Salvation

Linda woke up and found herself floating above her bed. She looked around, and found two giggling figures outside her door, trying to hide.
“Damn it, you guys! This is not funny anymore” she said with obvious irritation in her voice, as she turned on the artificial gravity on again. Brandon and Vanessa came inside the room, unable to control their laughter.
“You shoulda seen the look on ya face” Vanessa said in between laughs.
“You guys do realise that you guys are supposed to be the most brilliant minds of our time, right?” Linda said.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t get to have fun” said Brandon. He was about to say something else, when the alarms went off. The three astronauts rushed to the communication hub.
Linda, the mission commander was an engineer, and a veteran astronaut. Brandon was a botanist, and Vanessa was a doctor with a master’s degree in biotechnology. Individually, they were the leading experts on their respective fields. Together, they formed the crew of SALVATION, whose mission was to establish colonisable centres in the moon. The crew had already done miracles up there in the six months since their landing.  They had constructed multiple greenhouses that sustained plant life inside them. It didn’t seem like it would take long for mankind to leap here, to their salvation.
The three astronauts took their places in the communication hub, as Linda made contact to Earth.
“Houston, come in” she said.
There was no reply. It was odd, as there were no solar flares or magnetic storms expected. Linda tried hailing Earth a few more times, and then gave up. She entered the malfunction in the mission log, and ordered her crew to meet back here in an hour. Protocol demanded them to make contact every hour in case of malfunctions.
“Houston, we have a problem” Brandon joked, as they left the hub.
The next twenty-four hours presented them with twenty-four failed hails. They had been trained for these kinds of situations, and so they remained calm. Linda went over every piece of technology they had, trying to find the source of the malfunction.
“Unfortunately, everything is fine” she announced after two days.
“Why is that unfortunate?” asked Brandon.
“It is unfortunate because now the only unchecked tech is the other side of the moon, and I have to go repair it”. Linda referred to the transmission antenna on the visible side of the moon.
“Whatcha need us to do?” said Vanessa.
“Just don’t burn the house down when I’m gone” Linda replied with a wink.
The transmission antenna was a massive structure located in the Sea of Tranquillity. It was a day’s trip from the SALVATION base, and Linda wasn’t too excited about the trip. Alas, being an engineer came with responsibilities. She entered her departure in the mission log, and set out on the rover. It was an arduous journey, the only upside being that the rover was automated. She set her destination in the rover’s computer, and fell asleep.
The rover came to a sudden stop, jerking Linda out of her sleep. She found herself under the gigantic dish, which blocked the sky. She sighed in exasperation �" she had forgotten how big the antenna really was. It was going be a long day.
Eight hours passed, and she found nothing out of the ordinary. Linda was exhausted. The last hundred hours were nerve-wrecking. She needed to release some steam, and she suddenly remembered her favourite activity since her maiden voyage �" Earth gazing. It had been months since she had laid her eyes on the Earth. She checked the time, and the timing was perfect. The moon would be facing her home right now. The antenna blocked her view, so she decided to take a walk. All it took was five jumps, and she was out of the antenna’s shadow. She looked up, excited to look at home, and froze at the sight.
The entire continent was dark. She couldn’t even find where the remains of her hometown were. She spotted at least seven huge rings. It took her a moment to realise that they weren’t rings �" they were mushroom clouds. Now she knew why Houston didn’t reply. She switched on her transmitter.

“Salvation, we have a problem”