On the moon of Heracles 3 I came across a peculiar creature. I was scanning for gas deposits for our mining colony when I first noticed it out of the corner of my eye. Did that boulder just move? No, I’m just imagining things. My sensor started flashing and beeping. I found a gas deposit and marked the spot with a crimson flag. On the way to my shuttle I heard skittering behind me. I whipped back around to see what it was, nothing, just rocks. Where’s the flag I just put down? Each flag had a tracker so that mining crews could home in on its position. The scanner display showed the flag a few meters east of my position, but I couldn’t see it. As I moved closer to the spot where it should have been, the air became as still as a tomb. Screech! A creature exploded from what I thought was a big striated rock and ran away from me holding the flag in a tentacle. I ran after it. The flags cost nearly a days wages and I couldn’t afford to be docked again. It ran down an escarpment and into a cave.

I unholstered my pistol and followed in after it. Just past the mouth of the cave was pitch black, but once I rounded a corner I noticed a faint glow from the ceiling. Bioluminescent worms beckoned their prey of gnats and moths atop strands of sticky silk. I pulled my skullcap down a little tighter. A glance at the scanner showed the flag’s position, about ten meters north. I scrambled over half-formed stalagmites and squeezed through a gap in the cave walls. A crack in the roof of the cave let a beam of light shine through. There it is. Where is that creature? I bent down to pick up the flag and the creature leapt at me from behind. In the scuffle I dropped my pistol. Fortunately, even though the creature was crafty, it was less than half my size. I struck it with my fist and sent it flying into the cave wall. It lay there slumped against the wall, still as can be. I retrieved my pistol and my flag. I was about to slip back through the gap in the cave wall when it occurred to me. If I bring this creature back for study, there might be a reward. I prodded the creature with the barrel of my gun, no reaction. I made a makeshift bag out of my skullcap and tied it with a piece of cord from my uniform. The skullcap was stretchy enough and the creature was mostly tentacles except for one long specialized appendage made of a hard dentin or keratin that resembled rock on the outside but was smooth a silk on the inside. It used that appendage to wrap around its body in a seamless spiral that looked like a rock.

I made my way out of the cave and back up the escarpment with the creature in tow. I replaced the flag back where I found the gas deposit and returned to my shuttle. To my surprise the creature was still alive. The bite it gave me barely hurts, just a couple of pin pricks. I feel a little woozy. I’ll finish this entry once I get back.