“Roger that, Jules, be careful,” Craig said over the radio.
Julie Monroe stepped into the chamber, wondering if she would be stuck there, and turned to look at the doorframe to see if there were any symbols or icons she could recognize. She practically held her breath waiting to see if the doors would close. They didn’t.
She turned back and scanned the room and then stepped toward the center console. She reached it in five steps and looked at the flat console top and the strange markings glowing on a panel facing her, a small, flat, clear glass slide sticking out above what looked to be a glowing green icon. She decided she would press the small glowing green depression and reached for it and then realized that just because it was green didn’t mean it was safe. In fact, it could mean the opposite.
Her hand froze above it, her gloved, rubber-tipped finger hovering near it when suddenly the console lit up and the most detailed, most beautiful hologram she had ever seen was displayed above the flat console top. There, in exquisite detail, was the unmistakable shape of a double-sided helix twirling slowly in a circle pattern, the universal symbol for life itself, DNA.
“My God,” Julie said.
Chapter 31
Atomic Arrival
NASA Space Center
Houston, Texas
In the near future, Day 48
“What did you send them?” Vice President Lee asked from the floor of Houston’s control center.
Rock nodded and Marge spoke. “The alien signal now appears to be half the genetic code for Homo sapiens. We simply took the other strand, coded it to match their pulse rate and frequency, and shot it back at them.”
An aide tried to give the vice president his secure radio phone, but the man waved it away. “That’s it? All this time it was a biological message?”
Marge looked to Rock, and he knew he’d have to run interference since he authorized the return signal in the first place. “Not a message, Mr. Vice President, instead it was more of a query, a way to ascertain if we were of the same genetic coding or not.” Seeing the confusion on the man’s face, Rock explained, “It was more like a password on a computer system than anything else.”
Lee looked at Rock and then reached for the phone. “Sorry, Gloria, just getting some details on what transpired down here. It seems our NASA team sent a radio reply back to the device.”
There was a pause, a nod, and then, “Are you sure? NORAD has updated the track? All right, I’ll inform them immediately and then we can debrief. All right, goodbye.” Lee handed the receiver back to his aide. “Mr. Crandon, it appears that the Chinese rocket has accelerated. Impact will be fifteen minutes earlier than our previous estimate. Get your team out of there now.”
“Jesus,” Tom said from the other side of Rock’s console.
“Jack,” Rock said, practically screaming over the top of the murmurs from the NASA technicians and the vice president’s aides. “Call abort immediately. Have Craig and Julie evac the area now.”
Jack didn’t hesitate as he called to their astronauts over a quarter million miles away.
“Will they have enough time, Marge?” Rock asked, following her to her console a few steps away as Marge sat and started to pound on her keyboard, entering new data and details into her Gant charted spreadsheet.
“Taking off fifteen minutes exactly?” Marge asked, looking at the vice president, who nodded. Marge made a last couple of clicks and then looked at Rock and shook her head.
“I repeat, immediate evac NOW!” Jack did scream, though it wouldn’t help as the electronic signal was digitized and put back together at the correct decibel level, though perhaps the tone of his voice would convey the urgency of his message.
“How bad, Marge?” Rock asked.
“They’re already a minute overdue, add reaction time, and they’ll be at least two to four minutes down depending on how quickly they leave the area. Any chance that the yield on the nuke will be less than we factored for?” Again, a look to the vice president.
“Most likely we were being conservative in the first place,” Lee said, his voice now getting harder to hear.
Everyone turned to Jack, who looked up from his console and took his headset off. “They’ve been notified and are evacuating the area now.”
Silence engulfed the normally noisy control center.
Alien Device
Surface of the Moon, Mons Crater
In the near future, Day 48
“What the hell do you mean we have to go now?” Julie asked, somewhat annoyed at Craig’s relay of the NASA message.
“The nuke is going to show up early. We have been ordered to evac now. Come on, Jules, we have to get out of here.”
Julie Monroe stood looking at the intricate dance the DNA strand made as it glowed and slowly twirled in the air, seemingly to float right in front of her, and felt a strange sadness at having only now discovered the alien technology, though there was no sign of alien life. She took only a split second to make her decision, but it felt like an eternity. Julie grabbed the flat, clear slide that was protruding from the center of the console and tugged on it, expecting resistance. It came out easily, and the holograph disappeared. She placed the clear slide into her Velcro-lined outer pocket and pressed to seal it securely.
She heard the faint static pulsing of the alien signal again as it reactivated. Julie turned and ran toward the doorway, bumping her head off the ceiling of the chamber as she forgot about the effect of lesser gravity.
Without much grace, she tumbled, bumped, and ricocheted off the walls of the ramp-way, exiting onto the dark lunar surface illuminated by the rover’s powerful overhead lighting array and a bright pulsating light coming from the diamond-tipped obelisk, which was now active again.
“Get in, quick,” Craig’s voice came over the radio channel.
Julie squinted only slightly as the lights from the rover were much brighter than the chamber’s illumination, and she noticed the robotic arms seemingly curled up in a prayer-like position over the suited forms of two humans lying in the large caged storage bin at the rear of the rover.
Reaching for the door, she opened it, stepping onto the lone step, and pulled herself inside. Before she could shut the door, the rover lurched once and then suddenly took off, crashing her suited form into the robotic arm console and nearly cracking her faceplate. The outer door swung violently from its hinge, and Julie struggled to right herself.
“Slow down, Craig, you nearly cracked my skull,” Julie said over her voice-activated mike.
“No time, Jules, we may be too late as it is,” Craig said, the rover suddenly veering to the west, barely missing the Russian lander.
“You’re heading too far south; must go west,” Julie said, trying to get back to the rear seat and failing miserably in the process.
“Must go southwest, Jules. I’m heading for the higher and closer lip of the Mons Crater. We need to get out of the area’s LOS,” Craig shot back, his voice back to the usual static that she remembered as the pulsating alien signal continued.
Julie noticed in the fading light that there were drag marks and footprints from the Russian lander back toward the alien device. Looking through the rear window viewport, she saw the figures of both cosmonauts. Had Craig really retrieved the other one from the lander?
The rover hit an outcropping, and Julie was hurled into the top of the rover. She heard a cracking sound, which could only mean it was her helmet. The rear compartment was still not pressurized and sound would not carry if it was the rover that had cracked.
Landing on her stomach and across the chair, she lifted herself with great effort and sat in the same spot Craig had used on their trip to the device. Quickly strapping the safety harness across her torso, she inserted the safety clips into their reinforced holders and felt the harness restrain her as the rover hit another outcropping. Julie unconsciously pressed her gloved hand across her breast pocket and felt the reassuring presence of the alien slide.