Tom had to act quickly. “I will position myself over by House Rock at a good sample area.” Before mission control could object, he hopped over to the rock. He double-checked to verify that he was out of view before reaching down and ripping open the Velcro pocket on his pant leg. He quickly pulled out the metal cylinder and whipped the top open. He got down on one knee and forced the container as deep as he could into the rocky soil, scooping up a good sample.
Through radio static, Dusty called out, “This is some cool ride.”
Concerned Dusty might be pulling the vehicle into position, Tom looked up. He was relieved to see the buggy was still out of sight. He swiftly screwed on the cap and shoved the cylinder deep into his pocket before sealing it. When he looked up again, the rover was coming into view. He grabbed his hammer and raised it high, waving it back and forth. “Houston, I see the rover.”
“Copy that, Tom. We now have you in view.”
Pleased to have the secret sample in his pocket, Tom let out a deep sigh. He watched Dusty climb out of the rover. “Good job, Dusty.”
“Hey, that was fun. Let me know if you want me to drive us back.”
Tom knew mission control wouldn’t go for that. “I would get us lost. How about you navigate and I drive?”
“Roger that.”
Tom started hammering away on the massive boulder, but after a few minutes of pounding, he had nothing to show for his hard work. Man this sucker is strong. Frustrated, he lifted his sun visor to get a better look at his target. He repositioned himself, hoping for a better angle at striking the rock. When he raised the hammer above his head, he heard panic in Dusty’s voice.
“Tom, the rover is slipping!”
Without lowering his arm, Tom turned, and, in horror, saw the lunar rover slowly sliding backward into the crater. Dusty hopped toward the buggy in an attempt to save their ride. Concerned his friend might also be pulled into the crater, Tom cried out, “Dusty, don’t follow it!”
Dusty suddenly lost his balance, launching himself high above the lunar surface before crashing dangerously hard onto his life support backpack.
Oh my God! Tom instantly dropped his hammer and took off toward his friend.
JUST AS THE live feed of the astronauts went dark on the projection screen, the radio transmission in the VIP room was abruptly cut off. The lost transmission concerned Anne. The last communication heard was Dusty stating the rover was slipping. Anne knew if the astronauts were unable to retrieve the rover, they would have a long and strenuous walk back to the Lunar Module. She leaned forward to get a better view of the control room, hoping to get a read on the seriousness of the problem. She fixed her eyes on the flight director, who appeared to be barking out orders while scattered flight controllers rushed back to their desks. The many flickering red lights on the consoles made her nervous.
Anne turned to Joan, who was staring toward her husband working the CAPCOM desk. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“I can tell by the way David is acting, it’s serious.”
This was the first time during the mission Anne was truly worried. “Were you ever cut off from the radio communications during David’s flight?”
A concerned look was etched on Joan’s face. Shaking her head, she answered, “No.”
Anne turned to the wives of the other crew members who were sitting side by side two rows back. Jean, Dusty’s wife, had both hands over her mouth, obviously understanding the ramifications of her husband’s words. Being the veteran astronaut wife, Anne kept her poise. She gave a self-assured nod, signaling all would be fine.
The tension was broken by Peter crashing through the door and excitedly sprinting down the aisle toward Anne. “Mommy, did Daddy write my name on the moon yet?”
“Not yet, dear.”
Behind Peter was Virginia, sensing something was up. With a raised eyebrow she whispered, “What’s happening?”
Anne lifted her hands, shaking her head. She turned to Peter. “Son, I forgot to feed Dino. Can you go home with Aunt Virginia and take care of that?”
“Can I come back? I want to see Daddy write my name on the moon.”
“Of course, sweetheart.” Anne looked at Virginia and whispered, “I don’t want Peter seeing any of this. I’ll call you later.”
Virginia nodded. “Come on, Peter. Let’s go feed your dog.”
Anne watched Peter skip out of the room before turning her gaze to the chaos in the control room. God, please let Tom be okay.
27
MONTANA
The rover looked helpless, sitting motionless in the mouth of the menacing dark crater. Tom was tempted to shimmy down the steep incline to save the ride, but it was simply too risky. He couldn’t chance slipping into the deep hole. If only they had the rappelling line he had argued for.
Tom looked over at his partner, still brushing off dust accumulated from his fall. “You okay?”
Dusty looked up, and answered sadly, “I’m fine.”
Tom could tell his partner blamed himself for the loss of the rover.
A static-filled radio transmission sounded in Tom’s helmet. “Tom, H…ston, can yo…ech the rov..?”
The radio transmission was breaking up because the rover’s S-band antenna was tilted away from Earth, their only link back home from their current location. “David, that’s a negative. The rover is twenty-five feet down in the crater. The slope looks to be thirty degrees. I feel it’s too dangerous to try and retrieve.”
“Repe…”
Frustrated at not being heard correctly, Tom repeated in a stronger voice, “That’s a negative!”
“Copy. Term…ate EVA. Retr… to lun… mod…”
“Copy that, end EVA and return to Explorer by foot.”
Disappointed, Tom looked over at his partner who surprisingly looked shaken with shock in his eyes. Dusty frantically started making hand signals, pointing toward the control unit on the front of his suit. A sudden chill shot through Tom’s body as he feared the worst. Concerned Dusty’s backpack might have been damaged by the fall, Tom got in position so he could check the readings on Dusty’s Remote Control Unit. Tom’s heart rate soared seeing warning flags on three critical status indicators. Dusty’s backpack was quickly dying, which on its own would be a problem the two could deal with. But the terrifying fact was, they were experiencing what NASA had been sure would never happen—a double failure. Protocol dictated that when a backpack and the rover failed simultaneously, the astronaut with the broken backpack was to be left behind to die.
By not talking, Dusty was preventing Houston from knowing his situation, leaving it to Tom to make the call on what was going to happen.
Regardless of protocol, Tom couldn’t leave his friend to die, just as Sam hadn’t left Tom stranded in space during the Gemini fiasco. Suddenly Anne’s faint lipstick on Tom’s bubble helmet caught his eye. He instantly relived the moment he promised her he would do everything in his power to return home safely. Attempting to save Dusty went against that promise. Tom estimated he could handle the tough walk back to the LM on his own. But if he took Dusty along, Tom would have to share his oxygen and cooling water along the way, giving them a less than fifty-fifty chance of surviving.
A pleading expression on Dusty’s face showed that he knew what was expected, and he grimly did a cut-throat sign before pointing to his chest. Tom focused back on Anne’s lipstick one last time before looking directly into Dusty’s eyes. Tom couldn’t live with himself if he turned his back on his partner. A burst of adrenaline shot through Tom as he adamantly shook his head “no,” indicating he wasn’t going to leave Dusty.