
A covert military program dubbed “Project Hush” is tasked with the most audacious secret of its time: establishing an armed outpost on the Moon before any rival nation can. The narrative follows Colonel Benjamin Rice and his small team as they painstakingly land on the desolate Mare Nubium, unload massive crates, and assemble a prefabricated dome under the watchful eyes of a strict security regime that even the commanding general cannot breach. Their mission is framed by the paranoia of the Cold War, where every detail—down to the project’s name—must be hidden, and the crew endures rigorous dream‑detailing and hypnoanalysis sessions to keep leaks at bay.
Once the dome is up, the colonists begin the delicate work of installing the base’s complex systems, while a lone scout pilot circles the surrounding terrain. His brief flight yields an unsettling surprise: another structure, alien in appearance, looms on the horizon of the Riphaen Mountains. This unexpected discovery hints at hidden dangers and forces the team to confront the true stakes of their secretive venture.
Language
en
Duration
~14 minutes (13K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2010-06-02
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1920–2010
A master of satirical science fiction, this sharp-eyed writer used humor to explore human folly, politics, and the future. His stories remain admired for being funny, unsettling, and surprisingly humane at the same time.
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