Excerpt

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Schneider, jumping back. Another reddish-orange boundary appeared nearly six meters high and twice that across. A circular patch brightened into view next to it.

"Well. I think we know where we're going next." Nicole's voice was dry, but she was hard-pressed to keep her excitement in check.

Greyson's hand hovered over the patch. "Shall I?"

"Let the Marines enter first," Nicole said, anticipating Brohammer's response.

"Spoilsport. You don't let me have any fun."

"I've got to keep you alive, remember? You take risks. I get the responsibility?"

"Seemed like a good arrangement at the time," Greyson grumped, but Nicole could tell their heart wasn't in it.

"Ready," Brohammer reported, and Nicole gestured to Greyson.

They pressed their hand to the patch.

"Ow!" they said, jerking their hand away.

"What's wrong?" The Marines were fully alert now.

"Nothing, nothing," Greyson said, rubbing the center of their palm. "Felt like an electric shock. Huh."

They held up their palm, revealing a red dot.

"See? Nothing."

"John? Damn, I wish I could get Barata down here. He's the exobiologist."

"It's nothing," Greyson insisted even as Ross ran his padd over the injury.

"Puncture wound, sort of. No trauma around the edge from a cut, more like a sample was removed."

"Oh, this is so not good," Nicole said. "Sample? Greyson, get back here!"

The specialist had been edging into the opening. Ross followed and collected more data until they were three or four meters inside.

"Nicole, you're not going to believe this," Greyson whispered as Ross muttered, "Odd."

"Come over here and tell me," she replied.

"You really need to see this."

Nicole rolled her eyes. She might have known Greyson for two days, but she also knew she wasn't going to talk them out of anything until she went and saw whatever it was. She gathered the Marines with a look and walked forward, Schneider and Hudson bringing up the rear.

The sight which greeted her was utterly unexpected, and she gasped.

"Impossible," Schneider said flatly.

"An illusion," Ross added, though he didn't sound as confident as Schneider.

"I don't fucking believe it," was Brohammer's pithy comment.

To all appearances, it was the surface of a planet. Not Earth, certainly; Earth's sky wasn't naturally violet during the day, nor were there three moons. But the trees looked like trees, the ground cover looked like bushes and shrubs and flowers and grass, and Nicole would have sworn she felt the heat of the sun on the side of her face pointed that direction.

"Impossible," Schneider repeated. "Completely impossible. The planet is frozen, so it can't be topside. We haven't gone deep enough for this to be a full-size simulation or biological exhibit. The only thing it can be is some sort of hologram."

By way of answer, Hudson reached down and pulled a plant. "If it's a hologram, it's the most realistic, sensory-intensive one I've ever seen. Or felt."

"Sarge?" Everyone turned to face the speaker, Private Lempert. His pulse rifle was up, and he was pointing it into the whatever-it-was. "Movement."

Now all five Marines were alert, Brohammer silently passing orders to them. "Ensign?"

Nicole answered the rest of the unspoken question. "I agree. Let's go, people." She started backing towards the entrance, keeping an eye on her people. "Let's go, Greyson," she said to the reluctant scientist.

"It could be nothing!"

"And it could be the little green men with death rays, move your ass!"

She was still backing up and realized she'd covered ten or twelve meters, pushing her way through brush which she knew hadn't been there before.

"Stop where you are," she said, and everyone froze. "Without moving anywhere, turn in place. Look around. Can anyone see the entrance?'

Nobody could. The "planet" surface stretched, uninterrupted, in every direction.

"Fuck."