Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

“Minister Osnokov will be fine. He’s still heavily sedated, but they will bring him in the morning so he can join us on our next command meeting,” Vlad said, getting up and walking over to the large windows overlooking the base’s main complex, the launch towers visible in the far distance.

Several large tanks were moving past the building, taking up positions at the edge of the base’s perimeter. “I see that our military at least is still functioning,” Alex said, watching as well from his perch near the glass windows.

“How long will they be here?” Irina asked, also looking out the windows at the large military presence that started a couple of days earlier.

“As long as it takes,” Vlad answered, pulling himself away from the window and taking a seat facing their main display panel, pushing his own coffee cup away. “The Gordust wants confirmation of their orders now that we’ve had no movement on the surface for over three hours. Moscow has set up a new command and control center at the Kremlin, and we’ll be working with them for the foreseeable future. What I want to know right now is if there is any reason why we can’t have the Gordust continue to orbit?”

“I’ve said this before,” Yosef said, looking around the table, “the cooling systems can handle the current load as long as it doesn’t exceed fifty degrees inside.” He twirled his cup around, moving it from side to side almost absentmindedly.

“What happens after that?” Irina asked, taking a bit of unusual interest in their operations, and Vlad gave her a sidelong glance.

“Well,” Yosef continued, “the same thing that probably happened to Zvesda . Systems will start to fail based on how fragile or robust their individual components are and how effective their individual cooling systems function.”

“We need to find a cause,” Vlad said, also looking around the table at his team. “I can’t speak for what Moscow had in mind with our cosmonauts on the surface, but it appears their mission resulted in catastrophic failure. If we’re to avoid the same fate a second time, we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

“Will we have a second chance?” Alex asked. “From our latest report, the Chinese are already on the surface and the Americans are almost to the moon. We have no lander ready.”

Vlad looked across the landscape at the launch tower where a newly erected Energia rocket stood ready for fueling. It only lacked a specific payload, and they had none. It wasn’t like a fully functioning lunar lander could be built from scratch in only a few days, much less weeks. They had not planned on having their one and only lander stranded on the surface of the moon. “I don’t know, Aleksey. Perhaps Moscow has a plan, but for now we celebrate our current successes,” Vlad said.

The landings on the moon were broadcast nationwide, indeed worldwide, and the video was repeated over and over on state channels as experts chimed in its historical significance. Only recently did the announcers explain that the lander was experiencing communication difficulties even though the entire mission command teams in both Moscow and Vostochny now knew the fate of their cosmonauts.

Yosef took a sip of his coffee and frowned. “Cold coffee doesn’t sit well with me.”

“I’ll heat it up for you,” Irina said, taking his cup and walking to the break room just off the main observation room where Vlad had dined with Dmitry weeks earlier.

“Should we run another scan of the cooling systems?” Alex asked.

“No, I told you, they are not the problem, and the Gordust has also checked them twice. It isn’t a lack of cooling, but rather something actively heating our craft,” Yosef said.

Vlad got up and walked to the window, looking out again. After a few seconds, he sat down at the table, putting his chin in his hands after setting his elbows on the table. The men sat in silence for a moment, lost in contemplation of their current dilemma.

The silence was broken by a lone tone of an electronic bell indicating that Irina had finished heating Yosef’s coffee. Her clacking of high heels could be heard as she approached and became visible as she entered the room, approaching Yosef from behind and gently placing the cup of reheated coffee in front of the man.

The cup steamed, and Vlad sat upright, looking at Yosef and then Alex in turn as both the other men stared at the cup of coffee.

It was Alex who broke the silence. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, eyes finally looking away from the coffee and directly at Vlad.

“You don’t think it could be that simple, do you?” Vlad voiced his thought as he stood completely upright.

“ Bozhe moi. God help us,” Yosef said, taking his cup and feeling the heat.

Vlad looked at Irina. “Get our coms back up with the Gordust and get the Kremlin on the line immediately.”

“What? Why? Did something happen?” she asked, her face a look of confusion.

“We know what’s causing the heating of the Gordust and most likely the failure of the lander on the surface. We need to warn them immediately,” Vlad said.

Yosef pushed his steaming coffee away from him in disgust, and no one drank more that day.

Apollo 21

On approach to the Moon

In the near future, Day 47

“Roger, Houston, over and out,” Julie Monroe said, switching off the communications channel and looking at Craig as the moon loomed in front of them, nearly fully lit and breathtakingly awesome to behold.

“Well, that’s just freaking great,” Craig complained, looking forward at his Heads-Up-Display, or HUD. “I guess it’ll prevent me from having to get that surgery.”

“What are you talking about?” Julie asked, continuing to look at her companion.

“Well, I’ll just fry my nuts out here and become sterile, no need to get a vasectomy. It’s not like we wanted more kids, but I’d prefer to have kept the family jewels intact a bit longer.”

Julie chuckled, realizing that there wasn’t anything mission related to worry about, though Craig’s face refused to convey a smile or any other indication that he was joking or speaking lightheartedly about the subject. “That’s just one issue, Craig. We still need to work out the ballistic trajectory once we loop across the South Pole. Besides, at least they had the courtesy to ask us if we wanted to continue with the mission profile or abort.”

“Hardly a legitimate question, Julie,” Craig shot back, finally looking at her and taking his eyes from the HUD where their navigation data was being projected. “What else were we supposed to say? No, sorry, we’ll just loop around the moon and tuck our tails and run home? Just let the entire nation down?”

“They would have understood if we made that decision,” Julie said, her voice calmer and softer. “I mean, it’s not like every day that you find yourself being chased by a nuclear warhead.”

“Oh yeah, and that’s another thing. What good is this blasted piece of alien technology if it starts a bloody, global, thermonuclear war?” Craig asked.

Julie looked back at her radar scope and then up at her own HUD before responding. “That’s above our paygrade. Let’s just focus on the mission. Can you fly this thing to the surface or not?”

“I’ll take us there just fine,” Craig said. “You just make sure to get us in and out before that warhead arrives.”

Julie clicked on the systems status screen and checked yet again the power levels for their lunar rover. “I hope this thing operates at its maximum speed.”

“I’m not worried about our rover,” Craig said, disdain never leaving his voice. “I’m worried that the warhead will be accelerating and our mission window will shrink with us learning about this too late.”