Endymion: Moon-Draft

A Story by Abishai100

Narrated half-account of apparent 'mystery-encounter' on a currently restored moon-mission yielding a rather 'dark vision' of destiny-distance.

A fanfiction of the eerie if adventurous/patriotic Apollo 18. Thanks so much for reading,

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I went on the moon-mission after the official 'resurrection' of NASA's magical lunar platforms since the cessation of the entire visionary arrow since the cryptic events of Apollo-18 following the otherwise successful if modest Apollo-17 mission of the 1960s-1970s era of media-capital and competition with the Soviets in the great space-race. This new mission, Apollo-19, would see me on a great adventure to return to 'form' for general outer-space images of human explorers trekking around a foreign space-body (extra-terrestrial) for sciences.

The resurrection of NASA's moon vision(s) came on the heels of the excellently media-marketed "Send Your Name to the Moon' Project which would see many professionals, students, fans, writers/artists, all citizens of Earth, sign their certificates for submission onto a data-collage for a space-rover to be sent to the moon in the new millennium as part of a general outer-space visions initiative. This was the prologue to Apollo-19 (really).

The NASA shuttle sending me to the moon was the Sulaco which was co-designed by Weyland-Yutani and would see the likes of me climbing those 'forgotten' mind-puzzles of moon-venture re-presenting engineering-IQ storyboards. I went on this mission just to make myself feel like a true 'classic' rocketeer, since I'd trained for years and like many of us in this new-era of non-moon travel(s), felt bored and yearning.

My name's Amlan Satan, and I'd considered myself a space-patriot and lunar-missionary and excellent story-reader and fan of the spirits of Earth-lore regarding moon-conquests and space-travel imaginations, and though I know like most that Mars/Martian ideations far surpassed any moon-lore of the late-20th Century, moon-missions nevertheless captured a general human curiosity about human ambition/vanities, and I considered myself a 'science' diplomat for this one (and for Facebook-IQ!).

When I got on the moon and began trekking around with my rover-recorder for the appropriate diplomacy-media imagery for American (Western!) TV, I started picking up faint-signals from one of the discovered lunar-surface caves which I then felt compelled to enter/explore and would later recount (privately) as a horrific mistake of human vanities. It's not what was not explained but what (or whom) was engaged.

ALIEN: Would you like to play a game of chess, human moon-explorer?
ME (Amlan Satan): I suppose that'd sound rather 'ideal' given our odd engagement-serendipity, no?

ALIEN: You may call me Endymion...I'm a Martian messenger 'hiding' on the moon, awaiting the likes of you, sir!

ME: Me?
ALIEN: Yes, you, Satan; I want to challenge you to draw a stalemate or tie with me in chess inside my moon-lair.

ME: Why?
ALIEN: You just might 'persuade' me that your species warrants 'cool' review or non-invasion Martian pardon message.

ME: You want Martians to 'secure' Earth from all 'alien' invasions with this diplomacy-chess game/message, no?

ALIEN: Excellence...how'd you be in any 'stance' to refuse such a thought, sir?

So I played this alien, who introduced himself/itself as Endymion, in a game of board-chess, a strategy-game of piece-position movement in arrays for offense-defense choreography, inside that moon-cave and succeeded in drawing a tie-stalemate against/with him and therefore presented his challenge-requisition of a 'sovereignty' declaration affirmation for non-invasion and "Martian recommendation" on his 'hand-crafted' movie-themed chess-set (he'd been spying on our civilization activities in the United States!). Wow, I thought.

WIFE: You just need unwinding, darling-hero.

ME: My secrets are suddenly deep and I need more privacy, sweet wife.

WIFE: You seem much more distant than ever before, Mr. Satan.

ME: I know it's V-Day, but I find myself utterly depressed about my moon-mission blandness.

WIFE: I can't believe nothing happened at all out there, besides the generic recordings you provided us all!

ME: I know, I know; maybe my 'secret' is simply a private thought-dream, but I need distance now (even from you).

NASA-WEYLAND (Report): Captain Amlan Satan committed suicide and it's not clear if his diary 'hinted' at some undisclosed secret, but we do remember/honor him and his eerie diary containing a 'claim' about a 'chess-revelation' with a Martian-messenger 'hiding' on the moon during the rather 'normal' Apollo-19 mission this new millennium suggests to us that this valiant man of Earth simply succumbed to 'ordinary' night-vision(s) of eschewed space-travel fears and human humbling worry, but we'll nevertheless regard him with the same 'limelight(s)' as the likes of Buzz Aldrin (United States).