THE MER-2 ENGINES roared into life and immediately subjected Tony and his four newly appointed crewmates strapped securely to their seats in the command module to a localised volcanic eruption. They felt a massive kick as the rocket let go of the beach.
"What's happening?" cried Susan. "Surely we're about to blow up!"
"Everything's fine," assured Tony. "We're up and running. Although you might think this rattling and shuddering disturbing, we're actually quite well insulated from the extremes of sound and vibrations caused by the rocket's engines. Expect your weight to double shortly. Then, as the mass of the rocket decreases due to the spent liquid-hydrogen fuel, expect your weight to quadruple. After just over two minutes, expect to be weightless momentarily as the rocket adjusts to prepare to reach an orbital speed from which it can break orbit and reach for the Moon. We will be accelerating towards the Moon, maintaining a 1G force. In other words, you will feel your normal weight. When we decelerate on approaching the Moon our weight will undergo a series of changes until we hopefully land on the Moon and feel a sixth of our weight. The moment we exit the rocket onto the mobile walkway we'll be back to our normal weight due to the lunar virtual gravity systems."
"That's all very reassuring," said Susan, "but at the moment, I feel like the occupant of a penthouse suite atop a skyscraper suffering an earthquake."
At 37 seconds after blast-off ...
"The engines are throttling down momentarily to reduce structural stress as we pass through maximum dynamic pressure," announced Tony.
Seconds later ...
"Now throttling back up to main thrust."
"What is that distant spine-tingling screaming sound?" asked Sylvia. "
"That's just caused by the rocket's slipstream," replied Tony. "We're punching through the atmosphere at tremendous speed powered by a barely controllable immense power. It won't last long, as will soon run out of significant atmosphere."
Minutes later ...
The roar of the engines quietened down, and the control module's rattling and shuddering died down in response.
"We have escaped mother Earth," announced Tony. "We are now on a moderate acceleration and deceleration flight plan to the Moon. We'll be there in eight hours. Even if the main engines were to fail us now, we'd still reach the Moon, we'd just take a couple of days to do so. And from what I can ascertain from the rocket's readings, the rocket is structurally sound with no sign of imminent compromise to structural integrity. Barring an unlikely serious mishap on landing, my mission has been a complete success. More than a complete success, because I brought back you four. Cindy will be surprised."
"Congratulations on an incredible effort—so far," said Sylvia. "I will hold back my full congratulations until we have safely landed. I would not like to tempt providence."
"We could spend these eight hours planning on how we will go about hitting back at the humanotics," said Sylvia, "but I think all discussions should be made as a team, and that team includes Cindy."
"I agree with that," put in Max. "But I'd just like to ask a handful of preliminarily connected questions of you, Tony. If your answers are favourable, it will enable me to think out a plan that will allow us to work completely safe from the humanotics and secure the HTH."
"Fire away, Professor Bostrom."
"Max will be fine. We're all on a first name basis here among friends. What is a title, if not a human concept bestowed by humans? Now that as far as we know, we and Cindy are the only humans left alive, such titles have possibly lost their authenticity. But back to my question. Do you have a modern starship hidden away beneath the lunar surface?"
"Yes. But it is in lockdown, a state even less active than silent running. Even physically entering its doors would tip off the distant surveilling humanotic deep scan systems. And of course, we can't teleport aboard it as all teleportation has been disabled by the humanotics?"
"Excellent news. I assume there is a cargo bay large enough to hold a football field?"
"The Main Cargo Bay can easily hold a couple of football fields."
"And finally, has the starship been in its lockdown state and position since before the humanotics disabled Equaliser teleportation?"
"Yes. It was hidden the moment the humanotics started to attack Equaliser colonies. That was about four months before the disabled teleportation mechanism. It's the starship Equity. The starship Cindy and I served on. The Captain ordered us to remain on the Moon to protect the starship."
"Ah, the Equity," put in Susan. "So, that would be captained by Captain Hugo Lorenzo."
"Yes, that's right," confirmed Tony. "Do you know what happened to him, Susan?"
"He was working at the Starship Security Headquarters in Los Angeles, Earth, during the clandestine humavirus infection attack. So ... well ..."
"I see," said Tony. "With the disease's 32-day incubation period, he didn't stand a chance. Are they in heaven? No, they're in hell! That's where those damned dastardly humanotics dwell!" Tony smiled at his own childish poetry.
"You sound like a waxing lyrical latter-day Scarlet Pimpernel," remarked Susan.
"Huh?" Tony's eyebrows knotted.
"Never mind," said Susan. "But you could improve your poem with the opening couplet: They kill them here, they kill them there. Those humanotics kill them everywhere. However, it would be unfair of me not to give credit to the British novelist Baroness Orczy."
"Never heard of her," said Tony. Then he blurted out the newly appended poem:
They kill them here, they kill them there.
Those humanotics kill them everywhere.
Are they in heaven? — No, they're in hell!
That's where those damned dastardly humanotics dwell!
His effort was greeted by an embarrassing silence. He shrugged his shoulders and studied the readings on the controls panel.
"Telemetry monitoring of the rocket shows all systems operating correctly and safely within nominal limits. I'll let you know when we begin decelerating and start our lunar descent. That'll be in about seven hours."
For the next seven hours, Tony and the others passed the time engaging in various activities. Max Bostrom worked away on his latest notebook, but the others tended to read from passive digital books or join in on various socially oriented conversations.
Then ...
"Beginning deceleration. Expect a brief period of weightlessness followed by a 180° seat swivel."
Forty minutes later ...
"Descent procedure underway. Landing pad identified and we are on target for a perfect landing. All engines go. Plenty of liquid-hydrogen fuel."
The MER-2 rocket slowly arced down towards its landing destination in the northern hemisphere, a crater on the eastern side of the "Sea of Rains" (Mare Imbrium).
Slowly but surely, it aimed for its target crater like a slow motion arrow seeking its bullseye. Before reaching its target crater, it slowly flipped over so that it could land on its standing legs. Then, with a landing burn it slowed down dramatically and disappeared into the crater.
Seconds later ...
"Touchdown!" announced Tony, joyously.
A ripple of enthusiastic applause rang around the command module.
Sylvia was the first of the Equalisers to unstrap herself and give Tony a hearty congratulatory thump on the back.
"Congratulations, Tony!" she said. "You've given Good a chance to fight against the forces of Evil."
"What would any Equaliser expect of another Equaliser? That is what we do—though not usually directly for ourselves, and certainly not in our own Equaliser universe and timeline."
"I can see the walkway extending to the cargo module," said Susan, who was peering out of one of the command module's windows. "It's like a giant see-through straw."
Minutes later ...
"Crater entrance closed and rocket walkway secured," announced Tony. "Let's go. There will be no need to bring our suits because the walkway is secured to an earth-like environment. Also, we have plenty of lunar spacesuits in our hiding centre. They are lightweight and comfortable, and primarily designed for maintenance and building work in our man-made subterranean lunar world. Can't wait to see Cindy—and surprise her with my booty."
Tony led the others to the cargo module exit door. He equalised the pressure inside the cargo module and opened the door.
"Careful, now. Remember, the moment you step onto the walkway, you will transition from your lunar weight to your Earth weight."
Tony gestured each of his four fellow Equalisers through the door.
We then stepped onto the walkway and closed the cargo module's door behind him.
"Make way," he said. "Best if I lead the way to get us into the corridor where Cindy will be waiting."
Tony scampered to the front of the queue and led everybody down a 54-yard walkway.
He approached a plain metallic door with a circular porthole window. Behind the window was the open-mouthed stunned face of starship Chief Security Officer Cindy Lee. No doubt she had spied Tony's marvellously unexpected booty—and no doubt recognised who some of them were. Her eyes were full of tears.
The door opened in wards with a slight hiss, and in spilled Tony and the others.
Cindy quickly closed the door and stood staring in disbelief at the four Equalisers Tony had brought back with him.
"Tony, how is this possible? Sylvia Vickers, Max Bostrom, Susan Fox-Walker, and some other impressive-looking Equaliser. These appear to be the leading experts on Tesseractology."
"They were living in hermetically sealed bunkers under their bungalows in Pinewood Road. Susan, here, is a direct descendant of the founding Equaliser Amy Fox Walker, and she was in her 57 Pinewood Road bunker. So if you think about it this situation is not as miraculous as it might at first appear. Furthermore, not only does Susan have the Tesseract research logbook of her famous ancestor, she will be able to lead us directly to the lunar HTH."
After some brief handshakes and introductions ...
"Let's get to our hiding centre," said Cindy. "It's not far. Follow me."
Cindy led the entourage through a myriad of metallic cylindrical tubular corridors whose sections of overhead strip lights would only activate on the detection of movement. Sometimes she would descend service ladders to deeper and deeper corridors.
Eventually, Cindy came to a non-descript looking panel on the wall of a corridor. She pressed to hardly noticeable buttons on the top of the panel and it slid to the side ... revealing a service ladder.
"Follow me," she said. "Tony will take up the rear and close up the panel."
Down, down, down the service ladder, they descended.
Three quarters of the way down, fifty-two-year-old Max complained, "I think I'm a bit too old for this."
"You'll be fine," called up Sylvia to Max, who was climbing the ladder downwards just above her, "I'm 56, and I don't have the muscles you have."
"You don't have the fat either," retorted Max.
"We'll soon reach the bottom of the ladder," shouted up Cindy to the descenders above her.
Thirty seconds later ...
One by one, the six Equalisers stepped off the ladder.
"It's just in here," said Cindy, pointing out another non-descript panel on the wall of a short section of corridor. She repeated her panel opening technique, pressing two hardly noticeable buttons on the top of the panel. This time when the panel slid open, it revealed an opening into a small anteroom.
After Tony had closed the panel, Cindy led everyone into a large room with a lot of technology on view.
"This is a secret surveillance centre," said Cindy. "Alas, all of the sophisticated surveillance technology, and any communications technology, has had to be switched off for fear of giving away this location to the humanotics. All we can risk is passive listening surveillance devices."
"Any news on the humanotics while I was away?" asked Tony, anxiously.
"Unfortunately, yes. And you couldn't have got back any sooner. The humanotics have sent a clean-up armada to our solar system. They could be here within a couple of hours."
"Let's get going right now to the original lunar Hexagonal Tesseract Honeycomb, the lunar HTH," said Max. "Bring any hand-pads, teleportation bracelets, or any technology you might have found useful in pre-humanotic times. I have a plan that will secure us from the humanotics once we get to the lunar HTH."
"Just give us twenty minutes to get our spacesuit backpacks filled," said Cindy. "We'll need to wear lunar spacesuits as the area around the lunar HTH and the cavern it was built in, isn't a living environment. You should be able to fit your side-bags into the backpacks designed to be worn with the spacesuits. And you can take any technology you see here. Of course, Tony and I have no idea where the lunar HTH is located. We know it's close to this hiding centre, but try as much as we have, its location has eluded us."
"Cindy, is the Mare Imbrium Ventilation Filter Station near here?" asked Susan.
"Yes. It's just off the corridor we climbed down from to get here."
"Excellent," said Susan. "I can get us to the lunar HTH from inside the Ventilation Filter Station."
"Sure?" asked Tony.
"Certain. The reason I know where the lunar HTH is located is because I've visited it many times through my research for the founding Equalisers Institute; of which Sylvia, Max, Zach and I are the leading members. All four of us know how to get to the lunar HTH from the Ventilation Filter Station. We've all carried out various experiments inside it where many rooms are filled with highly advanced Tesseract technological devices. It was incredibly frustrating back in our Pinewood Road bungalow bunkers to believe we could have a chance to fight against the humanotics if only we could get to the lunar HTH. And then Tony answered our prayers."
"Fantastic," said Cindy. "Come on, Tony, let's get a move on."
"And by the way," put in Max. "There will be no need to bring any food or drink, or extra clothing."
"In that case," said Cindy, "we'll be ready to leave in less than ten minutes."
Twelve minutes later ...
"I'm ready," announced Cindy with a smile. "Sorry about the slight delay, I've found my mislaid personal hand-pad."
"Glad to hear it," said Susan.
"So, has everyone got their spacesuit helmet in their backpack?" asked Cindy.
Everyone indicated in the affirmative.
"Okay then," said Cindy. "I'll lead the way to the Ventilation Filter Station, and Susan can lead us to the lunar HTH from there."
Just then, a low volume alarm started to bleep ...
Tony rushed over to one of the few technological devices still operating—the passive warp bubble listening device.
"Uh-oh," he said, looking anxiously down at an electromagnetically shielded screen.
"What is it, Tony?" asked Sylvia, her eyes wide open, reflecting her dread.
"A collapsing warp bubble has been detected close to the Earth. It's obviously the result of a starship emerging from faster-than-light speed. Judging by the collapsing warp bubble's signature, it appears to belong to a humanotic-adapted Equaliser scouting starship."
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I hope you enjoyed this Chapter. I welcome any votes, comments or constructive criticisms (style, spelling, grammar and punctuation errors).
T. J. P. CAMPBELL.