Richard Nixon looked around the room, assessing the various scientists, engineers and other personnel seated around the big table. A round table conference wasn't his usual way of doing things, but he needed knowledge more than an ego boost.
“Well, gentlemen, it appears the Luna situation is getting more and more out of control. On the one hand, that demonstration of those gadgets Apollo 11 brought back from the moon have convinced most of the world that Luna exists, and is not some fantasy dreamed up by NASA to get more grant money. I know that private showing I had convinced me!
“But that brings its own problems. Luna has quickly become a bigger hot button topic than the war. We have some who think she's the first sign of the apocalypse, some who want us to bomb the moon out of existence, while others are ready to start worshipping her, and everything in between! I have crazy people of every stripe yelling their opinions at anyone who'll listen, and some of them are in Congress. And that's just domestically; the situation overseas is even worse.”
He was too smooth a politician to show how the strain had affected him; dealing with the increasingly demanding attitude of the Soviets and various other nations, both ally and otherwise, who were beating on The White House door for answers he wasn't yet ready to give was taking its toll. Which was what this meeting was about in a way.
“However, the buck stops here, at my desk, and I have to decide on a policy. One, do we bring Luna back to Earth? Two, what will it take, and how long? Three, what will we do with her if and when she gets here? To do that, I need information. Dr Paine? As NASA Administrator, I assume you have those answers?"
The bespectacled man who the president questioned indicated the people around the table as he spoke. "Yes sir, my people have been working around the clock on finding out more, and working out possible options. As you know, Doctor Sagan has been brought in full time to head the team in contact with Luna. Director Gilruth is the director of the Manned Spacecraft Centre where the Lunar Receiving Lab is. That is, where the artifacts and the biological samples brought back are being held and tested.
"From there we also have Doctor Schopf. His field is paleobiology, and he's the principal investigator for lunar samples; he put together the team of biologists that did the examination. Finally, we have Owen Maynard, Mission Operations Division. He was a Project Engineer on Project Mercury and is one of the primary designers on the Lunar Module. His team has been looking at ways of getting Luna to Earth, if the decision is made to bring her back."
"That, as the Bard said, is the question." Nixon quipped, subtly reinforcing the impression of quiet confidence he was projecting. "Let's start with Luna's intentions. I'd assume that's being handled by Doctor Sagan's team?"
"Yes, Mr President." Dr Paine replied.
"Doctor Sagan, what are your conclusions? You have a reliable link?”
Carl Sagan was sitting near the head of the conference table. “Yes, Mr President. Though we're having to share time with that English broadcast, and several others that have sprung up. Not to mention the ones that are just listening.”
Nixon frowned. “Can't we do anything about that?”
“Not for the most part. Pointing a radio receiver at the moon isn't illegal. Transmitting at the sort of power needed to reach Luna's communicator is, at least without a licence, but the frequency band is right in the middle of the amateur radio bands, so a lot of people do have licences. Maybe you could do something through the FCC, but a lot of the transmitters are overseas. Fortunately, Luna was happy to agree to reserve her time only for us when the moon is in the sky over the US.”
“Hmmm.” Nixon made a note on a pad to get someone to find out exactly what the FCC could do. “So, you've been talking to her for ten hours a day?”
“For the last two weeks. She's recently put herself to sleep for a week to rest through the coldest part of the lunar night, and recover some of the power she used.”
“So, what have you learned? “ Nixon asked. “About her, rather than this Equestria. I need to understand how she thinks most of all.”
“Remarkably human-like. She shows a similar emotional spectrum, has many of the same behaviours and traits as us. This isn't just my opinion, we've brought in several expert psychologists to analyse all our communications with her, as well as a specialist in witness interrogation from the FBI to help guide the questions.
“She's been willing to discuss almost any topic we've put to her, and her answers are consistent, and too detailed to be improvisations unless she's a far better dissembler than she showed herself to be when talking to the astronauts. She's also eager to learn about Earth, our sciences and literature especially. She hasn't pushed the possibility of us providing a passage here, but it's clear that it's on her mind constantly. She's crafted a more powerful receiver than her headset, and can now tune in to regular broadcasts rather than just things directly beamed at the moon when the ionosphere permits."
Doctor Sagan picked up one of a number of files that were on the table in front of him and checked the contents.
“Part of the dialogue was aimed at finding out her attitudes and beliefs, especially considering the 'Nightmare Moon' revelation. The full report is here, but the short answer is, she is suffering from a significant guilt complex, and the effects of isolation and sensory deprivation over several years. Everything points to genuine, even excessive remorse.
“One of the team suggested that spilling out her history the way she did was in part a catharsis, a confession, and in part an unconscious effort at sabotaging herself, driving away her new friends because she didn't feel worthy of that friendship. She's a mess, but there's nothing to suggest she's the slightest danger to anyone but herself.
”However, it could have been much worse. Any human in her position, assuming they could survive, would most likely have been driven insane from loneliness if nothing else. As far as she knew the only sapient beings anywhere were in the next universe over, and she wouldn't be able to return there for a thousand years.”
“Wait, what was that?” Nixon asked curiously.
“The thousand years? Apparently around that time there's going to be some sort of quadruple conjunction of minor astrolites with her moon. All of them are charged with mana, magical energy, and the effect will be like aligning a set of lenses. There will be a massive surge of power focussed on that moon, enough to release the other part of her, this Nightmare Moon. Luna was hoping by that time to have gathered enough power to form some sort of connection and use that same power to return there to stop her. That's Equis years of course, and only a rough estimate, but Earth years are similar enough for it not to matter for the foreseeable future."
The president frowned. "Interesting, but we've got more urgent matters to decide. What is your team's best guess on her reactions if we did recover her?"
"Best guess? She will live up to her promises to teach us whatever we want to know, both about Equestria and about magic. And that is a lot. This is an unparalleled opportunity. If she were an ordinary member of her society we'd still be able to learn a lot about her culture, society, xenobiology, a dozen other fields. But not only was she a ruling high status member, with all the privileges in education and access to information that implies, she's also a scholar, the equivalent of a polymath with wide understanding of an entirely new field of knowledge.
“An example is the sample of silvery material she gave us, the English translation is moonsilver, though some of the team working on it call it mithril. Mechanically, it’s similar to titanium, though more ductile, very light, mechanically strong, but capable of being shaped and machined. Chemically, however, it’s utterly inert. It’s a total insulator for both electricity and electromagnetic rays, including gamma radiation, and reflects everything from alpha particles to neutrons with equal ease. It doesn’t conduct heat, and appears to have whatever the ambient temperature is on that surface, though that's a result of the perfect reflectivity, rather than an actual temperature. It also doesn't melt or even soften at any temperature we can apply.
“Our best guess at the reason for these properties is that it’s not atomic matter, but something else. All matter as we understand it is made up of fermions; quarks that combine into protons, neutrons and leptons such as electrons, which combine to form atoms. All processes such as radioactivity, thermal transfer, electrical conductivity are down to the properties of atoms and sub-atomic particles. However there is another class of particles, bosons, which include photons and neutrinos. It’s been postulated that we might be able to trap photons in a lattice structure, forming something analogous to a solid, and according to Luna that’s exactly what this is.
“She made it to use in creating the artefacts she crafted because it is a highly efficient conductor of magical energy. According to her it’s made from moonlight stabilised and ‘condensed’ with magic. However it’s made, it has properties that are repeatedly demonstrable and incredibly useful.
"No atoms means no heat conduction, no electrons means no electrical conduction, and being made up of a continuous phase rather than discrete atoms means it's an absolute reflector of electromagnetic radiation, including gamma rays. It could be used for everything from a dielectric for super-capacitors that could store massive amounts of energy to a casing for a zero radiation nuclear power source you could fit in a briefcase. And that’s just an off-shoot of her abilities, something she included because she had some left over and thought we might find it interesting.”
“This power she uses, magic is as good a term as any, is more than just a new technology, it’s a modality like fire or electricity. It has a whole host of potential applications, not only new technologies, but new tools to understand things about the universe our sciences have barely touched. She is both an expert practicioner, a combination of top bracket scientist and master engineer, and an incredibly powerful one, or will be once she’s no longer spending most of her energy surviving and can devote some of it to restoring her reserves. And she’s willing, no eager, to share all of it freely with us!" Sagan's voice rose at the end, showing his enthusiasm.
"How certain are you of your analysis of her thought processes?" Nixon picked up his pen and tapped it on the notepad in front of him. "She's a completely different species!"
"It's not too surprising, we often see simpler versions of human behaviour in primates and mammals in general. And she is a mammal, more specifically an equine, the tests on the biological samples prove that, but she's also definitely not from Earth or any star system in the local cluster.”
“How can you possibly know that? For that matter, how can that possibly be? I may be a lawyer, but even I know that evolution doesn't work that way!”
"That's where Doctor Schopf comes in. His team managed to deduce it from the biological samples."
Dr Schopf was a young man with glasses and an enthusiastic manner.
“The determination of Luna's genus came more from close examination of the photographs and movies. Equine paleobiology has been well studied, and her form shows a number of features that are unique to modern equines, rather than her just having a close similarity. My team's estimate, she has a common ancestor with terrestrial horses within the last ten million years, maybe far less. She's certainly a closer relative of terrestrial horses than zebras or even donkeys. Apparently there are intelligent versions of those in Equestria too. The structure of the feather was identical to modern terrestrial birds, most closely matching raptors. Once again there are several features that have to have come from a common ancestor.
“The various serum tests and chemical processing we did on the blood sample confirmed it, her biochemistry is terrestrial, as near as makes no odds, and several blood factors match those in equine blood. It does mean that when and if she gets to Earth, she'll have no problem eating our food. She could even theoretically accept a blood transfusion from a properly matched terrestrial horse, much as humans could potentially from great apes. Either it's part of this correspondence she's talked about, or when the entities she calls the Makers terraformed... bioformed Equis, they cribbed their designs from Earth. Doctor Sagan also has corroborating evidence that Equis has terrestrial derived lifeforms."
“It has been suggested from the conversations we've had, she refers to terrestrial species from apples to zebras.” Doctor Sagan interjected. “It could be an artefact of the translation 'spell', but the descriptions match. And translations of proper nouns tend to either be overly literal or render as some sort of bad pun. Place names like Trottingham, Cloudsdale and Baltimare. Not to mention country names like Saddle Arabia, Zebrica and the Griffish Isles.“
"So she's a horse from a world of bad puns. How do you know that world isn't Earth?"
"Isotope ratios." Dr Schopf replied. "We ashed part of the feather and did extensive mass spectrometry tests. Every element is made up of various isotopes, similar numbers of protons and electrons, different number of neutrons. They all have the same number of electrons, they're chemically identical. The ratios between these isotopes in certain elements shows minimal variation, as all the material that makes up our solar system and nearby ones, is thought to have come from a common supernova event."
"Luna's feather shows ratios orders of magnitude different to terrestrial ones. Calcium, carbon, even nitrogen ratios that could not have come from Earth, and judging by analyses of meteors that have fallen to Earth, nowhere in the solar system either. Taken at face value, it can only mean she's from somewhere else. Admittedly, she could have used her micro-telekinetic power to adjust the ratios, but why bother? Until Apollo 11 landed, she never had experience with any scientific instrument more advanced than a microscope."
“You’re saying her story checks out?” Nixon summarised.
“Yes, Mr President.” Dr Schopf replied. “Of course, we’ve been running disease and microbial tests in parallel. We’ve exposed lab animals to sera formed from Luna’s blood samples, attempted to culture any bacteria we could, and so far she checks out clean. We even have a horse in quarantine as one of the test subjects. As I've said, her blood and tissue is remarkably clean, and nor does it show any of the degredation that we’d expect from exposure to the radiation environment on the moon.
“In fact, I suspect the same ability that’s keeping her alive, the regenerative ability that she’s talked about in her discussions with Dr Sagan, normally fuctions as a super-immune system and anti-gerone... something that slows or stops aging that is. Which opens up whole other medical possibilities, as I’m sure you can imagine. But the most important result right now is that Luna won’t get ill from our germs either. We’ll have a more complete report in a month’s time, but for now there’s no biological reason she couldn’t be brought to Earth safely.”
“Which doesn’t address the political and social reasons as to whether we do it or not.” Nixon commented.
"Sorry, Mr President, that's not my field of expertise."
“Uh... sir!” The man who spoke wore a neat suit and tie, the perfect picture of a young executive. “Sorry to interrupt, Owen Maynard sir, Mission Operations Division. My team has been looking at ways of getting Luna to Earth, and it’s not so much a matter of whether we do it as who will do it and when.”
"The Russians?" Nixon asked, mouth tightening.
"That's one possibility. They have managed to soft land vehicles on the moon. And if Doctor Sagan's right, they don't need anything as complex as a full Apollo mission to recover her."
Seeing Nixon look his way, Sagan took over. "She can survive unaided in space for as long as necessary, so no need for a pressurised cabin or life support system. And according to her, if she can get far enough from the moon, say a few thousand miles, it will break the geas that restricts her from using her magic to fly, at which point she's her own transfer vehicle. She's flown in space before back over her homeworld, and she doesn't need to worry about a heat shield for re-entry, because she can slow herself down before hitting atmosphere. The only reason Apollo doesn't is because it would take a lot of fuel, more than the Service Module can carry."
Maynard continued. "So, as you can see sir, all you'd really need to land is an engine with fuel tanks and saddle on top, controlled by a basic flight computer, with enough delta V to put it on a lunar escape trajectory. Luna's own weight is reckoned to be under 180 pounds, the weight of an empty A7L space suit. Based around existing hardware we estimate an ascent vehicle weight of around 1200 pounds, fully fuelled. While that's several times heavier than anything Russia has soft landed on the moon, it's a lot less than the 5 ton ascent stage of the Lunar module.
"But descent might not be a problem, Luna has already demonstrated that she can adjust the orbit of the discarded Eagle ascent stage in a 70 mile high orbit. Use a transfer vehicle to put the Ascent vehicle into a low orbit, or even a close flyby, and she'd be able to handle capture and lowering it to the surface herself. Which means they could do it with their existing launch vehicles, as they've already launched lunar orbiters in that sort of mass range. But it's not just the Russians, the Europeans are developing their own launch vehicles, and while they're nowhere near being able to launch a lunar mission right now, a crash priority R and D project could change things."
"Do the Russians know that she can capture orbiting vehicles?"
"We don't believe so sir, we asked Luna to keep quiet about the experiment." Sagan said. "But she said as much in that initial broadcast, so it's possible."
"How truly good!" the president exclaimed with a growl. "Any more bad news?"
"I wouldn't put it that way, but it might be possible for Luna to build something herself, using the discarded hardware that's already on the moon, especially if she had instructions from Earth. She probably never considered it before Apollo 11, because her own society is at the stage of the gunpowder firework as far as rocketry goes. But she saw the Apollo 11 in action, and she's been asking questions. Her powers would allow her to disassemble and reshape components, the only things she's missing is a source of fuel, and a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite or exavating it from a crater would give her a source of nitrogen and carbon, which she could refine into hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. She might even be able to conjure it and have it last long enough to work."
"I thought this magic spell, this geas prevented her from using her magic to escape the moon?"
Sagan fielded this. "We suspect it's much like a computer program. As long as it remains within its specified parameters, it's fine, but throw in something it wasn't programmed for and it breaks. It will stop her teleporting or using self levitation, but it apparently doesn't consider her telekinesis or other powers a threat. She's used alchemy, molecular level manipulation, already. If she builds a non-magical escape vehicle, even by magical means, the geas won't see that as a threat. After all, whoever set the conditions for the geas, probably her sister, almost certainly believed that the only way to escape the moon was by using magic directly. Equestria can only just build fireworks."
"Wait, she can teleport too? Just wonderful. Any limitations, range, walls?"
"From what she's said, as long as she knows where she's going, or has seen a picture, she can get there with a range of several thousand miles."
"So, to sumarize: this Luna provides a wealth of knowledge that could provide economic and strategic advantages, not to mention her personal abilities which make her sound like a comic book superhero. She will be willing to share those advantages with us if we get her off the moon, but we have to assume that if someone else did so she'd be just as grateful to them. We can't allow that to happen, which means we have no other choice but to try and bring her back ourselves."
That got a lot of cheerful expressions and grins, but he wasn't finished. "However, those same powers make her a major threat if she ever went rogue again, or if despite appearances she's bluffing now. So we also need to be ready to find a way to contain or kill her if something goes wrong."
That got almost universal expressions and exclamations of shock and dismay. Nixon shut them up with a glare and a shouted "Silence!"
He relaxed his expression into a friendlier mein. "Look boys, it's not something I like the idea of any more than you do. You're all focussed on the advantages, the possibilities, and that's okay, that's your job as scientists and engineers. My job as president of these United States is to protect the citizens of these same United States, whether by diplomacy, intimidation or military force. That means considering the unpleasant possibilities, and making the hard decisions.
"You have to admit there's a possibility that she could go crazy again, as she's admitted to doing once before. It may be an absolute last resort, but it has to be considered, for the sake of the nation. Plus, there are other nations who will be far less restrained if they see those advantages come to us, so we also need to know what she's vulnerable to so we can protect her. So, is it possible to kill or contain her?"
He also wanted a similar fall-back position in case some other country beat them to the prize, but he had no intention of telling these guys that. In that case it would have to be utterly black, he didn't need his press secretary to tell him what kind of backlash there'd be if it came out.
After a long, tense pause, Sagan said, "From what we know, it seems any mundane containment system would be ineffective as long as she has her magic, and we know of no way to remove it. Physiologically, she's a mammal and should theoretically be affected by the same things that would kill a human. However, once again there's her magic to contend with. It almost certainly has an autonomic component, operating as automatically as breathing, that protects her. Doctor Schopf?"
"Doctor Wilberforce can give you more detail on that."
Doctor Wilberforce was a greying, bespectacled man in his early 50's with a rumpled looking shirt. "Ah, yes, yes. My group was assigned to experiment with a blood sample and tissue from the base of the feather, to test its structure compared to terrestrial blood and discover its ability to resist damage. Even after being decanted from the vial, Luna's blood remained viable for far longer than most mammals, and showed an impressive ability to counter destroy a number of pathogens we introduced. It's practically a panacea.
"We also cultured tissue from the wing root, and exposed it to everything from acids to radiation. It took far more damage than anything short of specialised microorganisms could before dying. Tissue separated from the growth medium also proved far more vital than it should. Biochemically there is no explanation. Some other factor makes it far tougher than it has any right to be. Microscopic examination showed some structures within the cells that have no parallel in terrestrial mammals. It's possible that these structures relate to Luna's 'magic', and the unusual vitality of the cells. Facinating! To summarise, biological or chemical methods are not likely to be effective at any reasonable concentration."
Maynard was discussing something with his fellows, head down over a note pad that was rapidly filling with numbers and equations as he used a slide rule. Nixon coughed. "You've thought of something, Mr Maynard?"
After a second, Maynard looked up. "Yes, sir. We've done some quick calculations of the mundane energy equivalents required to perform the effects we know Luna's capable of, and applied it to pure kinetic energy. It's a rough ballpark, I don't have exact figures on me, but we can work out the sort of effects needed to overcome Luna if her existing powers were focussed on stopping a projectile. A force shield so to speak. Bullets would bounce, even from a heavy machine gun. Likewise RPGs or pretty much any man portable rocket launcher. We're looking at a main battle tank gun or even a naval shell to do anything. An anti-tank mine might do the job, as with that you might have a chance of sneaking it up on her, but more likely you'd need a block buster."
'Not something you could take to the moon, or use here on Earth without someone noticing. Plus,' he thought to himself, 'We definitely can't afford to attempt it and fail, as that would certainly turn her hostile.'
"Very well, it looks like the only option is to bring her to Earth ourselves, and make every effort to ensure she feels wanted and useful, both to bind her more closely to us and to ensure she doesn't end up in the same mindset that set off her last psychotic break. However, I want to talk to her directly before I make my final decision. So. Mr Maynard, I assume you do have a way to bring her back safely? And what is it going to cost the U.S. taxpayer?"
"Actually, sir, we do." Maynard brought out some papers from a folder. "Our initial decision was to use Apollo hardware as much as possible. Creating new hardware and testing it, as I mentioned before, would take several years and cost a great deal. At first we thought we'd have to wait for Apollo 15, the first J type extended mission. The upgraded LM has fuel to bring back a much heavier sample payload. However, that would be two years away, which is definitely sub-optimal.
"With that in mind, we've been working on a near term plan. With some operational changes and minor modifications to the CSM and LM, we should be able to bring Luna back safely on Apollo 12. The timeline would be tight, but we can do it if we have the go ahead right now. It means pretty much dedicating Apollo 12 to the recovery mission, though we have some ideas on alternate ways and means of fixing that." He passed the papers around.
"The critical component is the Lunar Module ascent stage. We're looking at replacing the fuel tanks with the expanded versions designed for the extended missions. We'll also fit a set of straps on the floor over the centre of balance to hold Luna down during ascent. It's going to be tight, making any kind of mechanical change at this stage of the game is no easy task, but Grumman have confirmed they can make the necessary changes within the stated timeline. It helps that the components are already designed and we have test articles to work with. We have another team working with Dr Schopf's to design a lightweight isolation suit for Luna to put on while still on the lunar surface.
"The descent stage is where it gets tricky. We can't replace the fuel tanks there with J type components without structural changes to the space frame. We'd pretty much have to build a J type descent stage, minus the extended life support package. But we have an alternative, additional tankage in the equipment bays and an extended engine bell for improved efficiency. It means we can't carry the ALSEP, but that would just add to the descent payload mass which we want to reduce. It won't look pretty, but it will work. Once again the Grumman team, led by Thomas Kelly, has verified they can do it in time.
"To provide a little extra leeway, the CSM will put the Lunar Module into a descent transfer orbital track before separation, then boost back to orbit afterwards. While it may not have the fuel to slow down before re-entry, it has sufficient delta v for this manouvre. It was originally designed for the Direct Ascent option, after all. The only other modification will be to the Command Module to provide Luna with a place to rest during re-entry, an additional camp-bed style frame that can be set up in the space between the crew couches and the aft bulkhead. On the journey to the moon, the space will have consumables in it, but by the return trip, there will be enough space to deploy it."
He looked over to Doctor Schopf and said, "From splashdown it's a matter for the Lunar Recieving Laboratory."
"Hm, yes, the plan is to have a second Mobile Quarantine Facility on board the Hornet dedicated to Luna. She will be transferred to the Lunar Recieving Lab and held in quarantine separately from the returing astronauts. That way we will be able to perform extended tests on her biology to confirm that she won't come to harm here, and vice versa. We'll also need a discretionary budget for teaching materials and staff to educate her about Earth. From what Doctor Sagan says, she's very interested in our technology and culture."
Carl Sagan took over the conversation. "Yes she is. After the quarantine period, she could remain on site at Johnson Space Centre, where we can provide housing and protection. I expect we'll need an entire research facility to build up around her. We'll teach her and she'll teach us in return. I have people working on a preliminary proposal for the facility, but it's not ready yet as we're still finding out new things she could teach us."
"Very well, prepare your budget plans and proposals. You have the go ahead from me to start preliminary work on it. Now I just have to talk to her directly, and get Congress to agree to it."
As the meeting broke up, Nixon returned to the Oval office, where his Chief of Staff waited. "Well, it's done, they have their marching orders."
"You've given them the go ahead?"
"I more or less had to." Nixon rubbed his forehead, and dropped into the plush chair behind his desk. "Once they made it clear that Luna is going to end up on Earth somehow, and there's nothing we can do to stop her, I had no choice but to make sure we're the ones who control her. From what they're saying, she's the key to a whole host of new technologies, and that's ultimately going to mean both power and money. And with the ecomomy in the shape it is, and the war, this country can do with both. Between them, they seem to have the technical side covered. Now it's up to us to handle the political side."
"It's going to be rough sir," Haldeman opined.
"Tell me something I don't know. Get Ehrlichman and Butterfield in for a meeting. Let's get the ball rolling. I'm going to need publicity, good publicity. Get on to Zeigler, I want the benefits of us rescuing this Luna pushed. Play the 'noble knights rescuing a damsel' angle too. I'm going to need all the leverage I've got to drive this through Congress. Sagan is arranging for me to talk to this Luna directly, I'm going to need a list of talking points. If we work it right, the recording could be useful."
"Anything else?"
"Yes, get Colson to brief me on the legal position of an intelligent non-human. Are they considered a person? De facto, obviously, but legally, every law assumes that person is synonymous with human. I can see some of the angles myself, but we need to work out what legal hoops we'd have to go through to get her legally declared a person, and whether she could become a citizen."
"That's very generous of you, sir." Unspoken was the question of what advantages it would bring, as doing so would make some of the anti-Luna factions explode.
"I know, I'm practically Santa Claus. Championing her personhood should provide an additional incentive for her to feel gratitude, and generate a lot of positive publicity with the Lunatic faction, which if the latest polls are right is dominant right now. As a citizen she'd be under our laws, which would provide additional constraints, and also make it far harder for any other country to try and claim she should be shared as an invaluable scientific specimen."
Nixon paused for thought, then added, "Speaking of legal matters, it might be a good idea to suggest that she retain some corporate law firm, such as Wingert and Bewley. With all the publicity, people are going to start merchandising her, so having her likeness and identity protected against unauthorised use is only sensible. I suspect that there will be plenty of companies willing to pay well for licences. Do it as a corporation acting on her behalf, and they wouldn't even have to wait for her personhood to be resolved.
"By the time she gets down here, there'd be a nice chunk of change waiting for her, allowing her to buy some luxuries, and not costing the government one red cent. The fact that it would also be another way to control her image the way we want it is just icing on the cake. We may well end up paying her a salary, but for the short term this will have to do." Nixon sighed. "This could all still go horribly wrong, but since we're on its back, all we can do is ride the tiger, or alicorn rather, and hope we don't end up on its horn."
Delete that 4.
That was hilarious.
The bold part should be they. Other than that, it's good. And if you remember the thread over on Spacebattles, all you have to do to reopen it to post this chapter is contact one of the moderators there. It's not thread necromancy if the author posts a new chapter.
As a co-head of state, perhaps her arrival to the US should be treated like any other visit from a head of state and/or diplomat (like in "The Cat From Outer Space")
OH, thanks for the new chapter. I like it. Needs more Luna.
This was an excellent chapter. Really looking forward to more of this - and don't feel bad about no Luna in this chapter; the sociopolitical ramifications of her introduction to Earth is hugely interesting, as much as her perspective on this is. Granted, I'm always a huge sucker for world-building.
There's a precedent for a "person" being nonhuman - corporate entities are considered "persons" in the eyes of the law, explicitly for taxes but theoretically for other purposes, as well.
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For taxes and spending money on politicians, of course.
But for anything else, you'll have to win a Supreme Court case every couple decades in perpetuity.
IT LIVES!!!
No joke, this is my favorite ponyfic on the site.
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True, but it's a precendent, and combined with her obvious sapience, could be the foundation of a case.
I've always been a big Carl Sagan fan. It makes me happy to see involved with first contact with Luna. I wonder how his science documentary 'Cosmos' would have changed if this had actually happened. Ihope he gets to meet Luna in person later on. I think the chapter is good as is and Iook forward to the next one.
Mass does NOT equal weight. Mass is measured in Grams, if you want to measure her weight, then you need to specify that her weight when she is on Earth level of gravity. Because you are 1/6 the weight you are on the moon, but the Mass is the exact same as it is if you were in the middle of Jupiter, or on Pluto, or in Deep Space. How you do that, I have no idea, but I looked it up on a converter and it says her Mass is 81.6466266 KG if her Weight is 180 lbs.
Other than that small little science thing bugging me (it's honestly a nitpicking thing, and not all that important, because it got the message of what you were meaning to say across), everything else is fantastic, I LOVE the way you wrote Nixon. People forget about so much of who he was as a person and a president because of Watergate. I can't wait to see more of this! =^~^=
Apollo 12 is the obvious choice for the return mission, but not as complicated as they make it out to be. All they really need to do is leave one astronaut out, and strip out all of the material return capacity other than one princess-sized acceleration hammock. Bean (alone) pilots the LEM to a Luna-assisted landing, loads up his passenger, and takes off a few hours later for rendezvous with Gordon in the CM. Three days later, they haul one seasick alicorn out of a lurching CM in the ocean and into a decon chamber on the aircraft carrier.
Dr. Paine looked uncomfortable as he reached the end off the list of experts... as though there was one more name he was hesitant to mention.
President Nixon blinked, "Is there... someone else?"
Dr Paine tugged at his collar. "Well... there's one more man who has... quite a bit of experience with aliens and alternate universes... but, well, let us say that he's not exactly reliable. Here's the only stock photo I currently have of him... I'm not sure when it was taken."
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President Nixon was not sure if megusta.
8316078 To determine the mass from weight in Earth pounds, you need to know the gravity fraction of the particular body you're on. Then it's just plugging into a basic fractional equation.
Oh dang I remember when this just a single chapter I had high hopes for, now I've returned and it is a many chapter thing!
8316081 Would he be able to land the LM alone, though?
"Y-yes," said Nixon, starting to sweat as heavily as though he had the flu and hot stage lights were all aimed at him. "Call... Alondro."
"My God, sir..."
"Yes, he's mine too. But we need him."
In a secret laboratory, far on the South Jersey Shore, a mad scientist gazed up from his latest abomination and a smile slowly spread across his chapped lips as he croaked, "Something fun is coming..."
8316004 But that was the determination of a relatively recent Supreme Court case, not a mindset or legal declaration which existed at that time. So the issue would still remain.
However, sci-fi was well known and Star Trek was still wildly popular. The concept of intelligent aliens was well a part of public consciousness, so Luna's acceptance would not be so improbable.
8315973 Oh dear lord, I saw that movie once. It was so corny!
1.- Thank you for providing this new chapter. I'm deeply appreciated with you for that.
2.- This will be interesting. A lot was happening right now on the world that could change Luna's mind on whether to be with the USA or the USSR.
I mean, on one side, once she discovers the USSR's skeletons in the closet, she may get horrified but, on the other hand, the USA had its own problems with Korea, Vietnam and Latin America (Fidel Castro will be a pain).
Regardless, Venezuela (with Caldera on the presidency right now, 1969 - 1974, and Carlos Andrés Pérez, 1974 - 1979, as the future president) will help the USA however they can with Luna. Venezuela sells oil to the USA, BTW, and is a founder member of the OPEC. If you want to know more about Latin America during the Cold War, you can ask me I'll help you however I can.
"right, the4y don't"
"they"?
"to put the Ascent vehicle it in low orbit"
"vehicle in low"?
"remains within it's specified parameters"
"its"?
"to test it's structure compared"
"its"?
"made it clear that is Luna is going to"
"clear that Luna"?
I enjoyed the chapter. :)
Welcome back
I like that the characters are behaving true to character.
Ooh!
I read The Eagle Has Landed, and its sequels, and while I loved them, and I loved the concept, I always wish that they hadn't initially been written as one-shots, and had been written more seriously in a novel-like format.
I have not yet read a single word, but you already have my attention.
I love that you gave all the humans real personalities.
I mean, since I know Buzz Aldrin's real personality when he isn't in a professional situation, I think that was slightly off, but you are doing far more than most people would. And I think you got Nixon down pretty good.
And don't worry about not having Luna in this chapter. This stuff is necessary, and welcome.
I can't wait for more.
(I can't believe FimFiction has an emote for Twist, but not Luna.)
8316447
i know! it's a bloody outrage! they've even got this chick , whoever the hell that is.
8316078
You can measure mass in Pounds or Grams.
You can measure weight in Pounds or Grams.
Someone that weighs 80 KG's on the moon will not have a mass of 80KG. Whether one is referring to mass or weight is usually only clarified by context, In this case it might be a bit tricky since unless you know Nixon, you might not automatically get why the scientists are putting things in simpler terms for him to understand.
Also sidenote the last time they redefined the definition of a pound, pounds are now entirely based on Grams anyways. Just whatever you do with that info.. don't tell the Americans.
i hope this story isn't dead i'd love to see this completed, i read The Eagle Has Landed, i like this just as much, if not more, please revive this story.
BRILLIANT as always!
well worth the wait!
I think that you got most of the significant personalities right from what little I know of them. Carl Sagan, in particular, would be practically dancing and I can't see him being comfortable with treating the 'visitor' as a threat (even though Nixon was correct to consider this and want his people to have contingencies in place). The thing is, I'm not sure that there's anything less than a multi-kilotonne nuclear bomb that could stop an alicorn if she got her mad on.
Please for the love of Luna update this again soon!!
YOU UPDATED IT!!
BEGAN THE HAPPY DANCE!!
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( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The Russian's Lunokhod program must have some extra funding by now. The first 'successful' landing going by the historical timeline was the 17th of Novembre 1970. The decent stage easily had enough delta v to break lunar orbit if you could find a way to refuel the thing. That rover weighed a little over 0.8 tons and Luna herself is 1/10th of that.
They'd have to work like crazy to get one up in time; but by our timeline a lot of the sense of urgency had been lost in Russia after Apollo 11's landing, so who knows. ^^
I thought rthis fan fic died .Please don't let the next chapter be in the next year
So. Luna's going to be a citizen. I have this terribly amusing feeling she's going to end up running for president and winning, whether she wants to or not, eventually. Can only imagine Nixon's nonplussed expression if that happens.
Great to see that you're back! Nice chapter, and I can't wait to see whats next!
8316447 Aldrin's personality changed a lot after he got back from the Moon, though - he took being a celebrity hard, realized he didn't know what else to do with his life, got addicted to alcohol, but then got clean again and put things back together. Here, things are going to go off in a way different direction with his life -- in the story, I hope Luna can find some way to help him find a new purpose.
8317263
Ah, that makes a lot of sense.
I hope that is in the story. That would be... that would be amazing.
Have to disagree on the EPa and eviro stuff but yeah far fro mthe worse president. the two worst are after him.
Maybe with Luna's help Nixon can avoid the whole Watergate thing and remain President.
That would actually make things better.
The Presidents after him weren't very good.
IT LIVES!!
Please tell me we don't have to wait a year and a half for the next chapter??
I eagerly await your next update!!
hi hi
Forget what Luna is going to be capable of doing, what are humans going to do when she teaches them how to do all of those things?
8317879
"Captain's log, stardate..."
My jaw dropped when I saw that this had updated. I really like the possibilities when it comes to altered timelines(as can be seen in some of my stories)
8317703 That'd be really hard, considering Tricky Dick's character... unless he uses magic to spy on the DNC instead of tape recorders? But I don't think Luna would be willing.
8317879 Can humans use magic, though? It depends a lot on how this world is set up, but we've just heard that magic is embedded in Luna's body on a cellular level at least. It's possible we could duplicate that with machines given time, but perhaps magic demands materials that aren't found in this universe except in Luna's body.
Or maybe she can create them, given time?
I'll be honest, I didn't things ever have a chance to read a new chapter of this, especially since it seemed to be out of commission for over a year.
Glad I was wrong!!!
Can't wait for the next chapter! Xd
8316523
I don't know, taking a 50 cal bullet to the eye is sure to do something. Xp
Let me welcome you back in the only way a proofreading robot knows how to do: with nitpicks!
(This could use a semicolon here instead of a comma.)
(The semicolon is not quite correct; each thing on either side should be able to stand alone as a complete sentence, which the second part does not do. One solution would be to modify it, as by adding "was taking its toll" to the end. Another would be to change the semicolon to an em-dash—sort of a freestyle grammar thing that lets you break the rules, as long as you don't overuse it.)
Three, (add a comma to match the rest of the list)
(The first "it's" is correct, but the second should be "its".)
(Is "it to" supposed to be "into"?)
Europeans
conjure
(First "it's" is "its", second one is fine.)
a (not an)
summarise
Also, I suggest "summarise: this Luna"
Either
or if, despite appearances, she's
or
or if despite appearances she's
U.S. (or, I suppose, US —but this half and half business is just wrong in my eyes. A cursory search did not reveal this as standard British style (although I am aware that it's been used in stylized artwork etc.); if I am wrong there, I would love to have a good source.)
led
(As an American, I would say "the team has verified", but "the team have verified" may be correct for your British English, and your standard in this story is that British style prevails regardless of context.)
manoeuvre (British; American is maneuver)
consumables in it
(unless omitting the "it" is acceptable British style of which I am unaware)
(comma is better here, though not technically required)
'noble knights rescuing a damsel' angle too.
(The phrase he is conjuring does not properly include "angle")
waiting
its
8316081
Unfortunately that wouldn't work, or rather it would take about as much time to get to work as it would take to get to Apollo 15. The LEM was designed with a two man crew and while the LEM Pilot is acting as a flight engineer there are a number of on going tasks that they have to do during the landing to ensure the safety. As for the CSM, while I can be run solo in orbit during other phase of the mission it was designed with three crew. While it would be possible to rework the systems for one less crew member the amount of time and training wouldn't be short or easy.
Yes, who could forget the troubled administration of President Richard Noxon?
I do quite enjoy the premise and execution of this story.