Stars & Empire 2: 10 More Galactic Tales (Stars & Empire Box Set Collection) Page 10
“We understand, Mission Control,” Jason replied. “We’ll get back to you shortly.”
“What kind of supplies did you have in mind?” asked Greg, curiously. There just wasn’t much room in the lander to store too much more.
“The wrecked spacecraft has a number of compartments that are airtight. Particularly the Command Center and the immediate area around it. If we had a proper power source, some oxygen containers, and another air recycler, we could repressurize part of it. Even if it’s just the Command Center, we would have a lot more room than the lander. It would also give us an opportunity to explore that wreck. That would give us something to do for the next four months.”
Greg was quiet as he considered the possibility. “If we had the right equipment we could learn a lot. It would definitely be a lot better than sitting around inside this lander for four months.”
“Then let’s work on a supply list,” Jason suggested. “I think Tom already suspects something isn’t right. When he sees the list of supplies we’re requesting, he’s probably going to suspect that we have found something significant. If they know about the interference, which I suspect they do, it won’t be too hard for them to put two and two together.”
For the next several hours, they put together a list of supplies they would need. They were figuring on one drone for basic supplies such as oxygen, food, water, clothes, and other necessities. The second drone was all supplies to explore the crashed ship with.
When they were through with their list, Jason contacted Mission Control once more. He waited as Tom was summoned and they began going over the list. When Tom heard what they were requesting for the second drone, he became very quiet.
“We’ll do as you ask,” he said finally. “I think I comprehend the importance of all this equipment. It sounds as if you want to set up a habitat away from the lander. I can understand you and Greg not wanting to stay in those cramped quarters for four months. There are a few more things you haven’t thought of that we’ll include to help. Is there anything else?”
“Not at the moment,” Jason replied. “We’ll let you know if we think of something.”
“What do you think?” Greg asked after they finished talking to Mission Control.
“Tom obviously suspects we’ve found something,” Jason replied. “I felt that when I was talking to him.”
“Then I guess now all we have to do is wait,” commented Greg, glancing around the small confines of the lander. “I wish I had brought a deck of cards.”
Jason smiled and reached down into a small compartment next to his seat. He had a few personal items stored there. He pulled out an unopened deck of playing cards. “Poker?” he asked, gazing innocently at Greg.
“Sure,” Greg replied with a smile. Maybe these next two weeks wouldn’t be so bad after all.
-
Two weeks later, they watched as the first drone slowly descended and landed a little over one-mile from the lander. A short time later, the second drone also landed but in the opposite direction. They had instructions to go immediately to the first drone.
Using the lunar rover, they reached the drone and quickly opened it. Inside the small cargo compartment were numerous small containers and cylinders. The cylinders obviously contained oxygen. The rest of the containers were all labeled with a list of their contents.
It took them three trips to bring everything to the lunar lander. Once at the lander, they moved several of the containers inside. There was one small container about the size of a briefcase that was labeled open first.
Once safely inside, Jason opened the small container. The container held the latest laptop with expanded memory and graphics and a folder marked "Urgent Read First."
Opening the folder, Jason discovered that it contained a long list of possible scenarios that they might have encountered on the Moon.
“This is one hell of a list,” Greg commented as they read it. “Everything from competitors from Earth to alien contact. Someone has a really good imagination down there.”
“It looks like Tom and his people tried to cover all the bases,” Jason replied as he read the list.
There were over two hundred different scenarios listed. Each one had a code at the end that was to be transmitted to Earth. It looked as if the list started with the most likely scenario down to the least likely.
“Here’s what we need,” Jason said finally. “Wrecked alien spacecraft discovered, no survivors. Code 187ASD.”
“What if there had been survivors?” Greg asked, thoughtfully.
“Easy,” Jason replied. “The one directly below that says wrecked alien spacecraft discovered, alien survivors.”
Greg opened another small container he had brought on board. He smiled as he handed Jason a medium sized bulb of drinking water. They each had one and felt much better afterwards. They had been rationing their water very carefully for days.
-
They transmitted the code to Mission Control, knowing it was going to stir up a lot of questions and excitement. For nearly an hour, there was no response. Finally, Tom came back on the radio.
“Jason, we recognize the code. Will you confirm it, please?”
Jason retransmitted the code once more. Then they waited.
“Thank you, Jason; you’ve stirred up quite a ruckus down here. The laptop in the container contains a set of codes we’ll be using to communicate with from now on. We’re also setting up a more secure channel for communication. Activate the laptop and follow the instructions there.”
Jason did so. The first thing Greg and he saw was a request for a detailed report of everything that had transpired since they had crashed on the Moon. For nearly four hours, the two worked on the report. When they felt it was as complete as possible, they hit the transmit icon on the laptop. They had also included their plans to move to the wreck and try to make a small section of it livable.
For nearly eight hours, there was no communication with Earth. Several times Jason was tempted to establish radio contact, but something told him to wait.
“I guess we really stirred up a hornet’s nest down there,” mumbled Greg, wishing they would hear something. He was also thinking how long four months were going to be without seeing his family.
It was a few minutes later that the laptop chirped, indicating that it was receiving an incoming message. What it said surprised both of them.
“They got the president involved,” Greg commented, his eyes widening. That wasn’t too surprising. This was something that couldn’t be kept away from the government.
“They’re going to modify the experimental lander that’s still in the test facility,” spoke Jason, reading aloud. “They’re sending four specialists to aid in our investigation of the wreck. Four weeks until they can get here.”
“I guess they’re going to strand them here with us,” Greg commented. It would be nice to have four more people to talk to. However, this did bring up the question of how Mission Control planned to get all six of them back home.
“They’re also sending a lot more equipment and supplies. All of it will be landed in the crater where the crashed ship is. It looks as if they’ll be launching one supply drone per week once they get started.”
“That’s one hell of a lot of money someone is shelling out,” responded Greg, thinking about the cost to send something to the Moon.
Jason leaned back and smiled. “Yes, it is, but look at what we’re going to get to do. Just think about what we might learn in the alien ship, especially if we can get the computer working again.”
The two took a few moments to think. They would be making history. This was where the human race first made contact with an advanced civilization! The key questions were how was this civilization a human one, and where was it located? The galaxy was a big place. They also wondered what had caused the ship to crash. Had it been in a battle with another spacecraft? There were so many unanswered questions.
Greg opened up another container that had his name
on it. Inside were several pictures of his family as well as a private letter from his wife. He gazed for a long moment at the picture of his infant son. Greg looked out one of the viewports in the direction of the crater that contained the wrecked spacecraft. Someday, when his son was old enough, he might travel to the stars. The secret to that was resting in the crater thirty miles distant. Greg leaned back and smiled; the future looked extremely bright.
-
On the wrecked alien spacecraft, a small dim light was glowing on a console. The ship’s AI was fully activated. The AI had carefully watched the two humans in the Command Center. It had made sure the computer listed the remaining power on its list of ship systems. It had wanted to see if these new humans were capable of figuring out how to shut off the emergency beacon. They had passed the test, and now the AI waited. It had its own internal power source. It had much to tell this new human race.
_o0o_
Moon Wreck: Revelations
Chapter Three
Jason stood in his spacesuit at the top of the ridge, gazing down at the wrecked spaceship in the crater. It was still difficult to accept that a spaceship manned by humans had crashed here on the Moon many years ago. The main section of the wreck was on the far side of the crater and relatively intact. There were so many unanswered questions. Where had the ship come from? What was it doing here? Why was it manned by humans? What had caused it to crash? Jason took a deep breath and shifted his mind back to the job at hand. Those questions would have to wait for a while.
He was using a special camera sent up by Mission Control to take photos of all the different wreckage scattered across the mile wide crater. The wreckage was covered with lunar dust, and there was a massive amount of debris. Jason wondered if there had been an explosion in the ship, which had split it into multiple pieces. Greg was down on the floor of the crater walking from one mangled piece of wreckage to the next as Jason took photos. Greg would stop and stand by a piece of wreckage so they would have something to show the comparative sizes of the debris they were taking pictures of.
“I think it’s about time to go back in,” Greg complained over his suit radio. “I’ve walked all over this crater today. I didn’t realize there was so much wreckage.”
Jason laughed and nodded his head in agreement. It had been a long day. “Get over to that next large piece that looks like part of an engine assembly. Once we have that one recorded, we can go in. Mission Control wants images of everything.”
Greg trudged over to the indicated piece of wreckage. After reaching it, he turned to face Jason. He could just barely make out Jason’s white, spacesuited figure on top of the ridge.
After the last photograph was taken, Greg waited patiently as Jason made his way carefully back down to the floor of the crater. Once the two were together, they turned and started walking toward the large wreck against the crater wall. They had discovered the wrecked human spaceship a little over four weeks ago after their lunar lander had crash-landed on the Moon. The wrecked spaceship had detected their descent and activated an emergency beacon. Its broadcast had disabled all the computer systems in the lander, causing the crash.
“I still can’t believe this ship is here,” spoke Greg, looking at the looming wreck.
“Well, it is,” replied Jason.
It had been a busy four weeks, which had been a good thing. That had helped to take their minds off their families down on Earth. Even so, with everything they were trying to accomplish they still thought about their loved ones, knowing it would be months before they saw them again.
A few minutes later, the two approached the wrecked spaceship. For the last three weeks, the two of them had been photographing and exploring the accessible sections of the ship. In two more days, the refurbished lunar lander from Earth would be landing with four more explorers. Then all six of them would be stranded on the Moon for at least another three months until a new lander and command module could be made ready for the rescue mission. The U.S. government had stepped in and furnished literally unlimited funding for the current mission and the retrieval. The technology inside the wrecked spaceship had been incentive enough to get the government heavily involved.
They entered the ship through the large airlock they had discovered when they first found the wreck and made their way down several long corridors. They had rigged up some emergency lighting powered by several large solar panels to furnish a dim light in the corridors. The solar panels had been sent up on one of the supply drones after Jason and Greg had reestablished contact with Mission Control.
They reached their destination, which were two small rooms with a portable airlock attached. The airlock had also been sent up on one of the supply drones. After a few minor modifications to the airlock, they had managed to seal off several rooms to live in. The idea of being cooped up in the lunar lander for a number of weeks had been extremely unappealing.
After passing through the airlock, they entered the sealed compartments and began removing their suits. They were in a small, twelve by fourteen foot room, with another room of the same size visible through an adjoining door. These two rooms had been their living quarters for the last several weeks.
“Home sweet home!” said Greg as he sat down in a comfortable chair, glad to be able to get off his feet. He reached down and began massaging his right ankle. “Glad we’re still not cooped up in the lander.”
“I agree,” Jason replied as he sat down behind a desk they had managed to carry in. The desk had a laptop and printer on it as well as other documents. There were numerous photos spread out across the desk of some of their more interesting discoveries.
They had found several chairs and other furnishings, which they had moved into the rooms to make them more livable. Power for the rooms came from a solar power bank they had set up outside, and a small air recycler kept their air fresh and breathable. A small self-contained heating unit kept the rooms warm.
“I want to try to go deeper into the center of the ship tomorrow,” said Jason, studying some printouts he had made of their explorations so far. He laid the tip of his finger on a photo. “If we can get through this large sealed door, we should be able to access the center section.”
Greg nodded his head in agreement. “I wish we could power up that computer in the Command Center. It’s bound to have a lot of stored information we could access. Maybe we could find out what happened to this ship and where it came from.”
“I agree,” replied Jason, laying down a printout and looking over at Greg. “But we don’t dare risk activating the emergency beacon again. One of the people coming up on the lander is a computer expert, and two of the others are engineers. Hopefully, they can help us to bypass or turn off the emergency beacon so it won’t come back on. Colonel Marten Greene is the pilot, and he has a pretty solid background in communications.”
Greg nodded. It had been a good idea to move into the ship. They had managed to explore several areas, but the center section, as well as the weapons areas, were still locked down. They had stayed out of the damaged areas for the time being, not wanting to risk getting trapped by the wreckage. Tomorrow, they would try one more time before the other crew arrived to access the center section.
So far, they had found no more bodies in their exploration of the crashed spaceship. It was obvious that all the bodies had been removed except the commander, who was in the small room off the Command Center. The big question was, had the bodies been removed by a rescue ship or were they waiting for them inside the center section? The more they had explored, the more obvious it became that this was a ship of war. It was heavily armored with numerous bulkheads and hatches. From their explorations outside, they estimated that there were over sixty weapon emplacements behind the sealed hatches. That was assuming that each of the hatches contained weapons.
“Who do you think they were fighting?” asked Greg, picking up and looking at several photographs of the hatches on the outside of the ship.
He could just imagine laser ca
nnons or some type of sophisticated plasma beamers hidden behind the closed hatches. He had watched numerous science fiction shows as a kid, and he knew he was letting his imagination get the best of him. However, it was still intriguing to think about.
“It’s hard telling,” replied Jason, leaning back in his chair and looking over at Greg. “It could have been other humans or even aliens. We won’t know until we can access that computer.”
“I hope it wasn’t aliens, and I hope this crash occurred a long time ago,” spoke Gregg, feeling an icy shiver run down his back. That had been his biggest fear when they had first found the ship. Finding alien bodies or even a live alien wasn’t on his agenda.
“I just hope we have enough power to activate the computer when the others get here,” added Jason, rubbing his forehead with his right hand.
The isolation from their families had been difficult for both of them since the crash. Staying busy had helped, but they couldn’t stay busy all the time. There were times when it was difficult not to think about their families down on Earth. Especially when they were done with their explorations for the day and they had a little spare time.
“We have two energy sources that Mission Control has sent up on the most recent supply drones,” reported Greg, looking at an inventory sheet, which listed all of the supplies that had been sent up so far. “They seem pretty sure that these will be able to supply the energy needed to power up the computer and the other equipment in the Command Center. They are similar to the RTG power sources of a few years ago. These are supposedly more efficient and don’t have the heat problems.”
“Have you talked to your wife today?” asked Jason, knowing that Greg was really missing his family.
The truth was they were both missing their families back down on Earth. To communicate with Mission Control they had to go outside and use the radio on the lunar rover, which was parked just outside the large airlock.
“Briefly,” responded Greg, feeling the loneliness of being separated from his wife and son. “Elizabeth’s doing fine, and I hope to have a longer talk with her tomorrow. She’s having a difficult time considering the situation.” It had been hard being away from his family for so long. The occasional conversations set up by Mission Control helped. However, they were still separated by nearly a quarter of a million miles.