Angry Moon

Chapter 39a

     “Ten minutes until we're at the de-orbit point,” said Benny. “Are we good to go or do we want to take another orbit first?”

     The voice from Jodrell Bank was still coming from the cockpit speakers. It was giving a different message now, messages of good luck and well wishing from various people including their families, Eddie's new friends at Wetherby, the three astronauts left behind on the space station and the Jodrell Bank staff themselves. Benny had left it on, in case any new messages came in, but had turned it down low so that they could barely hear it. Consequently, the voices were almost drowned out by the noise of the air recycling fans.

     “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we'll be back on Earth,” said Eddie. “Relaxing on a beach on a small island in the south pacific with a pina colada in one hand and the other stroking the hair of a scantily clad dusky maiden.”

     “And a heavily armed security man standing behind you, ready to shoot you in the head if he thinks you're about to reveal the secrets of the mass dampener to terrorists,” said Paul, who had taken Eddie’s earlier comments to heart. Eddie nodded soberly.

     “If we're doing it, let’s just do it,” said Susan. “Waiting to die is a lot worse than dying.”

     “And on that cheerful note, our heroes sprang into action!” said Eddie, but he immediately regretted his flippant tone when he saw Susan looking hurriedly away, not quite fast enough to prevent him from seeing the look of fear on her face. Fear just barely held in check. A terror of what lay ahead and the knowledge of just how slim their chances really were. Eddie reached over to lay a hand on her shoulder, but she jerked out of his reach without looking around at him.

     “It's going to be okay,” he said. “We're going to survive this. We're going to make it back home and we'll be heroes.”

     The tone of his voice made Paul and Benny look back at them. "Everything okay back there?” asked Paul.

     “Fine,” said Susan, forcing a smile. “If the rest of you have decided to go through with this, then let’s do it.”

     “If we've decided?” asked Benny. “Are you suggesting we maybe shouldn't? That, after coming all this way, we should just turn around and go home without completing the mission?”

     “Give her a break, Benny,” said Eddie, a little too sharply. “She's just scared, which just means that she’s a lot smarter than the rest of us. There is a very real chance that we're not going to survive this. We need to face up to that fact before we go any further, before we decide whether we want to proceed.”

     “Are you saying you want to turn back as well?”

     “Nobody wants to turn back,” said Eddie. “I'm just saying that we should go in with our eyes open, fully aware of exactly what we're going into.” Susan turned her head to look sharply at him, then looked away again as if he'd uttered a profanity.

     “What about you, Susan?” asked Benny. “Are you good to go on?”

     “Just out of curiosity,” she replied, “What would you do if I said no?”

     “If you said no?” asked Benny, sounding genuinely confused.

     “If I said I wanted to go back, what would you do?”

     “We're all in this one little ship together,” said the Swede. “We can't split up. You can't go back alone while the rest of us go on without you.”

     “So what would you do?” insisted Susan.

     “We'd all go back, of course,” said Eddie. “Right, Benny?”