Melinda arose from her bed, still drowsy, and sat at the edge, her body making minimal dent on the mattress. She felt light. And for obvious reason. She was experiencing one-sixth of her body weight. She needed to get accustomed with this new reality. At least for the next six months.

Ron was already out making system checks.

I should join him, she thought.

The two of them were the first of the crew to arrive on the Moon for the mission of the new decade. The mining missions marked the beginning of Man's reaching out beyond their planet of origin. It opened up all sorts of new possibilities.

They had set up their base early on after they had landed. Lightweight and flexible, it was made so to reduce payload weight as much as possible. Now, this makeshift base was to be their home for the coming months.

The others would not all come till the next week. I feel so much responsibility right now. It's only me and him. And I am older! She shook her head out of her thoughts and sipped some water.

Hers was the first of the six rockets to come to the moon. Each carried two people. The other rockets were to be launched the following week owing to the foul weather conditions on the other parts of the world. This was a joint mission of all the big nations.

She sipped some mouthwash. She instantly felt the minty freshness. After two minutes, she spat it into the garbage container.

She dropped a few millilitres of water from her bottle into her palm and noticed how much more it was bulging as compared to that on Earth. She carefully wetted her face with the amount. Her eyes felt better.

After following a few procedures, she changed into her spacesuit, depressurised the airlock, and set foot outside. It was... eerie. It was hard to believe that there were no humans except Ron in almost three hundred and eighty thousand kilometres. She had come to a place where she could die by the smallest discrepancies. Her life depended on machines and resources.

She had rehearsed this situations countless times, but it failed to match the actual reality. Just because those were tests on Earth, however realistically they might be set, it didn't register to her, psychologically as the same. There, she knew if something were to go wrong, she had many to take care of her. The test could simply be put off. But here, there was nobody. Not yet. Ron could be only so much of assistance. And even with everyone, they were a mere dozen crew. And every human is bound to make wrong decisions or some mistakes.

She shook her head out of the negative thoughts and just took the surroundings in. She was one of the first in years to set foot on the Moon. She was so lucky. And yet she didn't feel so.

"The rest of the solar panels have been set up," Ron came in the transmission. "We just need to connect the wires, now."

"Okay, Ron," she said in her headset by pressing down on the voice input button by the side of her helmet. Their spacesuits were a lot less heavy and bulky and were improved versions of their predecessors who had walked the moon for the first time. This was the first time this generation of suits made it to outer space.

Melinda hopped her way towards Ron. It was surprisingly entertaining. Each thud was soft at her feet and the lunar dust softly settled in the wake of the subtle impacts. Grains falling in slow motion, settling back where they had been for eternity.

She gave him her hand at the work and soon, the solar panels were connected to the lab. It powered up.

The rows of solar panels aimed at the sun. Unobstructed by any atmosphere, the power input was appreciable.

Melinda's gaze hovered towards the sky. There her home lay, lapped by the cusp of the valley. Earth.

A little over a half of it protruded to make its presence. It was a marvelous sight. To be able to see humanity from this uncanny perspective. All of mankind on a single sphere, two oddities in exception.

She turned on the camera attached to her helmet.

"What are you doing?" Ron came in.

She turned towards him. "Taking a picture of the setting Earth." Her voice was engraved in a smile.

Ron had stopped what he was doing, and was looking at her. She stood on a  dune and right infront of her was the Earth peeking from the gap of the valey.

"I think this will be the next most influential picture ever taken." Her voice snorted as it came in. Ron had to grin. Amidst all the workload, he had missed admiring the sights. Missed the feeling being on a different 'rock'. This perspective was a change. He needed to realise what he had accomplished and for a moment stop treating this as a job. Children would learn about this. Like the pioneers, this dozen crew were the highlight of the century. Although probably they'd get less recognition than the ones who first set foot on Moon. It was still something. They were here performing the first step to create something never done before. It was the beginning of colonisation. Even if that be realised a century later.

He inhaled deeply and called her over. Both of them admired the picture. They sent the picture to the mission control back on Earth with the boastful caption Melinda had in mind: The next most influential picture in the history of mankind.

__________

In a course of a few hours they had pretty much set up everything in order and were ready to start mining for the first time. They took out their moonrover- a beast of a vehicle, but lightweight due to its carbon fibre chassis. It had drills in its dexterous arms and a mini lab interior with data feeds and other necessities.

They removed their spacesuits in the airlock and went inside. The spacesuits were immediately exposed to vacuum and the moon dust was cleaned in the process. Filters in the vents recycled the impure air. Moon dust was fine, grainy and stuck to the suits with electrostatic force, so they were placed in a special position so as to maximize the effect of the escaping gush of air to clean the exterior of it.

This rover was a lot like the models made to be run on Mars, and looked mostly alike. With six wheels, three on each side, it was like a gigantic insect scurrying on grey soil.

It could rotate- it's wheels each angled just enough to allow it to do so while stationed at one place. It could also move sideways like a crab.

Their primary resource to be mined was water ice. There were many applications for it but primarily it could be transformed into rocket fuel. The same liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel that was now being used for almost a century. The reason they were here in the first place.

Besides all this, there was another groundbreaking feat. Something that changed the history of the bland surface of the moon forever.

It was brown. Eventually to give way to greenery.

They had successfully set up a greenhouse by the side of the lab. The seeds were planted and it was to be observed how the plants grew being subjected to low gravity. For the first time in millions of years, soil of the Earth and moon lay side by side; or rather one on top of the other.

Once the colony was self sufficient, they no longer had so much dependence on earthly resources. But it all came down to if the plants were able to grow with the reduced gravity.

Ron revved the powerful engine of the rover. It's batteries activated. They had a list of craters where they were to conduct the first surface mining. "Command, we are going for the first manned mining of the mission," Ron mouthed into his mike. There was a tranquil smile on his face. Melinda returned the same gesture to him from the side.

Ron drove the vehicle while Melinda maneuvred the robotic arms. It was she who was doing the mining.

The rover began treading, it's six wheels gracefully etching a pattern on the lunar soil which could remain there for millennia if unattended, and jumping now and then- short air times ranging from hardly over a second to almost five times more than that. The suspension of the wheels minimalised the force of the impacts and the ride was nothing short of being smooth.

They changed courses and finally arrived at their first dig site. The crater was very old and must have been no less than half a kilometre wide. The rover slowly made it over the brim of it and came to a stop where the curvature flattened. Ron turned on the sensors and they followed the readings as they mined. It was hard to believe these chunks of rocks could be worth so much. They found plenty of water ice and other minerals frozen underneath the area. They had a maximum capacity and they needed to be absolutely sure to not cross it. Melinda drilled enough and the rocks were put in the trailer in the hind section.

This was done regularly and the date soon arrived when the others would be coming.

But something remarkable happened on the fifth day. Something which was utterly unexplainable and unexpected.

Melinda was digging when Ron reported something. "Hey, take a look at this."

Ron sent a copy of the data readouts and thermal imaging to the Command. Their feed was cut to the world and what followed next was carried out in complete secrecy. The public was told there were some issues in transmissions which would soon be resolved. But the government knew the reality. In that image they could make out an outline of an object. Too perfect in dimensions to be ruled out as anything natural.

It was quickly dug up and put away with the other rocks. They were guided how to put it away safely and in complete secrecy. They couldn't show this to the other crew members when they arrived.

They had mixed feelings about the ordeal and an uncomfortable sensation churned in their stomachs as they failed to fathom what they had actually unearthed.

Because whatever that thing was, it definitely wasn't mother nature's creation.

What is a cube doing on Moon of all places? And what do the symbols mean? was all that echoed in both their minds.

__________

Their eyes flickered happiness as they saw the landers from the other nations arrive the scheduled day one by one. Finally they weren't alone anymore.

Everything went swiftly after the arrival of the others. In spite of their racial and physical differences, they were paving way for humanity's future. This was a joint mission of all the big nations. This was to remain forever as an example of unity and cooperation.

But individually, all of them worked for their own. They were representatives of their nations. And they had deathly protocols should anything go wrong, oblivious to the others. Humanity could never stop suspecting itself. For it was an imperfect race. Had always been. We could evolve, develop, progress and adapt. But we will always remain the same.

Over the course of months new habitats and other buildings were set up and the mining continued. A working refueling station was not far off into the future anymore.

At last when the sun set for the coming six months, the crew left the barren satellite back en route to their home planet. It had been quite an adventure and each of them longed to see their families again.

Yet fate did not allow it. At least not to Melinda or Ron.

While re-entry, they faced an anomaly.

"Hey, the systems are all showing strange readings... what's happening?" Ron hyperventilated.

Melinda could not find any explanations, until she noticed  something. "Hey! The cargo area. It's radiating. Wh-... oh my god. Ron!"

She didn't need to finish the sentence. Ron had understood. And so did the men in charge operating from Earth. They thought of again cutting off transmissions from the rest of the world-

But it was too late.

They saw it crack.

They saw bursts.

And then like meteors in the night sky, it rained down on Earth.

There was silence that loomed over the world for several minutes in the wake of what they had just witnessed.

To the world, they had just lost two of the first crew due to unexplainable reasons. But to the authorities, it was something entirely else, albeit unexplainable all the same. But it had a source. They knew what had happened. But they could never disclose it. It had to be covered up. The world was not ready yet. And probably never will be.