"Alright Mr President, sir, we're connecting you in to the line now."
The speaker was one of Doctor Sagan's assistants, Nixon had memorised his name as any good politician would, but right now he was focussed on the conversation ahead. He glanced over his notes, and the ones prepared by his communications secretary.
"Thanks. Hopefully this phone call won't be interrupted." The assistant relaxed slightly at the quip, just as Nixon had intended.
"Greetings, this is Luna calling. Am I talking to President Nixon?" The voice was slightly distorted and crackly, but unmistakably the feminine voice that he'd heard during that original converation, and in numerous broadcasts since.
"You are, Miss Luna. I assume you've been told why I'm talking to you?"
There was a pause, and he wondered if she was considering an answer until he remembered the three second delay.
"Indeed. You wish to take my measure, face to face, or as near to it as can be arranged. You lead the United States, and wish to decide for yourself whether bringing me to your country will be more of a benefit or a risk, as a wise leader should. I hope I can answer your questions, and allay any fears you may have."
"That is correct, though the decision ultimately resides with the American people, as expressed through Congress." This conversation would probably be broadcast, whatever final determination he made, and it would need to give the best possible impression. He counted out another three seconds.
"But you will be the one to put it before them, so I must needs convince you first. Though my first priority is to apologise to you personally."
"Well, your confession about Nightmare Moon didn't exactly make my job any easier."
"For that as well, I apologise. I believed that I was talking only to Sir Neil and Sir Edwin. However, I meant my earlier trespass, where I interrupted your speech. I should have realised that Sir Neil and Sir Edwin would not simply be standing around doing nothing."
Nixon waved it off, forgetting it was only a radio link. "That's in the past, but if it makes you feel better, you're forgiven."
He wasn't one to fret about things he couldn't change, and whatever happened, keeping a good relationship with Luna cost nothing.
"Thank you, Mr President, you are most generous. As to your decision, I have listened to many of the broadcasts from Earth, and understand that many people fear me for the power I wielded, and the mare I became. I can say all I want that I am no longer that mare, that the Nightmare was stripped from me and that I would never allow it to happen again, even if it could, but I can not demonstrate the truth of my words directly."
"That is the problem. Though it's not just your past. Some people worry about the power you possess, or how the things you can teach us will affect their lives and their jobs."
"That fear, at least is easy to allay. Doctor Schopf has discussed the need for quarantine. Even after that, it would make sense that I stay at the Lunar Recieving Laboratory, or some other institute of learning, and work with whoever you designate to ensure that my knowledge is used to the greatest benefit and least disruption."
"Reasonable restrictions on your movements would be one of the requirements." Nixon had to tread a thin line, reassuring the anti-Luna brigade without offending the Lunatics. "Nothing onerous, I assure you. Spending most of your time at one place would help make any arrangements easier."
"I would guess that the arrangements would include guards of some sort? That would further help to reassure your people."
"The specifics remain to be worked out, but yes, that is a reasonable assumption. They would be there for your protection as well. Your point that we will need to assess any new technologies you help us develop is well taken too."
"To properly reassure those who fear my magical abilities they must needs be armed with tools and weapons that could restrain me. I will work on such as a gesture of good faith."
That stunned Nixon for a second. Luna was actually willing to go that far? His years as an attorney and politician had made him highly sensitive to verbal bovine excrement, but those senses were telling him there was no deception here. Though he had to remember that for all her juvenile appearance, she was over 800 years old, and had been a ruler for much of that time. On the other hand, she'd demonstrated a distaste for dissembling. Best take it as genuine.
"That is more than we could have hoped for."
He heard Luna sigh, and wondered for a second how that worked on the moon. "'Tis about building trust. I am an outsider, and something new and different to most people. I am an unknown, my magic is an unknown, and it seems many humans fear the unknown, and that which they can not control no less than ponies. My admissions about my part in creating Nightmare Moon will not have helped.
"To that end, I have been working on another project that will demonstrate my good will, and allow your people to better understand the power of magic. I believe the term would be a 'photothaumic cell'. I will have them prepared and deliver them to the astronauts of your next voyage whether or not they come to take me with them."
Nixon was not a scientist, but he could derive the context from the name, his knowledge of classics and the science briefings he'd had. "Would this be a device that converts light into magical energy?"
"Indeed, Mr President. I was inspired by the description of photovoltaic cells on the various space probes. It takes some elements from my light amplification spell as used in the radio I designed, but most of it was simply worked out by arithmatic decomposition of a simple 'light object' spell. I inverted the matrix through a Fourcart convolution and reversed the intent. It wasn't easy, but light spells are something of a speciality of mine.
"It takes the form of a thin plate of crystal on a metal base plate, etched with runes. It takes some mana to enchant, but after that, as long as light falls on it, it will produce magical energy, which is stored in the crystal.
"It hath both practical ends and is a show of faith. You will be able to recharge the items I crafted, and your scientists and researchers will have access to a magic power source to experiment with so they can better understand its properties. It also makes your research independent of me. They will be able to test independently any ideas on blocking and supressing magic, as those restraints I mentioned will require. Undertstanding, and a feeling of control will hopefully lessen the fear of those who now rail against me."
"I suspect Doctor Sagan and his crew are eager to get their hands on it. Though you understand if anything this may delay any effort to rescue you, if that's agreed to, as there will be people who will insist on using it to research magic and its implications before we can safely bring you to Earth."
"What boots it? I said this was a gift, and I meant it. After all, your people have already given me the greatest treasure I could ask for... companionship. I may be alone here, but at least I have voices to keep me company, a way to talk to others and make friends, access to your rich culture of stories and songs, and a chance to learn new things no pony has before.
"It may mean I will be here longer, but in the meantime your gift to me will make the waiting easier, and the delay will hopefully mean that when and if your people do rescue me, our mutual trust will be stronger for it."
"That's a pretty magnanimous thing to say." Nixon considered the ramifications. Delaying until Apollo 13 would give the technical people more time to put together the modified lunar lander, and his own team to take care of the non-technical aspects of bringing a sapient non-human to the U.S.A. The additional time and chance to study magic would, as she said, help reduce fears and tensions over the unknowns, which was all to the good.
He'd have to check with NSA and CIA sources as to when the earliest possible Russian launch could happen, but if the answer was, 'not before April', it seemed like a plan. While he'd schemed, Luna had replied.
"I have much ground to make up. I can only do that by being generous in my dealings, even if Generosity was my sister's Element." The last part sounded like a gentle quip.
"Well, as I said, Luna, I have to put the proposal to rescue you before Congress before anything else can be done. I'm sure Doctor Sagan and his team will keep you informed. For now, I must go."
"Thank you for your time, Mr President. May you continue to lead your people wisely."
There was static for a moment, then silence.
What indeed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eco_xvkEQlg
I cannot believe you said that in regards to Apollo 13.
...At least this is better then AskLoona type of story. Askloona is just scary and creepy mate
It LIVES!!
Ah, but will the Apollo 13 accident now take place? With a magical and powerful alien life form to pick up and the entire world watching intently, the care in constructing and inspecting Apollo 13 will be more stringent than ever, and all resources possible will be put toward making it utterly flawless.
This compared to the historical Apollo 13 which was facing budget restrictions and very little interest from the general public until it almost asploded.
Ripples in a pond, so cause and effect go. Luna is a huge boulder cast into that pond.
It's always a joy to read the updates every year.
Apollo 13?!?! What could go wrong indeed! Welcome back!
You know, RE:Apollo 13 disaster, I'm curious if Luna could actually make the failure irrelevant. If they use some of the LM descent stage fuel to decelerate the CSM and LM into LLO, they can have Luna rendezvous with them on the way down. She then uses her magic to catch the LM after it depletes it's fuel, or to allow the LM to land safely despite not having enough fuel to decelerate completely on it's own. She then boards the LM, which lifts off to rendezvous with the damaged CSM in LLO. After that, she can just serve as a magic reaction-less drive to propel the CSM back to Earth. If they're really concerned about re-entry, she could probably decelerate the capsule down to a safe landing even with her on board.
8977996
There was a near disaster on Apollo 12 as well, as the ship was struck by lightning 36 seconds after launch. The same man who would be instrumental in getting Apollo 13 to a safe landing by figuring out the proper power-on sequence was able to fix that problem by telling the astronauts to switch their Signal Conditioning Electronics to auxiliary power.
An update! Woohoo!
this great keep going
A magnificent story! I loved every chapter. I'm looking forward to more! Tracked and upvoted!
8978192
Indeed it already sounds as if Apollo 13 will be delayed, that may allow them to spot the flaw.
Having been reading The Maretian for the past few months, I have to say: No, nothing will go wrong, especially nothing that would require the intervention of a conveniently placed magical pony princess.
Glad to see this story again!
IT LIVES! Please tell me Apollo 13 will not be a disaster in this instance of our world.
Well, hopefully this Apollo 13 ends up better thanks to all the magical instruments Luna will be sending to Earth. Plus the fact that if its designated as the official rescue trip for Luna, then attention in general from the public will be bigger and a good budget will be given out to ensure everything goes according to plan.
Anyway, glad to have you back!!
Absolutely loved every second of this story, can't wait for more, keep up the good work!!!
And 13, realy
attorney
replied
Well the issue with Apollo 13 was explicitly caused by a time cutting decision to evaporate the O2 when one vent pipe went out of alignment and a thermostat malfunctioned. Having MORE time and more public support that would probably not happen. On the other hand that would leave the design errors in place [Mainly the temperature indicatore that do not go high enough to show a failure of the thermostat]
A short chapter, but a good'un. Looking forward to March 2019!
Apollo 13, the remake.
This time without explosions
Ah heck, How will Luna's presence affect Apollo13? Will she be able to aid Lovell and his crew? Or are you going to go full alternate history and avoid the accident all together? I can't wait to see what happens next.
Aside from putting people out of work and wrecking economies, the sudden introduction of new sciences and technologies would throw international balances of power off in all manner of catastrophic ways.
They should set Luna up in a neutral lab or university in Geneva and allow access to her by all scientists and scholars, totally apolitically.
Моя любовь к этой истории все еще сильна.
Эта история, на мой взгляд, одна из самых интересных. Я не могу дождаться, чтобы посмотреть, куда он пойдет.
So may I ask if you’re going to update Spacebattles?
Interesting; so Apollo 13 is going to be the recovery mission? I wonder if NASA's people will notice the defective LOX valve in Odyssey's power generation system during the delay? Jim Lovell and Ken Mattingly may find their lives in Luna's hooves! If Luna's solar power invention works as intended, she may arrive on Earth as the heroine who saved two astronauts' lives!
8978761
'Should'? Perhaps. However, given the status of the Cold War at this point in time, I don't think that it is likely that the US would be willing to cede any advantage that it could hold over what it considered an existential enemy and who viewed them as an existential enemy in return.
I can't even begin to describe how happy I was to see this in my inbox.
By far, this is my favorite ponyfic on the site. The amount of research into the historical figures is second to none, and it's well worth the wait.
Oh, great to see another chapter here. :D
Oh dear, maybe Luna would be able to do something to help the crew of 13 if they have the same blowout of the O2 tanks that happened in the original time line.
8978862
Моё судно на воздушной подушке полно угрей
8979532
это очевидно
Glad to see this back, I really like the way you are portraying Nixon. Once upon a time you used to cross post this on Spacebattles. Any particular reason you stopped?
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/princess-luna-meets-neil-armstong-a-serious-attempt-at-exploring-a-silly-idea.312694/
*Concern Intensifies!*
So glad to see this update.
8978761 "... Without arms or armies..." --- Except for that Big Iron Guy, who reports to ME
Oh my god an UPDATE!!!!!
Today is officially, AWESOME!!!
i'd love to join in the people shouting about this story being alive, but considering your track record, i'm not convinced this isn't just rigor mortis.
\o/
Do remember to update the Spacebattes thread, too.
Interesting thing about Apollo 13: during the launch, one of the engines started experiencing something called 'pogo oscillations', which is where the engine pressure suddenly rises higher than designed, which slows down fuel flow, meaning the engine has less to burn, causing the pressure to drop too low, which results in too much fuel flowing into the engine, which in turn causes pressure to spike again even higher, and the whole cycle repeats, getting worse each time. In order to prevent an explosion, the computer turned off the engine. This resulted in more turbulence than normal. As a result, the crew were, amoung other things, ordered to check the oxygen tank levels more frequently, to check there wasn't any damage; each such check required first stirring the tank contents. The 3rd of these oxygen tank stirrings resulted in the explosion which, famously, nearly killed them all.
Now the interesting part: if the oxygen tank had been stirred only on the normal schedule, the 3rd stir would have happened while in orbit of the moon, with the lander on the surface, instead of on the outbound trip. This would have meant the lander would not have been available for use as a 'lifeboat', nor would its engines have been available to use in place of the possibly damaged command module engine.
So if the change in Apollo 13's mission profile prevents those pogo oscillations during launch - which is entirely possible; the oscillations weren't cause by any mechanical failure but by an unexpected interaction with the turbopumps, so a change in launch mass could mean that this launch, like 11 and 12 before it, doesn't have a problem - then it could result in a situation where Luna is picked up from the surface, but the disaster happens anyway, and she has to help them get back home alive without the resources they used in real life.
Some stories, when they update, I unlike them so I can add a brand new like. Its the next bes thing to liking it twice.
This kind of story is rare, and to cherished.
8979567
Everything, everything can go wrong...
8980541
...Just give the O2 tanks a little stir...
When Apollo 12 was mentioned as the rescue craft last chapter, I was struck with some sort of premonition that her rescue would be delayed.
Not only are 11 and 13 the most iconic of the Apollo missions (for vastly different reasons), the 13 was the most engaging from a literary standpoint. And it gives more to write during the actual rescue.
There needs to be some sort of tension for Luna, though, for it to work. It can't be "Luna saves everyone" at all times.
Also, good luck with writing the next chapter. I noticed this one was a lot shorter. (And I totally understand that. I continually leave my readers hanging. Life happens.)
I imagine that Luna could easily crash into an unseen barrier on the way up, while the craft continues...
God damn love this story and the concept for it. Really hope it isn’t another year for an update.
Heyo, this story isn’t dead.
8978985
Great signature, by the way. "Crunchy." Heh.
8978192
That would be the expected outcome, yes. Have you considered sabotage?
8981232 Yes, but NASA and the US government will as well. Remember, this is the era where it was assumed Soviets were EVERYWHERE. And, they kinda were. There will be quintuple checks of everything by multiple experts.
Well, that means Apollo 13 is going to be even more technically challenged with Luna there. Given the sheer technical difficulties of that mission, and the amount of research you'll probably have to put in to write this, I expect to see the chapter about 2022
8978192
Why do I suddenly have the mental image of a surprised and yelping Luna tossed plot-first into the pond?