Oli, A Very New Moon

by Carl Derham

CHAPTER 8

  Mayday, mayday, mayday

  They parked Cranus inside a large crater on the far side of the moon. It was only a matter of time before some astronomer would discover the missing top of Mons Herodotus. It would be prudent to leave the vast ship, which could be easily viewed from Earth, on the side of the moon that was permanently facing away, or as it was more commonly referred to, the dark side of the moon. Just for effect, Oli asked Robbie to play the Pink Floyd track of the same name as they were coming in to land. Robbie had chosen the South Pole Aitken basin as a new home for Cranus. As one of the largest impact craters in the solar system, some thirteen kilometres deep and facing away from Earth, it would be highly unlikely that the ship would ever be spotted, even by a probe flying over the moon. They descended deep into the heart of the crater and a graphic display of the inside of the hole appeared on the screen. The ship came to rest, tucked under a sheer rock face the size of the Grand Canyon. Cranus could never land on a planet the size of Earth, it would fold under its own weight, but the low gravity on the moon allowed it to rest on a system of hundreds of legs, like a giant millipede.