Monday 3 September 2012

Орёл


The first moon landing in fifty years. Chazz Hart manoeuvred the thrusters with a feather light touch. The computer could probably do this, but he did not want to rely on maths when he could rely on his hands.
The communications came with a slow feed from mission control. The solar activity meant a delay as sound was transmitted and up to a minute for the visuals to reach earth. It was only 2 light seconds, but still the delays kept happening.

‘First men on the moon’ Gil Rogers said aloud so mission control could hear. ‘Just kidding NASA’ he laughed and checked the instruments again as the lunar module descended. Ten crew and another ten in orbit, this was his baby and he wanted it all to himself.

Gil had joked the week before with Chazz about the rumours of faked landings, of old men finally admitting it had all been a fraud. Chazz had not believed it, he had seen the tapes, he had seen the evidence brought back. Besides, they would now see for themselves. Lunar rovers, module stands, even golf clubs had been left on the surface. They would land close to the original site.

The craft was almost there. Chazz started to yell out the metres. ‘One hundred, ninety, eighty, seventy.’ 
Gil was calm and rechecked the details on the instruments. The cameras were working but showed only dust at the moment blown up by the thrusters as the craft descended.

There was a clunking sound as they touched down. Gil touched his headset.

‘NASA, the eagle has landed’ he paused for effect, ‘again.’

Chazz turned to the crew behind, strapped into their positions they were whooping and air fiving. He flicked the cameras to long range and scanned. He knew they were close to the eagle landing site, in the distance he saw an outcrop that could be it.

He stopped the camera dead on what looked like a module platform in the distance. There was a momentary pause before he let out a cry.

‘Holy Fuck’

‘Eagle please repeat’, NASA came through, on his headset.

‘You’ll see for yourself in a moment NASA.’ Chazz tapped the jubilant Gil on the shoulder and pointed to the screen. His face grew dark.

A complete lunar module was there in the distance. It’s design reminiscent of the Soyuz capsules used by the Russian space agency. There was no light, no life, a single crumpled figure lay twenty metres or so from its base at the floor of a flagpole bearing bright red and gold.

Originally written for - http://scifiblog.net84.net/?p=254

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