text: We were in orbit. We had been for 2 days and 21 hours. It was so calm and peaceful up there. I looked out the window and saw the Earth suspended in a sea of black. It was like it was hanging on a piece of invisible string and I could see the faint, blue-grey haze that was Earth’s atmosphere. We could see whole continents with golden-green ground and deep blue seas. I could see the sun, brighter than a million light bulbs behind us. Trillions of twinkling stars sparkled all around us. The sky was darker than I’d ever seen it before, which only made the sun and distant stars seem even brighter. I turned back around and looked around the shuttle. The gleaming off-white walls were covered in panels, switches and levers. There were blinking lights and screens all around the walls with an area sectioned off for sleeping quarters. There was a huge jolt and we all bumped up and down. I looked out the window and saw that we had finally reached the moon after three days of being in that cramped shuttle. The milky surface gleamed in the sun’s reflected light, highlighting every crater, hill and valley. It stretched for miles and miles and all of it was covered in this white, milky light that felt like it was putting you into a trance, like staring into a fireplace. The effect was mesmerising. The hills, big and small, cast long shadows into the valleys and craters giving it an eerie look. I heard the pneumatic hiss of the door and snapped out of my trance. I jumped out of the shuttle and landed on the surface of the moon. There was a thin film of dust, hovering above the ground. That was one of the first things I learnt about the moon, that layer of floating dust. There is no wind, no movement up there to give any reason for it to be there like that, and yet it is. Our mission was to collect some small samples of rock to bring back for testing. This had been done before, so we had no idea why they wanted us to go up again, but they never told us, and we never asked. I guess they were paying us quite well to do this, as Nikola had so often reminded me. Martin was already jumping down the steps to the moon floor, so we followed him. There was no shortage of rock clumps and strange formations around, but none were small enough or of good enough quality to take back with us. I wandered off a bit, hoping to find an acceptable specimen. I walked behind a tall bit of rock to see if there were any small pieces, but there was nothing there. Even the dust had disappeared. I turned around and walked back the way I had come to the shuttle, but it wasn’t there. Neither were Martin and Nikola. They were gone. Everything was gone, except for a small building about 200 meters from me. I knew there was something off about this, but for some reason, I wasn’t afraid. Instead, I felt curious. There was a sort of gravity radiating from that squat little building, and I could feel it pulling at my mind, even from here. I slowly started to walk towards the building, which, as I got closer, I realised was glowing. I walked a bit faster, my curiosity almost a tangible thing by now. My heart was hammering, but still I felt no fear. It was the strangest thing, the building was glowing from a central point on the inside, like something, a consciousness of some sort was in there, and was trying to lure me in. I put my hand on the handle to the door, and even through the space suit, I could feel the heat coming off it in waves. The handle got hotter and hotter, but I couldn’t pull my hand away. The heat got worse and worse until I thought it might burn me through the suit but it stopped, all at once. I felt dizzy, almost like I had been sitting down for a while and stood up too quickly, but weirder. I looked around, and I was back in the shuttle. I stood completely still, listening for any sound that might indicate I wasn’t still utterly alone in this place. I heard nothing. There was absolutely no sound, not even the buzzing and clicking of the engines and power. I walked over the window, trying to peer out into the inky black, and saw the Earth. Only, it wasn’t *my* Earth, it wasn’t the planet I called my home. This was warped somehow, and the closer I tried to look the fuzzier the image appeared, like I couldn’t look directly at it. Like I wasn’t *allowed* to look directly at it. I could feel my dizziness turn into a pounding headache, and I sat down on a bed, realising I was in the sleeping quarters. There was still no sound coming from beyond my door, and that twisted Earth that wasn’t mine was still outside my window. It almost seemed like it was leering at me, laughing at my confusion and the fear I was just now beginning to feel. I wasn’t in my space suit, whatever had transported me back here had done something to get rid of it, so I lay down on my bed, trying to fall asleep in case this was just a nightmare, but I couldn’t. I lay there for hours, trying to sleep, but the more I tried, the more awake I became. I don’t know how long I lay there, but eventually I realised I could hear faint noise coming from outside my door, getting louder and morphing into the familiar buzzing of the inner workings of the spacecraft. I could hear people talking and walking around. I almost cried with relief, and ran to my door, out into the main room. Sat there were Martin and Nikola, looking for all the world like nothing had happened. So I asked them. I asked what had happened, where had they gone, what was that horrible building? But they stared at me blankly, and I could see no light in their eyes. Looking into their cold, dead eyes, I knew that whatever was inside that building, whatever was causing all of this, had gotten to them, and that for whatever reason, it had not claimed me too. Martin and Nikola got up, in total synchronicity, and walked towards me with their arms hanging limply at their sides. As they walked towards me, I knew. I could feel in my bones that even though that thing had not claimed me, I was not saved. My fate was to be much worse. I ran. I ran faster than I ever had before, straight to life module. I somehow figured out how to start it through my panic, and it roared to life. It was the most comforting noise I had heard in my entire life. The stress and fear took over me though, and I passed out. I woke up in hospital after the module had used autopilot to make it’s way back to Earth. And it was my Earth, not twisted and wrong on a fundamental level, but mine. I was released from hospital a week later, the doctors giving me a clean bill of health. It didn’t stop them though. Every night I have the same dream. I dream I’m flying towards the moon in the silent shuttle. I know which building I’m flying to, and I can’t stop it. I know that it will claim me eventually, and that I can’t do anything to stop it.