Below by Kaitlyn O'Connor Page B

four tunnels managed to catch enough rubble to block them completely. When we found no bodies, I thought it was even more of a coincidence that none of the miners had been trapped—a welcome coincidence, but still odd. When we opened the last shaft, though, we found things in the rubble that shouldn’t have been there if it was just a cave in ... refuse from the habitat, even some pieces of equipment. It looked like they’d run out of dirt and scavenged everything disposable off of the habitat.
    They deliberately sealed the shafts? It was a purely rhetorical question, however, as Victoria pursued the implications. Jesus Christ! Whatever it was that killed them ... they must have uncovered it!
    But they were alive, some of them at least, when they sealed the shafts, Raphael pointed out.
    Which means they were too late! Whatever it was ... is, is already free.
    Raphael nodded. We’ve searched every inch of the shafts. There’s no sign of anything in them now.
    You’re certain of that?
    As certain as I can be considering I have no idea what it might be. You want us to seal the shafts again?
    Victoria considered it for several moments and finally shook her head. If we do, we’ll have to explain why and panic is an ugly, dangerous thing. If whatever it was is already free, there wouldn’t be any point in it anyway. And then we have to consider the possibility that we could let even more out if we sink another shaft. What we need to find out is what was down here to begin with.
    Raphael nodded. The problem is, we haven’t any marine biologists with us, nobody that would have at least a clue of what to look for.
    Victoria frowned. I’m no biologist, but it occurs to me that whatever it is couldn’t have been completely sealed off even before they sank the shafts. Otherwise, how would it get food? Unless it was in something like a hibernation state and had been trapped after it sought a safe place to hibernate.
    That’s a pretty long stretch—underwater hibernators? But if it’s a possibility, then we’d certainly not be any safer sealing the shafts—obviously it didn’t work for our predecessors.
    Victoria shook her head. You’re thinking in terms of Earth creatures. One thing you can count on when you’ve been on as many worlds as I have is that there’s never any telling what sort of creatures might have evolved. There might be similarities—there often are, but there are always vast, unpredictable differences too. I can’t even begin to guess what sort of conditions might result in an underwater creature that would hibernate, but that doesn’t mean there might not have been conditions on this planet that would have produced such a thing. Anyway, it’s all guess work. There hasn’t been enough studies done on Kay to give us even an educated guess.
    What we need to know, fast, is is whatever it is still active? If it is, we’ve got a real situation on our hands—the weapons the other crew had were inadequate protection against it and we don’t have anything different.
    Until we figure something out, remind the crew as often as it takes to get their attention that they’re to stay alert for trouble at all times. We can’t afford to be lulled into a false sense of safety by the fact that it hasn’t attacked us yet, Victoria finished, deciding it was time to head back. The place gave her the creeps. It would have if it had been nothing more than a hole. The fact that there was, or had been, some dangerous creature, or creatures, living in the caverns made it that much more creepy.
    We also can’t afford to assume this is the source of the threat, Raphael said thoughtfully as he followed her back up the mine shaft. It looks like they thought so, but they might have been dead wrong. The crew was attacked from above, not just from below.
    Victoria paused as they neared the entrance once more. You think we’re looking for two different threats?
    Possibly.
    Victoria thought it over. It does seem like the