Lana and Nathan hurried to comply, and their spacesuits grew to cover their heads. Bulco opened the door, letting the air out. His feet touched the ground and a soft glow came from his shoes. He looked down. “These zero-grav boots look like LED sneakers.” He walked gingerly, testing their performance. After several steps, he grew confident enough to walk over to the edge of the hole and look inside. His breath caught up in his throat.

“Holy mother of God.”

14 - Moonwalking

“What do you see?” Nori’s voice was tense over the comms.

“It’s a giant, red-hot piece of rock,” Bulco said. “It’s enormous.”

Lana and Nathan approached him and looked down. “It’s a meteorite,” the woman said. “Since it’s still hot, it probably hit the surface not long ago.”

“How did it heat up?” Nori said. “There’s no atmosphere here to cause friction.”

“You’re right,” Lana said in astonishment. “I have no idea.” She bent down and picked up a small piece of rock.

“What are you doing?” Bulco asked.

“This piece looks different from the others,” the woman explained. “I think it’s a little warm too. It could have broken off the meteorite. Maybe we can analyze it back on Unity.”

“Good idea, Lana,” Nori said. “Though we don’t exactly have a science lab over here.”

“It’s worth a try,” Lana said. “I think it’s safe to assume the heat was the energy signature I detected earlier.”

“Well, this has been interesting, but there’s not a lot we can do about it,” Bulco said. “We should get back to the ship.”

Nathan and Lana nodded and followed the Engineer back to their vehicle. The drive back to the ship went smoothly.

Once the door closed behind them and the cargo hold pressurized, the door to the bridge opened and Nori stepped through.

“So for our first moon mission we found a piece of rock?” she asked.

Bulco shrugged. “Looks like it.”

“A glowing rock,” Lana corrected.

“Damn.” Nori looked down for a moment then back up at her friends. “Life support system had a hard time pressurizing the hold. I’m pretty sure we can do it one more time, but we’ll have to take it easy after that.

“But we have two more potential targets,” Lana said anxiously. “Which one are we going to check out next?”

Nori looked at her. “The meteorite was the strongest energy signature, right?”

Lana nodded.

“Then let’s go to the weakest one next. It’ll help give us a perspective to what the sensors are showing us.”

“All right.”

“Then buckle up,” Nori said, walking toward the bridge.

Unity shuddered as the thrusters fired up, and she was soon flying above the moon’s surface, speeding toward their next target. Nori’s eyes narrowed in concentration as she guided the ship with minuscule movements of her holographic-wrapped fingers.