The coordination orientation took a full day. By the end of it, every staff member understood their assignment, their airport, and what was expected of them when they arrived.
The next morning they assembled in the bay.
Seven shuttles were waiting, each one already docked and ready. The groups moved to their assigned vehicles in fives, boarding without ceremony, and when the last person had cleared the platform, the docking mechanism retracted and the seven shuttles lifted together, and flew out.
They cleared the base and accelerated, the lunar surface dropping away beneath them, the curve of the moon appearing and then shrinking as they climbed, and then Earth was ahead of them, blue and white and large in the viewport in a way it hadn't been two weeks ago.
