Salvador Mercer - Lunar Discovery

“Commander, we are coming in fast. Your orders?” Nikolai said.

“Stay on target, just a little bit further…” Yuri’s voice sounded distant.

Olga braced herself.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Craig said, looking at his radar screen and the figures scrolling across the bottom. “He’s going to hit us!”

Julie looked out the side window port at the quickly growing faint light that was approaching them from the rear. The Apollo lander was tilted sideways still from its orbital burn, allowing her the viewing angle. “I hope he knows what he’s doing.”

“He’s going to hit us is what he’s doing,” Craig said again.

“No way, space is vast. If anything, he’ll be a hundred meters away and we’ll have a hard time evacing and reaching the Gordust ,” Julie said, hopefulness sounding in her voice, or was that wishful thinking?

“Not according to my radar reading. He’s right on target, and we’re the target. Brace for impact,” Craig said.

Impact would most likely mean death, so Julie ignored the command and watched as the Gordust approached. This would be close. “Almost there.”

“Passing zenith, starting our descent now,” Craig said, vocalizing his readings from his dual radar displays. One on the Gordust , the other pointed to the surface.

Julie continued to look out the viewport and then said, “I think you’re right, Craig.”

“What?”

“Brace for impact.”

“Fire now!” Yuri shouted, again, not necessary over the intercom system, but human nature was, after all, human nature.

The ship shuddered as all four rockets fired on maximum. The burn was timed to be for exactly seventeen seconds, but they could be off a tad and Yuri had let the timer go all the way to the zero point before giving the command. Normally the rockets would be on automatic burn, but the calculations were only as good as the data inputted and Yuri sensed that the Apollo had arrived a tad earlier than calculated, and Yuri had been correct.

The Apollo had passed its high point, or zenith, and now started to descend ever so slowly at first, but gaining momentum with every passing second. The navigation computer onboard the Gordust would not care and would simply initiate the burn as ordered. The radar data was no good either since the Gordust could not “fix” the Apollo ’s height, and the rate of burn was an estimate when it took off. A close estimate, but an estimate nevertheless.

Olga cringed as the Apollo suddenly loomed in their sight. Yuri hit the starboard thruster, which released six side vents of gas, pushing the Gordust farther down as it approached and slowed. The last minute adjustment, minute that it was, saved all their lives. The Gordust ’s massive four motors finally cut out, and the ship stopped relative to the Apollo with one of the Apollo ’s landing struts a mere two meters away from striking the window of their command pod on Olga’s side.

“Ivan, go, go, go,” Yuri said into his mike, taking a deep breath and looking to Olga.

Her face was pale as she returned the look. “That was too close, Yuri.”

“I know,” he answered.

There was a moment of silence before Ivan spoke. “Kiss them, my ass! You just about fucked them in the—” Yuri hit mute on the receiver for a second, not hearing the last of Ivan’s transmission.

Ivan became visible, tether and all, as his EVA suit propelled him in front of the Gordust and up to the Apollo . He hit the side easily and used a second tether to click the attached clamp onto one of the support rings that had been used to hoist it on top of the Saturn a week ago.

Olga flipped the mute switch back on. “Ivan, see if their hatch is on the other side.”

“I see them. They’re coming,” Ivan came back, pulling himself over and allowing the astronauts to use the line to cross over to the Gordust . One figure, bigger than the other two, moved to the bottom of the Apollo and released a compartment, pulling on something. Two suited bodies with the badges of the Russian Republic floated out, both attached by a safety line to their utility belts. The larger American-badged figure gave the line to Ivan and then pulled himself across the void and out of sight behind Yuri and Olga’s view.

“Let’s bring our comrades home,” Yuri said.

“Affirmative, Commander,” Ivan said, starting back once the others had cleared.

“Prepare for new arrivals,” Olga spoke.

“Airlock re-pressurizing now. Three new cosmonauts onboard,” Nikolai said. “I’ve activated the equipment pod and Ivan is securing our comrades. ETA sixty seconds.”

“Get him back on board and secure for burn. Let’s go home,” Yuri said.

White House

Washington D.C.

In the near future, Day 54

“So how’s Colonel Sing, is it?” Rock asked from his seat in the presidential briefing room at the White House.

“We had him for an extra forty-eight hours due to… shall we say, health reasons,” Mr. Smith said from across the table.

“And the Russians?” Marge asked. “How did you get them to agree with helping us?”

“I’ll take this one,” President Powers said, leaning forward. “They have their own intelligence-gathering apparatus and apparently a pretty good HUMINT section as well. They learned of Commander Monroe’s securing of the alien data card and agreed to help us if we shared the data from it.”

“But if the Russian’s know, surely then the Chinese…” Mr. Smith left the rest of his sentence unspoken.

“Well, we turned Colonel Sing over to the Chinese Ambassador yesterday, and he should be on a flight to Beijing as we speak. What’s important is that by bringing him back, we may have very well prevented World War Three,” President Powers said.

“How’s that?” Mr. Smith asked.

“Yeah,” Tom spoke up and Rock cringed. “If the Ruskies know, then those commies probably know, or at least suspect as well.”

“Calm down, both of you,” Powers said, as if speaking to two unruly teenage sons. “The data on the card is literally a copy of the last signal that we picked up from the device before the Chinese destroyed it, so it’s available to everyone. They just need time to decode it, and the card makes that easier for us.”

“What’s on the card?” Lisa asked.

Powers nodded to her Chief Medical Advisor. “The card has a blueprint of what looks to be an optimal genetic coding for Homo sapiens.”

“Can we get that in English, sir?” Tom asked.

President Powers interrupted. “It means that perhaps within a year we’ll be able to nearly perfect our genetic codes to banish illness, cure diseases, and do away with most of the things that plague mankind. We can thank Doctor Jones for that.”

What President Powers didn’t explain was that the initial assessment of the genetic coding contained two abnormalities as they related to the human genome; obesity and actinic keratosis, otherwise known as scaly skin. Two factors that were more than worrisome for the medical advisors on the president’s staff.

Marge blushed and looked down at her notes, and Rock smiled at her before he spoke. “So how long are you going to quarantine Julie and Craig?”

President Powers held up her hand again, commanding silence. “Commander Monroe and Captain Alders will only be another day or so before we release them to their families for a well-deserved rest. Our medical professionals felt it prudent to keep them in the hospital for observation after the close brush with the nuclear radiation of the event and the close proximity of being near the transmitter of that alien device. They are doing well, and we anticipate they’ll be home with their families very soon.”