Houston didn't mean to fall off the Moon. It just 'kinda happened. His morning had been going well before this tiny aspect of his day weaseled in.
You know, perhaps falling is the wrong word. Jumped is a much better description of his mistake.
THIRTY SECONDS AGO
"Okay, you all good?" Laura checked the straps one last time.
"Get your hands off me already and start the countdown." Houston gave his sister a playful shove and the gathered teenagers a winning smile. Launch! Launch! Launch! Launch! The shouting began. Houston turned down the volume in helmet.
Laura shouted at everybody to stand back. They retreated to the red line, where they looked to the edge of what was visiblef there, a small cushion waited for Houston's arrival. Sure that everything was ready, Laura gave her little brother a thumbs up. "Three!"
Houston crouched low. "Two! One!" His breath left like the exhaust from his back. The crowd turned their head to watch Houston, only to see peppered black sky.
"What?"
"Where did he go?"
"Is he already there?"
"What's going on?"
None of them noticed the faint trail had gone more vertical than intended, similar to an unbelievingly inept submarine. Now Houston was farther above the Moon than he had ever been. His view of Earth would have been quite spectacular, given that Houston hadn't been considering the ways he would have written his will. There was no life flashing before his eyes or sudden visions of light. In fact, everything was rather dark when one shuts his or hers eyes from pure brown-pantsening fear.
Then he hit the Mon. It should be noted that the Mon and the Moon are separate entities. The Mon, for example, was perhaps two times Houston's size. While that size could've made a dinosaur shiver, you and I wouldn't have thought much of it.
Houston did though. Flailing to attach one self's to the particle of solid in a sea of ungrabbable made Houston much more aware of the Mon's existence than any living being to date - other than Lutana. She was an Aboriginal astronomer who lived thousands of years before. Lutana had quite the keen eye; having been able to watch the Mon cross in front of the Big Dipper. It's a shame that she was the only human, other than Houston now, to ever observe the runt of an asteroid.
And so Houston was sailing around the Earth with nothing but the otherwise invisible tether. The dark stone was slowly passing over the Moon. Houston finally wrestled control of himself.
He checked the readout display on his HUD. There was only a tiny amount of fuel remaining in the jetpack. 'Three... Two... O-', he launched off the Mon. The Moon now swelled to greet him. The Mon now flew away, destined to never be defiled by a Homo Sapien's look or touch ever again. The Martians would end up turning it into a set of rather nice dinner plates though.
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