"...Argos to Houston. The Argos has landed," the lunar pilot declared, half-triumphantly. "Houston, preparing for EVA."
He stared out of his cockpit window, and, for a few seconds, quietly marveled at the view. This is the first time in decades when humanity could see the mountains, the craters of Earth's only moon. And, if everything is all right, when humanity could step on the moon. Actually, no. This is the second time. The first time happened a few months ago, at the other side of where Ares 9's Argos landed. He stared at the stone-gray features of the Moon's terrain, the crest of the crater that they have landed nearby, mesmerized by how... featureless it is.
"Houston to Argos." Mission Control sure likes to break the silence. "All of your systems are green. You are go for EVA."
Silence again quickly filled the capsule. The mission commander yawned a little.
"...damn, they're trying to rush us, huh?" The commander sighed. "Just let us enjoy the damn sights for a while."
"Agreed," chuckled the pilot.
"Well, there's no point with arguing with Mission Command." The commander prepared his spacesuit, and donned his helmet. "You're coming with me; you're my paparazzi."
The pilot gave the commander a smirk.
---
Ares 9 was the second manned mission for the Constellation Program, which was inexplicably revived by the Obama Administration only a year after said administration declared an intent to go to Mars instead. While, to the public, the reason for the sudden revival is unknown, the administrators and scientists at NASA has a much better idea of what is going on. A few months before the decision was made, the Russian space agency, in clearing out their archives, found a classified dossier regarding the results of the early Luna missions of the Space Race era. Of particular interest was Luna 3, which sensed some residue radiation from the far side of the moon. The Soviets did not know what to make of it, so they sealed off the data, classified it, and threw in their archives, hoping that a new generation of scientists could solve it. The Russians quietly handed it to NASA for their input.
The NASA scientists read over the report. And then, they started looking at other data from more recent probes. JAXA's SELENE. CNSA's Chang'e 1. The ESA's SMART 1. By the time they finished scouring the data of their own Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the chief scientist of NASA's space exploration division jogged down a message onto a sticky note and demanded a subordinate to deliver it to the White House. In the note, it states:
*THERE'S SOMETHING ON THE MOON*
And, with that, the Constellation Program was refocused on the Moon. Since then, two administrations have come and go, but now humanity, for the first time, could see with their own eyes the far side of the moon. Previous Ares missions involved launching probes for the incoming mission; said probes have found something at the bottom of a crater at the far side of the moon, and it could be the source of the radiation signature that Luna 3 found. NASA quickly prepare a mission, specifically to investigate this anomaly. The mission before Ares 9, Ares 8, was a little more than a publicity stunt, in the hopes that the mission after it would not nearly receive the amount of attention that Ares 8, the symbol of humanity coming back to the moon, would have. Thus, while the crewmembers of Ares 8 continued on their post-landing tour of the US, Ares 9 launched with comparably little fanfare. And NASA couldn't be any more happier with that.
---
"Houston, this is Argos," reported the commander. He and the pilot has spent the last hour assembling and riding their lunar buggy.
"They're not gonna hear ya," responded the pilot. "Our CSM is at the other side, and comms will probably be dead for a while."
"At least it was worth a try," sighed the commander. "Just you and me, driving towards some ultra-secret... something. What in the name of tarnation are we getting ourselves into?"
"What, commander, are you expecting C'thulhu?"
"Oh, shaddup. We're a klick from the site." The commander rolled his eyes. He then focused his eyes on the horizon of the base of the crater, wary of anything that may seem unnatural.
And, indeed, there is something unnatural. On the base of the crater, the two could make out what seemed to be... walls. Walls that grew to massive, breathtaking sizes. As they approached the site, they could also make out pillars, some of intricate designs. The commander also noted that the base of the crater suddenly became unnaturally smooth. Like what you'll expect of a concrete sidewalk. Or a plaza.
"...hey. Do they look like..."
"Ruins?" The pilot kept history and archeology as a hobby, and he could tell that this is no ordinary lava formation.
"...ruins." The commander finished. "Yeah. Ruins."
"Hello, and we are back!" The CSM pilot chirped. "You guys have comms to Houston-"
The commander didn't even hesitated to report his findings. "Houston, Houston, this is Argos! I think I just found what seemed to be a ruin of some sorts!"
---
"...holy crap." The head scientist at NASA's Houston Space Center's Mission Control room muttered. "They... they're right. These are no lava formations. And the strange radiation is coming from that anomaly. Somebody, whoever they are, has built this."
He lightly shook his head and chuckled. "This could of been the discovery. The single biggest finding that humanity has ever found. It's such a shame that the rest of the world cannot know about it." He turned to the liaison for the White House. "I assume that I'll report this to the president, then? This discovery of epic proportions?"
"Yessir," the liaison, a Secret Service agent, replied flatly. "Madame President would be happy to know that the time and effort spent on Project Constellation has not gone in vain." He pondered a bit. "Well, I would not think that that's a correct usage of the word 'happy'. I believed that she would be much more shocked by the sheer scale of today's findings. My apologies."
"Alright." The head scientist twirled his mustache, wondered who else should this be told to. "Also," he started, "I believe that another organization should know about our findings."
"Who?"
"The Avengers."
The agent snickered. "You mean Tony Stark's Chihuahua Horde?"
The scientist was adamant. "When that Chihuahua Horde could take on extraterrestrial threats and win, I would be more than happy to let then know that we have found something that is extraterrestrial."
The agent let out a sigh. "...fine."
