Don't Mess With Earth (13 page)

Two hours later, they approached the secret
location by air and Gagarin saw the launch pad with the biggest
launch vehicle he had ever seen attached to the launch pad. This
must dwarf the Americans’ Saturn V rocket he thought, he hoped it
worked the first time, and didn’t explode and kill everyone in the
vicinity like so many other launches had done over the past ten
years. Gagarin decided he was impressed with what he saw so far, so
his decision to stay was going to be much easier. The plane landed
two miles away from the launch site, and Gagarin saw Komarov
waiting for them to taxi the plane to the hangar. Kerimov and
Gagarin got out of the plane and Komarov came over to greet them,
“Good afternoon, comrades. I am looking forward to our next
mission, when can we get it started, General?”

“If everything goes according to plan, we
will launch in two days time. Your spacecraft is named
Korolev
, after our head rocket engineer, who died last year.
The engineers must pump a lot of water from the Artic in order for
the engines not to overheat and cause a fatal error. Not only that,
but the fuel needs to be pumped in and keep cooled until the
launch. In the meantime, let me show you around the facilities,
comrades.” said Kerimov.

Two days later, Gagarin and
Komarov were taken to the launch site, went up the elevator to the
spacecraft, and were strapped in with the help of the flight
engineers. They conducted pre-flight checks of all the instruments
for fifteen minutes, while mission control did the same. The
countdown was begun five minutes after the two were strapped in,
and continued on for twenty more minutes. The engines activated
when the countdown ended, causing a massive fireball and smoke to
envelop the site, while the two cosmonauts were experiencing 15 g’s
and
were glued to their seats while the
rocket was lifting off. A trail of smoke followed the rocket into
orbit, where all the stages fell away, leaving the
Korolev
spacecraft alone in orbit. Gagarin fired the rockets on the
ship to leave Earth orbit and headed for the moon, which would be a
three day trip.

As the two were on their way to the
moon, Gagarin peered into the windows and marveled at the beauty of
Earth, feeling as he did when he went up the first time. He felt
then as he did now that there must be a God out there somewhere, he
had a hard time since his first orbit going with the communist
official line of atheism. He never dared voice his thoughts out
loud because doing so would get him purged and he didn’t want that.
Defecting to the United States would do him no good either; the KGB
would hunt him down and murder him in cold blood, all for the
supposed good of the Russian people. If Gagarin could, he would
stay out here forever and not go back to Earth. He wasn’t sure how
Komarov felt and he wouldn’t dare ask him.

Halfway to the moon, they
felt some sort of explosion hammer the
Korolev
, all the emergency lights
on the instrument panel lit up, and a rather annoying and deafening
alarm bell went off. Komarov silenced the alarm, and asked, “What
happened?”

“I don’t know, something must’ve
malfunctioned and short circuited. We’re going to have to inspect
the entire craft and find out what’s wrong. I might have to break
radio silence and contact Kerimov, but only in the worst case
scenario possible, because Star City Mission Control may pick up
our broadcast, and then everyone involved would be in serious
trouble. Let’s get to work, Vladimir.”

An hour or so later, Gagarin
discovered that the
Korolev
was severely off course, not
headed for the moon at all, but for a course towards the outer
solar system. One of the coolant tanks for the engines exploded
they had discovered, which had caused the ship to veer off course.
He had to risk contacting Kerimov, “Kerimov, this is the
Korolev
, please
come in, Kerimov.”

A short burst of static came
through, and then Kerimov’s voice came through the receiver, “This
is Kerimov,
Korolev
. If you’re breaking radio
silence, I assume you’re in some sort of trouble. What’s
wrong?”

“We’re seriously off course, and
have no way to correct the problem. Mission has failed, repeat
mission has failed. What are your orders, sir?”

“Terminate the mission with all due
haste, Colonel. As of now, all radio contact is terminated. I’m
sorry, Gagarin. Kerimov out.”

Both men glanced at each
other with worry on their faces. Gagarin turned off the radio, and
then said to Komarov, “Well, I don’t plan on committing suicide
just because I’m told to. My plan is to record everything we see
out here and when our country or even the United States plans on
exploring the solar system further, maybe they’ll come across
the
Korolev
and see what happened. Do you agree?”

“Yes, I agree with you, Colonel.
I’m always amazed how quickly the Motherland abandons one of their
own, but it is what it is. Let’s get to work plotting our current
location, our rate of speed, where our course is going, and see
just how long we can survive out here.”

Two days later and over five
hundred thousand miles from Earth, the
Korolevs’
data recorder was
recording everything, the two men were asleep in their chairs, and
then a mysterious shadow appeared over the spacecraft. The ship was
jostled, which caused both cosmonauts to awaken, and they felt as
if they were being pulled upwards, even though it was supposed to
be an impossibility with no gravity in space. Gagarin got out of
his chair, went to a window and looked outside, and what he saw
shocked him. There was a spaceship of unknown origin out there, and
it appeared to be pulling the
Korolev
into the ship. Gagarin went
over to his supply bag and pulled out his pistol, and checked it to
see if it had bullets, which it did, and began weighing his
options. Komarov saw this, his eyes went wide, and he asked, “You
don’t really plan on shooting your way out of this, do
you?”

“No, I don’t, but this is a
protective measure. We have no idea if they’re hostile or what they
even look like. I just want to be prepared in any case and it looks
like we won’t have long to wait to see our benefactors.”

The
Korolev
was pulled inside the
spaceship into what appeared to be a hangar bay of some sorts, from
what Gagarin could see, since he saw craft of various sizes sitting
in the hangar. The bay doors closed, breathable air was pumped into
the hangar, and both cosmonauts experienced gravity again. Gagarin
decided to open the hatch of the
Korolev
and see what’s out there, but,
he made sure he kept his gun with him. Both men climbed out of
their ship, looked around, and waited next to the
Korolev
for
someone or something to appear. Their wait didn’t last very long
when a door opened and what appeared to be four humans came walking
towards the two Russians, as Gagarin and Komarov nervously stood
next to their spacecraft waiting for whatever came next.

What appeared to be an
officer of some sort walked up to both men, and said, “Greetings. I
am Commander Gregor Lomanco of the Terran Base on Mars. We detected
your spacecraft here drifting severely off-course for what we
assume was a mission to your moon. Even though we officially try
never to interfere with human activity, this is one time we thought
it best to come to your aid. Unfortunately, we can’t return either
of you to Earth, since it would open up too many questions about
us, and it would help if you lowered your weapon. Now, who are
you?”

“
I am Yuri Gagarin and this
is
Vladimir Komarov, we are cosmonauts from the Soviet
Union,”

“Oh, yes, I recognize you now, you are the
first modern human to reach orbit. Congratulations by the way, that
really put the Americans on the spot, didn’t it?” interrupted
Lomanco.

“I’m sure it did, uh, Commander. Who are all
of you and I’m not the first human in orbit?” asked Gagarin, taken
aback by what he’s heard so far.

“No, Mr. Gagarin, you are not the first human
to orbit Earth, sorry. We are the Terrans. Our ancestors came from
and left Earth more than three thousand of your years ago, near the
time of Noah’s Flood. We established a base on Mars long ago to
watch your planet and wait for it to become technologically
advanced enough to make official contact. Over the years, there
have been some Terrans who have tried to interfere, but they were
taken care of, and right now, no one from Terra is meddling in
Earth affairs. Will you be missed by your country or did the
failure of your spacecraft mean certain death for you?”

“We were on a secret mission to the moon,
which wouldn’t have been broadcast to the world until we were on
the surface. Unfortunately, our engines malfunctioned and took us
off course, so we were ordered to terminate the mission and
basically commit suicide. I refused and we are here on board your
spaceship, while back on Earth I would have to assume our
commanding officer has made up some stories about our supposed
deaths. Now, I guess we are even unofficially the first humans to
make contact with another spacefaring culture. What will you do to
us?” asked Gagarin.

“We will not have you killed if that is what
you’re asking. We can either have you stay on Mars with us, or send
you back to Terra, that all depends on what my superiors say. Are
either of you fine with that prospect?”

Gagarin and Komarov looked at each other,
Komarov shrugged, and Gagarin said, “We will accept wherever you
want us to go. Just lead the way.”

As the two Cosmonauts were being processed by
the Terrans, back on Earth, Gagarin was right about Kerimov making
up a story about what happened to Komarov and Gagarin. Kerimov,
after remembering what McNamara threatened him with years earlier,
told the Soviet leaders that Komarov died in a spacecraft accident
involving one of the
Soyuz
class spacecraft, including going
so far as to make listening posts around the world hear him
complaining and cursing the craft as it failed to deploy the
parachute on the
Soyuz
as it was coming in for re-entry and
then crashing, killing Komarov. As for Gagarin, Kerimov waited a
few months and announced that Gagarin and a flight instructor died
while on a routine training flight of a
MiG-15UTI,
because weather conditions were really poor and turbulence from
both breaking of the sound barrier and windy conditions caused the
aircraft to crash. Both men were given state funerals, although the
bodies of both men were burned beyond all recognition according to
Kerimov, so open caskets were not used, and nobody realized there
were no bodies in the caskets when they were buried.

"Houston, Tranquility Base
here. The Eagle has landed." said Neil Armstrong, as the lunar
module
Eagle
touched down on the moon.

“Acknowledged
Eagle
, we’re all
relieved you made it to the surface. Now, you two need to begin the
extra-vehicular activity that’s planned for this mission. Houston
out.” ordered Charles Duke, acting CAPCOM for the landing.

As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin began
preparing for their EVA, Aldrin broadcast over his radio,
“
This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this
opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever
they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of
the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way. Thank
you.”

Six hours later, Armstrong
was in his spacesuit ready for what was next, and then he opened
the hatch on the lunar module, and stepped down the ladder to the
moon’s surface for the first time. On his first step, he said,
“"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The
first footprint of mankind onto the moon was relayed back to Earth
in real time on television, hosted, of course, by nervous CBS
anchorman Walter Cronkite.

At Area 51, everyone
stationed there was also watching this on TV, spellbound by what
they saw. Chuck Yeager, after the television broadcast, made an
announcement, “My superiors wanted me to inform all of you that
with the accomplishment of landing on the moon, we should now make
more of an effort to get us further into space. We will be working
on trying to build actual spacecraft to be secretly used while NASA
goes about showing the public what the United States can do, albeit
in baby steps. Occasionally, if we’re allowed, we will put hybrid
technology on the
Apollo
spacecraft to see what works and what won’t.
Sometimes, we may even test the limits of human endurance in space,
that all depends on what my superiors want. We will also work on
bringing some of our technology to the people, advanced computers,
more efficient microwave ovens, solar power, and anything else we
can conjure up. Let’s get to work, people.”

Nearly a year later,
Apollo 13
, the
third moon mission, was set to go to the moon. As James Lovell,
Fred Haise, and John Swigert were on their way to the moon, an
explosion occurred on their spacecraft two days into the mission.
An oxygen tank exploded, damaging the service module, causing the
three men to utilize the lunar module as a lifeboat. Back on Earth,
at Area 51, they had caused the oxygen tank to fail, with a radio
signal sent to a receiver with a small explosive device on the tank
itself, but they hadn’t meant to damage the spacecraft. Through a
team of engineers, Area 51 let NASA know how to help keep the three
astronauts alive for the trip around the moon and back to Earth.
The intent was to see if humans could survive on low oxygen levels
in space, but, the whole experiment turned into a bigger problem,
fortunately for the
Apollo
13
astronauts, they survived, but were
unable to land on the moon’s surface. Area 51 learned, along with
NASA, what was necessary for human survival in space under extreme
conditions, without losing a life doing it.