Danilo Clementoni - The Writer

"That’ll be the gamma waves" retorted Azakis, repaying his friend with the same currency. "Assuming of course that those four neurons lurking in your empty head are still able to emit them."

"After that pitiful joke, I can finally announce that the old Zak is once again amongst us. Welcome back."

"So, can you manage to get this shuttle to the explosion site without crashing into some lunar elevation?"

"Certainly sir. At your orders," exclaimed Petri, imitating the military ways he had often seen used by his terrestrial friends. "Destination moon" he added cheerfully, after having started the engines and set the course towards the satellite.

It took only a couple of minutes to reach the place where the Theos had disintegrated. The shuttle began to slowly fly over the area of the hidden face of the moon that had suffered the impact of the explosion. The ground, normally very bumpy and full of craters caused by ancient impacts of hundreds of meteorites that, over millions of years, had literally riddled it, now appeared incredibly smooth and flat for about six hundred square kilometres. The wave of energy generated by the explosion had swept everything away. Rocks, craters and depressions no longer existed. It was as if a giant steamroller had passed over the area, leaving behind it an endless expanse of soft grey sand.

"Incredible," exclaimed Petri. "It’s like flying over the immense Sihar desert on Nibiru."

"We’ve made a big mess" said Azakis dejectedly.

"No. Can’t you see how beautiful the view is now? Before the surface had more wrinkles than our Supreme Elder, now instead it’s as smooth as a baby’s skin."

"I don’t think there’s much of our beloved spacecraft left."

"I'm running a full in-depth scan of the area, but the biggest piece I’ve found is approximately a few cubic centimetres."

"There’s no denying it. The self-destruct system worked really well."

"Hey Zak" exclaimed Petri suddenly. "In your opinion, what's that?” and he pointed to a dark spot on the main screen.

"I wouldn't know... You can’t see it very well. What do the sensors say?"

"They’re not picking anything up. According to them there’s nothing but sand there, but I think I can see something else."

"It’s impossible that the sensors can’t pick something up. Try doing a calibration test."

"Just give me a second." Petri fiddled with a series of holographic controls then sentenced, "The parameters are within normal range. Everything seems to be working properly."

"Strange ... Let’s try and get a little closer."

Shuttle number six moved slowly in the direction of that strange object that seemed to emerge from the layer of dust and grey sand.

"Maximum magnification" Azakis ordered. “But what is it?”

"From the little I can see, it looks like part of an artificial structure" Petri tried venturing.

"Artificial? I don’t think any of us have ever installed anything on the moon."

"Perhaps it was the terrestrials. I seem to have read somewhere that they’ve completed several expeditions to this satellite."

"What is decidedly strange is that the sensors are not picking up anything of what our eyes instead are seeing."

"I don’t know what to say. Perhaps the explosion has damaged them."

"But if you just ran a test and everything is working," answered Azakis perplexed.

"Then that stuff we’re seeing must be made of some material that is unknown to us and therefore that our sensors are unable to analyse."

"Are you trying to tell me that the terrestrials have managed to invent a compound that not even we know about, they’ve brought it up here and they’ve built a base or something with it?"

"And, moreover, now we’ve even destroyed it for them," commented Petri dejectedly.

"Our friends never cease to amaze us, do they?"

“That’s true... Well, we’ve had a look around here. I’d say we should leave it for the moment. We’ve got rather more important things to do right now. What do you say boss?"

"I’d say you’re absolutely right. Considering that there doesn’t seem to be anything usable left of the Theos anymore, I think we can leave."

"Heading for earth?"

"Let’s return to Elisa’s camp and try using her H^COM to contact Nibiru."

"And our travelling companions? We can’t just leave them up here" said Petri.

"We’ll have to organise a support base on earth. We could set up a sort of camp close to that of our friends."

“Sounds like a good idea to me. Shall I inform the rest of the crew?"

“Yes. Give them the coordinates of the excavation site and ask them to organise the preparation of an emergency structure. We’ll go down there first, and we’ll set about contacting the Elders."

“Let’s go” said Petri cheerfully. "And to think that, until a little while ago, I was getting worried about how I was going to overcome the boredom of the return journey."

At the same time, at a distance of about 500 U.A. from our sun, a strange ovoid shaped object appeared practically out of nowhere, preceded by a streak of bluish lightning that tore through the absolute blackness of space. It moved in a straight line for almost a hundred thousand kilometres at an incredible speed before disappearing again, swallowed up by a sort of huge silvery vortex with golden reflections. The whole action lasted only a few seconds and then, as if nothing had happened, that place so remote and desolate, deep in space, plunged back into the total quiet in which it had been immersed until then.

"Yes, Colonel," said a very refined voice on the other end of the phone. "We have received reports, from several observation points on earth, of an unnatural flash presumably given off by the moon."

“But the moon doesn’t give off ‘flashes’,” said Jack vexed.

“You’re right there, Sir. All I can tell you is that our scientists are still analysing the data we’ve received in order to identify who or what caused it."

"So basically, you haven’t the faintest idea what it was.”

"Well, I wouldn't have put it quite that way, but I think your inference can be considered a fair one.”

“Just listen to this guy” said Jack, turning to Elisa who had joined him, as he covered the microphone of his mobile phone with his hand. “Okay. Thank you for the information,” he continued. "As soon as you have further news kindly contact me immediately.'

"Yes Sir, with pleasure. Goodbye have a good day," and he ended the conversation.

"What did they say?" asked the doctor.

"Well, it looks as though something strange actually happened up there, but nobody has found a decent explanation yet.”

"I’m increasingly convinced that something happened to our friends."

"Come on, don’t say that. With their fantastic spacecraft who knows where they’ll have got to by now.”

"I really hope so, with all my heart, but I still have a strange premonition."

"Listen, to get rid of any doubts, why don’t we use that thing they left us and try to contact them?"

“I don't know ... They said we would only be able to use it after they arrived back on their planet ... I don’t think ...”

“Just go and get it,” the Colonel cut her short. Then realising he had perhaps been a little too abrupt, he added a gentle ‘please’, followed by a dazzling smile.

“Okay. At worst it won’t work,” said Elisa as she set off to retrieve the portable H^COM. She returned almost immediately and, after rearranging her long hair slightly, she put on the kind of weird and bulky helmet.