A pain in his backside woke Sander, and he could instinctively tell something wasn’t right. Blinded by the ceiling lights, he shifted slightly and eventually understood that he was sprawled on the floor, when Lori called down at him.

“You OK?”

“What the…” he mumbled, as his confusion slowly evaporated and the ache in his spine grew.

Extricating himself from the collapsed hammock, Sander stood up and rubbed his tailbone, before realizing that they were on an incline.

“What’s going on?”

Before his sister could answer him, Barney burst out of the engine room, with Evelyn right behind.

“Are you guys alright?”

“What’s the matter?” Lori fired back as they hugged briefly.

But she didn’t have to wait long for her answer: In a flurry of curses, Quentin rushed out of the cockpit and provided her answer.

“God damn it… This is like a bad dream!” he moaned, pulling out a screen from a panel in the wall.

Flipping a switch, Quentin sent a surge of power to the treads… but, as his eyes danced across the feedback and his ship whined around them without moving, all he could do was hang his head.

“What?” Barney demanded, more than a little irritated to be up so early.

“The treads… we’re stuck.”

Quentin shot Barney a somber look, just as the Russians appeared.

“Yeah, we hit a snag… Can you take a look?” Quentin quickly asked.

“Da, I go…” Matvey grumbled sleepily.

As Pavel, Sergei and their parents joined Quentin in his diagnostic effort from the cockpit, the twins helped Matvey suit up and descend through the dock… worrying just how damaged the Firmament had actually sustained.

“How far are we from destination?” Sergei asked, rubbing his bald little head nervously.

“Not super far… couple kilometers at the most, let me check.”

Mulling this information over, it was Pavel’s turn to speak up.

“When will Godsend come?” he asked, as Quentin checked his graph.

“Four… Five hours, max.”

“That is still enough time, if we fix fast.”

Pavel double-checked with Quentin, who reconfirmed his initial estimation with a nod.

“Yeah… then we gotta-”

Interrupting their conversation, Matvey radioed to be let back in. As Quentin obliged and he rose out of the floor to pry his suit off, everyone crowded around for the news.

“I can repair. It just slide off…” he started, putting one finger between two others to show how the treads usually lined up.

“That’s not so bad, right?” Evelyn asked hopefully.

“No…” Matvey answered “But there is other problem: Left side don’t touch” he said, spinning his finger around to illustrate the problem. “We are sliding into crater.”

His words hung in the air... before Quentin startled everyone by punching the wall.

“Shit!” he raged, immediately regretting his violent outburst as his knuckles throbbed.

“How big are we talking? How deep?”

“Pretty big. Is steep like…” he tilted his hand to a rather worrisome angle.

“So we’re- we could… Oh god!” Evelyn began to panic, eyes bulging at the news.

“How is this even possible? I thought-” Barney began, before Quentin cut him off.

“Because it’s fresh, God damn it!” Quentin snapped. “The crater isn’t on the maps ‘cuz it’s a new impact... probably just happened…”

“Look, we can…”

But Quentin wasn’t listening.

“What the fuck, man… This is…” he closed his eyes and sighed, massaging his skull “I have to go out. I gotta see this…”

“Yeah… I’ll come with,” Barney added, eager to help.

So out they went.

Over the next hour, the Russians carefully soldered the tread back into place, joined by Quentin and Barney on their spacewalk.

Feeling useless amid all this commotion, Lori and Sander offered their assistance… but were mostly ignored, while the adults inspected the rest of the ship and struggled to “regain craft mobility” as Quentin put it.

After reorienting themselves and hitting the gas again (which only made the Firmament slide deeper into the crater) Pavel then attempted pull them out by tying the Landshark to the front of the ship… but he soon gave up, when it became obvious that the rover’s little engine didn’t have the necessary torque.

Finally, Barney came up with a plan.

“Hey! Listen to me…” he tried to interject, as a half-undressed Quentin finished a yet another nervous rant.

“... and if we can’t move, even if they land perfectly… how are we gonna meet? I- we´ll need to take the shark out… but we’ll still be stranded here!” he threw his helmet into a hammock, pacing around the Firmament’s tilted floor.

“Quentin! Listen: I might have an idea… Do you have anything besides the Landshark down there? Any other… like, rovers or something?

“No! We’re screw-”

“OK! That’s OK, it can still work. Look:” Barney cut him off, taking a printout of the surrounding geography from the wall and bringing over. “Our problem right now is that we need to get the other tread to touch, or we’re beached. This right here… ”

He traced a line across the map with a pencil, and spun it around.

“Is the edge of the shadow… and they’re landing here.” He marked the spot with a little “X”, just past the line.

“Wait, where are we?” Evelyn asked as she leaned in, confounded by her husband’s directions.

“Somewhere around here…” Quentin tapped the corner of the page, beating Barney to the punch.

“Yeah exactly…” he made a little circle on the dark side. “So that means that a few months ago… we crashed right over here, right?”

Quentin nodded and Barney continued.

“OK! So, this is what I was thinking: while those three go off with the Landshark, and finish setting up the filters and all that…” he motioned to the undressing Russians, “maybe we move everything we can to the left of the ship!”

Intrigued, Quentin fell silent and looked to their left, picturing everything that could be moved…

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“And?” he prompted, desperate for a solution.

“Well… we might be able to get ourselves level, if we use a spare balloon from our ship… The Beginner´s Luck. Put it under the tread, inflate, and see what happens… It couldn’t hurt.”

“These balloons… this is something you added to my blueprints, right?”

“Yeah, we kind of had to improvise a bit…”

“OK, but- what kind are we talking?” Quentin asked, after a taking a second to run the idea over in his head “What´s the PSI?”

“Should be enough,” Barney shrugged. “They were our landing gear, so I bought the sturdiest available…”

“But we crashed… isn´t everything destroyed?” asked Lori, who had been eavesdropping on them.

“Maybe… but I’m pretty sure my chest cushioned the fall,” Barney smirked sarcastically.

“Wait… so you want to go to scavenge our old crash site for the airbags, and bring them back and right the ship… on foot?” Evelyn repeated.

“It’s not that far… like half an hour at most.”

“Still… who’s gonna go?”

“I think the kids can help Quentin move everything around… You and I can go, see what we find and come back fast, to sort this out,” Barney offered, looking to Quentin to get his opinion.

But before the man could answer, the Firmament moved a few extra feet and threw everyone off balance. Going white in the face, Evelyn let out a little peep.

“Y-You know… I’m not sure I like this plan,” she stammered.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know… I just- I can’t leave them.” Evelyn looked to her children.

“We’re fine mom, don’t worry,” Sander smiled, trying to reassure her.

“I know, I just- I can’t! I can’t leave you here, this place feels like a sinking ship… and if we get lost or we’re late or something, these people are coming… I really don’t want to see our crash again…” wringing her hands compulsively, the color drained from her face.

Seeing how emotional the situation was making her, Barney went over to hug his wife.

“Hey, bunny… it’s OK, we got this.”

“Yeah, don’t worry mom! Everything is going to work out,” Lori added, hugging her mother as well.

“If you want, you guys can stay here and prepare the ship… and we can go look if we see any balloons,” Sander proposed, as all eyes turned to him and then back to Evelyn. “We’ve already been out farther, for ice and stuff…”

“Do you even know what it looks like?” Evelyn agonized, before being rebuked with chuckle.

“We installed it together, mom!”

“How about that? What if they go for a little walk, see about the balloons, and come back when things are more settled?” Barney offered, as the Russians began to suit-up once more. “Would that make things easier?”

“We must leave now, or fissure will not be prepare in time,” Pavel mentioned from behind their group hug. “Is rover charging?”

“Ahh… yeah, wait!” Quentin called out, hurrying over.

As Quentin and Pavel ran over some final construction details, Evelyn remembered that her family was still waiting for an answer… and, as the hustle and bustle around them grew, she sighed and rose to her feet.

“I guess we don´t have a choice.”

“No babe, we do! We can-”

“Whatever. Don´t worry about me. Let´s just get through this day…”

Seeing the determination in his wife´s eyes, Barney felt a little swell of pride to have such a resilient partner, and put his arm around her shoulder.

With a wave, Matvey, Pavel and Sergei descended once more through the dock, leaving just in time to hear another message from the Godsend blast across the speakers.

“We’re in descent. Three hours… forty-three minutes until touchdown,” a raspy voice rang out from the radio, giving everyone a little jump-scare.

Barney and Quentin then began pushing all the crates and machinery to the left of the Firmament’s hull, filling every available space from the engine room to the shower with spare parts, tools, crates and and supplies… while Evelyn helped her children get their suits on.

“Look, if you don’t see anything, that’s fine,” Evelyn told Lori, as she hooked the tank to her helmet. “We’ll make it work no matter what… so whatever you do, don’t stay out too long. God, maybe I should go with you…”

“Don´t worry, we got his mom!” Sander yelled, his voice muffled by the helmet. “OK, love you!” he flashed a peace-sign, and stood on the dock.

Realizing the moment had passed for her to join the expedition, Evelyn bit her lip nervously as she watched Lori join her sibling in the middle of the room.

Leaving Barney for an instant, Quentin went over to recheck their airflow and grabbed both of their right wrists to push a button. From inside the fabric, a series of tiny LED lights blinked in unison.

“There: I made your GPS extra visible… impossible to get lost. This little light is you, this is the Beginer´s Luck´s crash zone, and this is the Firmament. Hold all three for a distress signal,” he explained. “Literally, as easy as one-two-three… and if you don’t find anything, no worries: just come home. You easily have four hours of air, so just be smart about it.”

The twins nodded back as Quentin hit the button and lowered them towards the moon, with a final piece of advice.

“In case you guys do find the balloons, there’s a booster in the back of the rover-slot… All the way at the back. Might make things easier.”

“What’s a booster?” Sander asked, before his helmet-clad head slid out of view.

“Like a forklift, kinda… You’ll see…” Quentin replied distractedly.

Once outside, the twins took a second to orient themselves. Sander then walked over to the Landshark’s garage, to see what Quentin was talking about.

“OK… it’s over here. Hey, Sander!” Lori called out, following the directions on her wrist.

But Sander wasn’t listening. In the back of the slot, right beside one of the Firmament´s stabilizer pistons, a large piece of what appeared to be tan luggage had been tucked away behind a series of tight Velcro straps.

“Check this out! It’s like… a jet-pack!” Sander swooned, as he tried to understand how to attach the contraption to himself. “Wait, is it? Hang on…”

“Here, like this…” Lori helped, tying the machine to her brother´s back like an oversized rucksack.

And suddenly, Sander´s feet were off the ground.

“Woah…”

Half-hidden by the booster´s bulk, he flicked the joystick beneath his thumb and immediately slid from side to side, his boots barely scraping the moon rock.

“Oh, OK… there´s like, a height limit…” he muttered, as the booster propelled him forward in an effortless arc.

“What about me?” Lori complained, as her brother began twirling around the ship faster and faster.

“Stop goofing around Sander…” their radio whined, as Quentin took over their frequencies. “You’re gonna break the tethers!”

“OK, OK… we’re off,” Sander sneered playfully, releasing the joystick and coming to a jerky halt as the spinning ceased.

As his dizziness abated, he then floated over to his sister, scooped her up in a bear hug and began jetting away towards the crash site.

“Wait! Sander, let go.”

“Just sit on my shoulders! It’ll work!”

“You´re dragging me! Stop!” Lori yelled, breaking his grip.

Lori did an awkward little roll to cushion her fall and slowly rose back to her feet.

“I´m driving home” she spat, before Sander could even attempt to apologize.

“Sorry…”

“Seriously guys, no messing around… gave you that to carry the balloon system. It’s not ma… So don’t… for… ” Quentin’s voice died, as they teetered on the edge of the Firmament’s range.

“Right back at ya…” mumbled Sander, as the twins flipped their radios off in tandem.

Climbing around her brother to sit on the top part of the booster, Lori finally managed to relax and almost started enjoying their trip, as they skimmed their way towards the luminous horizon.

The little GPS on their wrists shifted slightly and Sander positioned the joystick accordingly, squinting against the upcoming glare. Suddenly, pearly-white moon rocks replaced the dark terrain that had come to define their lunar stay… and the twins burst blindly into the light.

For the first time in months, Lori and Sander felt the sun´s warmth on their suits and they came to a stop, as their eyes adjusted to the new environment. Blinking furiously, Lori wished she could rub her eyes more comfortably through the suit...

After double-checking their proximity to the original crash site, Sander saw that they were basically there already… and slipped the booster off his back.

“Do you see anything?” he asked, turning to Lori with a series of hand gestures.

Struggling with the unfamiliar luminosity, Lori had a hard time seeing what her brother was trying to say and shook her head.

“It’s gonna be something big…” Lori answered wordlessly, looking in the opposite direction.

A large, charred stain stood out against the regolith, half-hidden beside a sloping ledge… and she tapped her brother´s shoulder. Sander followed her gaze and, after double-checking their coordinates, eventually gave Lori a thumbs-up and drove them to the debris field.

“How is this going to work? Everything´s shredded!” he motioned, kicking progressively larger pieces of the Beginner’s Luck out of his way, the further they penetrated the crash site.

But instead of responding, Lori had become distracted. There was something unsettling in actually seeing where she´d almost died… and as she pushed the trauma of their fateful descent from her mind and focused on their objective, a distant shape from behind her brother caught her eye.

An odd shape, from an impossible place…

Returning to their discarded booster, Lori strapped herself in and hovered down towards the strange protuberance, while Sander tried getting her attention by waving more and more frantically.

“Hello? Lori!”

He watched her glide by and started jogging along to keep up, confused as to what exactly was going on…

Finally, Lori released the joystick and let the booster come to a halt at the foot of an archway, jutting straight out of the chalky dirt from the twilight band, where day turned to night.

Stunned, Sander caught up with her… but he too could only to gape in awe, as they struggled to understand what they were looking at: Almost ghostly in the dusky light, the twins stood before an immense, rusty ring, half-buried in the ground.

Bent from its impact, the derelict remnant of a forgotten lunar mission still rose roughly ten feet off the ground, creating a rusted vault of fuselage to pass under, should one so choose.

And from where they were standing, a single star behind the archway twinkled brighter than all the others, acting as an iris to the celestial oculus they had discovered. It all seemed so surreal, yet so familiar… as if ripped from her dreams… The landscape, the star beneath the bow…

But before Lori could figure out what she was feeling, a tap from her brother snapped her head around.

“What are we doing? What is this?” Sander signed.

“I don’t know… It looks like something I saw in a dream,” Lori answered, still dazed by the view.

She took a few steps closer and, ignoring Sander’s wild stare or obvious follow-up questions, passed through the archway down a sandy ledge towards a pair of jagged boulders.

Looking back to Sander as he shrugged angrily and shook his head, Lori suddenly saw something so improbable, she actually had to blink several times for her mind to fully wrap around the sight:

Set deep into the ground, between the two large rocks she had just passed, a small, gray door stared back unassumingly, as if just waiting to be found.