Back to the Moon-ARC

Epilogue

The first thing that Bill Stetson did after they stepped out of the Dreamscape onto the landing pad in Nevada was to grab his wife and kids, who were waiting at the bottom of the stairs of the vehicle, and hug them to him and kiss each of them with all his heart. An ambulance rushed Xu, Ming, and Zhi off to a hospital for “treatment and evaluation,” according to the official story.

Gary Childers had made certain that the original crew of the Dreamscape was there to meet the remaining Chinese crew members—on camera, of course. After all, had it not been for them, the Chinese taikonauts would have never been found. And there was Paul Gesling waving and shaking every hand thrust at him. The Dreamscape, her crew, and her captain were definitely heroes of the rescue.

Bill, Tony, and Hui stuck around for debriefing and then interviews. Gary Childers had catered food trucked in and a live orchestra. The gala was nothing short of a black-tie event. Senators and members of Congress were there to pump the flesh and ride the media wave. The NASA Administrator made a speech, and at one point there was a joint phone call from the President of the United States and the Paramount Leader of China. Space hadn’t been so on the forefront of the world’s mind since the first Moon landing.

Later that evening, Bill Stetson stepped out to look at the Dreamscape one more time. It was a good little ship. He liked the design and actually wondered if it could be redesigned with the docking ring on the nose so an Altair lander could be mated there. He liked the little ship better than the Orion. Perhaps future missions might marry up the NASA and private space-industry technology to a single, better system.

Bill wasn’t sure about any of that, but he did plan to work on it in the future. He looked up at the full Moon glistening in the clear, star-filled night sky. After taking a few minutes to let his eyes get adjusted to the darkness, and his mind clear from all of the events of the day, Bill had a smile on his face as big as the one he’d gotten when he was five years old.

“We did return, and not only did we get there, but on a rescue mission—maybe there’s hope for us after all,” he said aloud. Bill thought about his aging mother and that first night that he had seen Gene Cernan leave the Moon. “I told you, Mom. I told you I was gonna go to the Moon someday.”