Xenophobia Series

When Jack Harrison climbed down the short ladder from the airlock and stepped onto the debris covered soil, the ground crackled with the sound of dried leaves and twigs.

A crescent moon set against a jeweled field of stars gracefully slid into view. The thin arc of its crater-filled landscape drew Jack’s mind in. His eyes followed the long, inky shadows cast by jagged crater walls as they cut sharply into the pockmarked ashen terrain. Deeper within the jet-black lunar night-side were the lonely peaks of a smattering of mountain tops, catching a few last rays of sunlight. All Jack felt was a desire to escape; to be down there exploring...perhaps uncovering some new detail in the history of Earth’s nearest neighbor.

Jack looked directly at Kurt, but his friend avoided eye contact. His eyes moved to Nadya before following her gaze to Sarah, who stared blankly into the room. He wanted to reassure them—to remind them that they had succeeded. They saved Earth from the remnants of the enemy fleet. But it felt like a lie. The weight of failure sat on him, forcing him to confront the fact that all they did was postpone the threat. His mind locked onto a single thought: it would take just under three hundred years for the enemy transmission with the knowledge stolen from Alpha to reach their home world.