New Hope: Book 1
19

The four Moon walkers exited the vehicle, which was parked just meters from the edge of the crater, into which they were to lower themselves over a rather steep wall using a cable winch. That was a good and accurate landing, she thought. Our old vehicle wouldn’t have ever managed it.

“Remind me whose idea it was to get down by rope and not find a gentler slope?” asked Julius.

“You said yourself the radiation reaches us here. The closest gentle descent we could take without using the cables is several miles away,” said lieutenant Lassiter. “We don’t have time for that. The winch will do the work for us. We can attach to it one by one; it will lower us down into the crater and safely pull us up when we return,” he added.

“Is this a good moment to mention that I have a fear of heights?” asked the sergeant.

“Seriously?” Julius and Ellie replied at the same time. “You’re on the Moon, 200 thousand miles above the surface of Earth. Now you warn us about your fear of heights? How did you even manage to get here, to the Moon, I mean?” asked Julius in surprise.

“On the way from Earth, during the launch, I closed my eyes. It helped for a while. Besides, it was dark because it was nighttime when we were pretending to launch a satellite into orbit. After that I just avoided the windows,” he said. “Besides, as long as I have some floor beneath my feet, I don’t feel all that bad even on a plane. But hanging off a wall is another story. But alright, I’ll manage. I’ll close my eyes like before and see you down there,” he joked, although his face paled almost like the vertical wall he was to take to the bottom.

Setting up the rack with the winch took only a few minutes, though Ellie was glancing at her radiation indicator nervously throughout the entire process. She was relieved to see it was still green.

Julius watched the lieutenant at work on the winch. “You’re going to pull your neck muscles,” he joked, when he noticed the female astronaut’s nervous behavior.

“I know. It’s the nerves,” she replied. “The knowledge I’m about to enter the Moon’s death zone of my own free will doesn’t exactly bring optimistic thoughts. Looking at the indicator helps me draw my thoughts away from all that radiation that awaits us down there,” she sighed.

“Ready, we can go,” interrupted John, signaling first to his subordinate to attach himself to the cable line and start dropping. At the bottom, he would secure the drop of the other team members.

“Yes, sir!” he replied automatically. Then, with terror all over his face, after making the sign of the cross, he quietly added: “Our father...” He connected his harness to the cable of the winch professionally and easily, checked the tightness, and turned his back to the crater, facing his companions. He took a step back and quickly disappeared off the edge.

“Ellie, your turn,” said lieutenant Lassiter a moment later.

“Don’t we have to wait until the Sergeant lets us know he’s made it to the bottom?” asked the astronaut in surprise, trying to delay the unavoidable.

“No need. Like I said, the cable can hold a small elephant so there’s no point waiting. The way down is very long, it’s almost a thousand feet of a cliff so the sooner we begin, the less time we spend exposed to the radiation,” he replied.

“You will go right after Ellie, and I’ll go last and secure the device in a blocked state,” said Lassiter.

A moment later, Ellie repeated what the sergeant had done minutes ago. John quickly inspected the connection and gave Ellie the thumbs up. With her heart in her mouth, Ellie tried not to turn toward the canyon or look down. Even though she didn’t suffer from a fear of heights, the prospect of hanging on a cable at the height of the Empire State Building could make anyone’s blood run cold.

It was Julius’ turn right after Ellie. He connected to the cable with military skill, turned around, and dropped down. Lieutenant Lassiter was the last to disappear in the abyss of the cold and dark canyon.

Once everybody had reached the bottom, the astronauts disconnected their harnesses one by one and started walking in the direction indicated by the satellite map. The bottom of the crater had not seen sunlight in billions of years. It was pitch black. It would have been impossible to travel there without the strong lights of the suits.

They walked in complete silence, focusing strongly on every step. Only the accelerated breathing of the four courageous Moon walkers and recurring cracks of the Geiger counter could be heard in the radio headsets. The radiation was indeed noticeably higher than at the edge of the crater and it was slowly coming up to 2.5 kilorads. It’s not that much compared to what’s further ahead, thought Ellie, again looking at her green plate on her arm, but even this dose at long exposure can end badly. We have to hurry.

Small rocks were spread around at the bottom of the crater and around the mission participants, and every step threw clouds of moon dust into the air. The astronauts’ headlights made it look as if they were wandering through a desert sandstorm.

“According to my indicators, we’re around 1200 feet away from the target,”

Informed lieutenant Lassiter.

“It’s strange, this whole installation was supposed to be lit up like a Christmas tree,” said the sergeant. “Where is everything? We should be able to see something by now.”

“Yes and no...” said Ellie. “If we were on Earth, or on any other planet with any atmosphere, then the light would be dispersed and we would see photons escaping the source, even if we couldn’t see it directly,” she continued. “But we’re on the Moon, and there’s practically no atmosphere here. At least not enough to disperse anything. If there’s any obstacle between you and the light source, say a rocky wall, you could never guess anything is shining behind it,” she said. “Even in the middle of the black night.”

“Oh, I see. I gained most of my professional experience as a soldier during missions on Earth, where you never really had to wonder about things like this. Light is dispersed and it’s always visible at night. So much for my knowledge of theories...” replied the sergeant, embarrassed by his ignorance. “I regret I asked,” he said.

Just as he said these words, the whole group was just coming out from behind a high, rocky wall. What they saw in front of them was unforgettable. In the recess of the terrain stood the edifice of an enormous building made of a dark green material resembling malachite. The building overshadowed everything by its magnitude and evoked a stunning feeling of respect. Its walls were decorated with shining symbols, bringing to mind the cuneiform writing of the ancient Sumers. These symbols seemed to flow over the surface of the entire building, majestically changing their positions, as if telling the ancient history of this place.

All the members of the expedition stopped dead in their tracks, unable to make any meaningful sound. The silence was interrupted by Ellie:

“Wow. In Giza, archaeologists are in dispute whether the pyramids were built by aliens from another planet, but this view doesn’t seem to leave much room for interpretations...” She was overwhelmed and hypnotized by the scene before their eyes. “Here we have an ancient building on the Moon. However ludicrous that sounds!” she added.

“And I think we also have the source of the radiation. My Geiger counter has just ended its scale and told us to run,” said lieutenant Lassiter with delight and awe at the same time. “How are your devices? Your plates? Check them, quick,” he said

“My counter’s the same. The plate is a little paler than before but still green,” said Julius.

“Same here,” said Ellie and Sergeant Holmes at the same time.

The structure was several dozen meters high which, together with a diameter much greater than the length of a football stadium, gave a substantial volume. “This is humongous!” said Julius with disbelief in his eyes. Seeing small artifacts that are, in theory, of alien origin, was one thing. Seeing something of this scale... That was a whole new experience. It evoked quite some respect.

“Listen,” interrupted lieutenant Lassiter. “I know all this is shining nicely, but we’re not at some Christmas fair. We have an important task to do,” he said. “Remember that every minute could be worth the weight of life. Let’s get to it and look for some entry,” he said.

The whole group started heading toward the huge structure, stepping carefully and looking around, relishing in the extraordinariness of the place. Ellie was so fascinated by the shapes flowing over the smooth surface of the facade that it wasn’t until she started to feel weak, she realized she was still holding her breath. After thinking a while, she touched one of the illuminating symbols and it stopped and started to emit a stronger red light.

“Hey, look!” said Ellie to her companions, who were all looking for some crevice or way to get inside the object. “Something happened when I touched one of the symbols,” she said.

“Strange, nothing happened when I touched some of them,” said Julius.

“Everyone touch a symbol, quick!” said Ellie. “I have to see something.”

The members of the expedition, looking a little awkward in their large suits, leaned their hands on the wall of the object. There were no effects for three of the astronauts. The symbols didn’t budge. However, the symbols under Dr. Johnson’s hand all lit up in red, making it clear that the building reacted to the woman’s presence. And only hers.

“Dr. Yeager mentioned that she thinks the alien technology reacts to some genetic component,” said Ellie in thought but not surprised, “now I have no doubt there’s something to it. I don’t know if it’s DNA that’s the culprit, or maybe the structure knows that I had contact with the artifact, but we know two things for sure,” she concluded.

“What do we know?” asked lieutenant Lassiter, intrigued.

“One, we still don’t know how to get inside,” she replied, grinning. “But on the other hand, we know the builders of this structure like colorful inscriptions on facades at least as much as advertisers at Times Square,” she laughed.

Her colleagues laughed but the amusement was short-lived. Time was running out and they still had to at least try to get inside.

“Should we use some octanitrocubane?” asked the sergeant.

“Octani-what?” sputtered Ellie, not being able to repeat the name.

“Octanitrocubane. The most powerful non-nuclear tactic explosive. We usually use it in excavation and mining works here on the Moon. The explosion can throw objects up into orbit,” replied the sergeant, excited like a child at Christmas. “It was discovered more than 20 years ago, but its production has been a difficult process until now. We didn’t have the right technology, so this compound existed only in theory. Dr. Yeager mentioned, though, that our eggheads have developed a production technology before the scientific article about it was printed,” he said with pride. “You know, the advantage of several decades against technology on Earth and the fact that nobody can see series of explosions on the dark side of the Moon makes it easier to develop things that would certainly evoke inconvenient questions.”

“And you’ve got this octa... nitro...” Julius tried to repeat it.

“... Cubane, yes, I’ve got it with me. It’s the standard explosive we use. A cube of just quarter of an inch could make this crater visibly larger, so I imagine that a small piece of that will be able to make a hole in this... shell,” said the sergeant, knocking on the facade of the building with his glove for effect.

“We’ve circled the building a couple of times now and we can’t see anything that could indicate any entrance,” said lieutenant Lassiter. “Maybe it’s worth a try? he asked. What could go wrong in the middle of this radioactive field?” he asked mockingly.

“What if the installation has defensive mechanisms? Lasers, plasma cannons, force fields, God knows what else?” asked Julius.

While the three men contemplated using an explosive load to create an entrance to the building, Ellie seem baffled by the familiarity of everything. Not so much in terms of the location but by the symbols which seemed to want to be put together into some inscription. Suddenly, Ellie felt somehow inspired and, like in a trans, without a word, she approached the wall and touched a few of the symbols in order. When the men realized that something was happening, they turned to look at their female colleague, who was pressing sequences of symbols as if hypnotized. When she touched them, each of the images subsequently lit up bright red and started to slide. They looked like they were moving toward a common center of gravity, and when the number of symbols reached their critical value, all the letters created a circle.

“Ellie, what are you...” Julius started but John touched his shoulder to signal that they should perhaps wait and see what it all leads to. He didn’t think they were in any immediate danger, and Ellie seemed to know what she was doing. “Let her finish what she started,” he said calmly.

Julius nodded, equally hypnotized, following Ellie’s faster and increasingly efficient hand movements on the wall of the construct. Ellie entered the last sequence in a flash, then the shining symbols formed three concentric circles, ignited in bright, blinding light, making them cover their eyes or turn away. Then, the light just went out.

The entire building went out for a moment, along with them. The black of the night flooded the recess in which the construct stood, enshrouding everything and everyone there in complete darkness. The momentary blindness forced the astronauts to turn on the lights of their suits again. When the drape of darkness was lifted, the three men froze.

Ellie had disappeared into thin air.

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