Within the deteriorated spacesuit the desiccated hide, bones, and tail of the creature reclining against the pitted lander leg confirmed saurian ancestry. Its long-snouted helmet pointed towards a gap in the distant crater rim.
I had a hunch: “Overlay Earth’s position on my HUD.” A wireframe Earth appeared, the actual view blocked by the crater wall. “Project Earth’s position sixty-five million years ago, compensating for lunar drift.” The wireframe depiction shifted up into the gap, into direct line-of-sight.
While an asteroid and plate tectonics erased the earth-bound civilization that launched it, this tattered, marooned sentinel kept vigil from the Moon.
Marc A. Criley lives in north Alabama and writes stories that are short and sometimes even shorter. He’s been published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Galaxy’s Edge, Martian Magazine, and elsewhere. Marc maintains a blog at kickin-the-darkness.com and noisily tweets as @That_MarcC.
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