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Description
July 20, 1969; Mare Tranquillitatis

Everything had mostly blended together over the past four days. Bromden's mind was a little fuzzy after that first moment of take off. Everything shaking, everything rumbling, everything rattling inside his skull. He blacked out it was so intense, but he awoke not long after. Or maybe it was long after. He couldn't really tell, sitting in that dark little space, recalling the days he spent in the Philippines and all the survival tactics he had to learn.

All he knew was that after a while, the engines were shut off, and there was a stillness, and a weightlessness. He was strapped down, but he could still feel everything… floating. His bones and blood all felt strangely even, and it took a while to get used to at first. Not that he had much other choice.

The rockets came back on at some point, but it didn't feel as intense. Maybe it was because most of the stages had broken off, maybe because the impact was dampened by the nothingness of the cosmos, maybe it was both. He didn't know. All he knew was that he was up there for a long time, just waiting. Waiting for the pull of gravity again. He slept, then he woke, then he slept, then woke, then slept and woke. He wondered what the astronauts sitting comfortably above him were feeling. He wondered what a reality would have felt like if he had been able to be in their spots instead.

And he wondered if all of this hassle would be worth it in the end.

At some point, Bromden started hearing voices. Two men started getting inside the Lunar Module. Armstrong and Aldrin were finally getting ready to head down. Bromden suddenly became very awake. This was it…

He could hear them inspecting and checking the gear aboard the Module, all the time hoping and praying that they'd leave him be inside his hiding spot. Their checks and preparations went on for about an hour, before there was a sudden loud click and a whooshing noise.

“The Eagle has wings!” Bromden heard Armstrong declare.

Falling. They were falling. Bromden could feel the pull of gravity again, albeit one much weaker than what he was used to. This was it. This was the moment that changed the entire course of human history.

It took a few hours, but it didn't feel that way. Bromden wondered about Wanbli back home. He wondered if she was looking up at the Moon, or if she was watching this on television like everyone else on Earth must be doing. He wished he could tell her he was up here. Hopefully once this was over.

The pull of gravity got stronger and stronger. It never reached Earth levels, but it was definitely there and definitely detectable after days of floating. Bromden could hear the two astronauts above saying something about being 3 seconds off course and computer problems that they had to fix manually, but they seemed calm, and so Bromden stayed calm. There was silence for a moment. Silence while the pilots concentrated on their descent. Grueling silence that gripped Bromden's lungs.

Then there was a jolt.

A slight jolt, and sudden stillness.

“Contact light,” Bromden heard Aldrin say.

“Shutdown,” Armstrong said.

“Okay. Engine stop. ACA–out of detent.”

“Out of detent. Auto.”

“Mode control–both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm–off. 413 is in.”

“Engine arm is off.”

“We copy you down, Eagle,” a voice on their radio said.

“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

Everything was still. No more shaking. No more floating. They were on solid ground. They were alive. Bromden was alive.

They were on the Moon.

He was holding his breath without noticing, he realized. He breathed out, feeling his blood going cold in an odd mix of anxiety and excitement. He could jump out now and get a head start on the Templars, he thought. But they were making their preparations to leave the vehicle already. He could hear them. No, Bromden thought. It would be too risky. Let them have their fun first, then head out and start looking for that Apple.

Three hours of them preparing, three hours of Bromden sitting perfectly still, just listening, until he finally heard them preparing to claim the big moment.

There was a hiss as the vehicle depressurized, and the door opened up. Their door to a whole new world. The ladder clunked down onto the surface outside, and Bromden listened to Armstrong as he reported he slow careful progress downwards.

“I'm at the foot of the ladder,” the astronaut reported. “The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Down there, it's very fine.”

One more step. One more step and everything changes. Bromden could tell Armstrong was holding his breath as much as he was. How could he not?

“I'm stepping off the LM now,” the astronaut said.

Thud. Thud.

“That's one small step for man,” Armstrong declared as his feet became the first to touch another world, as he sent history spiraling, “one giant leap for mankind.”

Wise words, Bromden thought. He just wished he could've experienced them under better circumstances.

It wasn't long before Aldrin followed his partner out of the vessel, and they started their exploration of the most foreign world any man had seen before.

So now, finally, it was Bromden's turn.

He fiddled with his buckles and straps, breaking himself free and letting him stretch his limbs for the first time in days. God it felt good. He reached over and got to work on jiggling open the panel. It took some work, and every movement felt like it took hours of herculean effort, but in a matter of a minutes, it was open.

And no matter what Bromden thought before, nothing could have possibly prepared him for what he saw when the world beyond was finally revealed.

A vast vast desert of gray dirt, with mountainous craters rising up from the surface that surrounded him. And above it all: stars. Endless amounts of stars. Many of them were blocked out by the intense sunlight unburdened by any atmosphere, sure, but they were definitely there. And as Bromden slowly and quietly slid out from his hiding hole and stepped into that fine powder dirt that Amstrong described, his jaw dropped. No force in his jaw muscles could've possibly overcome the sheer force of awe that kept his mouth and eyes wide open. He stood still as a statue, gazing at it all, taking every single detail in.

And then he looked up.

Up at the big blue and green marble hovering gently far far off in the sky.

His home. Their home. Wanbli’s home. Everyone's home. Everyone's abode. Everyone's resting place.

All there, all one unified ball of tranquil blue swirls.

Bromden had never known his purpose more than in that moment. The scope of it washed over him like a tidal wave. That was everything he stood for right there above him. That tranquility of a world unburdened by anyone weighing down on it. A safe place where everyone has room. A place to be protected at all costs.

He needed to get to work.

Bromden looked behind him, taking a bit to get used to the floaty gravity of the Moon. The astronauts hadn't noticed him, thank God. They were busy taking samples, and preparing to set up a few flags. An American flag for the cameras, and a Templar banner for a photoshoot that was certainly going to be edited later.

Bromden frowned at that, but it encouraged him to hurry and start searching.

His steps were uneasy, and the bounciness was still something he was trying to get used to, but he managed to hop himself over to one of the nearby craters. It was nothing but an empty hole of gray dirt, and so he moved on to the next. He wished he had a better lay of the land, but unfortunately there was no one to consult about the local geography even if he could. The best he could do was keep hopping from hole to hole, trying to find any trace of a Precursor object. Every now and then he would cast his gaze over to the astronauts still continuing their own search along with their experiments. They seemed to have a bit of a better idea of what they were looking for, but not much more than Bromden himself.

Think Bromden think, he thought to himself. They knew there's a Piece of Eden up here. How did they know? What would give that away from Earth?

And then it hit him. A reflection. The object would twinkle like a star, if not from that distinctive golden glow they radiate then definitely from the impossibly smooth metal surface. Bromden looked at his shadow to check the direction of the sunlight. It had to be around this area somewhere, and if he could get his eyes at just the right angle from just high enough a hill…

There! He could see it! From his viewpoint on top of the tallest crater he could find, there was a twinkle not far from his position! It took all his energy to contain his excitement and not alert the Templars. He didn't waste any time bounding down the side of the crater and hurrying towards that faint little beacon in the dust.

He didn't know what to expect. Mentally he thought that he should expect anything, but as he climbed his way up another crater, and cast his gaze down to the center of it, he had to admit that he didn't expect to see a door.

Grant it, crevice was probably a better word for the structure he saw buried in the crater, with its jagged pieces making up the walls surrounding the gaping maw to the tunnel inside. Bromden approached it cautiously. He could see a sort of stairwell on one side of the hole. Even through his suit, he could feel that unnerving, ethereal radiance that seems to surround every chunk of Precursor technology. He gazed into the abysmal tunnel, and took a deep breath. And then he took his own small step onto the stairwell.

It felt like it went on for miles, but Bromden could still see the exit far above him by the time he reached the bottom. At the bottom, he found himself wrapped in shallow darkness. Those distinctive Precursor glyphs and nodes laced the walls, but their glow had long faded from its glory days. Were it not for that unsettling electronic hum that reverberated throughout this temple, Bromden probably would've been able to see this place as a trace of civilization far from home. Instead, it felt just as alien as the moonscape outside.

He walked cautiously through the corridor, looking around for the Apple of Eden. There weren't many detours from the main path, eerily. It was as if it was leading him right towards the end of the tunnel. Right towards the slightly ajar door that beckoned him at the end. Bromden slowly approached, and took a peek through the crack. There was much more light in there. The glyphs were more vibrant, the walls less decayed, and at the very center of the massive circular chamber, there was a pedestal. A pedestal with a shining beam of light propulsed up into another slit in the ceiling. A beam of light that housed a small, glowing ball hovering just above the pedestal. Bromden could feel it from the door, feel its pull, its beckoning.

The Apple.

Bromden swallowed nervously and took a deep breath, and used all his strength to push the doors open just a little farther so he could walk in easier. He stood there staring at the artifact and the domed chamber around them for a moment. He felt a tingle in his brain, and it was a feeling that he didn't like. It felt like there was something in here with him. Or someone.

He started slowly walking forwards, keeping his eyes on the artifact. Was he imagining it, or was it glowing brighter?

It wasn't his imagination, he realized, when he was about halfway across the room. The Apple started pulsing, its lights twisting and morphing. It was like the thing could sense him coming closer. Bromden held an arm up to shield his eyes. It was getting brighter, pulsing faster. It got brighter, and brighter.

And then suddenly it let out a spasm of light, an effect that washed across the surface of the room like water on the beach. The humming got louder. The walls started beeping. Bromden started to panic a little. The room seemed to darken save for the lights, and floating glyphs started pulsing out from the Apple's glow.

And then Bromden heard the voice.

“What is a fact? Is it fixed? Immutable? Certain in its existence and only awaiting discovery? Or might it be changed?”

Bromden went still. He looked left and right. The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere, and from nowhere. It was a man's voice, youthful, but tired. It's rasped electronic tones seemed to emanate from the walls, and reverberate through Bromden's brain. It was talking to him, he could tell.

The Apple suddenly let out another pulse, yanking Bromden's attention back to it.

“Here we learned the answer—and thought that it might save us,” the voice continued. It wasn't malevolent, Bromden could sense that well enough. But it still shook him to his core.

“They were used to command,” the voice said as the Apple pulsed again, highlighting his point. Was there… sadness Bromden detected in that sentence? “To control… To own…” The voice paused. Bromden simply sat and listened, not daring to speak over it.

“But we soon discovered another use,” it continued after composing itself. “When enough sat in thrall and were told to believe, their thoughts took on form. What was imagined became real. If a hundred minds could wish away a wall or create a tree, what might a thousand do? Ten thousand? More? Might we change the consensus, and will the threat away?”

New shapes suddenly started appearing in the air around Bromden. The lights sculpted themselves into the shapes of planets, of Earth and the Moon. A smaller dot rose from the surface of the Earth, and implanted itself onto the Moon before Bromden's eyes.

“We resolved to send one into the sky where it might illuminate us all,” the voice narrated. “Once placed, a sentence would be uttered: Make us safe. In this way we would change the consensus. We would save the world… but it never came to be. We sent a dozen of them skyward—but there was no way to maintain control, to direct the beam, to enthrall the world… to speak the words.”

The spheres disappeared, evaporating into the light from which they came. There was silence again, but the lights continued to slither across the walls.

“These devices hold a power that could have saved our world,” the voice said. “But be warned: they also have the power to bring it to its knees.”

New shapes started to form. Holograms of people, all in a circle around the room, stiff as boards as they gazed at the figure in the center: a tall and wicked looking man holding a ball aloft and enthralling the people in its pulsing beams.

“A fact is not fixed,” the voice said. “Anything can be altered when the mind is made to believe. Power unlocked, or wills chained. If all say it is so, then so it will be. The consensus is in your hands. Remember that, and embrace it. Remember to believe in what needs to be real. Always remember the words: Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”

The voice went silent. The lights started fading, dissipating into the air, or retreating back into the Apple. The pulsing stopped, the shapes vanished. Everything went still.

Bromden was holding his breath, he realized. He let out a deep wind from his lungs, feeling like a vice grip had just let go of him. He was breathing heavily, and had to take a moment to get his bearings back. He looked over at the Apple, now seeming like nothing more than a glowing piece of silver. He stared, trying to readjust, and then took a deep breath. He stepped forward again, reaching his hands out towards the artifact. Finally, after so much hard work, after all the loss, his mission was finally…

“Copy Houston, we have located the Precursor Site. Entering for artifact extraction now.”

“Copy that.”

Bromden swore. He frantically looked around for a place to hide. His eyes landed on a discreet little crevice in the wall, and he made a beeline for it. He squeezed himself inside as quickly as he could, and managed to duck out of sight just as the Templars entered the chamber.

“Artifact located, Houston. Extracting now,” Aldrin said into his radio.

“Copy that,” the radio crackled back.

Bromden peeked out from his hiding spot, and watched the astronauts approach the floating sphere in the center of the room. The voice didn't seem to be making a second appearance. No light shows were put on for the Templars. Was that message meant for him? Or… was there something else he didn't understand here?

The Templars carefully used their tools to grab a hold of the artifact and slowly pull it out from its pedestal. Armstrong held it in his hands and clicked on his radio again.

“Artifact extraction successful, Houston,” he said. “Returning to Eagle for storage.”

“Copy that. Good work, gentlemen. We're proud of you down here.”

Bromden watched them place the artifact in a special little case, and they turned around with their valuable cargo in tow. Bromden cursed his luck. He hoped he would be able to grab it and make the Templars believe this was a dud mission. Then he could slip away with no problems. Oh well, he figured. They were going to place it in the cargo hold anyway. Right where Bromden would be taking his seat for the ride home. The arrival was probably going to be a little complicated, but he could cross that bridge when he got there.

Once the footsteps of the astronauts disappeared from his ears, he slipped himself back out into the open. He hurried his way out of the room, back into the massive corridor that led him back to the stairs. After another tiring climb, he found himself back under the comfort of stars. He bounced his way out of the crater, and spotted the astronauts working near the Lunar Module. They had the Apple in hand, and they placed it inside the cargo pit amongst all of the moon rock samples they had collected.

Bromden watched and waited from a distance until the two of them finally got back inside the Module, and the cargo pit was left unguarded. Bromden took his chance and ran forward. He opened the cargo pit as carefully as he could, and hopped inside just as he did at the start of the trip. He wasn't able to strap himself down, with all of the belts being reserved for the rocks, but nonetheless, he was in, and he managed to close the door behind him without any alarms going off above.

And most importantly of all, it was in here with him. The Apple. He held the container in his hands, and opened it up. The light of the artifact peeked out and illuminated the little chamber. Bromden gazed into it's glow as he turned it over in his hands, and he smiled.

Mission accomplished, he thought. Time to go home.

Description
July 20, 1969; Mare Tranquillitatis

Everything had mostly blended together over the past four days. Bromden's mind was a little fuzzy after that first moment of take off. Everything shaking, everything rumbling, everything rattling inside his skull. He blacked out it was so intense, but he awoke not long after. Or maybe it was long after. He couldn't really tell, sitting in that dark little space, recalling the days he spent in the Philippines and all the survival tactics he had to learn.

All he knew was that after a while, the engines were shut off, and there was a stillness, and a weightlessness. He was strapped down, but he could still feel everything… floating. His bones and blood all felt strangely even, and it took a while to get used to at first. Not that he had much other choice.

The rockets came back on at some point, but it didn't feel as intense. Maybe it was because most of the stages had broken off, maybe because the impact was dampened by the nothingness of the cosmos, maybe it was both. He didn't know. All he knew was that he was up there for a long time, just waiting. Waiting for the pull of gravity again. He slept, then he woke, then he slept, then woke, then slept and woke. He wondered what the astronauts sitting comfortably above him were feeling. He wondered what a reality would have felt like if he had been able to be in their spots instead.

And he wondered if all of this hassle would be worth it in the end.

At some point, Bromden started hearing voices. Two men started getting inside the Lunar Module. Armstrong and Aldrin were finally getting ready to head down. Bromden suddenly became very awake. This was it…

He could hear them inspecting and checking the gear aboard the Module, all the time hoping and praying that they'd leave him be inside his hiding spot. Their checks and preparations went on for about an hour, before there was a sudden loud click and a whooshing noise.

“The Eagle has wings!” Bromden heard Armstrong declare.

Falling. They were falling. Bromden could feel the pull of gravity again, albeit one much weaker than what he was used to. This was it. This was the moment that changed the entire course of human history.

It took a few hours, but it didn't feel that way. Bromden wondered about Wanbli back home. He wondered if she was looking up at the Moon, or if she was watching this on television like everyone else on Earth must be doing. He wished he could tell her he was up here. Hopefully once this was over.

The pull of gravity got stronger and stronger. It never reached Earth levels, but it was definitely there and definitely detectable after days of floating. Bromden could hear the two astronauts above saying something about being 3 seconds off course and computer problems that they had to fix manually, but they seemed calm, and so Bromden stayed calm. There was silence for a moment. Silence while the pilots concentrated on their descent. Grueling silence that gripped Bromden's lungs.

Then there was a jolt.

A slight jolt, and sudden stillness.

“Contact light,” Bromden heard Aldrin say.

“Shutdown,” Armstrong said.

“Okay. Engine stop. ACA–out of detent.”

“Out of detent. Auto.”

“Mode control–both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm–off. 413 is in.”

“Engine arm is off.”

“We copy you down, Eagle,” a voice on their radio said.

“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

Everything was still. No more shaking. No more floating. They were on solid ground. They were alive. Bromden was alive.

They were on the Moon.

He was holding his breath without noticing, he realized. He breathed out, feeling his blood going cold in an odd mix of anxiety and excitement. He could jump out now and get a head start on the Templars, he thought. But they were making their preparations to leave the vehicle already. He could hear them. No, Bromden thought. It would be too risky. Let them have their fun first, then head out and start looking for that Apple.

Three hours of them preparing, three hours of Bromden sitting perfectly still, just listening, until he finally heard them preparing to claim the big moment.

There was a hiss as the vehicle depressurized, and the door opened up. Their door to a whole new world. The ladder clunked down onto the surface outside, and Bromden listened to Armstrong as he reported he slow careful progress downwards.

“I'm at the foot of the ladder,” the astronaut reported. “The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Down there, it's very fine.”

One more step. One more step and everything changes. Bromden could tell Armstrong was holding his breath as much as he was. How could he not?

“I'm stepping off the LM now,” the astronaut said.

Thud. Thud.

“That's one small step for man,” Armstrong declared as his feet became the first to touch another world, as he sent history spiraling, “one giant leap for mankind.”

Wise words, Bromden thought. He just wished he could've experienced them under better circumstances.

It wasn't long before Aldrin followed his partner out of the vessel, and they started their exploration of the most foreign world any man had seen before.

So now, finally, it was Bromden's turn.

He fiddled with his buckles and straps, breaking himself free and letting him stretch his limbs for the first time in days. God it felt good. He reached over and got to work on jiggling open the panel. It took some work, and every movement felt like it took hours of herculean effort, but in a matter of a minutes, it was open.

And no matter what Bromden thought before, nothing could have possibly prepared him for what he saw when the world beyond was finally revealed.

A vast vast desert of gray dirt, with mountainous craters rising up from the surface that surrounded him. And above it all: stars. Endless amounts of stars. Many of them were blocked out by the intense sunlight unburdened by any atmosphere, sure, but they were definitely there. And as Bromden slowly and quietly slid out from his hiding hole and stepped into that fine powder dirt that Amstrong described, his jaw dropped. No force in his jaw muscles could've possibly overcome the sheer force of awe that kept his mouth and eyes wide open. He stood still as a statue, gazing at it all, taking every single detail in.

And then he looked up.

Up at the big blue and green marble hovering gently far far off in the sky.

His home. Their home. Wanbli’s home. Everyone's home. Everyone's abode. Everyone's resting place.

All there, all one unified ball of tranquil blue swirls.

Bromden had never known his purpose more than in that moment. The scope of it washed over him like a tidal wave. That was everything he stood for right there above him. That tranquility of a world unburdened by anyone weighing down on it. A safe place where everyone has room. A place to be protected at all costs.

He needed to get to work.

Bromden looked behind him, taking a bit to get used to the floaty gravity of the Moon. The astronauts hadn't noticed him, thank God. They were busy taking samples, and preparing to set up a few flags. An American flag for the cameras, and a Templar banner for a photoshoot that was certainly going to be edited later.

Bromden frowned at that, but it encouraged him to hurry and start searching.

His steps were uneasy, and the bounciness was still something he was trying to get used to, but he managed to hop himself over to one of the nearby craters. It was nothing but an empty hole of gray dirt, and so he moved on to the next. He wished he had a better lay of the land, but unfortunately there was no one to consult about the local geography even if he could. The best he could do was keep hopping from hole to hole, trying to find any trace of a Precursor object. Every now and then he would cast his gaze over to the astronauts still continuing their own search along with their experiments. They seemed to have a bit of a better idea of what they were looking for, but not much more than Bromden himself.

Think Bromden think, he thought to himself. They knew there's a Piece of Eden up here. How did they know? What would give that away from Earth?

And then it hit him. A reflection. The object would twinkle like a star, if not from that distinctive golden glow they radiate then definitely from the impossibly smooth metal surface. Bromden looked at his shadow to check the direction of the sunlight. It had to be around this area somewhere, and if he could get his eyes at just the right angle from just high enough a hill…

There! He could see it! From his viewpoint on top of the tallest crater he could find, there was a twinkle not far from his position! It took all his energy to contain his excitement and not alert the Templars. He didn't waste any time bounding down the side of the crater and hurrying towards that faint little beacon in the dust.

He didn't know what to expect. Mentally he thought that he should expect anything, but as he climbed his way up another crater, and cast his gaze down to the center of it, he had to admit that he didn't expect to see a door.

Grant it, crevice was probably a better word for the structure he saw buried in the crater, with its jagged pieces making up the walls surrounding the gaping maw to the tunnel inside. Bromden approached it cautiously. He could see a sort of stairwell on one side of the hole. Even through his suit, he could feel that unnerving, ethereal radiance that seems to surround every chunk of Precursor technology. He gazed into the abysmal tunnel, and took a deep breath. And then he took his own small step onto the stairwell.

It felt like it went on for miles, but Bromden could still see the exit far above him by the time he reached the bottom. At the bottom, he found himself wrapped in shallow darkness. Those distinctive Precursor glyphs and nodes laced the walls, but their glow had long faded from its glory days. Were it not for that unsettling electronic hum that reverberated throughout this temple, Bromden probably would've been able to see this place as a trace of civilization far from home. Instead, it felt just as alien as the moonscape outside.

He walked cautiously through the corridor, looking around for the Apple of Eden. There weren't many detours from the main path, eerily. It was as if it was leading him right towards the end of the tunnel. Right towards the slightly ajar door that beckoned him at the end. Bromden slowly approached, and took a peek through the crack. There was much more light in there. The glyphs were more vibrant, the walls less decayed, and at the very center of the massive circular chamber, there was a pedestal. A pedestal with a shining beam of light propulsed up into another slit in the ceiling. A beam of light that housed a small, glowing ball hovering just above the pedestal. Bromden could feel it from the door, feel its pull, its beckoning.

The Apple.

Bromden swallowed nervously and took a deep breath, and used all his strength to push the doors open just a little farther so he could walk in easier. He stood there staring at the artifact and the domed chamber around them for a moment. He felt a tingle in his brain, and it was a feeling that he didn't like. It felt like there was something in here with him. Or someone.

He started slowly walking forwards, keeping his eyes on the artifact. Was he imagining it, or was it glowing brighter?

It wasn't his imagination, he realized, when he was about halfway across the room. The Apple started pulsing, its lights twisting and morphing. It was like the thing could sense him coming closer. Bromden held an arm up to shield his eyes. It was getting brighter, pulsing faster. It got brighter, and brighter.

And then suddenly it let out a spasm of light, an effect that washed across the surface of the room like water on the beach. The humming got louder. The walls started beeping. Bromden started to panic a little. The room seemed to darken save for the lights, and floating glyphs started pulsing out from the Apple's glow.

And then Bromden heard the voice.

“What is a fact? Is it fixed? Immutable? Certain in its existence and only awaiting discovery? Or might it be changed?”

Bromden went still. He looked left and right. The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere, and from nowhere. It was a man's voice, youthful, but tired. It's rasped electronic tones seemed to emanate from the walls, and reverberate through Bromden's brain. It was talking to him, he could tell.

The Apple suddenly let out another pulse, yanking Bromden's attention back to it.

“Here we learned the answer—and thought that it might save us,” the voice continued. It wasn't malevolent, Bromden could sense that well enough. But it still shook him to his core.

“They were used to command,” the voice said as the Apple pulsed again, highlighting his point. Was there… sadness Bromden detected in that sentence? “To control… To own…” The voice paused. Bromden simply sat and listened, not daring to speak over it.

“But we soon discovered another use,” it continued after composing itself. “When enough sat in thrall and were told to believe, their thoughts took on form. What was imagined became real. If a hundred minds could wish away a wall or create a tree, what might a thousand do? Ten thousand? More? Might we change the consensus, and will the threat away?”

New shapes suddenly started appearing in the air around Bromden. The lights sculpted themselves into the shapes of planets, of Earth and the Moon. A smaller dot rose from the surface of the Earth, and implanted itself onto the Moon before Bromden's eyes.

“We resolved to send one into the sky where it might illuminate us all,” the voice narrated. “Once placed, a sentence would be uttered: Make us safe. In this way we would change the consensus. We would save the world… but it never came to be. We sent a dozen of them skyward—but there was no way to maintain control, to direct the beam, to enthrall the world… to speak the words.”

The spheres disappeared, evaporating into the light from which they came. There was silence again, but the lights continued to slither across the walls.

“These devices hold a power that could have saved our world,” the voice said. “But be warned: they also have the power to bring it to its knees.”

New shapes started to form. Holograms of people, all in a circle around the room, stiff as boards as they gazed at the figure in the center: a tall and wicked looking man holding a ball aloft and enthralling the people in its pulsing beams.

“A fact is not fixed,” the voice said. “Anything can be altered when the mind is made to believe. Power unlocked, or wills chained. If all say it is so, then so it will be. The consensus is in your hands. Remember that, and embrace it. Remember to believe in what needs to be real. Always remember the words: Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”

The voice went silent. The lights started fading, dissipating into the air, or retreating back into the Apple. The pulsing stopped, the shapes vanished. Everything went still.

Bromden was holding his breath, he realized. He let out a deep wind from his lungs, feeling like a vice grip had just let go of him. He was breathing heavily, and had to take a moment to get his bearings back. He looked over at the Apple, now seeming like nothing more than a glowing piece of silver. He stared, trying to readjust, and then took a deep breath. He stepped forward again, reaching his hands out towards the artifact. Finally, after so much hard work, after all the loss, his mission was finally…

“Copy Houston, we have located the Precursor Site. Entering for artifact extraction now.”

“Copy that.”

Bromden swore. He frantically looked around for a place to hide. His eyes landed on a discreet little crevice in the wall, and he made a beeline for it. He squeezed himself inside as quickly as he could, and managed to duck out of sight just as the Templars entered the chamber.

“Artifact located, Houston. Extracting now,” Aldrin said into his radio.

“Copy that,” the radio crackled back.

Bromden peeked out from his hiding spot, and watched the astronauts approach the floating sphere in the center of the room. The voice didn't seem to be making a second appearance. No light shows were put on for the Templars. Was that message meant for him? Or… was there something else he didn't understand here?

The Templars carefully used their tools to grab a hold of the artifact and slowly pull it out from its pedestal. Armstrong held it in his hands and clicked on his radio again.

“Artifact extraction successful, Houston,” he said. “Returning to Eagle for storage.”

“Copy that. Good work, gentlemen. We're proud of you down here.”

Bromden watched them place the artifact in a special little case, and they turned around with their valuable cargo in tow. Bromden cursed his luck. He hoped he would be able to grab it and make the Templars believe this was a dud mission. Then he could slip away with no problems. Oh well, he figured. They were going to place it in the cargo hold anyway. Right where Bromden would be taking his seat for the ride home. The arrival was probably going to be a little complicated, but he could cross that bridge when he got there.

Once the footsteps of the astronauts disappeared from his ears, he slipped himself back out into the open. He hurried his way out of the room, back into the massive corridor that led him back to the stairs. After another tiring climb, he found himself back under the comfort of stars. He bounced his way out of the crater, and spotted the astronauts working near the Lunar Module. They had the Apple in hand, and they placed it inside the cargo pit amongst all of the moon rock samples they had collected.

Bromden watched and waited from a distance until the two of them finally got back inside the Module, and the cargo pit was left unguarded. Bromden took his chance and ran forward. He opened the cargo pit as carefully as he could, and hopped inside just as he did at the start of the trip. He wasn't able to strap himself down, with all of the belts being reserved for the rocks, but nonetheless, he was in, and he managed to close the door behind him without any alarms going off above.

And most importantly of all, it was in here with him. The Apple. He held the container in his hands, and opened it up. The light of the artifact peeked out and illuminated the little chamber. Bromden gazed into it's glow as he turned it over in his hands, and he smiled.

Mission accomplished, he thought. Time to go home.