Chapter 1
Date: September 12, 2032, 05:39 Location: 50 kilometers from Peary Crater on the Moon
"We've arrived," Captain Jess's voice came through the radio inside the helmet, carrying a mix of excitement and exhaustion. He gently disembarked from the white lunar rover, bending over to meticulously inspect each wheel's parts, tapping lightly with his fingers, the faint metallic sound echoing in his ears. His breath formed a regular mist inside the helmet before quickly dissipating. His fingers finally glided over the last screw, and he took out a small bottle from his belt pack, filled with fine lubricating oil. He carefully dripped it onto every joint, ensuring the rover's mechanical structure could operate normally in the harsh environment. This vehicle was a masterpiece of SpaceX, after numerous simulation tests and optimized designs.
Jess stood up, stretching in his bulky spacesuit with some difficulty, his helmet light casting a tall shadow behind him. He unclasped the heavy headlamp temporarily, revealing a face half tired, half exhilarated. He looked up towards the distance, where the crater, like a giant scar, dipped into the lunar surface, its edges towering, its center dark as an abyss. This eighty-kilometer-wide crater, merely a stone's throw away, appeared not as a curved edge but as a cliff extending endlessly to both sides of the view. It was the largest meteorite crater in the lunar North Pole region, and their destination for this expedition.
As he was engrossed in observation, Jessie, sitting beside him, had been silent. She watched the captain, imagining the expression under the dark visor upon witnessing this magnificent sight. Her fingers tapped lightly on the armrest, producing a faint sound, as if keeping rhythm, filled with indescribable emotions. Suddenly, she felt a slight vibration, the vehicle slightly shaking. She looked up to see the captain taking equipment out of the lunar rover's trunk, then gently placing it on the ground nearby.
"Alright, Jessie, I know it's overwhelming, but could you help me set up this antenna first?" Jess said politely, though his face, hidden by the mask, betrayed impatience.
"I'm on it, sorry," Jessie's voice, unusually clear on the moon's silence, carried a hint of an embarrassed smile. She gracefully leaped down from the rover, her body drawing an elegant arc under the moon's one-sixth gravity, landing lightly beside Jess. She squatted down, lifting a black satellite dish cover marked with "MOON-LINK" in bold white letters, and skillfully secured it with a screwdriver to the stand buried in the lunar soil, about one meter tall. They carefully extended the stand to two meters, then connected a solar panel, all movements smooth and professional.
"See, the task is simple, right? But as a newbie, that jump from the rover... I can only give you a verbal warning," Jess said with a hint of teaching in his voice.
Jessie frowned slightly, responding, "Alright, stop nagging."
Before them was the device with a black dish cover, pointed towards the deep night sky. The antenna's indicator lights began flashing red and green alternately. Jessie's gaze involuntarily returned to the vast Peary Crater. The fifteen thousand lumens of light from her headlamp illuminated the layers of sediment and gray rock fragments formed by impacts on the crater walls, her eyes reflecting a hint of awe for the universe's relentless forces.
"Does this device really cover such a wide signal range?" she curiously pointed to the label marked ‘Coverage radius 100km-130km’.
Jess stared at the communication device on his spacesuit wrist, preparing to connect with the lunar satellite, and replied, "Of course, this technology has been tested countless times in the Nevada desert by our company, Elon is a very meticulous person... you know."
Jessie, curious, asked, "You haven't told me in detail about when you met him at the Pennsylvania expo, what kind of person is he?"
"A weirdo," Jess said, "I mean, he's nice, but sometimes he can be a bit... inexplicable. You can never guess his next plan. And he's a bit stubborn, but everyone understands he does it to ensure the plan goes smoothly."
Jessie picked up a moon rock, watching it slowly fall under the moon's weak gravity. "Have all his plans gone without error?"
"At least so far, no. Sometimes, even if we think there's a mistake, it's just a special variable he anticipated, not affecting the final outcome," Jess said, quickly entering data on a tablet resistant to the lunar environment.
"Are we executing his plan now?" Jessie asked.
"Exactly," Jess said, with a hint of disdain, "This is just a minor task, mainly to familiarize you, a space newbie, with the environment."
"Who says it's my first time in space?" Jessie retorted, "Last year I was on Blue Origin's Orbital Six."
Jess's communication device suddenly flashed green, indicating "Pairing Successful". He scoffed, "Orbital Six? If that kind of flight that doesn't even touch the Kármán line counts as space travel, it's ridiculous."
Jessie fell silent, realizing Jess might be right. Whether Orbital Six was real space travel or not, her understanding of professional space missions was clearly not enough. The incident three days ago when she arrived at the Gateway Space Station was proof...
Looking up, she saw several conspicuous white spots slowly moving across the starry sky, counting about twelve, arranged in a 3x4 matrix. These spots, stark against the backdrop of space, seemed to have risen from the moon's western horizon and were about to dip into the eastern horizon. — These were Elon's creations, Jessie pondered the grand plans behind these bright spots. "What is this crazy man thinking?" she wondered.
"Anyway, you've caught a good era," Jess said, "Resolution 27 allows ordinary people to go to space, just knowing a bit can execute missions. Before this, you wouldn't have had the chance to go to the moon. But will Resolution 28 let dogs into space?"
"Didn't a dog go to space in 1957? Though... it became a space hot dog," Jessie joked, realizing it might be too dark a humor, she was about to apologize when Jess suddenly burst into laughter. "Hahaha, space hot dog, that's hilarious!" His laughter transmitted through the helmet's radio into Jessie's ears, leaving her somewhat bewildered.
"Alright, our mission is to head to Basalt Station Four and then meet up with Denver and the others," Jess said.
The two reboarded the lunar rover, driving towards their destination. Jessie looked back, the wheels kicking up moon dust that lingered in the vast emptiness for a long time.
