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Chapter 2: Dreams And Realities

    "First Luna Outpost personal log entry number XA22. February 19th, 2004. Re-assumed command at 18:00 after returning from maternity leave. Wife Lucille gave birth to our fourth child on the 14th of all days. Leroy Gordon weighed in at 8 pounds 5 ounces. Both are doing fine. Major Tim Casey, acting as base commander in my absence has nothing of any real concern to report".
    Lt Col Daniel Jeffrey Tracy flicked the switch on his bedside com-board, adjusted the small lamp over his head, and began to look over the job log for the following day. His concentration was interrupted for a moment as he caught out of the corner of his eye, the launch of the shuttle for Earth. The Saturn 9B single stage vehicle with four boosters, lifted off with the minimum fuss. Leaving the pad on the other side of the crater they were in.
    A launch of any sort, however mundane and everyday these days was still something that Jeff would never tire of watching.
     He counted himself lucky.
    Lucky to have been born at the time he had, 1970, just as man had gone to the moon for the first time. Despite what some critics had tried to predict, man's venture to another world was something that had united human kind in way no politician could ever hope to do. Instead of the world saying, "We've gone to the moon. So what!” the people of planet Earth had said in a loud and clear voice, "There must be more, we cannot stop here!", and so began the real space age.
    The 22 Apollo missions had shown the world just what man could do, yet it had taken until now for the United Nations to agree a framework for the moons colonisation. No one nation would have sole rights to the moon. All nations would have to work together, and so was born the Luna Homesteading act. Paving the way for building what Jeff described to Lucille on the very day it was passed, Millennium Day, as "A home from home".
It was Jeff who led that return to the Moon on Athena One, and uttered the first words said on the Moon, those same words he said to Lucille, "Here man will build for himself a home from home, where the stars look down".
    Jeff often used to think, that had man’s enthusiasm for carrying on not been so evident, then we would probably been just 17 Apollo flights, and only have gotten round to building the International Space Station by now. He used to joke to Lucille that this sort of half soaked attitude to exploration probably is happening, in a parallel universe!   
We were not about to stop on the Moon, already the Solar System Exploration Council, an organisation created by the United Nations to supervise the colonisation of space had made plans for the inner planets of Mercury and Venus to be visited by people from Earth by no later than 2012. A period of consolidation would then take place as the colonies on those two worlds and the Moon would be established, and whole communities would eventually exist on these faraway places. Cities and villages would dot the landscapes of Venus Mercury and the Moon, and each of these colonised worlds would have their own capital city, complete with legislature, government, and an elected governor.
    The moon's future was what excited Jeff the most. Where he was at this time, the first Luna outpost or FLO 1 was in a small crater on the edge of the massive crater Tyco, measuring fully 50 miles in diameter, here would be built the military garrison that was to be called Tycho City. Four hundred miles north, in the sea of Tranquillity the Luna Capital, Armstrong City, and Legislature building, Aldrin House, would be built.
    Other huge Luna settlements were planned even at this early stage by the S.S.E.C., to be located in places familiar to people back home as the places first visited by man in last century, as well as landmarks visible from Earth. Places such as the crater Copernicus, the Hadley Rille, the Frau Mora Highlands.
    All very exciting indeed, but Jeff’s thoughts were interrupted suddenly.
    The door buzzed in his cabin.
    "Come", he called.
    The door slid open, it was Casey.
    "It's only me Jeff, Just calling to see you is settled back in. Haven't had chance to talk since you got back, smooth flight?”
    "Barely a quiver", Jeff replied, putting the duty log down on the table next to his com-board.
    "Any pics of the new arrival", Casey asked.
    Jeff pulled out of his top pocket a small picture of baby Leroy, or Gordon as he was to be called. He handed it to Tim Casey. He looked at it in silence. Jeff was guessing how Tim was feeling, he a career man in the S.S.E.C. with no wife, let alone kids. Yet opposite him was Jeff Tracy, a man with already more space hours behind him than any other astronaut in history. The first man to return to the moon.
    "How do you find time for a family Jeff? I just could not do it. I'm not the family type anyway, at least not yet, just how do you manage", he asked as he handed the picture back to him.
    "Tim, as is said so often, if something is important, you make time for it", he took the picture back, and put it on a small shelf, next to four other pictures, namely those of the other members of his family. Tim leaned forward and peered at the pictures together, rubbing his chin as though trying to figure something out, "Now let me just figure this out. How many former astronauts have you honoured now Jeff."
    "Four now Tim", Jeff responded, "From left to right we have Scott Malcolm, then Lucille with John Edward on her lap, and on her left is Virgil Ivan".
    "Doesn’t he look like his mom, young Virgil", Casey commented.
    "He sure does, and he plays the piano like his mother too, even now, and he's only 8 years old. He and Scott are very close you know. I remember when we had Virgil baptised back in Abilene, Scott was walking with the minister when he was showing Virgil off to the congregation, and he kept saying, that's my brother, I'm gonna take good care of him", he paused, and a small smile came to his face. He continued, "Scott's the boss though, he has all the Tracy traits in him. Leadership. Whenever the two of them go out exploring on our new island home, he's the one in charge, but that's fine by Virgil, he knows if they get into any trouble it will be Scott's head on the chopping block, because he's the one who decides where they go".
    "Future astronauts?” Casey smilingly enquired.
    "Who knows?” Jeff answered, "Who knows what the next year, next week, or even the next day will hold".
    At that point Jeff's attention was again drawn by another bright flash from outside his window.
    "That's odd, I thought I just saw the shuttle leave", Jeff uttered, with furrowed brow.
    Casey had also noticed the flash, "Yeah, what the hell was that".
    Jeff and Tim both peered out of the window, and what they saw startled them. High up above, amid the mass of stars, a bright light shot across the sky, brighter than the brightest of the stars behind it, but moving not too fast. It was heading in a gentle curve, a curve that would take it below the Luna horizon. As it moved in the sky, both men could make out what appeared to be a vapour trail of some sort behind it.
    A vessel.
    Jeff hit the button on his com-board.
    "Tracy to operations. Beyda, do we have any satellites on a low orbit that takes them over the sea of tranquillity".
    Dylan Beyda, duty officer for the night in the operations room at FLO 1, paused for the moment, wondering why his C.O. was asking such a question, "Lunacom 2 has a polar orbit that takes it over that area, yes. Although it has not started operations yet sir".
    "I know Beyda", Jeff cut in, "Are there any others".
    "No sir, the other two both go away from there".
    "Thank you Dylan", said Jeff as he sat down heavily on his bed, "Stand by".
    He put the mike on mute and looked up at Casey.
    "Its Lunacom 2 isn't it, Tim", he said, with an air of resignation.
    "It looks that way", Casey replied, heaving a sigh and staring at the floor, "What the hell are we gonna tell the Commissioner back on Earth".
    Jeff looked out of his window, "We tell the truth Tim", he took a deep breath, "And then, we go out there and try to find it. I think it is safe to say it has crashed now. You know that might not have come down too far from here".
    He pressed the button on his com-board that took it off mute, "Lt Beyda, have the tractor made ready for first thing in the morning".
    "Yes sir", came the enthusiastic reply.
    Jeff continued, "What time it is in San Francisco".
    "Coming up on 4pm sir", Beyda replied.
    "OK, open a radio link please, direct to SSEC Headquarters I want to talk to the Commissioner”.
    Jeff smiled, and continued.
“Edgar Kalinski".

    "No Jeff, it's not Lunacom 2, your scanners should still be picking it up. Ours here on Earth are sweeping the area, Lunacom 2 is answering her automatic locator call. No it's something else you saw, but I want you to look for it anyway. It could just be a meteorite, but we can't take any chances. Don't take a tractor out there, as planned, use a Hopper, I'll tell you why in a moment. See if you can find out what it is".
    Edgar Kalinski sat back in his chair, his face filling the screen, he and Jeff Tracy were old friends, having both been born and raised on adjacent farms in Abilene, Kansas, with Edgar being some 15 years older than Jeff, the young Tracy treated Edgar as a sort of "elder brother". They got to know each other quite well in those early days, before they went their separate ways, Jeff into the Air force, and eventually the Space service, Edgar into the world of politics, beginning in his home state of Kansas, working in the governors office, before his career took him to New York, eventually serving as a secretary in the United Nations.
    Now at 49 he was the head man at the SSEC, appointed there by the UN Secretary General, much to the delight of Jeff, who saw Edgar’s move there as the final reward for a great career of service to country and planet. He was blessed with a wife of 25 years, Sabetha, a son Steven, already making a career for himself in the diplomatic wing of the UN, and a daughter Bernadette, who was a best selling author, and of science-fiction at that. She counted Jeff and Lucille among her most loyal readers. He had it all, and Jeff had nothing but the greatest respect for him.
    "OK Edgar, I'll get out there", Jeff responded to Edgar's order, "Do you have a fix on where exactly it should have smashed".
    He obliged, "Yep, reference 198 by 531, bang smack in the middle of crater Delambre, some 900 miles north east of your position. Hence my request for you to use one of the hoppers. Go steady Jeff, as you know this is only a one man vehicle, and we've only got two of them there for you to play with, so be careful".
    "Will do Edgar. Just one question. Was it tracked as it approached the moon, if so why were we not warned about it"?
    "We only picked it up when it was passing over your position, its speed was what caught the eye, but we can't understand why it only registered on the scanners at that point. Now enough talking, it's getting late for you up there, you get a good nights sleep now, I get the impression it will be a long day for you tomorrow".
    "I don't doubt that. As soon as I arrive, I'll have a radio link set up from there".
    "Good. By the way, how are Lucille, and young Leroy", Edgar asked, lightening the mood.
    "Oh they're fine", Jeff's face produced a small smile, "That's four Mercury men honoured now", he said laughing.
    "Give them my love Jeff", Kalinski requested, "and take care tomorrow. Kalinski, out".
    "Love to Sabetha and the family Edgar, FLO 1, out".
    A good night’s sleep was his one thing Jeff did not get that night. For hours he thought long about what he might find. Clearly those on Earth were convinced it was just a meteorite, but they wanted to make sure. Was it a meteorite though, and if not, then what.
    08:00hrs, and Jeff, having eaten a hearty breakfast made for the operations wing of the outpost. First Luna outpost one consisted of four hemi-cylindrical structures, each 100 meters long and ten meters wide, transported to the moon on the back of giant boosters, as though they were just empty rocket stages. Once on the Luna surface, they would be split and then laid down in the shape of a giant letter "X". In the middle was a small module that served as a connection for them.
    The operations wing contained the storage bay for the Luna tractors, and a control room where the day to day work on the first space colony was done, the other three wings were for crew’s quarters, stores, washing and eating facilities, as well as recreational equipment.
    The principle aim of FLO 1 was to survey the area in and around Tycho crater to establish what part of it would be suitable for building the much larger garrison settlement there in the years to come. Such a similar survey would in the next months be made in the Sea of Tranquillity by FLO 2, and Copernicus crater by FLO 3. Jeff called the crew together before he prepared to leave on his assignment. Altogether there were five people on the base, Jeff Tracy: base commander, Tim Casey: senior surveyor, Dylan Beyda: operations and monitoring, and two mobile survey operatives, Susan Bevan, and Gill Best, who were charged with checking out the land in the tractors and, if required, the hoppers.
    Jeff got to the point, "As someone once said, I'm going out for a walk, I may be some time".
    The others laughed, well; the ice-breaker always works.
    "Now you all have your assigned duties for the day, Major Casey will be in charge for the next day or so, as I have a little meteorite catching to do. Just carry on as normal. Hopefully this will not be more than just a routine flyover. Besides it will put the hopper though its paces and we do need to see just how far we can push these things". He held out his hands, "OK end of talk, let’s get to work".
    Once he had donned a space suit, Jeff made for the airlock at the end of the operations wing. Once outside he slowly trundled toward the two hoppers that stood on the far side of the small crater they were in, on the other side of the rim of this crater was the edge of the massive Tycho crater itself. The hoppers resembled the Luna modules used by the first Luna pioneers some thirty-five years earlier. These however were a single unit, with cushioned sprung feet, and had a low thrust plasma jet, much smaller than on its Apollo counterparts, providing sufficient acceleration to take the vehicle into a low sub-orbit. They were built purely for survey purposes, not for investigation.
    Until today.
    Jeff opened the airlock at the back of the upper section having climbed the small set of steps built into the rear of the craft. He pressurised the cabin, took off his helmet, sat at the controls, and called the base.
    "Hopper Two to operations. Hatch secure, power on, give me a go/no-go for launch".
    "Ops to H2, commence check", Beyda replied.
    "Booster".
    "Go"
    "Guidance"
    "Go"
    "Comms"
    "Comms go"
    "Life Support"
    "Go, this is FLO 1. Hopper Two you are clear to go, countdown stands at T minus 60 seconds".
    Casey took over countdown, leaving Beyda to monitor systems during launch, "OK Jeff firing of motors at launch minus 2".
    "Understood Tim", Jeff said, waiting for the countdown to reach two. He heard Casey counting, every fifth number until 15 seconds, then continuous, "14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7", Jeff's finger hovered over the launch button on the left joystick, which controlled thrust. The right joystick was gripped tightly, this would control guidance, pitch, yaw, etc, "6, 5, 4, 3, 2, ignition, zero".
    Jeff punched the button, and the Hopper slowly rose on a column of mild gentle thrust. Gradually Jeff opened up the left joystick, gaining height for himself, while with the right stick, he angled the craft for horizontal flight. As he did this, the top half of the craft slowly rotated so as to be constantly upright, even if the lower half was on its side as it flew, the upper control sphere of the hopper would remain vertical, enabling Jeff to have a constant view of the Luna horizon, as well as a fair view of the ground below. It was held on to the main body of the hopper by two brackets, wich held it on either side; these were hinged so as to allow the sphere to rotate through ninety degrees, so that it would always face forward.
    "Next stop crater Delambre", Jeff said to himself.
    Hours passed. As did the many craters that peppered the route Jeff was taking. Passing below the hopper, that was now flying at a height of some one hundred miles so as to maintain contact with base with the very low powered transmitter, at a speed of some 200 miles an hour. The one thing these hoppers were not built for was speed. The spectacular landscape more than made up for the long hours of monotony. Every now and then, familiar landmark craters would pass beneath the craft giving Jeff an idea how far along the way he was.
First crater Walter, just slightly smaller than Tycho. This was the 250 mile mark on the journey; Jeff knew he was now just under a third of the way there.
Soon, to the left, on the north western horizon, the crater Purbach was visible, just.
Another hour passed when on the opposite south eastern horizon; Jeff was able to make out the crater Catharina, followed closely by the twin craters Theophilus and Crillus. He knew now he was only a matter of minutes from his destination.
Sure enough, Delambre loomed on the horizon, with the sea of tranquillity stretching out just beyond it.
    Jeff radioed Tycho.
    "FLO 1 from hopper 2, commencing decent to crater Delambre. Estimating loss of signal in 15 minutes. Will radio you when Lunacom 1 passes over your position and I can relay a short message. Anticipate this will be in approximately 28 minutes".
    "Negative on that Jeff", this was Casey, "Lunacom 1 is losing altitude and will soon be out of commission, we can't contact you once you are over the horizon. Estimated time to repair not yet known, but we've got a signal to Earth, to tell them of what has happened. Their despatching a ship within the next 24 hours to go direct to the satellite and fix it. I wouldn't bother trying to get a signal to earth to have it relayed back to us here; your radio is just not powerful enough. Do you still want to go ahead with the descent as you will be without radio"?
    "Yep", came the confident reply, "I'm not going to abort this flight now I've come this far. How come you've only told me about Lunacom 1 now", he demanded.
    "Altitude loss is rapid, and has only just begun, sorry Jeff, we reckon it's a thruster’s malfunction. One of them could have fired by accident and thrown the thing in a downwards descent, I'm afraid we've been caught with our waste bags on the floor".
    Jeff sighed, "OK Tim. In view of this, I'll still make a landing; do a brief survey, record a few minutes on tape for the record then get out of there".
    Tim agreed, "That's the idea Jeff, get in, get on with it, get it over with, and get out".
    "Eloquently put Tim", Jeff complemented the man, "and with that, I'll sign off and make a start. I don't know how long I'll actually be, but I won't be too long, that's for sure. This is hopper 1, listening, out".
    "Good luck Jeff, Tycho out".
    By now Jeff had fired attitude control jets to turn the craft round through 180 degrees. The craft was now travelling engine first. The onboard computer had calculated at what time the engine would fire. A three minute burn would follow during which time hopper would lose height in a cradual arc. However Jeff would all the while have his and the craft's back turned on the crater itself. The rear camera was thus deployed, but this was pointed straight down and only gave Jeff a view of the land directly beneath his vessel as it lost height. It would do, it would have to.
    The engine fired.
    Slowly the hopper lost height in its arc, as it did so, Delambe crater passed across the view screen. As it did, Jeff could make out the outline of an object that had appeared to have come to rest at the rear of the crater. Mindful of this, Jeff fired the main rocket again to slow the decent, and make the arc a little more gradual. This would take him toward the end of the crater. With the help of the onboard computer, Jeff calculated the correct points at which to start and finish this extra burn.
    This done, he sat back and prepared for the final part of the decent. Again the computer came into play, and Jeff saw it read out the height, he looked at this and the screen, showing the camera's view, and nothing else. Slowly the craft dropped towards the surface. Every now and then, Jeff would fire the main rocket just to slow the descent down to a safe speed. After a while, he fixed his gaze on the computer readout, satisfied the ground he would eventually land on was going to be smooth and free of boulders. His eyes never left the monitor panel, fifty feet, forty, thirty, twenty, fifteen, getting lower, another burst from the engine, fuel OK, enough to get back, ten, five, two, one, point five, contact light, all four contact lights, hopper one down, and without so much as a jolt.
    No time to waste, Jeff went through the pre-launch checklist, and made sure the craft was ready for take off. He
realised that in this time, the dust blown up by the hoppers descent would clear sufficiently for him to go straight out and take a look. This checklist procedure took a little over 15 minutes to complete. Once done, he picked up his helmet, put it on, de-pressurised the cabin, and unlocked the door.
    What he saw made Jeff almost stumble down the steps of the hopper with shock.
    It was a spacecraft.
    In all probability, a manned craft at that. It looked like nothing Jeff Tracy had seen before. Certainly nothing built for space travel existed like this, at least not anything that Jeff knew of.
    It had a fuselage, a tail, no wings at the top of the tail, but two massive wings at the rear and on each wing tip were two giant fins, both attached to the wings half way down each fin. The craft had come to rest just in front of the craters edge. From where Jeff stood he could see a further set of fins at the front, these were situated just behind what looked like a view port at the nose cone.
    Only now, having got over the shock of what he had seen, did Jeff notice the craft has a series of letters on its, side. These same letters, followed by a number were printed on both the giant fins on the two wingtips, although Jeff could only see one from his position, he surmised the fin opposite had the same legend on it, and they were also on the massive tail at the rear of the ship.
    Jeff could just make out what they said.
    "XL5".

On to Chapter 3.