The jolt that threw me across the wildly canted room came as a complete surprise. "What happened?" my mind screamed as I attempted and failed to gain my feet. At one moment, my aide, Lieutenant Marshall Oleander, and I had been monitoring the air space surrounding the moon; the next a loud explosion sounded at close-proximity, and we were flying through the air. One look in Marsh's direction told me he was dead. Quickly looking away from the body of my closest companion on Lunar Base Omega, I took a deep breath and began to dig out from beneath the rubble that covered my lower extremities.
Removing the rubble proved to be an easier task than I expected. At first the debris slowly began to lift and float away. As the manmade gravity inside the building loosened, the free flow of the objects pinning me down rose at a more rapid pace. "Latch Down Latch Down!" an unseen computer-generated voice intermittently called between siren blasts as the seriousness of the situation became apparent. Somehow I had to make my way to the nearest Latching Station without becoming a part of the flotsam and jetsam that was rapidly drifting into the space surrounding the moon.
Keeping as low to the ground as possible, I attempted to crawl beneath the equipment desks hoping they would be heavy enough to stay put during the time required for me to reach the Latching Station. Under the circumstances of zero gravity, there was little time to spare. Even the weightiest of objects bore no substance under such conditions. Was this going to be the end of Petra Stargazer? The thought ran through my mind as Marsh's body lifted and moved upward to begin its endless journey through space.
Refocusing my eyes away from Lt. Oleander's lifeless form to my destination, I continued my trek to the series of long steel poles at the end of the room. Once secured to a Latching Pole that extended far into the deep layers of the moon, the fear of floating would be alleviated. Already, there were three or four others securing their belts to the bolts that would keep them in place. Although I didn't recognize any of them, I was relieved in the knowledge there were other survivors.
"What happened?" My voice was unfamiliar in my own ears. The wispy far away sound of it seemed to come from a million miles away. Straining all senses, it was difficult to hear or to understand the response.
"Martians, Inter-Fling, Deimosium" were the only audible words to reach me. Slowly my mind put them together. Damn Bartie Bop! Despite the long and tedious negotiations between United Federation Earth (U-Fed) and the Martian CABAL headed by Bartholomew Bop that banned the use of deimosium, a highly combustible material mined on the Martian moon Deimos, an Interstellar Flying Device had been deployed to destroy Planet Earth. Instead it had made contact with the Moon thus causing the destruction that surrounded the survivors.
"Look," the young soldier latched to my right exclaimed as he attempted to point upward. The thrust of his arm caused his slim body to lift despite the latching device he was attached to. With slow deliberation, three heads peered upwards to view the strangest sight: the Earth, usually a round blue and white sphere floating in the darkness of space, was tilted in an odd position with a half blue, half brown color. With the pull that connected the planet and its moon shattered, the ocean waters had accumulated in mass at the lowest portion of the globe. Under these conditions, how much longer before the two orbs collided or spiraled into oblivion?
Despite the strained conditions of zero gravity, I forced myself to stand straight against the latching pole. The first order of business was our own safety as we awaited the arrival of the Advance Team that had surely been deployed to reconnoiter the situation and effect a rescue mission. Was my Intra-Lobe hearing device detecting the buzz of incoming? With slow deliberation, I confirmed the sound of the incoming vehicles.
As relief flooded the senses of the small group of four attached to the latching station, the first of spacecraft appeared on the horizon. RED! An audible gasp rose from the young soldier on my left. My heart sunk as I recognized the Manned Aerial Reconnaissance Squadron. There was no rescue; instead we were faced with a capture. It was my duty to prepare my companions for the inevitable. Taking a deep breath, in the hope of regaining my normal military stance, I began to recount the instructions drilled into me through years of training for just such an event.
"Petra Stargazer!" a strangely familiar voice called my name as though from a far distance. Gazing into the face of my captor, I found myself staring into the face of my Martian counterpart, KevTran. Somehow I knew we were safe.
As soon as I was seated in the cockpit of KevTran's spacecraft, he explained, with a chuckle, "It seems the Freedom Fighters revolted when we noted the damage to the moon. As a whole, we concluded it is our duty to join forces with U-Fed to defeat Bartie Bop and return peace to Earth and Mars."
Wanly I smiled toward my companion. Before I could consider all that needed to be done to restore the damage caused not only between the Earth and Mars but also to the Moon, I had to recover physically and regain my equilibrium. Zero gravity had played havoc with my well-trained military mind.
