Stay Off the Moon!

Jim Cochran operates the Prospector, a robotic laboratory on the moon, alone in the lunar darkness. His job: analyze the dust and rock of Earth's satellite. But the data keeps arriving wrong. The elements don't match anything in our solar system. The ratios are impossible. And deep in the samples, he finds organic compounds that shouldn't exist. As Cochran digs deeper, a terrible theory takes shape: the moon isn't from here. It drifted into our solar system eons ago, captured by Earth's gravity. And something on it may not be dormant for long. He sends warning after warning back to Earth. The responses come back: proceed with the mission. The first manned landing is coming regardless. What happens next is a tragedy of science ignored. The astronauts arrive. Something stirs. Cochran was right, but being right means nothing when no one listens in time. This is 1960s paranoia in space form - a story about the cost of being the only person who knows the truth.