LITMIR.BIZ

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comment, Azakis obeyed the order and sat down in the grey armchair at the side of the central console. As he had already done dozens of times before, in equally dangerous situations, he decided to rely completely on the skill and experience of his companion. While Petri feverishly fumbled with a series of three-dimensional manoeuvre holograms, he thought he’d check on the result of the evacuation of the rest of the crew, simultaneously contacting the individual pilots. In a few seconds they all confirmed the successful detachment of their shuttles from the mother spacecraft. They were moving rapidly away. The Captain drew a big sigh of relief and went back to giving his attention to his friend’s skilful manoeuvring.

      â€œThirty seconds to self-destruction.”

      "We’re out" shouted Petri. "Now I’ll move the Theos."

      "What can I do to help you?"

      â€œNothing don't worry. You’re in good hands," and he winked at him with his right eye, as his terrestrial friends had taught him to do. "I’ll position the ship behind the moon. From there it won’t be able to do any harm."

      "Gosh," exclaimed Azakis. "I hadn’t thought of that."

      "That’s why I'm here, isn’t it?"

      "The wave of the explosion will break on the satellite which will absorb all its energy. You’re a phenomenon my friend."

      "And it certainly won’t do any damage on the moon" continued Petri. "There’s nothing but rocks and craters there."

      â€œTen seconds to destruction."

      â€œAlmost done....” said Petri faintly.

      â€œThree... Two... One...”

      â€œDone! The Theos is in position."

      Precisely at that instant, on the moon’s hidden face, at the decimal degree coordinates latitude 24.446471 and longitude 152.171308, in correspondence to what the terrestrials had called the Komarov crater, there was a strange telluric movement. A large, deep slit with incredibly perfect edges opened on the crater’s barren, rough surface, as if a huge invisible blade had suddenly been stuck into it. Immediately afterwards, a strange ovoid-shaped object darted out at incredible speed, as if it had been shot directly from inside the crater and headed into space, with an inclined path of about thirty degrees with respect to the perpendicular. The object remained visible for only a few seconds before disappearing forever in a flash of bluish light.

      On the shuttle, through the elliptical opening giving a view of the exterior, a blinding flash lit up the black, cold outside space, flooding the inside of the shuttle with an almost unreal light.

      "My friend, what about getting out of here?" suggested Azakis worriedly, as he watched the wave of energy expand and rapidly approach their position.

      "Follow me," shouted Petri into the communicator, to the pilots of the other shuttles. Then, without adding anything else, he manoeuvred his vehicle and quickly moved it to shelter behind the side of the moon that always faces the Earth. "Hold tight," he added, as he firmly gripped the armrests of the command seat where he was sitting.

      They waited, in absolute silence, as interminable seconds went by, their gazes fixed on the central display, hoping that the sudden movement of the Theos had managed to avert a catastrophe on Earth.

      "The wave of energy is dispersing in space,” Petri said quietly. He paused briefly then, and after checking a whole series of incomprehensible messages that had appeared in the holograms in front of him, he added, "and the moon absorbed the portion directed towards the planet perfectly."

      "Well, I’d say you did a really excellent job there, old chap," commented Azakis after he had begun to breathe again.

      "The only thing that really suffered was the poor moon. It took a proper beating."

      "Think what might have happened if the wave had arrived on Earth."

      "It would have burnt up half the planet."

      "Are you all okay?" Azakis hastened to ask all the other pilots through the communicator, who, following Petri’s manoeuvres, had also positioned their shuttles in the shelter of the satellite. Comforting answers came back in sequence and, after the last captain had also confirmed that both his crew and vehicle were in perfect condition, he let himself slump back against the back of his armchair and let out all the air in his lungs.

      "That went well," commented Petri satisfied.

      "Yes, but now what do we do? The Theos no longer exists. How are we going to get back home?”

      Tell el-Mukayyar – Flash in the sky

      At doctor Elisa Hunter’s base camp, after jumping out of the archaeologist’s arms, Lulù, the little kitten, had begun to prowl around nervously with her gaze fixed towards the sky. The sun was going down and a beautiful, almost full moon was already high on the horizon.

      "Lulù, what’s the matter?" asked Elisa a little worried, looking at the restless kitten.

      "She must be sad because she’s realised our friends have left," commented Jack laconically, trying to comfort her by stroking her gently under her chin.

      The little cat initially seemed to relish the attention, purring and rubbing her nose against the Colonel’s big hand. All of a sudden however, she froze, made a strange sound and turned her eyes straight towards the earth’s pale satellite. Both of them, intrigued by that bizarre behaviour, instinctively, also turned in the same direction. What they saw after a few moments, left them both breathless. An abnormal glow seemed to wrap around the moon. A brilliant white light, that extended about ten times the diameter of the satellite, then formed a sort of crown around it. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was almost as if another sun had suddenly appeared in the sky at dusk, illuminating the whole area with a decidedly unnatural light.

      "But what on earth ..." managed only to whisper the stunned Colonel.

      Just as it had appeared, the abnormal light vanished, and everything seemed to return exactly as it was before. The moon was still there, and the sun lazily continued its descent behind the dunes silhouetted against the horizon.

      "What was that?" asked Elisa in amazement.

      "I haven’t the faintest idea."

      "For a moment I feared the moon had exploded."

      "It really was quite incredible" exclaimed the Colonel while, with his open hand resting above his eyebrows, he scanned the clear sky looking for clues.

      "Azakis.... Petri..." said Elisa suddenly. "Something must have happened to them, I can feel it."

      "Go on, give over. Perhaps it was just the effect of their ship’s engines starting."

      "It’s not possible. That seemed like a real explosion. You should know more than me about these things, no?"

      "Darling" the Colonel said patiently. "To see the effects of an explosion like that from all this distance, there would have to have been at least a hundred atomic bombs explode simultaneously on the moon or maybe even a thousand."

      "So, what happened then?"

      "We could try asking our military friends. After all I am still part of ELSAD. With all that equipment always pointing at the sky, an event of this kind will not have escaped them for sure.”

      "Even Lulù noticed it."

      "I think this kitten is much smarter than the two of us put together."

      "Felines are a superior race," said Elisa as she picked the kitten up again. "Had you still not realised?"

      "Yeah. I think the ancient Egyptians adored them too, almost like deities."

      "Exactly, my love," said Elisa, happy that the discussion had moved into a field in which she was well versed. "Bastet, for example,

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