The Long Way Around

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During the descent, the First Lunar Outpost resembled toys set out on the sand. In a rough straight line were the FLO Center, the Oxygen Furnace Complex about five kilometers distant, and the Silent Earth Radio Telescope some twenty-five kilometers further.

Standing now at the open hatch of the lander, Adrian gazed out. Low in the sky, its lower limb kissing the horizon, the bright disk of the full Earth cast a blue-gray luminance onto the nighttime lunar landscape. He rested his gaze on the Oxygen Furnace, his responsibility now, but then looked upward as a light in the sky caught his attention. The exhaust of the deceleration rocket.

Suspended from the supply rocket by a hundred meters of unmeltable ceramic fiber, hung a huge container delineated by blinking red beacons.

“Sort of pretty, isn’t it?” came Victor’s voice from the radio speaker in Adrian’s helmet, sounding tinny and distant even though he stood just behind Adrian with their helmets almost touching.

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