The lander separated from the main ship with a soft mechanical clunk that echoed through the small cabin. It was not a reassuring sound. It was the sound of metal letting go of metal, which was never something you wanted to hear when you were floating in the endless void of space.
"Separation confirmed," Petrova's voice came through the comms from the main ship above. "You boys are free and clear. Looking good from up here."
Evans gripped the lander controls with both hands. His knuckles were white. His jaw was tight. The moon's surface rushed up toward them, grey and cratered and completely unforgiving. "Copy that, Lena. Beginning descent."
Chen was strapped in beside him, staring at the altimeter like it had personally threatened his family. "Altitude two thousand meters. Descent rate is nominal. Fuel is at sixty-two percent."
"Good. Keep those numbers coming, Mark."
"One thousand nine hundred meters. One thousand eight hundred. Still nominal. Everything is nominal. I love the word nominal. It's my favorite word now."
Thorne was in the back, gripping his harness with both hands. His face was pale. "Is it supposed to shake this much?"
"Yes," Evans said.
"Are you lying to make me feel better?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Just checking. Continue lying. I appreciate it."
"Eight hundred meters," Chen announced. "Fuel at forty percent. We're looking good. We're looking really good. We're looking nominal as hell."
The surface was close now. Evans could see individual craters and boulders and ridges. The dust was starting to rise, kicked up by the lander's exhaust, spreading across the grey landscape like a slow-motion fog.
"Five hundred meters. Four hundred. Three hundred."
"Easy now," Evans muttered to himself. "Easy. Nice and smooth."
"Two hundred meters. Fuel at twenty-five percent."
Thorne closed his eyes. "If we die, I want everyone to know I hated all of you."
"We know, Aris," Chen said. "We know."
"One hundred meters. Fifty meters. Thirty. Twenty."
The dust was everywhere now, a thick grey cloud that obscured everything except the glowing numbers on the instrument panel. Evans was flying blind, trusting the readings, trusting his training, trusting the machine beneath his hands.
"Ten meters. Eight. Five. Three."
A soft thump vibrated through the entire lander. The engines cut off. The dust slowly settled outside the window, revealing the grey surface of the moon stretching out in every direction.
Silence.
Evans exhaled. It was the longest breath of his entire life.
"Control," he said into his comm. "This is Odyssey Lander. We are on the surface. Repeat, we are on the surface. The moon has a new parking lot."
The response from Earth came through crackling with static and pure joy. "Copy that, Lander. We see you. Beautiful landing. Absolutely textbook. The whole world is watching and the whole world is cheering."
From orbit, Petrova's voice joined in, warm and proud. "I saw the whole thing from up here. Clean as a fresh snowdrift. Nice flying, Commander. You didn't crash and die."
"Thank you, Lena. That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"Don't get used to it."
Chen unstrapped and immediately started bouncing in his seat. "We're on the moon! We're actually on the f**king moon! Holy sht! Holy absolute sht!"
Thorne opened his eyes slowly. "We're alive?"
"We're alive!" Chen grabbed Thorne's shoulders and shook him. "We're alive and we're on the moon! Look out the window! LOOK!"
Thorne looked. His face shifted from terror to wonder in about half a second. "Oh my God. Oh my actual God. It's real. It's all real."
Evans allowed himself a small smile. "Gentlemen. Suit up. Let's go for a walk."
---
On the Surface — First Steps
The hatch opened with a soft hiss of equalizing pressure. Evans climbed down the ladder slowly, deliberately, feeling each rung through his thick gloves. His boot touched the grey dust and sank in slightly, leaving a perfect footprint.
"I'm on the moon," he said into his comm.
"Say the line, Commander!" Chen shouted from inside the lander. "Say the famous line!"
Evans sighed. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for—"
"Boring! Say something original!"
"Fine." Evans looked around at the endless grey landscape, the black sky, the blue Earth hanging in the distance. "This place looks like my uncle's driveway. Grey. Dusty. Needs power washing."
Chen's laughter exploded through the comms. "THAT'S the historic first words? That's perfect. That's absolutely perfect. I'm putting that on a t-shirt."
Thorne climbed down next, his boots kicking up slow clouds of dust that hung in the vacuum before settling back down. "Oh my God. Look at the Earth. Look at it. It's so small. So blue. So... far away."
"It's fine," Chen said, climbing down last. "We have a return ticket. Unless Lena decides to leave us here."
"Tempting," Petrova said from orbit. "Very tempting. But I'd miss Mark's annoying tapping too much."
"I knew you loved me."
"I tolerate you. There's a difference."
Evans clapped his gloved hands together, producing a dull thunk. "Alright. Enough standing around admiring the view. We have work to do. Aris, Mark, you're on sample collection. I'll supervise and make sure you don't break anything."
"Supervise?" Chen tilted his helmet. "That's just standing around with a fancy title."
"Exactly. It's why I became Commander."
---
Sample Collection — Learning the Tools
Thorne knelt in the grey dust, pulling out a small scoop from his equipment belt. The soil was fine, almost like grey flour, and it clung to everything it touched.
"Okay," Evans said, floating the instructions through the comms. "Aris, you want to use the small scoop first. Get about fifty grams of surface regolith. Put it in bag number one. Label it with location and depth."
"I know how to collect soil samples, Commander."
"I know you know. I'm just reading the checklist. Mission Control wants everything done exactly by the book."
"Mission Control can come up here and collect their own damn soil."
"I heard that," Mission Control said through the comms.
"Good," Thorne muttered, but he followed the instructions anyway, scooping grey dust into a white bag and sealing it carefully.
-I am not well , just a joke ,, will be continued tomorrow 😎
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