Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

“Ah, sounds good, my old friend,” Dmitry said as they arrived, and Vlad motioned for his boss to exit. They walked over to the large window panes that overlooked the main launch pad about two kilometers away, and Vlad pulled a chair out for the man. “Ah… my aide, Tamil?” Dmitry asked, looking around.

“Irina, can you take Secretary Osnokov’s aide to the service quarters and see to it that he gets something to eat?” Vlad asked.

Irina came from the side lounge area and motioned for the aide Tamil to follow her. Soon after they departed, the two men sat as the late afternoon sun shone through the broad window panes overlooking the complex two hundred feet below. “Do you have vodka, Vlad?” Dmitry asked, anticipation in his voice.

“ Koneshna , only the best for you.” Vlad motioned, and the service staff brought bread, butter, sugar, lemon wedges, and glasses, including shot glasses and a large bottle of Stolichnaya vodka.

“I see you’ve spared no expense,” Dmitry said, smiling as Vlad poured him a shot. The old man took his lemon wedge and dipped it into the shallow sugar bowl, coating it, and then raised his freshly poured shot glass. “ Do Sdarovya ,” he said, and Vlad accepted the toast, both men emptying their glasses in one fluid motion, popping sugared lemon wedges into their mouths right after the drink.

There was a moment of silence as Vlad looked his boss over before he spoke. “Now, Dmitry, you’ve kept me waiting for two days now sitting here wondering what could possibly be so urgent to bring a cabinet member from Moscow all the way out here. When were you planning on telling me?”

Dmitry smiled and pulled his lemon wedge from his mouth, setting the rind down on a separate saucer plate. “You’re just like your father, do you know that? Together, I thought we’d push NATO all the way into the Atlantic, but alas, those were the old days. Now we have détente and diplomacy and reconciliation and, of course, social media. We are like dinosaurs now, Vladimir, old and extinct. Do you think there is any use for us anymore?”

“What have you been drinking?” Vlad asked.

“Oh, come now, you wouldn’t refuse an old man his last fond memories now, would you?”

“Of course not, but that is the past and now we are faced with a greater challenge, are we not?” Vlad asked.

“Yes, you are right. Enough about the old days. I come to oversee the security of our complex as well. There is evidence, circumstantial in my opinion, that the Chinese have weapons in space,” Dmitry said, looking for a reaction from his old student.

“That would be a major violation of the London Accord. Is your evidence strong?” Vlad asked.

“Strong enough. I don’t think at this point the Chinese care. It gets worse, Vlad. We believe they have used these weapons already.”

“ Blyad ! Not possible. That would mean war. All our assets are in place, are they not? What did they hit?”

“Not us, they took out an American spysat. Our counter surveillance satellite picked up the debris field of the American unit on infrared. There wasn’t anything to see in the visible spectrum.”

“ Bozhe, moi! Do the Americans know?”

“I have no idea. I’m sure they know their spybird is gone, but they may not know how. Moscow is worried that they will attempt to link our forces to this act.”

“Should they?”

“What do you mean?” Dmitry asked.

“Do we have weapons in space?” Vlad asked.

“You would know, you are the administrator of Ruscosmos launch services. Of course we don’t.”

“I’m not so sure, Dima. I’ve sent up plenty of equipment, satellites, and other space-bound equipment for our government and many other governments, but I am not privy to most payloads if they are sealed in capsules or self-contained. You know that. Perhaps I should not be asking this question?”

Dmitry reached for the bottle of vodka, pouring himself another and filling Vlad’s glass as well. “If we do have something up there, I have not been cleared to know. Our emphasis has been on ground assets, and I do know we have more than a few of them that could do the same thing only from here, not from orbit. No need to go there, but you should be aware that we are moving to Readiness Code Two tomorrow.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, we mobilize the entire Far East Military District. Moscow thinks it’s possible that if things go poorly for the Chinese, they may just decide to make a strike at our only space launch site right here at Vostochny.”

“Damn! I said we never should have built such a strategic asset so close to the Chinese border,” Vlad said, picking up his glass and drinking his vodka without waiting for his boss to join him.

Dmitry drank half of his and then repeated the process of sugarcoating the lemon wedge before pulling the rind out and wiping his mouth with a napkin. “There are a few in Moscow that share your sentiment, but this is no time for finger pointing. The premier has decided to send three divisions from the west to Amur specifically for the defense of the Cosmodrome. Two of them are armored divisions and the third is a mechanical infantry. They will beef up the twelve divisions already active here in the Far East.”

“What good will that do against the forty Chinese divisions we are facing now?”

Dmitry laughed. “Do not worry, old friend, that is what our nuclear deterrent is for. We will keep them at bay.”

“I’m not so sure. Also, I want to know why Moscow aborted the heavy lunar launch. We were ready to fuel when we received the call. I thought we needed a lunar reconnaissance orbiter as quickly as possible.”

“I’m sorry, Vladimir,” Dmitry said, using his more formal name but smiling at the younger man. “That was part of the news I shared with you today. We can’t risk losing the orbiter until we are sure we can launch without incident. It would do no good to take the only functioning spacecraft we have only to have it shot out of the sky before it could accomplish its mission.”

“My God, this is getting out of control,” Vlad said.

“Perhaps. We simply need to take precautions first. The lunar heavy launch will take place in a week. We must give the Red Army forces time to prepare. The Defense Minister informed me that we will have something special prepared for their space weapons.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing in Moscow. This could turn out badly for more than just our country.”

“Nonsense, Vladimir. We have the Americans to help us.” Dmitry laughed. Seeing the confusion on Vlad’s face, Dmitry explained, “We will share the data we have with them. They will know who took down their precious spy satellite and act accordingly. Soon the Chinese will have more on their plate than they can handle when the Americans learn about their attack.”

“Like I said, old friend, this is getting out of control.”

“You may be right, but in the meantime, would it be too much to eat dinner for tonight? We can worry about world domination another day.”

Vlad smiled and then started to chuckle, waving over the service staff who were waiting anxiously near the elevator with two carts laden with food. Let the Chinese deal with the Americans, and they would reach the moon first. Things were looking better already, if not less dangerous. Vlad enjoyed his meal.

NASA Space Center

Houston, Texas

In the near future, Day 15

“The president has personally cleared your team for clearance level Red One. That is why you received the extra briefs this week,” Mrs. Brown informed Rock and his team as they sat for their daily meeting before work began.

“So reassuring,” Jack said.