THE CAVERNS OF THE SOVIET´S RANGE OF MOUNTAINS I

The Enigma of the Moonquake

            How I wished I had not had to consult my old notes on astroarcheology and with it, face the decision of revealing what happened – already a half century ago - to what was an improvised expedition to the far side of the Moon; an expedition which I was a part of during my only and brief stay in that satellite.  In life, there are some impressions that one longs to erase completely, to believe that they were scenes from a nightmare, images perhaps from a febrile mind, despairs of an altered oniric state…  But after unsuccessfully trying for a long part of my life the devious resource of such comforts, due to the recent moonquake, I have seen before me the memories of that expedition.  Three weeks have passed since the moonquake; investigations haven’t shed any light on its origin nor have they explained the peculiar “fault” that appeared on the surface of the satellite.  Especially, they have not been able to explain something far too mysterious: how is it that that fault coincides with the outline of what in the first maps of the dark side, made little over a century ago was shown.  It appeared to be like a chain of mountains on the Northern hemisphere, named back then as the “Soviet Range” which in later years turned out to be, in fact… a non-existent range.

Facing the remarkable fact, in the beginning it was said that an optical illusion had happened, similar to the one that happened on the XIX century with the discovery of the Martian “canals”.  But soon, more than one specialist made clear that on the time when the so called discovery of the Cordillera (a few years before N. Armstrong sat foot for the first time on the satellite), the observation instruments of spaceships sent to the Moon already had a precision level that made it difficult to think of such a photographic mistake.   We have to take into consideration that these are not a few isolated mountains, but a long chain of almost 800 kilometers in length, a scar on the lunar face from the edges of the Equator to close to the North Pole.  Thus, unlike what happened with Toscanelli and his imaginary canals, in this case, there was no convincing explanation of the error, quickly forgotten amongst the spatial achievements of the time.  Hadn’t it been for the recent quake, such a confusion would have stayed utterly forgotten.

These enigmatic previous events sum up to the already known fact that the recent moonquake, besides having a high intensity – the highest in the recorded history of almost a century – had its epicenter on a far most atypical depth: not between the eight hundred and a thousand kilometers under the surface, as it usually happens with the few and mild quakes that rattle the satellite, but merely a thousand meters deep.  This is something that has also perplexed the scientists.

The following account does not intend to offer an answer to each of these questions, nor discuss the different explanations and hypothesis that have abundantly appeared during the past weeks on the media; I believe that my story will rather allow, whomever wants to follow it, to derive his/her own conclusions on such bizarre happenings, and at the same time wonder as to why there hasn’t been – nor there will ever be – a logical and rational explanation of what has been happening on the Moon.

I particularly intend to warn (hopefully not too late) about what this past moonquake foretells.  I am talking about a danger that threats not only the inhabitants of the selenic colonies but all humankind.

Cheered by this hope I believe, it is essential to warn those who decide to pay attention to these lines, that all geographical indications, archeological data, as well as transcriptions I will be referring to, can be corroborated in a specialized database; personally I consider that Miskatonic Net has the most complete archives on the subject, as well as full versions of the various works I mention.  As to the rest of the story, I rely entirely on my memory. In spite of the long time that has passed, my daily prayers and petitions, I believe that my spirit will wander forever inside those evil caverns.