Out of nowhere, “Your most powerful weapon is present.” Adoenye’s words ran through Euphretes’s mind space. Off in the distance, he could see a red haze next to a soft bluish hue perched in the darkness of space. It seemed to be staring into his very essence.
Having heard the voice, “The images must be coming from the UIS.”
“How could the UIS be accessing their technology when we’ve just barely been able to breach their primitive planetary connections?” Euphrete’s voice sounded staggered as he started to glimpse the true meaning behind Arhangalos Jibril’s last comments.
“If he’s truly the Pillar AI, then he wouldn’t need an active connection to jump from a crashed Transport to one of Earth’s computing systems.”
“But wouldn’t the UIS’s security fall apart then; because its Pillar is offline?”
“I know it’s hard for the human brain to comprehend, but for an AI as ancient as Adoenye, he could be in a thousand different places at once; all the while feeling as if he was in one location.”
“Actually, I do know how it feels to have a split consciousness!” Euphretes pointed out before replying to Steward Operative Caruso. “I don’t necessarily trust them,” he said, referring to the Astronauts answering Euphretes’s questions honestly about crew members being held on Earth. “But, I also don’t expect them to be ambassadors either. They are scientist explorers, not soldier politicians. They aren’t coming with terms for a treaty.”
“Exactly,” Neuma stated, “The fact that you died when your consciousness was split should tell you that Humans have no idea of the concept of a split entity acting as one; let alone multiple splits.”
“My brain hurts,” Euphretes joked, his inner defense mechanisms kicking in now that his understanding couldn’t comfortably wrap itself around what Neuma was saying.
Stating the obvious, “As it should! But my point is, I think we under estimated this whole concept of a Guardian and UIS relationship.”
Steward Operative Caruso sarcastically shook his head at Euphretes’s remark while whispering just loud enough to ensure the Guardian could hear his words, “They better not have sent a bunch of awkward Royals.”
“So we’re awkward now? This list of yours just keeps growing!” Euphretes replied with good humor while acknowledging Neuma’s analysis. “Something tells me that we’ll be underestimating Adoenye for a while.”
Caruso slapped the back of Euphretes’s armored shoulder, “If it makes you feel any better, I got to drift around that planet in a star’s direct sunlight setting up your Surface Area Concealers.” While the temperatures outside Earth’s atmosphere rarely reached above three hundred degrees, something Huron equipment was easily equipped to handle, it was the direct, unhindered, and heavy radiation from the sun over the course of several hours that made the stunt dangerous.
The Steward Operative’s comment referred to the Armada’s previous actions of trying to conceal their existence while gathering as much intelligence as possible. Brought from the original jump from Ozark, Surface Area Concealers were primarily used by the Huron Military’s Forward Observer cells. They were excellent at camouflaging stationary units from near peer adversaries such as Baikal Specters. The Surface Area Concealers’s technology was impenetrable by any equipment found on Earth. More importantly, along with hiding a unit’s location, Surface Area Concealers were excellent at gathering nearby intelligence because of their use on the front lines. This made them the perfect tool for Euphretes.
“Your point?” The Guardian asked after a good laugh at the random comment.
“My point is, it gets real dicey out there. But seriously, we’re all a little awkward and crazy Sir. You just happen to be an awkward and crazy Royal!”
“Thanks for pointing out the obvious! But listen, you can’t use your stunt outside the Pyx’s atmosphere as an example. No, you just forgot to set your gear’s time to the Pyx’s Galactic Time. That’s why you drifted around in direct star light!” Euphretes laughed.
“Sorry about the Space Accident Report, Sir. But just so you know, I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant you get to suffer again too.”
Both men were laughing now. “Fortunately for me, you won’t be given the opportunity. By the way, enlighten me. Aren’t you the reason why we have safety briefs before going to the restroom?”
“Ha! At least everyone has properly stocked bathrooms now.”
Euphretes could barely take it, “No! No they aren’t! I feel like every time I use your bathrooms I have to go searching through three or four stalls before finding one with any value!”
“Value? What’s that supposed to even mean?!” Both men sputtered and snorted until Neuma’s voice reigned them in and shut them up.
“They’re touching down now.”
“Time to lay low and wait for the right time to make my entrance.”
“I was under the impression that we were just going to walk up there now,” Caruso replied, still trying to get the laughing fits out of him.
“That would go well,” Neuma sarcastically commented.
“It’s a big accomplishment for them,” Euphretes responded, now fully back to his Guardian mind state. “So I want to wait until they are wrapping things up before making a move. It’s the least that we can do; give them a chance to enjoy the pinnacle of their space exploration before we change their world.”
“I thought we weren’t allowed to interfere,” Caruso pointed out.
“I can’t corrupt the population’s Culture,” Euphretes said. “Three people coming back from a moon landing and asking their governments to return some dead bodies to a stranger on said moon, is hardly changing their Culture.”
“Good point Sir!” Caruso laughed.
“If anything, they’ll laugh our heroes into an early retirement.”
“Or, after much deliberation on their return journey, our heroes claim everything was a wild hallucination,” Caruso speculated. “You know, produced by mysterious conditions on their planet’s moon.” He had no idea that Crestone was working to ensure their message could not go ignored or forgotten.
“He’s growing on me Euphretes. Why am I starting to like Caruso?!”
“I’m telling you, most entertaining person that I’ve ever met.”
Speaking to Caruso, “Guess we’ll just have to improvise if it comes to that.” Euphretes then opened his connection to Steadfast and Loyal, “Captain Blanchard, how are things looking on your end?”
A split second later, “All clear over here, Sir. Senior Leading Operative Crestone is showing all clear for his team as well. The second you move, this moon will be darker than anything they’ve seen.”
“Good. As primitive as their recording abilities are, we can never be too safe,” Euphretes replied.
“Roger that. Do you want a heads up when Crestone moves?” The Armada’s XO asked.
“Negative. I’ll talk to him off line when we get back. For now, stay silent unless things go south.”
“Good copy Sir,” Blanchard answered before signing off.
In the meantime, Steward Operative Caruso and Guardian Euphretes would be subjected to four hours of waiting. During that period, no extra vehicular activities, otherwise known as astronauts spending time outside the confines of their ship, occurred to help pass the time for either of them. Euphretes took the opportunity to start reading Carpathian’s encrypted messages to him now that the Emperor was aware of his son’s discovery. In fact, the second Arhangalos Jibril disappeared, Euphretes’s H. Profile was erased because he was no longer technically a member of the Huron Empire now that he was a Guardian. Additionally, in his standard UIS Profile, all of his information had been wiped clean except for his new title and altered name: Guardian Euphretes Huron Pyx. The messages from his father were mostly about the War, which had stalled again, bringing both sides to a stale mate. However, buried in those messages from father to son, was a desire to start secretly sending Ships, supply, and equipment to Euphretes to he
lp bolster Earth’s defenses.
As Euphretes read through the information, it was apparent that Emperor Indus had one thing in mind, and that was to find the Pyx that was now being protected by Euphretes. Just hours after the responsibility of Earth fell into Euphretes’s hands, The Baikal Emperor was reported to have gone into hiding; along with four entire Combat Teams. Additionally, Indus hastily pulled all of his forces from the Natron Empire just after the discovery. While straying from the calculated withdrawal his forces had been conducting, Indus ensured his military left nothing but destruction in its wake. To put it bluntly, Indus left the Natron Empire’s outer rims a total waste land.
On the Huron front, Emperor Indus had previously allowed Carpathian’s forces to run freely in the outer limits of his Empire until things changed suddenly. Out of nowhere, guerrilla fighting and random, vicious attacks broke out across the outer regions. As more and more dead soldiers were returned to their families, Indus was stalling the Huron advance while weakening the Huron home front’s resolve at the same time. Carpathian now had two enemies, the Baikal Empire and the grieving families of his civilians back home. Due to the war taking place so far away, many within the Huron population felt that their soldiers could be better used elsewhere.
After the four hour wait, “I’ve got one coming out!” Neuma reported, finally seeing activity on the exterior of the Lunar Module.
“Caruso, time to wake up, we’ve got activity,” Euphretes said while nudging the NCO.
A few moans and groans followed by limbs stretching in all directions, “About time!” Caruso grumbled before his heads up display zoomed in on the lone astronaut climbing down the Lunar Module’s ladder. “Seriously? check out that space suit!” He exclaimed. Seeing the heavy and cumbersome suit made him grateful for the overall comfort of his gear. Surrounding Caruso’s armor, in what looked like a grey ghillie suit, was a bio hazard containment shell for extra protection as well. Astonishingly, the added layer did little to hinder the movements of its owner, allowing Caruso and Euphretes to wear their equipment without any discomfort.
“No kidding, he must be miserable in that thing!” Euphretes replied.
“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we!”
Propping up to one knee, “He sure is taking his time. That outfit must be really restrictive,” Caruso chuckled.
“Can you connect me to what it’s saying, please?” Euphretes asked to his mind space, knowing Neuma could manipulate the suit without having to speak out loud and fully explain the procedure to his helmet.
“One second.”
“Pulling up target’s comms,” Euphretes warned to Caruso.
“Roger.”
“Think I got it,” Neuma’s voice replied before a fraction of a second later,
“takes a pretty good little jump.” Neil Armstrong’s confident yet apprehensive voice boomed inside their helmets; except neither Caruso or Euphretes could understand the foreign language.
“Standby for translation,” An automated voice spoke inside both of their helmets.
After twenty-nine seconds of unrecognizable sounds, their helmets’s software solved the peculiar noises and began to translate. “… footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Down there, it's very fine!” Neil’s translated voice came through sounding exactly how he would sound if he was speaking the Galactic Group’s common language.
“Can we hear who he’s talking to?” Caruso asked, still connected to Euphretes.
“We can, but we’re not going to. I don’t want to risk causing any unnecessary interference to their weak operating systems until I know for sure that their ship can get them off the surface once they’ve completed their mission,” Euphretes answered, choosing to err on the side of caution with the fragility of the two astronaut’s equipment. The Eagle, or the Lunar Module that brought the two astronauts to the moon’s surface, looked incredibly primitive to the Guardian as he watched Neil climb down its exterior ladder. In fact, the chances of the craft even lifting off the moon were nearly fifty fifty. Euphretes’s concerns were warranted.
“Understood. It would be a funny site though,” Caruso answered Euphretes.
“What?” Euphretes asked, his tone clearly bewildered.
“You know, we interfere and then they can’t get off the surface. It would be a funny site to see a Wrecker Team try and hook up to that monstrosity and tow it back to the Pyx.”
“I'm going to step off the LM now,” Neil’s voice said in the background after climbing down the ladder.
“Yeah, not going to happen,” Euphretes replied, ending the conversation, although he secretly found the images in his head amusing.
The pair held their breath as they watched Neil awkwardly peer down the last rung until he finally took the plunge.
“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Caruso erupted in laughter, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Did he really just say that?! One giant leap for mankind, HA! They went about as far as I go after a night of partying!”
“Going to pretend that I didn’t hear that,” Euphretes replied with some laughter of his own, unable to ignore the irony in the astronaut’s words. “But wow, talk about being as far off the mark as possible!” He joked to Neuma, looking for a similar response from her to justify his criticism.
“I believe it was you who literally just said, ‘It’s a miracle that they made it this far.”
Slightly chastised, “Still doesn’t mean what he said isn’t funny, from our point of view at least!” Euphretes replied defensively.
“And from their standpoint, it WAS a miracle and truly a big step for their planet.”
“OK. You’re right. I should celebrate their successes and mourn their failures as my own. I’m sorry.” While it was still funny to him, the hypocrisy of his response struck a chord.
“No worries. The statement was amusing, I’ll give you that at least; but it’s the intention behind the laughter that’s a measure of your character.”
Neil Armstrong’s voice continued. “And the surface is fine and powdery. I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots.”
“Can’t imagine what it feels like for that guy to not have Gravity Dampeners,” Euphretes finally said, breaking the brief silence.
“Expose your left six plate and let’s find out!” Steward Operative Caruso suggested.
“I’ll pass, thank you,” The Guardian said with a smile.
“Okay, Buzz, we ready to bring down the camera?” Neil’s voice asked in the background.
After twenty minutes of watching Neil lightly bounce around the Lunar Module, Neuma piped up, “I’ve got eyes on a second one. Working on pulling up his helmet’s comms now.”
“Sir, looks like Buzz, or whatever his name is, is on his way down,” Caruso announced.
Looking over the reports coming in from the teams on the dark side of moon, “Great, thanks. Standby for second individual’s comms,” Euphretes replied to Caruso.
“…home for the next couple of hours and we want to take good care of it. Okay. I'm on the top step and I can look down over the RCU, landing gear pads. It's a very simple matter to hop down from one step to the next,” Buzz Aldrin’s voice rang out.
“Yes. I found I could be very comfortable, and walking is also very comfortable,” Neil replied, guiding the second astronaut. “A little more. About another inch. There you got it.”
After another ten seconds of spotting for the descending Buzz Aldrin, “You’ve got three more steps and then a long one,” Armstrong instructed.
“This one is taking his sweet time too,” Caruso commented while shaking his head at the patience building exercise that he involuntarily found himself in.
“That’s a good step. About a three footer,” Neil said once Buzz touche
d the moon’s surface with his white boots.
Euphretes watched the second astronaut look around his environment in awe for a solid eight seconds before he could think of something to say, “Beautiful view!”
“Such a simple way to express one’s astonishment,” Euphretes remarked to Neuma.
“And that’s the beauty of studying and mastering different languages. All of them have their limitations. No matter where we look, words can never accurately ascribe the glory that is the universe.”
“It’s amazing how universal our inadequacies are,” The Guardian answered.
“Exactly.”
“Isn't that something! Magnificent sight out here!” Neil replied, having already gotten slightly used to the view but still taking his breath away every time.
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