✴

“I dare!” you say.

The visage of Pulse dissolves and the soundscape around you reshapes itself, vibrating to a low droning note. The myriad passageways narrow and close off, leaving just one door ahead.

“Alright, let’s go.” Trisha, oriented nearest to the door, grasps its handle and pulls open the gateway. You need not go through the motion of stepping through--you are here, in a place too familiar. The illusion of a weak gravitational force pulls you down. You touch the ground just as a pair of rapid low drum hits expands from you. It repeats, again and again, as each of you make contact in rhythm. From each point of impact, a shockwave spreads across the dusty grey plain. Fine powdery regolith kicks up into expanding clouds, blocking your vision of the others.

From the Sunlit black sky above, the grey desert of dust below, and the gravity so familiar to your Lunatic mind, you know this world.

Track 02: MOONQUAKE

A text overlay flashes before your vision. Once you can’t see anything but dust, the repeated rhythm expands, more notes filling its gaps, and a heavy distorted layer joins the song. You shield your eyes from the moon dust--instinct, despite it posing no danger to you here.

You uncover your eyes and find a glass shield covering them, dimming the stars. Looking down at your hands, you see the white fabric gloves of a priceless relic--a 21st century EVA suit. You nearly lose your balance under the weight of its water-cooling system and massive life support backpack, but a helping hand stabilizes you.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Electricité > this way, we gotta go

You turn around to see them similarly suited up, the white fabric of their suit turning grey as the dust cloud falls back down to the surface.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > go where?

As the song calms to a low droning pulse, continuing its constant rhythm in the background, the dust settles enough for you to make out the structure nearby--a 21st century style of primitive modular space habitat, now also coated in fine grey dust. Synth and Zeta make their way toward Trisha as they lead you toward a hatch.

The Sunlight filters in beams through the cascading dust raining back down. The edges of the dark shadows of the structure ripple in time with the driving rhythm of the scene--light and sound interwoven. You can even feel the texture of the coarse, sharp regolith if you focus. The rhythm keeps time with your long steps across the Lunar surface. You aren’t sure if your movements control it or if it influences you.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? ÆON > Fascinating. A simulation of the surface?

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > welcome to my homeworld. or something kind of like it sculpted out of sound waves somehow

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Electricité > here. inside, quick

They open the hatch to a small airlock. The five of you barely fit inside with your huge EVA suits. A rapid arpeggiated layer of soft sine waves flows over the beat as repressurization takes effect, much faster than it should in this time. Trisha opens the interior hatch and unfastens their helmet.

“Ahh you’re getting regolith everywhere!” Your Lunatic instincts flood you with panic.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, we’re in the æther,” Trisha says.

“Oh, right...” You follow them out into a corridor.

“We’re about to have bigger problems anyway,” they say.

“What do you mean?” Zeta says.

“You probably wouldn’t know, spaceling,” Trisha says. “Synth, do you see? Aydan?”

“It’s a late 21st century structure...and we just had a weak moonquake...the Sun is...” They look back out the airlock window. “Oh no. It’s the south pole, so...”

“That’s right babe, the peak of eternal sunlight...” they say.