It was a very long and sobering ride back to Lunar One. Many of the passengers from the international space station where tight lipped and very quiet during the long ride back to the moon. Some of them couldn't peel themselves away from the window as they looked back at Earth. The entire planet was black with the exception for the point of impact which was now an enormous red circle, filled with nothing but molten magma that was hard to miss when looking back at the charred planet. It wasn't until the moon was becoming incredibly larger in their windows when the questions started. Morgan was honestly surprised they hadn't started a lot earlier.
"Morgan," Phil said as he sat down beside. "How long are we going to be able to hold out on Lunar One?"
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure." Morgan answered.
"What about our bodies?" Elizabeth asked as she forced herself to bring up one of her fears. "How long can we last off of Earth before our bodies and bones begin to feel the difference?"
"There is gravity on the moon." Morgan replied.
"The moon's gravity only sixteen percent of what our bodies are used to," Liz countered, "That isn't enough. Our bones are going to weaken and possibly break if we are not pushed down as much as we are accustomed to feeling."
"Relax guys, they have that covered." Morgan said as he tried to calm them both down. "There is a lot more going on up there than you realize."
"What the hell does that mean?" Phil fired back.
"It means you guys are lucky we were doing things behind everyone's backs up there." Rogers called from the cockpit. "If we hadn't, the human race would have less than a month to live, if that."
"I don't like the sound of that." Elizabeth said as she floated closer to Captain Rogers. "What kind of things were you doing up there?"
"Sorry Ma'am." Rogers said with a playful grin. "That's classified."
"Seriously?" Liz asked, feeling rather annoyed.
"Seriously." Rogers repeated, "I'd rather wait and let you find out for yourself rather than try to explain something you won't believe until you've seen it yourself anyways."
"I'm guessing the base is a lot bigger than what everyone has been seeing on their telescope." Phil surmised, "Most of it is sub-terrain, isn't it?"
Morgan nodded to confirm. "Yeah, that's part of it."
"How much bigger is this place?" Liz asked.
"A lot bigger." Rogers answered.
"How much bigger?" Phil demanded.
Morgan quickly jumped back in. "Big enough to give us all a fighting chance to survive an extinction level event."
"What about water?" Phil then asked. "How the hell are we going to get supplies when there are no more shuttles to go back and forth to make deliveries? How much water is left up there?"
"I'm not sure." Morgan honestly answered.
"Don't get mad at him, Phil." Rogers called back, "Morgan's been there less than a week. He barely had a chance to scratch the surface himself. The water issue will be fine. We have a good reserve on the moon and if we run out there are back up plans in place to cover further deliveries."
"Deliveries from where?" Morgan asked, as this was news to him.
"I could tell you." Rogers said with a smile. "But you'd never believe me."
YOU ARE READING
Lunar One
Science FictionDr. Morgan Taylor is living out his childhood dream. He's going to become an astronaut and spend six months on Earth's first lunar base. He's excited about the mission until he learns that things are not what they seem on Lunar One.
