“Holy crap, man. This was YOUR grandpa’s work?” Darek held the reader that he just finished reading from toward Phil.

“Yup. Weird to see, isn’t it?” Phil said as he took the tablet back. “I don’t know why I just found this now, it’s been years...you’d think I would’ve come across it sooner. It was in all that crap Stefanie gave back when we split before I came up here.”

Darek looked at the tablet again with doubt. “I thought he was one of the revolutionaries who pushed for the positive order? Didn’t he help found Phoenix? I read his stuff in school, he’s a legend, are you sure this is his?”

“It came from his personal files that I have. This must’ve been part of the reason. I guess he wasn’t always the easy-going beacon of light we- I knew. It goes on a bit too. There’s more stuff in there like this..maybe it was just creative writing. There was a whole lot of his actual work in there too, all the original files that he worked on and programs he designed.”

Darek shrugged and raised his eyebrows. “Well, plus side… living here on a moon base sure proves you’re a bit more willing to participate in humanity. Eh, actually, I’m wrong. He built humanity, forget about participated. I guess what he lived through wasn’t quite humanity yet. Does it have a date on it?”

“April 7th, 2032, long before I was born.” Phil said.

“What is that now… oh wait, duh, eighty-four years. Man, he was young then.”

“Crazy what the world became in that time, he would’ve been proud to see it, though I don’t know if he would ever really believe it after the wars. He always thought it could topple again any day.” Phil stared vacantly toward the tablet in his hand as they continued walking for the lab. “It’s just strange though. He was always so positive and tried to teach and spread peace from what I knew. He worked to unite what was left of the human race.”

He thought about the world his grandfather must’ve lived in; the toxic place of insanity before enough people were able to piece things together, a global snowball of destruction and decay. “Luckily progress was fast once the dumb ones died fighting about it. What a world to live in. Who could have ever thought they’d win in a fight against a planet? Maybe he was just doing some creative writing, this might’ve been some expression of his. Maybe it’s why he did what he did.” Phil shook his head gently and breathed deep a few times, the focus of his eyes clearly not on his surroundings as they continued walking together.

“Yeah, well, bigger and better things, right?” Darek said. “We still are a boastful race, always enjoyed being the biggest thing. But there’s always bigger and better things...why we’re here isn’t it?” Darek tried to add some excitement to his voice to help Phil back up from whatever place that reader had brought him. It was clear it meant more to him than to Darek, and that it stirred something that he hadn’t allowed himself to look at in a while. Darek didn’t know much about Phil’s young life. Only a few conversations between them covered those times, there hadn’t been too much reason to talk about it.

Phil pulled back to the moment. “Oh yeaahhh, that’s our style. Is this not the greatest?? I’m okay reaching for bigger and better if I get more of this.” He pointed up with emphasis as he spoke the last word “But only if it’s done right.”

The ceilings, made of refined transparent aluminum, were almost invisible, sometimes feeling more like an open trench than an enclosed station. The floor tiles were wide set rectangles of carved moon rock, each the full width of the path and met by the deep gray material of the walls. At this hour of operations, the pathway lights were dimmed from their usual daylight setting to low red, which made the external light that much more pronounced and vivid. The transparent ceiling allowed a view of illumination as the base faced away from the sun and off into the cosmos. With no atmosphere to obstruct, an immense wall of shining starlight spanned above. Faint hues of reds, blues, gold, and white dotted the black expanse. Jupiter hung larger and brighter than everything else. Again, Phil’s breath left him. It was so beautiful it got him every time. Each expecting glance up was shocked with the removal of yet another breath. It made him think of Adrienne.

Darek looked at Phil’s face when he turned around to find out why the second set of footsteps stopped. He followed Phil’s open mouth and arm upward to the view above that Phil pointed to. He shrunk and felt infinitely large at the same moment as he slowly pulled in his own breath that had just escaped.

After a full minute of staring, they both lowered their heads to make eye contact, and simultaneously nodded with a smile and a definitive “Nice” out loud. This was their daily tradition whenever the base was in the dark for a little over a year now. Phil always stopped to look up at the milky way’s majesty when they reached the middle of their walk and lost himself for a moment. Darek always heard the steps stop - usually abruptly because their conversation distracted him from what was inevitable - and turned around to find Phil’s awed and opened face staring up. He always observed the way Phil looked so absorbed and amazed as he pointed, and at his own turn Darek lost himself to the stars.

It happened every day until they came around into the sun again. They didn’t even speak afterwards anymore. They just silently continued their walk, having discussed ad infinitum how much they love their jobs and can’t believe that THEY get to work here AND on the Drop ship. Everything about it was amazing, and they both knew that they both knew it. There were only so many ways to say it. Their glance spoke simpatico on a level above words.

The path took them to a large central area that housed some structures and was covered by a solid roof with a few large domed windows spread evenly across it. This was the site of the greatest technology man had created. This was the Drop center.

The base itself was mostly built into the ground of the moon. It saved on costs and reduced the amount of radiation and protective shielding necessary. It had to be constructed on the dark-side of the moon to conduct Drop launches away from Earth, and to minimize any gravitational effects on the planet while also avoiding disturbing any mining operations on the light side.

The main Drop site was built within a giant cavernous area of the Daedalus crater, nearly centered on the dark side of the moon. The base was mostly hidden underground and only exposed through the surface at the opening for the Drop launch port, observation domes, and a few upper-level halls, and windows around the hangars. From orbit, the base only looked like a large circular hole surrounded by several clear bubbles and three branching lines of clear halls that connected them.

The dark-side orbital view of the base was something to experience when faced away from the sun. A large ring of faint-blue glow one-hundred meters in diameter surrounded a dark pit, unseen except for what felt like emptiness. Within the thick, faint ring surrounding the launch hole, there was a gap and then two thinner but brighter rings of the same color blue, making a triple border of light. A thick dotted line of access hall bordered outside the blue rings. Without direct external light, all the windows and ceilings from the base shined their respective colors and flickered with movement from base activities. The Drop hole was at the southernmost end of the base, all other facilities fell to its north. Three lines of passageway branched off from the top of the Drop hole, the outer two falling forty-five degrees off the center one, so it looked like an arrow pointed right down at the Drop port rings. The lights from the halls were typically pure white, but also featured accent lighting that cycled slowly through the rainbow of colors. With the rainbow cycle integrated and synchronized throughout the base, there was a magical glow that somehow made it seem like art rather than technology. One of Phil’s favorite but also the rarest parts of his work on the base now was getting to see that bird’s eye view from a shuttle or the orbital station.

If the base was a work of art and the stars were amazing, watching the Drop happen was beyond impossibly amazing. Phil and Darek entered the outer housing of the Drop center just as a functional test was starting. The systems emanated a glow of bright blue light that seemed to ripple and shudder, though it was measurably quite constant and still.

As the energy built, a section of stars at a point ten-thousand meters beyond them in space began to distort and stretch as they looked up at it. As it grew, it rolled and pinched. A dark center emerged in a spherical shape, bending the light from stars behind it, and the distortion grew into a hole with a subtle blue barrier that looked like smoke matching the blue of the system’s light. It widened and widened as an unmistakable lightness could be felt. The gravity effects made everything temporarily much less heavy; for the moon, that was saying something. It literally put a skip in your step and the energy of it, the magnitude, sent a peaceful, high frequency buzzing through the body that made you feel you glowed faintly of pure power. The whole process was an amazing two minutes to experience as the hole opened and the ship dropped into the distortion – the bridge to somewhere else in the galaxy. They observed the test object float from inside the Drop port toward the Drop hole and disappear.

“HA look! We’ll get to see our PNAS!” Darek shouted a little with an excited jump of self-satisfaction. Phil shook his head, laughing at Darek’s naming of the Peripheral Navigation Assistance System, loving that no one on the base caught it before it was approved.

“I knew it would pay off being a nano-technician.” Phil smiled in agreement and asked, “What distance was this one?”

“I think this was another five thousand light year warp, but to another sector to test the trajectory adjustments.” Darek answered.

“I wonder how many more times we’ll get to see these. Its gotta stop soon, we’re almost at the official launch date.” Phil replied.

“Yeah, but I’m going to soak in as much as I can while it’s here.”

Phil laid back on a bench and gazed up through the window as the small test structure fell back through the distortion and into view again. The remaining blue glow disappeared as the system powered down. He savored the memory of the buzz as it left and talked in a more relaxed tone. “That is the best feeling. Like I might trade that for sex. Unless I could have sex while watching a Drop. That would be the best feeling.”

“Yeah, it’d be the best two minutes of both your lives. BOOM! Roasted!”

Phil glanced over with a half-smile to say very funny.

“Don’t set me up like that, Phil! Hahaaa. Besides, you say that like you gettin’ any.” Darek stood satisfied with himself offering an arm to help Phil up.

“You think I could last two minutes? Darek, I blush.” Phil took a firm grip at Darek’s forearm and pulled himself up to continue their walk.

“Ya know, I’ve been thinking Darek, and working on my own project. I haven’t told or shown anyone yet, but I think you’d like it. I love feeling the buzz, I mean who doesn’t. But I also love other… things, ya know?”

“Like thirty seconds of sex during a Drop? BOOM. TWO.”

Phil just laughed, kept nodding and continued, “So, I was daydreaming about how awesome it would be if I could just switch a high on with a remote, then switch it off. I could flip it on while I walk the halls, then off right before I get to work. On in the shower, off when I’m done. Ya know what I mean? How awesome would that be? They can get a whole station basically buzzed for two minutes of a Drop right?…. Why can’t I get my whole body high for OH CRAP! DAMMIT! SHIT! WHY IS THAT SO HEAVY!?”

A cart whipped around the corner and collided with Phil’s lower body, interrupting their conversation just as they approached a hall intersection, and knocked him to the floor.

“OH MY GOODNESS! PHIL! I’m so sorry. Oh, no! Are you okay??” a high-pitched female voice called.

Phil panted on the floor, grabbing both legs and rolling back and forth.

“Hi Adrienne!” Darek said lightly. “Don’t worry about him, he’s just looking for attention. Get up Phil, come on, we have stuff to do.” Darek urged, jokingly trying to ease Adrienne’s clear worry.

“Phil, are you okay? Can you talk? What hurts? Oh my gosh Philllll, I’m so sorry.” Adrienne’s fast-paced voice dripped with guilt.

Phil strained and huffed while still curled up on the floor, rocking side to side. He spoke through gritted teeth, watery eyes, and heavy breaths. “You ran over… my foot… and bashed my shin.. with.. a REALLY. Heavy. Metal. Trolley.”

“Oh no, Phil, you’re bleeding!” She said.

“Oh shit, Phil, yeah you got a little something coming down your leg there.” Darek looked at the situation a little more seriously now.

“I’ll go get Allen!” Adrienne said as she jumped up to run off for the medic.

“No!” Phil called after her and she froze, but looked hesitant.

“I’m alright, I’m alright. It was just a bad spot you caught, I’m good. Give me a minute.” He grunted.

Adrienne looked over him with concern as sweat beaded his face, putting a shine to the flush of redness behind it. Small drips formed at the edge of his thick brown hair.

“Are you sure, Phil? What if you’re hurt?”

He opened his eyes fully and beamed at her. “Is this not hurt!?” He grunted and rolled onto all fours, holding the position for a few seconds to steady himself before finally standing. “See... I can walk, I’m good.”

“Oh Phil, but look, you’re still bleeding.” Adrienne said, pleading to get help as the stain on his uniform leg slowly expanded.

“I’m a big boy, I’ll patch it up. Come on Darek, let’s get back to work.” “And Adrienne… slow down… or get a bell on the handles… better yet, do both.”

She smiled apologetically and rushed off.

“She never answered my question.” Phil said quizzically. “Why, oh why, was that so heavy?” And with a shake and dusting he gathered himself and inspected his bloody leg.

“I think my endorphins are kicking in good now, I feel tingly all over.” Phil said with a light-hearted smile.

“Better hope it’s just endorphins” Darek prodded as he flashed both eyebrows and gestured back where Adrienne had gone.

“Uhm. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s endorphins. Especially after an assault like that.”

“So, what’s this thing you have to show me?” Darek asked, changing the subject as a courtesy.

“Just wait for it, it’s worth it.” Phil said, looking almost dazed now.

“Haha, you sound so dreamy about it, did you hit your head too? You’re not hogging something I can get in on, are you?” He looked at Phil amusedly, but the humor drifted away as he saw Phil’s devilish smile curl back. “What do you have?” Darek said. “Come on, I want in, what do you have??”

Phil nodded off toward his quarters. “Let’s go, way easier to show you,” he winced and limped as soon as he put weight on the injured left leg he had already forgotten about. “And you do not say a word about anything to anyone. No one knows, I’ll get booted if they find out.” He stepped off again and limped at a slower pace down the corridor.

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Copyright © 2021 by G. S. Dunn

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