Moon Hoax

16 TRAINING POOL

Peter felt like the Michelin man as he waddled onto the hoist wearing the 100 lb spacesuit. These suits definitely weren’t designed to be strolling around on Earth. He was excited to finally get the opportunity to work in the NBTL training pool, designed to simulate the weightless environment of space. He and Viktor were to practice attaching the explosive bolts necessary to hold the VASIMR engine onto the back end of the Soyuz they were hijacking. The challenging exercise required them to attach a template showing the bolting pattern up to a mock-up mating flange. They had to drill ten holes in designated spots before carefully inserting the bolts and tightening.

While waiting for Viktor to climb aboard, Peter tilted his head in the helmet to see over the platform into the pool below. He searched for the mock-up flange, finding it and observing the work area. “Piece of cake.”

“I can’t get up,” Viktor said over the radio in a loud voice.

Peter turned around and saw his partner struggling to climb onto the other side of the hoist. Peter wished he could help, but two metal support bars stood between them, to rest their backpacks on, relieving the strain. Trying to be encouraging, Peter radioed, “Come on old man, you can do it.”

Viktor tried lifting his foot, but couldn’t get it high enough. He tried the left foot, then the right. Having already done the climb, Peter understood the difficulty, but hoped Viktor could handle it.

Finally Viktor lifted his hands in defeat and radioed, “I need help.”

Two technicians quickly came to his rescue. Both men propped themselves under Viktor and hoisted him up. Peter shook his head, happy Allen wasn’t there to witness the episode.

Soon both men were strapped on the hoist and ready to be lowered into the pool.

“This is a radio check. Do you read me, Peter?” asked Bernie Lyons.

Peter lifted his head in Bernie’s direction, where the director stood behind a large glass window on the second floor above the pool. Bernie had a bird’s eye view of the exercise as he oversaw the control panel. “Read you loud and clear, Mr. Flight Director,” said Peter into the small microphone, catching Bernie’s eye.

“Roger. Viktor, how about you?” asked Bernie.

“10-4,” said Viktor, still out of breath.

“Gentlemen, we will be lowering you both in a moment. Just a reminder, those bolts you will be working with have sensors to measure the torque you apply. If you over-torque those babies, we’ll know it. Of course, if you do that in space, you die. So be gentle with them and stay within the limits.”

Peter understood the danger of working with explosive bolts in space. “Roger that.”

After a few moments Bernie came back on the radio. “All right, gentlemen, we’re good to go. Hold on.”

Peter felt a jolt as the gears in the mobile crane above him started to turn and the platform began to lower. He stretched out his neck to look down and watch the water slowly seep through the grate below him. Water gradually started covering his boots and continued up his legs. With the suit fairly rigid and its internal temperature kept at a cozy 70 F, his body did not feel the effects of the water as he was lowered into it. If he closed his eyes, he could not tell where the water level was in reference to his body, giving him an odd disconnected sensation. The water reached the bottom of his visor and his suit started to float, relieving its weight against his body. Since the suit was not neutrally buoyant, he started to float upward; however, the straps kept him affixed to the hoist and pulled him down. Since Peter’s back was to his partner, he radioed, “All okay, Viktor?”

“I okay and feel good,” said Viktor with excitement in his voice.

Soon, the metal platform hit the bottom of the pool with a light thud. Swimming around them were a couple of divers with video cameras and a few support divers to monitor their activity and help with any problems. They also were there to help the astronauts get weighted right and not experience any buoyant force, either up or down or in rotation. The goal was for the astronauts to experience as close to zero gravity as possible, to float in place. The two support divers unstrapped Peter, and once freed, he started to slowly drift up… not good. The divers started adding small weights to make him neutrally buoyant, to not float up or down. Eventually they had him perfect.

Peter shot the divers a thumbs-up sign and was eager to get to work. Before he was able to check on Viktor, one of the support divers came around from his back side and gave a thumbs-down signal, indicating there was something wrong. Peter assumed the diver was informing him there was something wrong with Viktor. He turned around and saw his partner giving his all to his divers. When Viktor saw Peter looking his way, he flashed a thumbs-up sign along with a big grin. Damn, he seems okay, is there something wrong with me? Peter turned back to the diver, lifting his hands to question what the problem was. “Bernie, diver 2 is signaling I have a problem, any idea what it is?”

Bernie replied, “He radioed that you have a valve leak on your backpack. It looks like a hairline crack, so I’m talking to one of the suit engineers now, hold on.”

Peter again turned to Viktor, who was now rolling around head over heels in the water like a kid, demonstrating his buoyancy to his divers. Peter smiled when Viktor stopped in the upside down position. Floating stationary, he looked at Peter, saying, “This fun. Like old time.”

Peter chuckled seeing his partner being silly. “Let’s hope I get to play too.” Discouraged, he held onto the bar of the hoist waiting to hear back from Bernie.

“Sorry, gentleman, we’re told Peter’s leak could get worse. We’re going to have to cancel this drill until we can put him into a new suit,” said Bernie over the open channel.

Peter sighed. Both men were ready to do the drill and they did not have much time to waste. Every passing moment was critical.

Viktor chimed in, “Why I don’t do drill? My suit fine and I can do alone. We don’t want to waste training time.”

Peter figured it would be at least two hours before they would be back in this same position and radioed, “Bernie, I think that’s a great idea.”

Peter could hear some discussion going on over the radio and then overheard one of the operators say, “Hell, let’s see what the old fart can do.”

Bernie radioed back, “Okay, gentlemen. Viktor, you will do the drill on your own. Peter, you come back up and we’ll put you into another suit.”

“Roger,” said Peter as Viktor gave him a thumbs-up, no longer upside down.

ALLEN KNEW PETER AND VIKTOR were going to have their first training exercise in the NBTL and was curious how things were progressing. Both had taken physicals with SpaceQuest physicians per Allen’s request, and both passed. The last thing he needed was for the old man to have a heart attack in his pool. He was delighted to hear the doctors were astounded at Viktor’s good health and physical strength.

Allen walked into the NBTL facility to witness firsthand how the exercise was playing out. He walked straight to the edge of the pool and looked down expecting to see two astronauts training, but saw just one. He walked a few feet along the pool deck to make sure there wasn’t another astronaut blocked from his sight. Damn, only one of them down there. As he stood and watched, he was impressed with what he saw. The lone astronaut seemed to be working with ease, moving around effortlessly attaching the bolts for the exercise. Allen understood the difficulties working in water with a spacesuit, especially with the significant amount of drag water produced, typically tiring out the astronauts. With the astronaut moving around so easily, Allen was positive he was watching Peter. He wondered what the issue was with Viktor. I knew he wouldn’t be able to cut it. The more he watched, the more pissed he became seeing only one astronaut training.

Frustrated, Allen stormed up the stairs to the control room. He walked in unnoticed behind Bernie, who was monitoring the control panel and talking to the astronaut. Looking over his shoulder, Allen observed the monitor showing the view from the astronaut’s helmet camera. He watched as the astronaut used the pistol grip to tighten a bolt and overheard Bernie say, “Roger, tightening bolt number nine. You’re doing a great job, only one more bolt after this one.” Ten bolts were necessary to attach the engine and Allen was impressed one astronaut was doing the whole task on his own. After watching the monitor for awhile, he tapped Bernie on the shoulder.

“Where the hell is Viktor?”

Bernie, with a slight smirk, took off his headset and handed it to Allen. Allen assumed he wanted Peter to explain why he was the only one in the pool. He yanked the headset out of Bernie’s hand and put it on. Coming from the other end he heard the astronaut whistling. Allen listened for a moment as he watched the monitor, observing the astronaut work while he whistled. He was glad Peter was enjoying himself, but he was still irritated he was on his own. He pushed the talk button. “Peter, it’s Allen, how’s the drill coming along?”

The whistling and work stopped. There was dead silence. Bernie tapped on Allen’s arm, shaking his head “No.” Allen stared at his flight director, wondering what he was referring to. Receiving no feedback, he asked again, “Peter, is everything okay down there?” Again silence. Bernie just tilted his head with a cocky grin, doing nothing, as if he knew something Allen didn’t. Since the astronaut had stopped working, Allen wondered if something was wrong.

Finally after a long pause the astronaut said, “Allen, Peter not here. Just me working.”

Allen peered at Bernie with a shocked look and mouthed while pointing to the headphones, “That’s Viktor?”

Bernie nodded. “Yes.”

Allen radioed back to Viktor, “Oh, hi, Viktor. Looks like you’re doing a great job. Keep up the good work.”

“Thanks, will do,” answered Viktor before resuming work and whistling again.

Allen took off the headset and frowned. “Where’s Peter?”

Bernie reached for the headset. “He had a leak in his tank. We’re getting him into another suit.”

“How long has Viktor been down there on his own?”

“Almost two hours, and surprisingly he is almost done installing all ten bolts. He has had no problems and appears to be finishing up in the time frame we expected both men to take. It’s amazing he is seventy-five years old. He seems like a natural down there, and funny thing, he whistles while he works. He really is having a good time.”

Shaking his head, Allen relinquished the headset to Bernie. He crossed to the window and looked down into the pool, watching the astronaut, now knowing it was Viktor. “Wow,” he mumbled. He turned back to Bernie. “What is that tune he’s whistling?”

“We were all trying to figure that out. No idea. We think it must be some Russian tune or something. Kind of catchy, though, don’t you think?” said Bernie, still smiling.

“Have Peter and Viktor come to my office when they’re done,” Allen said as he stomped out.

“Yes sir,” answered Bernie.

BOTH ASTRONAUTS SAT IN THE CHAIRS across from Allen’s desk. They had just taken a shower and dressed in SpaceQuest’s issued jumpsuits.

Allen steepled his fingers, elbows on his chair arms. “Looks like you did a good job with the drill today, Viktor. How do you feel?”

“Some sore and tired. But I happy how aches and pains go away when working in microgravity. I had fun in drill today,” said Viktor with a big grin across his face.

Though Peter was discouraged about not getting the opportunity to work in the pool, he figured it was probably a good thing. The drill was perfect to show Allen what Viktor could do. He nodded. “Yeah, by the time I was ready to go, I was told Viktor had already finished. Pretty inspiring.”

“To be honest, I thought you were Peter when I first saw you,” said Allen to Viktor. “I was happy to learn it was you. I’m feeling more comfortable you will be able to handle this assignment.”

Viktor straightened up in his chair.

Allen went on, “I talked to Doug today. Sounds like we have a launch date. June 28. Apparently the moon’s phase will be such that most of our sites should be lit, along with the hope China’s could be as well.”

Hearing the date sent chills down Peter’s body. This was really happening. “Wow, we could be arriving at the moon on July 4. How ironic.”

Allen tilted his head. “Yeah, I guess if everything went to plan, you could.”

Allen continued, “As you know, I have been concerned on how the VASIMR engine was going to be placed behind the Soyuz. The procedure manual does not tell us how this placement should be done, and I question you two moving it around the station on your own.”

“Considering its size, that would be a trick,” said Peter. “But zero gravity makes it doable. Of course it would be much easier if we could get the space station’s robotic arm to move it for us.”

“Exactly,” said Allen emphatically. “In fact I mentioned that to Doug. The problem is the ISS crew would need to operate the arm. They will not do it voluntarily, especially since the current commander is Russian. Doug later came back with a good suggestion.” Allen took a moment to refer to his notes.

Peter contemplated bringing a gun to force the crew to cooperate. He would hate to, especially knowing some of the astronauts and fear of the revolver accidentally going off. “What’s that?”

“Doug suggests you two claim there is a bomb in your capsule, set on a timer. If the crew does not help, the bomb will explode at a designated time, seriously damaging, and potentially even destroying, the space station.”

“Will there be a bomb?” asked Viktor.

“No, it will be a fake bomb on the floor of the Galileo positioned so you can show it to them if you have to. Hopefully this will be enough to cause the crew to help.”

“I know Commander Sokolov. I work with his father years ago. He respects me,” said Viktor.

“Well, that will help,” replied Allen. “Nonetheless, Doug feels the crew needs something to force them to act on our behalf. They will not do it voluntarily, or should I say, the many countries who own the space station will not voluntarily hand over the VASIMR engine or a Soyuz. Viktor, you knowing the commander should make the process easier. The crew, of course, will probably figure out what the two of you are planning to do and why. They may even want to help, but will have orders they must follow. Stating there is a bomb gives them a reason why they must help.”

With all the nations and temperaments involved, Peter felt it was wishful thinking that a bomb threat would get them to cooperate. But he figured it couldn’t hurt. “All sounds reasonable to me.”

“Great, that takes care of that. One more thing, Doug told me the CIA picked up Rob Foster earlier today and he will be in town tomorrow, staying at an LAX hotel.” Allen passed Peter a sheet of paper with the information. “Apparently there will be a CIA agent outside his door and you will have to use the code”—Allen looked at his notes—“‘Green apples clean teeth’ to get in.”

Peter shook his head. “Who comes up this shit? Green apples clean teeth?”

Viktor spoke up, “Maybe they tell you something.”

Peter smiled as Allen said, “Doug suggests you visit him at the hotel later tomorrow, and of course, don’t inform Foster what’s going on.”

“Got it.”

Allen took one final look at his notes. “That’s all I have. So what’s on your agenda now?”

“Bernie wanted to give us a run through of the launch procedures, then dinner and a night of intense studying,” said Peter as he got up from his chair, ready to leave.

Moving much slower, Viktor followed. Allen walked them both to the door. Viktor moved like an old man in pain. Allen asked as he held the door open, “Are you okay, Viktor?”

“Gravity hurts,” said Viktor with a forced smile as he passed. “I be fine after hot bath and sleep.”