The Distant Moon

“This is Surveyor Second Class Maddy Barker, dictating the scan of quadrant fifty-seven Charlie on Ganymede, moon of Jupiter. The initial drones constructed a laser grid of the quadrant to get the preliminary readings and I’m conducting an in-depth scan with the on-board sensor array. This should provide a high-yield texture mapping of the surface to a depth below the surface of fifty meters. We will be able to pinpoint where to drill and implant deep crust mapping scanners in order to map out down to at least another two-hundred meters. I’m starting at the commence scan point at seventy-three degrees, forty eight minutes south and one-hundred ten degrees, thirteen minutes east.”

Maddy pushes several buttons on their console and a holographic overlay snaps into place on the left-hand side of their viewscreen. Thy gently nudge the throttle forward and the scout ship hovers forward at about six knots.

“I’ve engaged the Archimedes Deep Scan Array and am proceeding at an air speed of six knots on a north easterly course of zero-five-zero and altitude of five meters. There’s a significant incline ahead that leads over to a large cratered valley. Altitude is climbing now, I’m at seventy meters. Eighty. Ninety. One hundred-ten meters. One-twenty. I’m at the peak now, which is one-hundred thirty-three meters above surface level and - holy shit!” they exclaim.

Light fills their viewscreen, temporarily blinding them. The viewscreen auto-tints to compensate.

“There’s, there’s a light in the center of the crater. And what looks like . . . A temple.”