“Any idea when they will leave for the moon?” Anya perched on the edge of the chair and twisted her fingers together.
“Depends upon whether they were successful attaching the booster today,” said Dmitri. “If they finished everything, they could be out of there after a night’s rest. Once they get in that Soyuz for the moon, we will be directly involved. I suspect dad will hold off initiating radio transmission with us until they are too far out to do a direct abort. We probably won’t hear from them for at least twenty-four hours after they leave the space station.”
“Do you feel everything’s okay?”
“So far. Of course, once it’s learned Dad is one of the hijackers, I’m sure there will be a lot of pressure on me to disclose what I know.” Dmitri blew out a breath, puffing his cheeks.
Anya asked, “Are you going to say anything?”
“Not sure yet. I want to do what’s in the best interest for dad and Peter. I guess it depends on how everything unfolds. But don’t worry. Dad has a lot of friends and supporters throughout this agency. Once it’s obvious we have lost the Soyuz, they should get the support they need.”
PETER FELT LIKE he was in one of the forts he used to build out of pillows and blankets when he was a kid. He was wearing his flight suit and helmet, cramped inside his seat in the descent module of the Soyuz, preparing to leave the space station for his journey to the moon. The SpaceQuest flight suit wouldn’t protect him from the dangers of space if anything happened. Instead it was worn in case they had to abort the mission and do an emergency landing back on Earth. He was sitting on his back in the left of the three seats with his knees up, a comfortable position as long as he never had to straighten out his legs. Please God… no leg cramps.
Viktor sat next to him in the commander’s center seat. Neither was strapped in so they could more easily access the control panel. Stuffed all around them was life support equipment, including the packed parachutes that weren’t needed, which puffed out of the wall like large enveloping pillows.
Peter had to lift his head to see Viktor over the overstuffed walls. “I’m glad I’m not claustrophobic. Damn, this baby’s tight. Galileo seemed like a mansion compared to this.”
“You get use to it. To me, this home,” said Viktor proudly.
Directly in front of both men was the hatch connecting the Descent Module to the Orbital Module. They had to pass through the Orbital Module to get to their seats. The one good thing about the design of the Soyuz—it had two rooms! The Orbital Module was where all their equipment was stored and though small, provided the astronauts with additional space and privacy during the long flight to the moon, especially when using the toilet. It also acted as the airlock for spacewalks. One astronaut was safe from the hazards of space in the sealed off Descent Module while the other depressurized the Orbital Module to vacuum so they could open the hatch and venture out into space.
Clank! The ISS crew began locking the ISS hatch, Peter having already locked the Soyuz hatch.
This is it… I can’t believe I’m going to the moon!
The two men were able to get in six hours of sleep to be recharged for the big day. Peter finished his checklist of duties and looked over to see how Viktor was doing. His list was much longer. Viktor was confidently flipping switches and pushing buttons, bringing the ship to life. Peter was watching a master at work.
Peter still wondered if they were doing the right thing. He elected to lie to Allen and tell them they would scrub the mission and return to earth in the Galileo. SpaceQuest was expecting radio transmissions from Peter within the next few hours in preparations for their flight home. Allen was going to be pissed.
Peter couldn’t miss the focus and determination in Viktor’s face or the enthusiasm in his voice. The old cosmonaut was in his element and excited to finally reach his lifelong dream of going to the moon. To Peter’s delight Viktor continued to exude confidence that they would beat China. Peter found his assurance and excitement infectious. He might as well enjoy the adventure and hope for the best. Of course, they would be going nowhere if the booster didn’t fire. Peter wished he could have done a last check during their EVA to insure everything was hooked up right, but with the low oxygen levels, time didn’t allow it. It was in God’s hands.
While waiting, Peter reached down with his gloved hand and grabbed Anya’s picture out from a bag squeezed between his seat and the wall, attaching the picture to a hanging clip by his seat. Viktor stopped what he was doing and said, “Da,” and reached down to pull out Maria’s picture. Once he had her picture up too, he quickly resumed work, but now whistling.
Viktor’s whistling stopped when a call came in over their headsets. Since they had not turned on the transmission to the Russian’s mission control, the squawk was the space station over the closed circuit radio. “Peter, this is Boris, do you read me?”
“Read you loud and clear.”
“Peter, I just got an urgent radio message from Doug Rose of NASA. He informed me of your mission and insisted you stop immediately and return to Earth.”
Peter lifted his head and looked over at Viktor, whose eyes got big as he started shaking his head aggressively back and forth signaling “No!” Peter set his head back and thought for moment. Well, the cat’s out of the bag. He already lied to Allen. He now had no choice but to lie to Boris. He decided to throw out Jack’s name in hopes of convincing him a higher power was in control. “Boris, Doug does not have the authority to stop this mission. I talked to the head of the CIA earlier this morning, Jack Dawson, from the Galileo, and he confirmed everything was a go. He said the president informed him Doug might try to cancel the mission and for us to ignore this. Apparently he was given some wrong information.”
The radio was silent for a moment. Peter again raised his head, looking back at Viktor with an expression of hope.
Boris responded, “I can’t allow you to go until I get confirmation on this.”
Viktor cringed. They needed Boris’s help to guide them into the right orbit before firing the engine for the trans-lunar injection, or TLI. He signaled to Peter he would talk, and began speaking in Russian. Peter listened as the two talked, not able to decipher exactly what was being said. When Viktor was done, he cut off the radio. “We okay. Let’s back this ship up before he changes mind.”
“What did you say?”
“I say president of U.S. wants this, and Doug not in loop. I say tell NASA we did not respond to your requests to stop, so he not blamed.” Viktor resumed his work before stopping to say, “Oh, yeah, I offer him my car if I lie.”
Peter smiled; Viktor saved them again.
Viktor grinned. “Remind me to tell Dmitri during flight to change Will to include car for Boris.”
Viktor clicked the radio back on. “We are set for undocking.”
“Roger, four minutes until undocking,” said Boris. The goal was to put them in the most optimum position for a straight shot to the moon.
Both men buckled their seat belts. Once strapped in, Viktor could no longer reach the control panel. Instead he had to use a poking stick to push buttons. Peter smiled. Not the most technological way of doing things, but that’s the Russians.