“That’s it,” the George remote leader called out. “We just lost George. Massive power surge and overload. He’s dead.”
On the main viewing screen the picture from a retreating George went to snow.
“That’s it for Ringo and Paul!”
Ringo and Paul had maxed out at over 100 stored amps. Stan Nathan watched as his robots succumbed to the strange properties of the rock they had found inside of the crater.
“Jesus-”
That was as far as Nathan got in his exclamation over the event happening more than 244,000 miles away. The entire view screen, along with the picture coming from the rover John on the Shackleton Crater rim, turned to snow after a fantastic flash from the interior.
“What the hell just happened?” Nathan demanded. “Did we lose John to the same power surge?”
The room grew silent as the picture from John looked as though it wanted to come back on. Then it went white again.
“Pasadena, this is Houston,” called the voice of Evans at the Johnson Space Center. “Pasadena, Houston!”
“Go ahead, Houston,” Nathan finally answered.
“Goddamn it, get on the ball out there, Stan, we’ve just recorded a large detonation from the surface of the Moon. It was caught from orbit by Peregrine 1, over.”
Peregrine 1 was the mother vehicle orbiting the Moon as a relay platform for the Beatles. It had also been the vessel that brought the four lunar rovers to the launch point for their landing the day before.
“Say again, over,” Nathan said, his mind racing as his eyes watched for the picture to return from John.
“ Peregrine 1 is reporting a large-scale detonation equal to two kilotons of TNT at 89.54 degrees, south latitude, and zero degrees, east longitude. That’s inside Shackleton, over.”
Before Nathan could answer, the picture from John flashed, and then flashed again, and then the picture cleared.
“We are receiving picture from John!” REMCOM called out.
“What in the hell is wrong with it?” Nathan finally found his voice at about the same time he regained control of his racing heart.
“He’s been knocked on his side, Flight,” the John remote team reported, as they started typing commands once again.
“Damn it! Give its camera arm a ninety degree turn. Now!” Nathan ordered.
A minute later the picture started to rotate. The view cleared and the camera pointed skyward with just the edge of the crater’s rim in the picture. They all stood and stared, unable to believe what they were seeing.
“This can’t be,” Nathan said.
“Pasadena, Houston, we have a three-hundred-times-power picture coming in from Peregrine 1. It should be coming up on your screen, over.”
“Roger, Houston,” Nathan said, leaning heavily against his console.
The room was completely silent as the view changed from the bright, almost blinding, picture of George to that of Peregrine flying over 180 miles above the lunar surface.
“What the hell did we dig up?” Nathan asked, turning and sitting heavily on his chair as he realized that the Peregrine mission was now finished for all time.
On the screen, the mushroom cloud expanded into a silent and energy-filled cloud that rose from the lunar landscape, snaking into the airless void of space before dissipating sixty miles up.
3
The emergency meeting of the Security Council unofficially started long before some of its members joined together inside their chamber.
The television cameras were shut down. The press was being kept in the dark by the Council membership. The arguments with the American ambassador had begun as soon he had stepped from his office thirty minutes before. The tirade had continued as he tried to make his way to the Security Council chambers. After finally reaching the Council doors, the American turned to one of his assistants and whispered something. At that moment, the ambassador from Great Britain slammed his palm on the podium. After receiving his instructions, the assistant turned and left the chamber.
“Gentlemen and ladies, we must conduct ourselves with a little more decorum,” the British head of the chamber called out. “The gentleman from the United States has a statement he wishes to be read into the record.”
Even more protests then erupted among the eight-member council.
“Tell me, sir, will the Russian Federation be able to question this so-called statement, or will this be a deniable dictate from the esteemed ambassador from the United States?”
“I’m sure he will try and answer any questions the Council has-”
“China echoes the request of the Russian Federation. We must be able to question this statement and have far more precise answers of what really happened on the Moon this morning. The introduction of nuclear material into outer space is unconscionable and will not be tolerated by the People’s Republic.”
The American ambassador sat stoically, waiting for the chamber to calm. The two protesters to his statement did not go unnoticed by the career diplomat. Neither of them had used their interpreter to state their displeasure.
The French ambassador lowered his head in deference to the American on his left. He said, “France must concur with the sentiments of our esteemed colleagues, although we are willing to hear the United States reasoning, or explanation if you will, for this very disturbing development.”
The small, bearded American diplomat had just been ambushed by the Frenchman. While guarding his closeness with the Americans on most items on the Security Council agenda, he was now stepping back and siding with China and Russia. He knew then that the French government was in the process of forming their own opinion. If Britain and Japan abandoned the United States, censure would be close behind.
“I have a brief note to read from the president of the United States. Although he is going to brief the country, and therefore the world, at six P.M. tonight, he wanted to send along a personal explanation to our friends around the world.”
“Very well. Read your statement, Mr. Ambassador,” the Englishman said as he gave the American the floor.
The ambassador didn’t stand up. He simply opened the folder in front of him and started reading. He refused to use the dramatic move of looking tense. He was calm and cool, just as the president had instructed through his secretary of state.
“Gentlemen, as you already know, an incident occurred on the surface of the Moon at 1133 hours this morning, Washington time. It was witnessed by many of you live. It would seem that an unstable, but wholly natural element detonated on the lunar surface. As this incident was accidental in nature, but instigated by our robotic instruments, the United States must therefore assume responsibility for the event and will immediately start the investigation into what exactly happened. I must stress to the member nations that this was a natural element and not a device of American origin. We are fully compliant as per the United Nations treaty of 1966 forbidding the introduction of nuclear material into outer space.”
The ambassador and every member of the Security Council knew this was a lie. The exploration spacecraft Cassini launched in 1997 had violated the treaty and almost ruined the reputation of the American space program. Its most staunch ally, Great Britain, dropped out of the project because of the nuclear reactor that would eventually be sent crashing through into Saturn’s atmosphere. The American therefore wouldn’t bring up the fact that the Chinese, Russians, and even the European Union had also violated the treaty.
“We again emphasize the fact that this detonation was accidental and was not caused by any material we
