“You mean the Martians.”
Borman nods.
“Then should we assume they are slowly, but surely, drawing their plans against us?”
Borman shakes his head in disbelief. “Our greatest threat isn’t out there, it’s down here. The Martians aren’t aggressive, they just want to be left alone. Our problem is, knowing they’re out there, we won’t be able to stop ourselves from going back to find them.”
“When they don’t want to be found.”
“Damn straight,” says Borman. “Not by us. Because they know us better than we know ourselves.
“When Neil and Buzz land on the Moon, they’ll leave a plaque on the surface that says, ‘We came in peace for all mankind.’ Those words are the statement of intent in the law passed by Congress in 1958 to set up NASA. ‘We come in peace…’ Let me tell you, up until a few weeks ago, I believed that.”
“Not now?”
“I want to believe it,” says Borman, “But I just don’t think it’s true.”
“No,” says Trick, “I guess not.”
“And once we’re safely on the Moon, how long before we look to Mars? It’s the next logical step. Ten, maybe fifteen years is all we need, if we set our minds to the task. But we’ll be going there blind, unless Bermuda is willing to spill the beans.”
“You mean disclosure of the alien presence? Going public with what they know?” Trick Stamford laughs at the thought of it. “God almighty, imagine the global pandemonium. That is never going to happen.”
“Then maybe you will start that war of the worlds.”
Trick shakes his head slowly and confidently. “It won’t get that far. Nixon is not about to commit the tens of billions of dollars needed for NASA to fly to Mars. The government is already hemorrhaging too many taxpayer dollars in Vietnam. Once the Apollo era is over, it’ll be too much of a political risk to keep spending big on the space program. We’ll make sure of it.
“In the meantime, we’ll be making a few quiet trips of our own. That disc of yours is still up there on Phobos. You’ve opened the door, Frank. A lot of people are eternally grateful to you for that.”
“They’ll know,” says Borman, under his breath.
“The Martians? That’s a risk we’re willing to take. After all, there’s gold in them thar hills.”
YOUR FREE NOVELLA
It’s been a pleasure to build relationships with my readers and I’d love you to be a part of that.
I like to stay in touch with blog entries every month or so and occasionally other material that comes my way I think will be of interest to people.
When you join my mailing list you get all of that — even better, you get book one in the Verus Foundation Series for free.
Sleeping Gods is my first adventure with astronaut Frank Borman, about what he and the crew of Apollo 8 saw on the far side of the Moon and the subsequent cover-up when they fell back to Earth.
Just CLICK HERE to sign up to my list and follow the links for your book.
Your opinion will help bring this book to the attention of others.
Honest reviews of my books are a really important way to attract more readers.
If you’ve enjoyed this book, I’d be most grateful if you took a few minutes to leave a review (a sentence or two is fine) wherever you bought your copy of Apollo 8.1.
Thanks a bunch,
Matt
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Eaton is a journalist of longstanding across print to radio and TV news, and more recently in digital news production.
He lives in Brisbane, Australia, but travels regularly with his English-born wife Claire and daughters Stella and Molly.
Matt calls himself a pagan with an open mind and a warm heart who shies away from religion. He was born in 1966, the Chinese Year of the Fire Horse — such people are notoriously bad luck, irresponsible, rebellious and were often drowned at birth.
A career in the media was inevitable. Making matters worse, Matt is the sort of iconoclast politicians and people of influence love to hate — he’s one of those annoying types who rattles cages and challenges beliefs. He tries very hard not to hate back. That shit will give you cancer.
Copyright
Apollo 8.1
Copyright © 2018 Matthew J. Eaton
Vagus Publishing
mattjeaton.com
Edited by Suzanne Lahna, Word Vagabond
Cover design by William Heavey