Charlie sat there, stunned for a few minutes, along with the rest of Mission Control, at Buzz’s momentous news. Not only was there an alien on the Moon, it was telepathic—Telepathic, for heaven’s sake! What was this, a comicbook?—and apparently now spoke English.
Finally, he broke the silence. “No one hears about this,” he said with finality, looking around at everyone. “Breathe not a word about this until someone higher up tells you that you can.”
Murmurs of assent and uncertain nods were the response, and Charlie smiled without humor. “This day just keeps getting crazier, doesn’t it?” he asked to nobody in particular.
The President’s phone line crackled. “I... can’t say I was expecting that,” he said honestly, “But with this new development... I want to talk to her.”
“Yes sir,” Charlie said, once again putting the President on the line. All at once, the tables around which engineers and technicians gathered were perfectly silent. It was so profound, the crackling static of the phone line was the loudest sound in the large room.
“Mr. Armstrong,” he said, “I would like to talk to Luna. Can you arrange that?”
“Yes, sir,” Neil said. “Just one second.” He began muttering, along with sounds of the mike being taken off and adjusted, “If I turn up the volume on the headsets here, and the pickup on the mike all the way...” After a minute, he announced, “I think I have something that’ll work. Let’s try it.”
President Nixon cleared his throat. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” Neil and Buzz answered.
“Can the alien hear me?” he asked.
“Most assuredly,” her voice replied, in perfect American English. This was the final straw for some of the less mentally-strong on the NASA team, and a few thuds sounded as various members passed out.
“This device is fascinating,” Luna said, “I am most interested in its workings. Tell me, are you really on the planet below?”
“Yes, ah, ma’am, I am,” President Nixon affirmed. “My name is Richard Nixon. I am the President of the United States of America, the nation to whom Neil, Buzz, and the Lunar Module belong. As the head of state of the most powerful nation on Earth, I can say with certainty: Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“A head of state!” Luna said with joy. “This is a most pleasing meeting indeed.”
“Ah, yes,” Nixon returned, unsure as to what the best course of action would be after those planned few introduction sentences. “May I enquire as to your intentions?”
“My intentions, President Richard Nixon, are rather... shall I say, undetermined at this point?” She paused for a moment, and then continued with a determined voice, “To be frank with thee, my habitation here was not entirely of mine own choice, and this moon is rather barren and empty. I would be pleased to be able to visit this United States of America and return to the company of others. If, ah,” her voice turned uncertain, “That is agreeable with you.”
The President was obviously fighting hard to contain the victorious tones in his voice. “We would be glad to have you visit the United States,” he said happily. “I’m sure the Lunar Module can accommodate you if you wish, though it will be rather tight.”
“Space is no complaint with me,” she responded. “I shall continue with Neil and Buzz, then.” Some muffled noises, probably the astronauts moving in the background, made her pause. “What?” she asked loudly, and a whisper, unintelligible through the speakers, was audible.
“I will take my leave of you, President Richard Nixon,” she said distractedly. “Neil is advising me to remain quiet while they concentrate on the... ‘ascent stage.’ We shall converse at a later time.”
“Of course,” the President said seriously.
The line cut off, and Nixon said, “I’ll be sending Mission Control a list of questions to ask her as soon as we get them from the xenologist community we’re beginning to tap. Mr. Duke, I believe now is an appropriate time for you to leave—the car should be arriving at any moment.”
“Yes, sir,” Charlie replied.
“I have to hang up—I’ll see you in Hawaii, Mr. Duke.” A dial tone replaced his voice.
Charlie began to pack up his stuff, handed off his headset to someone else (his mind blanked on the man’s name), and headed out the back door to avoid a certain media firestorm in the front. He felt sorry for the people running the front room.
Out back, there was a nondescript black car, with blacked-out windows and unmarked license plates. Two burly guards stood by it, both sporting holsters and sunglasses.
“Charlie Duke?” one asked.
“That’s correct,” Charlie said, a slight feeling of unease tweaking his stomach.
The other opened the car door and gestured inside. “Get in.”
“Can I see some kind of ID?” Charlie asked, that unease now fairly roiling in his guts. Something was wrong.
The first man, the thinner of the two, said, “If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss the flight.”
The second threw his hands up. “We don’t have time for this! Get in the car.”
“Not until I see some proof that you’re from the President,” Charlie said nervously.
The first man sighed and began to rummage in his pockets. The second man was not so patient.
“Get in the car,” he ordered flatly.
The first man sighed, “What are you doing? Just let me get out my ID—“
The second man cut him off. “We don’t have time for this.”
Charlie froze as the man pulled his pistol and leveled it at him. “Get in the car.”
Well, this certainly looks like it's going to be fun. Can't wait for more, especially as this looks like it'll be much longer than the others.
Ah good. I was wondering when this would come out, and here it is.
I first pick up on this when I heard the reading (I cannot remember how to spell the name, but it was said as "applesauce") and so far, I love it.
*Squee*
i.imgur.com/hSYG3kZ.gif
Unless there were Russian spies in NASA during the Apollo 11 mission, and they tapped the phone line, I find it hard to believe that they already are in that car. I understand that the line may have been tapped before when Nixon first called.
Bad move luna is pretty much a goddess
I really do not understand this. The American space program was wide open; anybody who cared to know how it worked could find out easily. The Russians would know that Charlie Duke's expertise on aliens is coming from about an hour or so working as CAPCOM in Mission Control, i. e. next to nothing. The only difference between him and Gene Kranz is that Charlie had the live mike to Columbia and Eagle.
I just do not see the KGB blowing its assets to have agents get on the grounds of Johnson Space Center and kidnap Charlie Duke, triggering an international incident during the Cold War, for such a limited asset as Charlie.
3963135
I fully agree. This seems more along the lines of someone being an impatient dick used to having his orders obeyed. You don't have to be Russian to be a short tempered asshole.
Also, I would love to see a longer then normal chapter, with Luna having the Cold War and how it came about explained to her. You have to go back to World War 1 at least for it all to make sense.
Good thing they have three days to get to earth.
LULU Y U go A`WAY FROM TA MOONI
EUHEUHAUEHUAEHAUEHAE neds moer
So the story won't focus on Luna from now on?
like and favorite
I am not completely sure what you plan to do, however I am confident in your ability to accurately follow a logical set of steps. I am actually quite amazed that you have been able to follow a set of logical steps. Many people would crumble over the amount of research needed and the number of perspectives and minds you would have to account for.
I gotta see where you take this.
3963135 Yeah, he wouldn't be able to say much more than 'she speaks english, is a winged unicorn and telepathic'.
3964571
And miss the flight? Come on, at this point Charlie is probably at least a Presidental Cabinet level VIP. They don't 'miss flights'. Those get goverment owned private aircraft (usually USAF operated) to fly them on official business. If they have to fly commercial? Someone calls ahead and the plane doesn't leave till they are aboard.
3963071 Nope. Not a deity. Not saying I don't like her - I do.
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The concept of what a god and deity is isn't the same from one person to another.
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That would be Applesaws. And yes, his reading was awesome.
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Consider this: He's one of exactly two assets that has had any experience with aliens, period. And they're both American, so even that pitiful bit of experience is theirs. And the Soviets didn't exactly encourage ridiculous things like xenology (whoops!), so America has a vast edge on theoretical aliens, too.
Plus, Charlie is, notwithstanding all of this alien business, a reserve astronaut and member of the US military. As an astronaut, he has access to a not-inconsiderable amount of sensitive or classified information himself about the American space machine and the gadgets, doohickeys, and machinery that makes it work.
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This story won't, because, well, reading three days of American and world history exposition to Luna wouldn't be very fun or interesting. And the trip back isn't all that interesting, either, except for reentry.
No, the drama for these three days is on Earth. Once Luna gets down to the planet though-- hoo boy, just you wait.
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This was a personal challenge to me-- as an avid lover of history, I knew a good deal of this already, and once I saw how popular this was, there was no way I was giving it up because "Oh, the research is too hard!" Nope, not this brony here. I love althist, and writing an althist fanfic is pretty much what I enjoy doing in my free time anyway.
3965610 Exactly. Charlie's first inkling something is going on. It'll be explained more fully later, I assure you.
3966812 No, still doesn't work for me. One hour is still only one hour- and it's not even firsthand experience. Even your point about him being an astronaut doesn't hold water; there are plenty of Apollo-era astronauts who would be easier to grab, at their homes outside the JSC perimeter. Risking nuclear war- or, at minimum, revealing that they have a spy well-placed enough to listen in realtime to a secured line from the White House to NASA- for one measly hour of experience would be a phenomenally stupid thing to do. Even if he succeeds, the KGB agent who ordered this would be sent to the gulag as soon as he got home.
Okay, this is great, I really enjoy the chapters. Just wondering, though. How could any secret agent of the KGB get to mission control so quickly without the anybody noticing them as the government would have probably put mission control in lockdown after the discovery. They would also have guards to escort Charlie Duke to the car in hand. That's the only problem I have about the story, the goverment is so open to the media, but that's not how the goverment was back then, they were very quiet about what they did. Good job otherwise.
Well, I guess the suspense will be murdering me... slightly... I should be fine in a few hours. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this series so far, so thanks for writing something so fun.
3966891
3966970
First, technical speak is 'Officer,' as someone from Russia employed by the KGB. 'Agent' is for those said 'Officers' hire to get information or perform tasks.
Second, yes, an hour is FAR too little time for an actual operation to go through. Let's just say, a junior KGB agent got a little too eager about this opportunity, and threw something together.
There are old spies, and there are bold spies, but there are no old bold spies. Especially not stupid ones.
I just thought I'd mention that any conversation between the moon and earth would have a 1.5 second delay due to the speed of light. This is small, but quite noticeable.
"...The line cut off, and Nixon said, “I’ll be sending Mission Control a list of questions to ask her as soon as we get them from the xenologist community we’re beginning to tap. Mr. Duke, I believe now is an appropriate time for you to leave—the car should be arriving at any moment.”
It will be interesting to see just who you write in that they are pulling together for a xeno confab.
I'm sure Heinlein will not be surprised to get a call that his USN reserves commission has been invoked and activated, seeing as he had done consulting work for the fledgeling NASA years before and Aliens are his stock and trade. I am equally sure Dr. Hyneck(sp?) would find that his brand new pre-paid research project created specifically to debunk UFOs has been cancelled.. But good news, likely he would get double that contract to aid in studying an alien...
Who else would be there immediately? Asimov? Campbell? While Arthur C. Clarke has just as impressive a list of IRL science and military background to him, his being a non-US citizen would mean lots of red tape and CIA paranoia delaying him...
dam Ooooooo
Honestly, I would read about them just asking her questions.
3971826 Oh dear gods, a wildcat mission. I would assume the Junior KGB officer is a desk jockey, as no operational agent would consider pulling something this wild and wooly.
Also, putting together a science team, Asimov would almost certainly make the grade, as both a science fiction author and a multi-disciplinary scientist (seriously, his PHD might be in organic chaemistry, but he's written articles and even textbooks on everything from Astrionomy to Ancient Rome). Campbel would also be a good choice, Carl Sagan was already known within the scientific community by then, so he'd be perfect.)
Holy crap how did Russia get them in so fast?!
5485507 Reread your post, now I want you to ask yourself, how would they not have found him so fast?
Dun dun duuuuuuuun
Looks like Senator McCarthy was right, there are Soviet agents in America!
Yikes, give the man a minute to breathe. Sheesh.