Sulyap

Kabanata 17 - Pagharap sa Katotohanan

ASA HQ, Palawan - Hulyo 7, 2020 11:45pm

Hindi mahulugang karayom ang malaking Hall ng ASEAN Space Agency sa dami ng mga taong taga-media na nagmula pa sa iba't - ibang panig ng mundo. Halos pinwestuhan ng mga camera crew ang bawat panig ng bulwagan upang makakuha ng magandang anggulo sa magaganap na press conference ukol sa masadlak na pangyayari sa kalawakan dalawang araw na ang nakakalipas.

Sa pinakaharap ng hall ay may nagiisang podium kung saan inaabangan ang pagtayo ng taong magbibigay linaw sa pangyayari. Sa likod nito ay ang simbolo ng ahensya at sa magkabilang panig naman nito ay ang mga nakatayong bandila ng mga bansang kabilang sa samahan.

Kahit na puno ng mga tao at kagamitan ang bulwagan ay ramdam parin ang lamig na nagmumula sa ventilation system ng gusali. Ilang saglit pa at may nagtangkang lumapit sa podium.

"Evening everyone, for our press conference tonight, the management have decided to accomodate up to five questions or inquiries only. This will be immediately after the Director of ASA have done her report. The agency have still so much to do about this incident and this is the only time we can spare for statement release, so please bear with us. Thank You."

Malinaw na paliwanang ng isang lalaki na kawani ng ahensya. Matapos nito ay mas naramdaman pa ang ingay sa silid sanhi ng mga paguusap ukol sa pahayag ng ASA sa mangayayari sa gabing iyom.

Matapos ang humigit kumulang labing limang minuto ay may muling lumapit sa podium kasabay ng pagakyat din ng ilan pang kawani sa entablado upang samahan ang magbibigay ulat. Dalidali ang pag-flash ng mga camera ng mga taga media at agad na tumutok ang mga ito sa sandaling iyon.

"Apologies for the announcement earlier regarding the set up of the conference, our colleague had even forgot to greet our evening with a 'good' one since our situation right now are light years away from achieving such..." Agad na bungad ng babaeng puno ng ASA.

"...Exactly six days ago, we had our greatest aspiration launched into reality with the successful lift off of Space Shuttle Dream & Hope bound to circum navigate the Moon and Earth respectively..." Panimulang ulat nito sa lahat ng nasa silid at sa mga nanunuod.

"...Two days after launch, Shuttle Dream reached the lunar orbit. A few moments later, communication between us and Dream was disrupted. We tried to ask for the crew of Shuttle Hope to establish contact with Dream hoping that ours was having a problem, but it was the same with them..." Paliwanag nito habang may pinapakita na mga datos at larawan sa kanyang likod gamit ang projector ng hall.

"...We tried to re-establish connection with Dream but all was negative. After a few hours, we have received a report from Shuttle Hope about a recorded footage of Shuttle Dream vanishing in our Positioning Systems. We have confirmed it with our engineering team and it was indeed true. At that moment, we severed the live feedback of the operation to you guys in the media as a precautionary procedure..." Patuloy na ulat nito sa tahimik at nakatutok na publiko.

"...The Agency have reviewed and studied all possible angles, scenarios and theories about this incident and we have arrived to our three major hypothesis...." Mas lalong umigting ang pakikinig ng mga tao sa bulwagan sa mahalagang sasabihin ng naguulat.

'Our first hypothesis, Space Shuttle Dream encountered a major technical problem and have crashlanded in to the lunar surface immediately after encountering the situation. The second one is a very small meteorite must have hit it leading to its immediate destruction above the moon's orbit. And our last guess is, Their maneauvering systems malfunctioned veering away off course and cutting our communications. Our hopes with this one is, if they have managed to atleast guided their escape pods on the moon's surface." Paglalahad nito sa madla na tila hindi parin makapaniwala sa mga nagyari.