Raf and Cat are exploring the universe.

For the rest of August, I’m continuing with my series of short stories, previously published on Medium.

A lot of them have been based on prompts that I’ve found in various publications. They have been either a word or a picture, designed to set an author’s imagination going.

This short story is based on a picture prompt from Lodestar Gazette.

I was the first man on Mycetes.

Of course, it wasn’t called Mycetes then; it was just Delta-zero-nine, the ninth planet I’d found in my fourth expedition.

Cat told me about it a day out, when we dropped from light speed. She had detected it in the vastness of space and had been altering our course ever since, only telling me when it loomed large in my Glasswall screen, and even I couldn’t miss its presence.

“We’ve got an interesting one here, Raf,” she announced as I wandered into the wheelhouse, clutching a coffee and a self-heating pack of buttered toast. “And mind those crumbs,” she added, after a pause just long enough to make me think she hadn’t noticed.

“Remind me again, Cat, who’s in charge here?” I settled in my seat, the captain’s chair no less and pressed the contact on my pack of toast. The coffee cup went into its holder.

“I suppose you are,” she said, with a sigh, “but butter and toast crumbs don’t mix with electronics, you know that.”

Sometimes I wished I didn’t have the A.I. computer, but she could be company out here. When she wasn’t nagging. The pack made a noise and split in half, revealing two slices of toast, with the butter melting into the brown surface.

“I’ll be careful,” I said, taking a bite, “what have you got for me?”

“New planet,” she said. “Not your regular type from what I can see so far. It’s rocky, with liquid water, can’t tell about the atmosphere till we’re closer”

“Sounds regular to me,” I talked through a mouthful of toast and slurped some coffee. I knew it annoyed her.

“Manners,” she said. “It has a few features we’ve not seen before. A large active moon, for one thing, almost like a gas dwarf. There’s lots of magnetic activity and lightning.”

“With the moon that large and close, the rotation will be uneven, the surface gravity harsh,” I said, to show that she wasn’t the only one who knew a little galactography.

“No,” she said. “You’re wrong. Because it’s gaseous, its mass doesn’t have any more effect than a normal moon would. The orbit and poles are steady, we can land.”

“You said a few features, what else?”

“It’s very red, which suggests a lot of Iron oxide. But there’s no green vegetation.”

That was strange. “So where does the oxygen come from then, to make the Iron oxide?”

“Exactly, there are a lot of what looks like pillars, in groups. Possibly crystalline. Maybe they’re involved. The only way to find out is to land.”

We sat in orbit for a day and launched a probe. There was an atmosphere; we could see it as the probe dropped away.

Cat called out the numbers as they came in. “Oxygen 19 per cent, CO2 is a little high at 1 per cent, it’s gonna be hot. Breathable though.”

This was good, I was on a finder’s bonus for habitable planets. “Radiation is nominal,” Cat added. “Might have expected it to be higher, with all the activity on the moon. It’s all looking good for habitable. Gravity at one point zero-seven g.”

The video feed, when it came through was glorious. There were striking mountains, deep valleys and lots of free water, rivers, lakes and oceans. But nothing green, or any sign of any lifeforms. Just the blue structures, in groups. They looked almost like people, standing around chatting. It sounded weird, but they looked like giant mushrooms.

“We have to get down and look,” I said, “if we can live here, it’ll make a great place to settle.”

Well,” Cat said. “Let’s get down and see, shall we?”

“I’ll drive,” I said, taking manual control before she could argue.

Six hours later, I stood on top of a mountain and looked across at the moon, which was rising in the sky. My ship sat on a level bit of ground about a hundred meters behind me. Cat was watching through my suit cam as I wandered about, scooped samples and bagged them.

Although I was looking where I was going, my gaze kept going back to the moon. It was so huge in the sky that it felt as if it was about to overwhelm us. Its surface was in constant motion as multi-coloured clouds of gas swirled and twisted. They were shot through with the patterns generated by its lightning storms. The good thing was that the planet had a strong magnetic field, deflecting any dangerous radiation away.

I’d kept my suit on and sealed, just in case. Although the atmosphere was breathable, the pathogen analysis wasn’t complete until I had tested the samples I was collecting.

Over to my left, at about half a click away, was a group of the structures. Blue-white and rounded, they definitely looked like some sort of psychedelic mushrooms.

“Are you seeing this, Cat? I’m heading over to take a closer look.”

“I am,” she replied, “take it easy, they look like they could be organic.”

The thought of mushrooms living on this alien planet occupied my mind as I walked towards them. Largely, what would they taste like sauteed, with a little garlic and butter?

Close up, the resemblance was uncanny. They were mushrooms alright, taller than me. It was as if I had been miniaturised and put in a field of the things. I touched one, and it yielded. As my hand pushed into it, the whole thing bent away.

“It’s alive,” said Cat. “I could feel warmth in the sensors in your glove. It’s warmer than ambient and there was a pulse. Tilt your head back.”

I did and could see the gills, underneath the bulbous tip. They were in motion, vibrating in a regular rhythm.

“It’s breathing,” Cat said, “it might be where the oxygen is coming from. Can you get a sample of the flesh for analysis?”

I didn’t mind cutting up mushrooms when they were on my plate, but these might well be different.

“These are alien, Cat,” I said. “And alive. We have no idea what they might do. They could have a defence mechanism, leak some sort of toxic blood or attack me with spores that melt my suit. What about if they attack me?”

“You and your imagination,” she said. There’s no evidence that they’re predators.” She paused for a second. “I think you can run faster than a plant.”

I hope you enjoyed that. If you subscribe to Medium, you can find me, and the rest of my stories, here.

I’d love to get your comments, please leave them below. While you’re here, why not take a look around? There are some freebies and lots more content, about me, my writing and everything else that I do. You can join my newsletter for a free novella and more news by clicking this link.