Commander Miller moved closer to the navigation display. The old lunar survey data was still running across the screen, line after line of numbers collected twenty years ago by the abandoned orbital station.
"That’s impossible," he said quietly. "The station was shut down in 1964."
"It was," replied Carter. "But something is still transmitting."
Outside the spacecraft window, the Moon slowly passed beneath them — silent, unchanged, exactly as it had been for billions of years.
The signal was coming from the dark side.
They adjusted their orbit and waited.
For the first time in decades, the forgotten station answered.
The mission log was reopened at 03:17 lunar time.
And a flight path that was never included in any official chart.