Back to the Moon-ARC

“It didn’t come free,” Bill pointed out.

“We expected that, Bill,” Houston responded. “Our models show it will take a minimum of three kicks. Tony, when you’re ready, kick it again.”

“Roger that,” Tony replied and steadied himself again. “Kicking in three, two, one.” This time the panel surprised Tony and the engineers at Houston since it let go and sailed out across the lunar surface quietly until it skidded to a stop somewhere out there in the darkness.

“Great, Tony!” Stetson exclaimed.

“Houston, it came free,” Tony acknowledged. There was some chatter behind the engineer’s voice that sounded almost like bickering. “Either your models were wrong, or I can kick harder than you guys thought.”

“Good job, Mercy I. Be alert that the guys down here have made several wisecracks about always knowing that you were stubborn as a mule, but they didn’t realize you could kick like one, too.”

“Copy that, Houston,” Tony said with a bit of an unenthusiastic laugh.

“Get ready to repeat that process,” Stetson instructed.

“Roger that, Bill.”

“We are go for second panel removal,” Houston said.

“No rest for the wicked, hey, boys?” Tony added.

“Let’s get to work, Zhi.” Stetson didn’t waste time in moving on to the second panel. “Maybe this one will be easier since we’ve got experience now.”

It wasn’t.

It took a total of five hours and thirteen minutes for Stetson and Chow and Zhi to completely prepare the Altair for its return to space. For the first two and a half hours, Tony, Bill, and Zhi had tossed supplies out of the airlock. The remainder of the time was pulling the exterior panels. Only moments after the first panel came off, both Hui and Dr. Xu regained consciousness and were able to help. Once they were all six back inside the Altair, it was still crowded but at least now they had an entire wall out, so the view was fantastic. Well, it would have been fantastic had it been daytime and they could have seen anything. Actually, the view was extremely limited and very low light, but it was still the Moon. So, as far as the astronauts were concerned, the view was fantastic. It didn’t hurt that they could just see the Earth on the horizon shimmering blue and white and begging them to come home.

At least at this point any extra baggage could just be tossed through the open hole in the ship. They were careful to cover the edges of any rough pieces of metal with special tape that they had brought along for just that purpose. Dr. Xu and Hui made themselves busy covering the opening rough spots very carefully. It would have been very bad to tear a suit on a jagged edge during the three-hour ascent to the Orion capsule in orbit.

“Houston, this is Mercy I. We just chucked the last of the ballast overboard, and we’re almost through the prelaunch checklist. Have you uploaded the ascent trajectory yet?” Chow was the one speaking to ground control while Stetson continued locking things down for the ride to space. They had added some extra strapping in order to tie themselves to the wall panels during ascent. Nobody at Houston liked this part of the mission, but it had to be done.

“Mercy I, this is Houston. Yes, the trajectory was just uploaded. If you go on time, you’ll be on an optimized return to Orion for the trip home. Medical wants to know your assessment of your passengers’ conditions.”

“Well,” Chow began, “Captain Hui is in good spirits and seems fine. Dr. Xu is also okay. He’s been at the pilot’s side since he awoke. The pilot is still out cold. They said he’s been that way for days. And the engineer, Zhi, he’s, well, he’s here. He hasn’t said much since he came aboard, even when he was helping Bill with the modifications.”

Chow turned to face Captain Hui and said, “Captain, are you and your people ready to go home?”

“Absolutely.” Hui smiled.

“Houston, her smile said it all. We’ll be ready at T minus zero.”

Before returning to his own business, Chow looked at Zhi one more time. Zhi looked back; his gaze was more of a stare than polite eye contact. Chow thought, Geez, you’d think he didn’t want to be rescued. Why’d he help us if he doesn’t want to go home? I’ve seen that look before. He must be in shock or, worse, experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

An hour and fifteen minutes later, the six- person crew of the Altair was ready to leave the Moon. Unlike when Gene Cernan had departed those many years before, there were no lofty words or promises of a peaceful return. There was simply the business of getting ready to launch and the perfunctory exchanges with the control center back home.

The countdown clock counted backward toward zero as five of the six astronauts stood side by side, with Hui and Xu sharing handholds intended for use by only one astronaut during this phase of the mission. The fallen pilot, Ming Feng, was propped against one wall, and both Captain Hui and Dr. Xu had to stand against him, wedging him in place. He was strapped against the handholds. There was simply no room to stand elsewhere. Zhi Feng stood against one wall, motionless and still quiet.

“Mercy I, the clock is ticking,” Houston announced.

“Alright, everybody brace for lift-off!” Stetson ordered his crewman and passengers. “Tony, we’ve got a green light on the thruster-pump valve.”

“Roger that, TPV is go.”

“Here it comes!” Stetson held fast and did his best to scan the screens and the occupants of the little ship as the burn kicked in. It was clear that they all felt the initial lunge. The Altair’s main engine ignited, and they rose from the surface quickly at first. Due to the jolt, everyone in the cabin had to readjust their footing to keep from falling.

“Houston, this is Bill. Present velocity is one point eight kilometers per second and increasing.” Bill did his best to hold on and keep up with the instruments.

“Roger that, Mercy I.”

“Approaching two point four kilometers per second!” Bill shouted as they reached the lunar escape velocity.