Back to the Moon

by Homer Hickam

  There were mining outfits represented by the men and women filing into the stand to observe the launch. The interest in helium-3 had reached fever pitch as soon as Dr. Perlman had come up into the bright sunlight of the Montana summer. Using the thirty kilos of beads found at Shorty Crater and rescued from the Cayman Trench, Perlman had demonstrated the full power of his plant. Montana Power & Light was working overtime to string in lines to it for commercial use. Energy companies the world over were flocking to the United States to learn more. The President of the United States, a year after Columbia ’s landing, had agreed to make the technology of fusion power available to the world. Helium-3 was the new gold of the solar system and mining companies were lining up to dig it out.

  There were government officials from several countries observing Jack’s Moondog flight. The moon treaties of a previous era had been revoked and governments across the earth had staked out claims. The United States and Russia made the first, based on their landings there, but other nations—England, Germany, France, Brazil, India, Japan, China, even Portugal, recalling a past history of exploration and colonization—asked for and received territory set aside on the moon. An international agency was organized at the United Nations to act as an arbiter of the claims. If the land wasn’t secured by a manned landing within twenty years, it would be auctioned to the highest bidder with the proceeds going into an international spaceflight general pool. Some people were already calling this as yet unnamed international agency by a familiar name: Star Fleet.

  Jack knew his company was in a good position to take commercial advantage of both the commercial and political activities. A Moondog could carry a Big Dog aloft and place it into a parking orbit. All a nation or a company needed to do was to put its mooncraft in orbit, dock with the Big Dog, and then use it to reach escape velocity. There was a great land rush coming a quarter of a million miles away from earth across the Armstrong Sea.

  The January Group was no longer a secret society. It had moved boldly into the open, especially after its members were exposed and they had no choice. From their positions of power these men and women began to espouse their belief that the world would be better without spaceflight or technological development. A movement was formed called Janism. Janists already controlled governments of small countries and had their eye on big ones. Another struggle began on earth for men’s souls.

  Jack could only hope that Janism would never catch on. He couldn’t imagine that it would, considering the excitement of rolling back the new frontier. Sam Tate had been appointed administrator of NASA. Shirley Grafton joined Tate as his assistant. When a new president was elected, Tate and Grafton were invited to stay on.

  Former Vice President Vanderheld had survived his cancer, saved by a powerful new drug developed from protein crystal growth experiments in space. He had moved to Mexico and built a walled compound patrolled by guards twenty-four hours a day. President Edwards decided not to run for a second term. He was rarely interviewed and spent most of his days playing golf. There was some talk of Jack Medaris running for president but he refused to even consider it, stating that “engineers had more important things to do, such as building rocket ships.” The new president was a Gulf War general who declared his most important job was getting the federal government out of the way of the American citizens charging into the heavens.

  Jack and all the MEC employees had come under the general amnesty worked out by Cecil Velocci with the Justice Department. Cecil had then gone back to Cedar Key. According to what Jack had heard, Cecil had continued to prosper. The citizens of Cedar Key thought about making the MEC hangar a tourist attraction but then decided against it. The character of their town was more important to them. Former Vice President Tammy Hawthorne bought a lot on the Key and built a house. Within a month an itinerant fisherman named Pelican Pete had moved in with her. There were regular late-night parties at the Hawthorne house and enough rowdy behavior that Trooper Buck often had to visit to calm things down. His visits usually lasted several hours.

  Columbia was raised from the Havana harbor by private donations and placed in a site of honor at the United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Frank Bonner, retired from NASA due to his injuries, accepted the position of Space Camp Dean. Soon afterward a plaque dedicated to Kate Medaris was erected at the Columbia site with the story of her love letter left on the moon and found and lost again.

  Yuri Dubrinski and Olivia Grant stayed in Cuba, married, and opened a scuba resort. Besides running the kitchen, Grant also gave piano and flying lessons until a week before she gave birth. She had a daughter and named her Katrina.

  Jack had stayed too busy with his projects to accept all the accolades offered to him. As soon as he had gained the funds for his new SSTO concept, he plunged back into his work. The result was the great booster sitting proudly on the pad.

  A short line of blue-suited pad workers marched away from the second Moondog, their work of checkout finished. Virgil Judd, leading the workers in his MEC coveralls, gave the crowd a proud wave and then saw Jack. He cupped his mouth and yelled something.

  Jack couldn’t hear so he left the stands and went to the line. He and Virgil clapped each other on the shoulder. “I said Paco is doing great,” Virgil said, grinning.

  “He doesn’t miss zero g?”

  “Well, sometimes he kind of launches himself off the couch and looks surprised when he drops like the fat rock that he’s become, but otherwise...”

  “And how’s that little girl doing?”

  “A miracle, Jack. There’s still some work to be done but her lungs are as clear as a bell. The docs say she’s gonna be fine.”

  Jack and Virgil walked together until they reached the gate.

  The voice startled Jack. He hadn’t expected to hear it. “Hello, Jack.”

  She was wearing a strapless sundress, her long black hair shimmering down around her shoulders. Her smile was radiant. Virgil kissed her on the cheek. “I think you children need to talk,” he said, and went on his way after giving Jack a significant look.

  Jack took her in. “Well, High Eagle,” he said. “What brings you to the Cape?

  “You did, Medaris,” she said. “To tell you the truth, all of a sudden I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”

  “Aren’t you missing a speech or something?”

  “A world tour, actually. I was supposed to be in Tokyo today.” She looked past him, toward the pad. “Are you going to ride in that thing?”

  “Eventually. If it works out the way I believe, everybody on the planet will get a chance to go into space. Maybe see some of the things we saw.”

  “Ah, well, that would be grand.” And then, “Do I get a hug?” He put his arms around her and she seemed to melt. He noticed a tear. “What’s this?”

  “I have so much I want to tell you,” she said, the tear rolling down her cheek.

  Jack held her quietly, breathing in the perfume of her. Sage. “Sometimes,” he said, “especially on tropical islands, when the sun goes down into the sea, just as it sinks out of sight, its rays flash up through the water. If you look fast, you’ll see it—a green flash. One of the most beautiful things there is to see on the good earth.”

  Her big brown eyes gazed longingly at him. “I wish I could see it.”

  “We could be in Key West by sunset,” he said.

  “What about your next launch?”

  “They can get along without me.”

  “Now, there’s a change,” she marveled.

  “What about your tour?”

  “Maybe I’ve toured enough.”

  “Now, there’s a change,” he said, but the old irony in his voice was gone.

  “Shall we?” she asked. She had taken a step away. “See the green flash, I mean?”

  “They say you only see it if you’re in love.”

  “Then I think we have a chance,” she said, offering her hand.

  He took it without hesitation. Sometimes, to do great things, a chance was
more than enough.

  Also by Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

  TORPEDO JUNCTION

  ROCKET BOYS

  About this Title

  The shuttle is hijacked. Now the countdown to adventure begins.... Jack Medaris is a man haunted by his past and driven by a dream: He’s risking everything to “borrow” the Columbia, and pilot it to the moon. To Jack, the mission is a personal quest-to return to the moon and bring back what America left behind, something so explosive, it could change the future of the world.

  Published by

  Delacorte Press

  Random House, Inc.

  1540 Broadway

  New York, New York 10036

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 1999 by Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

  Carl Orff "O fortuna" from Carmina Burana. English translation by Jeffrey Duban © 1983 by Schott Musik International. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Musik International.

  The Green Hills of Earth by Robert Heinlein © 1951, 1979 by Robert A. Heinlein. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

  The trademark Delacorte Press® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  Hickam, Homer H., 1943—

  Back to the moon / Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

  p. cm.

  I. Title.

  PS3558.I224B33 1999

  813'.54—dc21 99-21995

  CIP

  Published simultaneously in Canada

  This book is also available in print as ISBN.

  eISBN: 978-0-440-33417-0

  v3.0