Salvador Mercer: Lunar Discovery

“What happened now?” Vlad asked, leaning back and allowing Elena to set the tea on the table, observing Dmitry as he gave her a smile and took the cup, pausing to blow on it, taking a sip, and nodding in satisfaction.

“Elena may not know how to type quickly, but she makes a good chai,” Dmitry said, setting his cup down. “The issue at hand involves the Chinese… this time, at least.”

Vlad looked at Dmitry closely to see if this was some jest or not. “Not the Americans?”

“Oh no, that is old news, my friend. I would be polite and ask about the new space station, but we don’t have the time for formalities, I’m afraid.”

Vlad knew his boss was well informed of the Russian space station’s every detail. He reviewed the daily reports to the old man personally, so the reference had to be polite. “That’s fine, Dima, tell me why I’m here.”

“The military in you shows again, direct and straight to the point,” Dmitry said. “You are familiar with the Chinese lunar program?” Vlad nodded. “It made an interesting discovery two days ago at the landing site for its lunar rover before it was incapacitated.”

An odd word to use for a piece of equipment , Vlad thought. “What happened?”

“Something was triggered on the moon and it’s broadcasting a signal, several, in fact.” Dmitry watched Vlad’s face for any sign of expression. “The signals have been determined to have originated from an unknown origin; however, the assessment is that the newly discovered object the Chinese stumbled upon is most likely extra-terrestrial in nature.”

“ Blyad !” Vladimir said, nearly spilling Dmitry’s tea as he smacked the table with his knee.

“No need for profanity, Vlad,” Dmitry said, half chuckling at his former student’s outburst. “It took us nearly an entire day to accept the concept even though we had the data right in front of us.”

Vladimir composed himself. “Based off of what data? You understand the significance of what you just told me, no?”

“Of course I do, and so does the Kremlin. The task now is to reach the transmitting object and secure it before anyone else does.”

“So you’re serious. No joking, Dima.”

“Deadly serious, Vladimir,” the man said, taking the time to use his full name to emphasis the point. “You’ll be debriefed in”—Dmitry looked at his watch—“just over an hour from now. We’ll have a car ready for us in twenty minutes. You arrived late this morning.”

“Traffic to the center is difficult at this time of the day, especially from Domodedovo.”

“Yes, sorry to make you fly commercial, but we didn’t want to send any signs that we’ve caught on to what has happened.”

“The Chinese don’t know that we know?” Vlad asked.

“From what our source inside Beijing is telling us, they are clueless. The Americans, on the other hand, are a different story. They secured their scientific team in Houston and took their observation leader and flew him to Washington. We think they understand the data the same way we do.”

“Understand it as in not from our planet?”

“Well, there is civilian confirmation of the signal, and its potential source, from at least ten countries, and that should double before the week is out. You haven’t seen the detailed reports yet, but when you do, you’ll understand.”

“This sounds intense, Dima. Do we have a plan?” Vlad asked.

“A very simple one, Vlad. Get there first. All other considerations are secondary.”

“You know what this means?”

“I do,” Dmitry said, reaching for his tea. “It will get very ugly, very quickly. That is where you come in.”

NASA Space Center

Houston, Texas

In the near future, Day 2

Marge Jones sat at her console looking at what data streams were still active ever since they were sequestered. Her team wasn’t very happy, and being forced to stay in the control room wasn’t making things any better. Jack was starting to smell ripe, and Lisa had to be restrained more than once. If Rock didn’t get the detention lifted soon, she was sure something unpleasant would happen.

“It’s a violation of our constitutional rights,” Lisa began again, and Marge was sure it wouldn’t be the last time.

“Keep your panties on,” Tom said, looking tired if not upset.

“Easy for you to say, Tom. You don’t have the same issues some of us do,” Lisa shot back.

Jack stood up, stretching. “Come on now, Lisa, that’s not fair to Tom or the rest of us. My wife and kids have no idea either. You’re not the only one with family wondering what is going on.”

“At least your kids are older,” Lisa said, sitting back down.

“Not that much older, and you don’t have a wife calling the main gate to make sure I haven’t left. Ann is sure I’m messing around despite all the security,” Jack said.

“That’s her problem, and any trust issues between the two of you are your problems to solve. Not my fault she feels that way. John isn’t questioning my actions.”

“That’s cause John is a guy,” Tom said.

“Enough of that, Tom. I know you’re an old timer, but the misogynic remarks aren’t helping,” Marge said.

“Well, if she’d just keep her panties on—”

“Tom!” Lisa stood up again.

Rock’s phone rang, and Marge hushed all of them, running up the two short steps to pick up the receiver at Rock’s console. “Hello. Uh, yes, we do. Yes, understood. When?… All right, thank you.”

“News?” Jack perked up and Lisa paused.

The locks to the main doors were audibly moved, and then the doors were thrown open and secured by two of the FBI agents that had been standing guard in the hallway.

“We’re free to go for now,” Marge said. “We meet here at oh four hundred hours, though, so get some rest.”

“That’s barely twelve hours from now,” Jack said, moving his arms around and gathering a few of his personal belongings from his console desk.

Marge looked just as tired as he felt. “I know. Rock will be here, and we have another mission to perform. No details were given other than we were free to go under the condition that we don’t discuss the operation with anyone.”

“Nothing new there,” Tom said, also getting up rather stiffly from his chair. “Maybe this time they’ll let us win.”

The group gathered their belongings and headed to the parking lot. The hot, humid weather hit Marge hard, but she felt good breathing the non-conditioned air and letting the afternoon sun warm her skin.

“What the hell did Tom mean?” Jack asked, catching up to Marge in the parking lot.

“Who the hell knows what Tom means half the time,” Marge said, looking at their cars in the lot and realizing there were only five of them, including Rock’s. “Go home and get some rest, Jack. I got a feeling we’re going to be busy very soon.”

CIA Charter Plane

Houston Air Space

In the near future, Day 4

Rock was watching Houston fly by underneath him as they banked and headed for the NASA strip southeast of the city. The previous two days had been difficult to say the least, and the press was starting to ask questions. He wondered just how long the discovery would stay a secret.

“You finish the daily brief?” Mr. Smith asked from across the aisle. Rock thought he would be cursed forever with this man.

“Yeah, I finished it an hour ago. Is it true about the Russians?”

“Oh, yeah. They are bringing our astronauts down from the space station on Friday, those bastards.”

Rock closed his folder and then rubbed his eyes. “What did you expect? The briefing said they are aware, and it’s obvious they won’t work with us. Did we even try?”