As Commander Field closes the distance to the Moon aboard the Lunar Sparrow, Mission Control’s sensors show no human life on the South Polar Lunar Base. Mission Control has no explanation for why the equipment and personnel are missing. Commander Field has an intuition about it, however, drawn from a troubling dream she had during a micro sleep. She shares this with Mission Control, but chooses to keep it a secret from admin. They would remove her from her command if they knew she had such a dream.  She receives orders to land on the Moon and investigate and also to “scrub the socials” — to conceal what she thinks is really going on down on the surface.