Doug, Anna, Bill and I sat around the main console in the com dome.
‘Receiving you, over,’ said Neil.
‘Mark here. Well, it’s done. The military have won. It was a huge mistake and Earth will come to regret it. Over.’
‘It was out of my hands, Mark. General Gilby wants to speak to Doug. Over,’ said Neil.
‘Why Doug? Who is in charge of Moonbase? You told me I was the commander and Anna would be my deputy. Why are they wanting to speak to Doug? Over.’ I said.
‘You already know that, Mark, but hopefully it will be back to normal soon. How are Roy and the others recovering? Over,’ said Neil.
‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Here’s Doug.’
‘Hello, sir. Colonel Baker here. Over.’
‘What is the current situation, Colonel? Over,’ said the general.
‘The people from the rille have been dealt with. We are in total control of Moonbase and the Asimov Rille. I’ve a squad bringing some equipment and furniture back from the rille as we speak. The habitat is worth maintaining for scientific work, or even as an emergency solar flare shelter, according to Pete Hazel. Over.’
‘Well done, Colonel. You can hand over operations to Commander Noble, so that the entire facility can return to standard operations. Over.’
‘Some of the Chinese astronauts are hopping over to Ben Lei habitat in one of the Dragonstars. I’ve provided projectors in case there are bugs there too. Over,’ said Doug.
‘We have no problem with that, Colonel.’
Neil said, ‘I’ll pass on that information to Ms Liu and Mr Melapov. Bob is with us here. Over.’
‘I’d like to know why this action was taken, General,’ I said. ‘We had great success communicating with the infected and it was perfectly clear to us that the symbiosis was mutually beneficial. We also tested it with some of our own people and there were no adverse reactions whatsoever. The idea to set up a study section in the bio dome was the best solution, Over.’
‘Get real, Commander,’ said the General. ‘We had no way of telling whether they’d revert to type in order to conquer the Earth. We had no choice. Better to get it over and done with. Over.’
‘As far as I’m concerned, General, it was genocide of another intelligent species. Not only that, but it was the first alien life we have ever discovered… and you decided to eliminate it. I believe that to be a foolish and reprehensible decision. History will judge you severely! Over.’
‘Well, Mr Noble, you can think what you like. As far as we are concerned, we have saved the Earth from invasion and recovered a valuable scientific facility. Your attitude is noted. If I have anything to do with it, you will regret your words, and this will be the end of your NASA career.’
‘How dare you!’ I said. The niceties of waiting for “over” cast aside in my anger.
There was a short break in the transmission, then Neil spoke, ‘He’s left the room, Mark. Speaking to him like that was not a great career move. Over.’
‘After being undermined, frankly, I don’t give a damn, Neil,’ I said. ‘I’m resigning from NASA on my return to Earth.’
‘Don’t be hasty,’ said Bob Michaels. ‘The general has no influence over who we decide to work with or employ.’
‘We’ll see,’ I said, knowing I needed to be among the first to return to Earth. ‘For now, I am planning to send personnel who are not required here back to Earth. I’ll be returning with them. Over.’
‘I’m sorry you feel like that, Mark. Let’s talk about it when you return. Over,’ said Neil.
‘I’m with Neil on this,’ said Bob.
‘Nothing to talk about. Could you consider what your plans are for resuming the work at Moonbase? Bill and Anna feel exactly as I do and will be returning with me. Over.’
‘I will, Mark. I’m truly sorry about the action of the military. Over.’
‘What’s the latest from Amherst and Cambridge? Over.’
‘I’m meeting a delegation from both this afternoon. Over,’ said Neil.
‘Then you’ll probably realise what you have lost! Out,’ I said angrily and cut the transmission.
‘Well done,’ said Bill.
‘How’d it come over?’ I asked.
‘Brilliant,’ said Anna. ‘They hadn’t a clue. You should go into theatre.’ She laughed.
‘Sounded real to me,’ said Bill.
‘Great job, Doug,’ I said.
‘I’m still really uneasy about it. I’ve become a traitor to true humans,’ he said.
‘You seriously still concerned, Doug?’ I asked.
‘I could have murdered you when I realised what you’d done, but the calming, reasonableness of my entity soon found my areas of worry and settled them,’ said Doug.
‘Yes, she has a wonderful effect on my thoughts too,’ said Anna.
‘And, anyway,’ said Doug, ‘he’s just told me that I’m his hero!’
We all laughed.
‘Hard to think that just a week ago we saw them as enemies. Now the Earth is our enemy. A total turnaround,’ said Bill.
‘An inferior breed,’ I said. ‘We’re the future, but rather than stealing humankind’s future, we’re actually giving them access to the rest of the universe. It’s win-win for us all. They will soon realise this was the only way.’
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Five days later, the common room was packed. Everyone was there. I’d even broken the rule about the com dome always being manned. I left the computer to play answerphone.
I stepped up onto the small stage, which was sometimes used for karaoke, entertainment, or amateur dramatics. It probably wasn’t really necessary with the full complement of Moonbase usually being fewer than twelve people. Today, however, I looked out over a sea of more than thirty faces.
‘Thank you all for being here,’ I said. ‘I’m not a great one for speeches, but today I can see a group of likeminded people. We are all different, of course, but we all hold within us an entity who keeps us focused on what really matters.
‘Mary tells us we will soon be travelling to the stars. It has so augmented her astrophysics abilities that she now knows exactly how to build a starship. I, for one, want to be on board when we set out to leave the solar system. There are so many fascinating exoplanets with far more potential than Mars. Some might be habitable without suits and domes. Many of the thousands already found have liquid water if TESS is to be believed.’
[TESS = Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, launched 18th April, 2018.]
I continued, ‘Tosh tells me the entities have cures for most human diseases and we can all expect to double our remaining life expectancy. I dare say that would not have been possible if it hadn’t been for Tosh’s improved intellect with which he continually bludgeons the rest of us.’
The assembly laughed, even Tosh.
‘We are the most fortunate humans. We have discovered another intelligent race,’ I said.
‘Nah,’ Tosh shouted out, ‘they discovered us!’ More laughter.
‘Now we’re to set off on a great adventure, to enhance all of our fellow humans. To give everyone the opportunity to learn more about, firstly themselves, then our world and finally the universe. Space travel will become simpler and more accessible and, with our new abilities and clarity of thought, war and conflict should quickly become a thing of the past.
‘Most of us will be on Earth in a few days. We know we must be careful only to give away the secret of our new intellect to those we are enhancing. That will be someone new every two or three days. Those divided entities will know all that is known by their other halves and so will take over their hosts without pain and will quickly inform them of the wonderful lives they will be able to live.
‘Take care, everyone, but go eagerly and fearlessly into the future.’
Applause rang out and we all mingled for the last time. More than half of us were to leave Moonbase in the morning.