Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

Hun tried to return the pictures, but the general shook his head and his aide retreated his hand. “See to it that it happens, sooner rather than later. Keep the pictures as motivation.” Wang left the room, and Hun could still hear the click-clapping of their hard-heeled boots against the polished floor. The next time Hun heard that, it could mean something far worse if they didn’t fix this dilemma.

Tower Operations Launch Center

Cape Canaveral, Florida

In the near future, Day 45

Craig was more than upset, but Julie seemed to be taking it all in stride as they sat in the Canaveral debriefing room and listened to the analysis of their close call. The primary gasket seals between the first two rocket stages had failed. It was indicated that the rubber part suffered a serious deficiency during the curing process, and when exposed to the super cold liquid hydrogen, it became brittle and started to crack. The materials expert said it was fortunate that the failure was as catastrophic as it was, causing the crack and subsequent leak to become noticeable before the actual launch. Had it failed slower, then Craig and Julie’s bodies may have never been discovered and their final resting place would be somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic.

“So what’s the next phase?” President Powers asked via the teleconference system.

“We are prepping the second Saturn V , the prototype one, and it should be ready in two to three days,” Jeff Wheeler said, motioning to his monitor as a schematic of the project Gant chart appeared showing the progress on the rocket’s preparation on everyone’s screens as well as the main Houston control monitor.

“So this puts us last.” It was a statement more than a question, and no one answered the president’s rhetorical musing. “How long afterward till we can launch?”

Rock pulled his mike closer as Jeff looked his way. Once the rocket was ready, the launch procedure would fall on Rock’s team. “We can be ready in twelve hours assuming there are no problems with mounting the lander on the new rocket and that the weather holds up.”

“What is the forecast?” the president asked.

Jim Montgomery, NASA’s chief meteorologist, spoke up from one of the back wall chairs around the large conference room overflowing with NASA employees. “The skies look clear for the entire week. I think we caught a break there.”

“Madam President,” Mr. Smith chimed in, “the real issue now is do we still launch at all? Perhaps Plan B is in order?”

Rock had no idea what Plan B was, but the president’s dour expression didn’t convey any favorability for it.

“No, I think we continue as planned and allow our astronauts the chance to at least reach lunar orbit. If nothing else, they can observe what’s happening with the Chinese and Russians on the moon’s surface.” The president nodded.

“So our crewmembers will observe only?” Director Lui asked from his seat next to Rock, his tone one of disdain if not defeat.

“Perhaps,” Powers said, looking intently at her monitor. “We don’t understand why the Chinese are delaying their landing. We think maybe they have reached some sort of agreement with the Russians for a joint expedition to the surface, but we can’t confirm this yet.”

Rock stood almost instinctually before responding. “I’ve worked with the Russians and their space program, Madam President, and while I’m not a history expert, I would say that despite both countries being communist in the past, I don’t see them working together when it comes to this particular matter.”

“No, you’re not a political expert, Mr. Crandon.” Powers looked at Rock as directly as any monitor could convey. “We don’t know what’s going on up there with any degree of certainty, so we have to be prepared for all contingencies. I want the new Saturn on the launch pad then in seventy-two hours ready to go, and both of our astronauts fully briefed and equipped for the mission.”

Director Lui subtly grabbed Rock’s arm and gave it a gentle pull, just enough to have Rock sit back down again. “We’ll be ready, Madam President.”

President Powers nodded, and then someone disconnected the video feed and the screen went dark. Several people started to file out of the room, and Rock’s team gathered around Director Lui and their team leader.

“Well, that would just be peachy if true,” Tom commented, pulling up a chair that was just vacated by one of the director’s administrative assistants.

“You’ll be okay?” Lui asked Rock.

“Yeah, we’ll have a pow-wow first, and then back to the drawing board. Thanks for the support.” Rock smiled.

Lui left the group and headed out the door, leaving Mr. Smith and Mrs. Brown in the corner of the room eying Rock and his group suspiciously.

“They seem intent on something,” Marge said, motioning with her head at the two NSA employees.

“Forget about them,” Rock said. “We need to make sure there are no other screw-ups. We got awfully lucky with this last launch.”

“Don’t you mean unlucky, boss?” Jack said.

“Yeah, very luckily unlucky,” Rock said. Jack and Lisa chuckled while Tom scratched his head.

“I’m just glad Craig and Julie aren’t here to hear us,” Marge commented, a sour look on her face.

“Oh, come on now, Marge, you know we dodged a bullet, and sometimes a little humor is what we need to take the edge off,” Tom said, looking at his junior leader intently.

“Well, you’re both right,” Rock stepped in, cutting off any retort by Marge, who never looked happy when engaged with Tom. “Either way we are late to the party and may not even get to dance. We can, however, still execute a flawless mission with the utmost safety and professionalism even if it’s for last place in this screwed up race we find ourselves in. I’ll need your best, so let’s make sure we give this our A game, all right?”

Everyone nodded at Rock, and he took a deep breath. “Marge, have you and Jack had a chance to look at the data embedded in the RF signals yet?”

“Yeah, during some downtime we managed to get a sample of the feed and look it over, but nothing makes sense.” Marge leaned back in her chair.

“So the goons gave you access, eh?” Tom asked.

“I thought you said they were spooks?” Jack responded.

“Well, now they’re goons.” Tom arched a brow at Jack.

“Would it be helpful to have access to the entire data feed?” Rock asked Marge.

“Of course,” Marge responded, “but we had to pull teeth to get them to give us a sample. Top secret, compartmented and all that,” Marge said.

Rock stood and motioned to Smith and Brown, getting their attention, and then sat back down again when they walked over. “Mr. Smith, can my team have access to the entire data stream from the alien device?” he asked.

Brown leaned over and whispered into Smith’s ear before Mr. Smith responded. “Why do you want to analyze the alien signal?”

“That’s part of our job. Send up the proper equipment for our astronauts to do their work. Being able to analyze what, if anything, the signal is intended for could help us to equip them properly,” Rock said.

“Your team has already been given a sample of the signal and failed to decode it,” Smith said, looking at Marge. “Isn’t that right, Mrs. Jones?”

Rock held his hand up to silence Marge. “A sample won’t cut it, Smith. We need to look at the entire data stream from start to finish, including any pre or post data info, so this would include the countdown as well.”

Marge stayed silent, and Mr. Smith looked at Rock closely, if not actually scrutinizing him and his intent. Finally Smith responded. “What makes you think your team can do anything with this when we have over a hundred SIGINT analysts working the problem twenty-four-seven?”