Lost Civilisations - A ScienceFiction Anthology

Moonbase by J. C. Gunn

Moonbase

By WillFlyForFood — Copyright © 2018 by J.C. Gunn

​Captain Colin McKenzie of the starship Richard P. Feynman continued the pre-landing briefing. "Okay crew this is the plan. We are in a low orbit of the bravo moon of Tau Ceti-2. As everyone can see from the monitors at their stations, that structure below us is a moon base and a big one. It makes our Luna-1 look like a kid's toy model... And it's old, real old. Richard estimates it's soumething on the order of four hundred million years old. So this is mostly an archaeological expedition."

​He looked at the eager faces of the bridge crew and continued. "So here's what we're gonna' do. Myself, Lieutenant Hansen, Colonel Jones, Doctor Scott, Communications Technician Dark Cloud and Colonel Chen will take the Bravo pod to the surface. Lieutenant Hansen will pilot and I will co-pilot. Commander Green, you are in Command in my absence."

​"Aye, sir."

​"D, if everything goes as planned, we'll be back in twelve hours. If we need assistance, we'll call you, but priority number one is to get the ship home. Got it!"

​His Second answered. "Yes, sir!"

​"Keep the Alpha lander on warm standby if needed, but remember it's your only remaining life boat. Anderson and Morales are on RESCAP alert as required. If something below goes to shit, do not lose my ship, understand that Mister?"

​"Aye, sir."

​Colin then looked to Doctor Scott and said. "Okay Doc, go ahead with the plan."

​Robert pressed a key at his station and the best image they had of the moon base appeared on the main viewer. "Our initial survey will be to find a safe landing site. We'll make an initial reconnaissance flyby and then go from there in accordance with Fleet protocol AE–1C. Richard, please give us the results of your initial findings on ship wide."

​"Yes, Doctor. The moon TC-2B has some similarities to Luna. It like Earth's moon was formed in the collision between TC-2 and some unknown planetesimal. It reformed in a tidally locked orbit some four billion years ago. It is an airless body made of lighter elements, mostly silica, aluminum, lithium, andoxygen. It has no significant magnetic field. The surface gravity is three-tenths standard. The core appears to be small and cold and there is no measurable seismic or tectonic activity."

​"Thank you, Richard, what about the base or bases as I should say."

​"Indeed Doctor, this appears to be the largest and most well preserved of at least twenty large moon bases. All seem to be arranged in the same general scheme. A central circular hub with spoke-like structures leading to five axial landing pads. Approximately fifty kilometers from each base are massive structures which appear to be landing areas for extremely large spacecraft."

​Richard continued. "The pads are all two point two kilometers on a side and are made of an unknown material."

​Colin shook his head a bit and said. "Thank you, Richard. Please configure your sensors for a holo cam channel on each EVA suit, and before Doctor Scott asks, please dedicate commchannel ten so that you and he can carry on a running conversation."

​Robert rolled his eyes and Mynah hugged him a bit and laughed. She asked Colin. "How did you know he would want that Captain?"

​"It's my ship; I'm supposed to know everything. And besides, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Richard can talk to sixty-four people at any one time."

​With a fake hurt feelings tone, the AI responded. "It's one twenty-eight now sir since the memory upgrade."

​Colin then laughed. "I know that Richard, I was just testing to see if you were paying attention."