Summer Fic Challenge: August Edition
Welcome back everyone to the Open Vein Writing Summer Fic Challenge: August edition! This officially indicates the close of the July edition. But, now we're at the end! July completely got away from me, but we've got time to make it up
( Read more... )
The color drained from Mike’s face as those words came over the radio. It was the one thing that didn’t have a redundant system. Mike pulled out his notebook. He’d been prepping for a scenario like this. It was his worst fear and planning had seemed to make it just a little less scary. “Eagle, this is Columbia. What seems to be the problem, over?”
“Columbia, this is the Eagle. The ascent engine won’t fire. Uncertain as to the cause. You’re gonna have to go home without us, over.”
“Eagle, that’s a negative. I’m bringing the Columbia down there, over.”
“Columbia, dammit Mike, no.”
“Let the kid try it,” Buzz interrupted. “You know that’s probably all his been thinking about up there by himself. He’ll probably get us back up there lickety-split.”
“Eagle, you’re just about right. I’ve got several ideas that might work and I’m not going back alone.”
"Columbia, this is Houston. That’s a negatory, over."
Mike turned down the volume on the Earthbound radio, although he could hear it crackling for his attention in the background. "Columbia to Eagle. Neil, listen, there’s no way I’m going back there alone when you and Buzz are alive and well down there on the moon. Even if you were injured or dead, I’d be a marked man, but there’s no way I can leave the two of you down there to die, not when I think there’s a way to bring the Columbia to you."
“Eagle to Columbia. Those were not our orders.”
Mike dispensed with the radio protocol. “No, they were not. But that was theory and this is reality and the reality is I’m not leaving you to die on the moon."
“Dammit, Neil. I’m already going to be known as ‘the second man to set foot on the moon’. I have no desire to have ‘the second man to die on the moon’ overwrite that if the kid’s got a plan.”
“Buzz,” Mike’s voice crackled over the radio, “Call me kid one more time and I will just bring Neil back and leave your ass there. We are all the same age.”
“You graduated one year after me at West Point, kid, so as far as I’m concerned, you’ll always be younger.”
“Buzz. Mike. Enough.” Neil tried to regain control of the conversation. “Mike, what’s your plan?”
“Hang on.” Mike’s voice disappeared momentarily along with the static. “Eagle, I’ve got CAPCOM on my ass and I’m about to slip round the back side of the moon. Let me tell them where they can shove their protocol and I’ll be back with you in about an hour. In the meantime, if you could review some of the data Eagle gathered on the descent and find me a halfway decent place to set Columbia down, I’d be much obliged. Columbia out.”
Reply
Leave a comment