"Fate has ordained that the women who went to the moon to explore in peace shall stay on the moon to rest in peace." - Richard Milhous Sombra, President of the United States
"This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing an astronaut on the moon and returning them safely to Earth."
- Excerpt of speech to US Congress by President Amore. It inspired her nation in such a way that her sucessor, Sombra, vowed to make it a reality.
The Space Race is considered by most to be the most ambitious undertaking in the history of humankind. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched a series of programs that aimed to advance scientific discovery and engineering by leaps and bounds, and push the world into a new age of exploration. It was almost the crowning achievement of our species.
Almost.
-Inspired by William Safire's contingency speech for Richard Nixon during the moon landings.
Also, The Martian, Gravity, and pretty much anything else space-related.
"Athena Eleven, we show all LM systems green down here, standing by for pre-sep check," Starswirl scanned the board in front of him, then shifted his gaze to the massive overhead display screens at the front of the room. The tension in the Appeloosa Mission Control Center was palpable.
"Roger CAPCOM, Solaria pre-sep complete," the voice of Sunny Skies rang throughout the room, distorted by two hundred thousand miles of solar radiation and dust.
"CAPCOM, Phoenix pre-sep complete, all green here." Selene chimed in, the excitement in her voice palpable despite her professional tone.
Starswirl turned from his console, glancing back to the second row at the Flight Director. Orion was busy discussing the mission's next phase with some NASA officials Starswirl didn't recognize. Everything had gone smoothly so far, the flight controllers on the ground and astronauts above had functioned together flawlessly, exactly as they had rehearsed for months. Still, every step they'd taken so far had been done before. This milestone would truly put them into unknown territory.
Nothing ventured... Orion nodded to Starswirl. "Go for seperation."
"Athena Eleven, you are go for sep," Starswirl spoke into his mic.
President Sombra strode to the podium amid shouts and flashbulbs. Head held high, chest out, jet-black hair sculpted to perfection, every move precisely calculated to extrude the kind of power one could only wield as leader of the free world. He had meticulously planned out every last detail of his image early on in his career at the Maryland state legislature. By the time he ran for governor, it came so naturally he didn't notice anymore.
Reaching the podium, he motioned for quiet. The shouting reporters gradually settled down. He usually loved this part. The District of Canterlot press corps were jackals, starving dogs who would tear apart an unwary public figure and feed on the corpse. Here, in the White House Press Room, he would toss them bits of meat, spin them tales to chase, point them at his enemies. He was a puppet master, a natural at manipulating them to further his plans.
But not tonight. Tonight was different.
"Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of the United States and the world, I stand before you with a heavy heart."
Starswirl eyed the navigational track on the overhead screen. "Descent Orbit Injection looks good, Phoenix. Showing plus one point four five Delta vee here, you'll have some extra gas for final descent burn."
Starswirl marked the time, then turned to the NAV controller. "How's she looking?"
Guiding Light's face scrunched up as he punched the numbers into his console. "She's umm, sixteen seconds early. Fast, but on profile. Should put her seventy-seven kilometers downrange, still within the Mare Tranquillitatis landing area. We can use the extra fuel from the DOI burn to correct."
"Thanks," Starswirl replied, running a hand over his stubbly chin. "Phoenix, Appleoosa," he began as he keyed the microphone, "NAV shows you sixteen seconds early. That puts you touching down long, but still in the footprint. We're running the numbers for a correction burn."
"Hmm, okay I see it now. Phoenix copies, Baby-Face."
Starswirl's mouth worked soundlessly as his fellow controllers chuckled. He hadn't heard that nickname in a long time. "Hey!" he cried, insulted. "We're not in the Air Force anymore. Besides, it's coming in quite nicely, thank you very much."
A melodious laugh chimed through the static. "Appleoosa, Solaria. Ten years and you're just growing one now. You were the one who showed up to the squadron with a name like 'the Bearded'. What did you expect to happen?"
"Gee, thanks Solaria." Starswirl replied, his sarcasm carrying through millions of dollars of electronics, over to a relay station in Australia, and out into the great beyond. "How is everything on your end, Sunny?"
"Quite well, thank you. Finished my enviromental check and I'm enjoying the view. Wish you could be up here to see it, the Sun's about to come over the horizon. Everything's in shadow, bu I can still make out the surface with the reflected light from Earth."
"I wish I could too," Starswirl said with a wistful smile. "That goes for all of us down here."
"...These two brave souls, Sunny and Selene Skies, risked everything to better all of mankind. They sought to carry a torch into the dark unknown, to expand our limits of understanding and guide our nation and species along its first uncertian steps into a new era..."
"Coming through ten thousand feet," Starswirl informed his colleauges.
Orion's steely voice cut through the background noise of the room. "Look alive, everyone. Phoenix goes to manual control at five, stand by for final Descent status check!" He began calling the names of the various controller positions, recieving a chorus of 'Go, Flight's in return. Satisfied, he gave an affirmitave nod to his capsule communicator. "Starswirl, Selene is go for descent."
"Phoenix, Appleoosa, you are go for final Descent."
"Copy, CAPCOM. Phoenix go for descent. I have the Sea of Tranquility in sight, but it's too far out to make out any landmarks in the landing zone."
"NAV has you dead on course, Sel," Starswirl replied, "correction burn did the trick."
"That it did, Appleoosa. Approaching five thousand feet aaaaaattt... mark. Autopilot off, DESCENT mode set, radar altimeter on. Phoenix beginning manual descent to landing."
Butterflies fluttered in Starswirl's gut. It's real now. One of his best friends was about to take humanity's first steps onto another world. He loosened his tie, suddenly very aware that the Mission Control Center needed a new air conditioning unit. This one seemed to be broken. "Appleoosa copies, Phoenix. We are showing a descent of seven hundred feet per minute, foward speed of seven five knots. Looks like a small amount of lateral drift to the left."
"Affirm, that checks with what I've got. Phoenix at four thousand feet, correcting drift."
The next few minutes crawled by. Orion stood near the back of the room, scanning the displays. Selene maintained a steady stream of height, velocity, and fuel callouts as she piloted the craft down to the lunar surface. Starswirl was the go-between, pinballing updates back and forth from Selene to the various controllers.
"Phoenix at one thousand feet, descent one five zero feet per minute."
"Looking good, Sel," Starswirl reassured her. "Right on target, nice and efficient."
"Radiation Alarm," Fresh Air's voice called out from the ENVIRO station, squashing the urgency in her voice. "Background EM just doubled."
Orion's eyes snapped to the yellow readout that popped onto the overhead display. "Looks well within margins," he stated, his commanding tone never wavering. "We're go."
"Phoenix, Appleoosa. You should've just gotten a radiation alarm, but nothing you can't handle. ENVIRO and FLIGHT are go."
"Speak for yourself. Unlike SOME people here, I can't pull off the no-hair look."
Starswirl rolled his eyes, but said nothing. Selene could make all the sarcastic quips she wanted, given her somewhat untouchable position of 'in-freaking-SPACE'. It was her way of dealing with the slightly increased stress of the moment. Had they been anywhere else, he would've fired right back with a quip of his own. While he couldn't needle her to the point of infuriation the way Sunny could, he was hardly the timid newbie they'd met in flight school. But right now she needed him and the rest of the Center laser-focused on their jobs, even if she was trying to provoke him out of stress. He simply moved onto his next task as Selene continued her descent to the Moon.
"...And while one day others may stand in their footprints, bringing all of humanity foward into the heavens, we will always honor the sacrifices made by these Sisters of the Sky..."
"Master Alarm! Flight Control Computer offline!" Thruster called out from the LM SYSTEMS console, her voice laced with panic. Starswirl froze. He suddently felt as if he had been drenched in ice-cold water. Up on the screen, a terrifying amount of red messages blinked brightly. The tension in the room exploded, erupting in a series of emergency calls from various stations.
Trying to make sense of what he was seeing, Starswirl called out to Selene. "Phoenix, this is Appleoosa, how do you copy?"
Orion snapped to Thruster's console like a lightning bolt, his commands instantly cutting through the commotion. "Talk to me, everyone. Thruster, what happened?"
"Electrical surge, sir. It just kicked all flight control and guidance offline."
"That EM radiation just spiked, sir," Fresh Air reported.
Guiding Light was next. "Phoenix is drifting. Selene's at seven hundred feet, descent is at three zero zero feet per minute and accelerating. Starting to pitch foward."
Fear flooding through his veins, Starswirl tried again. "Phoenix, Appleoosa. How copy?"
"Electrical surge..." Orion stated to noone in paticular, "must have kicked off the breakers. Main and emergency buses. Starswirl, can you reach Sunny? Ask her if she's got comms with Selene."
"Solaria, Appleoosa. Can you raise Phoenix?"
"Five hundred feet! Horizontal drift increasing."
The room was silent for a second, then Sunny's voice came through. "CAPCOM, Solaria. I have her. What's going on, Starswirl?"
"Electrical failure. We need her to reset breakers on buses, standby..." He looked to Orion as the director and Thruster hunched over a diagram, bouncing ideas back and forth and rapidly scribbling notes. A second later, Orion rushed to Starswirl's Capsule Communications desk. Spreading out a diagram of the lander's electrical system, he pointed to several circuit breakers circled in red pen. "Relay to Phoenix: reset breakers six-delta-nineteen, eight-mike-four, and two-alpha-one. Should get her at least backup RCS online."
"Six-delta-nineteen, eight-mike-four, two-alpha-one, copy. Relaying now." Sunny went silent as she switched to her short-range radio.
A pregnant pause. Everyone waited on baited breath to hear back from the two astronauts. The room was dead silent, except for the beeping displays and Guiding Light's warning call of "Three hundred!"
The entire room exhaled collectively as Selene's voice broke through the static. "CAPCOM, Phoenix is up. Descent engine offline, ascent engine offline, primary RCS offline, nav offline. Two zero zero and dropping."
Even as she spoke, Orion was already scribbling notes and handing them to Starswirl. Thruster and Guiding Light rattled off steps to correct the stricken lander's faults. Starswirl took the sheaf of paper. "Selene, we need you to reset breakers six-oscar-eleven and four-quebec-one. Then recycle the flight control computer, that should bring your engine online and let you brake."
Everyone's eyes were glued to the display screen, unable to look away as the lander's powerplant began to reset itself.
"Fifty feet!"
"FCC online. Warming up engine, bracing for impact."
Starswirl's mouth went dry. "Good luck," he wispered to his friend under his breath.
"Engine green, throttling up n--oh shi--"*ksssst*
Nothing but static. Starswirl felt bile rise in his throat.
"Impact Alarm, Phoenix has made contact with lunar surface," a voice rang out. He couldn't tell who. The people around him seemed dimmed out, like he was underwater. He keyed his mic with shaking hands.
"Phoenix, Appleoosa, check in. Do you read?"
A voice crackled over the airwaves, catching everyone by suprise. However, it wasn't Selene's. "Sel, a-are you there? Selene? ...Sister?"
"...not one moment of doubt for these heroes, and the brave men and women at NASA working tirelessly in the face of devastation to safely bring Sunny home. I speak now directly to our explorers above. Sunny Skies, you have faced tragedy the likes of which I cannot begin to comprehend. I, and the nation, wish you a safe and swift return home. The United States will stand beside you in your time of grief. Selene Skies. By now, you know there will be no rescue. No words I can offer will change or soften that fact. But know this, today you have broken the boundaries of what mankind once thought to be the very limit of possibility. Your sacrifice will be remembered, and it will not be in vain. Thanks to you, every human that looks up at the stars until the end of time shall know that there is some small part of Olympus that humanity calls home."
"I am sorry, but there will be no questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, good night and God bless America."
"Are we there yet??" A singsongy voice called out from the back seat. The little girl knew perfectly well that 'we' were not, in fact, there yet, but she was wide awake and needed something to pass the time. Pestering her father was as good a something as any.
"Not yet, sweetheart," Starswirl replied. As much as she and her sister tried, they could never get a rise out of their dad. He never raised his voice, never showed frustration or annoyance with their antics. Their mother was different, her current favorite saying was 'I created you, and if you don't knock that off RIGHT NOW, I will end you'. Starswirl was the family's designated peacekeeper. He simply smiled at his daughters through the rearview mirror and flicked on the sedan's turn signal for the upcoming left into the Appleoosa suburbs.
"How 'bout now?"
"Almost, dear. Just five more minutes. Please keep your voice down, your sister is sleeping."
"Fiiiiiine," she sighed at the grave injustice, opting instead to roll the rental's rear window up and down. Hot, dry Texas air washed through the car at regular intervals. At least it's warm here, Starswirl thought as he clicked off the now-useless AC and lowered his own window. The District of Canterlot was currently in the last throes of an absolutely brutal winter. The girls had been ecstatic to see snow for the first time, but it was mid-March and there was still a foot of the stuff on the ground. Starswirl had never been happier to get out of town for the weekend, even if it meant braving an international airport during Spring Break with two excitable children in tow.
Starswirl slowed in front of a ranch house and began to pull into the driveway.
"Now are we th--"
"We're here sweetie, see? Can you wake your sis for me while I grab the bags?"
Starswirl put the car in park and walked around to the trunk. As he pulled out three overnight bags, a mop of blue hair in the backseat scooted over to the sherbert-swirl across from her and began agressively poking her.
"Hey. Hey. Hey dummy. We're here. Wake up. Wa--"
"Okay, I'm up! I'm up!"
He rolled his eyes as he walked toward the house, waving at the pink-haired woman sitting on the porch swing. "Starswirl!" She called out, jumping up from her seat and embracing him. "Good to see you again! How are you?"
"Fine, fine, just happy to be out of DC for a bit," Starswirl replied as he returned the hug. "It's good to see you too, Sunny. It's been too long. How's everyth--"
"AUNT SUNNY!!!" Twin shrieks split the air as two chest-high blurs dove into Sunny Skies' abdomen. She stumbled back, letting out an exaggerated 'oof!' and wrapping her arms around the two girls now clutched to her like barnacles.
"Celestia! Luna! Wow, you two got HUGE! I don't think I can carry you both anymore! Starswirl, what are you feeding them!?" She carefully set them both down on the porch. "How old are you girls now?"
"Six!"
"Seven!"
"Six and seven? No way!! I swear, the last time I saw you, you were both in diapers!"
Celestia giggled. "It hasn't been that long, Aunt Sunny."
"Hmm, maybe I'm just getting old and forgetful," Sunny made a face at the girls, eliciting more giggles from Celestia. Even Luna, always the grump, let a smile slip. "CADANCE!!" Sunny called her daughter through the screen door, "THE GIRLS ARE HERE!"
Sunny and Starswirl sat peacefully on the porch furniture, enjoying a pitcher of sweet tea and the East Texas weather as their various children ran to the backyard to plot yet another round of mischief and property destruction. The District of Canterlot teaching staff and PTA already coined a nickname for Starswirl's two girls: the Twin Terrors of Canterlot Elementary. They were now surely working thier dark magic to corrupt sweet little Cadance, who was such an absolute angel and Sunny refused to hear any words to the contrary, thank you very much. Never mind that the second the girls saw each other Sunny suggested they all go play in the back. She leaned back and sipped her tea. "These are truly the best times."
"When the girls get to see each other?"
"When I get a minute to myself." She grabbed a handful of her pink locks. "This used to be less 'salmon' and more 'bubblegum'. Cadie's the best thing that's ever happened to me, but that girl has some serious energy."
Starswirl chuckled. "Try two of them. I thought it'd be easier, that they'd even each other out or at least keep them occupied, right? You know, competition for limited resources; the best toys, the top bunk, their parents' approval and all that?"
"Not so much?"
"Hell no. They make each other worse. I just got a note sent home from their school. Some boy wouldn't share a soccer ball or something with Luna, I don't know. So Celestia chats him up, and when he's distracted, Luna sneaks up behind him, knocks him down, and they both steal it from him. It's not just misbehaving, Sunny. They're organized."
"That's... actually pretty impressive," Sunny admitted. "You should be proud of them. I think."
"Oh, I am. You try explaining that at a parent-teacher conference, though."
After a few treasured moments of silence, she spoke again.
"So, Celestia and Luna, huh? I don't think I've ever asked before, but why those names?"
Starswirl grinned sheepishly. "Well, Celestia was originally going to be Selene, but when she was born, she just looked so much like you we had to name her after you. And then since we already used your callsign, when Luna was born Laur asked what Selene's callsign was, and, well..."
"And does Lauren know how my sister got that nickname?" Sunny asked with a mocking grin.
Starswirl's blood ran cold. "No. And she never will. I'm not sure I believe that story myself. I flew the T-33 in training too, and there's just not enough room in the cockpit of that jet to pull off something like that."
Sunny let out a barking laugh. "Wait a second," she said, walking inside.
She returned a moment later, handing Starswirl an old instant photograph. "What's this?" He looked at her quizzically.
"Proof."
The colors on the picture were fading, but it clearly depicted a silver fighter aircraft in flight, obviously taken from another plane in formation. Starswirl's eyes wandered to the machine's bubble canopy, which had two round pale-blue cheeks pressed firmly against it.
"No..."
"Yes," Sunny chuckled.
"That poor tanker crew..."
"They called it 'the Nightmare Moon incident.' It's still an urban legend at the base."
"Luna can never know about this. Ever." Starswirl pleaded. "This secret is buried with us."
"If she found out her namesake pulled off something like that, she'd never wear pants again," Sunny mused. "She'll be trouble, that one."
"You don't say. I'm not looking foward to her teen years." Another silence as they both sat, enjoying each other's company. Eventually, Sunny spoke up, poking at the elephant in the room that had gone unmolested their last few visits.
"So... How's work?" She asked. An innocent enough question.
"We're making some progress. NASA still can't get the budget to launch a parade float, but we've got the Air Force on board to fit most of the bill."
She raised her eyebrows at that, suprised. "Really? Why would they care about a few pieces of wrecked ten-year-old tech? It's not like the PR would be worth the expense of a launch."
"Sunny, I know this is important to you, but do you really want to know this? I mean, after the mission it took you so long to--"
"I'm a big girl, Baby-Face." Sunny chided. Starswirl's hand subconciously went to his chin, as if to reassure himself that his luxurious dark beard was still there. "I love my sister, and with her gone I'll always feel like a part of me is missing, but its been a long time. I mourned her, and I learned to live with it. So tell me why the Pentagon is so interested in her corpse."
"Well, that's the thing... I didn't want to say anything until we were absolutely sure, and there's so much uncertianty at this stage--"
"Just tell me. I can take it." Sunny's patience was wearing thin.
"Okay, let's take this from the beginning," Starswirl said as he withdrew a few photographs from his shirt pocket. While he had wanted to avoid this conversation, he still came prepared. "You remember the anomalies around the landing? The things we couldn't explain?"
"That EM spike that caused Sel's crash?"
"Well, that and a few other things. First, why would there even be any radiation like that on the Moon in the first place? It's a barren rock, it doesn't have a magnetosphere. Also, you made contact with Sel on her spacesuit's short-range radio, but when you came back from the Moon's far side, she was just gone. It only took fifteen minutes for your orbit to bring you back around. Even if she ran out of air in that time, her suit still had plenty of power. We should've gotten a flatline signal or something."
"Star," Sunny asked softly. "Isn't this kind of grasping here?"
"That's what I thought at first. Conspiracy-nut porn. Then, an old Air Force friend showed me this."
He slid her the first photo, a satellite view of the Sea of Tranquility. Sunny frowned. She recognized the landing site, but it was zoomed too far to make out any details of the lander. Then, she jerked in suprise as she noticed the lunar dust around the area was discolored, making it appear that the entire site was sitting inside a giant six-pointed star.
"That's new."
"You don't say. Its only visible at certian levels of zoom, and the Air Force has a lot more discretion with what they release to the public than NASA," Starswirl stated. "I met with them, showed them what I had, and it whipped enough interest for a probe."
"I get it. Listen, I asked for this, but you don't have to show me pictures of her body."
"No, that's not it." Starswirl's mouth worked soundlessly for a second as he tried to find the words. "You have to understand that nobody has any idea what this means yet, but we didn't find a body."
"...What?"
"There's no body at the crash site. Look," he spread the rest of the pictures in front of her. They were all taken from a roving probe. Sunny saw pictures of the tipped-over lander, then footprints in the dust as the probe had followed Selene's final steps. Then she saw the last two pictures, and her jaw dropped.
In the center of the second-to-last picture, a giant, glowing crystal sat protruding out of the lunar surface. It gave the barren ground around it an odd teal tint. Sunny spotted her sister's bootprints leading up to the alien rock and an American flag planted into the dust next to the thing. She grabbed the other one. The rover had rolled right up to the crystal. Its claw arm was visible in the picture frame, reaching out and touching the same six-pointed starburst shape indented into the facet. The crystal looked wrong, somehow. Sunny's eyebrows furrowed as she realized she was looking at a ripple effect in what should've been a glassy, solid surface.
"What... what is this?"
"I don't know. Nobody knows," Starswirl admitted. "But we're going to find out. NASA and the DoD are in the process of finalizing the budget for a manned mission. They'll announce the Orion Program to the public next year. Leaving out the real reason, of course."
"We're going back?"
"We're going back."
"Starswirl, I..." Sunny blinked tears out of her eyes. "I can't thank you enough for trusting me with this. But I can't get involved. It took me so long to finally move past her... I have a family now, I can't put all my hopes on this only to find out... I can't go through that again. I barely survived the first time, I won't make it a second."
"I know. And you won't have to. That's why I'm here." Starswirl put his hand on her shoulder. "Besides, we're both too old for space anyways," he said, smiling.
Sunny gave a weak chuckle. "Speak for yourself, I could still hack it. But I could never leave Cadance."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." He stood up suddenly, hearing Luna's distant wail about somebody 'cheating'. "I'd better go check on them."
