[ WP ] You 're an astronaut on the first mission to the moon since the 1970 's . You begin to dig for samples in the soft sentiment when your shovel hits something soft , yet tough . You brush the dirt away , revealing a dead man in a bloody spacesuit .

I had been digging for hours and, as one would think, encountered every kind of moon rock imaginable. Sometimes it felt as though my shovel was sifting through a mountain of dust; at another point, I could feel my teeth chattering and ears ringing for at least ten minutes after jabbing into a boulder hidden deep below the surface. The agency told me I needed to dig deep, real deep, deeper than a grave deep. Given that one, I had been stuck inside the lander for three days now while every last one of my comrades got to prance like merry weightless deer along the lunar surface, and two, I was the only one who had actually been trained as a geologist, I was happy to oblige. 
 
 The Moon only has about a sixth of the Earth ’ s gravity, but that doesn ’ t stop the muscle fatigue from creeping up on your poor shoulders and back when you ’ ve been digging for an hour. Six feet, though, I ’ d passed that mark at last. “ Hey, Houston? I ’ m going on break, if that ’ s okay with you, over, ” I spoke into my helmet. No response. “ Houston? Helloooo? ” 
 
 Static, then a click and the voice of a chipper command lackey. “ Roger that, take as long as you need, Alice, over. ” She sounded like a nice girl; I was so used to hearing some monotone, by-the-books response that it was almost a startling change. 
 
 “ Hey, you sound new, Houston. What ’ s your name? Over. ” 
 
 A short pause, another click. “ I ’ m Holly, taking over for the rest of the evening. We had a shift change just after dinner hours. Management gave Jimmy the rest of the night off to spend time with his kids. Over. ” 
 
 Huh. Jimmy never told me he had any kids. Then again, talking to him was worse than talking at a brick wall, or trying to… scale a six foot deep hole on the Moon: arduous, a pain in the ass, and generally not a way I ’ d like to spend my Sunday evening. But hey, a sixth of the gravity means it ’ s way easier, right? If you consider scaling the side of a hole where every attempt to claw your way upwards makes the walls of your hard work crumble just a bit more easy, sure. 
 
 I slipped at least ten times before giving up. Then, a light bulb went off, and I realized I could use my shovel to help scale my way out. The sharp point sheared through the side of my temporary dirt prison like butter and, with a quick heave, I managed to pull myself up and float the rest of the way to the top; but when I turned around to admire my handiwork, something seemed off at the bottom. Light from the sun just barely exposed the outline of something that I knew hadn ’ t been at my feet just moments ago. Squinting, I peered over the edge a while longer, entirely unable to figure out what I was seeing. The shovel had fallen from its useful perch, that much was clear, but there was something else. 
 
 Rumpled, kinda heavy, sprawled out… No. No way. 
 
 “ Uhhhh, Houston? Hey, Houston! Houston pick up the fucking – “ 
 
 “ What, what? We read you, Alice, go ahead. Over. ” 
 
 My heart pounded against my ribcage, and an immediate surge of nausea struck me. “ Houston, take a look through my helmet cam… Please tell me you ’ re not seeing what I ’ m seeing. Over, ” I managed to stammer out, breath laden with nervousness. The silence while I stood there, stock still so the command center could get a good snapshot of the scene, was beyond terrifying, almost an otherworldly sense of terror. It would ’ ve been more comforting to hear someone else freaking out. 
 
 “ Alice? Hey, you okay out there? What ’ s going on? ” The voice of one of my fellow lunar explorers, Jin, came over comms. 
 
 “ No, no, Jin I am absolutely not okay, I – what the *fuck*, I just – “ My words gave way to a muffled shriek, equal parts exasperated and terrified. Deep breaths, just like back home with any other panic attack: in through the nose, one, two, three, out through the mouth… It was doing nothing. 
 
 “ Alice? Houston? Anyone wan na fill me in? ” Jin ’ s rocksteady voice would normally be comforting, but alas, finding a dead man on the Moon was, by all means, not on the itinerary for this mission. 
 
 A weird sense of calm overcame me, and I hadn ’ t realized that I descended into the apparent grave I ’ d laboriously dug up until my feet came to rest beside the corpse. All of the sudden adrenaline felt like it had subsided, and peace had returned to me, almost as if the corpse was calling for me to observe it. Of course, my heart still felt like it would burst given how fast it was beating, but I was suddenly numb to the idea that someone had been killed on the Moon. I heard Holly come over the comms again, something about not touching anything, please leave it. I heard Jin ’ s voice begin to crack, telling me to get my ass back to the lander or he ’ d come snatch me up. 
 
 The body was contorted from the fall, limbs splayed out, chest bared to the void of space above us. Its spacesuit was old, very old, and like none I had ever seen before: jet black, a scaly texture, and the whole thing was much more form-fitting than any modern suit, no puffiness or layered materials. It was truly fashionable; for a moment I wondered if I could ever get my hands on this sort of suit as I wiped dust from its roughened visor. 
 
 The face that stared back at me, wide-eyed and contorted in what I could only think was pain, was far from human. I could hear Holly yelling at me, now, as the folks back at headquarters viewed the sight through my eyes. A shadow loomed over the breadth of the hole, an outline of Jin ’ s suited figure as he glared down at me and the corpse. I could only presume the look on his face was a mix of confusion and anger directed toward me for disobeying orders. But, I couldn ’ t have followed them if I wanted to; I was on autopilot. 
 
 My comrades ’ babbling faded to the background as a mellow voice trickled through my brain, filling every crevice of my senses like eager water. I couldn ’ t understand what it was saying, but the sounds felt so familiar despite having never heard a single syllable before. It stirred something in me, a distinct, primal sensation that was altogether an emotion I ’ d never experienced. Hollow parts of myself, parts that I had no idea were hollow or even existed, were being filled anew with fervent existential wonder. 
 
 *Sleep, child of stars. * 
 
 Tired. So very, very tired. A peaceful kind of weariness, the sort of fatigue one would be overwhelmed with after a lengthy journey to see a dear friend. I ’ d just rest my eyes a little bit; I was supposed to be on break, after all. 
 
 *Do not be afraid. We are with you, now. *
