//------------------------------//
// The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Part 2 
// Story: Luna's Return Trajectory 
// by Stainless Steel Fox 
//------------------------------//

The next hour was a rush of unloading the LM, and setting up equipment around the Lunar module, including taking several contingency samples from the area which were dutifully lifted up to the Ascent stage by the LEC. While the timeline had been devised to take into account Luna's assistance, they had not considered that she'd done it before, and as a result, they were still ahead of schedule.

Then came the task of unloading the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package components from the LM descent stage compartment known as the Science EQuipment bay or SEQ. The video camera had been placed on a stand to cover the area, and the three of them were working together. 

The filling of the RTG with the fuel rods that would power it was done by Luna via telekinesis, as while the exposure was minimal, having the two astronauts avoid it was easy enough.The central control box and the various experiments were fitted into two vertical pallets, connected the Hand Carry Tool, basically a horizontal bar. As the last parts were strapped into it, Jim said, "Houston, Apollo 13. We are loaded up and ready to move to ALSEP deployment site." 

"Roger 13, please give us an PLSS status before you start out." Ken Mattingly, the Capcom replied.

Jim responded first, squinting at the gauges on the RCU on his chest, somewhat shadowed by his position, and using the verbal shorthand for Commander. "CDR at 3.75 psi, uhhh, 71% O2, no flags, cooling low." 

"LMP has 3.75 psi, oxygen at 69%, cooling low to medium." Fred added, likewise using his Lunar Module Pilot identifier. "It's taking the heat."

"And I have a hat and cloak." Luna piped up, making it swirl despite the lack of air, which got chuckles from the two astronauts, and Capcom. 

"Good to know Luna." said Ken. "Okay, Jim if you can reposition the TV camera to cover your route, Set the focus to infinity."

Jim moved to the camera set up to alter the settings. "Roger Houston. Even so we'll be barely visible." 

"Maybe I can help with that." Luna stated, opening one of her saddlebags with her magic and pulling out a pair of polished metal mirrors with jewelled frames, each the size of a paperback book. The gems on both mirrors glowed in sympathy with her horn, and the reflection in each mirror rippled to be replaced with a different one, which changed as she passed one to Jim and one to Fred. 

"Paired magic mirrors. I have calculated the angles and distances from the TV camera at Mare Cognitum, and if we place one mirror directly in front of it at the correct distance, it will be able to view anything visible from the other mirror as if the video camera was there. The idea came to me thinking upon the mission there, such time and effort spent to bring such a weighty device, and then the greater part of the expedition barely used it."

Jim and Fred were both examining the image on one mirror with fascination as Jim moved the other to sweep across the moonscape. The mirrors were far lighter than the bulky video camera, or for that matter, a similar sized CRT screen, even though made of a metal sheet.

"This is impressive, but I'm going to have to check with Houston to see if we can use it. They may want to keep the whole site in view, rather than a close-up." Jim spoke up. "Houston, have you been following? Please advise."

Luna frowned. "I had not considered that, but it is easily enough resolved. May I?"

As Ken acknowledged the transmission, Luna's horn glowed again, and she lifted Fred Haise's mirror from his hand, the image winking out. She held it in front of her as a number of items rose from her saddlebags, a crystal stoppered jar of silvery liquid, a black stick and metal stylus, and an abacus of metal wires and glass beads. Finally an angled metal desk surface on a stand, similar to a lectern, that while low enough to bring it to her height, could not have fitted in the saddlebag. Jim was reminded of when he'd taken the kids to see Mary Poppins at the movie theatre.

Placing the mirror, active side down on the stand, she started scribbling on the desk with a stick of black stuff, while making rapid calculations with the abacus, as the other objects floated in a halo around her hat. 

"How did that fit..." Fred trailed off, "... was the desk shrunk, or is the bag bigger on the inside?"

"The second, an application of conjuration. Space inside is expanded by a set factor, and the effective weight is reduced in inverse ratio." Luna stated absently, while still continuing her calculations. "These saddlebags each normally encompass one and a quarter cubic feet of volume, and have a linear expansion factor of two, giving eight times the volume, or ten cubic feet. But when full of some material, they would only weigh as much as three tenths of a cubic foot of that same material. Though I expanded this one downwards, rather than equally in all dimensions."

"That's fantastic!" Jim exclaimed, "... and it would have simplified recovering you if it could be applied to Apollo."

"Unfortunately, I only recently managed to craft one successfully." Luna sighed. "In Equestria they are luxury but not uncommon items, requiring a skilled enchanter and a considerable amount of energy to create, though the space is permanent once created. However, while I understood the theory, I am not as practiced in it's application as the correspondence effect of the mirrors. It took some experimentation to maintain a stable pocket. I lacked the spare quintessence for such experiments until this last moon."

"Is that something to do with that huge photothaumic array at Old Nameless crater?" Jim guessed.

"Indeed, though that was not it's primary purpose." Luna replied, her tail twitching. "Ha! I have it!"

The stylus went to work, scribing additional rune sets on the rear surface of the frame, as some regolith was scooped up and processed into some small gems that were affixed within the runes. The silvery liquid was poured into the engraved symbols, and froze in place. Luna's horn glowed more brightly and the mirror glowed all over in response. Placing down her tools on the desk, she held it up with a critical eye, examining it, and stated, "Mirror Mirror."

Clearly visible to the astronauts, and less so to the camera, the reflection in the mirror once again went to a view from the other mirror.

"Mirror, See Through." The metal mirror surface suddenly changed to look like a sheet of glass, transparent within it's frame."

"Mirror, Off." The mirror once again reflected it's normal view.

"Now it can be commanded to show your mirror view, or pass light as a window. It is tied to our VHF communications, so Capcom should be able to select it." She held the mirror closer to the video camera lens. "Houston, that is Sir Ken, please say the commands."

"Mirror, mirror" Capcom's somewhat bemused voice replied, and the mirror once again activated, showing the lunar module and Luna standing in front of the video camera. 

"Mirror, See through?" The view changed to Luna head on, as viewed directly from the camera lens, the frame being outside the field of view of the camera. 

She beamed at the success. "Now it can be commanded to allow both! And I have charged it with enough power to enable several days of use."

It took some more testing, and some adjustments to allow for the TV camera being at maximum zoom when viewing the distant ALSEP site, but the use was approved, and a lightweight but sturdy wire frame was quickly crafted by Luna to mount the mirror to the front of the camera.

The actual trip out to the ALSEP deployment area was uneventful, with Luna carrying the HTC bar across her shoulders in place of her saddle bags, the two pallets barely clear of the surface. This freed the novice moonwalkers to pick their way across the low ridges in between the LM and the ALSLEP site. Luna had prepared a low, solid, de-dusted pad to mount the central station on, complete with adhesion effects, meaning placing and securing it went very quickly. 

Geo-phones and a long connecting line were laid out to the south, and the various other experiments were deployed and calibrated, all under the watchful gaze of the viewing mirror, variously held by the astronauts or placed on a pillar that Luna raised for it when all three were occupied. Ken informed them that according to estimates, the audience for their expedition had now exceeded that of the Apollo 11 first footsteps on the moon. 

When they returned to the LM, both astronauts were tired, hiking across the moon in space suits was an effort despite the low gravity, but also energised. Finally, they would find out what Luna had been doing to the south at Old Nameless crater. Checks of their suit reserves, dampened their enthusiasm. 

"Houston, CDR. I show my O2 reserve at only 41 percent, do you confirm?" Jim asked.

Three seconds later, Ken Mattingly's voice responded, "That's correct Jim, Surgeon and TELMU agree that based on the distance to the site south of you, the round trip would take you to less than ten percent reserve, even without dwell time at the site. As such we are currently no-go for the visit."

Luna exclaimed, "Wait! I knew the distance might prove a problem, and have prepared a solution. Behold!" 

Her horn glowed, and an object flew towards them from the south. It landed just beyond the edge of the landing pad, a framework with two broad skis and a flat gridded load bed, well named as the load carrying surface was about the size of a double bed. It was made in part from raw metal, probably aluminium, similar to the desk she'd shown earlier, and in part from components of a lunar module, such as the hand bars on two vertical posts, and a neatly stowed harness at the front that owed it's genesis to the support webbing that the astronauts used in place of seats. 

Two slings were also fitted to the posts as not-a-seat belts, and looked to have been adapted from a hammock the Apollo 12 mission had carried after feedback from Apollo 11 on how uncomfortable it was sleeping on the bare metal of the LM without using the Restful Blanket spell. Foot loops large enough to easily fit the moon boots into, completed the amenities.

"A sled?" Fred asked, slightly incredulously.

"Indeed." Luna said proudly. "Broad and long enough with wide skis to remain stable, and with ample room for both of you to stand securely and hold on. I said I needed only half of one hour to show you my workings, and at the speed I can tow you the journey will take but a few minutes. Nor will you need to exert yourselves beyond holding on."

Jim was swinging the video camera around to point at the device. The mirror attached to it was currenltly in transparent mode. "Houston, Apollo 13, does this change the no go decision?"

"Wait one, Apollo 13. Poll is being taken." Ken's voice responded three seconds later.

Luna was already unfurling the harness, and placing it on herself, having removed the cloak for now. The harness comprised a girth strap resting between her wings and front legs and a breastplate, but no headpiece or reins. Her saddlebags were secured to a load point at the front of the sled. Jim wondered where she'd gotten the ascent stage hardware from, then remembered hearing that as part of the tests of her long range telekinesis ability, she'd been tasked with recovering the still orbiting Apollo 12 ascent stage, and soft landing it at Mare Cognitum.

"You're really going to tow us with that?" Fred asked. "I'd have thought you'd just move the sled with your telekinesis."

"I could, but this is more fun!" Luna replied, checking the girth buckle was secured. "I may have missed your Hearth's Warming, that is Christmas, celebration, but as this work is a gift, it seems appropriate for you to be brought there in a one horse open sleigh, as the song from the radio suggested."

She lifted two strings of metal harness bells out of her saddle bags, and attached them to the traces, before fitting the traces to her harness. She shook them, and the astronauts heard the jingling sound over their headsets. "I even got the bells right, their sound anyway. They are attuned to my radio diadem, so the vibrations modulate my radio channel." 

The radio link crackled. "Apollo 13, Houston. The excursion is approved, contingent on two factors. First, you need to ride that sled in a circle close to the LM, under the view of the camera so it can be seen to be safe, and second, when either of you hits 28% O2 reserve, you start back immediately. Surgeon believes that even on foot, that would give you adequate margin for safety."

The test run didn't take long, with both astronauts finding the slings acted more as seats to lean against, while the foot loops held them to the load bed even through the minor jolting caused by moving over the uneven terrain. After the test, Luna deactivated the bells.

"I'm surprised a Princess knows how to wear a harness like that, let alone make it." Jim commented, surprised at the ease with which Luna had towed them.

"I may no longer claim that title, but I understand your confusion. It is based on the Royal Guard model 12 revision 5 logistics harness, used for light transport carts and the royal courier chariots, though it's usually a twin harness." Luna replied. "I must have inspected it on parades and readiness reviews at least a thousand times, and am thoroughly familiar with it's use and construction, even if I never wore it myself."

When it came the trip itself, the front of Jim's handlebars had a mount for the magic mirror, showing a view of the front of the sled and the back of Luna to the watching Earth audience. They practically flew over the lunar dust, twice as fast as even the most enthusiastic bunny hop or the planned lunar rover, and far more safely, as the faint glow of her telekiesis did encompass the runners, cushioning the ride. 

As they approached Old Nameless crater, the expanse of black beyond it to the south became clearer, now clearly a vast square of photothaumic panels etched into a slightly raised surface of solid regolith. They had arrived at the north western corner of the crater which was to their left, while to their right was a separate flat area of paving, bounded by the familiar de-dusting line. 

At one edge of the paving there were a three sets of widely spaced landing pad markings laid out, as well as a large thaumic radio relay circle. The lip of the crater hid whatever was in the northern part, but there was a wall on the south edge with a concave reflective inner surface and a bar running along the focus like the world's largest one bar electric heater.

As they came to a stop, Jim exclaimed, "Houston, are you seeing this?"

He detached himself from the sled and held up the mirror to sweep the area, Fred Haise stepping up beside him with his Hasselblad camera held by it's grip and taking pictures as Capcom responded. 

"We're seeing it, Jim, that paved area has to be a hundred yards square, and the photothaumic array which has to be half as as large again."

Luna also unhitched herself from the traces, and stepped forward onto the paved area. "Come, I have so much to show you!"

"What is all this for? What could you need that much mana for anyway?" Jim asked, stepping on after and feeling the ripple on his suit as the dust from the journey was stripped away, leaving the exterior as clean as when he first put it on. 

"You'll see." Luna replied. She absently recovered her cloak and saddlebags, and put them on over the harness.

As she led them down the side of the crater, additional features became clear. Although it was towards the sun, they could look down into the crater, and see arrays of angled panels, not mirrored or black, but the matt grey of normal lunar regolith. It gave the impression of a huge ampitheatre or lecture hall, with the reflector as the stage. Meanwhile, in the southern part of the pavement, set into the rock, there were a number of circular iron hatches, each hinged at one side, and with a T-shaped handle on top. 

As they reached the wall with the parabolic mirror, they could see the back side, where an array of thaumic accumulators of the latest NASA design stood in a row between it and the photothaumic array. However, while the largest NASA accumulators were about a foot tall, these were three yards tall and over a yard and a half in diameter, giant hexagonal prisms capped at each end with metal, with more bands of metal at various heights. These glowed white when fully charged, and blue when charging, but right now they shone with the green of discharging, and although the sunlight made it less than clear, they were dim enough to show that they were almost discharged.

The wall was half again their height, but the thing that Luna led them to was the end of the bar that was the focus of the reflector, which turned out to be a hollow tube of crystal, about eight inches across, with a central tunnel three inches in diameter. Traceries of complex rune sets worked into the crystal itself, though it glowed with a strange translucence that made them hard to focus on, and even harder to photograph. A rivulet of silver flowed from it, into a channel that guided it down to a hole where it vanished, next to the first of a row of hatches. Unlike water or even mercury there was no rim caused by surface tension at the edges.

"What is that?" asked Fred, examining the stream of liquid.

"Liquid mithril, moonsilver to be precise, Dr Sagan and the other savants have suggested moonsilver as the liquid phase and mithril as the solid substance. This is the first ever mithril refinery! No more the drips and drabs I've been able to produce so far, this will produce more mithril in a lunar day than I ever produced by horn in a dozen years."

She gestured to the crater. "Sunlight falls upon the various panels of moon rock, which reflect it as moonlight into the parabolic reflector, which focuses the captured moonlight onto the crystal tube. Meanwhile, the photothaumic panels produce quintessence, which is fed into the accumulators and from there to energise the runesets in the tube which cast the spell to convert the moon light to moonsilver. It is working at a lackluster pace right now, as the sun is still low in the sky, but I have hopes that it can produce on the order of twenty tons of moonsilver per lunar day."

"I wouldn't have thought you'd get any reflected moonlight with the sun so low." Jim commented.

"If the moonlight conversion panels were polished, yes. But as unpolished moon rock, the light hitting them is diffused in many directions, so some will almost always fall on the reflector, excepting just after dawn and before sunset when the crater itself is in shadow. If the panels were steerable, and the photothaumic panels likewise, the design could have been greatly compacted, but this has the advantage of no moving parts and no maintenance. It's not as if I was lacking space after all." Luna gestured with a hoof to the open sweep of the moon's surface.

"So where is the moonsilver stored, in underground tanks?" Jim asked, looking at the hatch. 

"You guess most precisely, Sir Jim. Each hatch leads to a chamber which can store an estimated lunar day's worth of production. They are connected by overflows, so as one is filled the next one starts filling in turn. I have crafted fifty chambers, enough for around four years of production in total. Hopefully by then we should have a vehicle able to come and collect it. If not, the system will cease it's work as soon as the last chamber is full."

She opened up the hatch, turning the handle on top to release a simple latch, and showed them the rock cistern underneath. Jim Lovell used his suit penlight to light up the interior, which had a surface of liquid silver, rippling slightly and oddly slowly under lunar gravity as the stream ran into it. He also directed the viewing mirror at it.

"When you said you had a surprise, I don't think anyone realized it would be something on this scale!" Fred Haise stated. "How did you create all this in just a few weeks? And what made you decide to build it anyway?"

Luna lowered the hatch. "The crafting of it took lessons I have learned from your own scientists and engineers, applied to my abilities. Concepts of mass production, automation, moulds and forms to stamp or shape items; these are ideas that Equestria does not have. In truth I had been crafting these plans for moons, only needing to adapt them for the terrain I found. Fortunately the soil here was rich in the needful materials.

"The starting point was the photothaumic array. I had horn crafted a version a ponylength or about one and one third yards square, incorporating all the latest advances both the scholars on Earth and I had developed, with some additions. One was a set of arcane marks and guides that would allow it to self-tessellate, creating a continuous pattern, another was incorporating automatically raising a solid surface of regolith beneath it that would take the imprint, and a substrate layer to collect the energy. 

"I then encompassed that pattern within a 'wrapper' spell matrix, effectively a custom transmutation spell, allowing me to stamp it down on the bare surface as a single action, requiring only a moment rather than the hours it took to horncraft the prototype. I then created a five by five array of the pattern, then adjusted the wrapper to stamp this new arrangement, the limit of the spell I could comfortably cast. When I arrived on the previous lunar dawn, that was my first act, after creating a new radio relay circle." 

Luna waved a hoof at the array. "Even though the shaping of the moon's substance comes easily to me and costs but little energy, laying out such a large area as this would have drained my reserves twice over. However, once I had laid down the first few sections, I raised an aluminium foil mirror to reflect the just risen sun more directly onto them, and could start to tap the array for power. The more I repeated the process, the more power I could call upon, until I was casting as quickly as possible, and still refilling rather than draining my magic reserves. It took only a few hours to complete a great area.

"Once I had a source of quintessence in place, the rest came easily. I had built prototypes of the components at Mare Cognitum, once again wrapping the patterns in a spell matrix and simply repeated them here, first the accumulators, then the reflector and the conversion tube. That last I designed in repeating sections, crafting one to produce some mithril, then using that for the enruning of the full scale version. While the crater already did a fair job of directing moonlight onto the reflector, I then reshaped it as panels to improve that. 

"The first few buckets of moonsilver I poured into the engravings of the photothaumic array, inlaying the runes with mithril, and thus increasing its mana output even further. The parabolic reflector was originally polished moonrock at the cost of being a less than perfect reflector, as another substance would have interfered with the unique qualities of the reflected light. However, a mere pint or two of moonsilver, layered as a thin film over the surface, created the perfect reflector you see now, reflecting the moonlight without alteration. 

"All told, it took me some large part of the lunar morning, maybe four Earth days, to complete the work, as there was still some trial and error. I still had my conversations with Earth to engage in as well, even without a visual link. I rested a while, then laid out the paved area as a place for the astronauts who come here to collect the moonsilver to create a permanent base. I had ample time during the lunar afternoon to experiment and develop my other new tools like the bottomless saddlebags and magic mirrors, aided by the luxury of ample power. I overbuilt the array so the excess could be used for other projects, and to charge the accumulators so mithril production could begin at first light each morning."

Luna had not been standing still as she talked, guiding them around the site, showing the accumulators, and a blockhouse style building next to them. The single room inside had an angled stone platfom as a desk, with ledges for tools and the books the Apollo 12 crew had brought her, and hung up in one corner was the other Apollo 12 hammock. Thaumic crystals shone both light and quintessence throughout the room. 

"As to why, a gift, as I said, but one that will keep giving. When I first gifted that sample of mithril to Sir Neil and Sir Edwin, it was as a curiosity. I had no idea it would have so many uses beyond enhancing magical artificing. To make it on Earth on this scale would require a moonlight collector the size of a large city, while here it is easily created and collected. 

"It also inspires the development of better spacecraft to come and collect it, something many of the scholars I have talked to dream of, even as they worry that many see this enterprise of space travel as costing too much in time and treasure and returning too little. While I understand that the public purse will have many demands upon it, it seems a poor ending for such a brave endevour to falter for lack of funds. 

"Dr Sagan told me of the early days of air travel, and how the U.S. Government encouraged aircraft development through offering air mail contracts, a so-called 'anchor tennant'. While the moon is rich in resources, there is little call to come mine for them, or to use it as a stepping stone beyond, because of the great expense and danger of such journeys. I have begun assisting the researchers at the Lunar Research Laboratory and now the Thaumic Research Facility in developing better methods, both far cheaper and safer."

They had returned to the hatches, and Luna brought with her a metal bottle that looked to hold about three pints, that she then filled from the pooled mithril, using her magic as a siphon. It drew in a far greater volume, visibly dropping the level of the pool. She sealed it before carrying it on her back, secured by a loop in her harness. She also held up the smaller crystal jar of mithril from before to show Jim's viewing mirror. 

"However, even if we can provide the tools, there must be the will to use them. A thin film of mithril can be used for everything from coatings that will resist any level of heating, to radiation protection, and apparently even to allow vastly more compact electricity storage. Not to mention it's use in artificing. It is an assured source of both treasure and the key to more puissant enchantments that is already here for the taking, and the ships that will collect it can also carry other cargos and passengers, not to mention travel to other destinations. They will open up a new frontier, but one without limits."

They returned to the sled, and as they reattached themselves, Jim said, "That sounds like something I definitely want to be a part of. As I told some folks back home who were asking why we should continue manned missions once we rescued you, 'what if Columbus had come back from the New World, and no-one had returned in his footsteps?' Considering you built up an entire base from bare rock in a few days, I can't wait to see what you come up with when you have the industry and science of the whole United States backing your plays."

He put the viewing mirror back in it's mount on the sled, and checked his suit status. Oxygen was at 33%, well within the safety margin. Luna placed her saddlebags on the front, and secured them before reconnecting the traces. "Houston, Apollo 13. CDR has 33% O2 remaining, suit pressure nominal, we are preparing to return to Aquarius." 

Fred echoed his call with his own suit status, and they were quickly acknowledged by Capcom.

"Roger Apollo 13. Boy, I wish I could be there, that refinery looked spectacular." Ken chuckled, "Though even if I were on the mission, I'd be up where Jack Swigert is, and not get to see it until we got back." 

Fred Haise put in his own question to Luna. "Not that I think anyone will bring a manned mission here before we come back to recover some, but there could be unmanned missions, even sample return ones, and this installation will be left open for them to visit and study. Is it safe to leave it unprotected? Not that we have much of a choice." 

Luna gave a merry laugh as she started back. "Fear not, even should someone send something to espy, it will avail them little. The runesets throughout are enclosed and shrouded against both vision and more subtle methods, and other protections have also been prepared against damage, which I will not discuss in detail. While my greatest skills are in illusion and conjuration, I am also learned in abjuration, guards and wards, enabling protection against diverse threats both direct and subtle."

"And if they simply take some of the moonsilver?"

"I have stated it to be a gift to your nation, a small token of the kindness you have shown me. However, even if another should come to steal it away, it is of limited use without the knowledge of how to convert it to solid mithril. And to recover more than the smallest amount would be a vast endevour, your own ship could carry away only a part of a lunar day's production, even if it carried nothing else. That is, without certain advantages." She gestured to the metal bottle with a turn of her head.

"Another expanded space?" Jim asked.

Luna nodded as she started trotting, "The smaller volume and aperture as well as the solid walls allowed me to expand it further than my saddlebags. It holds sixty four times it's apparent volume, around 190 pints. It currently holds over four hundred pounds mass of moonsilver, yet weighs less than one, and most of that is the the flask itself. I did not place it in my saddlebags, as nested expanded spaces can prove troublesome. While they can work together, oft times one or the other will fail randomly and spill it's contents."

"Well, if it's as light as you say, we should be able to fit it into our ascent mass budget." Jim Lovell mused. "We need to evaluate how that's changed, if we can use you using your expanded saddlebags to carry samples and the exposed films. Assuming you're okay with that."  

"Gladly. I have few items that I wish to take back for my own part. The rest of the space is yours to do with as you will."

"Then we need to figure out a way to weigh your saddlebags empty, so we know what mass we have left, and if it's even feasible."

The return to the LM was uneventful, but visually impressive, as for the first time the audience watching Apollo's video feed could see the lunar module, the US flag and other items in the vicinity as one panoramic sweep that expanded as they got closer.

"Man, this is the only way to travel!" Fred exclaimed. "I know they're supposed to be building powered lunar rovers for the later missions, but I doubt they'll go this fast, or smoothly."

"I'm glad you approve." Luna replied, showing no sign of strain in her voice as she galloped. "As I understand, you will rest, eat, and replenish your suits, and perform a second expedition to the deep crater to the north east, the Cone crater as the map calls it."

"That's right." Jim replied, as they drew up alongside the landing pad. "We were going to collect a lot of samples on the way, before the changes to the mission profile. The samples from the rim of the crater are most important, the geologists reckon they come from deep under the surface, thrown out by the impact that created it, so the current plan was to head straight there. I guess it's up to Houston whether we revert to more samples or stick with the revised mission."

"In that case, maybe we can get another sled ride." Fred quipped.

Arranging to measure the saddlebags took some ingenuity, as they were heavier than the spring balance used to weigh  samples could measure. But by setting up a simple set of scales and using the spring balance to calibrate smaller, Luna created weights, they measured it, and duly reported the figures back to the Capcom at Houston. 

This took up a good amount of their remaining reserves, both of oxygen, and energy, so as soon as the work was done, they closed out the video broadcast, and retured to the lunar module, taking the mithril container up after them on the LEC, while Luna went back to the mithril facility to pick up the few items she wanted to bring with her, and refresh her own magic from the massive thaumic array there.