Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

“Yes, Madam President,” Rose said as he was about to leave the room.

“One more thing while we’re at it,” Power said.

“Yes?”

“Order us to DEFCON One.”

“Yes, Madam President, DEFCON One.”

“God help us,” muttered President Powers under her breath.

NASA Space Center

Houston, Texas

In the near future, Day 46

“A goddamn what?” Tom said, half standing from his chair in the conference room just off the main control center floor.

“An atomic bomb,” Rock said.

“Hydrogen, actually,” Mr. Smith corrected.

“Whatever,” Tom said, clearly flustered.

“Well, how will this affect Craig and Julie?” Lisa asked, picking her pen back up and looking directly at Rock.

“We’ll have to get them to the surface and back in less than twelve hours from what I’m reading,” Rock said, referring to his notes from his private meeting with Mr. Smith and the vice president not more than thirty minutes prior.

“Can you still perform the complex landing?” Mr. Smith asked from where he stood near the door next to Mrs. Brown, not wanting to interfere with their discussion but definitely wishing to monitor it.

“Marge?” Rock asked.

“It’s going to be awfully close, Rock. You sure you want to risk their lives on this?”

“Not my call, Marge. The president ordered the mission to continue, right?” He nodded to Mr. Smith, who returned the nod.

“Surely they would call it off if it risked their lives, wouldn’t they?” Lisa asked. Jack nodded in agreement as well.

Rock looked at Mr. Smith, who just shrugged. “I don’t know what the president is willing to risk, but I think Craig and Julie need to know what they’re up against. We need to inform them.”

“What’s the difference if the Ruskis already landed?” Tom asked.

“Well, we’ll have to make a determination on that once we circle the moon. First let’s get into orbit and then make the call,” Rock said.

“Richard, the orbital inclination won’t take Blackjack over the device. We’ll be blind, literally, until and unless we land,” Marge stated.

“Is it too late to change the orbit to a normal one?” Mr. Smith asked uncharacteristically.

Everyone looked at the man before Rock answered. “Yes, it’s too late. We’ve already burned most of our maneuvering fuel to reach the lunar orbit once they reach the moon, but that’s not the only issue. Tell him, Marge.”

Marge looked back to Rock for a second before returning her gaze to their oversight leader. “If our calculations are correct, then any prolonged exposure to the emissions emanating from the device will have catastrophic if not fatal consequences to both crew and equipment. The reading levels are not linear and instead rise at a stepped exponential ratio, becoming strongest at the point of broadcast.”

This was a bit much for Mrs. Brown, who lowered her tablet and returned the intense look they were receiving from the NASA team. “What do you mean and how does this affect the mission?” she said.

Jack leaned forward, returning the glare. “What Marge is saying is that anyone or anything that stays in close proximity to that thing up there is going to get fried. Do you understand that?”

“Yeah, do you?” Tom added.

“Calm down, you two.” Rock motioned with his hands to get his team’s attention.

This did not deter the NSA woman. “Then what was the purpose of the shielding? Why won’t that protect the ship and crew?”

Rock looked to Marge, indicating she should continue. “The shielding does work and is essential, but it’s not the entire story. The gamut of signals coming from the device include all spectrums, from the longest wavelengths to the shortest, and they include microwaves.”

“As in microwave ovens?” Mrs. Brown asked.

“Yes,” Jack jumped in, “but we call them microwaves only because they are considerably smaller compared to radio waves, but technically they are much larger than the smallest waves, light waves, x-rays, and gamma rays, for example.”

“So? What does this have to do with frying things and people?” Mrs. Brown retorted, her voice sounding flustered as it was obvious she wasn’t accustomed to not knowing things and this took her out of her comfort level.

“Well, we have a theory on all of these waves,” Rock said, motioning and looking at Marge.

Jack leaned back, allowing Marge to continue. “We first discovered these signals’ source when the neutrino detector lit up like a Christmas tree. If you don’t know, physics describe neutrinos as literally having no mass and therefore capable of passing right through solid bodies, including entire planets.”

“And?” Mr. Smith said, allowing for his companion to catch her breath.

“Our theory works when we take the entire spectrum of emission waves and piggyback them on a master neutrino wave. They are intermittently introduced into normal space as the neutrino wave propagates outward from the device,” Marge said.

Smith looked at Brown. “Are you getting this?”

Brown looked down at her tablet and started typing away, answering without looking at Smith. “Don’t wait for me, go on.”

Smith looked back to Marge. “So why the shielding again?”

“The shielding,” Marge began, “works to prevent the spectrum of waves from directly entering the protected or shielded space. Normal physics still work fine, as does the preventative properties of the shielding. However, once the waves are released from the propagated neutrino wave, they begin their journey from that specific point, even if it’s inside a space ship.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “once they begin inside a special compartment, they bounce around, and the shielding on the craft actually keeps them inside the ship, preventing them from escaping. Preventing all waves from escaping dependent on the shielding type and efficiency.”

Smith looked back to Brown to make sure she was getting all this before addressing Rock’s group. “Why didn’t you notify me earlier?”

“We just came up with this theory late last night and wanted to test it first,” Rock said.

“You should have told us earlier,” Smith pressed his point.

“Well, we’re telling you now, Mr. Spook,” Tom said, his tone one full of disdain.

Smith ignored the man. “What will it do to our ship?”

“In a polar orbit where our orbiter won’t fly over the device directly, it will minimize the impact, but the lander, as it gets closer, will feel the effects of the piggyback propagation,” Rock said.

“I thought the moon itself was supposed to block these dangerous waves,” Brown said without looking up from her tablet.

“Well, the moon will block the direct propagation of the waves, but not the ones that are piggybacked,” Marge said. “In fact, the larger the interior space, the worse the effects of any piggybacked waves after they drop into our dimensional space.”

“So why didn’t the Russians detect this with their orbiter? Do you think they were able to withhold this data from us?” Smith asked, his face conveying a scowl now matching Tom’s at the mere mention of the Russians.

“No, they probably didn’t know because their orbiter has no internal space or compartments that are worthy of note,” Marge continued. “It’s just equipment packed together, and at most, the internal computers and other electronic equipment may have run hotter than normal, but not enough to inform them of this theory. They would most likely interpret the data as a lack of efficiency in their electronic coolers and heat sinks.”

Mr. Smith looked at Brown for a moment and then back to Rock’s group before speaking his next words very carefully. “What does this mean for the Russians?”