Adam was hopelessly happy. This was an achievement he had never dared to hope for, let alone try. Someone pushed past him, but Adam just leaned against the wall, his elbow jutting out in an automated gesture to push him back. He forced his eyes to focus on the floor ahead and started walking again, but as slow as possible without getting in the way, without getting shoved. The corridor ended abruptly after a left turn. Adam stepped out of the arch and took a few steps along the left wall, nimbly avoiding collisions. And then he dropped his bags and looked up at the nearly transparent dome- at Earth.
All of five feet, with sparse curly hair and coffee colored skin Adam did not fit in with many of the people even on Earth. Add to this, the ritual tattoo on his wrist and unwillingness to eat fish and drink liquor on religious grounds, Adam always stuck out. He was used to being made fun of, abused, shoved and told to stay away from "normal people". Adam actually had learned to ignore many of these things. Even in the land of his birth, on the fringe of the great Gobi Desert, his people- the natives- suffered racial and religious persecution. When he made it to Amsterdam on the back of an education loan, he was the first person- native- of his town to leave the country for foreign shores. He promptly tore his passport and joined a restaurant as waiter. In a few years he learned three languages and got himself a diploma in Hospitality Services; enough to join a Cruise liner as Steward. And by sheer luck ( an accident which resulted in the death of two and hospitalization of six employees) he was now on the Moon- as one of the staff employed at the Silver Crescent- The first luxury resort on the Moon.
Eventually Adam walked up to the Silver Crescent desk. The Entry Dome was emptying of the passengers and the two people at the desk were sitting idle. He presented his papers and was given a tag and directed to a far corner where large golf cart was waiting with three people already on board. He took a corner seat after his tag was verified by the guard. He was still gazing at the Entry Dome when they trundled off towards a tunnel entrance.
Captain Lisell Blued was absolutely serene in her pilots seat; actually she was working very hard to appear so. A top of her class at the university. An under nineteen Triathlon champion at the state level. A great pilot, so her instructors admitted. Tall, lithe, long black hair with sea green eyes and full mouth, she was beautiful to look at and this was her undoing. The military was still a man's world and punching colonels just wasn't accepted. So she resigned "voluntarily" and now was a commercial pilot in-charge of the tourist shuttle at the Silver Crescent- the first job which paid well and let her go to the Moon. Most of the time Lisell could adjust, but often there were moments where buttering up the management and extreme politeness to the clients got to her. She missed the military but was pragmatic enough and disciplined enough not to let her emotions run riot.
Twelve screens occupied the four desks amid other hardware and clutter. One wall was crammed with processing units, backups, power lines, batteries, fans, cooling apparatus and spares. Of the three chairs only one was occupied, as was normal. This was the Recon Room at L3- Lunar Base- Three; all the data from the sensors, drones and cameras around L-3 ended up here. Junior Lieutenant Koram Frecht slouched as much as his bulk allowed. His eyes were already half closed just an hour into the shift, his mind planning on how to win the next card game. He had manned this post for more than eight months now, that was more than two hundred shifts. And nothing ever happened around L3.
L3 was built and staffed jointly by four governments just to keep an eye on the only alien artifact ever found. This was nearly two decades ago when the "Symmetrical Egg" was still big news. The egg shaped artifact was made of an unknown metal Five meters long and at the bulge three meters wide with equally tapering ends, no seams, no joints. It could not be lifted or dug out. While clamps could not touch it, magnetic fields and nets could not move it. Digging around and under just made it sink. It now lay in a crater six hundred meters deep and more than a kilometer wide. It glowed a bluish-white for three seconds every revolution, right when the Moon was nearest to Earth. After dozens of scientific missions over the years, it was caste side as a "dead" artifact. Still not wanting to take chances, L3 was set up with a new team of scientists coming in every two-three years.
12th June 2230 - The date blinked on the screen. Koram noticed it. It must be midnight on their Earth Base. Another day gone. Three hours to the end of the shift. He got up and pulled a disposable cup from the stack and poured himself a coffee. He sat back down in his chair, slipped off his shoes and pulled the next chair to rest his legs on. Making himself comfortable he reached for his coffee. But a Ping and a rattle/scratch froze him. The monitor was glowing pink. Slap me blind! The Egg had glowed pink for three seconds. Koram almost spilled his coffee in his haste to call his commander.
Lisell did not know how to react. Till a few moments ago it was a regular sightseeing flight. Twelve really rich people, four cabin crew and two pilots. The route covered the major craters, Apollo 16, the sea, The bases- L1, L2, L3 each from more than ten miles out. On their regular vector to pass L3 it had happened. A pink glow had lit up the place for a few moments. In her five months on the Moon Lisell had seen the Egg glow bluish-white twice. But pink, she had not heard of the Egg glowing pink. she spoke into her mouth piece.
"Did you see that?"
The Cruise Terminal replied. "What? There is nothing out there. You OK Lisell?"
"Fine. I'll talk to you on landing."
She turned to her co-pilot. "You saw that."
"Yes, the light. Yes."
She got up, handing the controls to her co-pilot and approached a stewardess.
"Hey Jenn. Everything normal?"
"Of Course, captain. Rich people drinking and telling stupid jokes as usual. No gropers though; for a change."
While Lisell sat in her seat thinking who and how to report this event, L3 was stirring with frantic activity. A team of three scientists and three guards was ready to climb on to a hovercraft to examine the Egg. The Commander - Major General Alwyn Shavik(retd.) had informed L1 and L2 AND Earth Base and was waiting for their go ahead while the techs were organizing all the data available. Something had changed, that was a given. What- That was a mystery.
Even as the news started to percolate across both governments and scientific communities Maj. Gen Alwyn was ordered to keep the lid on. It took him a few minutes to focus on the need to look at the Tourist shuttle which was in the air nearby. So he asked for a platoon from L1 to help secure L3 and a platoon from L2 to secure the shuttle on the tarmac and wait for further orders. The military machine worked smoothly for once and the L3 guards were supplemented within twenty minutes and the shuttle was stopped on the tarmac and soldiers surrounded it.
