The entire trip would take them just less than ninety minutes. Yuri smiled as he recognized the North American continent rapidly approaching them along the horizon. Moscow Central Control had also waited for the correct alignment of not only the moon but the correct trajectory to keep the Gordust away from Asia at its lowest approach. Rumor was that the Chinese still had at least one, if not more, anti-satellite killers in orbit above its country. Moscow would take no chances, and for once Yuri agreed with them.
The flight in was uneventful until they reached perigee and the station began to vibrate violently. The small shield panels that were erected on the left side of the station weren’t even remotely designed to be aerodynamic. The large station size combined with the literal wall of shielding panels managed to capture, ricochet, and otherwise collide with every hydrogen atom in their way, or so Yuri thought.
He knew it was going to be rough when Olga stopped her navigation monitoring and gave him a long look bordering on a stare.
“Are we still at optimum angle?” Yuri asked politely, attempting to distract Olga with one of her duties.
The question had its intended effect as Olga looked down at her console and punched a few more buttons to zoom in on their current path. “Da, tochno,” she said, a nod of her head.
Yuri could hear a commotion from the living quarters pod despite it being over ten meters from their command module. Normally, procedure indicated that the corridor between the pods would be sealed shut with the pressure doors, but the entire crew felt that if the station suffered that kind of failure, it would be catastrophic and unrecoverable. They wore their suits in case of depressurization during the maneuver with only Yuri and Olga not securing their helmets during the flight.
“Gregori, you all right back there?” Yuri asked, having tuned their coms channel to the intra setting, leaving Moscow in the dark.
“Da, no problem. We all good now,” the lunar mission leader responded. Gregori would have control of his team members once they reached the moon, and Yuri was the station leader. Whatever it was, Yuri let it go. It wouldn’t be the first time he had seen or heard of a national hero pissing his pants during something heroic. It only mattered if it was made public, so Yuri clicked the intra channel off, allowing Gregori to handle his own crew.
The shaking lasted only ten more minutes until the Gordust started to gain altitude, and Yuri watched as Europe approached while the Americas had disappeared behind them. They would never really orbit above Asia as their trajectory led them up and out from the western edge of Spain.
“There she is,” Yuri said, almost to himself.
“Ochen krasivaya,” Olga responded, also speaking as if in a dream.
“Very beautiful, indeed,” Yuri said, clicking the network server to life and allowing all internal data to be streamed to the geosynchronous satellite off to their right. The moon itself still seemed so far away—a large white ball with grey specks on it—but it was fully lit as if it faced the sun. A full moon, Yuri thought, how appropriate.
“Hard to believe we’ll be there in less than three days,” Olga said, continuing to stare at the earth’s sole natural satellite and quickly forgetting her fear from the tenuous touches of the planet’s atmosphere.
“Hard to believe, indeed. It worked, Olga, it worked,” Yuri stated, elated at their success.
Olga smiled and then looked at Yuri with glee. “We are making history, comrade.”
Yuri nodded and returned the smile. The first, most likely, ever since they were put together in such close proximity six months ago. Russians had never made it to the moon’s surface before. Now that would all change.
Vostochny Cosmodrome
Siberia, Russia
In the near future, Day 44
“Suxha sin,” Alex said from his seat in the observation lounge as they watched the large monitor. “It actually worked.”
Vlad watched intently as the radar track from the Gordust showed the station, now more like a ship, clearing the earth’s lower orbit and heading toward the moon. “Incredible. I was worried, but this is fantastic.” He looked at Alex and smiled.
“You gave them more than enough propellant, Vladimir,” Alex said, looking at his laptop and pulling up a small window on his browser tab.
Vlad looked at his tablet as well and tapped the fuel icon where the status bar showed nearly forty percent left in the fuel pods. The plan called for a minimum contingency of fifteen percent as a reserve and they only needed ten percent to escape the moon’s gravity well, so that left nearly fifteen percent extra fuel for a very large safety margin.
“You know some suit in Moscow will call it a waste of resources,” Vlad said, a slight frown on his otherwise happy face.
“Perhaps, but the crew will be more than satisfied. This gives them a few options with regards to their lunar operations.”
“Yes. They can enter a lower orbit or perhaps transfer fuel to make more than one lunar landing. That wasn’t in the original plan, but now that would be feasible,” Vlad stated.
Alex nodded. “Especially if they go with a lower orbit.”
Irina approached the men, bringing one of the secure radio phones the base used when communicating with Moscow. “Minister Osnokov on the line, sir.”
“Thank you, Irina,” Vlad said, taking the phone and nodding at Irina, who quickly turned and retreated to the support room with a half dozen other staff. “Hello?”
“Ah, Vladimir, you watched the flight, then?” Dmitry asked from Moscow.
“Da, excellent results, sir. I congratulate you.” Vlad adjusted the phone to his other hand so he could see the screen and speak with his boss comfortably.
“The praise is one for the entire team. Our superiors are most pleased, Vlad. I wanted to personally congratulate you and your team on your outstanding efforts to lift all the necessary equipment and supplies into orbit. I made sure the politburo heard your name.”
Vlad half smiled and wondered if that would be such a good thing or not at this stage of the game. He also wondered at all the optimism considering the fact that they were running three days behind the Chinese, despite being ahead of the Americans, who had apparently had their pants pulled down on them in front of a global audience.
“Sir, if I may ask, how is it that our mood can be so… celebratory considering our current positioning?” Vlad asked, more than a bit confused.
Vlad couldn’t see his old mentor and current boss, but the elation in his voice was enough to perk Vlad’s ears. “Let us worry about the Chinese. The Americans aren’t the only ones with a dose of bad luck.”
“Sir, what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Vlad asked, looking at Alex, who shrugged since he was listening to only half a conversation.
“In time, my good friend. Due to our security issues that we discussed last month, I can’t discuss the details with you, but rest assured the race has yet to finish. We have much work to do, and as I said, the politburo is more than pleased with our handling of the program, Vlad. There’ll be medals for everyone for this one. Trust me on this.”