“Yes, we’re happy she caught on with a Russian company. She loves the States, but lucky for us she came back to Russia, especially for Dad. She enjoys working at Zaftra and the traveling, and since Zaftra does business with FKA, I get to see her every so often at the office.”
Still amazed that beautiful creature was Dmitri’s sister, Peter said, “I can’t believe she is the same girl I saw the last time our families got together in Houston.”
“I think she had a crush on you after that visit. She talked about you for years.”
“Well, she didn’t seem too impressed with me tonight.”
“Maybe, but I was surprised to see her here. We talked this morning on the phone about some family issues, and I mentioned I was meeting you for dinner. She asked me where we were meeting, but gave no indication she would stop by. Maybe she wanted to check you out,” Dmitri said with a slight laugh.
Peter puckered his mouth. “Maybe.”
After placing their order Peter asked Dmitri how his job was going.
“It’s great. The organization has gone through a big change since the wall fell. We are working more closely with NASA and other countries allowing FKA to stay at the forefront of space exploration without taking on the full cost. I am excited about our future as we have a great group of young cosmonauts. Oh, I have to share with you something you will think is funny. When I was named assistant director, the first policy I implemented was no drinks of any kind allowed in the control room.”
Both Peter and Dmitri laughed. “What was a full glass of water doing next to the simulator control panel, anyway?”
“It was just a different time with different policies.” Dmitri shrugged. Sobering, he asked, “Peter, do you think your dad has any regrets on how he handled that situation back at Star City, wishing he would have done things differently?”
Peter shook his head. “Dad and I had a serious discussion on that a little over a year ago. I asked him the same question and he was disappointed he didn’t fly the Shuttle. Lots of people deemed it a ‘truck to orbit.’ In talking to friends who flew it, he heard it flew more like a fighter plane that required a great deal of piloting skills. Many of the same astronauts also told him if they had their choice of going to the moon or flying the Shuttle, they all would have taken the trip to the moon. He reminisced on how lucky he was to walk on the moon. He was happy to see your father fly three successful missions. But his face really lit up when he said how proud he was when you flew. He remembered how you were as a kid and the burning desire you had to be a cosmonaut. He said that made it worth not flying the Shuttle, to see you reach your dream.”
Dmitri raised his glass of wine. “A toast to a wonderful and unselfish man.”
Peter smiled and raised his glass. After taking a sip he decided this was a good time to discuss China. “Dmitri, what can you tell me about China? Any idea why they’re claiming we never landed on the moon?”
“They want to humiliate the U.S. and be the top superpower of the world,” Dmitri answered, very matter of fact.
Peter nodded in agreement before explaining what he knew at this point, basically holding nothing back.
Dmitri then surprised him with information he had not heard of, or thought of, before. “Peter, this information I am going to tell you is top secret and I will never acknowledge I said this.”
Peter nodded in acceptance.
Intensely, Dmitri leaned in close, his voice quiet. “During the space race of the ’60s, we felt there was a chance America might beat us to the moon. Even though we were the first on every major space achievement, our superiors felt if the Soviet Union did not land on the moon first, all of those great feats would be forgotten. The world would only remember who landed first, thus look at America as the superior country. For years, our country was developing a laser weapon that could be put on the moon to shoot down orbiting satellites. If the U.S. was going to beat us to the moon, there was the possibility of deploying the laser to shoot down any spacecraft sent, thus preventing success. When NASA was ready to send up the first lunar landing mission and we were still way off, it was decided to send up the laser to destroy America’s mission. The problem was the laser wasn’t ready yet. High ranking officials decided to send it anyway and launched it shortly after your astronauts left.”
“Luna 15?” Peter questioned in amazement.
“Yes, or at least what the world knew as Luna 15, but in fact, it was a weapon. As we all know, it crashed on the moon. I’m sad to say our hope was to have it fire at NASA’s command module when your astronauts were on the moon, thus destroying it and stranding your men to die. Fortunately that never happened.”
“Wow.” He was very aware of the Luna 15 probe. NASA thought the Soviet Union was just trying to upstage America by landing one of their Luna probes to bring back lunar soil before America arrived back with rocks, thus getting a minor victory. He had never heard of Luna possibly being a weapon. This was heavy stuff. If Russia had been successful, who knew if Peter’s dad would have ever walked on the moon, or even other Americans? If the first astronauts had died on the moon, probably not.
Dmitri went on, “Peter, China knew of our plan forty years ago and later stole our laser design. We believe they put portions of the MK Laser, probably the nuclear power pack and its computer system, into our design to solve problems we encountered. We speculate China put one of these lasers on the back side of the moon.”
Peter was wide eyed listening to all of this and impressed with Russia’s intelligence, especially knowing about the MK laser. “If you’re right, then they deployed it during their last mission to the moon. Do you think they sent it down from their spacecraft? Do they have the technology to do that?”
Then Dmitri revealed even more astounding news. “We believe they landed on the back side to deploy it.”
Peter pushed himself back against the leather booth, as if a shock wave just hit him. “Do they have the capability to land?”
“Our intelligence says they do. We felt they might give it a try. We know they’re a lot farther along than they are telling the world.”
As Peter started thinking of such a possibility, it now started to make sense how China could claim they had similar rocks… because they did! If the idea they had landed was true, they probably were able to gather 300 lbs of rocks, take pictures, all of which was now being studied by the UN. Peter knitted his brows together. “If you’re right, then I’m sure they collected rocks when they were there. The UN will conclude the rocks and photos are similar to ours and either both came from the moon, or from the earth. Since China is claiming Earth, that is much easier for the world to believe. Oh my God!” Peter said in disbelief. Dmitri just nodded in agreement. Peter began to think of the possibilities and how, if this was true, the United States had been compromised.
Dmitri calmly stated, “I still imagine China will have a difficult time convincing the UN and the world the landings never occurred.”
Peter did not feel the same; this changed everything. He couldn’t comprehend why China would go this far to humiliate America. They just put men on the moon and they don’t tell the world? Why? This makes no sense. “What’s Russia’s position on all of this?”
“Unfortunately, the leaders of Russia are not taking a stand either way. As much as I have tried to press taking the side of America, Russia is going to stay neutral, even though we know the landings happened. The leaders feel it’s only a matter of time before China is the superpower of the world and they don’t want to piss them off.”
Dmitri went on to discuss the technical details he knew of the laser. One item that interested Peter was China integrating Byington’s software requiring human involvement to operate the laser, meaning only a manned flight could arm and disarm the laser. He assumed this was to prevent another country from sending an unmanned automated system to reprogram it.