Moon Wreck: First Contact (2 page)

Stepping over to the controls on the small instrument panel, Jason checked the dials. Power was operational, oxygen supplies were topped out, and the onboard guidance computer was flashing a warning light. Just like the computers in the lander, the one on the rover was experiencing problems with the mysterious transmission.

“Same as the lander,” muttered Greg noticing the blinking light. “I guess it was to be expected.”

“Yea, same as the lander,” Jason replied. “But everything else checks out.”

“So what do we do now?” Greg asked perplexed. “How do we navigate without the guidance computer?”

The computer had a three dimensional map of the lunar surface programmed into its memory. Normally all they would have to do was plug in their destination and the rover would drive them to it.

“I guess we do it the old fashion way,” Jason replied. It didn’t seem like they could catch a break. “We have detailed maps which show the lunar surface. We can use them.”

Greg looked toward the south. Navigating would not be easy. There were several craters and small hills between them and the source of the interference. Without the navigational computer, the trip was bound to take longer.

He hated leaving the safety of the lander. At least inside of it, they had some comforts. Food, water, air, power, and they could take off their spacesuits. The lunar rover had two seats and hookups so they could run their spacesuits off the rover’s power system. There was also a small air recycling system that could regenerate their air.

“Let’s go inside, get a little rest, eat and then we can head toward the source of the transmission,” Jason suggested. He knew they needed to be doing something to take their minds off their precarious situation.

“That source is approximately thirty miles away,” Greg responded still looking toward the south. “Even with the rover that’s going to be a long trip.” He kicked his foot at the lunar surface and watched the lunar dust fly up. “There’s an awful lot of that damn dust everywhere. I hope it doesn’t screw up the rover.”

“All the moving parts are shielded against the dust,” Jason reminded Greg as he walked back over to the side of the lander where the open hatch was waiting.

“Are we doing the right thing?” asked Greg stopping just below the hatch and looking at Jason. “There’s still a chance the lander could be spotted by Earth based telescopes. They could already be in the process of sending a supply drone.”

Jason paused. This was something he had already considered. “Possibly,” he admitted. “But why put all of our eggs in one basket? If we can find the source of the interference, we can easily contact Earth. The telescopes on Earth might have a hard time spotting the lander. After all, it’s lying on its side at the edge of this small crater. That will make it more difficult to see. We’re also over fifty miles away from our planned landing site. Even if they can spot us from Earth, it may be days before they do so.”

“You’re right,” Greg admitted with a heavy sigh. “Our best bet is to find the source of the interference. Let’s get back inside the lander.”

With a little help, Jason climbed into the open hatch and then leaned out to pull Greg up. Soon the two were back inside the lander. After getting their spacesuits off, Jason settled down in his acceleration couch and pulled down a detailed map of the moon. He had spent several hours earlier pouring over the map calculating the most likely position for the source of the interference. A red x was marked in a crater approximately thirty miles away in a southerly direction.

Jason turned to Greg. “You don’t have to go,” he reminded him. “I can handle this by myself.”

“Yea, stay here in this lander alone and I will go space happy,” spoke Greg shaking his head. “I would rather take my chances with you. Besides what would your sister say if something happened to you and I was safe back here in the lander?”

Jason smiled at Greg. His sister definitely wouldn’t be happy about that. If they made it back to Earth, Jason knew he would get a long I told you so lecture from his sister. If they made it back, that lecture would be worth it.

The two settled down, ate a light meal, and drank some of their precious water. Then lay quietly on their couches both lost in their own thoughts.

Greg finally stood back up and made his way over to his spacesuit. “No point in delaying this.”

“Your right,” responded Jason moving over to help Greg put on his cumbersome spacesuit. Once Greg’s suit was on, Greg helped Jason with his.

A few minutes later, they were both back out on the lunar surface. Jason took his seat in the rover and Greg climbed in beside him. They had both spent many long hours training in the rover in the Arizona desert. Their training was now about to be put to the test.

“Let’s go,” said Greg buckling the harness that secured him inside the rover.

Jason pressed the accelerator and the rover began to move. Jason drove slowly at first trying to get the feel of driving in the light lunar gravity. He had to be careful to avoid small boulders and the occasional shallow crater. After a few minutes, Jason began to feel more at ease driving the rover over the desolate lunar surface.

“Just like driving a car,” quipped Jason trying to sound light hearted. He knew that Greg was still very concerned about his family.

“Without shocks,” groaned Greg as they hit a small rock.

-

For several hours, Jason drove the rover across the rough lunar surface. He carefully picked his way between the boulders and small hills that blocked their path. After each detour, he always came back to a bearing of due south.

“What do you think we will find?” asked Greg breaking the silence. “Do you think the probe was sent from a country or a rival company?”

“I don’t know,” Jason responded as he drove around a small boulder stirring up more lunar dust. “It just doesn’t make a lot of sense if you really think about it.”

“What do you mean?” asked Greg looking over at Jason feeling puzzled.

Jason hesitated as he tried to organize what he wanted to say without worrying Greg too much. “I can’t see the probe being from another country. It could cause some serious international problems if it was ever discovered that our landing had been sabotaged. I’m not sure any of the ones wanting to reach the moon and Mars would risk that.”

“What about another company?” asked Greg agreeing with Jason’s assessment of other countries probably not being involved. “Do you have any in mind that might want to take us out in order to get one of the contracts?”

“A couple possibly,” responded Jason thinking about the half dozen rival companies that were competing for part of the lucrative space contracts. “There are only two that might be willing to take such a risk. What surprises me is that no one detected the probe being launched.”

“It could have been launched from a ship out on the ocean,” suggested Greg trying to think of how a launch could have been accomplished in secrecy.

“Possibly,” Jason said. “Even then, it should have been detected. Someone should have noticed. There are a number of tracking stations that should have picked up an ocean launch.”

“Or they didn’t mention it,” added Greg knowing that money sometimes had a very long reach. “Someone could have been paid to look the other direction.”

“It’s a possibility,” Jason replied as he drove the rover up the slope of a small hill and then back down the other side. So far, the rover was responding very well.

-

Three hours later, Jason brought the rover to a stop at the base of a long ridge. He looked to his left and then to his right seeing that the ridge extended as far as his eyes could see.

“I don’t think the rover can climb over that,” commented Greg frowning. “It’s too steep.”

“Way too steep,” Jason replied in agreement. Everything had been going too smooth. He should have expected to run into some type of obstacle.

He took out the map of the lunar surface for this area of the moon. It was difficult to unfold with his thick insulated gloves. He finally succeeded in unfolding the map. He gazed at what he thought was their location. The suspected location of the interference was in a crater just on the other side of the obstructing ridge. He had noticed the ridge while still in the lunar lander, but he had hoped to find a way to cross it with the rover.

“Looks as if we’re walking,” muttered Greg reaching forward and unbuckling his safety harness. They had come too far to turn back now.

“Make sure your oxygen tank and power supply is topped off,” spoke Jason agreeing with Greg’s assessment. They would have to walk from here. If the map was correct and he had properly pinpointed the location of the interference, they had about a mile to go.

Jason reached forward and unbuckled his own safety harness. As he did so, he checked his oxygen supplies and suit power levels. Both were topped out and should last for six hours, there was also a two hour emergency supply if needed.

The two men exited the rover and walked over to the base of the ridge. It wasn’t too terribly steep. However, the rover wasn’t designed to climb such a slope. Being careful, the two began their ascent. They had to watch for loose rocks and small patches of lunar dust. Some of the dust was several inches thick in places. More than once, they dislodged small stones and caused patches of dust to begin sliding down the ridge. Due to the low gravity on the moon, everything moved as if it were in slow motion.

Jason was the first to reach the top of the ridge. He turned and grabbed Greg’s hand pulling him up the last several feet. Then they both turned and looked down at the crater in front of them trying to spot the probe. From the top of the ridge, Jason knew it should be easily visible.

“Oh my God!” Greg spoke his eyes growing very wide. He felt a cold chill run up and down his back. “It can’t be!”

Jason looked down at the crater and the wreckage strung across it. It was a crash site. A crash site that extended for nearly a mile with mangled wreckage everywhere. It ended at the far side of the crater. Jason felt stunned by what was in the crater.

On the far side of the crater were the remains of a very large spacecraft. Only the front section of the spacecraft seemed to be intact. The rest was scattered across the crater. Jason estimated that the intact front section must be nearly four hundred feet long and nearly two hundred feet wide.

“That wasn’t built on Earth,” Greg spoke quietly. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. This was the last thing he had expected to find. Hell, he hadn’t even considered this possibility.

“No it wasn’t,” replied Jason wondering what to do next. It had taken them nearly forty minutes to climb to the top of the ridge. He figured it would take another twenty minutes to climb down and about thirty more to reach the main part of the wreckage.

“I wonder how long it’s been here?” asked Greg trying to estimate how big the spacecraft had been from all the wreckage scattered in the crater.

“For quite some time,” responded Jason turning to look at Greg. “A crash like this and all the dust it would have stirred up would have been spotted from Earth. For all we know this thing could have been here for hundreds of years or even longer.”

“What do we do now?” Greg asked. Exploring a crashed alien spaceship wasn’t in his job description. But did they have any other option? “That ship must still have an active power source and some type of working transmitter on board that’s causing all the interference.”

“We have no choice,” answered Jason trying to sound calmer than he felt. “We go down there and see if anyone’s home.”

“You think someone might have survived that crash?” Greg asked taken aback at the thought. Greg didn’t know if he was prepared for a first contact scenario.

“I doubt it,” replied Jason looking back at the wreckage. “This was a very bad crash. I don’t think anyone survived. That transmission didn’t start until after we began our descent. It might be some type of emergency beacon that was activated when our lander came within range.”

“An emergency beacon!” Greg said worriedly. “I wonder who they are signaling.”

“Probably no one,” said Jason trying to sound confident. “That wrecks been here for too long. If someone had been searching for it they are long gone.”

“I hope so,” responded Greg gazing down into the crater. Here they were stranded on the moon with a wrecked alien spacecraft. Could the situation get any worse?

“Let’s go,” said Jason starting down the steep slope. “The sooner we get there the better.”

Greg followed Jason down the slope. Every so often, he glanced up at the alien shipwreck. He felt an icy chill run up and down his back at the thought of what they might find. They had just learned a startling fact. One most astronomers had always predicted, they were not alone in the universe.

Chapter Two

Jason and Greg quickly descended the steep slope being careful not to trip or stumble. They had to work themselves carefully around boulders and avoid the steeper areas. Their protective bulky spacesuits made this difficult, and they had to be careful not to trip and fall. Neither of them wanted to roll uncontrollably down the slope and risk tearing or damaging their spacesuits. They finally reached the bottom of the ridge and headed off for the first large piece of wreckage. The wreckage was about one hundred yards from the base of the ridge.

“It looks like the ship came in low over the ridge and then hit here,” stated Jason glancing at a shallow depression in the ground. “It was a rough landing.”

The depression hadn’t been that noticeable from the top of the ridge. From the crater floor, it was obvious the spacecraft had struck the crater floor with some force and then slid all the way across coming to a stop nearly a mile away at the far wall of the crater. The force of the impact had caused tremendous damage to the ship.

“This definitely happened a long time ago,” commented Greg gazing at the wreckage and the indentation in the ground. He had an advanced degree in geology and several other sciences. “When the ship struck it must have sent a cloud of dust high above the lunar surface. When the dust fell back down, it covered everything in a thin camouflaging layer. That’s why this wreck isn’t visible from Earth.”