No response or change.

I turned and carefully climbed down the ladder. The slight gravity certainly suggested I was on the moon still. Reaching the bottom, I hesitated before stepping off. Neil Armstrong made one small step, but onto moon dust and rock. I was stepping onto something that resembled clover, although with leaves some 4 inches across. I turned back to the creature, noting as I turned that there were more in most directions, some distance away. They were all pale, but varying in an array of pastels colors.

"They didn't cover this in the manual." I thought. I took a few light unsteady steps toward the creature, bouncing awkwardly high as I tried to adjust to the gravity. It just watched me approach, and I stopped about 10 feet away. I raised my hand again, "Hello." Then extended it forward instead of dropping it.

The creature's face rotated toward my hand briefly, then ... moved ... closer. I saw no feet, it was hard to identify what I was seeing down below it. A translucent appendage floated out and briefly touched my gloved hand. Tentatively, like it was testing what contact was like. Then it recoiled slightly, then slowly extended it's appendage at my face. The gesture was oddly child-like. It made contact with my face shield, paused, then slid across it a short ways before withdrawing.

"Is that how you say hello?" I asked. There was a brief high pitched hum, varying in octaves. "And your speech."

It pointed, and it was decidedly a point, at my chest without making contact, then pointed up, slowly descended until it was pointing past me at the HLS, then withdrew again, as if waiting. I nodded, "I came from above," and pointed first at my chest, then up, "And I landed in that." Pointing at the HLS. Then I paused, and pointed at myself again, "I live there." and pointed at the crescent of Earth above. It's face followed the line of my pointing, and there were some more high pitched hums, including behind me. I turned to see several more creatures nearby, some watching me, some looking at Earth. A more varied set of humming. It finally registered that there must be some sort of atmosphere here, or else I wouldn't be able to hear them. It might be breathable. Although even if there were good odds that it was, and there weren't, it wasn't a risk I was willing to take. Something about all of this felt a bit more like underwater life than anything else.

The creature in front of me made a series of more decided pointing, first at me, then at Earth. It took several repetitions before I realized it looked a lot like a demand to leave. I spread my hands helplessly. "I do not know how to leave." It was futile to use English speech, but it helped my gestures somehow. It looked like some gestures were universal, as it stopped repeating it's gesture. Some seconds passed before it gestured again. At me, then at the HLS. There was the same demanding feel to the gesture.

"Ok, might as well."

I turned and returned to the lander, climbing the ladder, and crouching through the hatch. I looked back out, and saw that the creature I was talking to was moving away slowly, surrounded by many more of the creatures. It very much looked like a crowd of bystanders questioning someone in authority as to what was going on. I closed the hatch and plugged into the O2 port. Might as well start figuring out what kind of diagnostics I can do.

It took me several hours to come to the conclusion that I had no diagnostics. Every circuitry panel I could access was entirely melted. No sign of overheating, or even that it was a heat based melting. It looked a lot more like melted ice cream than slagged metal and plastic. The boards only barely retained their shape. Thin wafers of metal and green plastic running together before congealing. All wiring I could find was still intact, so it must be something that affects only very low voltage hardware.

The banging returned some time later. I opened the hatch to find the creature, or at least one very similar, right outside. It's appendages waved gently in a manner that suggested some form of flying hover. "Hello again." It pointed an appendage at me sharply, then upward twice. I spread my hands again, shrugging my shoulders, "I can't." It repeated the gesture. I turned and picked up one of the melted boards, holding it out for the creature to see. I made a gesture with my hand palm up and moving to the side, "It doesn't work."

The creature continued to look at me, but wasn't gesturing any more. I slowly and with exaggerated motions, tossed the board over my shoulder toward the other side of the lander. "The boards are all junk." The creature watched me for a time, then pointed at the hatch door, then at me, then turned and drifted back to the ground, moving away. "Okay, at least we seem to be getting somewhere in communication," I murmured. And shut the hatch.