The Dark Side of the Moon 3

According to the mineral scanner carried by our mineralogist, what was being read was an object, probably an ore, whose composition was not of an element with which we were familiar on our Periodic Table.

Of course, everyone in the Rover became excited; maybe in our search for new mining prospects for earth, we might have discovered a new substance.

Almost immediately, the people in the Rover began arguing about what they would name the new substance. I pointed out that the strange readings might be as the result of a sudden fault which our scanner had developed.

My colleagues didn’t like the proposition, convinced that the scanner could not be wrong. For my part, I sided with them, as far as opinions were concerned.

After all, if the scanner were to malfunction, the most likely reason would have been because its external indicator had received trauma, perhaps from striking against a feature on the moonscape.

But this was very unlikely, seeing that if something had actually hit the indicator, everyone on the Rover would have felt it, seeing that the gravity on the moon was much less than that of earth, about one-eighth the power on earth, which meant that items and materials here would be more unstable than on earth, and the slightest brush could make a considerable rattle.

While I agreed with the others that there might be something of relative interest out there that had been picked up by our mineralogical scanner, I felt the enthusiasm and optimism expressed by my colleagues were a little too unfitting for this situation. There were so many unknowns, so many factors that had not been considered. We needed to tread carefully at this point.

Eventually, I volunteered to leave the Rover and check out what it was that the scanner had picked. Arming myself with a powerful torch, a mini-scanner and a pick, I suited up in my spacesuit, which, I may mention, is a lot less bulky than the puffy things I saw in museums. How ridiculous our ancestors looked in those suits.

Using my scanner, and corroborating my movements with the results of the larger scanner, whose data was being relayed to me from the Rover, I made my way towards the spot where the strange reading had been found.

Very soon, my light caught a strange object hanging in mid-air. It looked like a polyp, with strange tentacles hanging down from its bottom, which hovered a few inches above the moon’s surface. It was still, as though it was some strange statue.

As I took a step closer, it suddenly jerked, tentacles flailing. One tentacle pointed at me, and I noticed there was some strange device strapped to the tentacle. Immediately a very bright light flashed, and my consciousness receded.

To be continued...

Thanks for coming!

That little boy,

@pearlumie