Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

“I don’t know about this, Craig. Maybe we should wait—”

Julie never finished her sentence. The ground behind the rover erupted in a cloud of dust as the lunar soil was violently ejected outward and momentarily obscured the rover’s lights, dimming the entire area and temporarily blinding them from seeing anything.

“Jesus,” Craig said, his voice alarmed.

“What the hell just happened?” Julie asked, now thinking that their seating arrangement was no longer ideal as she was facing away from the action, unable to see what was happening just behind their rover.

“I think I just rang their doorbell,” Craig came back.

“Well, next time give me more warning. I nearly pissed my suit up here,” Julie said, her voice conveying her annoyance.

The dust settled, and Julie couldn’t see what was happening till Craig spoke. “Ah, Jules, you may want to notify Houston about this.”

Julie could only see a dark area at the base of the obelisk through her limited view via her side mirror. She really could have used a rear camera. Why didn’t they have one that would feed live and not just take pictures? “What is it?”

“Like I said,” Craig’s voice said, “I think I rang the doorbell. There is a stairwell back here. What do you want to do?”

Julie paused for a moment before keying her mike. “Houston, this is Blackjack . Be advised that there is a portal to the base of the obelisk. We are going EVA to investigate.”

“Roger, Blackjack , authorization for EVA granted. Be advised you have sixteen minutes TOS. Be safe. Houston out.”

“Ah, what did you mean by we?” Craig asked.

“Let’s see what’s inside. Are you suited up?” Julie asked.

“Same as you, got everything except my gloves and helmet on,” Craig said.

Julie knew it was easier to operate the rover and for Craig the robotic arms without gloves on, and of course, no one wanted to wear a helmet unless absolutely necessary. The rover was double compartmented so that either of them could exit the rover without exposing the other cabin to the vacuum of space. This is why they had to use the intercom system when communicating one with another.

“All right, I’ll go first. You keep an eye on the opening and let me know if you see anything,” Julie said, pulling her helmet on over her wireless headset and securing it and then reaching for her gloves.

Once suited, she hit the pressurization button, forcing her cabin to evacuate the mini atmosphere that she was breathing into a small storage tank. Once her internal cabin pressure dropped to zero, equaling the outside lack of pressure, she opened her side door and stepped out onto the lunar surface.

The rover was now coated in the grey lunar dust as it was still settling, and Julie walked to the rear, seeing Craig for the first time in a couple hours as he gave her a thumbs-up sign with his left arm, and using his right, he raised the robotic arm so she could walk underneath it. She saw what looked like a dark ramp that protruded a half foot above the lunar surface. The ramp-way was pitch black, much like the obelisk, and she couldn’t see how far down it went.

“You actually going inside?” Craig asked, his voice now sounding perfectly clear as there was a lack of interference with their signal.

Julie looked up from the ramp to the large diamond shape that no longer glowed nor pulsated. It seemed inert now. She turned to look at Craig, who was finishing latching his gloves to his suit, his helmet already on. She stepped onto the ramp-way, not waiting for Craig to exit the rover. The ramp-way suddenly became illuminated from small white glowing orbs set just above it at ankle-level height. “Now that’s just spooky.”

There was a pause before Craig spoke, touching her on the shoulder. “Did you do that?”

“Jesus, Craig,” she said, turning to look at him. With the vacuum of space, there was no sound transmitted as he exited the rover and approached her, startling her with his touch. “The lights came on when I stepped on the ramp.”

“Sorry, Jules, I was watching my own step getting out and didn’t see them go on. What now?”

Julie looked at her chronometer on the outside of her wrist showing it approaching the fourteen-minute mark. “I’m going in. We have little time. Are you coming with me or staying here?”

Craig stepped to her side to peer down the ramp-way and then looked around the area. “We should both go, but I can’t bring myself to leave them like this.” He appeared to nod ever so imperceptibly at the prone, unmoving figure of one of the Russian cosmonauts.

Julie tried to nod back, the bulkier helmet and suit not conveying body motion very well. “All right, you do what you must up here. If you don’t hear from me in five, come get me.”

“Right. Just stay in contact while you’re down there,” Craig said, walking and half hopping in the much lighter gravity over to the prone figure.

Julie turned back and took a deep breath, stepping completely onto the ramp-way. It felt more than solid enough. In fact, it felt as if it had one of those no-slip safety floors that she had seen around the NASA pool training area. She walked slowly at first, feeling the light effect of the reduced gravity and not wanting to propel her helmeted head into the ramp-way’s ceiling.

“I’m reaching what looks like a door—” she began, and then gasped again, startled as the mass of black separated and revealed what looked to be a large chamber with a center console and illuminated depressions and icons all around the outer edge. “Definitely spooky now. A door just opened and I’m going in.”

“Roger that, Jules, be careful,” Craig said over the radio.

Julie Monroe stepped into the chamber, wondering if she would be stuck there, and turned to look at the doorframe to see if there were any symbols or icons she could recognize. She practically held her breath waiting to see if the doors would close. They didn’t.

She turned back and scanned the room and then stepped toward the center console. She reached it in five steps and looked at the flat console top and the strange markings glowing on a panel facing her, a small, flat, clear glass slide sticking out above what looked to be a glowing green icon. She decided she would press the small glowing green depression and reached for it and then realized that just because it was green didn’t mean it was safe. In fact, it could mean the opposite.

Her hand froze above it, her gloved, rubber-tipped finger hovering near it when suddenly the console lit up and the most detailed, most beautiful hologram she had ever seen was displayed above the flat console top. There, in exquisite detail, was the unmistakable shape of a double-sided helix twirling slowly in a circle pattern, the universal symbol for life itself, DNA.

“My God,” Julie said.

NASA Space Center

Houston, Texas

In the near future, Day 48

“What did you send them?” Vice President Lee asked from the floor of Houston’s control center.

Rock nodded and Marge spoke. “The alien signal now appears to be half the genetic code for Homo sapiens. We simply took the other strand, coded it to match their pulse rate and frequency, and shot it back at them.”

An aide tried to give the vice president his secure radio phone, but the man waved it away. “That’s it? All this time it was a biological message?”

Marge looked to Rock, and he knew he’d have to run interference since he authorized the return signal in the first place. “Not a message, Mr. Vice President, instead it was more of a query, a way to ascertain if we were of the same genetic coding or not.” Seeing the confusion on the man’s face, Rock explained, “It was more like a password on a computer system than anything else.”