Allen’s eyes widened with concern. “Are you going to be able to do it?”
“I’d better, or else why even attempt the mission?” Peter thought it best not to mention his other concern about the factory access codes possibly being changed. Why worry Allen on a speculation and give him reason to cancel the operation?
Allen’s tone hardened slightly. “Well, I’ll leave that up to you. Either one of us can pull the plug at any point. I’ll pull it if I feel you cannot successfully dock with the space station, or if it is obvious the mission will fail. I expect you to do the same.”
Peter definitely had concerns—he prayed the factory codes were never changed—but not enough to fold in the tent. “Will do.”
Allen laced his fingers across his gut. “I just got off the phone with Doug. We have other troubles.”
“What’s that?” Peter did not want to hear more problems.
“Apparently China has learned about the mission. Per Doug, they have one of their moon rockets sitting on a launch pad ready to go if we attempt a moon shot.”
Peter hissed through his teeth. “Shit! That’s something I didn’t want to hear.” He paused a moment, looking at the floor, before looking back at Allen. “What could they do? How can they stop us?”
“They aren’t sure. Doug is hoping to get more intelligence on that.” Allen shifted his bulk in the protesting office chair. “However, Doug feels China probably won’t launch when you lift off in the Newton 9, knowing it’s not capable of deep space travel. His concern is the news of the Soyuz hijacking leaking out before you leave the station by either the crew or Mission Control. If China gets wind of this, they’ll probably fuel their rocket, and per Doug, you’ll never be able to outrun one of their powerful moon rockets.”
“What does he suggest we do?” posed Peter.
“You need to have the Soyuz ready in two days after you arrive at the space station.” said Allen.
“Wow that’ll be a trick. Two days.” Peter sat for a moment trying to figure out how to make that work. Is that even possible? As his mind raced trying to come up with a way, he questioned what China would do if they caught him. Use some weapon? What weapon? Ram us?
Peter scratched his head as he looked at Allen. “Something doesn’t make sense.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m unaware of any type of weapon they would use if they caught us, and I question if they even have one. But even if they did, why chase us down? They have a laser sitting on the back side of the moon set to destroy us and—” Peter suddenly stopped in midsentence, his mouth open.
“What is it?” Allen asked.
“I got it! I know what they’ll do!” A big smile came across Peter’s face.
“What?”
“They’re going to try to beat us to the back side of the moon to change the factory codes on the laser so we can’t access it. This is actually good news.” Peter bounced his knee in excitement.
Allen arched his eyebrows.
Peter said, “The codes have not been changed! Why else would they launch a rocket? If China had changed the original factory codes, why send it? There would be no way for us to disengage the laser since we would have the wrong codes. Therefore, the laser would destroy our ship when we reach the back side. But if they weren’t changed, and we were able to get the original factory codes, we could reprogram the laser, disarming it and making it a useless piece of junk. Boy, someone is in trouble at CNSA for not changing those codes.” Peter thought of Sie, knowing he oversaw the MK laser project.
“What the hell are you talking about?” asked Allen, still lost.
Peter slowed down remembering Allen didn’t know the details on the laser and tried to explain it more simply. “The laser has factory installed access codes allowing you to enter the system. I acquired these from Rob yesterday. China could have changed those codes here on Earth, but it looks like they elected not to. It’s a complicated procedure and they never requested help from Byington, probably concerned the laser’s real use might be learned. If they had changed them, we would have been screwed when we got to the moon. I’m now confident China never changed them. Why would they? Who would send a manned mission to the moon when they put this thing up there? No country is even close. So now, they get wind the U.S. is going to the moon with a manned rocket. Why? So we can input those factory codes to disengage their laser. With the laser rendered useless, we will be able to orbit and take the pictures we need to prove China wrong. So they have no choice but to beat us to the moon so they can lock us out first. This is fantastic news. Okay, Viktor and I will make sure we leave the space station within two days. We definitely have to if we’re to beat China in a race to the moon.”
This was the right time to address having Anya on board. “One more thing—there’s a representative for Zaftra in town. I believe it would be beneficial to have her observe some of our training. She might be able to give us some insight on Zaftra’s computer system in the Soyuz.”
Allen gave a quizzical look. “What would we need her here for? I don’t see any benefit having a Zaftra rep around.”
“Well, she also has influence with Russia’s mission control which could be helpful when we hijack the Soyuz,” pressed Peter.
Arching his eyebrows again, Allen asked, “Who is this girl?”
Peter smiled. “Viktor’s daughter, Anya Alexandrov.”
“Oh, I see.” Allen tapped his fingers on the desk as he stared at Peter. “I don’t see any advantage having her here, but if you two want her around and it doesn’t interfere with training, then it’s okay with me.”
“Thanks, boss. One more thing—she doesn’t know it’s a suicide mission and Viktor would like it to stay that way.” Peter bit his lower lip.
Nodding, Allen said, “I’ll inform Bernie.”
“Thanks. I’m off to see Rob to work on reducing my time reprogramming the laser.” Peter hopped up from the chair with an extra skip in his step.
19
WHO WINS?
An uncomfortable silence settled over the conference room as Sie Wang nervously rubbed his hands back and forth on his legs under the table.
His boss, Kuang Pin, finally broke the silence with a firm voice. “As leader of the MK Laser Program, why did you not change the factory codes?”
Sie bowed his head in shame. As he continued looking down, he said in a soft voice, “Sir, I and I alone made the decision not to change those codes. It was a mistake, and I apologize. Please forgive me for my poor judgment.”
Kuang asked again more sternly, “Why didn’t you change them?”
Sie lifted his head. “Sir, the process of changing those codes is very complicated. We considered changing them at first, but our programmers were having difficulty and informed me we needed assistance from Byington. I concluded a visit by one of their technicians was too risky. I instructed the team to leave the codes as they were. I made this decision fully aware that if another country ever did get access to those codes and reached the back side of the moon, they could reprogram the laser and lock us out.” Bowing his head, Sie continued, “I now regret that decision, sir.”
Kuang slammed his fist down, spitting out the words, “Because of your lack of judgment, we have to send a manned rocket to the moon that costs over five billion yuan to do a simple little task that you could have had done here on Earth.”