Shuttle six – Lunar inspection

      After the invisible hand of fear that had gripped his stomach, finally disappeared, leaving him in peace, Azakis had begun to pace nervously around the shuttle’s bridge muttering unintelligible phrases.

      "Will you stop going around and around in circles like a spinning top?" Petri scolded him. "You’ll wear the floor out and we’ll end up drifting about in space like two old disused satellites."

      "But how can you be so calm? The Theos has been destroyed, we’re millions of kilometres from our own planet, we can’t contact anyone and, even if we were to succeed, it would be impossible for someone to come and fetch us, and what do you do? You lay there slouched in your armchair as if you were on holiday, sitting on the cliff at the Gulf of Saraan enjoying the view at sunset."

      "Calm down old chap, calm down. We’ll find a solution, you’ll see."

      "At the moment I can think of absolutely none whatsoever."

      "Why are you so upset. It’s the gamma waves that your poor tired brain is emitting, that are preventing you from reasoning with lucidity."

      â€œDo you think so?"

      "Of course," replied Petri with a lovely big smile. "Come and sit down beside me, take some deep breaths and try to relax. You’ll see, before long everything will seem very different."

      "You may well be right, my friend" said Azakis as, following the advice of his companion, he threw himself heavily into the second pilot’s grey armchair, "but at the moment I can do everything but relax."

      "If you promise to calm down, I’ll even let you smoke one of those filthy smelly things you always carry around with you."

      "Well, actually that might be a good idea. I’m sure it’d help me a bit." Having said that, he pulled a long dark hand-rolled cigar from a pocket and, after having cut the ends with a strange multicoloured contraption, put it in his mouth and lit it. He quickly inhaled several puffs letting small bluish smoke clouds disperse into the room. With a slight hiss, the shuttle’s automatic air purification system was activated. In a few moments the smoke vanished and with it also the pungent sweetish smell.

      "But, this way, there’s no fun," exclaimed Azakis who was already in a much better mood. "I’d forgotten how efficient our purification systems are."

      "You designed them," answered Petri. "They couldn’t be otherwise."

      The tension seemed to be slowly melting away.

      "Let’s take stock of the situation," proposed Azakis as, with his cigar still between his lips, he enabled a series of holograms which positioned themselves in mid-air all around the two aliens. "We’ve got four operational shuttles including our own. The Theos-2 has now landed on Nibiru and both are outside the range of action of the optical vortices communication system." He puffed out another couple of little clouds of smoke, then he continued, "Propellant and food stocks are at ninety-nine percent."

      "Well done, I see you’re taking control of the situation again. Go ahead" Petri urged, satisfied.

      "All the remaining six members of the crew are in perfect condition. Shields and equipment are at maximum efficiency. The only problem is that we no longer have an H^COM to contact the Elders and report on the situation."

      "And that’s where you’re wrong" exclaimed Petri.

      â€œWhat do you mean?”

      "I mean there’s still one working H^COM."

      "But if the only one we had was destroyed with the spacecraft."

      "What about the one we left with the terrestrials?"

      "Gosh, you’re right! I hadn’t thought of that. We’ll have to return and get them to give it to us."

      "Calm down old chap, calm down. We’ve got time for that. First, I’d go and have a look on the moon to see if we can recover anything from our beautiful ship that you merrily smashed into pieces."

      â€œMe? What have I got to do with it? It was you who made it explode up there."

      "And who was it who lost the remote-control system?"

      "But that was your fault. The clasp was defective."

      â€œAll right, all right! What’s done is done. Now let’s try to get to grips with this situation. Although I’m an incurable optimist, at the moment, I can’t see any brilliant solutions."

      "That’ll be the gamma waves" retorted Azakis, repaying his friend with the same currency. "Assuming of course that those four neurons lurking in your empty head are still able to emit them."

      "After that pitiful joke, I can finally announce that the old Zak is once again amongst us. Welcome back."

      "So, can you manage to get this shuttle to the explosion site without crashing into some lunar elevation?"

      "Certainly sir. At your orders," exclaimed Petri, imitating the military ways he had often seen used by his terrestrial friends. "Destination moon" he added cheerfully, after having started the engines and set the course towards the satellite.

      It took only a couple of minutes to reach the place where the Theos had disintegrated. The shuttle began to slowly fly over the area of the hidden face of the moon that had suffered the impact of the explosion. The ground, normally very bumpy and full of craters caused by ancient impacts of hundreds of meteorites that, over millions of years, had literally riddled it, now appeared incredibly smooth and flat for about six hundred square kilometres. The wave of energy generated by the explosion had swept everything away. Rocks, craters and depressions no longer existed. It was as if a giant steamroller had passed over the area, leaving behind it an endless expanse of soft grey sand.

      "Incredible," exclaimed Petri. "It’s like flying over the immense Sihar desert on Nibiru."

      "We’ve made a big mess" said Azakis dejectedly.

      "No. Can’t you see how beautiful the view is now? Before the surface had more wrinkles than our Supreme Elder, now instead it’s as smooth as a baby’s skin."

      "I don’t think there’s much of our beloved spacecraft left."

      "I'm running a full in-depth scan of the area, but the biggest piece I’ve found is approximately a few cubic centimetres."

      "There’s no denying it. The self-destruct system worked really well."

      "Hey Zak" exclaimed Petri suddenly. "In your opinion, what's that?” and he pointed to a dark spot on the main screen.

      "I wouldn't know... You can’t see it very well. What do the sensors say?"

      "They’re not picking anything up. According to them there’s nothing but sand there, but I think I can see something else."

      "It’s impossible that the sensors can’t pick something up. Try doing a calibration test."

      "Just