Hunter Ash stood about 80 feet into the mine entrance, waiting on M-Digger One to return from deeper down the mine. He was sweating inside his air-suite and hope the glass would not fog up anymore. It was his job to see that the M-Diggers were doing their jobs.
The M stood for Machine, they were not much more than pre-programmed robots, unable to make any decisions of their own. Really he perfumed there company than that of the rest of the mining crew. They all called him Swamp Dog and made fun of how he talked. He had grown up in south Georgia and had spent many hours in the woods hunting and fishing in the lakes, creeks, and swamps.
Many would never have thought he would end up on the Moon as a miner, but the money was just too good for him to pass on. He only had a couple more weeks to go, till his contract would be up and he could go back home, with enough to buy a nice ranch.
The ranch was right next to where his parents lived, so he would be around as they grow older. He didn’t have a so-called girlfriend, but he was seeing one that he really enjoyed being with. Her name was Mary-Sue, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles.
They got to talk once a week, he looked forward to it and thought she did too. She would cheek on his parents for him. They didn’t have the internet so he could only send them letters. He jumped when the voice of the crew leader sounded in his ere. “What’s taken so long? That blast should of went off by now?”
“Digger not back yet sir.” He answered with a dry voice. He looked back at the opening of the mine, the other three M-Diggers were standing there, ready to remove the rubble.
“Well, you stay right there till its all cleaned up, I’ll not be behind schedule because you’re taking your time. Get it ready for the Crusher.” He knew that was coming.
It wasn’t like he had anything else to do back at the base, so really didn’t mind working, it was just boring most the time. He could see the light from M-Digger One coming back. Well, now there will be a little excitement. It had set a charge of explosives a little over a mile down that should open up a good 30 more yards of tunnel.
The charge was shaped just right, and what was left of the rock the M-Diggers would have no trouble cleaning up. The Digger stopped in front of him, holding the detonation controller out. He took it and looked at it. This was the part that he liked the best. “Are we in the safe zone?” He asked.
“Yes, sir.” It answered in a metal voice. He knew they were well outside its zone, but he had to ask under company rules. One was the only M-Digger that could talk, not having much of a vocabulary, so never volunteered information of any kind. It would have been nice if it could carry on a conversation.
“OK, let’s make this place shake a little.” He said out loud as he pushed the bottom. A moment later, the ground began vibrating, and then something he had never seen or heard of happened. They were hit with dust moving up and out of the shaft at a speed that would have knocked him down if it had not been for One grabbing on to him.
The rumbling of the ground and the speed of the dust made the opening of the shaft fall in so the ground shook some more. He lost his footing as he saw the opening fill completely in. He was now trapped inside the tunnel and had no clue what had happened.
There have been mining going on the Moon, for almost a hundred years and he had never heard of a cave-in. There was a couple of death by explosives not being set right. It had happened a few years back, but that was the only accident on the Moon so far. Two men had died, and that mine was closed down and left as a Memorial and off-limits.
One had held up him by one hand, keeping him from falling on his ass but it was a full minute before he could ever see One. He regained his footing as soon as the rumbling had stopped. “Put me down.” He said.
When One let go of him, he almost dropped to his knees. He felt weak and a little sick. He sat down just in case. It would not do to fall down in his air-suit. He checked his radio, it was not working, or it just wasn’t getting out of the mine.
He was in a mild state of shock or something because it took a whole five minutes of staring at his gloved hands to realizes one of them was ripped. His mind reeled, how could that be, his blood should have boiled, and he should be dead. When One had grabbed, him it must have ripped.
How could this be? Everyone knows there is no oxygen on the Moon, and it had never had any. Then it dawn on him, the blast, the cave in, it had open up a cavern that was full of air.
If the tunnel had not sealed up he would be dead now, but how could there be a cavern full of oxygen in the Moon. His head was fuzzy, there were just too many questions running through his mind. He knew that back at the base, they all ready seen that there was more than just the blast that was scheduled.
They would be on the move by now, and if they were able to dig open the tunnel, he would die before they could reach him. He looked around but seen nothing that may seal up the rip. He looked over at where the opening was and thought he may have 24 hours no more.
He tried his radio again, but it was still dead. He decided that sitting there was doing him no good, so he stood up. At least the few lights that were strung were still working. He looked over the rubble that filled the opening, most of the rock was far too big for the M-Diggers to move, so there was nothing that could be done from the inside. As he saw it, he was going to die in there attempt at his rescue.
Here he was so far away from home and about to die mining, and he had no real clue what they were mining. Most of the crew thought it was Helium three, but there was no geologist on any mining teams that he knew of. It would be nice to know what he was giving up his life for.
He decided, to take off his helmet, after all, he was breathing the air in the mine already. It felt good to get it off, he walked back to the three M-Diggers and set it down then walked over to One, “Any clue of what may of happen?” He asked.
“Only, that the explosion must of open up a large pressurize cavern of oxygen.” Well, nothing new there he thought. He tried the radio again and still nothing. He was sure the team should be outside the shaft by now, and would decide if they would be able to remove the rubble. From what he had seen from the inside, he was not sure that they would even try, so he may become the second Memorial on the Moon.
He didn’t like the idea of dyeing this far from home, he really missed the woods but most of all he missed Mary-Sue and his parents. He thought of writing them a letter of some kind, but there was nothing in the mine to do that with. Maybe he could have One record a short note to them, but then everyone would hear it.
He didn’t like the idea of his last words being posted over and over on all the World news and the internet. He could see it now SWAMP’S DOGS LAST WORDS FROM THE MOON, so he decided not to do it.
“One, grab one of the big light, and fallow me.” He didn’t wait to see if it did it or not. He headed down into the tunnel. He might as well see what was going to cost him his life and he really didn’t want to just sit there.
The mile-long walk didn’t take long. He could tell where the mining tunnel had stopped, and the explosion had occurred. Most of the rock was now almost powder, with a few chunks.
This was kind of strange, and he had no clue why. Normally it would be rocks, of a couple of hundred pounds, it was one of the reasons they used the M-Diggers. What they had blasted into was some kind of smooth tunnel. It went down, on each side. The blast hole was right at the top of it.
It was a good 30 feet across and had the look of being made, he thought. He turned to One, “Can you tell how far it goes?” The robot was equipped with a short wave radar.
One stepped into the tunnel and face first one way then the other. “Left goes for four miles then goes up again, right ends in a large cavern about two miles deep.”
He removed one glove and run his hand on the smooth wall and asked, “Any ideas how this was made?” It would have taken some kind high heat to get the rock that smooth he though, but there was no sign that it had been heated up that he could see.
“The closest I have reference is Volcanic tubes.”
That was his first thought too, but why would it go up and down and have air in it? The air had gotten warmer, and he began to sweat a little, so he decided to take his air-suit off. He knew that by now the crew had decided if there would be any rescue attempt.
Either way, he had no chance of living throw it. If they open the tunnel again the air would rush out, and he would die without a full air-suite on. He wouldn’t last but a couple of days in there without food and water. His suit did have an almost full bottle of water hook in it.
It took him five minutes to remove it, but it was near a pint. He sat down, looking at One holding the light and thought he would be dead before the battery was, it would last a couple of months. One would last a decade or two, he was not sure how old it already was but knew it would last a few years yet.
Well he really was not looking for any kind of fame, but now his name will be linked with the Moon as far as history was concerned, he thought. He laid back his head and closed his eyes, within a minute or two, he was asleep, dreaming of back home.
When he woke, it was dark, and it took him a minute to remember where he was. “One, light please.” It blinded him for a few seconds. “How long was I asleep?”
“Ten hours and four minutes, sir.” What? he thought, and he was still alive. That would mean that they had not been able to reopen the mine or had not even tried. Now it looks like he would die for lack of food or water.
He wondered if his parents had been notified yet and if so how was it done? He was sure that someone would have gone to their home, and not call, or send a letter. It would break his Mothers heart he was sure, and that was the last thing he would want.
He stood up and starched, took one sip on the water and hooked it to his belt and asked “Can I walk down the tunnel or is it too steep?” no reason to just sit here and die he thought.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, let's go see what no others have seen before us.” He left, his air-suit sitting there, he had no need for it now. The downgrade was not that bad of a walk. It felt like he was walking on a sponge. The light lunar gravity help make it feel like that he knew.
The crew or the company had decided not to open the shaft up again if they had he would be dead by now, and they must have thought that he already was dead and whatever they were mining was not worth the extra work or the money it would take to get back up and running. It would seem, that in most things it always comes down the money, he wounded how much his life was worth. He really didn’t blame them for not trying to rescue him.
When they reached the large cavern, he counted fore other tunnels, each a little smaller, going deep into the ground. All looked as if it was part of some kind of network, maybe like an ants nest. “One are you still in contact with the other Diggers?” he asked.
“I can boost my single, sir.”
“Please do, have them join us here.” He sat down to wait, it would take them some time to get there.
The heat was not that bad, but what was really getting to him the most was the quit. In the air-suits, you had the noise of the re-breather and the rustle of your movements. He told One to check out each of the tunnels with his radar.
After about ten minutes One reported back, that each tunnel gets deep by a little more than a mile, the last was close to five miles deep before opening into some kind of cavern.
It didn’t take as long as he thought before the M-Diggers reached him. He told one of them to stand at the opening to the deepest tunnel and said, “Stand here and wait, the rest of you follow me.”
He took a sip of his water, then he and the three Diggers stared down the tunnel. He was already a good three-mile under the surface and by the time they reached what he thought was close to four miles he had begin to notice that the dull gray of the dirt was becoming darker in color.
All of the dirt was dark by the time they reached the next cavern. A slight musty smell filled the air. This made him wonder if the air was still good to breathe, then he remembered that it really didn’t matter, he wouldn’t last too long anyway.
He wondered if the smell could really mean there was some kind of microscopic bacteria in the dirt. He looked the cavern over it was the same as the others, with four tunnels, each going deeper. He was exhausted, walking on the Moon was harder than one might think. He sat down and minutes later was asleep.
He woke because his mouth was dry, it felt like the surface look he thought. He took a sip of water and sloshed it around before swallowing. He was hungry, and his stomach was letting know it. He wasn’t weak yet but knew that soon he would begin to feel the toll of not eating.”One which one is the deepest?”
One, only pointed at it without answering, at first he didn’t think anything about. Then as he told one of the Diggers to stay put, he thought about how strange it was for it not to speak. “How deep does this one go?” He asked.
“I could not tell for sure sir, my radar only reaches six point five miles.” right now he was deeper underground that anyone had been on Earth that he knew of so six more miles will be no big deal.
As he walked, he thought of why he had not just died? Before it’s all over he may just wish he had died when his gloved ripped. Dying of thirst didn’t sound like to much fun. He noticed that the deeper he went the stronger the musty smell became.
When they reached seven miles, he again asked One to take a reading, and he tried but said it made a turn about a haft mile on. When One had turned towards him with the light, he noticed that it looked as if the dark ahead was not as dark as before, then thought it was just his eyes.
The closer he got to the bend of the tunnel, he realized it was getting just a little lighter. He stopped and told One to turn out the lights just to make sure. After his eyes adjusted, he was sure that it was lighter, it was not much, but it was there. He was not sure, he wanted to keep going now. “One, do you detect any higher radiation?”
“No sir, same background as normal.”
That was a relief he thought, at least he would not die of radiation poison before thirst anyways. He told One to point the light down as they moved forward slowly. When he reached the chamber he stopped, stunned.
His legs got weak, and he almost dropped to his knees and would have if he had not grabbed on to One. In front of them were some kind of glowing plants, they looked kind of like a cactus but more like balloons, with little spikes.
The chamber was full of them, from a foot to three-foot-tall, each gave off a faint light from within. After a moment he got his thoughts together and realized they were beautiful in a simple way. Who would have thought that there could be life not on the Moon but in the Moon? He knew a few he would love to show this too.
“One, can you do any kind of analyzing that could tell me anything about them?”
One walked over to one of the biggest and stood there a minute and told him that they were a type of mushroom, with what he thought was some kind of alcohol fluid inside, but he could not be sure without cutting into one.
Well, alcohol would not help him with his thirst, but maybe he could eat some parts of it. It would have to be getting water from somewhere he thought. He looked down at where it met the ground, and it looked as if it had six or seven roots, each about six inches around. If there was any water in the plant, it would be there.
He was tired, hungry, and thirsty, so he decided he should rest. He took a sip of what little water he had left and fond himself a place to lay down. As he laid there, he still found it hard to believe that there was life in the Moon.
His dream was full of Earth women who need rescuing from the evil Moon men. It was mostly because he now had a fever. One and the other Digger just stood there watching over him.
For the next couple of hours, he was in and out of consciousness because he had a fever. He awoke one time to someone telling him to drink and was out again. The fever broke, and he slept well for a few more hours when he woke he thought the voice was just part of his fevered dream.
For some reason, he was not thirsty, and he was not sure why. As he stood up, he smelled a faint odor of alcohol, then he noticed why. One of the small cactus balloons was ripped open, the dust below it was wet. He walked over to it and there to his surprise he could see a couple of toe prints in the wet dust.
He got down on his knees to have a better look, and he was sure they were the first two toes of a barefoot. He was not alone, there was someone else down here with him. He stood up and looked around the chamber and the only opening into the chamber, he could see was the tunnel he had entered from. He looked at One, “Was there anyone else in here?”
“Yes sir”
Wow, he thought, “Who was it?”
“A young woman.” One paused then added, “She removed something from inside the plant and had you sip from it.” This was strange, One was not programmed to say anything other than straight answers.
“Where did she come from?” This time he didn’t answer just pointed at the wall at the far end of the chamber. There was something wrong with One, it should never act in this manner, he thought. “Run a self-diagnostic.”He said. Did some dusk get into its processor he wondered?
One did as it was asked, he walked over to the far wall to have a look. He could see where one of the large rocks looked as if it had been slid into the chamber but had been pulled back to cover the opening. This had to be the way whoever it was had gotten in. “Finished sir, no anomalies detected.” One Told him.
He didn’t think that was right, but right now he had other things to worry about. Just then he heard the rock make noise, someone was pushing on it from the other side. He moved back to where One was and watched.
As the rock moved light begin to leak in around it, it was brighter then what was in there. He was not sure of what to do, so he just stood there. If they wanted to hurt him they could have already done it, instead of helping. He had to admit he was a little scared, after all, he was about to meet someone who lived in the Moon.
When the rock stopped moving, a young woman stood up looking right at him. She looked to him as any human women, she just didn’t have on as many clothes. She was wrapped in some kind of lizard skin. “You must take your metal men and move up the tunnel.” She pointed the way. “The Noom, are coming to harvest the plants, and if you want to live you must hide. They will kill you on site.”
He was shocked that he could understand her, and just stood there staring at her. She moved from behind the rock, put her hands on her hips. “Do you have a death wish? Move, keep you light off and make no noise.” She rushed over to him and pushed him trows the tunnel. “You must hurry.”
A few minutes later, he was back up the tunnel in the dark, trying to get his mind to slow down. There were many questions running in his mind. Why did the woman care if he was found or not? Who was she and who was the Noom? Why would they want to kill him?
He heard a lot of sounds and even a few voices but was unable to understand what was being said. He began to smell alcohol, they must be cutting open the plants to get out whatever the woman had given him. Whatever it was had saved his life, thanks to that woman. He had no real clue how long he stood in the dark, but it felt like a couple of hours when he heard “You can come back now.”
When he returned to the chamber, the only light now was what was coming from the opening behind the rock. All of the plants where cut open and the ground was damp with the alcohol. The woman was standing next to the rock, with a smile on her face.
For the next couple of hours, they talked in the pale light. He learned that her name was Dawn Wayfair and she was from Nebraska, not the Moon. She had been abducted by the Noom about five years ago and forced to work. The Noom was what most would call Grays.
She asked him how he came to be there and if he had a way to leave again, so he told her what had happened. This didn’t make her too happy and he could see her eyes begin to tear up. She had hoped by helping him that he could take her with him when he left.
“Just what are they up to being here, is this how they live or is this just a base of some kind?” He asked her.
“This is but one of a lot of bases. I have not been able to find out where they are from, but I do know that sometime soon they plan to invade the Earth.”
Invade the Earth, he thought, was she pulling his leg? Was she really who she said she was or was all this really in his mind. Had he lost his mind? Was this all a hallucinations from fever and he was still just dreaming?
“How do you know all this and if you are some kind of slave, how are you able to be here right now and not being watched over?”
“They can’t read my mind for some reason. This makes them feel funny, so don’t want me around them much. What they don’t know is I can still read theirs. I tended the food and water plants, and It’s not like I can go anywhere.”
This was true she couldn’t just up and go back to Earth. Now he was stuck here too. This was all getting to him and he was tired and needed rest. She could see it in his face, “I live not far, we’ll get you a hot meal and some rest, but your metal men must stay here.”
When he came out of the chamber and looked around the huge cavern. He had a hard time believing just how big it was. There were many plants, trees and, flowers of all kinds. The whole place was light by what looked like a small sun. There were even clouds in the sky.
For what he thought was about two weeks, he learned as much as he could about this new world where he found himself. The Noom had been here for eons, slowly building up their forces. Their race was few in number, but they were far more advanced.
Dawn had told him that the Noom had laid waste to there home World a few million years ago, and had almost killed there self’s off. They roamed space until they found Earth, but it was already occupied by far too many people for them to deal with at that time.
They spent the next few eons building the Moon bases and abducting people to study and for workers. Most of the people that were abducted were for experimental reasons. They had been looking for a way to kill off the whole Human race, and Dawn believed that they had found it.
This cavern was not the biggest, but it was huge, five miles across and ten long, and a good six deep he guessed. The whole reason for the cavern was to grow food and water plants. In this cavern, the base was at one end. Dawn’s home was a little more than six miles from there.
The nearest outpost was three miles away, and when it was time for some plants to be harvest she would go there and tell them where to go. This had worked for her in the last three years. The first years she had been experimented on, in many ways. Most of it was about why they were unable to read her mind.
The Noom had six ships, each could hold a hundred passengers, but there were ten times that many Nooms at this base. There was a base on the dark side that was building ships for the invasion. From what she had learned from the minds of the Noom at the outpost, they believe to have the ships ready in the next year at most.
This idea frightened him, they wanted to wipe out Mankind, and would soon be able too. Ten billion souls that had no clue that the Noom was even real or a threat. He wondered how he could warn the Earth. There was nothing he could think of.
He felt helpless, here he was hiding in the Moon from an alien force that was going to wipe out Mankind when in reality he should have died back in the tunnel. He couldn’t help think that he was spared for some reason, he just had to figure out why. He had a lot of time to think when Dawn was gone, there was little more for him to do.
In the middle of the third week, when Dawn was gone, he returned to the chamber where One was. He was surprised at how fast the plants were growing back. One was standing where he left him, “Radio the other Diggers and have them join you here, I’ll be back soon.”
When he reached Dawn’s home again, she was there and not too happy that he had been gone. “Do you want to get caught? If they find you, they will kill us both, but not before they suck your brain dry.” She was upset.
“Look I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing. You have to understand we can’t just live the rest of our lives here.” She was content with the way things were, but he was not.
“I have been here for five years, and at one time I too thought I should do something, but I have no clue what could be done.” He could hear in her voice and see it on her face, she was frustrated. She was scared of the Noom and had thought she was lucky to be alive still.
Over the next two weeks, he had with the help of One remover the head of the other three Digger. At first, he felt that One didn’t like helping him, but as they worked he told him what he had planned to do. It seemed the One was somehow more than just an M-Digger now.
He didn’t have time to question this then, he was too busy trying to work out what he had planned to do. One carried two of the heads and him one, back to Dawn’s home. Having One there was going to freak out Dawn he knew, but he needed One with him. He told One to take a seat as he started setting the table for dinner, knowing she would be home soon.
True to her nature when Dawn walked in, she almost yelled, “What the hell is he doing here.”
He almost laughed, but before he could answer One said, “I’m here to help save Mankind.” They both just stared at him in disbelief. He was not programmed for any type of free talk. Now he knew there was something wrong now for sure.
Hunter had to sit down, still holding a plate in each hand, he just didn’t know what to say. One had transcended its programming in some way. “Please don’t fear me. As I said, I’m here to help you. I know this is a little strange to you, but I can explain.” It stood up.
This made him stand, “Hold on now,” He knew he could outrun it if needed, “Who or what are you, and why would you help us?” He asked.
“I represent the only true life form from what you call the Moon. You would call us a bacteria. We tried to communicate with your kind a couple of times, but each time they would become sick with fever as did you.
We have never given much thought of other life, till the Noom showed up. They killed millions of our kind the first cavern that they cut out. We had no clue that there was even a surface to our World. We are only deep inside what you call the Moon. We have watched the Noom and have come to a decision.”
“That decision is to help us?” He finally was able to speak.
“Yes, but we want something in return.” One looked from him to her and back at him again. “We want Mankind to go no deeper than five miles when mining the surface. We only want to be left alone.”
For the next couple of hours, they talk and they learned that they called their self’s the Flow. This had to do with how their thoughts passed from one to another. He asked how the Flow was able to use the Digger, and it had told him, unknown to most Humans the Diggers each had the brain of a spider monkey.
This kind of shocked him, he could understand why this was not common knowledge. The Flow had a plan to wipe out the Noom, but there would be no way to save all the Humans that were being held by them. Only Dawn, him and about a hundred or so children from this base and maybe from one other could be saved.
This didn’t sound too good to him, but when you consider they were ten billion people in the balance. This did seem heartless, but the few Humans on the Moon should not matter as much in the bigger picture. “OK, where do you and the other Digger heads fit into this?” Hunter asked.
The Flow had been watching the Noom the whole time and know everything about the base. Were everything was placed to when they did the work. Who did what and why. Hunter had planned on using the Dagger heads to spy on them, but there was no need for that now.
The Flow wanted Dawn and him to go into the base and led out the children to the launch pad, and board one of the ships sitting there. He assured them that there would be no one to stop them. One was going to, wire up one of the heads into the control of another ship to act as a decoy so they had time to escape. This all sounded good to him, but they would have to trust what the Flow said.
“How is this going to deal with the Noom?” He asked. He was not sure that they could deal with them without his help.
“The less you know about that part the better if anything goes wrong. We will not be stopped, no matter what.” So if they failed to do there part, they were still going to do whatever it was, even if they too had to die. “The other two heads and I will join you on the ship.”
“You’re going with us?” Dawn asked.
“Yes, we will act as Emissary’s from the Flow to Earth once the Noom are gone.” He was not sure how this was going to work out. After a couple of hours of questions, he could not see anything wrong with the Flows reasoning.
One told them to rest, and they would be wakened up when it was time to go. This was going to take a lot of luck as far as he saw it, but it was better than just sitting here. He found it hard to fall asleep but finally did.
He had not seen the base before and was impressed. The launchpad was in the cavern, but most of the rest was in the wall. There were many large windows, but One had said that they would only think they were slaves, so they would not pay them much thought.
The launchpad was raised off the ground by a good 30 feet, so Dawn and he walked under it, and he took notice of where the stairway they were to use was. The place was empty just as they were told it would be. The Noom must have felt secure not to have any guards posted anywhere.
When they reached the door into the base, he used the code that One had given him and the door opened right up. He thought it was amazing that the Flow knew all of this stuff, but he guessed that being a bacteria they were everywhere. This made him wonder, how many of them would give up their lives to get this to work. They must have numbered in hundreds of millions if not more he thought.
It took them some time to get all of the children rounded up and make them understand they need to listen and be quiet, walk in single file, and they would get to go home. He could not believe that it took so long, and no one had seen them. There had to be more to it than just luck.
It took almost two hours before they were all on the ship. Dawn had her hands full with the children. He went into the control room and did what he was told to do, so the ship was ready when One join them. The ship seamed simple to run compared to one of Mankind's. He only had to push three buttons, and say stand by. It would take hours to get a Human ship ready.
A few minutes later, One join him, “I see you have made it. I’m happy that all had gone as planned so far. Are you ready to go back home now?”
“I’ll be happy to just stop the Noom, but home sounds good to me.” he smiled.
One pushed a button, and a wall became see throw. He could see the other ship as it began to hover. Then rose slowly at first, then it zipped out away from the wall of windows, and stopped. The view kind of wiggled, and then they were above the other ship.
A light bean shot from the other ship and cut across the wall of windows. Then the next thing he saw was stars, and they were in space. It made his head spin, and he had to grab ahold of the control penal. There was about one fourth the way to Earth in seconds. He was amazed, it had taken him three days from Earth’s orbit to get to the Moon.
“The Flow has just informed me, they are now ready to deal with the Noom. You will like to watch, I would think.” The ship began to rotate, and the Moon came in to view. From where they were it showed full, and he remembered the last time he had seen it like this. That was all most two years ago when he joined the mining group. He thought it beautiful then as he did now.
Why did One want him to watch the Moon, he wondered. “I thought the other ship was doing that when we got out of there.”
“What you saw was just so we could get out of there. The real show is about to start now.” He pointed at the Moon. What happened next made him weak in the knees and he was glad he was holding on to the control plane, or he would have dropped down on to the deck.
A flash of light blinded him for a second or two, and then he saw three cracks move across the surface as the shock wave jerked the ship around a little. The Flow had blown up the Moon, what were they thinking? Within minutes the pieces had moved apart.
There was a halo of gray-white dust around the pieces. He could only stand there with his mouth open. “The Noom has been dealt with. The Earth has nothing to worry about now.” One said. He was not so sure of that, now the Earth had to deal with the Flow.
From that day on Hunter Ash, was referred to as the man who broke the Moon, even thou he was not the one who did it. The Flow would no tell anyone how they had done it for fear that it could happen to the Earth. For many years the Moon, was in pieces but slowly it came back together, but this time it looked more like a big heart, and many thought it was even more romantic.
