Moon Relics

by Michael P. Rogers

Moon Relics

  By Michael P. Rogers

  Copyright 2013 Michael P. Rogers

  Check In

  The shuttle gently puffed its jets as it made minor orientation adjustments, and settled with the tiniest of bumps on the moons surface. One man disembarked, climbed slowly down the steps of the shuttle and headed for the base camp. As he approached, he shaded his eyes with a gloved hand so as not to be blinded by the glare of the sunlight reflected from the domes which were covered in a reflective material to protect against the heat of the suns rays. He made his way into the airlock, and after a minute or two entered the interior of the first dome, glad to be able to shed his pressure suit which he removed with a sigh of relief.

  “Professor Patterson, thanks for making the trip. We’ve all been looking forward to your arrival.” said a young woman, smiling radiantly. “You can dispense with the Professor title. Just call me Jack. What’s your name young lady?” he replied in a friendly manner. “Susan Worthing. Pleased to meet you. Call me Sue.” she said, shaking his hand warmly. “I expect you’d like to freshen up a bit. I’ll show you to your quarters.” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Yes that would be much appreciated.” Jack replied, realising he had perspired quite heavily in the pressure suit.

  He was pleasantly surprised with his living quarters which were small but with all the basic comforts of home. Sue said, as she was leaving “When you’ve freshened up Dave Osbourne would like to see you. I believe you already know each other.” Jack had a much needed shower and slipped on a white one-piece suit bearing his name. He was an archaeologist; a very prominent one, although he would be the last to admit it. The authorities had certainly been very persistent in getting him to come to the moon, maybe very soon he would find out exactly why. Still, it would be nice to see an old friend after all these years. He remembered Dave from his college days.

  The Revelation

  Jack found his way to Dave’s office after taking a few wrong turns. Dave shook his hand and smiled when he entered, saying “It’s damn good to see you Jack. It’s been a long time.” Jack replied “Yes, it must be all of thirty years. How’d you get stuck up here Dave, did you upset somebody?” “Well I have to admit I actually applied for it!” replied Dave a little sheepishly. He went on “My wife and I decided to split up years ago, hardly any of my family are left and I can immerse myself in my work and forget everything.” “Now, I expect you’d like to know why I dragged you a quarter of a million miles away from Earth.” Dave quickly said feeling slightly deflated after baring his soul. He carefully removed a tray from a locker and placed it on the table in front of Jack.

  Lying in the tray was something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an electronics store; it was rectangular, six inches by eight inches and two inches deep and fully enclosed. It was made of a dark grey material, its texture strangely resembling a mixture of plastic and stone, with five rows of markings comprising of various symbols in groups of four on its face. Next to it was a pile of a hundred or more fragments apparently of the same material. “These were found on the edge of a crater six weeks ago during a survey. We’ve x-rayed the box from every possible angle; nothing is visible. It was as if it was completely empty.” Dave said frowning.

  Jack picked up the rectangular box and tried to judge the weight of it by hefting it in his hand. Dave immediately cautioned him saying “I’d rather you didn’t touch the symbols until we know what this thing is!” Jack put it back in the tray a little nervously, appreciating the need for care, and then his attention turned to the fragments. “Now this is more in my line of business.” Jack said as he looked at the heap of broken pieces.

  “That’s just what I was hoping. It’s my hunch that the box and the fragments are connected. We found them lying in the same place,” he continued “I’d like you to assemble them and see if we can’t make some sort of sense out of it. We have a workshop that you can use.” Dave picked up the tray and led Jack to a small workshop, saying “I know it’s small, but it’s got all the equipment in it you’ll ever need.” He left Jack looking in amazement at the variety of scientific equipment that had been installed in the tiny space available.

  After carefully putting the mysterious rectangular object to one side he used a compressed air puffer to blow the tinier dusty fragments away and separated the pieces for clearer identification. He managed to locate a corner section and used that as a starting point for the reconstruction of the artefact. About an hour later he had laid out a quarter of the pieces and noticed symbols appearing that exactly matched the ones on the other object. This was heartening, and he carried on with great enthusiasm until all the pieces fitted perfectly forming a tablet. The completed puzzle was then sprayed with an adhesive to hold it together.

  Now assembled, the tablet was about four by six inches by half inch thick. It was possible to lift it from the tray, as the adhesive had now set, making inspection considerably easier. For peace of mind he took several photographs of it in case it got damaged. It was time to try and translate the symbols. He scratched his head thinking he’d seen them somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place where it could have been.

  Dave Osbourne wandered into the workshop, saying hopefully “How are you getting on Jack, any progress?” “Take a look at this Dave, five rows of five symbols, but the first one on each row isn’t present on the other artefact!” said Jack looking pensive. “Seems possible it might be some sort of key.” suggested Dave, as he examined the symbols. Jack’s face lit up suddenly, realising what he meant, and replied “I see what you’re getting at; to perform function ‘X’ press buttons A B C D. But it’s the function that’s a mystery!”

  “Dave, these symbols look familiar. I’d like to go through some of my old files.” Jack said as he pulled a memory stick from his top pocket. Dave replied “Okay, no problem. I’ll have a computer installed in your quarters and leave you to it.” Saying this, he made a short call on his communicator and told Jack it would be ready in fifteen minutes.

  The Archives

  The computer was installed as Dave promised, and Jack wasted no time plugging in his sixty four gigabyte memory stick. Just about everything he’d done was stored on the stick; photos and notes taken from every archaeological dig that he’d been involved in were available in the blink of an eye. “Marvellous stuff!” he thought, remembering his younger days when it all had to be carried around in several cardboard boxes.

  He was studying some images from various digs when it all fell into place. The symbols weren’t a perfect match but pretty damn close when compared to each other. He had made several translations years ago, so it wasn’t too much of a problem to establish their meaning. Scanning through his notes he found a couple of pages referring to the markings that were missing on the rectangular artefact but present on the reconstructed tablet. One of the symbols he clearly recognised as meaning ‘Home’, and then, looking carefully down the list he saw another one that had the unmistakable symbol for ‘Sun’. He decided he had better reveal his findings to Dave. “Jack, what do you make of this?” said Dave flabbergasted. “Well, there are two definite references here, as you can see, but as to what they might imply, I haven’t a notion. I’d really like to see where you found the artefacts; there might be some clues that have been overlooked” insisted Jack. It was agreed that they would investigate the site further.

  Moon Walk

  They both suited up and jumped in an electric buggy equipped with huge balloon tyres that could cope with most of the six mile journey over the rugged terrain, except for the last eight hundred yards; then they would have to walk. Jack wasn’t particularly looking forward to the walk, as the searing heat from the sun’s rays would probably make the pressure suit quite uncomfortable. He would soon discover his
fears were unfounded as the latest models were fitted with cooling units.

  They stopped abruptly in front of a rocky outcropping which was obviously impossible for the vehicle to traverse. Climbing out, Dave pointed to a gap that was just big enough to squeeze through without tearing the pressure suits on the jagged rocks. The going was slow and laborious at one sixth gravity as they lumbered on. Then Jack heard over his suit radio, “You see that flag? That’s where we’re headed.” Another five minutes and they had reached the site where the artefacts had been discovered.

  A thorough search was made of the local area, which was sometimes difficult because of the shadows of the rocks that blotted the surface. Nothing was found, and they were beginning to think they were wasting their time when Dave heard a beep on his suit speaker. He immediately called Jack on the radio, “Did you hear that too?” Jack turned slowly and looked at him, replying “Yes I did. What was it?” “That, my friend, was the Geiger counter! It seems we have some radioactivity close by!” Dave replied, somewhat surprised, and added. “Actuate the eye level viewing screen and the source