Chris gave Virginia a good once over. “So are you going to introduce me to this pretty lady?”
“No, she’s not,” Virginia said, “because I’m not interested in meeting someone as pigheaded as you.” Virginia turned to Peter. “Come on, Peter. Let’s get you something to eat.”
Joan practically fell out of her seat trying to control herself as a slight giggle leaked out. Anne only smiled. She felt Chris staring in her direction, but she didn’t move. An awkward silence hung over them as Virginia and Peter worked their way down the row and out of the room. Finally, Chris turned away and left without saying a word.
Joan leaned over to Anne and whispered, “I like Virginia.”
WITH SOME EXPERIMENTS not going as planned and the astronauts running behind schedule, Tom figured the geologists and scientists at NASA were probably fighting over what the astronauts’ next move should be as they worked on the rim of North Ray Crater. He was glad David was CAPCOM, knowing the experienced moonwalker would filter out any unrealistic request.
“Tom, some of the boys in the back room would like you to get a sample from that big black rock east of the rover.”
In order to maximize their time, Dusty and Tom had been operating independently ever since they got out of the rover. It was obvious which rock Houston was referring to. It was the only black rock east of them and probably the biggest they had come across yet. He estimated it was about 100 meters out. “Roger.”
Tom looked over at his LMP, who was busy getting samples of small white rocks behind the rover. “Dusty, all okay?”
“I’m fine. Go on ahead. Gosh, these are some great samples.”
Tom waved and set off on his trek through the scattered stone forest. He found the easiest and quickest way to travel along the lunar surface was with a mixture of a hop and a jog, what he labeled the lunar gallop. Even though the moon’s temperature was 100 degrees hotter than when they landed, the blistering 200 °F temperature was only a minor inconvenience thanks to the cooling water circulating through their suits.
“Houston, I’m heading toward the rock.” Tom felt like a little kid as he bounded joyfully about. “Whoopee. I tell you, David, I wish moving around on Earth was this easy.”
David said with envy in his voice, “I know. I miss it.”
As Tom ventured away from the rover, the rocks he was passing were larger and larger. After a while it was becoming obvious that the rock he was aiming for was much bigger and farther away than he had expected. “Boy, this rock is really out there.” Tom figured he had gone well over a couple hundred meters.
Eventually he reached the giant boulder, which towered over him like a huge building. He decided to give it a name. “This is one huge rock. It’s as big as a house. I’m calling it House Rock.”
“Tom, we can’t see you on camera.”
Tom heard some static breaking into David’s response, a sign something was blocking his signal. Looking out in the direction of the rover, his view of it was blocked by some rocks. He hopped about twenty meters away from House Rock until he could see the rover. “See me now?”
David’s voice came through crystal clear. “We do. Can you work on the rock where you are?”
“That’s a negative. It’s about twenty meters over.” As Tom heard some mumblings, he looked over at the rock, then back at the rover in the distance. Since they were running behind schedule, this was probably his best opportunity to snag a lunar sample in secret. He was concerned he might be rushed if he waited until the end of the EVA, increasing his chances of being caught.
“We would like to keep an eye on you.”
“Roger, Houston. How about Dusty moving the rover so I am in view?”
The radio was silent for a moment. Tom assumed management was discussing the proposition, since only the commander was to drive the car. “Dusty, we want you to move the rover about twenty meters north.”
Elated, Dusty replied without hesitation, “Copy that, Houston. I would be happy to.”
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 yo
u 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.
Houston’s static-distorted transmission ricocheted in Tom’s ears. “Tom, is ever…ing okay? We are get..g bad rea..ings from Dusty’s bac…ck.”
Tom figured the rover’s tilted antenna that also fed the status of the astronauts’ backpacks, was now giving inconsistent readings, preventing flight controllers from determining exactly what was going on.
“Houston, Dusty’s backpack is fine. We are leaving now.”
Tom doubted mission control was receiving a TV picture because of the rover’s position. Even so, he still clutched Dusty’s arm and moved him out of sight of the camera.
Since the two had excellent radio reception between them, due to the VHF antennas on their backpacks, Tom figured if he whispered only Dusty would be able to hear him.
Tom said in a barely audible tone, “We need to hook you up to my buddy system and to your emergency O2.”
Dusty answered softly, “Are you sure?”
Without hesitation Tom nodded.
Sharing Tom’s cooling water would allow for a lower flow setting on Dusty’s emergency oxygen supply, extending his air time to sixty minutes. Once that air ran out, Dusty could use Tom’s emergency supply, allowing for a total of two hours of oxygen. Tom figured they would need to average a walking speed of better than two miles an hour to make it back to the LM before Dusty’s air ran out. This was an exercise they had never trained for since NASA insisted only one man was to walk back under such conditions.
Tom positioned himself behind Dusty’s backpack, pulled back the Velcro cover and removed the stored eight-foot-long emergency buddy hose. Dusty pulled a similar hose from Tom’s backpack along with the six-foot tether line. The men hooked up the hoses to the cooling water connections on each suit. Dusty then pulled down on his actuator cable to start the flow of his emergency oxygen supply. Tom connected the tether line between them. If they pulled apart from each other, the shorter tether line would take the brunt of the force, preventing the longer hoses from being damaged or disconnecting from the suits.
Pointing along the rim of the crater as the path back to the LM, Tom signaled for them to start walking and took the lead.
Right from the beginning, the two astronauts struggled to stay in sync over the rough terrain as they followed the rover’s wheel marks in the regolith. Every three or four feet Tom was jerked back hard by the tether line, causing him to stumble and sometimes lose his balance. No matter what speed he traveled, he couldn’t get in step with Dusty. Finally, one strong tug brought Dusty hard to the ground.
Tom helped his partner up and said quietly, “We need to step in unison.”
Dusty whispered, “How about we walk side by side so we can keep an eye on each other?”
Tom liked the idea. “Let’s give that a try.”
“T… Hou…on, how’s it go…?”
Tom decided he needed to level with David on the seriousness of their situation. Remembering the secret code that they had set up while playing handball, he said, “A-okay. Dusty is wiping off his visor. David, I have to say it’s beautiful here. In fact, Smoky Mountain looks like the hills I saw in Montana when I was nine.”
“Yo… wer… in Mon…a at ni…?”
David was confirming he understood. Tom added, “Roger, family vacation in Montana when I was nine. The hills also look like those we saw from our hammocks in Panama.”
“Dur…g surv…al train…g?”
Tom hoped this clue explained their situation. “Roger, during survival training.”
“Cop.. th..t.”
Tom looked down the ridge, estimating they had another 100 meters before reaching the bottom. He took a moment and followed the rover’s lonely tracks with his eyes through the barren landscape to the point where they disappeared over a hill. He needed to decide what direction they were going to take when they reached the hill’s base. The sure way of not getting lost was to stay on the rover’s tracks all the way back to the LM, but it wasn’t the most direct route and would eat into Dusty’s precious air time. Once they had traveled over 400 meters from the rover, they would lose all transmission with mission control, unable to get any guidance. Houston would continue to be in the dark on where they were or how they were doing until they were within range of the Lunar Module’s S-band antenna. Tom decided the smart move was to deviate from the rover’s tracks in a more direct heading toward Explorer. With Earth directly o
verhead and no compass, their only bearing would be the sun. It was a risky move and one they couldn’t afford to screw up. If he miscalculated and they got lost, they were dead.
“THIS IS HOUSTON. Do you read me, Tom?”
It had been well over ten minutes since David had last gotten a response from the moonwalkers. His friends were out of radio range walking back to the LM. David took off his headset and slumped back in his chair. He stared at his monitor, wondering what he should do. He decided he should at least confide with Dick on what he suspected was actually happening on the moon.
Dick was finishing up with his discussion at the flight director’s console. David jumped up from his chair, hoping to catch his boss in the back of the room where it was a little more secluded. David briefly caught Joan’s eyes as he walked toward the back. She raised her hands, questioning what was up. He just shook his head, gesturing it wasn’t good, before reaching Dick.
David caught up with his boss, tapping him on the shoulder. “Dick, I need to talk with you a minute.”
Dick stopped and turned. “Sure, what’s up?”
Leaning in close, David spoke softly. “I think things might be more serious than Tom is letting on.”
Dick raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”
“Tom and I set up a coded way of communicating so only I would know how bad a situation was. He just informed me they’re close to dying.”
Dick narrowed his eyes. “What’s this code?”
“Whenever he says a state followed by an age, the age is how bad things are, which is between one and ten, ten being sure death. He just told me the Smoky Mountains were similar to hills he had seen in Montana when he was nine.”
“I thought that seemed odd, considering what they’re going through. Maybe he’s just concerned about walking back since it’s never been done before. They have plenty of air, so everything should be fine, right?”
David shook his head. “I don’t think they do. I know Tom, and for him to state their situation is a nine, something bad is happening. I believe they’re experiencing a double failure, possibly due to Dusty’s backpack being damaged from his fall.”
USSR Hoax (Hoax Trilogy Book 3) Page 25
