The watchman had already chosen its moment.
The Moon rang like a bell.
We were the first. We seeded your world with water and amino acids. We watched you grow. When our enemies came, we fled—but we left this watchman. It guards you. It listens. When you are ready, it will teach you to sail the black between stars. Our-mysterious-spaceship-moon-by-don-wilson-pdf
The world held its breath.
Elara was chosen to lead the first descent. As her capsule dropped through the borehole and into the cavern, her helmet lights illuminated a landscape of impossible engineering: arching ribs of a metal no spectrometer could identify, vast conduits pulsing with residual energy, and at the cavern’s center—a dais. On it rested a single object: a translucent sphere the size of a fist, glowing with captured starlight. The watchman had already chosen its moment