LOCATION: CRATER X5203-ALPHA
AREA: FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
DATE: JANUARY 5, 2164 | TIME: EARLY MORNING
Lunar Launch Base Gamma was deep inside Crater X5203-Alpha on the far side of the moon. It was a base designed to launch and receive cargo and personnel in specially designed containers and craft.
The superconducting rails were buried deep inside the crater and, just like a railgun, electromagnetism did the work of accelerating the containers from a locked stop, to a speed sufficient to break free of Earth and the moon’s gravitational field.
Kaela and Elena Sirova arrived at the base and descended the stairs from their transport, entering the airlock.
A decontamination spray removed particles and microbes. Then, a long hiss sounded out as the vacuum of space was replaced with air.
Finally, a green light lit up on a panel overhead, and the doors in front of them slid open.
A dozen people passed by without even glancing their way.
The sisters wore dark gray spacesuits made from special fabric that blocks out micro-impacts from space dust and debris. An orange stripe ran down the left arm and leg of their suits, indicating they were members of the Peacekeeper Force.
“Commander and Lieutenant Commander Sirova! We were unaware of your visit.”
The captain of Lunar Launch Base Gamma, Juniper Greene, rushed toward the two sisters as they were removing their helmets.
“Sorry for the surprise visit, Captain Greene,” Kaela said. “We received some strange signals coming from the base and needed to investigate.”
Kaela looked around. Their Peacekeeper suits were beginning to attract attention.
“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” she asked.
Captain Greene escorted Kaela and Elena down a hallway, through a glass sliding door, and into her office.
As they walked through the arrival lobby, Kaela saw that everyone else wore jumpsuits similar to the ones she and Elena had. The only difference was the color of the stripe on the left arm and leg.
Once they were inside the captain’s office, she indicated two chairs in front of her desk and took a seat in her own chair.
Kaela noticed the chairs were thick and heavy.
Living on the moon with a sixth of Earth’s gravity required a lot of changes, she thought, as she slid her bulky chair forward.
“Now,” Captain Greene said, “what can I do for such esteemed guests from the Peacekeepers?”
Kaela removed a tablet from her gear bag, tapped through a few screens, and slid it across the desk to the captain.
“We detected anomalous communications leaving Gamma Base over the past several days, and need to investigate. Is there any reason your base would have to send signal bursts outside the solar system, Captain Greene?”
Greene took the proffered tablet and studied the screen carefully.
Her eyebrow arched.
“These started six days ago. Give me a moment.”
She brought out her own tablet and spent a minute sorting through her data.
“There were three arrivals during the three-day period prior to this. One was from Earth, one from Jupiter’s moon Callisto, and one…”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Her voice trailed off, then she looked up at them.
“This other one didn’t have prior authorization. They had sent a distress call and asked to land for repairs. Do you think it might be related?”
Kaela and Elena looked at each other and nodded.
“Certainly a good place to start,” Kaela said. “Send the details to my tablet and we’ll get to work.”
Greene swiped the data to Kaela’s tablet.
“Your Peacekeeper IDs should get you through any door on the base. If you have any trouble, message me through the System directly and I’ll get you help right away.”
Then, she leveled her gaze on the two sisters.
“And thank you for your diligence.”
“Of course, ma’am,” Elena said, smiling. “It’s what we do.”
Kaela and Elena left the office, and the glass doors hissed closed behind them.
“Where should we begin?” Elena asked.
After exchanging their Peacekeeper uniforms for ones with blue stripes for cleaning and administrative staff, the sisters got to work.
Keeping a low profile on a relatively small base like Gamma was a challenge, but people were used to ignoring admin and cleaners.
Over the next several days, the sisters trailed three members of a cargo transport that did small mining in the asteroid belt and brought them back to the moon for shipping back to Earth.
The two men and one woman were eccentric, and always spoke in whispers so faint that both Kaela and Elena, with their enhanced Perception, couldn’t hear a single word.
On the third day of their investigation, Elena watched from behind a partition as the three entered their temporary lodging.
Just as the door slid shut, she saw a shimmer, and the woman’s body turned gray with a crystalline texture that almost made her appear like she was encrusted with diamonds.
The body cams all Peacekeepers wore on assignment recorded it all, and the sisters went over the footage several times before deciding to act.
They knocked on the door and heard some whispered scrambling, along with three whooshes before the door opened.
“Hello,” the female said, “what can we do for you? The apartment has already been cleaned—”
“Please step aside,” Kaela said, flashing her Peacekeeper badge.
They looked at each other, but the female did as she was told while Kaela and Elena entered.
“We are Kaela and Elena Sirova,” Elena said. “We’re part of the Peacekeeper Force, tasked with protecting Earth and humanity.”
The female stepped back, while the two males took a marked step forward.
One of them spoke first. His tone was decidedly hostile, and his stance wasn’t hiding his intentions either.
“You’re intruding on our space. You are not welcome here.”
Kaela sighed.
“I was going to say we can do this the easy way or the hard way, but you appear—”
The man moved quickly, attacking low with an electric saber that appeared in his hand out of nowhere.
Kaela didn’t even bother dodging.
She reached inside his swing and grabbed his wrist. Then she squeezed it. Hard.
The saber dropped to the floor, inert without his hand on the handle.
Elena picked it up and spent a minute looking at it while Kaela stared the man down.
She still had his wrist in her grip, and his balance was starting to falter.
He fell to one knee, and his disguise flickered.
“This saber is pretty neat,” Elena said playfully. “We might have to study it before giving it back to you.”
The other two didn’t dare to move, shocked that the small human possessed enough strength to overpower their Brute.
Elena figured out the mechanism on the saber, and blue sparks began moving along the blade in a slow arc.
She stepped next to the Brute on one knee and held the saber up to his neck.
“I think the fight’s over now,” she said. “Time to talk.”
“And you can drop the disguises,” Kaela said. “Not as if we’ve never seen other life forms before.”
The three glanced at each other, and their disguises fell as if washed away by water.
They sat at the table and Kaela and Elena began their interrogation.
“What was your purpose in visiting Earth? Why the disguises?” Kaela asked.
The female, named Quaynit, did all the talking for the group.
“We were sent to determine if your race was expansionist or peaceful.”
Elena’s brow arched.
“Why can’t we be both?”
“Please,” Quaynit said, “expansionist races are only interested in pillaging resources and enslaving others.”
Kaela sighed.
“Ours is indeed interested in exploration and expansion, but we are apparently the exception to the rule because we do not enslave or pillage. In fact, we have formed alliances with the Krollans of the Orion Mercantile Syndicate, and many others.”
“Truly?” Quaynit asked. “The Krollans are well-respected. Would you be willing to put us in touch with a cultural liaison? Perhaps we don’t need to achieve our mission through stealth after all.”
Kaela laughed.
“The minute you entered Earth’s atmosphere, our nanites would have stripped those disguises anyway. But I’m glad you claim to be here with peaceful intentions. Once we clear your story, we can get you what you need.”
For the next two days, the three were confined to their rented quarters, but once their story was confirmed, they were free to roam the base.
Kaela dispatched a cultural liaison, and in the end, long-term diplomatic relations were established.
Humanity had a new ally in the multiverse. And that was always welcome.