By the light of the gibbous moon (Version A)

The wheels of the train created a rhythmic chatter as they crossed the seams in the rails, the noise strange and unfamiliar. An incongruity, this technology, a Carbon Age relic transporting passengers and freight across a planet light years from where it was conceived. It was all part of the terraforming plan, I supposed. My neural interface sourced confirmation that yes, certain carbon generating technologies were being used on San Bernado to increase atmospheric temperature by the half a degree to needed to reach the optimum for sustaining human life and agriculture, and the train was one of these. The information poured in a steady flow through my field of vision as a thin stream of text. Of course, the actual references
were being pushed by the computer straight into my brain, and the visual display was unnecessary, but I liked the old fashioned way better. The tracks, I learned, had been machine laid, and the colony had saved it's indenture contract allotment for the heavy industrial plants I was here to visit.

A flirt buzzed across my synapses, a little heart and query icon blooming in my pupil. The subtext was neither graphically sexual, nor youthfully constructed, but rather had an edge of sophistication and gentility that, on another day, I would have been tempted to explore. The journey had been long though, and I hadn't considered the next day's tasks sufficiently. I compressed the sentiment, and sent it back beneath my reply.

#Alas, no time.

#All work no play/dull boy

The aquiescence was playful, with the sense of a wink and tossed hair. I settled back in my chair, part of my attention on the dry information rolling through my field of vision, part soaking in the spectacular views. In the twilight the jungle had become shadowed and enchanting, and as the train wound through the long miles, it became more majestic still. As I drifted off to sleep,
I heard the mating calls of the local birds, and saw deep in the pools of darkness between the tall trees the flickering luminescence of insects.

I jolted awake as a thumping filled the carriage, percussive thuds resonating from the windows. I leaned closer, trying to parse out whatever had caused the noise from the all encompassing blackness. Suddenly, two lights flickered in front of me, and I laughed in relief. It was just the native fireflies. No sooner had this relief washed over me than it was swept back, as the lights got larger and closer. I realised I was eye to eye with... something. Knowledge flowed into my head, but did nothing to reassure me. The pair of eyes drew away, then reappeared with terrifying suddenness, as a face smashed into the window. Jagged cracks shot out from the point of impact. As the face drew away once more I glimpsed sharp needle fangs. A third impact beside me, and the head pushed through, flesh hanging in strips from a flayed skull. The carriage filled with screams and the sound of shattering glass. Swarms of teethy, bleeding things clawed out of the gloom.

Abruptly the train shuddered.

For the briefest of moments, I thought that we were stopping. My body lurched sideways in the chair, towards the front, before snapping back again as our speed shot up.

Behind me I heard something fall, a fleshy thump into the carpet. I realised that my eyes were squeezed shut. I wished I had left them that way. A horde of creatures, hairy, nightmarish toddlers, long armed and bow legged, filled the carriage. One matched gazes with me, then sprung with hideous agility.

In a single bound it crossed the space between us, bringing me face to face once more with that petrifying visage. Its weight pressed down on my ribs, and as I tried to fight free it screamed furiously.

Reaching down, it pushed a talon into my eye socket. A gout of blood from my torn throat bloomed into the air in front of me###

### recording ends