🌕 Lunar Logbook – Day 17: Racket and Revelations

By “Max Skylink” – Site S-14

Earth Date: June 3, 2025  Status: Unexpected physical activity – Blurred bonds

This morning, Cary was not there.

I woke up alone in the module. Not a word, not a sound. Just the empty space where she should have stood.

I went outside. The regolith was calm. No fresh tracks. I called her name over my helmet speaker. Nothing.

Then, turning back to the module… I saw her. Not Cary. A new crate. Placed farther than the previous one, outside our usual surveillance range.

I approached slowly. The crate was low and black, with a recessed lid. Inside was a device I didn’t recognize.

On the inside of the lid, a handwritten note: “3D Printer – lunar dust – Judith.”

Judith. Again. Always there when something happens. Always one step ahead. Always without explanation.

I carried the printer back to the module. It was heavy, but not impossible. I couldn’t have brought it alone on Earth.

Inside, I plugged it into the auxiliary converter. A logo lit up: “Formlabs Experimental Lab” with “PROTOTYPE 01 – NON COMMERCIAL” etched under the panel.

The screen opened automatically. A clear, simple interface appeared: several objects to print, displayed as ultra-detailed rotating visuals.

I scrolled through the options:

• Portable water filter
• Multi-tool for drill
• Lunar chess set
• …and a racket.

The racket looked like a hybrid between a paddle, a beach racket, and badminton, with hexagonal perforations.

I clicked. “Add lunar dust: 3.2 kg required.”

I smiled. I went to gather regolith in the surface net.

Back at the printer, I filled the hopper and selected: Create 2 rackets.

Why two?

• Maybe to reconnect with Cary.
• Maybe… just to play.

The printer displayed: “Estimated time: 2 h.”

I lay down and drifted into a much-needed nap.

A metallic click woke me. Cary was standing over the machine, inspecting one racket, spinning it in her hand.

“You ready to get beat?” I teased with a half-smile.

She looked up and nodded. No words—just a look, almost conspiratorial.

We went outside. We marked a court with flat stones. In the center, a pile of rocks served as a net. We found a roughly round stone to use as a ball.

Luna-paddle. It’s the only word that comes to mind.

Each jump made us levitate. Each strike was slowed, almost elegant. Lunar gravity made us supple, floating… alive.

She laughed. And so did I.

It was absurd. And it was human.

Suddenly I stepped back too quickly. My foot hit a rock. I fell… right onto her. We rolled together.

She was on the ground. And I was on top of her. I was lying on her, and I thought I could feel a heart beating beneath that suit… though I wasn’t sure if it was a suit or her skin — and underneath, were there wires like a robot, or a heart pumping blood… like mine.

I didn’t move. And this thought crossed my mind: “Why do I feel like I know her? Not from here. Not from before. But as if she’d always been… in my life.”

She looked at me and didn’t move either. Then I reached out my hand. “Shall we go back?”

She nodded.

We walked side by side, in silence, back to the module.

CARY

He looked at me differently today. Not as a mystery. But as… someone.
And for the first time, I feared he might discover.
Judith didn’t just deliver a machine.
She delivered a memory.