“He should—of course those pictures will be taken from inside the spacecraft through the small porthole window, so probably won’t be of the greatest quality.”
“I understand that. But at least that gives Steve something to work with. The higher quality pictures taken during the spacewalk will be the ones we submit to the UN to be studied.”
“Yes, sir,” Doug said.
Steve chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before he asked, “Sir, what if they don’t make it into lunar orbit? How do you want me to handle the session?”
Bill tilted his head as he lifted his hands palms up. “You’re the secretary of state, you’ll think of something.” He clasped his hands together on his desk. “Right now, I have faith our men will accomplish this mission. As soon as those early pictures start coming in, I want them incorporated into your presentation. I suggest having them displayed on the large screen behind you. Then have the live video feed added toward the end, which should shock the hell out the Chinese delegates.”
“Yes, sir.” Steve glanced at his watch. “Looks like it’ll be a late night for me and my staff.”
PETER COULDN’T BELIEVE how crowded and tight the descent module had become since they jettisoned their living quarters. He smiled remembering back to when he first entered the ship at the space station and how cramped he thought it was back then. He now realized how good he had it. All of the equipment needed for the spacewalk along with the needed essentials to survive for two days was stuffed all around them. It was going to be a tight and uncomfortable trip from this point on.
Both men were buckled in their seats preparing for the pivotal moment of the operation that was quickly approaching—their first pass around the back side of the moon. Not only would Peter have to reprogram the laser during this pass, Viktor would have to do the LOI burn that would put them into lunar orbit. Both understood the importance of each task and not making a mistake, especially with China right on their tail.
While Viktor programmed the Soyuz for the LOI, Peter set up his computer. Their spacecraft had already been maneuvered so it was turned backward with the engine pointed toward the moon, allowing the engine to act as a break when fired.
Peter could feel the presence of the moon behind him but could not see it. Viktor looked through the eyepiece of the periscope for a moment, saying nothing. Finally Viktor lifted his head flashing a lopsided grin. “You take look.”
Peter assumed his partner was looking at the moon and thought it odd he didn’t make any comment. What’s Viktor up to? Peter unbuckled himself before leaning over to look into the eyepiece, expecting to see the moon up close, but all he saw was darkness. He lifted his head. “I don’t see anything.”
A mischievous smile crossed Viktor’s face. “Look again.”
Peter shrugged and rubbed his eye before looking back down. Once more, all he saw was total blackness. He slowly moved the eyepiece slightly to one side while his eyes adjusted and focused, then he saw it—tons of tiny stars outlining one side of the huge black circle that engulfed his viewing area. Their ship was practically on top of the moon. Since the sun was behind the moon versus their position, the portion of the moon in the eye piece was completely black, an ominous sight. “Wow, I see it.”
Viktor gave him a congratulatory pat on the back. “We almost there.”
Their headsets suddenly came alive. “Maria 1, this is Mission Control, do you read me?”
Viktor answered, “Read you good, Dmitri.”
“Roger. We have some good news. You’re going to beat China. They look to be twenty minutes behind you, over.”
Peter shook his head, amazed how close they came after traveling over 200,000 miles. Yes! A first round victory for America, and on the Fourth of July. He was happy Viktor’s gut feeling was right. Relieved beating China here was no longer a concern, he understood success of the mission was now down to himself and Viktor. “That’s great news, Dmitri!”
“We have the final parameters and information for your LOI burn. Considering your fuel limitations and having to estimate your exact weight, we had to make adjustments on your final orbital plane. We wanted to keep your LOI orbit above 110 kilometers. The orbital plane selected will allow us to optimize the LOI and conserve fuel, but will only allow Maria 1 to fly over two U.S. landing sites, not the three Peter requested. However, one of those sites will be his dad’s, over.”
Viktor gave Peter a thumbs-up. Peter smiled grimly. Though pleased they would be flying over his dad’s site, he preferred an orbit that allowed the best opportunity of taking more pictures.
“Dad, for this to work, you will need to maintain your altitude throughout the burn so your velocity and position are close to our calculations. Any errors can put you in the wrong orbital plane, preventing you from flying over any U.S. site. If that happens you will not have the fuel available to make any correction, over.”
Maintaining a specific altitude would be difficult, even if Peter was able to help monitor the burn, especially in a ship not designed for it. They had to get this right; if they were put into the wrong plane and not flying over a U.S. landing site, the mission would be a failure, regardless if he did his job reprogramming the laser. Viktor answered confidently as he winked at Peter, “Don’t worry, son, I can do, over.”
Peter shook his head; if anyone could pull it off, it was Viktor. Once again, he was happy to have the old man on board.
“HAVE TANG RAM THOSE AMERICANS!” Kuang said definitively over the phone.
Such a maneuver could kill the taikonauts. As long as Sie was in control that would never happen. He was expecting Kuang to relieve him from his duties after learning they were no longer going to beat the Americans. Sie was surprised the Americans jettisoned part of their spacecraft so close to the moon, allowing them to arrive first. His staff had assured him they would win. The numbers didn’t lie. But no one predicted the Americans would lighten their load so late in flight. Once again, he had dishonored Kuang by giving the wrong advice. His boss only kept him in charge because of his background with the laser, and now with the Americans ahead, Nei stood little chance to get the opportunity of reprogramming it. He was sure he was going to be fired over the phone, but Kuang seemed more concerned about killing the Americans.
Sie tried convincing Kuang to hold off. “Sir, remember the Americans have to reprogram the laser in a short twenty minutes on the back side. I doubt they will be able to do that. If they are unsuccessful, they will be fired upon and destroyed. Let’s wait and see when Tang and Nei come around the moon. If the American spacecraft is destroyed, our men will be able to reprogram the laser and all will be right. But if I instruct them to ram the Americans now, our men could die trying that maneuver when it may not be necessary.”
“You have not been right yet! We have too much to lose. I want Tang to ram those sons-of-bitches. If we wait too long, the Americans will be able to transmit pictures back and expose the truth. I don’t want to risk that. Have Tang ram them!”
Sie ground his teeth; he was not going to have that happen, not on his watch, but he needed to put his out-of-control boss at ease. He wanted to stay on the mission as long as he could. “Yes, sir, I will have your request radioed in to Tang immediately with hopes that they will be able to catch the Americans in time.”
Of course he had no intention of relaying the message. It was too late anyway. He would continue to give the impression Kuang’s request had been passed on to the taikonauts and state the reason the ramming had not happened was due to Tang struggling to catch the American spacecraft. If he strung his boss along, it would eventually become obvious it was too late to stop the Americans from revealing the truth.