“Oui. He has the look. So, my friend. What did you hope to accomplish with that little show, just now?”
“I thought it would be more pleasant in here without the shouting.”
Billaud shook his head with a wry chuckle. “Thank you for that, David. We appreciate the quiet. But…you must know, I will not betray my country.”
“Of course not. But…well, damn it, Marc, what can you give me?” When Billaud did not immediately answer, David spread his hands. “Look, it’s all just a big, ugly game, right? Give me something, anything, to make the bloodhounds happy, and maybe we can get ’em to leave you alone for a while.”
Billaud sighed. “You have, no doubt, read my notes. The ones I left at Fra Mauro? Your people, I’m sure, picked them up when they captured our base there.”
“No, actually. I came straight here, from Earth.”
“Ah. Well, your people already have those notes. I can only tell you what is in them…and nothing more.”
“At least it gets Whitworth off your back.”
“Oui.” Billaud hesitated, as though wondering where to begin, then pursed his lips. “You are in for a surprise, my friend, when you examine our dig outside.”
“I’ve been wondering about that. I was told it was a ship.”
Billaud nodded. “A ship, oui. Or rather, a piece of a ship. A piece of a very large ship that…ah…suffered an accident, we think, six thousand years ago.”
“I saw the trenches outside. How is it that the ship was buried?”
Unlike Mars, where winds blew, dust accumulated, and sand dunes migrated across the landscape in million-year marches, the Moon was not a place you associated with changes in the terrain. A crash thousands of years ago, even millions of years ago, should still be on the surface, where it fell. The slow infall of meteoric dust was not enough to bury something as large as a spacecraft, even after millions of years.
Billaud exchanged a quick glance with the other scientists—there were three, two men and a woman. Then he sighed. “There was some wreckage on the surface. Most of that is…gone now. Salvaged.”
“Salvaged! What do you mean?”
“I’d rather not say more. But…you Americans are interested in the technology of these aliens, no?”
“Of course.” David nodded. Then he slapped his knee. “Of course! You found a power plant…or an engine assembly! Good for you!”
“Good for us, yes,” the woman said. “Perhaps not so good for you!”
“Estelle!” one of the other scientists warned.
But David already understood…enough, at least, to know in general what was going on.
“There really wasn’t that much to salvage,” Billaud went on, as though he’d not been interrupted. “In fact, it appears the vessel was torn open some distance above the ground. The contents spilled out…here. Much of the wreckage was scattered across most of the floor of this crater.”
“There have been TLPs associated with Picard,” David said. “Transient Lunar Phenomena.”
“Yes. That was our first clue, in fact, to look here. Large chunks and scraps of highly polished metal. When it catches the light just right, it can look like unusual clusters of lights, here on the crater floor. Observers on Earth have seen unusual lights and effects here for some time.”
TLPs had been seen for almost two hundred years at many different sites on the Moon. They appeared only rarely and were usually dismissed as volcanic phenomena. David wondered if those sites now warranted a closer look by xenoarcheologists.
“The largest fragment was a kind of module or capsule containing the ship’s power generator,” Billaud continued. “When it struck, most of it was buried. It took six weeks to dig it free. Many of the smaller, heavier fragments were buried on impact as well, which is why we have been digging the trenches.”
David found a chair by the compartment’s one small table and sat down. “Tell me more,” he said.
One of the other men said something sharply, in French.
“Ah,” Billaud said. “Jean-Paul thinks I’ve already said too much.”
“Not really. We’d guessed that you’d found something important at Picard. And that you’d already moved it to your base on the Lunar farside.”
None of them said anything, either in confirmation or in denial.
“What can you tell me about the aliens? They had a base here?”
Billaud leaned forward, his eyes bright. “Oh, my friend! I wish I could tell you what I’ve seen, what I’ve learned! Things wonderful…and things terrifying, as well.”