Birthday on The Moon

First Edit, Part 21

The moon was reckless, dangerous and uncontrollable - yet it was only protecting its territory. Nature and the elements aren't known to be kind and full of mercy towards mankind and its machine, their spaceship suffered the brunt of its damager and devastation. With what little light that reached from the earth and with their torches they inspected the damage as they stumbled out of the spaceship and in the darkness. The uneven interior floor was merely a symptom of the wider dilemma. The doors and mechanisms still operated but struggled to remember how to operate at full capacity with the blows and knocks it took against the rocks and ground. They stepped outside with Grandpa leading the way, they both struggled to find the ground through the darkness. It was not in the direction that it is traditionally found when you disembark or go aboard a ship.

"Watch your step," warns Grandpa. At least they were facing the right direction, they thought. The ground had given up and was churned up; shaken out of place as the rocks didn't know whether they were coming or going. The boulders were displaced as though some new recruit at a library did not know about the Dewey-decimal system; they were scattered and disorientated as though they had just left a party and did not know where home was. The whole moon suffered from this affliction. Either way, the natural world had a bias against unnatural and manmade things. They inspected the damaged and walked around the stray rocks that fell from atop the cliff.

"The hull is dented," he commented, with Adrian in step paying close attention. They both analysed the surroundings, stepped over stray rocks and walked around the abandoned lumps. "The windows," he added with a moment of closer inspection, "are cracked," he added. "The paint," he dreaded to add, "has been leaking," they walked around it as the moon was resting from its tantrum. They looked across to see where the paint had escaped, it dripped its way down to the floor and left traces of itself on the hull. Some landed on the rocks and on the floor, "no doubt those rocks went flying into space," he added as they looked closer at the ground around them. The darkness hid most of the crimes of the earthquake.

"Do we have enough paint to go home?" asked Adrian as they stumbled through alongside the ride.

"I am not sure," said Grandpa, "yes," he thought, "maybe" he added," he inspected the rivets of the paint container closer. "I hope," after he gave himself a moment to think.

"Well," said Adrian as he looked over their injured stallion, thinking about home, books and his room. He turned to wander into the darkness and looked back at the spaceship; with his camera, he took a photo, with the strongest flash possible and captured the moment forever. It was another memento to add to his collection of adventures, as the spaceship was crooked, partially swallowed up by the collapsed floor, rocks were scattered around them and Grandpa was feeling their stallion to find more places where it hurt. The more they knew about the damage, the better they could heal it.

"How bad is it?" Adrian asked.

"Bad."

"Can we repair it?" he asked again.

"Yes," insisted Grandpa as he was distracted by the cold metal, "we can do anything," he added with an air of persistence. He tapped on the spaceship gently, "I don't make flimsy things," as his tap turned into a bang and it reverberated through the interior, partially waking up Woody. "The hull could be left as it is," he said leading the rebuilding effort, "unless it is pierced or torn, then we don't have to worry about it," he said with a sigh of relief, "it may affect how aerodynamic we are, but then again, there is no air in space," he said with sound logic. "The windows, however," he said grimly, "could be a problem if they break, we'd need to seal them."