Pilgrimage (The New World) (13 page)

It was obvious to Ross from this encounter that the alien species was far more advanced than humans from a technological standpoint, but they were still vulnerable as life forms to different atmospheric conditions. He asked the alien creatures how many planetary systems their species had charted, and to what extent humans rated with relation to other life forms they had encountered.

His new friends informed Ross that their species had traveled to and charted slightly over one thousand solar systems in this particular section of the galaxy alone, but had found life of some sort in only about twenty percent of those systems. It was an ongoing process for their species to try and communicate with life forms that they thought were ready both philosophically, and technologically, for the encounter. They also informed Ross that the two of them had actually only been to a few dozen of that large number of systems, and their current observation assignment had them rotating between this and three other nearby solar systems.

According to the archives, many of the life forms that had been discovered were not yet ready for such contact, while others had developed to the point of searching the stars themselves for other inhabitants. In that regard they classified
₹-829-Ԅπ-3
, or Earth as they now knew it to be called, as an emerging planet whose dominant species could be ready for contact. During their most current observations of the past few centuries, the aliens had witnessed some significant progress on the planet from a technological standpoint. They also had major concerns about the mental and philosophical element of human evolution, because of the seemingly endless need for killing each other, and the destruction of natural resources.

That new found information explained several things to Ross, such as the emblem on his grandfather Hank’s necklace that Ross had cherished for many years. Hank had received the gift from his father when he was only four years old in 1897, and it supposedly came from the crash site of a flying machine of some sort.

When Ross informed the aliens of the necklace that he currently wore, which was the prototype of the emblem on the rover, they conveyed to him that it was indeed from one of their crashed scout vehicles. What was also intriguing to Ross was that by the aliens’ calendar that crash in western Texas had occurred less than four months ago. That meant that one of their months was approximately equal to twenty-five years on Earth.

At the conclusion of their educational discussion, the two aliens helped Ross bring the dead body of Dennis back to the rover before they returned to their base. Ross had removed the heavy and cumbersome breathing pack from the body before doing so, as it was both no longer needed by Dennis, and the missing piece would be challenging for Ross to explain back on Earth. Ross then assured the aliens that he would not report their existence to his superiors back on Earth, but that future scheduled missions to the Moon could detect their base. If that were to happen, Ross couldn’t guarantee that those astronauts would also remain silent.

The two aliens had seen so many acts of kindness from Ross over the past few Earth hours that they believed his statement. They informed Ross that they hoped future contact with him would be possible, but didn’t really think it was probable. If future contact could be made, they would attempt to do it in a discreet way to protect Ross. With that they shook hands, bid farewell, and Ross climbed into the rover.

His new friends walked away and disappeared into the darkness, while Ross sat in reflective silence for several minutes before turning his voice recorder back on. It had been one hell of a few hours to say the least, as he had encountered an alien species from a distant world, watched his good friend and fellow astronaut Dennis die, and then formed a friendship with the aliens who were indirectly responsible for his death. Ross turned to see his dead friend in the second seat of the rover, and then began the powering up procedure so he could return to the shuttle and communicate with mission control.

THE NEWS ROSS
delivered to mission control had been shocking. Astronaut Dennis Strickland was dead due to an accident while conducting a normal survey exploration on the surface of the Moon. Ross had explained that he had heard a cry for help in a moment of panic, which was confirmed by the voice recorder, and that he immediately made his way towards Dennis. Unfortunately by the time he got to his side there was nothing that could be done, and Ross had made the decision to turn off each of their voice recorders so the painful death of his friend would not be heard and dissected by the entire world.

When asked why he had not turned back on his own voice recorder after Dennis had died, Ross explained that there was nothing to say at that time and he was more focused on figuring out a way to get his friend’s body back to the rover. In spite of the lessor gravity, it took a great amount of time and effort to move Dennis the required distance. During that process Ross had determined that he needed to remove the backpack from his friend’s suit to lessen the weight of the lifeless body. That was a boldface lie he was telling NASA, but the chances of them finding out the truth were minimal at best. Ross had been helped with moving the body, and the pack with a now missing part needed to be left on the surface. His story was plausible, and would explain the time lapse that had been used in quiet contemplation back at the rover.

After several minutes of waiting for instructions from NASA, Ross was informed that the overall length of the mission would be cut short. He had suspected that would be the course of action due to what had taken place, but he wasn’t happy with the decision. Privately he knew that this was a tremendous opportunity to communicate with the alien species at greater length, but he couldn’t tell NASA that was why he wanted to stay for the remaining scheduled days. Ross was instructed to get the dead body of Dennis aboard the shuttle by any means possible, even if that meant using the robotic arm normally reserved for cargo. Ross then lost his cool for a moment when he sharply informed NASA that, “I fully intend to bring Dennis back to Earth, but I will attempt to find a more humane way to get the body back on board the Discovery!”

Ross climbed the ladder leading into the cargo bay, and ran one of the tethers attached to the rover around the top rung. He then tied and clipped it around the chest area of Dennis before slowly moving the rover away from the shuttle to pull the body across a few feet of the lunar surface and up the ladder. Ross climbed the ladder with the other tether that he had disconnected from the rover, and tied it around the legs of the lifeless body. It was difficult for Ross to get past the body with limited space on the ladder, but he was on a mission and determined to climb inside the cargo bay. He then wrapped the tether attached to the legs around a harness, and used it as a pulley system to lift the majority of Dennis’ body over the lip of the cargo bay. After unclipping and tossing away the first tether, Ross then lowered the body as gently as possible down into the cargo bay.

With the most significant aspect of the challenge behind him, Ross now only needed to move the body along the floor of the cargo bay towards the hatch. He pulled Dennis into the airlock area, shut the door, and heard the hissing sound of the compartment being pressurized with oxygen. Once inside the shuttles flight deck and living area, he placed Dennis in a bunk and strapped the body down with the bright orange tether.

He returned briefly to the surface of the Moon to power down the rover and stow away any loose equipment. As had been the plan from the beginning, the pole holding the American flag was then lashed to the rover with the remaining tether so it would never fall down, and Ross climbed back up the ladder into the cargo bay. He saluted the flag and flung the ladder away from the ship before returning to the airlock. With the cargo bay doors closed, he got out of his spacesuit to get some much needed sleep before the flight back to Earth.

The next morning, at the direction of mission control, Ross began the launch sequence. He would need to do the work of two men, so the pre-flight sequencing took a little longer than usual. Soon the shuttle Discovery was ready to go for the first ever horizontal liftoff by any of the five in the current fleet. The engines roared to life, and moon dust shot out from behind the vehicle as it moved forward on the wheels and skis below.

Little did Ross know that the entire operation was being viewed from a distance, as his new alien friends had come to see the spectacle. With only one-sixth the gravity of Earth, the shuttle rose easily from the surface of the Moon. Per the flight plan Ross gained altitude slowly until reaching a safe height, jettisoned the skies, retracted the landing gear, and put the shuttle into orbit around the Moon. He then increased speed with a continued engine burn while orbiting a half dozen times before the three day return trip to Earth.

THE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY
glowed in the fiery intensity of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, as Ross handled the controls during the bumpy ride. He was having as much fun with the flight as in previous missions, but this time there was no one to share the joy with. He glanced over at the chair where Dennis should have been seated, and said into the microphone that he was missing a great ride. The ship was currently in a time of communication blackout with mission control due to the ionization build up caused during re-entry, so they didn’t hear what Ross had said. That didn’t matter though, because it would be recorded in the official transcript.

Ross had looked over at the empty chair probably dozens of times during the three day return trip from the Moon, and visited the body strapped onto a bunk a few times as well. It had been a lonely three days with only the occasional communication with mission control back home to break up the solitude, but it was almost over. He wondered if anyone on Earth other than NASA was aware of what had happened to Dennis. They would inherently want to keep the mishap from the public, but news of this magnitude would be difficult to keep from leaking out somehow.