Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

“We will, Madam President,” Rock said.

Vostochny Cosmodrome

Siberia, Russia

In the near future, Day 28

“ Blyad !” Vlad cursed, sitting in his chair and tossing the folder back on the table. Irina looked at him and then quickly left his office, returning to her desk.

“I told you the news would not be pleasant,” Aleksey said, leaning back in his chair opposite Vlad’s desk, putting his hands behind his head and closing his eyes.

“So our store of liquid hydrogen is also as low as the liquid oxygen?” Vlad asked.

Alex opened his eyes and looked out the door toward Irina. “I can see why you hired her.”

“Not now, Alex. The fuel stores, are they indeed below fifteen percent?” Vlad asked, a sigh escaping his lips as he rolled his eyes.

“What? Oh, yes, the figures are correct. They came directly from Moscow this morning. I’ve asked our quartermaster for an update once we can expect a new shipment,” Alex said, looking back from Irina’s desk and giving his boss a large smile.

“So enough for one more launch.” Vlad made a statement rather than a question.

“Correct, that is why I came to see you. With the extra personnel on board the Gordust, their provisioning will take a priority. I need to swap out the payload,” Alex said.

“We sent up over a month’s worth of supplies,” Vlad said, the tone of frustration evident in his voice. “Why do we need more?”

“It may take a week or two to secure the propellant. Our heroes need to eat during the meantime, and there are six of them, not four as previously planned. We needed the extra hands for the shielding construct that we built. That uses a lot more energy, you know.”

“I know that, Alex, but after six launches in such a short amount of time, I feel we are so close and now this. Instead of only two more launches, we may have to make three. This is unacceptable.”

“Calm down, Vladimir. We’ll still get to the surface first from what the news reports say, and this time I even believe them. We made it there first with the orbiter,” Alex said, a touch of pride in his voice.

“Yes, I saw the pictures. We can all hold our heads up high for that one,” Vlad said, a bit calmer now.

Alex leaned in closer, whispering, “I was surprised they showed them so quickly. I thought for sure the State would have kept them under wraps.”

Vlad pondered his chief engineer’s words for a moment before responding in his normal tone of voice. “No need for discretion now, Alex. The pictures show the world that we have succeeded where the Americans have failed. It’s a moment of national pride, and rightly so. We have worked hard to earn this moment.”

Alex leaned back. Habits were hard to change, but he made the effort speaking normally and matching his boss’s tone. “Agreed, Vladimir, but we’re taking chances that could allow the Americans, or even the Chinese, to glean something from what we’re showing.”

“Nonsense,” Vlad responded. “It’s just a better detailed photo of what was circulating around the internet from those grainy Chinese versions. I don’t think anyone knows what the device does or how to access it, and the code is still unbroken by any expert.”

The Russian orbiter had entered lunar orbit and taken high definition photos of the alien object, which was difficult to see from the overhead angle that it took. More definition on its shape and outline was determined by its sharp contrasting shadow laid across the lunar ground. The news, with the pictures, were broadcast on all Russian television channels the day before and had made a large global impact as most everyone on earth had looked at them in one form or another.

Vlad wasn’t sure what the agenda was in releasing the images—Moscow always had one—but the impact was more than astonishing, and Vlad couldn’t help but feel that he and his team members played a very important role in current events as they were transpiring relative to the alien object. Getting there with people to secure the object was going to be harder and a bit longer.

Alex looked again at Irina, shaking his head before turning his attention back to Vlad. “So any word from Minister Osnokov?”

“Not yet. It’s still early. He left only two days ago, and no doubt this revelation had something to do with it. I’m not sure even he knew that the Americans had purchased every contract for propellant delivery in the next ninety days on all the global markets,” Vlad said.

Alex whistled and sat up at that news. “So that is the hold up. It’s a good thing we’re producing at the levels we are now, otherwise there wouldn’t be another launch till next month.”

“Yes, Alex,” Vlad said, looking intently at his main confidant on the facility. “That is why I ordered max levels for propellants as soon as I saw that hair-brained plan that Moscow cooked up.”

“Hair-brained?” Alex looked dubious.

“You think it a good plan, Aleksey?”

“Not ideal, but it will work.”

Vlad leaned back and eyed Aleksey seriously, looking for any sign of jest. “It should work, but it’s still not the way to plan a lunar landing, especially for our first time.”

“Agreed, Vlad, but time is important and we must arrive before the Americans.”

“You’re not worried about the Chinese?”

“Should I be? They barely have the lift capability to reach lunar orbit, much less send a heavy load to the surface and back. Their orbiter was on a one-way trip.”

“Never underestimate the will of over a billion people, Aleksey, never.”

People’s Republic Space Command

Outside of Beijing, China

In the near future, Day 31

Hun waited for the communications to be restored again. The main communications satellite that his country had relied upon for the last decade was no more, so for priority communications, they resorted to pinging a signal off of one of the military’s reconnaissance birds as it orbited the planet in low earth orbit. The tradeoff was for every thirty minutes that they could use the military sat, there were two hours when there was no other satellite within range.

“Inexcusable,” Chon said, putting his smartphone away in one of his cargo pant pockets.

“The Russian photos?” Hun asked.

“Yes, they make me sick,” Chon said, eyes downcast.

“I can’t believe you pulled that up in here,” Lin said in a hushed tone.

“What? Everyone’s seen them. What’s the big deal?” Chon asked defensively.

“Yeah, but not in the command center, Chon. Save it for your quarters,” Lin said, giving Chon a sharp look.

“Quiet, both of you,” Hun said, his tone both urgent and serious.

“Why? Won’t the general be here when the coms are reestablished?” Chon asked.

“Who knows?” Hun answered. “He should know already that we will only have thirty minutes.”

“Pride, as usual,” Lin said, shrugging her shoulders.

Chon leaned forward. “So do you think Chang successfully implemented your plan, boss?”

Hun nodded. The Russian pictures were bad enough. They were being shown worldwide on the news, and almost every internet page seemed to have them. Most had prominent arrows pointing at the alien device and the now defunct Chinese rover. Instead of being hailed as successful explorers and discoverers of the alien artifact, the Western news outlets were talking non-stop about the demise of the Chinese equipment and the failure to retrieve it. Most of the news now speculated on who would get to the moon first, the Russians or the Americans.

“Here he comes,” Lin said, motioning with her head toward the door as General Wang entered the room and took the main center seat facing the screen. Within seconds, the screen came alive with an image of the Wenchang control room. The face of a military officer peered back at them.