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  Europa informed the others, “The next possible optimal flight day would be December 22nd, but it’d be better to go in June 2141 if you want to arrive alive.”

  Peter smiled at Europa. She knew her stuff.

  “I’m sure the next time that we meet, there won’t be a problem. For the time being, we’ll continue with our daily tasks as if nothing has happened, and please prepare your reports as normal.” He looked at Damian, “We’ll wait until we have more facts.” Then he looked directly at each one of them one after the other and his gaze demanded approval. They all nodded.

  Peter got up he put his hands on the table and he looked around one last time. As he was looking at them wondering what they were thinking, his stomach growled. Peter looked down at his belly, he’d forgotten lunch. He lifted his head, and apologised for the disturbance, then smiled and said, “What we need is patience. We’ll meet again in three days.” His voice had sounded worried. He smiled again to indicate that the meeting was over. He’d chosen three days to give people time to calm down. And he knew that it was going take him a few days to assess the situation.

  He looked at the picture of Earth and thought the first year had gone so smoothly. Why would it be so different now?

  As the others started to get up Maria remained seated. She was looking at Peter and asked, “Could you perhaps say a few comforting words?”

  Peter felt emotionally empty inside. He was still shocked by the facts. He didn’t have anything left in him. He couldn’t manage a few words of comfort. He knew he was overwhelmed and looked to Liam for help, “You were a lay preacher. Can you please say a few appropriate words for us?”

  Liam nodded his agreement respectfully. Everyone sat back down as he closed his eyes and started speaking, “We had a huge shock this morning when we opened the shields and couldn’t establish radio contact with Columbus. Now we are sitting here in ignorance and unable to send out good wishes to our friends and loved ones. We hope that everything on Earth is okay and that we will soon be able to contact our families again.” He paused for a moment and looked at the others. They kept silent they were waiting for him to continue.

  “The next few days will be difficult. Please remember that none of us are to blame for the disconnection. Courage and patience are the qualities that we need during the coming days. And I know, and if I may speak for Moon Major Peter,” he looked at Peter questioningly and Peter nodded, “that we know, we are a brave team and together, we will be able to overcome the gravity of the situation.”

  There was a quiet giggle.

  Second Meeting

  Date: Wednesday 23rd November 2140 – 11:00 CET

  Location: Alpha 12 – Moon Base

  Peter walked calmly and quietly into the meeting room and was now standing at the head of the table. He looked down trying to avoid eye contact. A heavy silence hung over the room, they were watching his every move, watching closely as he took off his captain’s hat and placed it carefully on the table in front of him. Their eyes stayed focused on the hat for a few seconds and then slowly returned to look at Peter.

  He smiled to break the silence, and because he would never have thought that his captain’s hat could be so interesting. Everyone was sitting in their usual safe places. They remained silent and waited. They were expecting news from him. Information that he didn’t have. His expression became more serious, his eyes saddened, and his smile disappeared, barely noticeably he shook his head. He hoped that they would, on an unconscious level, recognise the significance of the movement and perhaps be more realistic with their questions.

  With a heavy heart he sat down and looked at the people waiting for him and he thought I promised them a meeting, knowing that I was hoping a solution would be found before we had to come together. He sighed, now they were here. He tapped on the table-screen and then looked down at his notes and thought, at least he’d organised the meeting as he’d promised even though he hadn’t wanted to, he’d kept his promise. They were having their meeting, he hadn’t called it a crisis meeting, even though it felt like a crisis. He didn’t want to say it out loud or even write it down. He didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want it to be real.

  He looked up and looked at them. He could sense the mood in the room. It was complex but consistent. They were confused, insecure and some were already showing signs of being upset. He wanted to reassure them, to give them comfort and to make them feel better than he did. The problem was, he didn’t know how. He steadied himself and called upon his good manners and training before he thanked them for coming and before smiling half-heartedly. As he was looking around he stopped at Damian and with a glimmer of hope in his eyes he looked at him questioningly. Damian sat rigid with a sad, hard expression and didn’t react to Peter’s look. Peter glanced to Liam who shook his head slightly. Peter knew exactly what it meant.

  He glanced down at his notes. He didn’t need to look at them, he’d knew what he was going to say. He explained that the contact with Earth Base Columbus had not yet been restored. He kept his voice as flat, as emotionless as possible and avoided using adjectives. There were enough feelings in the room, they didn’t need his as well. He told them that Meichun hadn’t found anything new. He looked at his notes to try and hide his sadness and his disappointment. He swiped his finger on the table-screen, looking through his notes. If they were watching they would have seen that his eyes weren’t concentrating. He was thinking that there was no result from Meichun because he was not able to ask the right, or even a halfway decent, question. He looked up at the window wall. It was simply illuminated, there was no picture of Earth on it. He was grateful for that. He didn’t want a reminder that they were alone.

  He could see and feel their stares. He wanted to give them something. He told them the background information he had from Meichun about how expensive water becomes when it is extracted from the sea and how landlocked countries need very long pipes stretching over the neighbouring countries. He voiced his opinion, “Clean water should be self-evident. How can that not be the case these days?”

  Damian wasn’t interested. Bluntly, he interrupted Peter, “We want to go home.” He looked at his son as he spoke. Filip nodded in agreement.

  Peter said quietly and compassionately, “We are all thinking of our families and want to be with them.” He had a picture of his wife in his mind’s eye, she was smiling, as he spoke.

  “We want to do something. Not just sit around and talk. We want to return as soon as possible.” Damian’s voice sounded harsh without any sign of patience.

  Peter opened his mouth to reply, to ask for a little patience, but before he could get a word out, a strong voice sounded, claiming that this was foolish. Everyone turned to Europa.

  She continued confidently, “The journey takes approximately thirty-six hours to fly on the perigee. The next perigee comes on December 22nd and after that one in June. June would be the better option the distance between Moon and Earth is optimal.”

  Damian frowned. He seemed to be calculating in his head, “There’s a more favourable date tomorrow.”

  Europa smiled knowingly and said, “We are too close to the meteoroid shower. It is too big a risk.”

  Steve smiled snidely and said tauntingly, “And you can’t go faster than thirty-six hours. If you use all your fuel accelerating, you won’t have enough to brake. Or do you want to burn up from the friction when you hit the Earth’s atmosphere?”

  Steve looked at Europa and smiled. She replied with a scowl.

  Damian looked at Steve angrily but kept quiet.

  “It won’t do your wife any good if you’re dead.” Steve taunted. He wasn’t hiding that he was looking for a fight.

  Beatriz sounded calm and peaceful as she explained, “The escape pods aren’t very comfortable, and they’re only intended for emergencies. They might not be able to take enough oxygen if the journey takes too long. Waiting for the perigee is highly recommended if you want to survive the journey.”

  Filip did
n’t want to give up. His voice sounded tense and pleading, “There’s a safety margin for the oxygen.”

  The compassion was clear to see in Beatriz’s eyes, “The oxygen safety margin is there in case something unexpected happens. In case the journey takes longer than expected.” Beatriz looked at both Damian and Filip and shook her head gently, “It’s not worth deliberately risking an oxygen deficiency.”

  Damian, who had listened to his son quietly, had an expression that was a mixture of stubbornness and anger. He wanted to return with his son as soon as possible. It didn’t matter if there were problems with the escape pod or not. He wanted to risk it.

  Peter was watching Damian closely. He believed he understood how Damian was feeling. He too was worried about his wife and wanted to go home to see her, to know that she was safe, but he was also responsible for the Moon Base and needed to find a solution before he could go home. Peter took a deep breath and explained, “We have twelve people and twelve seats in the escape pods. There are four escape pods with three seats each. There’s no escape pod available for two people, and we aren’t leaving anyone behind.”

  Peter waited for Damian’s reaction, but Damian remained sullenly silent. Peter looked over to Filip before he added, “The tourists’ escape pods were never built. They were started, but didn’t get very far, after the Moon Madness stories started and the tourists didn’t come as had been expected.” Peter paused. That was a dangerous thing to say out loud. The disease was just a rumour, and no one had even proved it existed. He looked around warily, people got what they believed. He needed to destroy this idea before it took hold. He changed the subject, “We should wait. It could be that the connection problem is only temporary.”

  Charlie didn’t seem to have heard Peter and added thoughtfully, “They did finish building the escape pods for the tourists. I mean, I read that one was used for a rescue operation. A few years ago, a Moononaut got sick and had to be sent home. They used one then, and Columbus said that if a tourist comes, they’ll build a new escape pod and send it to us because we don’t have the resources or the right equipment to build one ourselves.”

  Peter looked at Filip and Paul. “Do you know if we have the resources?”

  Paul panicked and froze, his face turned pale. He didn’t know what was in stock. He looked at Filip with his eyes wide-open and shook his head.

  Filip smiled at Paul before answering Peter, “We don’t know exactly what we have, but we can check it out.” He turned to Paul and said quietly, “We don’t need to know everything.”

  Liam interrupted, he seemed thoughtful when he asked the question, “How would we land?” He looked at Damian. “There’ll be no one able to pick you up from the sea.”

  “We’d be wearing our orange spacesuits. They’ll find us.” Damian sounded stubborn and confident.

  Steve, who appeared worried, said, “The pods are made so that they begin to break apart from the heat caused by the air friction braking. There is a parachute, but it was only designed for emergencies.”

  Liam nodded in agreement. Damian looked at them as he thought about it. He knew they were right, and a speedy return home had just been ruled out. With a level voice and slumped resignation, Damian said quietly, “We’ll have to check the landing gear and probably adjust it. Especially if we don’t have the safety net of a Columbus pickup.”

  Peter was relieved but tried not to let it show. He said encouragingly, “Liam, Damian and Steve, can you look for a solution.”

  Peter stood up, but before he could say anything, Beatriz lay a picture of her sisters on the table. She looked at the photo and said quietly but clearly, “I miss my sisters, and I’m waiting for a video mail from them.”

  Surprised, Peter looked briefly at Beatriz, until he regained his composure. He sat down and glancing at Beatriz’s photo before saying quietly, “I miss my wife Jean.”

  Maria added spontaneously, “I miss my younger sister Vickie and my parents Theofilos and Catherine.”

  Charlie, who was sitting next to Maria, looked at her and smiled before saying, “I miss my brothers Albert and Bruce and my parents Zach and Yvonne.” Charlie looked to Steve, who looked away shaking his head.

  Europa noticed the silence and added, “I miss my sister Callisto.”

  John looked sad and looked the others in the eye and held his head high, as he said, “I miss my ex-wife Charlotte and my son Daniel.”

  Dervla, who was sitting next to John, looked at the table and shook her head almost imperceptibly.

  Beatriz looked at Damian, who with sad eyes and a wobbly voice, said, “I miss my wife Justine.” He looked at Filip, “and my younger son Hubert.”

  Liam shook his head without smiling. He didn’t want to say anything.

  Filip looked at the table, trying to hide his emotions, as he said quietly, “I miss my mother Justine and my brother Hubert.”

  Paul noticed some of them looking at him and he blurted out, “I miss my brother Andrew and my dog Astro. Andrew’s looking after my dog.”

  A few people laughed. Peter was grateful for the laughter. It eased the tension a little. He looked at the group. They’d shared something and seemed closer now. He stroked his chin and felt his seven-day beard and wondered if it was too soon to shave. As Peter stood up he thought, would he still need a beard for the first message after opening? He wanted to keep to tradition.

  He looked at the group and said, “We’ll meet again on Monday.” He hoped that somehow something would happen on Earth over the weekend. He just couldn’t believe that Columbus couldn’t find a solution. When contact was restored, he was going to shave.

  Third Meeting

  Date: Monday 28th November 2140 – 11:00 CET

  Location: Alpha 12 – Moon Base

  Peter looked at the calendar and couldn’t quite believe that it was already Monday. He’d promised them a meeting but there was still no news from Earth. He stood up determined to put on a good show. He knew they’d be waiting for him when he got to the meeting room. He walked calmly but he wasn’t looking forward to the discussion.

  When he entered the room, he noticed immediately that the mood felt different. He looked at the people questioningly. There was a unified energy, almost as if electricity was in the air. He had the feeling that he could almost touch it. He smiled as he felt a glimmer of hope.

  As soon as Steve saw Peter he blurted out, “Damian, Liam and I have shared our engineering knowledge and now know what we need to do to make the journey to Earth in the escape pods safe.” He grinned knowingly. He’d desperately wanted to be the one who said it.

  Peter looked at the three of them sitting together and just raised his eyebrows to elicit more information.

  Without looking at the other two, Steve responded, “We don’t have the parts to be able to build a new escape pod, but we do have heat shields and the other necessary spare parts in stock to be able to reinforce the existing escape pods.” He nodded at Paul and Filip. “They checked in the stores for us.”

  Steve paused for a moment and smiled to himself. He was enjoying the attention.

  Damian was nodding approvingly. Liam was staring at Steve without showing any enthusiasm. Steve was ignoring both of them.

  Steve continued, “We’ll be able to strengthen the shields to keep them more stable when entering the Earth’s atmosphere. This gives us a better chance of survival on landing because the escape pods with be more intact after the braking manoeuvre.” He added, “And we are going to take the time to think about other possibilities to make the journey safer.”

  Damian took the opportunity to speak. He sounded a little disappointed, “We won’t be able to make the changes before December, and accepting the risk of meteoroids, we’ve decided to wait until June next year.” He looked down.

  Steve sounded upbeat, “Then we’ll have time to modify all the escape pods.”

  Peter smiled wryly. This was good news and he needed some good news, but he knew there was a problem with the p
lan. He looked at them and bit his lower lip briefly before he carefully summarised his thoughts, “We can strengthen the escape pods, and it is a good idea, as then we’ll be able to send people back safely. But we can’t just send two people back. We have four rescue pods each with three seats. We can’t make a plan that means that someone had to be left behind. We have to provide an escape route to everyone living on the Moon.” Peter looked at them questioningly. “If Damian and Filip fly back, we need a volunteer to fly with them.”

  In a small voice, Paul asked, “Why are there three seats in an escape pod?”

  Without prompting from Peter, Europa answered, “It is more energy efficient to have three people in one pod, and much easier for Columbus to find the Moononauts when they land together on Earth.”

  Paul nodded gently and smiled nervously. He thought Europa was really smart.

  Beatriz changed the subject, “Have you thought about oxygen? There’s a limited supply of about sixty-three hours of oxygen in the escape pods.”

  Liam sounded interested as he replied, “The escape pod starts at a perigee and not an apogee. We intend to fly when there is the minimum distance between the Moon and the Earth.” He looked puzzled at Beatriz, “Why do you ask?”

  Beatriz breathed in deeply before she said, “Columbus are offline and won’t be able to correct the trajectory if there’s a deviation.”

  Damian nodded, “We’ve thought of that, but we don’t have a definitive solution yet. Maybe we convert carbon dioxide into oxygen or take extra oxygen tanks with us.”

  Beatriz smiled. The three of them seemed to be working well together.

  Steve butted in, “The launch conditions are not the same here as on Earth. We’ll need less fuel for the launch. Don’t forget the Moon’s gravity is only sixteen percent of the Earth’s gravity, and this means that we have some flexibility with the take-off weight. If we want, there’s also the option to create an external Art Feldmann’s field to help us launch.”