by Rick Chesler
Five minutes later, the two rovers drove away from the LEM toward the crater that they had flown over during their landing escapade. James Burton rode shotgun next to Caitlin, while the selenologist had the back seat. In the other vehicle, Blake drove while Martin Hughes sat beside him, and Suzette occupied both back seats for herself and her camera equipment.
The comm channels buzzed with excitement as the moon buggies bounced and jostled over the uneven landscape. James pestered Caitlin with technical questions about the range, speed and handling capabilities of the rovers while behind her, Asami and Martin discussed which was more beautiful, the moon or the Earth, or was it really both of them in concert that imparted the other with its true beauty? Blake was quieter, eyes focusing often on the vehicle controls, especially the GPS, with Suzette taking footage from the back of his rover as they bounded along the lunar surface.
The rovers came to a small hillock and Blake stopped atop its crest. Caitlin followed suit and pulled up next to him so that she was now across from Dr. Hughes. In front of them, the hillock leveled out into a flat plain, one that soon rose sharply to meet the crater wall. The crater’s exterior was a formidable hill with a gradual but long incline that Caitlin judged to be several stories high at the rim. She looked past Martin at Blake, who was fussing with the GPS unit and talking. Except that she couldn’t hear what he was saying, which meant that he’d switched over to the other frequency to speak with Dallas. He was lost, asking for directions to where his planned site was from here. She watched as he threw up his hands and swiveled his head around. Then she heard his voice.
“Let’s take a drive to the rim of the crater. Make sure to stop short of the actual top—we don’t need anyone falling in. The view will be marvelous.”
Blake led the way up in a zigzag pattern, as if driving up switchbacks that had yet to be carved into the hill’s face. Stealing a glance behind them, Caitlin reflected that their tire tracks were indeed the modest beginnings of a new road. With no wind to blow them away, they were a permanent environmental modification. A half an hour later, both rovers rested about twenty feet from the rim. Blake was right about one thing, Caitlin thought, gazing back down from where they’d come. The view was spectacular. She could see their lunar lander, a squat metal object, at once so tiny and so fragile and so utterly foreign on this stark world of rock and dust.
“Our home away from home,” Blake said, pointing out the LEM while Suzette followed his finger with the camera. “Let’s have a look, shall we?” Blake exited the rover and bunny-hopped the rest of the way to the uppermost portion of the rim. More cautiously, the others, including Caitlin, followed suit.
Standing on the lip of the crater, Caitlin was speechless with awe when confronted with the sheer size of the crater’s interior. It had to be a mile wide. As if in response to her thoughts, Asami said, “It looks impressive, but this is a relatively small crater.”
“It’s too steep here,” Blake said, turning on his heel and bounding back down to his rover.
“Too steep for what?” James Burton asked.
“C’mon, we need to go ‘round a bit more.”
They all piled back into the vehicles, and after another half an hour, just as the first stirrings of “Hey, maybe we should head back,” were on peoples’ lips, Blake stopped his rover near the rim again, consulted his GPS with a frown, and got out.
Caitlin followed him to the rim, a few feet away. The interior of the crater was not as steep here. In fact, it would be possible to walk down into it were one so inclined. But as Blake began to encourage the others to have a look into the crater, a glint down on the ground and far in the distance was flagged by Caitlin’s peripheral vision.
“Those are some interesting geological features,” Asami was saying as she peered into the crater. “You see that?” But Caitlin no longer heard her. She was squinting onto the lunar plain at the base of the crater, looking at a lunar lander. But their LEM was miles back in the other direction. There was no way they should be able to see it from here, as it should be blocked by the mountainous crater. Had they already gone all the way around it?
Impossible.
She was about to raise the question with Blake but by the time she turned around and composed her thoughts, the group was already following her boss down into the crater.
“It’s just a short nature walk from here,” he called out, already out of view.
Taking one more look back at the strange LEM, it hit her: they had landed so far off course that they had strayed into the territory of their rivals, to the very part of the moon they had signed a treaty of sorts saying they wouldn’t venture to.
Black Sky was here.
12 | Moonwalking
“I have to tell you, Blake, I don’t think this is wise from a commercial standpoint,” James Burton’s voice said somewhere up ahead of Caitlin. More like down ahead, she thought, looking up at the crater’s lip from the outside face. The rest of the team had already topped over the rim and were now making their way down the inside of the crater. But there was no way she felt comfortable leaving these rovers parked on the crater incline without wheel chocks to keep them from rolling. She found the chocks and placed them underneath the moon buggies’ wheels to make certain the rovers couldn’t roll down the outside of the crater while they were away. Her rover training back home had been kept secret so as not to tip off Blake’s “surprise excursion feature,” as he called it—he was paranoid that Black Sky would get wind of it and do the same thing.
Climbing the steep outer face of the crater was tricky going in the light gravity, and Caitlin relegated the group conversation to the back of her mind while she concentrated on her footing.
“Because, Blake,” Burton was transmitting to the team, “to do this moon walk you’re relying on multiple systems with insufficient redundancy. Do we have enough air in our suits to walk back to the lander if something happened to one of the rovers, or if we got lost and couldn’t find them again?”
“We landed a bit further away than I aimed to, James, I admit that, but I think the fact that we are still able to do this crater walk demonstrates our flexibility and how agile our overall setup really is.”
“But this is a more professional team than you plan to take up here, when any old billionaire will be able to afford a ticket. These are scientists and Outer Limits personnel and astronauts we’ve got with us. What’s it going to be like when you have some guy and his wife up here just because they happen to own a professional sports team or they bought some stock at the right time?”
“Speaking of astronauts,” Blake said, “Caitlin —where are you?”
“Just a few steps from the rim. Had to set the wheel chocks, over.”
“Caitlin, I want you down here with us, now! We don’t split up.”
“Copy that, Blake, I just needed to—“
“Now, Command Module Pilot Swain! Am I understood?”
“Copy that, sir.” Caitlin shook her head and took one last look at the rover before she started back up the crater. It’ll hold. Time to play Astronaut Tour Guide. It irked her that Blake would put her extensive and demanding training to use as little more than a glorified chaperone, but then again, she thought, reaching the lip of the crater again, he had given her the moon, which was something no one else had been able to do, even NASA.
Blake’s voice droned on in her helmet as she steadied herself. “As I was saying, James, we’re perfectly capable of modifying the tour to suit our clientele. I realize you’re used to the rather rigid operating guidelines of a government bureaucracy, but we’re a small, agile company, able to....”
Resting on the lip of the crater before making the descent into the interior after the rest of the team, Caitlin saw the undulating hills of the moon below, with the mysterious Black Sky lander off in the distance to her right. Now is not the time to ask about that, she thought. Raising her line of sight, she saw the moon’s horizon—much closer than that of Earth.
The
moon was only a quarter the size of the blue planet, and she could see the curvature of it. Even without being on top of a crater, the close horizon made her feel as though she stood atop a giant hill, rather than on a real planetary body. The effect was disorienting and a little unnerving. Up here on top of a crater, it was even more so. She forced herself to look away from the horizon before the onset of vertigo could take hold. Her eyes focused on the Earth beyond. She thought of Ray, spinning around on that blue-and-white sphere, talking to Paul and Dallas on the comm loops, making sure their mission was under control. And it hit her at that moment, with a team of moon walkers waiting for her inside a lunar crater. For all of her astronaut aspirations and lifelong dreams of other worlds, nothing could ever be more precious to her than home. She did not want to die here on this barren rock in the void of space.
As she had discussed over drinks at FlyBoyz with fellow space junkies at their happy hour spot near the spaceport, at any given time while on the lunar surface you were a maximum of two system failures away from death.
Taking a deep breath, Caitlin scrubbed these thoughts from her mind with an equally deep exhalation. Then she stepped off the rim down into the crater. The group was maybe fifty yards down the face, approaching a rock outcropping, the bottom of the crater far, far below that. The suit names were unreadable at this distance, but she saw one of the figures raise his or her arms in some kind of exclamatory gesture.
Martin Hughes asked, “Is there ice down here in this crater?”
“There’s no ice down here,” Asami declared flatly, using a pair of tongs to pluck a lunar rock from the ground. She placed it into a plastic bag. Caitlin knew that part of Asami’s responsibilities consisted of overseeing a “sample return” objective where moon rocks would be brought back home. Having an outside selenologist declare the sampling techniques to be scientifically sound would prevent skeptics from claiming that their samples had been contaminated because they didn’t adhere to accepted collection techniques. Never mind that most of the moon rocks would end up in the hands of CEOs who were in a position to return the favor someday to Blake Garner, exotic paperweights that would inevitably end up on eBay when a big enough financial meteor storm made an appearance.
“Sunlight reaches all the way to the bottom,” Asami continued while zipping the specimen bag shut. “The only lunar ice we know about so far is found in the polar craters.”
“Oh c’mon, Dr. Buzzkill,” Martin said, “there could be a pocket of ice down here somewhere under some rock heap.”
“No, she’s right,” Blake cut in. “There’s no ice down here.”
Caitlin hopped her way down the slope, finding it much easier going compared to the outside of the crater.
Below her, Martin halted his forward progress and stood there motionless.
James Burton took advantage of the silence. “Blake, don’t think I overlooked the fact that you haven’t addressed my concerns.” He was a few feet behind Blake, who made his way around the side of the rock formation that they could now see was almost twenty feet high.
“I believe I have partially addressed them.” Blake disappeared around the outcropping. “But allow me to add that no one has to stay with us down here if they don’t want to. I can have Caitlin take anyone who wants to back to the rovers to await our return. Just say the word. That will go for our tourist EVAs as well.”
“Some people might feel too embarrassed to speak up like that in a group setting, over open communications channels,” Burton pointed out. “They’ll be forced to go along with the group against their better judgment.”
Blake gave an exaggerated sigh from around the other side of the rocks. “Follow me this way, people. We’re almost there.”
13 | Descent
Caitlin heard the rasping hiss of Blake’s breath as he apparently made a move requiring exertion, before continuing. “James, they can switch over to a private channel to express their wishes if they want. I’m sure we can devise some kind of alert system, but really—they came here to explore! These early lunar tourists aren’t your typical family who goes to the Grand Canyon on vacation, who want to drive to the lookout, take a couple of pictures and go, ‘Okay, we saw that! Let’s go get some fast food!’ No, the clients we cater to will, in all likelihood, be more like the adventurous souls who hike down into the Canyon and then go whitewater rafting at the bottom, camping out for a few days before trekking back out.”
“Well that’s funny, Mr. Garner, because your brochure states quite prominently, ‘Our lunar landing trips are designed to be enjoyed by any able-bodied person. If you can endure a transoceanic flight on a commercial airplane and then walk across the terminal to make your connection, then you are able to participate in our premiere space experience product.’ Or some such drivel.”
“Hey, I wrote that!” Suzette turned around to face Burton as he made his way around the outcropping. James did not apologize.
Caitlin scanned the crater further down towards the floor, and she noted that there were several such outcroppings dotting the landscape. The one they had reached just happened to be the highest up.
Suzette raised her camera to her shoulder to aim it in Blake’s direction. “And there’s an asterisk that refers to the fine print where it says they have to pass the physical first.”
“I’m rolling my eyes inside my helmet right now,” Burton responded. “Because I suspect a diabetic Alzheimer’s patient could pass your physical if they had the financial wherewithal to—”
“Right here, people!” Blake exclaimed, cutting James off. “This is what I want you to see. Gather around, come on.”
A couple of minutes later, all six of them stood huddled around Blake on the other side of the outcropping. Blake stood proudly, feet planted firmly apart, head held high, pointing into a chasm of some kind.
“Is that a cave?” Asami asked.
“It is,” Blake said, “although it’s more like a tunnel system than a cavern. There’s an extensive network of passages underneath our feet.”
“Extraordinary,” Asami said. “I’ll have to check for anomalies in the strata signatures on our satellite maps when I get back. It’s possible that—”
Blake cut her off with a wave of the hand. “I do apologize, Dr. Imura, but we have a schedule to keep here. We’re following a very carefully planned itinerary,” he finished, deliberately turning to face James Burton, who said nothing as he stared transfixed into the geological aperture.
“Flip on your helmet lights, please,” Blake said, a beam originating from atop his helmet slicing into the blackness of the tunnel. They could see a tight rocky throat that wound quickly out of sight down and to the left. One by one, piercing rays of light emanated from xenon bulbs as the group activated their helmet lamps.
Caitlin watched as Blake’s lips moved without her being able to hear. He’s telling Dallas we’re about to go underground.
The entire group stood facing the tunnel except for James, who was kicking at the soil for some reason with his right foot.
Blake looked at the group. “Are we ready?”
“Hold on,” Suzette said. She was typing into a handheld electronic device, one with an input interface large enough to accommodate her spacesuit gloves. “I need to update the Outer Limits social network feeds…” A series of grunts and under-breath remarks made it clear the group was not happy about this. Even Blake tilted his head to one side while staring at her, a gesture of impatience.
Suzette spoke as she typed. “On…super…cool…moonwalk…now…over&out!” She packed the device away and replaced it with her running video camera. “Ready!” she proclaimed.
“Let’s go, people.” Blake led the way into the tunnel, ducking his head as he stepped inside. A few feet in, he stopped. Turned.
“Suzette, shut the camera off.”
14 | Mission Control
Back in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Flight Controller Ray McCullough wiped the guacamole from his chin as he reentered the control
room. The scruff on his face left several long white lines across the deeply tanned skin of his forearm.
“Missed a little,” fellow Flight Controller Jerry Ableton said as Ray passed his station.
Ray swatted his lower lip with his fingers and then ran them across the arm of Jerry’s starched white short-sleeve shirt, eliciting a choice epithet from him as Ray lifted his headset and scanned the monitors for updates.
With the passengers finally off on their EVA tour, Ray hoped he could finally have a few words alone with Caitlin. He spoke into his headset. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“How’s it going, honeybunch?” came the reply, a falsetto impersonation of a female voice.
“That’s slap-on-the-knee funny, Dallas. You learn that one in medical school or astronaut school?”
“Clown school, Bozo. Now, what may I do for you?”
Ray smiled despite himself. “You may patch me through to Caitlin, that’s what you may do for me, Dallas.”
There was a pause before Dallas responded, “Sorry, no can do, Ray. Caitlin was ordered on the EVA tour by Big Boss Blake. I can put you through, but you’re going to be whispering sweet nothings into seven pairs of ears instead of one. And that’s assuming I don’t eavesdrop, which is one mighty risky assumption.”
Ray swallowed hard, wishing he hadn’t had that pint of Dos Equis with his meal. Now he was as parched as he was anxious. What the hell did Blake bring Caitlin on the EVA tour for? Surely, the prick wouldn’t think of setting foot near those caverns he’d heard mentioned.
Ray suddenly turned serious. “Dallas, can you still see the group outside the LEM?”
“That’s a negative, Ray-Ray. The group’s out on the rovers.”