ponderously. “I guess that kind-of makes sense.” He continued. “Shite, if that’s the case then they must be pissed that we’re all here squatting on their moon.”

“Maybe that’s what happened to those people,” Ray conjectured. “It’s like they were being reprogrammed into whatever life form “they” want to be here.”

“Who knows what they want but we definitely need to get out of here. I just hope orbit is far enough.”

Dreagar was right. They were scanning the horizon when Ray spotted something.

“Flash there!” There was a flash alright out in the distance but it didn’t go away. It just kept getting brighter and brighter.

“That’s something else. Haven’t seen that before.” Said Jimmy.

As they watched, the bright light rose in the sky. Great billowing clouds poured out behind it.

“That’s the ship! Flynn’s ship.”

“They’ve launched! They’re going early.”

“The trasmorg-whatever you called it must have gotten closer.”

“Looks like we lifted off just in time too then.”

They all watched as the massive ship gained altitude. It was an impressive sight, the entire ship looked like a tiny dot sitting atop an ever growing stack of clouds.

“I just hope they all made it to the ship.”

“Hey, you can ask them. Get on the comm, just broadcast all channels.” Said Jimmy

“Oh yea!” Ray wondered why she hadn’t thought of that sooner.

She started to strap in to the seat closest to the comm station, which wasn’t very close at all to the controls she needed. She made a mental note to get some headsets as soon as possible, if they survived this thing. She braced against the bumpy ride by holding on to the chair with one hand and keying the comm with the other.

“This is Raybeam Starchild aboard The Windower’s Way, calling Flynn, hey what is Flynn’s last name anyway?” she asked vaguely into the cabin.

“Actually, I don’t know?” Jimmy pondered. “I always thought his last name was Flynn.”

Well what was his first name then? Now that she thought about it, Flynn probably wasn’t even his real name? It didn’t matter, Ray decided as she pushed and held the larger button. It had “emergency” molded into the red plasticate.

“Hey Flynn, you got your ears on? Breaker, breaker, Flynn! You on that rocket?” She released the button and static blared from the speaker for several seconds. She was about to try again when an obnoxious rumbling sound came out of the ship’s speakers. It threatened to drown out the yelling voice behind it.

“Ray, Ray is that you? Flynn here. Over.”

“Flynn! You launched, we’ve got a visual on you.”

“Yea it was getting a little too hairy there, had strange vegetation popping up all around us, had to pull out.”

“Did you get everyone stowed in time? What’s your status?”

There was no response for several seconds.

“Hey Ray, remember that storage room that I kept the neutronic bipolarizers in? Over.”

“Yes I do. Over.”

“Now without saying it, do you remember the number that was on that door?”

“Yes, that’s affirmative, I remember.”

“Ok, good. Switch to that on a secured channel, I’ll do the same.”

Ray didn’t know what the need was for secrecy at this point but she complied.

“Ok, I’m here” she replied a few seconds later.

“Good, much better. Got my hands kinda full here, this baby sure can pull.”

Ray watched as the lowest smoke clouds began to expand and drift in the wind as the tiny spec climbed toward space. It looked like a giant craterpillar slowly but steadily climbing the side of whatever the obliv giant craterpillar’s climbed. Crater’s she supposed.

“I bet, you’re looking good from here. So what’s your status, got everyone on board?”

“We are fine and away, doesn’t seem to be any of those glitches going on in the atmosphere, at least not yet.” Flynn’s voice took on a serious tone. That is a negative on everyone on board. There was one last group of 63 people heading from town but they either got delayed or wiped, we’re not sure which.”

That was awful, 63 people! She hoped Flynn hadn’t gotten unduly jumpy and punched for space early. No, Flynn was pretty level headed and had little regard for his own safety. She was sure he made the best choice he could have.

“That’s bad news Flynn when did you loose track of them?”

“They set out around oh eight thirty and should have been there just a little after nine o’clock. We held till oh nine thirty but they never showed. No sign or anything, they were in a couple o’ transports that had comms but we couldn’t raise ‘em.”

Ray let go of the transmit button and said to the cockpit. “What do you guys think? Should we check it out? How we doing Jimmy?”

“We’re ok, I was just starting to accelerate but I can change our vector a little and take us over that way.”

“Do it. Get back on the scope Dreagar.” Ray barked the orders then climbed up to the pilots seat and peered over Jimmy’s shoulders scanning the terrain with her eyes. Flynn’s strained voice came back across the radio.

“How are you guys doing? What is your status?”

Ray moved back to the comm and depressed the button. “Good, cargo is secure and we’re in the air. Gonna do a flyby and see if we can see what happened to that last group.”

“Alright, well be careful. I would not advise touching down unless you can avoid those areas. You should see it from up here, the whole surface of the moon is changing. I see valleys and forests that sure as heck weren’t there before.”

“Ray, I’ve got some movement about maybe twenty degrees to our starboard.” Dreagar said as he peered into the scope.

“Yea, I see ‘em, looks like a flock of those cat things running across the landscape but I’m only counting maybe a dozen or so, nowhere near 60.”

“Scan out the direction they are coming from.”

“Yes! I have vehicles at point seven clicks northeast, they’re not moving. Go that way.”

As they flew over the empty vehicles they noticed that they were parked next to what appeared to be a several meter ravine running as far as they could see in either direction.

“That’s new!” Ray exclaimed.

“They couldn’t take the transports over that cliff. Maybe they climbed down?” Jimmy proposed.

“Ok, keep heading toward Flynn’s,” said Ray. “and keep your eyes peeled guys.”

“I have them!” Announced Dreagar. They are on foot and still moving but no longer toward the yard. Looks like they got cut off. Point two clicks and about 40 degrees port.”

“Alright great! Jimmy can you bring us down a little for a flyby. We need to see if they’re still people or not.”

“I’m on it, here we go.” The ship dipped but didn’t loose any of it’s speed, if anything it sped up.

“Yea got people, they’re waving at us!” said Dreagar.

“Ok Jimmy, we gotta get them, put us down as close as you think you can.”

“It’s not going to be easy, there’s a lot of dust blowing down there.”

“They are in the largest patch of moon dirt down there but they’re getting closed in pretty fast.

Jimmy guided the ship in a large arc around the group of people slowly circling in on them. The small patches were mostly joined together now. It looked like less than half of the surface retained the gray sand they were used to.

“What if we put down in one of the already changed patches since they are getting bigger?” Ray suggested. “Wouldn’t we avoid the changes if they’re happening at the edges then?”

“Who knows, but we do know that all the changed people were in or near one of those patches when it happened.” Jimmy observed. “I think we need to stay away from them completely if we can.”

“Ok, ok. We’ll have to get in there and get ‘em loaded quick.”

Ray turned to the comm again and depressed the all channels button. “Flynn! You Still there?” She waited a few seconds but there was no reply. “To anyone listening, this is Raybeam Starchild, Captain of The Widower’s Way, we have found the last group of people, what’s left of them, and going to attempt pickup. I repeat, we are picking up the stragglers, we will meet you in orbit.”

She hoped they would make it to orbit.