Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

“Correct, but you should have had it first thing this morning. I’ll look into it—” Vlad heard a commotion coming from the other end of his line.

“What’s going on there, Dmitry?” he asked.

“Hang on a second,” Dmitry said.

Vlad could hear noises and then screaming followed by a series of loud popping sounds. “What is that?” Vlad asked.

“I think I hear gunshots,” Dmitry said, not into the handset, his voice fainter.

Suddenly there was a loud booming sound followed by the static of a dead line. Vlad pressed down in quick succession on the handset clicker. Despite the advances in cellular technology, the telephones were the same as they were decades ago.

“Dmitry, can you hear me?” Vlad knew the line was dead, and this was confirmed when he heard the warning beeps coming from his handset indicating it had been off its hook for more than thirty seconds.

Vlad returned the phone and sat back down. He didn’t even realize that during the frantic end of their conversation he had stood, leaning over the desk to reach the phone cradle easier.

It didn’t take long before he heard a commotion coming from his own hallway. Vlad got up and walked out of his office, past Irina’s desk, opening the door and looking down the long corridor that led to the main lobby. He got a quick glimpse of Aleksey as the man ran across the hallway toward the staff break room.

Vlad hurried down, finding the doors open and several of his staff watching a television monitor mounted on the wall. A few uneaten lunches were sitting on various tables as everyone’s attention was fixated on the monitor.

Aleksey made eye contact with his boss and motioned him closer. “Vlad, you won’t believe it,” his chief engineer said, his face ashen, jaw dropped open slightly, and a glazed look over his eyes.

Vlad heard a cry stifled and saw Irina and another female technician holding each other. Tears were welling in their eyes. Vlad turned his attention to the newscast where a large, very familiar-looking building was half demolished. Large plumes of black smoke were streaming from it at several locations and combining into a large one that slowly billowed out from the building.

“ Bozhe moi! ” Vlad said, bringing his hand to his mouth and watching the destruction as it was panned out in front of the screen. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes, Vladimir,” Alex said. “Someone blew up the Ruscosmos control center.”

Vlad could only watch the devastation, and this thoughts were on his old friend and mentor, Dmitry. “God help us,” he mumbled.

White House

Washington D.C.

In the near future, Day 46

“Bring us to Defcon Two,” President Powers ordered, sitting in her seat in the bunker of the White House command and control room.

Vice President John Lee looked at her with his brows raised. “You know the new protocols mean that one of us will have to leave, Gloria,” he said.

“I know, John. I intend to stay here. You go airborne, fly to Houston, and oversee our space operations personally.”

“That’s your baby, Gloria. I can man the bunker, if you’d prefer, John said, ignoring the rest of her staff as they had a private conversation that wasn’t so private.

President Powers looked him in the eye. Her face was serious, the scar creasing along the side of her head a reminder of the assassination attempt on her life not yet a year ago. Her hands gripped the arms of her chair intensely, and John Lee could see the leather fabric strain under the force. Finally she took a deep breath, and her words came out calm and measured. “My duty is here, to stop a world war. I trust you to keep me apprised of our progress. Can you do this for me?”

John stood up before addressing her. “Yes, Madam President,” he said more formerly now, a show of respect for her despite them being friends for a very long time. “You’ll handle the initial launch, then, today?”

“Yes, I’ll take care of that over the secure teleconference line. Call me when you arrive.”

Vice President John Lee grabbed his folders and nodded to the Director of National Security as he left the room toward the east lawn where the presidential marine helicopter would be standing by.

“David, are we ready for the launch?” Powers asked her Director of National Security.

“We are, Madam President. I wasn’t going to pull them up onscreen quite yet till we finished with the debriefing, but we can if that’s what you want,” he said, looking at her.

“I think the NASA team should know. Bring them up and let’s get this started.”

David Rose nodded and motioned to one of the Air Force officers who was manning the communication’s console. Within a minute, there was a split screen on the primary display showing the Cape Canaveral launch pad on the right side with a large view of the main control center in Houston on the other.

President Powers noticed Richard Crandon with Director Lui immediately, and nodded to them. “Director, Mission Leader… Are we ready for the launch this morning?”

Director Lui spoke. “Yes, Madam President. The tower control has the countdown at T-minus thirty-three minutes, so we’re still a bit early. The Saturn has just been fueled, and the astronauts are heading up the lift even now.”

“Good, we’ll go ahead and keep our connection open for now. I wanted to discuss a few things with your team before the launch, though I know they’re busy,” Powers said.

Rock smiled and then nodded. “Good morning, Madam President.”

“Good morning, Mr. Crandon,” she responded.

“We decided that due to the last failure, we would be securing our astronauts, Craig Alders and Julie Monroe, till the last minute just to be safe,” Rock said.

“That doesn’t exude confidence, Mr. Crandon. Are we worried about something?” she asked.

“We are always concerned, Madam President. This is just a safety precaution, nothing more, and no reason to read anything into it that’s not there.”

Fortunately the president couldn’t see Rock’s team, who had their mouths open, jaws dropped at the glib manner in which he had just addressed her.

“Mission Lead Crandon is basically indicating that we here at NASA are prepared for any eventuality, Madam President,” Director Lui said, more diplomatically than Rock had just done.

“I understand, Director Lui. Have you and your people seen the news?”

“We have. It was rather disturbing considering the ramifications.” He nodded.

“Well, we have reason to believe it may have been the Chinese. Even if it wasn’t, the Russians are mobilizing their entire Far East Military District even as we speak,” Powers said.

“News reports were that it was separatists from their southern regions near Turkey and Iran,” Lui said.

Powers nodded and then looked at one of her notes before responding. “Yes, Chechin- or Kurdish-supporting separatists are what we have in our National Security Report.” Rock could see the Director of National Security just to her side scowl at the revelation.

“Will this affect our mission?” Lui asked, the consummate professional, staying on topic.

“No, but you may want to take the latest current events into calculation when, and if, you do anything near the Chinese or Russians. Do you understand me?” Powers said, her tone serious.

“We will, and as usual, we’ll report anything noteworthy to Mr. Smith who can relay this up the chain of command. Will you be observing the launch today, Madam President?” Lui asked.

“I will.”

“I hope you know that Canaveral Tower has control until the Saturn clears the launch tower, then we’ll take over from there,” Lui said, his tone matter of fact, all business-like.