by Blair Wylie
The two lieutenants then escorted Major Weismann past the busy bar and into a section of the hall that was filled with crowded tables. There were cosy booths along the walls in the hall that offered a bit more privacy. Some of Weismann’s friends were sitting in one of the booths on the far-left side of the hall, and they tried to attract his attention by waving at him, and by directing a few high-pitched whistles at him over the background din inside the club. But Weismann quickly decided it would be best this time to pretend he did not see or hear them.
They made their way over to the very last booth on the right side of the hall. The general was sitting in the booth by himself, and he was talking on his cell phone. When he saw the three officers approaching, he put his left hand up in a stop sign, and continued talking quietly into his phone.
The two lieutenants then asked the two full colonels that were sitting in the adjoining booth if they would mind moving somewhere else for their private meeting. The two senior officers were visibly angered by the effrontery of the two junior officers, until the lieutenants flashed their identification cards under their noses. Then the two colonels simply slid sideways along the cushioned bench seats in the booth, stood up abruptly without comment, and made their way over to the bar.
The two lieutenants sat down on one side of the now empty booth and motioned for Weismann to sit down on the opposite side of them. Both of the lieutenants then pulled out cell phones and held on to them. Then they all sat there silently for five minutes or so, until the cell phone of one of the lieutenants started to ring.
The lieutenant put the cell phone to his ear, listened for a few moments, and then simply said, “Yes, sir.”
Then the lieutenant stared hard at Weismann and said, “General Kepler is ready for you now, Major Weismann. We will stay right here, close by, in case we are needed.”
Weismann then made his way over to the adjoining booth. General Kepler simply motioned for him to sit down on the other side of the empty, polished wooden table in the booth.
A waiter in an immaculate white uniform then immediately appeared and asked, “Can I offer you gentlemen a drink this evening?”
“Rasmussen twelve year old scotch, on the rocks,” General Kepler growled. Then he added politely, “Major Weismann, have a drink with me, please. My treat, of course.”
“All right, thank you very much, General Kepler,” replied Weismann calmly. He was rarely intimidated by top brass. The usual struggle was trying to avoid getting visibly pissed-off with them. He smiled at the waiter and said, “The same for me, my good man, only add a splash of still water, please.”
The waiter bowed his head slightly and quickly left them so he could immediately place their drink order at the busy bar.
General Kepler started the conversation by saying gruffly, “We knew we could find you here, Major. You should vary your routine, you know, to make it just a bit more difficult for people who want to follow you, or to accost you. Actually, consider that a new standing order. Vary your routine, Major!
“Now, I’m meeting you here, in this way, for security reasons. I haven’t been in this place for months. That makes it a good venue.
“I have some important matters to discuss with you. Our brief discussion should not interfere with the date you made with your wife. Again, we know about that, too. That’s part of our job.
“First thing, and this is top secret, the alien spacecraft has just landed on Addy. We managed to get a fairly close look at it with an orbital space telescope. It doesn’t look like any spaceship that human beings have ever built. It’s asymmetrical, and sort of shaped like a silvery, short banana with four legs.
“We watched the bizarre-looking craft descend and then disappear down the crater on Addy. I’m talking about the crater where the aliens have been flashing a discrete infrared beacon at us for months. Colonel Knudsen has just been told about this milestone event as well. We will follow up next with Professor Maldonado.
“This means, of course, that the aliens are now getting ready for our meeting with them on Addy. We hope they understand it takes us time to launch space missions. But they may not know, of course, that we have not conducted any manned space missions ourselves since we arrived here on New Earth.
“We certainly do not want the alien delegation to get bored or frustrated waiting for us. So, staying on our schedule, or even accelerating our schedule, is now critically important.
“The good news is that we should be able to launch you and the other two ambassador-astronauts thirty-two days from now. As you very well know Major, that would place you on Addy about thirty-six days from now, assuming we don’t experience any serious technical glitches.
“But I want you to know, Major, most emphatically, that in spite of our pressing need for haste, I will not hesitate to delay this mission if I have any doubts at all about crew readiness.
“Now, Lieutenant Colonel Knudsen has told us he fully believes his crew is ready, right now, for this mission. But, I want to hear your frank opinion as well, about crew readiness, right now. And you are under a direct order to reply, Major.
“Start by telling me if you believe Colonel Knudsen is ready for this mission.”
Major Weismann was stunned by the question. He struggled very hard to restrain his immediate anger, but he knew he was under order to reply. So he said with a waver in his voice, “General Kepler, in my opinion, Colonel Knudsen is more than ready for this mission, sir. And so is Doctor Maldonado, sir. And so am I, sir, for that matter.”
There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Then the waiter suddenly arrived with their drinks. The impeccable timing was suspicious again to Major Weismann. He wondered if the waiter could be an out-of-uniform officer in military intelligence. Weismann noted for the first time that the waiter had a small, discrete, flesh-coloured circular device lodged in his right ear.
The waiter placed their drinks on the table in front of them without comment, and quickly left without mentioning the tab.
Then General Kepler took a long, slow sip of his drink while looking the whole time at Weismann over the rim of his glass. Major Weismann decided to follow suit.
Eventually, Kepler put his glass down on the table and said quietly, “Look, Major, something does not jive with us. You’re happily married, we know that, and that’s really great. But on the A Team we also have a handsome, intelligent, single lieutenant colonel and a beautiful, intelligent, single civilian.
“Both parties are known to be heterosexuals. I won’t tell you how we know that. That’s unimportant. And both parties have been working together, in very close proximity, for months now. And from what we can tell, both parties seem to be totally disinterested in each other. Everything has always been strictly professional between them.
“Now, are we missing something? To be blunt, are these two crewmates of yours more than they seem to us? Furthermore, and right to the point, are they conflicted in any way?
“And you are still under orders to reply, Major.”
Major Weismann really was angry now, and it showed on his face. He took a quick gulp of his drink and wiped his dripping mouth with the back of his left hand. Then he put his glass down hard on the table, and forced himself to take a long, slow, deep breath while carefully studying General Kepler’s face. He was surprised to see that Kepler suddenly seemed to look embarrassed, and very uncomfortable.
In a flash, Weismann concluded the general really was sincerely concerned about a possibly ‘conflicted crew’.
Major Weismann then found the inner strength to calmly reply, “General Kepler, my two crewmates really are professionals, just like I am. After our first full day of training, Lieutenant Colonel Knudsen met with me privately, just like we are meeting now, in a booth on the other side of this hall, actually.
“He confided to me that he was, quote, ‘Completely nuts about Francis Maldonado’, and he said he knew she felt the same way about him. I didn’t ask him how he knew that, because that’s none of my
damn business.
“But then he wanted to assure me that they had worked it all out so the mission would not be affected or imperilled in any way.
“They agreed to have their first real date back on New Earth after the mission is successfully completed. And as far as I can tell, that’s exactly how it sits right now, and how it will continue to sit.
“That is definitely all A-OK with me, sir. And I truly hope that it is now totally A-OK with you too, sir.”
General Kepler slowly leaned back against the cushioned back rest, and he smiled broadly. Then he quickly downed the remains of his drink in one gulp, slid off the bench seat, stood up abruptly and said with obvious relief, “Thank you very much, Major Weismann. Please enjoy the rest of the evening with your wife. I think we can forgo following you around for a while. And I wish you, and your two crewmates, the very best of luck on your upcoming, critically important mission!”
The general then waited one more second for Weismann to respond on cue. Weismann recovered his senses and leapt to his feet. Weismann came to rigid attention and saluted the general smartly. The general returned the salute with equal formality.
Then the two escort lieutenants suddenly reappeared, and the general followed them out of the club.
After a long moment, Weismann slowly sat down again. He badly needed someone to talk to about what had just happened, but he knew that was not possible. He hoped that his wife would be along shortly to help take his mind off the upcoming mission, with all of its very human complexities.
8
The three astronauts were now living and working inside both parts of the linked Nebula-Osprey spacecraft.
Until a few hours before, they had been confined to the Nebula command module. But they had successfully fired a chemical-rocket thruster to accelerate their spacecraft out of New Earth orbit and redirect the small craft at the ‘window’ in space that would place it in orbit around New Earth’s moon, Addy. The astronauts now knew that in less than three days’ time, with the help of a decelerating nudge from their main rocket engine, they would successfully go through that distant but approaching orbital insertion window.
It was therefore time to start checking out all of the many complex systems in the Osprey Lander Module.
However, just prior to beginning that critically important and rigidly methodical work, all three astronauts participated in a protracted, scheduled, communication session with First Town Mission Control back on New Earth.
During the scheduled call, crew promotions were announced. Nils Knudsen was now a full Air Force Colonel, and Asher Weismann was now an Air Force reserve Lieutenant Colonel. The two officers were very glad to hear the news, but they knew it was mostly being done in the interest of ‘political optics’. It seemed that high-level politicians felt that the voting population back on New Earth would have far more faith in higher-ranking officers. And the media was fully supportive of their changes in rank.
Of course, the politicians and the members of the media really had no conception of the many really difficult, intensely stressful situations that both officers had successfully managed during their busy careers. And very few people back on New Earth had any idea what exactly lay ahead for the three astronauts. But those were moot points, from the political perspective.
The politicians had also insisted that Francis Maldonado should be commissioned as an officer in the Air Force reserves. Surprisingly, the politicians openly admitted this was definitely required for ‘political optics’. The military had quickly agreed with their suggestion, but for a different reason. They wanted to further solidify and clarify the chain of command on the spacecraft.
So, Francis Maldonado was now officially a reservist Air Force Major. She, of course, had no say in the matter. But she had politely responded that she was pleased to hear the news.
After Colonel Knudsen flipped the switch to terminate the communication link with First Town Mission Control, he quietly said to his two crewmates, “We should probably have our own chat now about what we just heard from First Town, guys.
“As you know, I have command prerogative to conduct private conversations from time to time. I think we can stay on our tight schedule if we keep this discussion short.”
The three astronauts were sitting side-by-side, with Knudsen on the left, Weismann in the middle and Maldonado on the right. They had been on a strictly ‘last name basis’ since their mission began. Knudsen generally wanted to keep all of their conversations strictly professional, and to the point. He also wanted to reinforce his belief that they were a cohesive team, and every crew member was essential to the success of the mission. It was not a democracy, but Nils was a very good listener, and a very good leader, and he would frequently ask for opinions from his crewmates.
“So, we just heard the aliens have sent New Earth another message, only this time without a preceding code translation table,” Knudsen summarized calmly. “The code they gave us last time still worked fine, it seems. And somehow, the aliens have managed to acquire high proficiency with New Earth English.
“Let’s take a minute to consider the message transcript that mission control just sent to us. Again, the most recent alien message read, and I quote:
‘We see that you are now on your way to meet with us. That is good. We have cleared the vertical entrance chamber. It will be well lit up to assist with your safe arrival. Land your space-travelling vehicle exactly in the middle of the circle. Then relax and remain in your space-travelling vehicle. We will manage the logistics of our meeting from that point forward’.
“So, as you just heard, I agreed with mission control that accordingly, we will now change our approach and descent plan. Specifically, rather than using hover or forward motion to traverse the plain surrounding the crater prior to landing, we will now plan to align vertically with the centre of the crater during our descent.
“On the positive side, this will increase our fuel reserve. That will provide more of a cushion should we have to abort because of a malfunction, or should we decide we do not like what we see directly below us, for some reason. However, this change does mean that we will now be on manual control from about one kilometre above the landing target. But thankfully, we did practise a few simulations that closely approximated what we are about to do.
“Weismann, do you have any concerns about this new plan?”
Weismann hesitated a moment, and then he said quietly, “I have lots of concerns, Knudsen, but I think we all share them. Visibility could be a huge problem when our main thruster stirs up dust inside of that crater. And there will be dust accumulation in that moon crater, even with only one-eighth New Earth gravity. The aliens said that they have ‘cleared the chamber’, but I suggest that probably did not include a sweep-up and a nice vacuum cleaner job! I mean, how could a vacuum cleaner work within a vacuum, anyway?
“They still have been completely unable to see down into that cylindrical chamber from New Earth. The only thing we know about it is that it’s completely dark and presently unlit, and about five times wider across at the top, or at surface level, than the diameter of the Osprey. And if it’s significantly deeper than the height of the Osprey, we will lose our line-of-sight communication link.
“Also, I don’t like the idea of giving up on our original plan to do a scouting fly-by around the crater first. I agree the change of plan will increase our fuel reserve, but by foregoing an inspecting fly-by, we could miss something really significant that might help us make a critical decision. I’m specifically thinking about something that might make us think twice about fully descending into the crater, or into the ‘chamber’ rather.
“That’s about it, Knudsen. I don’t mean to sound too critical.”
“Yes, Weismann, I understand and appreciate your concerns,” replied Knudsen crisply. Then he sighed and said, “I guess it does come down to a risk trade-off. Giving us more fuel reserve presumes our landing site will actually be clear and level.
“But Earth’s
pioneering Apollo astronauts had even less of an idea about where they were going when they travelled to their planet’s moon. In the last few seconds of descent, they had to avoid boulders and craters, and they sometimes came close to having to abort because of their mandatory requirement to leave a five percent fuel reserve at touch down.
“As we originally planned, as we complete our descent, Maldonado will eject an antenna module on to the surface of Addy. It will be connected to us by a spool of thin copper wire that will be good for about a hundred metres or so. That way, after we touch down at the bottom of the chamber, we should still have a working communication link with New Earth via the orbiting Nebula command spacecraft.
“Also, Maldonado will be looking around for us while you and I manage our descent, and evaluate the landing site. And we will have four cameras looking to our sides continuously as we descend. The video records of the surrounding surface terrain can subsequently be studied at length, by us and by the mission control folks back on New Earth.
“Maldonado, can we glean anything more about who our ‘hosts’ are from their latest message to us?”
“Well, Knudsen, obviously they are telling us again that they are a whole lot smarter than we are,” replied Maldonado calmly. “They obviously know a lot about our moon, or at least a certain ‘chamber’ in it. They seem to know a lot about us, and we still know virtually nothing about them. They have mastered our language, somehow, and from afar.
“On the plus side, I think they have anticipated our concerns about landing inside of their chamber, and want to allay some of our fears. And they obviously still want to meet with us, and if they truly are smarter technologically, then maybe the chamber really has been cleared properly? That is, well enough to see the ‘circle’ on the bottom that they talked about?
