SUNGLASESS AND ROCKETS Part 2: The Machine

THE ONE THOUSAND RESOURCE MAN

The motivation worked. We bailed out of the ship at the speed of light and leaped away.

It wasn't easy to move on, the ground was a sandbank. It was easy to get stuck. It was no party either to follow our captain, who was leaving behind a cloud of dust; the dust particles adhered to the helmet and almost blocked all visibility.

Still, the doctor was hastening.

"It's a landslide zone," he said between puffs. "Do not stop!"

I wasn't aware of where I stepped. The glare of the lights hardly passed through my dusty visor.

Luckily, the ground hardened soon. It was easier to advance and our race became an accelerated march of leaps, inevitable for beings used to a more intense gravity. After a few minutes of walking like that, once again the doctor's voice was heard through the headphones.

"Stop," he ordered.

I collapsed at once.

"What's the plan now? I heard a panting Darwin.

"We are at Taurus Littrow," the doctor replied. "The Moon Buggy should not be far..."

Such insinuation had me emit an utterance. Nevertheless, I was too shaken as to articulate any word, so lying on my back on the ashy ground, I resigned myself to listen to the conversation about to begin:

"The Moon Buggy?" Darwin wanted to know. "The one from Apollo 17 ?"

"That's right," the doctor replied. "We'll follow the traces*...we'll just have to check the batteries and I'm sure they work."

The doctor was right! On the last four Apollo missions they had taken vehicles to the moon. And left them there.

"Gordo?" he continued. "Are you up for this?"

From my comfortable sandy bed, I raised my thumb.

"If I take a few minutes break, I think—"

"Darwin. Help him get up. Let's go."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and then lifting me.

"So," I heard Darwin say, as I felt something rubbing against my visor, "will we use the Moon Buggy to go to the base?"

My visor was shiny clean. I noticed that Darwin was in front of me and I raised my thumb again as a thank you. Behind me, the doctor was squatting and still not answering. He was checking out a stone.

"Doctor?" Darwin insisted and turned towards him. "The base is too far to get there in a Moon Buggy..."

The one thousand resource man put the stone down and got up.

"Sure. We'll use it only to get out of this zone...they know at the base that we're here..."

My sight was captured by the impressive sandbanks in the distance. Even so, I still paid attention to the doctor's words:

"Whatever is happening on the other side, be sure they'll come to get us. We'll leave in an hour in the Moon Buggy. Then, in a more accessible zone, we'll wait quietly to be spotted."

"Then, they will come to get us?" Darwin wanted to make sure.

"Consider it done."

I couldn't stop scanning the mysterious view.

"What if they shoot us first?" I interrupted.

At that moment, I saw the debris of the spacecraft, barely visible among what seemed to be a dune.

"It's also probable that they will shoot us," the doctor replied. "But we have no choice..."

Well, I thought.

"We have to take the risk if we want to get to the base as soon as possible," our boss offered . "Let's go!"

*Since there is no air in the moon, the marks do not erase, they last millions of years.