Sealed
It had been an hour since Neil’s suit had been fixed by the alien, and the air was finally warming up to tolerable, if still a bit chilly, temperatures. Neil had, by this time, also warmed up significantly and was feeling generally better.
Except in one area. He would’ve never thought it, but waiting, even on the Moon, was the same thing as it had been everywhere else since the beginning of history: boring. Mind-numbingly, incredibly, boring. The two astronauts gave occasional status reports to Charlie, infrequently checked the various gauges and meters, and awkwardly stared at Luna as the alien stared right back in turn. Two hours of such busywork and lack of activity, plus the stress of having an alien in the LM, was enough to grate on anyone’s nerves, and seasoned astronauts were no exception.
Finally, however, the air had warmed enough for Neil to feel safe unsealing his helmet. He did so with a sigh, setting the dome off to one side. Buzz followed suit, and the two grinned tiredly at one another.
“Some day, huh?” Buzz asked, and Neil nodded in agreement. “Twice as exciting as we thought it was going to be,” he continued, “And it was already incredible enough as it was. I’m surprised our hearts didn’t simply quit on us.” He grinned.
Neil shot back, “Maybe yours, old geezer, but I’m a tougher man.”
“Old man?” Buzz retorted. “I’m four years younger than you!”
“Old man in spirit, then,” Neil laughed, and Buzz chuckled. “My spirit’s still twenty-five!”
“Maybe twenty-five hundred!” Aldrin countered.
Luna had been watching this in bemusement. She said something, the smooth syllables lending the sentence unusual grace. It sounded like a question to the humans, but neither knew if that was true.
Buzz glanced at Neil and met his eyes. With a simultaneous shrug, Buzz waved hello as Neil gave a smile and offered a hand slowly.
“Shouldn’t we be reporting all of this to Mission Control?” Buzz asked out of the corner of his mouth, smile never wavering.
“In a second,” Neil replied, smile equally fixed.
Luna sighed, rolling her large eyes, her expression clearly showing exasperation more plainly than any human face. However, she took off the helmet Neil had noticed was part of her ensemble, setting it on one of the consoles, and stuck out a hand—hoof, Neil corrected internally—in imitation of Armstrong.
The two shook, awkwardly at first as Neil made sure that they were on the same page as to the gesture—you never knew, and it would be embarrassing if in this extraordinary situation the two badly misunderstood each other’s intentions and ended up smacking each other in the face.
Not to mention that Neil still wasn’t quite sure that something like that wouldn’t result in violence. There couldn’t be any taking chances here—or at least not more than necessary.
After the handshake continued a few more seconds than was comfortable, Buzz asked, “Now what? Didn’t the President say something about getting her back to Earth?”
“Yes,” Neil said, diverting his attention to Aldrin, “But if we can’t talk I’m at a loss as to how to convince her to come along. And I really don’t want to anger her because she can obviously get along just fine in vacuum, unlike us.” He rapped on the wall of the LM for emphasis.
“Right,” Buzz agreed. “Best to be careful.”
Neil turned his attention to Luna to find her a few inches away from his face. He started and jerked backwards, but in the heavy spacesuit (which he was still wearing most of), all he accomplished was to fall on his backside and look like an idiot.
Buzz gave a sarcastic thumbs up, and the winged unicorn (Neil really needed to find out what those were called) crinkled her eyes in amusement.
“You sure impressed her,” Buzz called good-naturedly.
“Oh, shut up,” Neil retorted as he got back to his feet. Again, Luna was just a bit too close for comfort, but this time he was expecting it and kept his composure.
She spoke again, another question if Neil read it right, and waited for an answer. Neil shrugged in response. She sighed, and repeated the same syllables. Neil scrunched his forehead in confusion. “I don’t understand you,” he said helplessly, bringing his arms up.
She wasn’t impressed, Neil could tell. Those eyes were incredibly expressive.
Then, her horn began to glow again, and Buzz stiffened. “Careful!” he warned, backing up a pace—which in this module, was the farthest back he could really go.
“Trying,” Neil said, remaining still as his eyes widened in anxiety.
Gently, a hoof pushed him to his seat and sat him down. Luna said something else, and then her horn flashed again. Bracing himself, Neil stopped as nothing happened. “I think it’s fine—“ he started, and then stiffened suddenly.
“Neil? Neil!” Buzz yelled, but Neil never even heard him.
Neil felt with curiosity his attention sucked inwards, to his thoughts. Then, a presence intruded on his frenzied hypotheses. His mind... was no longer his alone. His thoughts were no longer the only thing within it. He could feel the alien, at the edge of his brain, and he felt Luna was looking about curiously. There was a sense of deep fascination emanating from her. It was by far the strangest thing he had ever felt. One mind was not meant to share two people—or beings, or creatures of any kind.
Then, something even stranger happened. It felt like his memories were a book, and something had just flipped through it with blinding speed, skimming them for... something. In turn, he saw (there was no better word for it) Luna’s mind in turn. The impressions flashed by faster than he could process them, but he caught glimpses of a white castle, a great field of grass, and other quadrupeds much like her.
Then, the book slammed shut with startling finality as Luna noticed his peeking, and his mind was closed with equal suddenness. And then the experience was over, his consciousness rushing back outwards.
Neil returned to awareness with a blinding headache. “Ow,” he muttered.
“What was that?” Buzz barked. “You and the alien just froze and stared at each other for an entire minute!”
“I can’t... exactly explain it,” Neil said, cradling his aching head in his hands, “But it felt an awful lot like telepathy—like from the comics.”
“What.” Buzz’s voice was flat.
“It was looking for something,” Neil explained, “And it kind of riffled through my head like it was a book.” He hesitated. “It wasn’t exactly like that, but it’s the best I can come up with. In turn I saw a bit of her head, I suppose. There was a castle... a field... and a bunch of other aliens. That was all I caught. Then it was over.”
“Right, I’m reporting this,” Buzz said, reaching to activate his mike. “This is getting ridiculous. Aliens with telepathy; what next? Is Spock going to appear out of nowhere?” He shook his head.
“Wait a second,” Neil said. “She obviously wasn’t trying to kill me or make me a zombie or something strange like that...” He paused. “I think. Let’s see what she does next.”
They turned to Luna, only to find her wearing a wide, satisfied grin and chuckling. Buzz ventured, “Maybe whatever she found in her head is funny?” Breaking the serious mood, he cracked, “Of course, looking in your head would probably be hilarious for anyone.”
“Very funny—“ Neil stated.
“Indeed! I am most amused!” came a third voice, stopping both humans dead. “I am glad to see my translation spell worked properly.” Luna smiled, but the smile faltered as both stared mutely at her. “Or did it?” she muttered, humor fading entirely. “Can you understand me?”
For a few more seconds, neither Neil nor Buzz could say anything, flabbergasted. “Right,” Neil said surprisingly calmly. “We should probably call this in.” Then his eyes rolled up and he passed out for a moment.
Jerked out of his shock, Buzz leapt as best as he could to Neil and shook him back awake. “Neil!” he hissed. “You can’t pass out now!”
“Sorry,” Neil said weakly. “But I can’t blame my brain. Can you?”
“Well, no,” Buzz admitted. “I’ll call it in.” He turned slowly to Luna. “Well, um... now that you can apparently speak English somehow, nice to meet you.” He scratched his head, at a loss, as Neil watched him put in a strange situation for the first time today. ‘It really was his turn,’ Neil thought.
“Name’s Buzz Aldrin. I take it your name’s Luna?”
“Correct,” she stated. “I am Luna. I am sorry for that, Neil,” she said, turning to him as he looked on, “But I was quickly becoming frustrated and I remedied the situation as best as I could.”
Neil held his head in his hands. “Right,” he mumbled, in pain as the migraine stabbed at his brain, “Nice to meet you too.”
Buzz activated his microphone. “We have a development,” he reported with forced composure.
“Yes, Tranquility, what is it?” Charlie’s exhausted voice came.
“Apparently, the alien, Luna, can do some freaky superhero-style telepathy stuff. And now she, um, sorta can speak English, I guess.” His stumbling description was unprofessional; the strangeness of this whole day was finally breaking through his training. It got the point across nonetheless.
“What.” Charlie’s reply was equally as flat as Buzz’s had been just a few minutes earlier. In the background, Buzz would swear later he could hear President Nixon’s voice on the phone repeating the exact same word.
Today was just one of those days, Neil mused.
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i love this, too funny !
I think that keeping the translation problems would have been a bit more interesting. You could have had them all go outside and draw pictures in the moonsand.
Kekekekekekekeke, I like the way you described the telepathy/mind-reading-spell. I'm really looking forward to where you plan to take the sequel to this!
Yeah, from the human perspective, I'd say "What" sums that part up quite well.
I hope part three goes a good ways beyond landing on Earth.
moar
Hmm, I'd have thought there would be more of a reaction to someone rummaging about in your head. If they can do that, what's to say they can't rearrange what they find?
I love it, great ending!
I mean, yeah, could be better, but I think the comedy value makes up for it.
3903718 Better? Apollo 11 + Luna could be better?
Are you sure...? 
3903870
As in how the situation was played out...
So is this marked "Incomplete" because you're going to announce the sequel's release in it still? I'm looking forward to it.
Just the mental image of ol'Tricky Dick going "What!?" makes this story oh so worth the time.
Will Luna be considered a foreign dignitary or refugee?
That is far from a complete story. The synopsis alone indicated falsely that the events progressed through splashdown.
Also this chapter is slightly rougher than previous. A bit of redundant repetition ("In turn") and possible misuse of the word "bemused".
3904105 I have to say, I could forgive that this story doesn't go all the way to the splashdown on Earth, but at the very least we should be able to see the "rising tensions" with the Russians, and the fleet movements mentioned in the synopsis. There are literally major story elements in the summary that aren't there in the actual story! They haven't even left the Moon yet!
I guess I just don't understand why you feel the need to make an entire new story for the continuation.
Haiku of Compassion:
Ancient child of strife
Lives her complicated life
Stormy horizon
☺☻♥☺
At least it 'will' be complicated! Looking forward to more.
Huzzah! The communication has been doubled! (Actually, probably more... but it's a reference, darn it!)
3903667 One thing I learned from a friend of mine who does hypnosis is that you can't change peoples minds if they don't want it to change. This is especially true to strong willed people, like Astronauts.
You need to break the body first before can start on rearrange the mind, even if your method is more direct.
That of course without the knowledge of how far Lunas magic can go.
"The alien is telepathic?!?" Cue intelligence and counter-intelligence officers all over Earth having fits, mental breakdowns and panic attacks at the thought of either having this weapon at their disposal or having to counter it. That said, Humans are obviously magically sensitive if Neil was able to 'feel' the translation spell taking hold. That's significant in its own way.
So, Luna's wearing the NMM armour, hmm? It's going to be interesting if one of the Astronauts asks her why she's wearing battle armour, although they may simply be assuming it's some super-advanced EVA suit that uses forcefields rather than physical material to protect her. Certainly, I don't think she's going to be volunteering any information about how she came to be on the Moon any time soon.
It's important that readers understand just how small Eagle's cabin was. With Neil and Buzz at their stations, there was probably the same amount of room as two telephone booths behind them just under the docking hatch and over the machinery compartment for the ascent engine. With Luna, who is the size of a small Earth horse, also in there, there would literally be no spare room whatsoever for movement. Even stowing their PLSS backpacks in their racks on the starboard side of the cabin would have been difficult with her in the way.
3904102
She'll probably be considered a clear and present danger to global security at first. Remember, we're talking about humans here - paranoid xenophobia is practically hard-wired into our instincts.
3904164
I agree. In all honesty these "Sequels" could have just been chapters added to the original oneshot, after all.
3906660 They could have, but then again I can definitely understand if he wanted to leave that as a stand-alone oneshot, and have the continuation as a (single) separate story.
3904102
3904869 I imagine she'd be treated as a cross between a dignitary and a threat. It'd be like having a tiger in your living room with you. You treat it with respect and hope it does the same. Meanwhile, you've got two voices in your head: one screaming to get away while you can, and the other saying that it hasn't done anything to harm you...yet. Besides, Luna's still an alicorn. she could probably take control over the moon and bring it crashing down if she wanted.
3903981
No, I was sick when I posted this and totally forgot the complete tag. And some errors might have slipped through.
Yes, the next story will be having quote "rising tensions with the Russians"; AND HOW. Here's a hint for all you faithful readers: It starts with a shootout.
*cackles evilly at subsequent Wild Mass Guessing*
3904869
You know, that's quite a good point. And the command module is even smaller. Will Luna be riding back through the transfer and reentry on the outside? :D
I really like how this story is progressing and am really looking forward to the next one.
Can I make suggestions of some unusuall side effects due to Luna prensence.
One, Civil Rights going into overdrive in making more progress in all rights then it have in the last fourty years. I mean we are going to argue on why as we as humans are so concurn about race and gender if a primative, yet powerful alien culture have no discrimation and their more powerful members are female. It is something I don't see in stories of first contact where civil rights are effected because of aliens being less decrimitive as a response to new species, possibly see woman in combat situtations twenty to thirty years.
Second, technology boom in the fact we would focus a lot more in space technology due to the fact we know life is out there and we want to meet them and perpare to fight them.
Well, anyway good job in the sqeual and hope you have a lot more to come.
Oddly enough, pretty much the only thing that bugged me in this story was the Space is Cold part.
For those who don't know about that and don't want to venture into TV Tropes, let me sum up:
Space isn't cold.
Space is empty.
There's nothing there to be cold.
For something to be cold, it has to have matter, which space lacks by its very nature (the particles in space, ironically enough, are actually ludicrously hot, but they're so few and far between that the average temperature by volume is near 0-k).
Also, for something to make something else cold, it has to hit it with particles. No particles, no heat loss (except through radiation). Funnily enough, this makes one of the bigger issues with interstellar travel overheating, but the design and (relatively) short time frame of Apollo kept that from being much of a problem. The heaters were there because the ship sucked heat from the stored air very quickly (and radiated it into space), but it only actually started to cool off when the electronics weren't running (which was, admittedly, most of the trip due to an explosive system malfunction) and even then it didn't get down to freezing until after three days of using almost no power.
Now, all that being said, that suit breach would probably have still been lethal for one of two reasons: anoxia (lack of Oxygen, for obvious reasons) and decompression.
For those who know what The Bends is, imagine that going Hulk on your guts.
For everyone else, imagine your blood trying to boil its way out of your skin (you can probably last a minute, maybe two exposed to actual "hard" vacuum (15 seconds of that conscious); slow leakage will give you somewhat longer). Also, any squishy bits would start swelling up, and if you try to hold your breath the air in your lungs will expand and wreck them.
Luna is okay because magic.
Don't feel obligated to go back and change things on my account, though. I just felt like running my
mouthkeyboard today, and many people actually wouldn't believe you if you did it "right" anyway.And besides:
112west.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the_more_you_know21.jpg
3908699
The command module, Columbia, is actually larger in terms of usable volume but its shape (cone instead of box) means that fitting Luna's long, narrow body inside is going to be a bit of a trial.
3910715 I don't think Luna's home culture will shame people into emulating them. But I do think there'll be a lot of "Look at that. Other species exist. We're friends with a blue horse with wings and a horn. Why does anyone think it matters what skin color is on another human who's practically identical?"
Let me quote a fanfic: (slightly edited)
"When we go out into the stars, we might find other people there. And if so, they certainly won't look like we do. There might be things out there that are grown from crystal, or big pulsating blobs, or made of magic. So with all that strangeness, how do you recognize a person? Not by the shape, not by how many arms or legs it has. Not by the sort of substance it's made out of, whether that's flesh or crystal or stuff I can't imagine. You would have to recognize them as people from their minds. And even their minds wouldn't work just like ours do. But anything that lives and thinks and knows itself and doesn't want to die, it's sad if that person has to die, because it doesn't want to. Compared to what might be out there, every human being who ever lived, we're all like brothers and sisters, you could hardly even tell us apart. The ones out there who met us, they wouldn't see British or French, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference, they'd just see a human being. Humans who can love, and hate, and laugh, and cry; and to them, the ones out there, that would make us all as alike as peas in the same pod. They would be different, though. Really different. But that wouldn't stop us, and it wouldn't stop them, if we both wanted to be friends together."
3916871
Well to answer your question, I was thinking it would matter more for female rights than race. Mainly as a statement that if woman can have equal rights, opurinities in a alien calture, why can't humans do the same, especially since the two most powerful of the aliens are female.
Especially since this will be the first sentient example instead of animal examples.
3916929 Yes, I suppose I got off track, but really, the same thing applies.
3918498
Yes in some ways, no in others. It seems like to me that the humans always need a kick in the butt too realize something is worng.
The western world realize slavery was wrong after books writen by fromer slaves showed how terrible slaverly was, ending litterly thousands of years of tradation of enslaving their fellow human being.
The civil right movement for the various races (not just african americans) started because of WWII, where people questioned why these people can't have the same rights after fighting for a country that they should just ignore.
The woman's civil right started the same reason in why can they justifiy woman being dismestic after doing men's work during WWII.
I believe humans
can, no will do the right thing if given the push by some times horrible acts to do the right thing. To show what they've beeon doing is wrong and in ways I can see Luna repersenting to humanity a path, a push to show how some of our actions have been evil. That's my oponion, and you have the right to ignore it but I felt it should be said for I believe that its a act that sents the precesent that would change the world for the better.3918593 I get what you're saying, but there were also minority veterans after World War I and it didn't happen. Such events result in change when enough people react positively—sometimes that's the case, and sometimes it isn't.
I think it's more likely that people would look around and decide it's silly to discriminate among humans, when we're all so similar to each other compared to the alien race we just learned of, than it is for people to look at a single example of a completely alien species and hear secondhand that on their home planet their males and females don't meet discrimination and decide to emulate it. Not to say that the second thing couldn't or wouldn't happen, but I think it's less likely than the first thing.
On the other hand, who knows? Maybe we'd be motivated to avoid looking bad. A non-trivial amount of support of the civil rights movements was from people that wanted to deny the Soviet Union the ability to point to racist laws and make the USA look bad.
NEXT POTATUOE!
HUEEEEE MOER!!!!!
ÜBER!
3910990
To clarify, no, space is not actually sucking the heat from Neil-- that's just his perception. In reality, the super-cold, compressed air in his PLSS tank (It has to be that cold to hold enough oxygen to go for 8 hours) is being rushed into his suit to counteract the lost air much faster than his suit can possibly heat it to a comfortable--or even safe-- temperature. So, he's being doused with very cold oxygen temporarily, which is sapping the heat from him.
3927081
... Huh. Schools close due to weather, and I still learn something today.
112west.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the_more_you_know21.jpg
Alright, I can go on another Moon-Landing/Luna ride.
Hope the next story's good.
You've got me hooked! I shall be eagerly awaiting your sequel.
I do hope that it shall be a teensy bit longer then the current rendition, though.
It's hard to enjoy a good book when it's over all too soon.
Hungrily,
A Simple Extra
3956632
The next will simply be continuing updates. It'll be at least 15-20,000 words-- If not more.
3964094
QWOP: That devilish game. *shudder*
hahahaha
3982319
Well, the sequel is right here-- and It'll be a full fledged story!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/169528/splashdown
This has nearly unlimited potential right now.
4070537
Glad you think so! If you liked it, check out the sequel here:
Splashdown
Currently a story in progress.
4073426
I read what you've done so far. Why no moar of dis
lol and yay
4192987
Yes, I've already covered this. Several times. In the comments beforehand.
It's simply his perception of what's going on.
ponybot.net/pix/4162.jpg
ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.607987633440032375&w=280&h=190&c=7&rs=1&cb=6&pid=1.7
Just Priceless! High five.
Wait, how did Buzz know Luna's name?
3883503 Well, Gravity was pretty accurate, but tell me what you think of it