Out Of The Cold by John Cave

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Instead of being able to see her face clearly, as you could with everyone else, the glass on the helmet was covered with a dancing pattern of lights of all colours and I knew instantly that I had seen these dancing lights before!

"Margot!" I shouted "Margot, can you hear me?"

There was no reply but there was also no movement from Margot either.

"Andrew" I said quickly "check to see if you can find out whether Margot is okay!"

I thought that asking whether she was okay sounded somewhat better than asking whether she was still alive. Andrew ran back to the moth of the cave and Geoff went with him, quickly they got what equipment they needed from the cases and began to make their examination of Margot. Whilst this was going on I had asked Sonia to keep an eye on Margot, whilst I, Roy and Andy started an extensive search of the area to see if we could discover what was causing the lights in the glass. We failed! As far as Andrew could tell Margot was fine and in good health but there was no way to be certain until he got her back to the ship and out of the suit. The question was, was it safe to move her?

"We're gong to have to get her back to the ship as quickly as possible" I said "I've no idea what's causing these lights but we will have to risk moving her and keeping our fingers crossed!"

Andrew moved behind Margot with Geoff close at hand, whilst I and Roy moved round to face Margot. The lights within the glass of the faceplate had become even more intense, and I found myself convinced that they could not be a natural occurrence. Just as we got into position to lay Margot on the stretcher, a large booming voice came ringing through the earphones in the space suit. Instantly I could tell that everyone could hear the voice by the way they moved about and ducked, as if they could somehow evade the voice by ducking down or holding the side of the helmet. The voice was speaking in English and was very loud and very clear; it also was a quite hollow sound as if whoever it was were standing in an empty aircraft hanger.

"You must help us!" the voice began "we have been trapped in this place for far too long and it is time for us to return"

It was clear that the voice was emanating from Margot.

"Who are you?" I asked "and where is that you wish to return to?"

"We are the Aluvians and we have been trapped here on this moon you call Europa for nearly one hundred of you years." The voice continued "in the year that you designate the date of 1912, we were following a comet through your planetary system when the accident happened. We had followed the comet around the star at the center of your system and were following it back out when the comet was caught in the planet above us gravitational attraction. We failed to adjust our course and continued to follow the comet. We were traveling inside the tail when the comet slammed into this moon and punched a hole through its crust. Before we had chance to react, we were sucked into this sub-surface ocean and here we have been trapped since that date.