Moon Hoax (Hoax Trilogy Book 1)

by Paul Gillebaard

  Dmitri looked at Peter with a big smile. “Peter, don’t you remember Anya?”

  Peter stared, open-mouthed. “Anya your baby sister?” The last time Peter had seen Anya she was fifteen years old with braces and acne. He’d been around twenty-three at the time—right after the wall fell.

  “Yes, my little sister.” Dmitri looked at Anya and asked, “You remember Peter, don’t you?”

  Anya turned, her face alive with a youthful spirit as she stared in Peter’s eyes, saying nothing. A chill raced through his body, a feeling he hadn’t felt before. She had the most piercing blue eyes he had ever seen. “Oh, yes. Hello, Peter.” Her voice had a softness of a sweet song as she spoke with a slight Russian accent.

  Peter said hello and was going to give her a hug, but as he moved in she abruptly turned back to Dmitri and continued their conversation, as if not interested the least bit in Peter. It was not every day he was brushed off by a woman, especially one so attractive. A rueful smile came across his face. He took her brush off as a challenge, and he loved challenges. She was definitely a woman he wanted to get to know better. Feeling third-wheelish, he continued standing next to the two as they spoke.

  After a few moments the guy Anya was with walked up holding a coat and tapped her on the shoulder. In a groomed Virginian accent, he said, “I have your coat, are you ready?”

  “Hello, I’m Peter, an old friend of the family.” Peter angled himself squarely toward the other man and put out his hand.

  The man looked at Peter, as if sizing him up too, before switching the coat to his left hand and taking Peter’s hand. “I’m Dean.”

  Anya turned back to Dmitri and said, “I got to go, call me tomorrow,” and gave him one last hug. She turned to Peter and said, “It was nice seeing you again.”

  Before he could respond she turned and walked away, her date following close behind. As Peter watched, he was impressed with everything about her.

  Both men sat back down in the booth as Peter still stared in her direction. “Wow, your sister has grown up. What in the world is she doing here?”

  “She’s visiting Dean. Ten years ago she left Russia to go to Georgetown University to get her doctorate in physics. That’s where she met Dean. After finishing school, she got a job with Zaftra, thanks to her dual citizenship.”

  As Anya walked out the door Peter looked back at Dmitri. “That’s right—I forgot she was born in America.”

  “Yeah, when you and I first met. Remember our families were at Disneyland as part of the goodwill tour promoting the U.S.-USSR mission. Mom asked not to travel to America because she was eight months pregnant. But senior Soviet officials insisted that she go. Anya lives in Russia now and is Zaftra’s liaison with NASA, so she travels often to the States.”

  “How come you never told me she came out to America, especially dealing with NASA?” Peter couldn’t help the frustration in his voice. He felt there were missed opportunities of getting to know her better while he was at NASA.

  “I guess I probably should have. But Peter, I know how you are and this is my little sister.”

  “Dmitri, knowing she is an Alexandrov, you know I would treat her with utmost respect. Besides I wouldn’t want to do anything to cross your family.” Peter took a sip of his drink as he looked in the direction of the exit saying, “She sure is beautiful. I guess she got the looks in the family.”

  Dmitri smiled. “And the brains.”

  Focusing back on Dmitri, Peter asked, “So what’s her story with that guy?”

  “They’re engaged. They have been together forever, engaged for six years, I think. Not sure why they haven’t taken that next step, probably because neither one is willing to give up their current job and move. He seems okay to me, kind of a stuffy and boring though.”

  “Since she lives in Russia, I guess you and your dad get to see her.”

  “Yes, we’re happy she caught on with a Russian company. She loves the States, but lucky for us she came back to Russia, especially for Dad. She enjoys working at Zaftra and the traveling, and since Zaftra does business with FKA, I get to see her every so often at the office.”

  Still amazed that beautiful creature was Dmitri’s sister, Peter said, “I can’t believe she is the same girl I saw the last time our families got together in Houston.”

  “I think she had a crush on you after that visit. She talked about you for years.”

  “Well, she didn’t seem too impressed with me tonight.”

  “Maybe, but I was surprised to see her here. We talked this morning on the phone about some family issues, and I mentioned I was meeting you for dinner. She asked me where we were meeting, but gave no indication she would stop by. Maybe she wanted to check you out,” Dmitri said with a slight laugh.

  Peter puckered his mouth. “Maybe.”

  After placing their order Peter asked Dmitri how his job was going.

  “It’s great. The organization has gone through a big change since the wall fell. We are working more closely with NASA and other countries allowing FKA to stay at the forefront of space exploration without taking on the full cost. I am excited about our future as we have a great group of young cosmonauts. Oh, I have to share with you something you will think is funny. When I was named assistant director, the first policy I implemented was no drinks of any kind allowed in the control room.”

  Both Peter and Dmitri laughed. “What was a full glass of water doing next to the simulator control panel, anyway?”

  “It was just a different time with different policies.” Dmitri shrugged. Sobering, he asked, “Peter, do you think your dad has any regrets on how he handled that situation back at Star City, wishing he would have done things differently?”

  Peter shook his head. “Dad and I had a serious discussion on that a little over a year ago. I asked him the same question and he was disappointed he didn’t fly the Shuttle. Lots of people deemed it a ‘truck to orbit.’ In talking to friends who flew it, he heard it flew more like a fighter plane that required a great deal of piloting skills. Many of the same astronauts also told him if they had their choice of going to the moon or flying the Shuttle, they all would have taken the trip to the moon. He reminisced on how lucky he was to walk on the moon. He was happy to see your father fly three successful missions. But his face really lit up when he said how proud he was when you flew. He remembered how you were as a kid and the burning desire you had to be a cosmonaut. He said that made it worth not flying the Shuttle, to see you reach your dream.”

  Dmitri raised his glass of wine. “A toast to a wonderful and unselfish man.”

  Peter smiled and raised his glass. After taking a sip he decided this was a good time to discuss China. “Dmitri, what can you tell me about China? Any idea why they’re claiming we never landed on the moon?”

  “They want to humiliate the U.S. and be the top superpower of the world,” Dmitri answered, very matter of fact.

  Peter nodded in agreement before explaining what he knew at this point, basically holding nothing back.

  Dmitri then surprised him with information he had not heard of, or thought of, before. “Peter, this information I am going to tell you is top secret and I will never acknowledge I said this.”

  Peter nodded in acceptance.

  Intensely, Dmitri leaned in close, his voice quiet. “During the space race of the ’60s, we felt there was a chance America might beat us to the moon. Even though we were the first on every major space achievement, our superiors felt if the Soviet Union did not land on the moon first, all of those great feats would be forgotten. The world would only remember who landed first, thus look at America as the superior country. For years, our country was developing a laser weapon that could be put on the moon to shoot down orbiting satellites. If the U.S. was going to beat us to the moon, there was the possibility of deploying the laser to shoot down any spacecraft sent, thus preventing success. When NASA was ready to send up the first lunar landing mission and we were still way off, it was decided to send
up the laser to destroy America’s mission. The problem was the laser wasn’t ready yet. High ranking officials decided to send it anyway and launched it shortly after your astronauts left.”

  “Luna 15?” Peter questioned in amazement.

  “Yes, or at least what the world knew as Luna 15, but in fact, it was a weapon. As we all know, it crashed on the moon. I’m sad to say our hope was to have it fire at NASA’s command module when your astronauts were on the moon, thus destroying it and stranding your men to die. Fortunately that never happened.”

  “Wow.” He was very aware of the Luna 15 probe. NASA thought the Soviet Union was just trying to upstage America by landing one of their Luna probes to bring back lunar soil before America arrived back with rocks, thus getting a minor victory. He had never heard of Luna possibly being a weapon. This was heavy stuff. If Russia had been successful, who knew if Peter’s dad would have ever walked on the moon, or even other Americans? If the first astronauts had died on the moon, probably not.

  Dmitri went on, “Peter, China knew of our plan forty years ago and later stole our laser design. We believe they put portions of the MK Laser, probably the nuclear power pack and its computer system, into our design to solve problems we encountered. We speculate China put one of these lasers on the back side of the moon.”

  Peter was wide eyed listening to all of this and impressed with Russia’s intelligence, especially knowing about the MK laser. “If you’re right, then they deployed it during their last mission to the moon. Do you think they sent it down from their spacecraft? Do they have the technology to do that?”

  Then Dmitri revealed even more astounding news. “We believe they landed on the back side to deploy it.”

  Peter pushed himself back against the leather booth, as if a shock wave just hit him. “Do they have the capability to land?”

  “Our intelligence says they do. We felt they might give it a try. We know they’re a lot farther along than they are telling the world.”

  As Peter started thinking of such a possibility, it now started to make sense how China could claim they had similar rocks…because they did! If the idea they had landed was true, they probably were able to gather 300 lbs of rocks, take pictures, all of which was now being studied by the UN. Peter knitted his brows together. “If you’re right, then I’m sure they collected rocks when they were there. The UN will conclude the rocks and photos are similar to ours and either both came from the moon, or from the earth. Since China is claiming Earth, that is much easier for the world to believe. Oh my God!” Peter said in disbelief. Dmitri just nodded in agreement. Peter began to think of the possibilities and how, if this was true, the United States had been compromised.

  Dmitri calmly stated, “I still imagine China will have a difficult time convincing the UN and the world the landings never occurred.”

  Peter did not feel the same; this changed everything. He couldn’t comprehend why China would go this far to humiliate America. They just put men on the moon and they don’t tell the world? Why? This makes no sense. “What’s Russia’s position on all of this?”

  “Unfortunately, the leaders of Russia are not taking a stand either way. As much as I have tried to press taking the side of America, Russia is going to stay neutral, even though we know the landings happened. The leaders feel it’s only a matter of time before China is the superpower of the world and they don’t want to piss them off.”

  Dmitri went on to discuss the technical details he knew of the laser. One item that interested Peter was China integrating Byington’s software requiring human involvement to operate the laser, meaning only a manned flight could arm and disarm the laser. He assumed this was to prevent another country from sending an unmanned automated system to reprogram it.

  Still in shock, Peter thanked Dmitri for giving him this valuable information. He also knew his friend would do what he could to influence his country to side with and support the United States.

  Later that night at his hotel, Peter began to put the pieces together. He figured China had landed on the back side of the moon, gathered rocks, took photos and deployed the laser weapon which used the MK laser. Knowing how the laser worked, Peter concluded it probably fired on satellites within range, unless it was disengaged, which could only happen by China since they were the only country sending men to the moon. Peter called Gavin, and without naming his source informed him of this incredible news.

  Exhausted, Peter had done all he could for the evening and was ready for bed. After getting in, he put his head on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, recapping all the information passed on to him. But even with the magnitude of all he had learned, his last thoughts before falling asleep were of Anya and those sexy black boots.

  9

  UN FINDINGS

  Jack walked into the Oval Office at 9:00 a.m. sharp to discuss new critical information learned pertaining to the China saga. Doug was already sitting in the center chair across from Bill’s desk in discussion with the president. They seemed to be concluding when Jack approached a chair next to Doug, who welcomed him.

  “Would you like a cup of coffee, Jack, before we get started?” asked the president.

  Jack took his seat. “No thank you, sir.”

  The president took a sip of his coffee. “I elected to have both Doug and Steve join us. However Steve is going to be a little late. He’s working on getting the latest from the UN on where they were on their findings. He will join us shortly, so let’s get started.” Bill looked at Jack. “So what’s this urgent news?”

  Jack straightened in his chair, knowing his news would surprise the president. “Sir, we received intelligence that China could have landed on the moon during their last mission.”

  “What? You have to be joking—where did we learn this?” Bill said as he jolted upright in his chair, his tone increasing in volume.

  “Sir, I can’t divulge the source, but this information was passed on to one of our most trusted and reliable field agents.”

  “If this is true, then they’ll have similar rocks and pictures as ours.” The president slammed his fist on his desk. “Oh my God, that means they’ll have enough proof to put the landings in question.” His face turning red, he turned to Doug. “Does NASA know anything about this development? Didn’t we monitor their flight?”

  “Sir, this is the first I’ve heard of this,” said Doug. “Though we assumed China was farther along than they’ve been saying, we still felt they were at least a year away from landing. This is a complete surprise to me. Regarding their flight, yes we did monitor it, and we saw no indication a landing ever took place.”

  “How could we tell if they landed when we do not have a telescope strong enough to see our hardware on the moon?” charged the president, voice tight with sarcasm.

  Doug began to squirm in his seat. “One of the ways we monitor flights is by radar, and if they were to attempt to land we would pick up two spacecrafts as they came around the moon. We never picked up anything out of the ordinary during their mission. We only observed a single ship orbiting.”

  Jack spoke up. “How about if they landed on the back side of the moon and their lunar orbiter separated from their command module on the back side out of radar contact. Is that possible? Could they land in half an orbit?”

  Doug shook his head, denying the possibility. “That would be pretty amazing if their first ever landing was on the back side of the moon. They would be completely out of radio contact, a very risky maneuver, especially with no experience. We considered landing on the back side on our last manned moon mission, but even with our experience we still ruled it out, feeling the odds of success were not very good. Regarding landing in half an orbit, with today’s rockets and technology I feel they could do it. However, they would need to allow distance for a launch and reconnecting with their command module before coming around, which would need to be a direct rendezvous. This all could be doable, but it would be very tricky and require a ton of fuel. They would need a special boo
ster to accommodate such a maneuver.” Doug paused for a moment, scratching his chin. “If this is true, and they actually did land, I cannot understand why they wouldn’t tell the world about this great achievement! They would be the second country to ever land on the moon!”

  “Maybe they want to be the first,” charged Bill.

  A long pause filled the room as they all considered this mind-boggling possibility.

  Bill went on. “If they were able to convince the world the U.S. never landed, then subsequently go back and land, the world would hail the Chinese taikonauts as the first men to walk on the moon. All history books would need to be rewritten. China would prove to the world they are the leading nation in space and technology and in the process, humiliate the United States. They would be put forth as the superpower of the world, which is what all this is about—being the superpower of the world. If this happens, the face of the world could change forever.” The president leaned back in his chair, propping his head back and looking at the ceiling for a few seconds, then flung his whole body forward, slamming both fists on his desk. “Damn! I knew China was up to something. This is now starting to make sense. That’s why they said they had similar rocks and pictures—because they do!”

  “Sir, it would only be a matter of time before the U.S. or any other country travels to the moon and verifies our hardware,” Doug said. “Remember Japan and India have already successfully sent probes, and both countries are hoping to land within the next decade.”

  “Doug, you just lost the LRO that was supposed to take pictures and end this mess. It’s my understanding you still don’t know what happened, and from Jack it sounds like China has a weapon of some sort up there.” The president turned to Jack. “What about the laser weapon you told me about? Do we still believe it was deployed on China’s last mission?”

  “Yes, sir, and we now feel China probably deployed it on the surface…if they did in fact land on the back side of the moon.”