Christopher Wood - James Bond and Moonraker

‘Eight... seven... six... five...’

Bond suddenly felt frightened. A fear that was physically painful. He was about to be shot into space with no idea of his destination or what would happen to him when he arrived — if he arrived.

‘Three... two... one... ignition... Lift-off!’

Bond’s shoulders bent to the curvature of his seat. He sensed the rocket detach from its mooring and begin to lift slowly into the air. Through the cabin windows he could see fumes and dust billowing up. The control room was obscured. Within seconds he would be exposed to the mind-scrambling stress of the G force that had nearly taken his life on the centrifuge trainer. The needles on the control panels danced madly. The speed started to build up. His stomach felt as if it was being pushed down his body at the end of a hot metal rod. James Bond closed his eyes.

15

RENDEZVOUS IN SPACE

After an unspecifiable length of time, Bond opened his eyes. Only a slight trembling of the fuselage suggested movement. Beside him Holly reached forward and pressed a row of buttons. Immediately screens situated near the roof showed pictures of the other Moonrakers. ‘That’s the rest of the fleet.’

Bond looked incredulously at the banks of instruments. ‘And we don’t have to do anything?’

‘We can’t do anything. We’re locked into a pre-set flight programme. To break it and go over to manual we’d have to call control.’

‘Not a good idea,’ said Bond. ‘Have you any thoughts about where we might be going?’

Holly flicked some more switches and a monitor showed a number of superimposed dotted lines. ‘No, but we’re all headed for the same rendezvous in space. We’ll just have to wait and see.’

Bond glanced out of the window beside him and sucked in his breath. Above them, through wispy cloud, he could see what looked like the page of an atlas. Clearly recognizable was the isthmus of Central America. The sense of isolation provoked by this sight was profound. They were flying upside down. The unknown stretched ahead. He wondered whether they would ever be able to find their way back.

A light on the control panel started to flash and Holly spoke with warning in her voice. ‘Don’t be alarmed. All that’s happening now is we’re going to jettison our fuel tank and roll over.’

There was a noise like an undercarriage retracting and the fuselage gave a convulsive shudder, as if shaking free an encumbrance. The Earth seemed to rotate until it appeared below them.

Bond smiled at Holly. ‘When I think of all the girls I know who would have been useless on this trip.’

Holly spoke with mock severity. ‘Don’t tell me about them.’ She leant forward and flicked another switch. A monitor directly in front of their seats threw up a picture of the twelve astronauts facing each other in two rows of six. Now the men and women had split up into pairs. ‘The personnel hold. They’re behind us.’

Bond’s eyes narrowed. ‘And the animals went in two by two.’

Holly looked at him quizzically. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Something about this operation reminds me of Noah’s Ark.’ Bond leant forward and pointed to something on the screen. Spied on by the angle of the watching camera, a man and a woman were revealed as surreptitiously holding hands.

‘Love is in the air,’ said Holly.

‘Maybe you’re right.’ Bond pondered. ‘Perhaps space has the same effect on the libido as an ocean cruise.’

‘It hasn’t shown up in any of the logs I’ve read.’ Holly’s eyes continued to flicker over the control console and monitors. Bond settled back in his seat. There was nothing to do but wait, and even the pain of his burns could not overcome his desire for a cat-nap. He closed his eyes.

When he awoke it was to find Holly studying the bank of screens. The images of the Moonrakers were closing for gether.

‘We’re converging,’ said Holly.

Bond looked at the screens. The blips on the monitors were moving in dramatically towards the centre. ‘Are we meeting up in space?’

Before Holly could answer, Bond was thrown forward in his. seat. The speed of the Moonraker had changed as though it had been pushed by a giant’s hand. Almost immediately there was a sensation of movement, lasting a short time.

‘That was the forward control rockets,’ said Holly calmly. ‘We’re entering an orbit.’

Bond felt relieved and looked ahead, beyond the nose of the shuttle. A pinpoint of brilliant light showed up in the eerie darkness.

‘What’s that?’

Holly studied the radar scanner and Bond could see the curved line of the Earth’s surface. Again a feeling of terrifying isolation gripped him. Holly’s face was puzzled. ‘There’s nothing showing up.’

Bond strained his eyes to penetrate the darkness of space. Slowly a shape became discernible; a luminous globe from which projected six tubular arms carrying at their ends satellite globes. With every second the detail became more defined as a huge mass like a giant’s mobile emerged from the Earth’s shadow. Tubular corridors connected several satellites with each other and led to the central globe. A saucer-shaped antenna was mounted beneath the globe.

‘A space station,’ breathed Holly.

‘It looks more like a city.’ Bond glanced again at the scanner. Its surface revealed nothing. ‘Why aren’t we getting anything? Is the radarscope out of order?’

Holly quickly ran through a checking drill. ‘No, it’s functioning. Drax must have a radar jamming system.’

Bond’s voice was thoughtful. ‘So nobody knows the space station is there?’

‘No.’ Holly looked at him. ‘What are you thinking?’

‘Too many things,’ said Bond. ‘I’m almost frightened to think.’

Before them light touched the many surfaces of the space station and it shone like a bejewelled crown floating serenely in space. Bond glanced sideways and saw another Moonraker closing the distance between them. The dotted lines on the monitors were interlacing like the poles of a wig-wam.

‘All Moonrakers prepare to initiate docking sequence.’ The disembodied voice coming from above made Bond tense with anticipation. Now another Moonraker had appeared beyond the space station. The shuttles were surrounding the structure like wary minnows grouped around a bait. Holly began to busy herself with the battery of controls.

Bond smiled. ‘You’re a real little homebody, aren’t you?’

‘Do me a favour, Mr Bond.’ Holly spoke out of the corner of her mouth and conteptuously brushed aside a wisp of hair.

‘Moonraker Six — you are now in manual. Prepare to dock.’ The voice spoke again and the airways crackled. Holly manoeuvred a control column and Bond felt the Moonraker moving forward towards one of the satellites. Above a series of concentric roundels there was painted a numeral 6.

‘Six — initiate docking sequence.’

Holly took the shuttle forward and a docking tube below the 6 extended to receive the shuttle. Holly steered alongside it. Through the window beside him Bond could see a second shuttle dock with the satellite. Through the hatch a helmeted astronaut, floating weightless in the zero-gravity, entered the largest satellite. Bond watched in amazement as the man drifted across the satellite and disappeared into a tunnel that connected it to the main globe.

‘Where’s he going?’

Holly unclipped the strap across her chest. ‘He’s activating the artificial gravity control system. At the moment we don’t have any gravity. We’d all be floating around like balloons if we went outside. Once the rotation thrusters are fired, the station will start to rotate and we’ll have artificial gravity. Then we can move about more or less normally.’