Salvador Mercer: Lunar Discovery

“That’s need to know, Crandon, but I’m sure the State Department reached out to them.”

“I wish I had a better picture of what’s happening behind the curtain, so to speak.”

“Actually, you will if what my boss says is correct,” Mr. Smith said without emotion showing on his face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rock asked, not in the mood for games.

“It appears you made a good impression on the president yesterday afternoon. Word is you’re going to be tapped to lead the upcoming project to secure the object.”

“Just great. When was someone going to tell me about this?”

Now Rock’s discomfort seemed to have an effect on Mr. Smith as the man leaned forward in his seat, trying to conceal a slight smile on his face. It was obvious the dislike was mutual between the two men. “Very soon. It’ll be made official by tomorrow, or at least that would be my guess. She may be president, but you still have to be vetted for the SCI clearance and that takes time despite the urgency.”

“Keep your damn secrets. I just don’t see how we’re supposed to make any progress when we scuttled our shuttle program and contracted out for heavy boost capacity to the Russians. We literally have no way of reaching low earth orbit, much less the freaking moon, for Christ’s sake. What exactly did you bureaucrats think was going to happen?”

“That will change soon enough, and not all of us are in the same boat, Crandon. Try not to lump us all together.”

No, you get a special category all to yourself, Mr. Smith. All to yourself , Rock thought, holding his tongue and preparing to land as the flight attendant called over the small plane’s PA system for the usual safety precautions to be taken.

The landing and subsequent trip to NASA headquarters was less than eventful, and within an hour Rock was reunited with his team in the large conference room in the main administrative building.

“Those twelve hours went too damn quickly,” Jack said . He is looking worse than he did the day before despite the half day off or so , Marge thought.

“Good to see you, too, Jack,” Rock said, greeting his team and finding a seat before noticing Jeff Wheeler across the table. “You in on this, too, Jeff?”

“I’m afraid so. Seems your team is going to get much larger despite the security,” Jeff said.

“You been briefed?” Rock asked.

“He has the necessary clearance, otherwise he wouldn’t be here,” Mr. Smith said, taking a seat at the head of the table and motioning for a couple of unknown aides to start passing out folders stamped TOP SECRET on them.

“Oh, you,” Marge said, looking at Mr. Smith.

“No need to be testy, Dr. Jones,” Mr. Smith said without looking up from his papers. “You may be famous soon one day.”

“I don’t see how, considering our little ET object is transmitting signals that would be difficult for a high school science teacher to miss,” Marge said.

“Can we begin?” Rock asked, eager to get through one more meeting and hoping they wouldn’t need to spend any more time with the DC suits.

“Of course,” Mr. Smith said. “We have one and only one objective at this time.”

“We know, reach the ET object and secure it for further analysis,” Rock said. “The issue is we don’t have a way to reach the moon right now. Nothing is even remotely on the drawing board that could fulfill that objective.”

“That’s why I’ve asked Chief of Engineering Jeff Wheeler to be here. You and your team are going to have to find a way to get there and do it in only three months,” Mr. Smith said, shuffling his papers into some kind of unknown order that only the man could decipher.

“I’ve told you twice already, even if we worked around the clock, we’d need close to half a year to get anything worthy to attempt this mission. It’s impossible.”

“I didn’t think you NASA types were so pessimistic,” Mr. Smith said.

“Not pessimistic, realistic. Just the safety protocols alone will take several months.”

“That’s why there will be no safety protocols, Crandon. You just need to get us up there and do it fast. No other mission parameters.”

Rock sighed, looking around the table. He saw no appetite from any of his team members to even join the discussion. In fact, it looked like Marge despised the man and Lisa had a look on her face indicating physical violence was being contemplated. Jack just looked tired, and Tom, as always, appeared to be bored with their conversation. Only Jeff was listening intently, apparently not accustomed to dealing with Mr. Smith on a regular basis.

“You understand the implications of what you’re saying?” Rock asked.

“Completely. Remember, Crandon, you’ll have nearly unlimited resources once congressional approval has been secured.”

“That’s not the part that worries me. Where do you think we’re going to find suitable volunteers for a mission like this with a high risk and, if I may be blunt here, a likely chance of death?” Rock said, frustration rising in his voice.

“We have just the right people in mind,” Mr. Smith said, displaying his unusual smile that reminded Rock of a hyena just before it was about to feed.

Russian Space Station Gordust ( Pride )

Low Earth Orbit

Day 4

“They said what?” astronaut Julie Monroe exclaimed, looking more than upset and sounding very pissed off.

“I’m very sorry, comrade Julie. That is the last communiqué we received from our commander. You’ll have to be ready to depart the day after tomorrow,” cosmonaut Yuri Temshenko said from overhead where he was floating above the intersection of the habitation modules of the space station.

“Stop already with the comrade thing. You’re entirely too archaic for this century,” Julie said, pushing off from the bulkhead and twirling ninety degrees by latching on to the handrail protruding from the base of her habitation module and then disappearing from view.

“Don’t take it personally, Yuri. She’s just upset about her experiment. It requires twice daily observations, and she’s sure you’re not going to spend the time to continue it. She spent two years preparing for it,” Craig Alders said from his habitat tube.

“All forgiven, my friend. I would be angry, too, if your government kicked me off of your space station,” Yuri replied, spinning upside down so he could see Craig with the same orientation.

“Except we don’t have a space station.”

“I’m sure it would have been a nice play station,” Yuri said, and Craig wasn’t sure if the man misspoke or was jesting again. Yuri had to be one of the funniest but less than serious astronauts Craig had ever encountered. It made him question not only the Russian cosmonaut vetting process but if the Russians even had a vetting process.

“So, will there be a special launch for the personnel change?” Craig asked.

“Undoubtedly,” Yuri said. “We weren’t supposed to be provisioned for another three weeks. From the rumors we’ve heard, there is something planned that requires extra space on board the Gordust . Speculation will only get you so far.”

“So no one’s saying earth-side, then?”

“ Nyet . Not a word, sorry.”

“Well, if you hear anything, let us know. I’ll wrap up some of our documentation and secure our belongings, but we have a day and a half so no hurries.”

“No, take your time. Enjoy the view for another day. Very pleasant from up here,” Yuri said, moving over to a porthole and looking down at the earth, which was moving by at over seventeen thousand miles per hour.

Craig moved to a second porthole. “It’s beautiful. I’ll miss this place.”