by John Coon
He paused. A patronizing smirk washed over his lips.
“Or worse.”
Xttra's head whipped around at Doni.
“Watch your mouth.” His tone became equal parts firm and forceful. “I can always drop you back on Earth's moon for the duration of this expedition.”
Doni's smug grin dropped right off his face.
“Are you threatening me?”
“What do your eyes and ears tell you?”
Xttra turned away before he could answer. Doni's eyes traveled from the pilot's chair to Calandra in one unbroken, hardened stare. She met it with one of her own and crossed her arms. No one else on the bridge seemed inclined to say anything and revive their debate on Earth's moon a second time.
“I guess I'm outnumbered here,” Doni finally said. He lowered his head. “For now.”
With no sign of more threatening alien vessels in any direction, the scout ship resumed descending through the atmosphere. Calandra gazed upon a vast desert beneath their ship. Mountains surrounded an ancient dry lakebed. A salt encrusted flat plain stretched from one mountain chain to the next.
It bore no signs of plant or animal life.
“This place looks even more desolate than the Osa'rai Desert back home.”
Calandra's observation unmasked a growing disappointment. She expected to uncover much more than a swath of desert after first seeing massive oceans from orbit.
“I don't think that will be the case for much longer,” Xttra said.
Flat salt plains soon yielded to a vast lake. What lay beyond the lake's shores seized Calandra's attention. Buildings. Roads. Trees. All nestled against a chain of steep and jagged mountains.
An alien city lay below their ship.
Her heart raced anew as Calandra gazed upon this living cityscape. It stretched endlessly across a valley wedged between twin mountain ranges. Millions of aliens surely called this place home. This thought gave her hope they uncovered a peaceful race of people. No society could grow to such an enormous size while embroiled in endless warfare.
“There must be millions of aliens down there,” Calandra said. “Do you think this is where the probe builders live?”
Xttra nodded.
“This could be the place. If it isn't, maybe someone down there will point us in the right direction.”
He guided their ship over the eastern mountains. One peak after another climbed upward, resembling an unbroken chain of pyramids fused together. These mountains reminded Calandra of her familiar, comfortable Aurora Mountains in many ways. She wondered if bubbling streams and forests teeming with animal life awaited her. She wanted to discover waterfalls crashing over rock cliffs and plunging into cold pools. She yearned to be the first one to discover ancient caves where rock formations descended from the ceiling and rose from the floor, meeting like lovers growing ever closer. Giving and taking. Calling and responding.
“These mountains will offer a perfect out-of-the-way spot for us to land,” Xttra said. “We can set up our base here while we work on making contact with the probe builders.”
He pulled back on the engine control lever. The ship reduced velocity as the ground drew closer. Xttra aimed for a small meadow nestled amid the mountain peaks. It lay only a short distance from a small lake. A patch of trees separated the meadow from the lake.
The scout ship turned 180 degrees and Xttra extended the landing gear. He dropped the ship straight down toward a spot partially hidden by surrounding trees near the meadow's outer edge. The thrusters created a tailwind as the ship touched ground. Plumes of loose grass and dust scattered from under the landing site and shot up into the air.
Xttra powered down the main engine and Lance switched over to auxiliary power. A whine from the thrusters pierced the stillness on the bridge as the engine went offline.
"What's the reading on the atmospheric sensors?" Xttra asked.
Calandra turned and glanced over at the navigation station. Atch pored over data on a holoscreen before him. He mouthed a few words as he read.
“We have 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen," Atch revealed. "Trace amounts of other gases. No lethal amounts."
“That means the air is breathable for us.”
He confirmed Calandra's observation with a brisk nod. She turned to Xttra and flashed an eager smile. Calandra sprang to her feet and sprinted into the cargo bay. Xttra unstrapped himself from his chair and ordered Lance to finish powering down non-essential systems. Then, he also sprang to his feet and followed Calandra.
Xttra opened the lower hatch. A long vertical crack formed on the inner hull and widened into two sections that slid in opposite directions to form an opening. A metallic ramp lowered from a slot below the open hatch until finally touching the ground.
Cool mountain air caressed Calandra's skin. She got her first glimpse of Earth beyond the ramp. A gorgeous meadow filled with green grass greeted her eyes. Countless trees bordered the meadow only a short distance from where their ship landed. Some trees bore long needle-shaped leaves, also green. Others featured white bark with black spots and a mix of small, flat green and yellow leaves. Chirps from unidentified animals filled the air. Water from a mountain stream or river churned and bubbled in the distance.
“Everything is so green.” Excitement bubbled up in Calandra's voice. “I'm so used to seeing red grass and red trees. I never expected this.”
Xttra embraced her.
“You deserve to take the first step onto Earth.” He held his hand out toward the meadow. “You're the reason why we're here.”
Calandra beamed at him and planted a tender kiss on his lips. She took deliberate steps down the ramp while soaking in every sight, sound, and smell around her.
Water droplets dotted her boots as Calandra stepped onto a patch of grass beyond the ramp. The grass felt spongy beneath her feet. Their ship cast a giant shadow rivaling a collection of shadows from bordering trees. She stepped into the sunlight, closed her eyes, and savored the warm rays from an alien sun.
“It's so beautiful here.”
Her voice matched a symphony of peaceful sounds originating from the surrounding meadow. Calandra turned and saw Xttra ambling down the ramp. His smile perfectly mirrored the happiness springing up inside of her as he also soaked in the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar alien mountain.
Calandra could not wait to explore Earth.
13
What started out as a small radar blip soon became an object demanding Sam's full attention.
He dismissed it as a random asteroid when it first showed up on the space surveillance system. Near-Earth objects were regular visitors on their radar. None ever passed close enough to the planet to cause alarm. Getting updates on asteroids skulking in the neighborhood held no appeal for him.
This latest object soon showed it did not fit the same profile. It closed toward Earth from Mars at a blistering speed well beyond the capabilities of a random asteroid.
"This is no asteroid," Sam said.
"See if you can angle our telescope along the projected trajectory,” he told a technician watching the radar. “Maybe we can catch the object in our line of sight."
Sam hunched over the technician's desk with his eyes glued to the radar. Before the telescope could pan over, the mysterious object veered off in a different direction. A newly calculated trajectory showed it now traveling on a path toward the Moon.
"What in the world is that thing?"
What Sam saw on the radar puzzled him. This unidentified object did not behave like an asteroid or comet. Those bodies did not make sudden, sharp changes in direction. More evidence emerged, reinforcing the idea they stumbled upon something completely different. Speed and velocity both decreased when it reached orbital range. Then the object disappeared from the radar screen a moment later. Based on the last calculated trajectory, Sam theorized it entered a northern hemisphere crater bordering the dark side of the Moon. Once he ruled out an asteroid or comet, a single possibility remained.
>
An alien spacecraft.
"Keep your eyes glued to that screen."
The technician flashed Sam a puzzled look as he started to walk away.
"Where are you going?"
"I need to find out what exactly we should do about our lunar visitor."
Sam marched into his office and closed the door behind him. His fingers flew as he opened a video conferencing app on his laptop and dialed up a number. After a few seconds, a bald husky man dressed in a military uniform appeared on the screen. He also sat behind a desk.
"Sorry to intrude, General Daly, but I have a matter requiring your immediate attention."
The general folded his arms and planted them on his desk. He stared straight at a webcam above his own laptop screen.
"No worries. What can I do for you, Sam?"
"We detected signs of an unidentified object that just landed on the Moon."
Gen. Daly raised his eyebrows and leaned forward in his chair.
"Landed on the moon?"
"I dismissed it as a random asteroid at first, until the object made a sudden change in trajectory near Earth and shot toward the Moon. Radar tracked it to a crater on the lunar surface."
Sam glanced over his shoulder through his office window. The technician still watched the screen but showed no visible reaction to anything he observed. Sam hoped the object remained stationary on the lunar surface while they figured out what to do.
"We’re not dealing with an asteroid or a comet," he said, turning to face the webcam again. "Those bodies cannot make a near-instant change in direction with speed, precision, and sudden velocity."
"Certainly not."
"What should we do?"
Gen. Daly closed his eyes and bowed his head. He gnawed on his bottom lip while immersing himself in deep thought. Sam glanced away from his screen and gazed at a model of an Orion spacecraft. It sat on the far end of his desk next to a model of an X-Wing. If only they had enough time to send an Orion capsule to the Moon to investigate. Speed and timing were a problem. No one had a clue how long it would stay on the lunar surface. If this were an alien spacecraft like Sam suspected, no Orion capsule could travel fast enough to reach the Moon before the object lifted off again. Learning more required a creative approach from a different angle.
"Patch into a lunar rover and guide it over to where this unidentified object landed,” Gen. Daly said, breaking his brief silence. “We need to get a closer look at that thing — whatever it is."
A rueful smile appeared on Sam's lips.
"NASA is going to love seeing us tinker with their rovers again."
The general shrugged.
"It doesn't matter what they want. Earth defense takes priority over their scientific research."
Nobody needed to tell Sam that fact more than once. The promise of cutting through red tape easier made leaving NASA to join the Earth Defense Bureau a simple decision.
He slapped his hand on his desk.
“I'll get right on it.”
“Sounds good. Report back to me at once when you learn more about the object.”
The general's face vanished from Sam's laptop screen after he severed the video conference link. Sam leaned back in his chair and wrapped his hands behind his head. Thoughts of one day contacting extraterrestrials always excited him while he still worked at NASA. His enthusiasm waned after he accepted a position with the Earth Defense Bureau.
Sam became familiar with many reports on alien encounters while working at the bureau field office here in Houston. He did not know what to think concerning these tales. His instincts often told him what he read in official reports or heard in water cooler talk were elaborate urban legends designed to provoke fear. Many documented encounters seemed too horrifying to be real life. The cynic in Sam wondered if these episodes were fabricated to justify extensive federal funding for the entire organization.
Sam leaned forward again and activated a control program on his laptop. This opened a door for him to patch into NASA's deep space network controlling the lunar rovers. He found a rover nearest to the mysterious object's last known location and uploaded a new command sequence instructing it to travel to that same spot. Radio waves carrying the transmission took 2.5 seconds to go from the big-dish antenna on Earth to the Moon. Once it received instructions, the lunar rover could cover the required distance in approximately 72 minutes and obtain valuable images around the landing site.
Sam heard a knock on his office door. It cracked open as he peered over the laptop. A brown-haired man stood in the doorway.
“What are you working on?”
His visitor lowered his head and started rubbing both lenses on his black-rimmed glasses with a white handkerchief. Sam flashed a smile.
“Come in here, Collin. You have to see this.”
Collin stuffed the handkerchief back into his shirt pocket and pushed the glasses into their former place on his nose. He strolled over to Sam's desk. Sam turned the laptop around to give him a better view of the screen. Collin also cracked a smile.
“Playing with rovers? What's the occasion?”
“We spotted a mysterious object on deep space radar. It traveled on an Earth-bound trajectory at first. Then it changed course and traveled to the Moon.”
“Sounds odd.”
“I know, right? Asteroids and comets never change direction at a moment's notice and make a gentle landing on the lunar surface.”
Collin scratched his head.
“Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?”
“I think we discovered an interstellar spacecraft.” Sam turned his laptop, so the screen faced him again. “That's my working theory at this moment.”
Collin grabbed another chair, pulled it around the desk, and planted himself next to Sam's laptop. Point-of-view shots streamed from the rover camera through the laptop as it crawled along the lunar surface. Rows of data also popped up under the image feed, detailing updates on everything from environmental conditions to the status of multiple rover systems.
"If this turns out to be a spacecraft, what are we going to do next?" Collin asked.
Sam looked away from the laptop and stared thoughtfully through his office window. If the rover discovered an alien spacecraft, he had no idea what step they needed to take next.
The Earth Defense Bureau did not own a reserve supply of multiple spacecraft. Sending one to the Moon was not a practical solution. No Orion capsules owned working faster-than-light speed technology. Billions of dollars later, that technology was still stuck in the prototype stage. They could scratch keeping pace with an alien spacecraft off the list. Finding a solution for this potential problem rested above his pay grade.
Sam shrugged and leaned back in his chair.
"We'll let Gen. Daly solve that problem. My only concern is getting the rover over there fast enough before our mysterious object takes off again."
The rover crossed the lunar surface at a steady pace. Sam's eyes darted between the image feed and rover data. It neared a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. With so little lunar gravity, he dared not push it to move faster. Waiting for the rover to reach its destination was no easy task. Sam struggled to sit still from anticipation. He leaned forward and drummed a pen against the edge of his desk until Collin shot him an annoyed frown. Sam set the pen down again and rested his chin in hand.
"We must be getting close," Collin said. He perched on the edge of his chair. "The rover's been moving for more than an hour now."
An enormous crater appeared on the horizon. Sam's fingers flew across the keyboard. The rover needed a stop command before it plunged over the crater's edge. Tumbling down a steep crater wall ran a risk of inflicting major damage on the rover before they learned anything important.
Sam's timing ended up being perfect. It rolled to a complete stop only a few feet from the edge. The rover's camera panned across the crater floor. Sam's eyes widened and he snapped his head toward Collin. His friend's mouth hung open and he stared unblin
king at the screen. The rover finally tracked down the mysterious unidentified object.
It resembled a spaceship.
Sam studied the vessel with fascination. His eyes meandered across the hull from a triangular-shaped nose to a small ramp exiting from the belly of the ship to the lunar soil.
New rover images soon cropped up showing a change in the spacecraft. These images captured the ramp contracting inside the hull and the entire rear end lighting up. Then, a final image revealed the spacecraft blasting off from the lunar surface again.
“Mr. Bono, sir, you're gonna want to see this.”
Sam sprang out of his chair when the technician called out to him. Collin also jumped to his feet and pushed his chair out of the way. Both men darted toward the radar monitor. The technician cast a wide-eyed glance at Sam and pointed at the screen.
“It's moving again. Based on current trajectory, the object will enter Earth's orbit in a few minutes.”
“Don't lose track of that spaceship.”
“Spaceship?”
“Indeed. We got confirmation from a rover.”
Sam did not linger to chat with the technician. He wheeled around and sprinted back to his office. Sam worked to catch his breath while the video conferencing app dialed Gen. Daly a second time. Their bureau director spared no time getting down to business once he popped up on screen.
“What have you got for me?”
“We got a rover over to the object on the lunar surface in time. Definitely an alien spacecraft.”
“Just as you suspected.”
“And now it's headed for Earth.”
Gen. Daly's expression turned grim. He lowered his head and blew out his cheeks. When he raised his chin again, his eyes focused like lasers on Sam.
“We can't let that alien craft land here at any cost. I'll send a pair of MQ-9 Reapers after it.”
Collin answered with a barely audible “What?” behind Sam. He glanced over his shoulder, hoping Gen. Daly had not also heard it. Collin buried his hands in his hair while staring at the screen in disbelief. Butterflies started floating inside Sam's stomach. Making plans to shoot down the spacecraft seemed like an unwarranted overreaction to the situation at hand.