ISRO had been broadcasting the establishment of the lunar base live for weeks on their own communication channel. The chat had crashed due to excessive amounts of comments ranging from "Proud to be an Indian" to "Where is NASA?". ISRO had essentially been provided premier access to establishing the early stages of the lunar base because of the cost efficiency of their plans and implementation. The numbers spoke for themselves and ISRO had beaten NASA to it by a heavy margin, closely followed by the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA).

Commander Arjun stood staring off into the distance as a candid of him was caught on camera, broadcast to the millions cheering his name. He looked into the distance adoring the extensive attention he was reciveing. Arjun's distinctive facial features shone through his helmet which held his unkept hair in place. His demeanor throughout the expedition so far had been egotistical but he was the face of the expedition. The attention he had received from the media had jaded his vision and inflated his ego. Dressed in a white spacesuit with green and orange striped armbands on each side, his patriotism to his country was evident but inevitably a source of manipulation having been born British.

"Listen, stop posing for once. We have a problem. Our equipment is malfunctioning in section H. We need to send a team. That's our temporary hangar." A female voice spoke sternly through an opaque helmet. Arjun waved goodbye to the installation of cameras and went along with his mission specialist, Sara. They hopped through the terrain of lunar surface while the animosity between to the two began to drop.

"We've got to do what it takes to keep this mission running" Arjun whispered to Sara as they inched closer to the hangar.

"You don't have to enjoy it so much, though" she smiled back at him under her helmet. Their sense of humor was understandable, they had grown up together at the academy and Arjun's 'cool guy' persona wasn't lost on Sara's calm analytical mind.

"Mission control, there's an unknown luring around the hangar. No exosuit." commander Arjun reported suddenly masking his insecurity over an unexpected anomaly. His mind raced to plan an outcome that would ensure his crew's safety. He was so focused on resolving the upcoming situation that he hadn't noticed his last transmission to ISRO hadn't been sent and the live telecast of their expedition had abruptly ended.

"Sara, we need to get inside basecamp and lockdown". Arjun made the order after assessing the unforeseen situation's potentially dangerous outcome. Considering that their crew were the only ones up here on the moon this was bad news. Unless another space agency had launched without permission from ICSRO, this was definitely a foreign threat that the crew was unprepared for. Mission specialist Sara followed her commander's orders immediately rushing to camp only catching a glimpse of the hangar. What she saw, however, could not possibly have originated from Earth.

Arjun slowly approached the entity revealing its black kevlar like vest and pants that had holstered a weapon advanced enough to be a sci-fi prop. He noticed that although it didn't have a spacesuit the entities face was covered in a metallic helmet that emitted pulsating red lights from its eyes.

"I thought we would've been a little further with the tech by now" his rasp voice alerted Arjun who stopped in his tracks. "Renewable energy my friend, does wonders." He turned to Arjun a couple of feet away from him and stood there examining his primitive spacesuit. "I need you Arjun Sher, for what's about to come." Before the commander even had a chance to respond blue translucent lights subdued him. The last thing he saw was a gun fire his chest.

He awoke in a new landscape. Far in the distance he saw wine colored mountains and a large sphere partitioned into 4 slices looming over him. This couldn't be real, he thought.

"It isn't" a familiar rasp voice whispered in the air. Arjun, in shock, looked around to find only himself in this vast landscape of solitude. It felt like a beautiful dream that could turn into a nightmare at any moment. His training instinctively kicked in and he realized he needed to return to his mission and find the rest of his crew.

"Your crew is fine. They won't even know your'e missing" the voice whispered again. It was no coincidence Arjun thought. His mind was being examined and the wine mountains had a certain familiarity to them. 'Could this all be a dream?' he questioned to himself.

"I'd call it your subconscious". The voice echoed in Arjun's head. In awe of what he had just come to realize, the landscape began to change before Arjun could fully appreciate his lucidity and transformed into a red deserted planet. There was no beauty here, no life and no safety. In panic, he closed his eyes and tried to shift the setting with his mind. Arjun had experienced lucid dreams before and as long as he stayed calm he was usually able to control them.

"Breathe" whispered the voice. "You can call me Apollo. You're safe here."

Arjun took a deep breath, then a second and by the time his third breath had exhaled into the dust of the barren land, the deserted planet had started to sprout trees and vegetation. Songbirds chirped throughout the newly created forests that had recently been terraformed. Celestial bodies appeared in the distance overlapping each other; a harmonious existence.

Arjun stood in place in awe. The green trees that had emerged from the wasteland were reminiscent of his dreams of space colonization. It felt as if he was living out his fantasy. He smiled in yearning for a day this would become reality.

"Looks like this is your goal. Not bad. Really does justify you being chosen" Apollo sounded impressed.

"For what?" Arjun retorted.

Commanding officer of the Chandrayaan-10 mission; tasked with occupying ICSRO's lunar base.

32 solar years

182 cm

Dark black hair with streaks of white. Light stubble.

Stable. Narcissistic yet generous. Pragmatic thinker.

The analysis suddenly stopped as Arjun forced himself awake to prevent any crucial secrets he held as commander to be revealed to an unknown entity. He awoke to an ivory colored room where Apollo patiently waited for his acknowledgement. The intricately designed edges of the his mask were now visible, made out of an alloy similar to aluminum with imprints that looked like they may have been manufactured by a craftsman.

"Listen kid, you'll know what I want you to know. For now, Earth might be in trouble and we need to be prepared to defend it. This whole lunar base situation is cute but we need to look a little further." In silence Arjun gazed into the pulsating red eyes of Apollo's mask anticipating his next directive.

"Take a breath" Apollo ordered.

Arjun saw his reflection in the mirrors that now surrounded him. His brown eyes cast back a confused look at the sight of his hairless body. He was now translucent except for his beige hue. The more he stared at himself in the mirror the more alien he looked. 'Was this a test?' he thought to himself in his mind. Unable to change his physical appearance even with the utmost amount of concentration he stood in the light awaiting his next trial.

"Just a casual bodily examination to make sure no other entity possesses you. Looking good." Apollo mentioned as the room faded to black.

The heads up display indicated Arjun's elevated heart rate as he woke up inside the hangar under the extended wings of the Perseus. He looked up at his ship and smiled in relief as if he had woken up from a nightmare. Apollo stood above him with his arm extended out. Arjun cautiously grabbed it and was lifted off the dusty lunar surface.

"I'm not sure about the time delay in this dimension but you're about to experience something unusual pretty soon."

Two security personnel rushed towards the hanger with their assigned plasma rifles and aimed them at Apollo who stood by Arjun.

"Release your weapon. Hands in the air. You have 3 seconds to comply." Both guards said in unison.

"Oh, I only need 1" Apollo said as he swiftly pulled out his quad blaster and incapacitated the guards simultaneously by shooting them in their kneecaps.

"You'll want to attend to them. I'll be around" Apollo said holding onto the circular emblem on his chest and slowly fading from the environment in a violet flash.

"This is commander Arjun we have two security personnel down and in need of immediate medical attention." Arjun calmly told them to put pressure on their wound and caught a glimpse of the blue sphere that he called home meeting the sunrise in the distance. He wondered what lay ahead.

"Danger" a voice whispered in his ear.