Read Chapter 32: Earthbound

The spaceport’s arrival corridor smelled like recycled air and hot metal—a bouquet Elena had never expected to miss, but after weeks on the Moon, the scent of an actual atmosphere, thick and unprocessed, hit her like a drug. Through the shuttle’s forward viewport, Earth sprawled in blue-white glory, clouds swirling over continents she hadn’t seen in person for eleven months.

“Welcome home,” Iris said from the pilot’s seat, her voice flat.

“It doesn’t feel like home,” Elena replied.

Iris didn’t argue.

The shuttle settled on the landing pad with a shudder that rattled Elena’s teeth. Beyond the reinforced glass, a reception committee waited in the amber glow of floodlights: three figures in dark suits, two armed security officers in body armor, and a woman in a Navy captain’s uniform holding a tablet. Jack stood at the cargo door, his duffel slung over one shoulder, his weight favoring his injured leg.

“You could stall,” Elena said quietly. “Give yourself time to get that looked at.”

“They’ve waited this long.” Jack’s jaw tightened. “I’m not making it worse by running.”

She wanted to say something sharp—that his stubborn pride was exactly the kind of nobility that got people court-martialed—but she stopped herself. The old Elena would have. The new one didn’t.

“I’ll be there,” she said instead. “For the hearing.”

Jack’s mouth curved, just slightly. “I know.”

The ramp lowered with a hydraulic whine. The Navy captain stepped forward first.

“Commander Elias?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m Captain Reyes, JAG Corps. You’re to accompany these officers to Fleet Command for your preliminary hearing. Standard procedure. You’re not under arrest, but you are in military custody pending review.”

Jack nodded once, then looked back at Elena. His eyes held hers for a moment that stretched past comfortable. “Geologist Vasquez,” he said, a strange little smile tugging at his mouth. “Try to stay out of trouble.”

“That’s my line,” Iris muttered from behind them.

Elena watched them escort Jack to a waiting armored vehicle. He didn’t look back.

She was left with the two men in suits. The older one extended a hand. “Dr. Vasquez? I’m Special Agent Harmon, TerraCore Investigative Task Force. We’d like to debrief you regarding the evidence you transmitted from the Moon. This way, please.”

The investigation suite was a windowless bunker several levels beneath the spaceport—a gray box furnished with a steel table, two chairs, and recording equipment that Elena found both familiar and invasive. Harmon sat across from her; his colleague, a younger woman named Nguyen, hovered by the door.

“Tell us about the data,” Harmon began.

Elena gave him the abridged version—the forged safety reports, the falsified ore assay data, the evidence that TerraCore had knowingly allowed unsafe conditions at Copernicus Base to accelerate extraction timelines. She detailed Marcus’s role, his arrest, the transmission she had completed from Iris’s shuttle.

Harmon listened without expression. When she finished, he slid a tablet across the table. “We received your files. They’re substantial. But Commander Elias’s case is separate—a matter of military conduct, not corporate malfeasance.”

Elena didn’t touch the tablet. “He was framed. You know that.”

“We know that’s what his defense intends to argue.”

“It’s not an argument, it’s a fact.” Elena leaned forward. “He was sent to investigate TerraCore’s operations as part of an undercover directive. His own command buried him to protect their relationship with the company. You have access to the records. Pull the communication logs from his first month on the base.”

Harmon shared a glance with Nguyen. “We’ve seen some of them. They’re… ambiguous.”

“Ambiguous? He was reporting directly to a flag officer who’s now conveniently retired and unreachable. That’s not ambiguity, that’s a paper trail.” Elena’s voice rose, then she reined it in. She took a breath. “I’ve dealt with people like you before, Agent Harmon. Men who want to see conspiracy where there’s just negligence, or negligence where there’s conspiracy—whichever version keeps their case files clean. But this isn’t clean. People died on that base. My colleagues. My friends. If you bury Jack Elias because it’s easier than digging up the truth, you’re just as culpable as Marcus.”

Silence filled the room. Harmon studied her for a long moment, then tapped his tablet. “The hearing is set for forty-eight hours from now. Commander Elias has requested you as a character witness.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Your shuttle crew has been granted temporary quarters at the Fleet Transition Facility on the coast. You’ll have access to secure communications. The base reconstruction allocation is under review, but—” He paused, consulting his screen. “There’s a provisional offer from the International Lunar Science Institute for a senior research position. Continental Earth, generous funding, full access to the new private launch partnerships. Given your profile, it would be a natural fit.”

Elena blinked. The institute was the pinnacle of lunar geology research—she’d dreamed of an offer like that in graduate school, when the Moon was still an abstraction. But something in Harmon’s phrasing, the easy way he slipped it into the conversation, made her skin prickle.

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch. They want the best.”

“And if I take it,” Elena said slowly, “I don’t go back to the Moon.”

Harmon didn’t answer.

“They’re hoping the base doesn’t get rebuilt,” Elena realized. “Without the evidence, TerraCore could still walk away, and the institute gets me parked on Earth where I can’t testify about what I saw.” She shook her head. “I’m going back to Copernicus. When they rebuild it, when they find Liang, when all of this is over—I’m going back.”

Harmon’s expression flickered—something like respect, or resignation, she couldn’t tell. “I’ll note your decline.”

Nguyen opened the door. Elena rose, but paused in the threshold. “One more thing. What’s the status of the survivors we left at the base? Dr. Liang. Anyone still in Medical.”

Harmon and Nguyen exchanged another glance. This one lasted a heartbeat too long.

“Dr. Vasquez,” Harmon said carefully, “we received your transmission, but ground surveillance at Copernicus went dark about six hours ago. We’re assuming it’s debris or technical failure, but we haven’t been able to re-establish contact.”

Elena’s stomach dropped. “Kessler was still out there.”

“We’re aware.”

She stood frozen in the doorway, the hum of the ventilation system filling her ears. Liang. The other survivors. She’d left them behind to save Jack, to expose Marcus—and now the Moon had gone silent.

“Get me a launch window,” she said quietly. “When this hearing is over, I’m going back up there. With or without your permission.”

Harmon’s mouth was a thin line. “I’ll see what I can do.”