Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe (17 page)

Image 18
– The Orion-II, without its Accelerator Module (the rings), orbiting
the moon, where it would later land for the rescue mission.

(credits and details on the final page)

Allison and Russell walked into
what appeared to be some kind of cave. The further in they went, the more
uneven the ground became. Then, in one spot, they found the remains of an
incredibly broken-down structure.

They both started breathing a bit
more quickly. This time, the sweat dripping off of their faces wasn’t a result
of the radiation, as was the case with Frank, but fear. Their hearts beat fast.
They did their best to walk slowly to keep from falling down in the darkness.
The flashlights on their helmets weren’t strong enough for them to see exactly
where they were or where the tunnel would lead.

As they continued walking, they felt
more and more sure that what they were seeing was not the result of any Chinese
exploration. Allison checked her camera again and again to make sure that it
was capturing everything they were seeing.

They cautiously walked toward the
inside of the moon, still finding it all hard to believe. They had descended
several feet, and what had initially appeared to be a cave had started to look
more like something with a polished technological design. They were inside of a
huge metallic structure that, despite being deteriorated and abandoned, was
also incredibly complex. At one point, Allison and Russell found themselves in
a large, open area. There were additional corridors that seemed to lead to
other wings.

Allison slowly shined her
handheld flashlight around the space’s entire perimeter, revealing the nuances
and details of that enigmatic place.

“Can you believe this?” she
asked.

“I hope we haven’t gone crazy, or
started dreaming. The last thing I want is to wake up and find myself in Draco
or Andromeda,” Russell said.

“Russ, everything we’ve been
through on this mission, all our findings, absolutely everything is irrelevant compared
to what we’re looking at right now,” she exclaimed, amazed.

“Who built this, Allison?” he
asked, intrigued. “There’s no way it could be a human construction,” she replied.
“It would be impossible to create something like this here. It’s something that
was dug into the interior of the moon, something very well planned out. There’s
simply no way that this could have been done by the Chinese, nor by anyone on
Earth.”

They both continued to stare
perplexedly at the colossal construction. There were several metal columns in
the wing. The center looked like a huge foyer, with other tunnels that seemed
to lead to other places within the structure. They kept walking; then, the
astronomer saw something on the wall and stopped to analyze it.

“Take a look at this, Russ. Look
familiar?” Allison asked as she pointed her flashlight at the gigantic ducts
encircling the entire tunnel.

They were in a spherical wing.
They could see several rings that went around the entire structure. Given their
thickness and angle, Russell concluded that these rings were aligned with the
moon’s circumference.

“Do you think those rings are
part of some kind of base?” the commander asked.

“I don’t think so. This metallic
structure we’re in is surrounded by rock. Whatever it is, its foundation is the
moon. I don’t think those rings are structural. Everything we’re seeing right
now, this entire apparatus, seems to have been built here, dug out and placed
inside here.”

“Then what could it be?”

“They look like the rings we had
on the Orion-II,” Allison said, suggesting a new idea to her colleague.

“Do you think the moon could be a
ship?” he asked, still confused by what he was seeing.

“Yes. I mean, the moon is a
satellite; it’s made up of rock. But, it seems to have been used as a
structural foundation for the construction that we’re standing in. Whatever it
is, the moon provides a sort of protection. The cosmic radiation levels in here
are very low. It’s also not at risk of being damaged by asteroids. If this is a
ship, and those rings use a technology similar to the kind we had on the
Orion-II, it would seem to be thousands, if not millions of years old... and it
looks like a very solid design, very safe and well done,” she said.

They entered a small tunnel. It
seemed to be full of equipment, totally different from anything they’d ever
seen. It didn’t look like any type of human technology. Then, Russell broke the
silence: “If I weren’t here with you, Allison, I would never believe all this.
What you said in the other room makes total sense. Whatever this is, it is
clearly not human. I think we’re standing in front of the biggest discovery in
the history of humankind… we need to start heading back so we can send these
images to Houston as soon as possible.”

Allison agreed and they decided
to finalize their exploration. They both started rushing back to the surface,
but something on the side of the hallway back to the surface caught Allison’s
eye. A small, clear dome with something inside.

As they got closer, they realized
it looked a lot like a book. Russell careful lifted the dome and picked up the
object. It was heavy and many pages long. It was made of a material unlike
anything he had ever seen. Its pages seemed to be made out of extremely thin,
stiff metal sheets. The pages were full of symbols, and the cover featured a
drawing of what appeared to be planets. There were three planets. Two of them
were very similar to Earth, whereas the third looked more like Saturn.

“I think these pages are made of
Unbihexium. Have you ever felt this material before?” she asked.

“Are you talking about the rare
metal used for the rings of the Orion-II, the same one we use to create
wormholes?” Russell asked.

“Yes. This has a very similar
shine. But we were never able to create anything as thin as the pages of this
book. Much less write anything on it. Unbihexium is unique, it is not
comparable to any other material. And it’s exactly like this,” Allison
concluded.

Russell started to leaf through
the object, taking a closer look at the purity of the metal, as well as the
symbols, which seemed to form some sort of language. There were tons of
symbols. They were like the letters of our alphabet, but with a completely
foreign, unknown design.

On one page in particular, they
noticed something that immediately sent chills up their spines. Their hands
started shaking. Russell let the book fall to the floor. Then, he reached down,
picked it back up, and went back to the figure that they had been looking at.
It was an image that was very well known by mankind, but this was the last
place they would have imagined seeing it. Its details were somewhat different,
but the overall format—the light coming from its center, the religious
sentiment it conveyed—was terrifyingly similar.

“Can you make any sense out of
this?” Russell asked, his voice frightened and hesitant.

Allison analyzed the page in
detail. It certainly was not a human creation. Nothing in that place was human.
Could the moon be a ship? And what about that illustration? The perfection of
that drawing, the similarity, the profound feelings it provoked… a radiant
design engraved on a completely black sheet.

Nothing made any sense. Inside
the moon, there was a structure that apparently turned it into a ship, possibly
capable of jumping through wormholes, like the Orion-II. The main room of the
structure contained some sort of book, made of the only material in the
universe capable of interacting with dark matter and distorting gravity. None
of this could have been created by humans; and given the deterioration in that
place, it had surely been abandoned hundred of thousands of years prior. And
that book, written in a completely unknown language, contained something
familiar: a black page with an enigmatic cross engraved into it, a drawing of
the Christian crucifix, which stood out and shone bright.

Allison wasn’t doing well. She
suddenly started to feel weak, and fell to the ground. Russell put the book
aside to help his friend. He immediately went to check the readings on her
suit; her oxygen levels were low, very low. For some reason, her suit had
failed to alert them. With everything that they had seen, Allison hadn’t
realized that she had been breathing very heavily, and thus consuming too much
oxygen. She was tense, sweaty and perplexed.

Russell helped her stand up, and
then grabbed the book before they both started back toward the surface. On the
way to the rescue ship, Russell quickly told Frank about everything they had
seen down there. The engineer thought they were joking with him. He wasn’t even
convinced by the book, although it had made him curious. However, given
Allison’s condition, they were focused on getting to the ship as quickly as
possible, and thus didn’t talk much.

Russell held the astronaut up
with his arm. They tried to walk together toward the rescue point. They
couldn’t move very quickly, and the astronomer only had whatever oxygen was
left inside her suit to breathe. In the middle of it all, Russell’s alarm
started to go off, indicating that his oxygen level would soon become critical,
as well. But he stayed focused, walking, jumping, and practically dragging
Allison toward the ship.

With difficulty, they both got
into the Orion. There were no stairs; there was no lunar model. They had to
jump up and grab onto the ship’s structure in order to get inside. Frank helped
Allison with a big push. Then, he did the same with Russell. Finally, after a
few tries, the engineer also climbed aboard.

The Orion took off with the five
astronauts inside. Allison looked out onto the moon’s surface, her eyes fixed
on the spot where they had made their discovery. Then, she looked over the
horizon, still incredulous, trying to identify exactly where that structure was
located. Russell held the book close to his chest as Carter initiated the
procedure to put the ship on the route that they would follow.

And so, they activated the
engines for the last time, accelerating toward Earth. They followed the same
trajectory that the Apollo missions had traveled almost 100 years ago. If
everything went according to plan, they would re-enter in three days, landing
in the Pacific Ocean.

Three hours after beginning their
return trip, after calming down and reestablishing contact with Houston,
Russell asked the director for something:

“Jones, we need you to download
all of the data captured by the cameras on our helmets, both mine and
Allison’s. It has to do with what you requested with regards to the moon… you
better be close by when they download the data, I think it will be something
you’ll want to keep restricted for now.”

“Okay. Connect your cameras to
the ship’s computer and we’ll initiate the transmission. Did you all find any
vehicles or probes from the Chinese mission?”

“We found something, but it’s not
Chinese. You need to see it with your own eyes. We’re bringing back an object,
too. We’ll have to talk once we’re back.”

Jones facial expression went from
one of joy to one of confusion. Russell’s final comment had left him extremely
curious. Once the transmission was over, he went to Laura’s workspace to
download the videos.

In the same room where he had
observed the greatest enigma of his career, Jones prepared himself for the
data. His heart was pounding. He couldn’t hide how anxious he felt as he waited
for the transmission to finish. Laura, although focused on the procedure, felt
the same way.

Finally, the process was over.
They both watched everything that had been recorded by Allison’s helmet. Hours
later, they called Elizabeth. That same night, the presidential plane, Air
Force One, landed in Houston.

Image 19
– Astronaut Scott Russell, on the dark side of the moon, approaching
the entrance to the large structure they found located there.

(credits and details on the final page)