A Drink Of Starlight

Moon Base Luna Alpha, Lunar South Pole, September 22, 2055:

David locks the clasps to his helmet ensuring the airseal is in place with a hiss. A quick run around his suit with his tactile sense gloves to make sure all the bells and whistles are functioning. He gives a thumbs up to the camera and faces the vault door. As the doors to the lunar surface slide open some dust blows gently away from the slight pressure left over in the vault. Man I’ve been up here for a year and this never ceases to amaze me, He thinks to himself as his boot makes its first imprint in the soil. As he flips the switch to turn his helmet light on and takes a look around his helmet comms, which consist of spatial sound speakers, an internal microphone for speaking and several external microphones for hearing the surrounding environment, come to life.

“Quake, this is Luna Command, do you read me?” The voice of a woman asks.

“Yeah I can hear you LC, crystal clear.” David replies, “Quake is a little on the nose for a callsign don’t you think Sabrina?”

An audible sigh comes over the speakers, “I don’t make the callsigns David, no more names over the radio, I don’t want to be reprimanded again.”

“That’s fair, headed to the rover now.”

David Salavar is an infrastructure engineer for moon base Luna Alpha, the first of Earth’s two colonies, set up as a pitstop for future inter solar system travel plans. Last night there was a particularly strong moonquake prompting David ‘Quake’s’ dispatch. His mission today was to inspect the external infrastructure of the colony for damage that may have been caused and not detected by the sensors. He walks over to the rover parking and opens the door to the closest one.

“Alright, am I clear to take R25, Luna Command?” He asks as he takes a seat behind the steering wheel.

“You’re clear, R25 active per your request.”

“Quake in R25 leaving staging now, I’ll keep you posted.”

David pulled the rover out of the lot and began his route along the outside of the colony facility. The dome itself houses five thousand people who perform various tasks around the networked facility. There are labs connected by tube-like tunnels at differing distances that will also need checked but the inhabited building takes priority. As he makes his round he uses the suits cameras to project to the built in screen and zoom in to focus on different sections then zoom out to his regular field of view again. After a thorough trip around the dome David is satisfied that nothing is amiss.

“Quake to Luna Command, hab dome inspection back with satisfactory results, no damage observed.”  He updates.

“Noted for your report, thank you Quake.” The response comes in.

“I’ll head to Drill-1 first and check each outer facility concentrically clockwise starting now.”

“Copy, please inform when you get to Drill-1”

“Will do.”

Several facilities checked with fortunately no surprises, David drives up towards the rim of the Shackleton Crater. As he reaches the top of the rim he slows down to a crawl, the facility located in the crater is the furthest from the dome and is known for periodic dead times for communications by radio due to the crater walls.

“Luna Command, I’m headed into Shack to check on the Green Room.” David called to be sure his location was known.

“Got it, going into Shack.” Sabrina called back.

The Green Room is the garden facility and is the largest of the outer facilities. The walls of the crater ensure that the vegetables' access to sunlight is properly regulated while using as little power as necessary. Man the guy who figured out how to use so little power to grow our food is a genius, David grins at himself. On his way down the inner wall he spots a strange formation he’s never seen before on the far side of the crater. He uses his helmet display to zoom in on the black spot.  He gasps.

“Luna Command, are you seeing this?” He asks excitedly.

“Yes, I see it, what is it? Why is it shaped like that? Those lines are too perfect.”

He sighed relieved that the radio and tracking functions were working properly today. “I know, I’m going over for a better look.” As he passes Green Room he makes a mental note that he still needs to check the other side for any damage. The short drive feels like an eternity as his mind races trying to understand what he’s seeing. After 10 minutes he pulls in front of a massive square hole in the side of the crater. Ruble that seems to have broken up and fallen lies at the entrance. Nothing can be seen inside, complete and total darkness starts at the threshold.

“Luna Command, why can’t I see inside even a little? Some light should go in at least a bit right?”

“Y-yes it should.” Sabrina was audibly shaken on the other side of the radio.

“Ok then, I’m going to get out of the rover and check it out.”

“Please be careful David.”

“I will be.”

David walked up to the threshold and reached his hand in first, as his hand disappeared he was surprised that it felt warmer inside than it should have. With a sharp inhale he stepped into the black.

After his step David stood frozen in complete dark, he moved his head from side to side and all he saw was pure darkness, he couldn't see the entrance anymore either. After 30 or so seconds he stepped backwards and back into the light of the lunar surface.

“Command, I had to step out, I couldn’t see anything, not even where I had come from.” He said over the radio, his voice trembling.

“Your tracker vanished while you were in there, I don’t like this David.” Sabrina worried.

“I don’t either, I can’t investigate this alone, we’ll need a team, I’m headed back, mark my current location on the ma-” he cut off, as he was looking into the dark he started to see a faint red glow. “Hold on, something is happening.”

“What’s going on? We still just see black on your feed.”

“That shouldn’t be, you don’t see the glow?” He asked.

“Not even a little bit.”

“The chamber inside is illuminating, Sabrina it’s massive in there.” David continued watching as the full room became visible. Inside there appeared to be smaller building-like structures. He stepped back in and felt something different this time. Is this Earth gravity? It’s definitely not moon. He walked in further looking around trying to take in as much as possible. “Command, can you hear me? Test, test. Sabrina?” Silence followed. He checked the readings on his helmet display and saw the comm icon flashing angrily red at him. Oh right she said it’s as if I disappeared the first time I came in. He looked at the rest of the indicators on his helmet display. Suit switched from solar power to battery power, oxygen at eighty eight percent, atmosphere dry but more humid than outside. Air outside of suit, breathable. He froze then looked back at the entrance, he could see right out this time, the rover sitting right where he left it. What the hell. As he approached the nearest structure he noted the architecture then thought it odd that he was noting it as architecture. This was not like anything he had ever seen before. The entire building looked to be carved from a black crystalline material with faint traces of red throughout. David stepped up to a portion of the wall that was slightly inset, he looked around trying to find a crease or anything that looked less uniform than the rest of the smooth face of the wall. After a while of looking and not seeing anything he reached out and tapped the wall with the knuckle of his glove. It gave off an odd hollow sound. After nothing happened he felt safe then reached out and placed his hand on the flat surface of the inset wall. It felt smooth like glass and was somewhat warm. A red light started to glow tracing the outline of his hand, he pulled it away quickly. There was a rumble from all around him, he looked around panicked. The floor was beginning to recede being replaced by a red liquid. The portion of the floor that he was standing on stayed leaving a straight path back to the entrance a couple feet wide. As he stood dumbfounded, the square of floor he was standing slowly began to drop. David shook his head, turned back towards where he came and sprinted.

He didn’t look back out of fear of slowing down and falling in the moat, as he neared the entrance he jumped into a dive. As he crossed the threshold David tucked into a roll and spun to get the entrance back in view. As he feared the path that had stayed for him was now gone, ripples in the liquid undulated against each other where he had just stepped moments before.

“David! David, can you hear me?” His radio roared to life, Sabrina’s refreshing voice calling for him.

“I can hear you, Sabrina, this is far above anything we’ve ever seen,” David responded through labored breaths.

“What did you see in there?”

“Sabrina, this changes everything, we have proof we aren’t alone,  I can’t believe that I’m the one saying this Jesus, make the call. But this stays with as few people as possible until we get directed otherwise.”

In the control room, Sabrina reaches for a locked compartment on the counter. She flips her binder to the page labeled ‘Contingency-101’. She puts the code into the pin pad unlocking the box and picks up the phone.

“My name is Sabrina Long, unique identifier 505503, something has been discovered in the Shackleton Crater, David Salavar is the discovery agent, only he and I are aware at this time. It’s something not of Earth, of that we are positive.”

Bailahn’s eyes shot open, the dual pupil’s surrounded by oblong iris’ of his eyes expanding and contracting as they adjust to the light level of the room, ”Ah, the Terrans have discovered the outpost, this war may just become more interesting yet.”