David Golemon - Legacy

“Wait a minute. JPL is reporting that it’s not John that’s moving, it’s the camera’s boom arm.”

Everybody in mission control stood as one. The camera angle steadied and the smiling face of a helmeted astronaut came into view, waving a greeting.

An eruption of noise sounded in the aisles of mission control as they recognized the smiling face. It was Sarah McIntire.

“It’s the lieutenant. They made it!” someone shouted from their station.

“Calm, people, calm,” Evans said, as coolly as he could manage. He wanted to jump up and scream himself. He looked over at CAPCOM, who was staring back at Evans and using a handkerchief to wipe at his eyes. Hugh nodded and placed his hands on his hips once more.

On the screen the small geologist held a finger up as the camera angle jostled and then steadied. McIntire disappeared from view and the camera showed several space-suited bodies moving around near the rover. Some wore the distinctive environmental suits of the ESA, and some the white with red trim of NASA, and still others had the solid red-colored suits of the Chinese. Another loud cheer erupted from the floor, and this time Evans himself pumped a fist.

Suddenly a loud crackle from CAPCOM was heard through the speakers lining the walls of the center. Evans looked over at the CAPCOM station and saw his technicians frantically adjusting the sound quality. Just as Evans looked back, McIntire appeared again, this time trailing a long cord from her backpack.

“Hous… this is… copy, over?”

Evans tried to still his racing heart. He realized McIntire had tied into John ’s transmitter and was attempting to broadcast by bouncing the signal off John ’s parent craft, Peregrine. He wanted to reach out through the 244,000 miles and hug the smart little woman.

“Damn it, CAPCOM, clean that up. This I want to hear!” Evans said. For the first time he had emotion exploding from his voice. As he watched, CAPCOM nodded and stared at the main viewing screen.

“Houston, this is Dark Star 3, do you copy, over?” Sarah said from the Moon.

“ Dark Star, this is Houston, we read you loud and clear. Welcome back to the world of the living.”

“Thank you, Houston. It’s good to be back. I am pleased to report that the Eagle has landed.” Sarah smiled and then laughed. “I’ve always dreamed of saying that.”

Evans plopped down into his chair just as the control room exploded with cheers and applause. Hugh felt around in his pockets and then a hand appeared in front of him. It was the young technician from JPL. He was holding a handkerchief out for the flight controller. Evans accepted it and wiped his eyes. He nodded his head as he reached for the phone that had been tied in earlier. He only had to wait a second after picking it up before the call was answered.

“Mr. President, Lieutenant McIntire has just reported from Shackleton Crater. Dark Star is on the Moon and the joint teams, including China, are moving into the crater’s interior.”

There was silence on the other end for the longest stretch Evans had ever endured. Then the president was heard clearing his throat and sniffing.

“Thank you, Mr. Evans-thank you.”

As the line went dead, Hugh Evans looked up with phone still in his hand and all he saw was the smiling face of Sarah McIntire behind her helmet’s glass visor. The little geologist was the new love of his life.

Behind Sarah, Evans could see the joint lunar team moving slowly down the explosion-wracked sides of Shackleton Crater.

The first thing Sarah saw was several large chunks of the mineral. She had no idea if they had been there before the explosion or if they were thrown free of the complex below. She examined one of them up close, and then let it slip from her gloved hand as she noticed for the first time the complex below in the crater’s center. She was amazed at the sight as she took in what was once an underground bunker. The explosion had not only removed the top sixty feet of accumulated lunar dust, it had shattered several of the buildings’ roofs. Inside one she saw what looked like tracked transports of some kind, complete with large tanks and other big pieces of equipment.

“It makes one rethink the small problems we on Earth share, does it not?”

Sarah was torn from her thoughts by General Kwan, who had stepped up beside her without her noticing. Sarah looked from the general to the complex below.

“Sometimes we create those problems for lack of something better to do, it seems.”

“Well put, Lieutenant. You and I are the same sort of soldier, I believe. Someday maybe my superiors will allow me access to their thinking about why this project could not take a more cautious approach and a time frame more amenable to safety. I have lost many good men who wanted nothing more than to ride a rocket into space.”

“Well, we won’t find out anything they need to know up here,” Sarah said, as she spied Will Mendenhall bouncing toward her. “I believe my escort is here, General. Would you care to join us?”

“It would be an honor.”

Will bounded to a stop and gestured toward the slope.

“We’re rigging safety lines so we can have handholds on the way down. I didn’t think it would be such a hot idea sliding down on our asses.”

Sarah hit Mendenhall on the shoulder.

“Always thinking of the easy way to do things.”

“Hell, I thought that was why everyone was so hot for me to come along on this little picnic,” Will said, looking from Sarah to the general. “That is one nice environment suit, General,” he said. He returned his gaze to Sarah. “Now why does NASA insist on white-colored space suits where if you fell down no one could see you, while the Chinese use red ones that you can see from fifty miles off?”

Sara rolled her eyes and eased past Mendenhall.

“You’ll have to excuse the lieutenant, General. He’s been bitching ever since he volunteered for this.”

“Volunteered?” Mendenhall protested. He turned to look at Kwan. “That’s our army’s euphemism for kidnapped.”

The general laughed as he turned to follow Sarah.

“In our army also, Lieutenant.”

As they approached the twenty secured ropes, Sarah stepped up to Sergeant Andrews, the man she had chosen to command the rest of the Green Berets. He was conferring with the Chinese soldiers who would be a part of his team for the initial descent into the crater.

“Language barrier?” Sarah asked the sergeant.

“Surprisingly, none at all,” Andrews answered. He slung his weapon over his shoulder. “It seems they picked troops with English-language training. Maybe they knew something we didn’t, huh, Lieutenant.” He reached down and took one of the secured ropes into his gloved hands.

Sarah didn’t answer. She knew the sergeant was more right than he would ever know.

The sergeant raised his right hand and then lowered it. At the same moment three other Americans and five Chinese soldiers eased themselves off the edge of the crater, proceeding hand over hand down the treacherous slope.

Sarah took the time to push a small button on the left side of her helmet. A third visor slid down and covered the clear one she had been using. Will followed suit. Sarah immediately saw the difference as she used the Optical Range Enhancer for the first time. The ORE was designed like a set of binoculars, only it had one solid lens instead of two. Sarah shook her head as she became a little dizzy using it for the first time. Nonetheless, a better picture emerged than before. The damage to the bunker system was more extensive that she had first thought. The material the bunkers were made of looked more like Styrofoam than anything else. She figured the walls and roofs of the buildings were plastic of a type she could not imagine.