Peter first walked up to the person of highest seniority, seated at the head of the table. The gentleman stood. Per local custom, Peter extended his hand and looked to the floor, a sign of respect. The gentleman shook his hand. Peter then held out his business card with both hands, with the Chinese written side showing. The gentleman did the same with the English side up. Peter slowly took the card and examined it in silence. The card read: Kuang Pin, Director of China National Space Administration. Wow, the director of CNSA! Damn, this must be an important meeting, especially with a mission going on. Peter quickly concluded the laser must be somehow involved on the mission, but how? He continued to formally meet the remaining gentlemen at the table, as Rob followed and did the same. When all introductions were complete, Peter instructed Rob to take out the wrapped gift box from his brief case, and put it at the center of the table as a traditional gift offering to the group. All bowed in appreciation. Peter and Rob took their appropriate seats.
Kuang opened the meeting thanking Peter and Rob in English for making it on such short notice. Peter thought back to the blonde he hurriedly had to leave and a sly smile crossed his face. Rob nudged him. Kuang went on, saying the meeting would be spoken in English since most everyone spoke it. Peter was amazed how good Kuang’s English was. Kuang turned to Peter and asked, “Are you the son of Tom Novak, the astronaut who walked on the moon back in the early ’70s?”
Peter was surprised Kuang knew this since Sie never mentioned it, plus it was an odd way to start the meeting. He looked at Kuang. “Yes, I am.”
Kuang turned to Sie. “Tai qiao le.”
Peter didn’t know what that meant and thought it was impolite after Kuang said the meeting would be in English. An amused look crossed Kuang’s face when he said it, like he knew something Peter didn’t. That was an odd reaction. Peter looked over at Rob to get his read on Kuang, but instead saw a dumfounded look on the Brit for hearing he was a moonwalker’s son. Peter just smiled as he looked back at Kuang, who motioned for Sie to take over the meeting. Sie paced over to the MK prototype and rolled it in front of Peter and Rob.
Sie said, “We are testing the laser at a very remote location in China. For some reason the laser stopped working, and we have to fix it immediately. As director of engineering, Mr. Novak, you need to know the facts.”
“What is the emergency?”
The room became totally silent. All the Chinese gentlemen began looking at each other, like Peter had done the unthinkable. Sie looked at Kuang as if to question if he should answer. Kuang nodded. Sie turned back and explained. “The laser is in an area so remote we cannot get earth-moving equipment there. The laser had been firing at boulders to break them up. One of the boulders broke and collapsed on a group of workers who are now trapped. The location is on a side of a hill where we cannot get dynamite or equipment up soon enough. We have been in radio contact with one of the trapped men and apparently there is very little air, and they are slowly dying. We need to get the laser working as soon as possible and break up the boulder before they die.”
Though he was surprised they admitted to increasing the laser’s intensity to a destructive level, he still knew he wasn’t being told the truth. The laser’s design was to move space junk, not break apart boulders. “Why is CNSA involved, especially with a mission going on?”
Sie again looked to Kuang; Peter could tell there was another story coming his way. He had every right to ask such questions since China had signed documents confirming the laser would not be used as a firearm. Sie knew Peter would not help them unless he was given a plausible explanation and shown the laser was not being used as a weapon. He knew Peter had an obligation to his company. Again a long silence, Sie again looked at Kuang, again the “nod.” Sie then turned to Peter and said, “The information I am about to pass on is considered top secret to China and CNSA, and is not to leave this room.”
Peter, thinking this could be good, smiled like Kuang had done earlier, and said, “It’ll stay in this room.”
Sie hesitated a moment, contemplating Peter’s expression before glancing back at Kuang. Kuang signaled for Sie to continue. Sie said, “CNSA is the organization responsible for testing the MK Laser. This is currently happening at the remote location in China I mentioned earlier. CNSA was chosen by China officials because the ultimate purpose of the laser is for mining on the moon. We hope to use the laser once we start landing on the moon to help with mining Helium 3. We feel Helium 3 could be the new energy source of the future, and we want to get the first jump on bringing it back to Earth to use in China’s power stations. Of course this is years away.” Then Sie surprised Peter by saying, “Two of the workers currently trapped…are taikonauts.”
Of the many meetings Peter had with CNSA over the last year, this was the first time he heard China say the laser was going to be used on the moon. He still felt Sie was full of crap, but the explanation did show they were trying to come up with a believable story. Peter still suspected the laser was going to be used as a weapon system in Earth orbit, and still assumed it was involved on the current mission. He assumed the laser was being tested somehow around the moon, even though all the CNSA officials in the room were trying to convince him otherwise. He was impressed with this lie of trapped taikonauts, especially with the short time they had to come up with it. This false story would explain the need to get both him and Rob out there so quickly, especially if taikonauts were slowly suffocating, and why high CNSA officials would be sitting in the meeting with a mission going on. The Chinese were loyal to their own. They probably felt such a story would be enough to satisfy Peter and the folks at Byington. Being a CIA agent with the intelligence the agency had, he wasn’t buying it. However, as just a director of engineering of a corporation, he would not have any reason to question Sie’s lie. So he nodded in acceptance of the reason and said, “How can we help?”
Sie laid out the laser’s engineering drawings on the conference table. Rob stood up to get a better view of the drawings as Sie motioned for him to review them. Rob slowly started to sift through the diagrams, studying each closely. Even though the captions were all in Chinese, as the design engineer, Rob only needed to see the mechanical and electrical layouts to understand what he was looking at. As he reviewed the drawings he would occasionally ask one of the CNSA engineers what a certain word meant. While Rob continued to review the drawings, Sie walked Peter over to the prototype. He explained the modifications they had done to the laser and asked if Peter might have some ideas on what could be causing the problem. Peter suggested a handful of possibilities but each one had already been considered by Sie and his team.
Soon everyone, including Sie and Peter, had gathered around Rob as he continued to review the drawings and ask questions. After about an hour, he had come to the wiring diagram, which baffled him. Something seemed wrong. The circuits drawn seemed to show the opposite of what they should be. He pointed this out to the engineers, and they began to discuss it in more detail. The engineers said the circuits were drawn as explained in the laser’s operation manual. Rob pulled out his copy written for CNSA from his briefcase. Sie put their copy of the same manual in front of Rob, this edition written in Chinese. Rob turned to the electrical section in his manual which addressed the circuits. With the wiring diagram next to him, he read his manual regarding the switches that would turn the laser on, and the text correctly read “run the circuits in the closed position.” But looking at the drawing, the circuits were shown in the “open” position, meaning the switches were off. He pointed this out and said the switches were in the “off” position. Sie looked at their manual to compare what was written versus Rob’s version. As he read, he smacked his forehead apparently realizing their mistake. In Mandarin Chinese, the words for “off” and “close” are the same, which is guan. When translating the manual, their version ended up saying “run the circuit in the off position,” instead of the “closed position.” Somewhere down the line, someone must have seen the confusion of using gua
n and assumed it meant “off,” so replaced guan with another word meaning “off”, bi. The switches were all opposite of what they should have been when the computer was sending the transmission to “arm.”
Rob turned to the start-up instructions in his manual and showed what steps would need to be taken opposite to what was stated in the manual to turn the laser on.
Sie carefully took notes. “I want to relay this information right away to the job site to see if in fact, this is the problem. Please make yourselves comfortable in the conference room and we will be back shortly.”
The next thing Peter knew, all were gone from the room except him and Rob. Peter knew China’s story didn’t fit now. According to them, the laser did work when they were blasting the boulders, and now it didn’t. If Rob’s fix was correct, then the laser would have never worked. He kept this to himself.
“Well that was bloody easy,” said Rob.
“Yeah, good job figuring out the problem,” Peter said, thinking of his next move.
Rob asked, “So your dad walked on the moon, fancy that?”
Peter, thinking of something else, said, “Yeah, no big deal. Hey, I need to go to the restroom, do you?”
“I’m fine,” answered Rob. As Peter opened the door Rob sarcastically blurted out, “Don’t forget to take one of your buddies to the loo with you.”
Peter looked back and smiled at Rob before poking his head out the door. “I need to go to the restroom,” he said to the guards with a slight grin. The soldier on the right motioned for Peter to follow him. As they walked down the cold, dimly lit corridor, they came upon a hallway on their left. Peter looked down it as they passed and briefly saw the launch control room at the end with Sie and the engineers hovered around a control panel, speaking to someone on speaker. He assumed they were communicating with one of the taikonauts in space, passing on the instructions. From the modifications Sie pointed out to him, Peter concluded they must be test firing the laser in space, and probably firing it at targets on the moon.
The soldier arrived at the men’s room, and opened the door for Peter. Peter walked in, and sure enough the soldier followed him in. Peter turned to him. “Oh, you have to go too?” The soldier showed no expression, which made Peter chuckle. Fortunately the launch center had western toilets; Peter hated dealing with “squat” toilets. Peter walked up to the first urinal and the soldier followed, standing only a few feet behind. As Peter did his business he couldn’t help himself and started whistling the tune from the movie, The Great Escape. Smiling, he wondered if the soldier had any idea what the tune was from. Peter finished up and was escorted back. As they passed the same hallway where he had seen the control room, he looked again. Sie and the others were no longer there.
Peter reentered the conference room, and found most of the gentlemen were back, standing around Rob. Sie turned to Peter and said the new instructions had been passed on to the workers, and they should know in about an hour if the outcome was successful. Peter figured it had already been ten minutes since they told the taikonauts. He wondered why they were not able to get feedback sooner if the laser worked; arming it shouldn’t take more than five minutes. If Sie was able to communicate with the taikonauts then they should have been able to test it soon after getting the instructions.
China must be testing the laser behind the moon, and Sie had to wait for the spacecraft to come around the back side before learning if the fix solved their problem. This made sense, since China probably wanted to insure they were not observed firing the laser. Peter questioned if the world even had the capability of seeing laser blasts from such a far distance, but maybe China just wanted to play it safe. Still, he needed them to think he believed their story, so he asked, “Why an hour?”
Sie bowed furtively. “Because of the remote location where the laser is, we do not have direct radio contact and the information has to be relayed manually. We will be contacted letting us know if they had success breaking up the boulder trapping the taikonauts.”
Peter simply nodded in acceptance.
Sie excused himself saying he would continue to monitor the situation and would return once he knew the outcome. Peter passed the time talking with some of the engineers, hoping to learn more about their operation.
When Sie returned to the room he had a broad smile on his face. “The laser worked and all the taikonauts are alive and safe.”
So the laser was now working and they were test firing it on the back side of the moon. The remaining engineers in the room gave out a loud cheer while Peter and Rob slightly clapped.
Sie walked up to Rob. “Thank you for figuring out the problem. I am embarrassed it was such a silly mistake, but we would have never figured it out without your help.”
Rob shrugged. “I was just doing my job.”
Sie bowed and smiled at each. “You will now be escorted back to the helicopter to return home.”
As Rob and Peter followed the guards down the hallway, Peter chewed on what he had learned. China was using the laser on their current mission, probably testing it on the back side, firing at targets on the moon. He had to assume it was still going to be used in a “Star Wars” type of weapon in Earth orbit. He needed to communicate this information immediately to SID. He figured when he got back to Britain he would write up a report and forward it via the embassy.
As they continued to walk, Rob turned and interrupted Peter’s train of thought. “Wow, a moonwalker’s son?”
Without turning Peter answered, “Yeah…no big deal.”
4
THE ACCUSATION
China requested a special session at the United Nations General Assembly to present some incredible news. The General Assembly was surprisingly full with most of the one hundred ninety-one countries in attendance. The United States suspected the news involved them since there had been rumblings and threats between the two nations recently. In fact, the world was made aware of shocking news planned to be revealed at the UN, which could change the balance of power.
Secretary of State Steve Russell arrived at the U.S. designated sitting area, which was on the far right row halfway back next to Uruguay, definitely not one of the better seating areas in the assembly. Before sitting, he turned to Jose Fernandez, the Uruguay delegate, to say hello and shake hands.
Jose said in broken English, “Session to have many fireworks, you think?”
Steve raised his eyebrows. “We’ll see.” He turned back and took his seat next to the young U.S. ambassador to the UN, Andy Lansford. Steve figured he was probably twice the ambassador’s age.
“You would think as the largest contributor to the UN budget we would get a better seating location,” Steve said half jokingly to Andy. The secretary had not attended many sessions at the General Assembly, but was asked by the president to attend this session in case China’s news was directed at the United States.
The secretary turned around to look back at where the Chinese delegates were sitting to see what their mood was and maybe get an idea about what was going to be presented. China sat two rows over and five desks back. The delegates seemed to be in heavy discussion. One of the delegates looked Steve’s way as if referencing the United States in his conversation. When the delegate saw the secretary looking, he quickly turned away, not acknowledging him. Disappointed, Steve turned to Andy and said, “It looks like China’s news will be directed at us. I bet they are going to say we are being too aggressive in the world and probably state we need to withdraw our forces from third world nations. Damn those Chinese. As a Communist country they have no right to make such a statement, considering their track record.”
China’s status in the world had recently been elevated after its successful manned flight to the moon, which the United States was supportive of. Though they did not land, the fact they had flown men to the moon was a feat still only performed by one other country, the United States. China’s success with this recent manned moon shot showed their advancement in science and technology. They also had
been reaching out to the world, especially with the recent Olympics held in their country. They were definitely becoming one of the superpowers of the world and a threat to the United States.
The session got under way with opening statements. Steve wasn’t listening. Instead, he was angrily thinking of the Chinese accusing the United States of using excessive force in parts of the world. The more he thought about it, the more upset he became. After the opening statements were completed, the UN president said this special session was granted to China because of their standing as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. He then introduced China’s state councilor, Mr. Fei Chen.
Chen proceeded to walk confidently up to the podium and looked over the whole audience. By the smug look on his face he had some big news that would certainly get a reaction from all those in attendance. With a scowl, Steve was now focused on Councilor Chen, anticipating what he was going to say. The councilor paused for a moment before he spoke. He then said words that shocked everyone, especially Steve.
“China has undeniable evidence that the United States has never landed a man on the moon and the moon landings were a complete hoax,” he stated.
The audience immediately started rumbling. The secretary of state practically fell off his chair at hearing this crazy accusation. How could China make such a claim? The United States had overwhelming evidence proving they had been to the moon, most notably over 800 lbs of moon rocks in safeguarded storage. The Chinese delegate went on, saying they had suspected this for years, but wanted to get visual proof before going forward to the world. The final piece of evidence was the visual proof from their recent space flight. They purposely selected an orbit that would fly over two of America’s landing sites, and as suspected, found no evidence of hardware at either site.
Moon Hoax (Hoax Trilogy Book 1) Page 3
