This story is a sequel to The Eagle Has Landed
When President Nixon orders, you obey. And now that he wants Luna on the LM and heading home, how is Neil ever going to convince her to follow?
But it doesn't even get that far, as an innocent mistake endangers the mission.
And even as the mission is endangered, tensions are rising back on Earth. While the drama plays out in Mission Control, just what is going on behind the Iron Curtain?
No one knows, but it's certainly not conducive to Apollo 11's welfare.
Sequel here.
Chapters (4)
I love this! Thank you very much for the story and keep it up!
Okay, this was wonderful. And I hope for a bit more of Luna's perspective, or possibly some actual dialogue once they're back on the shuttle.
And I can't wait to see what happens next.
3877408 I'm not even sure if they can speak the same language. But yes, more of Luna's perspective would be nice.
3877821
They communicated well enough in the first story.
3877828 Not so much in this one, though. She has yet to say a single line so far. And she didn't seem to immediately grasp what was wrong when his suit got torn, even when they were in the LM.
3877842
Well, she didn't have any problem in the absence of atmosphere. It's only reasonable it would take her a while to realize they did.
Yes! The sequel has begun!
The Sequel has landed. I repeat, the sequel has landed.
This is pretty good! I just love the suspense of waiting for what will happen!
Oh Luna, you probably just killed him...
One small step for Luna
. . .
Wait the sequel's out now?!
barefoottriathlete.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/awesome-day.gif
I can't wait for more.. This has my attention.
YUS! I was beginning to thing FiMFic had shut down it's update feature, since none of my tracked stories have updated for a goodly while
.
.
But then this story came, and it couldn't have been a better end to the dry spell that's been my inbox
I think there is an "unlike" missing.
Also, I think that the come here is not needed. But I am not that good at punctuation so I might be wrong.
Okay, so that's the scene set. What has happened I wonder?
My guess is that the Elements somehow duplicated Luna in two places - the one we know and this echo of her in our universe, but that's just a guess. It's just as likely this is an AU.
It must be a bit of a tight squeeze in the Eagle right now. There's just enough room for three if Luna is sitting on top of the ascent engine's machinery enclosure (an approximately 3-foot diameter cylinder extending up about a foot from the cabin floor). The accommodations on Columbia are going to be even more cramped, but there should be room enough for her under the crew couches in the storage area just above the heat shield. Even so, everyone is going to get very familiar with everyone else on the 84-hour journey to Earth.
So, the people have just got their first taste (of many, I think) of unicorn magic.
3878820 One... giant leap for Nixon's polls.
3880147
Well yeah, Nixon would be able to get away with whatever if he was incharge during first contact.
Watergate? Who the hell cares! Aliens, man!
How much does Luna weigh in this universe? I'm dubious that they would have enough fuel in the Lander to rendezvous with the CSM.
This is such a great idea for a story. I can't wait to see how you handle it from here.
Outstanding! You're fixing the only problem with the original story - that it was only one chapter!
A most lovely continuation!
3880153 Watergate was seriously overblown.
Especially when you dig into history and find out the stuff other Presidents got away with.
Epic looking forward to more of this!
I'm intrigued by this concept. It's fun and fanciful. With a few spelling and grammar correction, it could be even better. I will be watching this story. If it keeps up this way, it will join my favorites.
I sense a great number of highly expensive items will be thrown out of the LEM in rapid sequence, causing scientists around the US to scream in agony. The question is just how many pieces of cake did Luna eat before being sent to the moon? If they can't throw away enough stuff to make the return trip with the fuel they have, they're severely screwed. Reminds me of a movie where there was a kid who stowed away on one of the Apollo missions, Stoway to the Moon.
3878868
Why, thank you for the compliment!
3881733
Please, if anyone here notices any spelling or grammar issues, PLEASE quote them and point them out so I can fix them. These are not beta'd (speaking of, any volunteers for betaing?
), so sometimes errors slip through despite my best efforts.
I hope luna would learn all about Humanity!
Needs to be "Than".
I sympathize, I hate it when typos like that slip through into my work. Hopefully others will get any more I might have missed.
Also, good work! I'm enthralled, and honestly very, very excited for the next installment.
Dis gun be good!
I'm probably the only one that could possible be bugged by this, but heat transfer doesn't work that way...
Heat can be transferred through conduction, convection, or radiation. Or it can be generated or dispersed through pressure changes. Conduction and convection are non-issues, as air is the transfer medium here, and the suit is positively pressurized, meaning that warm air is leaving. And with no outside supply of air, there is no temperature change due to this. Radiation is out as a factor due to the fact that most of the surface area of the suit is still intact, and you don't need a seal to prevent radiant heat transfer.
Neil would experience a few degrees of temperature drop from the depressurization; but he would suffocate long before that even became noticeable. Of course, he would also become light headed, dizzy, get tunnel vision, and if it's a large leak he could even get a case of the bends.
On a last note - Something most people don't realize is that a vacuum is the most perfect insulator available. Without any matter to transfer energy through conduction or convection, radiation is the only means to reduce an objects energy. And that is by far the slowest way to cool down.
I think you got the depressurization danger wrong. And the part about temperature, for that matter.
Heat transfer happens via convection and infrared light, so any rapid cooling action would be the result of the boiling off of water from direct exposure to the vacuum as described in the first article; if only the pressurizing part of the suit was torn into, that wouldn't be happening, and if it was, it would not merely be his arm that would be experiencing the problem.
I'm not actually an expert in the subject, but I just know enough that presenting insta-freeze as the primary danger here is wrong.
Looking forward to more, regardless.
There would not have been very little noise until the vessel actually landed, and then it would be transmitted through the ground and be very muted. The moon's atmosphere is too thin for any sort of loud noise.
3883187 You are not the only one. It always bothers me when some bases a plot point on a misunderstanding of science. Much like the movie Gravity come to think of it.
One other issue, in the first chapter you are writing from Luna's perspective which means you should only include information that she knows. She has no way of knowing the astronauts names. they should be referred to as 'the alien creatures.'
I'll follow it for now, but am withholding a like until both issues are fixed.
So if I got this right........"one small step for man, one 'giant leap' for princess Luna."
This is looking to be my new favorite fim fic!!!!
I absolutely LOVE the concept and am looking forward to every chapter in the future!!
A warning for the future however........
You currently have this set up as LUNA FROM A THOUSNAD YEARS AGO. So don't confuse the current Luna with the 'old timey' Luna. She comes from a time when there was NO TECHNOLOGY, she was co-ruler of a DIARCHY, and is currently coming from a time that was full of fighting and survival (discord, Sombra, etc.). That last one could be a "common ground" that could be gained between herself and the humans. Also....... You know....... "We liked the moon so much we wanted to go there!!!".............<.<....... Not really but you get the point.
Is this story somehow being written backwards though time? Should I expect the next chapter a couple days ago?
3878783
or accidentally declared war.
Welp, now we know what the 'stars' really were!
Vivas Homo Sapiens!
3879455
The extra comma isn't necessarily wrong from a strictly grammatical point of view, since it does indicate a separation of two clauses in the sentence -- but it does read oddly. Me, I'd have written it like this
No, you're right. Partially, anyway.
Also, a note to the author:
A character directly expressing their inner thoughts as a line of "silent" dialogue should be italicized to set them off from the body of the text, like so:
...aaaaand, it looks like your paragraph formatting got hosed up somewhere along the line; most of your start-of-paragraph indents are gone. (Probably from importing from GoogleDocs; it seems to enjoy screwing up paragraph separations for some reason.)
3884931 Both, maybe?
Yes! A SEQUEL!!!! THE FUN HAS BEEN DOUBLED!
I'm liking this. My only complain is that it feels a little short.
I'm curious as to why Buzz or Neil haven't commented on the fact that a space horse is surviving with no air in 100 C temperatures.
Hmm... how heavy would Luna be? How much delta-V does it take to go into Lunar orbit. How much delta-v does it take to return to Earth from Apollo Lunar Orbit? How efficient are the Columbia/Eagle engines?
3884957 ahh, I see what u said there.
3886198
The temperature of outer space is actually around 4 Kelvin (~ -269 degrees Celsius)
3892000
Correct, if they were in DEEP space. Did you forget where they are?
They're not in space, they're on the moon that's being illuminated and heated by the sun. The temperature gets to roughly 100 C.
3892014
But the moon has no atmosphere, the vacuum is 4 Kelvin while the surface of the moon is about -100 degrees Celsius
3892036
Incorrect. Only deep space, devoid of light and energy, is it 4 Kelvin, the moon does have an atmosphere, even if it is a thin one, and the moon's temperature drops to ~-180 C, but that's it's absolute coldest and not heated by the sun.
Which it does. The sun is there. Look up. Does it somehow not warm the moon?
No, because that's foolish. Science agrees with me.
3885177 3882780
Thanks for showing me those! They'll be fixed shortly. Also, regarding the paragraph indents-- It's annoying, but not exactly incorrect as such, so I think I'll just let that one pass. I don't want to have to tab every single paragraph in the story.
3892069
3883187
3883188
The idea is, Neil actually has about 7 hours of air remaining (and about half that without any CO2 recycling). Even with a suit breach, he has quite some time before all that air escapes. But the air being replaced has been in his air pack, not heated as much as Neil's body itself was (There was no need for it), and in fact some of it was liquid O2 to save space for the initial oxygen-- and liquid O2 is very, very cold. Therefore, as air gets rapidly replaced from the suit breach, it is colder. As such, Neil starts losing body heat rapidly as the air has no time to get heated while in his suit. Just a general description based on my understanding of the A7L suit. And if, well, that's incorrect, it's a bit late to change that now.
And as for Luna knowing Neil's name, this part takes place after they've exchanged names. It was her musing on the recent past, but she does know his name.
3892069 Yes, the sun does warm the Moon, but not so much its extremely thin atmosphere-- the rays just pass right through it. The surface of the Moon is hot-- the space more than a few feet above it, not so much. Hotter than deep space, yes, but definitely not 100 C.
3893106
Considering she hasn't frozen, it's safe to say she hasn't burned either; 100 C can scald flesh. Considering she previously said she exhausted all means of fun, that leaves one of mankind's favorite past times: dreaming. You sleep lying down, not standing on your feet, or hooves in this case.
Even so, her body can still conduct the heat from the moon's surface, be it the dark side or the light side, disregarding magical interference of course. Considering we landed on the light side, I conclude that's where she was. She did say they landed not too far from her "resting spot" after all. It's more typical to rest lying down, not standing up.
I assume she uses magic to keep herself alive, but I'm fairly certain she spent her time in 100 C heat, at least for the moments preceding the landing.
On a side note, don't forget about the decontamination procedures. The entire lunar crew was quarantined and checked for possible intergalactic biological contaminants. With Luna on board, that compounds the necessity.