on Zak" shouted Petri. "We havenât got much time left, we must get out of here."
"But canât we do absolutely anything to interrupt the sequence?" replied Azakis incredulously.
"Unfortunately, no, old chap. Otherwise, donât you think Iâd already have done it?"
"But itâs just not possible," said the Captain as his companion in adventure dragged him along by the arm, in the direction of internal communication module number three.
"Well actually we could try to manually interrupt the procedure, but it would take at least thirty minutes and we only have more or less a minute left."
"Wait, stop!" exclaimed Azakis, yanking himself free from his friendâs strong grip. "We canât leave it here to explode. The wave of energy the explosion generates will reach Earth in just a few minutes and the exposed face of the planet will be struck by a gigantic shock wave thatâll destroy everything in its passage."
"Iâve already set up remote control of the Theos from the shuttle. Weâll move it once weâre on board, as long as you get a move on,â scolded Petri as he again grabbed his friendâs arm and bodily dragged him in the direction of the module.
âSixty seconds to self-destruction.â
"But where do you want to move it to?" Azakis continued, as the internal communication module door opened on the shuttleâs bridge, on level six. "A minute wonât be enough to make it reach a sufficient distance to..."
"Will you please just stop babbling on?â Petri interrupted him. "Shut your mouth and sit down there. Iâll handle this now."
Without further 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 heâd 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 friendâs skilful manoeuvring.
âThirty seconds to self-destruction.â
"Weâre out" shouted Petri. "Now Iâll move the Theos."
"What can I do to help you?"
âNothing don't worry. Youâre in good hands," and he winked at him with his right eye, as his terrestrial friends had taught him to do. "Iâll position the ship behind the moon. From there it wonât be able to do any harm."
"Gosh," exclaimed Azakis. "I hadnât thought of that."
"Thatâs why I'm here, isnât it?"
"The wave of the explosion will break on the satellite which will absorb all its energy. Youâre a phenomenon my friend."
"And it certainly wonât do any damage on the moon" continued Petri. "Thereâs nothing but rocks and craters there."
âTen seconds to destruction."
âAlmost done....â said Petri faintly.
âThree... Two... One...â
âDone! The Theos is in position."
Precisely at that instant, on the moonâs 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 craterâs 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,â 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, Iâd 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 Petriâs 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?â
Tell el-Mukayyar â Flash in the sky
At doctor Elisa Hunterâs base camp, after jumping out of the archaeologistâs 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, whatâs the matter?" asked Elisa a little worried, looking at the restless kitten.
"She must be sad because sheâs 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 Colonelâs big hand. All of a sudden however, she froze, made a strange sound
