Moon Hoax

8 SHOCKING NEWS

The smell of garlic filled the air as Peter walked into his favorite D.C. restaurant. He loved stopping by Da Luca’s Ristorante whenever he was in town. It was an old fashioned bistro with authentic Italian food and wine. As he entered the quaint, dimly lit dining room, he scanned the restaurant looking for Dmitri. Booths lined the walls, each with a flickering red candle in the center of the table illuminating the red leather seats. Many were occupied by romantic couples sitting across from each other, holding hands, a bottle of Chianti on the table.

The maître d’ approached Peter. “Hello, Mr. Novak. It’s been a while, welcome back.” No matter how long it had been since Peter last frequented, he was always impressed Johnny remembered his name. He assumed it was because he usually arrived with a new girl on his arm.

“Hello, Johnny. It has been a while. How are you?”

“Fine, thank you. I see you have no lady friend tonight, are you dining alone?”

“No Johnny, I’m going gay tonight,” Peter said with a wink.

Johnny was pretty straight-laced with no sense of humor. “I see. Would you like your regular table, then?”

Peter smiled. “Privacy would be perfect, my man.”

Johnny showed no reaction as he turned to escort Peter to his table. Peter followed, double checking the dining room to make sure his friend was nowhere to be seen.

As they reached the table Johnny asked, “What does your gay friend look like?”

Peter chuckled. “He’s a short, dark-haired Russian. You can’t miss him. I’ll have my usual drink too.”

Johnny slightly bowed his head in acceptance, turned and left.

Peter was looking forward to seeing his old friend. Though he hoped to learn helpful information on both the laser and China, he was also looking forward to catching up with his buddy. Peter had known Dmitri ever since they were young boys playing and getting into trouble at the Soviet Union Space Complex in Star City, near Moscow. Their fathers were both a part of the U.S.-USSR space mission of the mid-’70s where the superpowers would each send up their own spacecraft and dock together in space. Peter’s dad was the backup commander for the United States while Dmitri’s father, Viktor, was the flight engineer on the Soviet’s prime crew.

Since Tom was a moonwalker, he had enough clout to request his son come along during his training at Star City. Against this request at first, the Soviets eventually gave in due to the prestige Tom brought to the mission. In fact, the Soviets went a step further and had Viktor bring along his eleven-year-old son, Dmitri, so Peter had someone to play with. Though they spoke different languages, the two boys still found ways to communicate, mixing a little Russian with a little English and using a lot of hand gestures. As adventurous boys and admirers of their fathers, both Dmitri and Peter dreamt of flying into space one day. They played on the grounds of the space complex and often pretended they were on a space mission, taking turns who was the commander. They eventually made a blood pact that if one flew in space, the other would do what he could to make sure the other flew.

Dmitri went on to become a cosmonaut, flying a couple of successful missions, while Peter had yet to go in space. Dmitri and Viktor became the only Russian father and son to have flown in space. The Alexandrovs were considered Russia’s first family of space and were famous throughout their country. This prestige they held within Russia’s space program helped Dmitri obtain the assistant director position at the Russian Federal Space Agency, also known as Roscosmos, or FKA. Peter knew his friend would be as open as he could on any intelligence as long as it did not jeopardize his country or FKA in any way, just as Peter would be with him. Dmitri might have never become a cosmonaut if not for Peter and his father.

Before too long, Dmitri walked in the restaurant. The short, forty-seven-year-old Russian man with dark hair still had that boyish face Peter knew from years ago. Though his waist looked a little bigger, he still looked to be in good shape. Peter stood and casually waved in Dmitri’s direction. Seeing his wave, Dmitri smiled and began walking toward the table. Peter, in Russian tradition, greeted his old friend with a gentleman’s hug.

Dmitri said, “It’s been a long time, my dear friend, how are you?”

As they both took their seats, Peter once again was impressed with Dmitri’s English, even though he still had his Russian accent. He remembered back when they were boys and spoke different languages. Back then Dmitri basically knew two English words, “yes” and “no,” the same two words Peter knew in Russian, “da” and “nyet.” Yet they were able to communicate, play, and be friends. Today, Dmitri spoke English with confidence which Peter assumed was because of his current position having to deal with NASA and so many Americans. Peter responded, “I’m good, considering what has been going on.”

“Yes, it must be tough on your family, and especially your dad. How is he handling all of this?” asked Dmitri.

“It’s been hard on both Dad and Mom. We just hope all of these lies are proven wrong soon!”

Johnny approached the table with Peter’s drink and asked what Dmitri would like.

“Give us two shots of your best vodka and a glass of Chianti,” replied Dmitri.

Peter smiled. It was a tradition between them to always start off with a shot of premium vodka.

After Johnny left to get the drinks, Peter asked, “So, how is your father?”

“He’s good, but he misses Mom. Ever since she died, he seems to be lost with what to do with his life. He’s living a nice retired life in a beautiful home in southern Russia, but he is lonely and bored. He calls me all the time wanting to know what’s going on at FKA and giving me advice. He means well, but he can sometimes be bothersome. Unfortunately with my schedule, I just can’t get down to see him as much as I would like.”

“I was sorry to hear about your mom passing away. She was a wonderful person, and what a great cook!”

Dmitri smiled. “Yes, she was a good cook. We all miss her cooking, especially Dad. He has a lady who comes over to cook and clean, yet he complains about her all the time. I try to explain to him no one can come close to Mom’s Russian cooking. No matter what I say, he’s just hard on this lady.” Slightly chuckling Dmitri continued, “He even says the food he had in space tasted better. Bottom-line, he misses Mom and the space program. I know he wishes he could go back in space one last time, but of course that’s unrealistic at his age.”

“Well at least the two of you got the opportunity,” remarked Peter with a slight burn of jealousy.

Dmitri tilted his head to one side. “Peter, why didn’t you ever get to fly? You had to have been one of NASA’s top astronauts?”

“Chris Riddick, plain and simple,” snapped Peter.

“Yes, I remember how Chris treated us at Star City. All the other comrades were nice to us, but not him. He was jealous of your dad. He probably should have been dismissed back in the ’70s. It’s amazing he is still at NASA with his shoddy background.”

“Maybe he slept his way to the top,” Peter suggested with a smirk. Then in a more serious tone he said, “I was surprised he still held a grudge after all those years. Dad tried to warn me, but I thought he only had issues with Dad. Regardless, I’m happy with my current situation. I still might get up in space someday.”

Dmitri nodded. Peter hadn’t told him the specifics of his current job, only that he worked somehow with the government. Secrets involving national security always stood between them, but Peter knew Dmitri understood that all too well. Rarely did either of them let it dim their friendship.

Johnny arrived with the drinks and Dmitri grabbed the two vodka shots, giving one to Peter. He raised the shot glass in the air. “As is our tradition, a toast to Comrade Tom, for saving my ass.”

Peter held his glass high before drinking the full shot in one gulp, as did Dmitri.

As Dmitri set his shot glass down he spoke from the heart. “Peter, I often think of the sacrifice your dad made. The life I now live is greatly due to both you and your dad, and for that I am grateful.”

Peter held up his empty shot glass giving an imaginary toast. He always thought it ironic; of the two of them he was the one who never flew in space. He stared at his shot glass remembering back to that night over thirty-six years ago at the Soviet space complex.

AS A TEN-YEAR-OLD BOY, Peter was startled awake to a loud rapping on his window in the middle of the night. Thinking it might be Dmitri, he snuck over to peek out. Seeing it was his friend, he scrambled to open the window. Dmitri’s face was as white as a ghost and he was out of breath. Dmitri started talking a mile a minute in Russian. Peter had no idea what he was saying. He kept hearing the word trenser, which he thought meant simulator. He remembered the two had talked about one night sneaking into the training center to check out the Soyuz simulator and assumed that’s probably what he did. Wanting to make sure, he asked, “Simulator?” and put his arms out to simulate flying. Dmitri sadly nodded as he said, “Da.” Peter wondered why he was so upset and figured he must have been caught or something. Dmitri began to cry, saying something else Peter didn’t quite understand, but he thought he heard the word otets which he thought meant father. Dmitri then turned around and trudged away with his head down.

Peter assumed his friend was going to tell his father what happened. He felt bad as he watched Dmitri walk away. He slowly closed the window and sat back on his bed, head in his hands, thinking back to the day before when they talked about sneaking into the training center. He never thought either of them would actually do it. Now his friend was in trouble. Not sure what to do, he decided to go tell his dad.

Peter walked into his dad’s room and woke him. As his dad slowly opened his eyes, Peter began telling him what happened. His father told him to slow down and repeat what he was trying to say.

Suddenly his father’s eyes widened as he quickly lifted his head. “Son, Mr. Alexandrov could be in serious trouble. If Dmitri was caught in the training center without permission, or even worse, broke something, Mr. Alexandrov could be kicked off the mission.” His dad sat up in his bed, rubbing his forehead. “Mr. Alexandrov’s bosses are very strict. It doesn’t matter if it was Dmitri who did wrong. Mr. Alexandrov will pay the price.” His father shook his head and looked straight ahead. “Dmitri is only out here because of you. Viktor is a good man, and a good cosmonaut.” There was a still silence for a moment before his father turned and raised his eyebrows. “Where’s Dmitri now?”

“I think he was going back to their room to tell his dad,” answered Peter.

“Son, we don’t want Viktor to be kicked off this mission, it means too much to him.” Tom reached for the phone from the nightstand, setting it on his lap.

“Who are you calling, Dad?” asked Peter as he moved closer.

“I am calling Viktor to see exactly what happened.” As his dad dialed the rotary phone Peter rubbed his hands together. He knew of all the cosmonauts, Dmitri’s dad was the only one his dad always talked about, and the only one he could understand through his broken English.

After six rings, his dad assumed Viktor was not going to answer and was ready to hang up when Viktor’s voice came through the receiver.

“Allo.”

His father said later he could hear the sadness.

“Viktor, it’s me, Tom. Peter just came in my room and said something happened to Dmitri. I was calling to see if he was okay.”

Peter moved even closer to hear. “Dmitri okay. But hay got in trouble. Hay broke in Sorok Building tonight.”

“Did he get caught?”

“Nyet, but Soviet Comrade see him.”

“Do they know it was Dmitri?”

“Nyet, but he see boy. Zis all bad, I be sure off mission.”

Trying to cheer Viktor up, Tom said, “I can’t imagine they would kick you off the mission just because your son was being an adventurous boy.”

“He not only got in Sorok, he damaged trenser cunthroy panel.”

“How did he damage the control panel?”

“Dmitri hit vater glass, spilled vater on cunthroy panel.”

His dad always said it was careless that the Soviet operators often left food or drinks around the control panel. Apparently Dmitri must have accidently knocked one over. Peter knew any water leaking inside the control panel could break it.

Not knowing what to say, his father tried to be positive. “Viktor, you are one of the best Soviet cosmonauts. I am sure things will work out okay.” But his father put his head down when he said this, and ended the conversation as best he could before hanging up.

Peter grabbed his dad’s leg, shaking it. “Is Mr. Alexandrov going to be okay?”

His dad slowly turned and said, “Son, Mr. Alexandrov is not going to be okay. Dmitri did a very bad thing, and unfortunately his dad will probably be kicked off the mission.”

“Will he be able to fly another mission someday?”

Looking Peter straight in the eye his father said, “He will never fly in space. His cosmonaut days will be over. He and Dmitri will have to leave Star City forever.”

Peter’s heart sank, and he put his head down. He was going to miss his friend.

His father put his hand on his son’s leg, lightly patting it. “But maybe we can change that.”

Hearing this perked Peter up and he lifted his head. “How?”

“You and I will have to tell a lie. I know I’ve told you to never lie, but this is to protect a man, his family, and his future.”

Peter had become a very honorable boy since being caught and strictly punished for a lie he told his father. This was the first time his dad suggested a lie would be okay. He was confused, but desperately wanted to help his friend. “How do we do that?”

“Dmitri’s father says they only know it was a boy who snuck into the building. Since you two are the only boys on the base, it was either you or him. I have already walked on the moon and that’ll never change. Nothing I do in the space program will ever top that. If we say you were the one who snuck in, then NASA will discipline me. Sadly you’ll probably be sent home, but that’ll be it, and Mr. Alexandrov can stay on to fly the mission. I’m on the backup crew, but Victor is primary and this is his first space mission. If we do nothing, he’ll probably be kicked off the mission and out of the space program. His whole career ruined.” His father put his arm around him. “I believe this is the right thing to do, but I want it to be your decision. Whatever you decide I’ll support. It’s up to you.”

Peter looked down at the floor, thinking on what to do. He was honored his dad was allowing him to make the decision, and he didn’t want to disappoint him. But he was scared of what might happen to him, and felt he would probably have to fly back home alone. After a few moments thinking of his friend and Mr. Alexandrov, who was always nice to him, he clinched his jaw before saying, “I’ll do it! I’ll hate having to go home, but if you think it’s the right thing, then I’ll do it.”

His father smiled and gave him a big hug. “The Soviets may be a little hard on you for damaging their equipment, but don’t let it bother you. I’ll try to take the brunt of whatever they say to you. Just be apologetic.”

Peter nodded. His dad immediately grabbed the phone and called Viktor again.

This time it was just a couple rings before Peter overheard, “Allo.”

“Viktor, it’s Tom again. Have you talked to anyone yet about what happened?”

“Nyet. I vas getting ready call General Titov.”

“Good! Viktor, I have been thinking about this. It sounds like from what you said, they know it was a boy, but probably don’t know who. I talked to Peter, and knowing how important this is to you and your family, he will say he was the one who broke into the training complex.”

Peter didn’t hear a response from Mr. Alexandrov and moved closer to his dad hoping that would help. Peter looked at his dad, who shook his head as if saying Mr. Alexandrov was thinking about it. Peter sat patiently, before overhearing, “Tom, I von’t accept zis kind offer. I take blame. Dmitri did vrong, I handle.”

“Viktor, I’ve walked on the moon and nothing can top that! This is your first mission!” His father continued to press until Mr. Alexandrov finally accepted his proposal. However, Mr. Alexandrov promised he would never forget this generous offer and would always be indebted to him and to Peter.

Tom ended up being reprimanded by NASA for embarrassing his country, but was left on the mission. Nonetheless he was told by his superiors this would be his last mission, and therefore he never flew the Shuttle. Peter did have to leave for home and was not allowed back to visit his dad. Viktor went on to fly the U.S.-USSR mission, as well as two other missions to the Salyut Space Station. Because of Viktor’s roots and successes in the early part of the Soviet space program, the door opened for Dmitri to become a cosmonaut, and he ended up flying two missions himself.

JOHNNY STOPPED BY THE TABLE to see if Peter and Dmitri were ready to order. Dmitri responded he had not reviewed the menu and asked for a few more minutes. As Johnny winked and walked away, Dmitri turned to Peter and whispered, “Does he think we’re a couple or something?”

Peter laughed. “Not sure where he would get that idea.”

Dmitri gave Peter a quizzical look before studying the menu. Since Peter planned on getting his usual, he leisurely scanned the restaurant. An incredibly attractive lady entered from the adjoining dining room, escorted by a gentleman. Peter couldn’t help but stare at this beauty. She looked to be in her mid-thirties with jet black hair falling past her shoulders. She wore a short, form-fitting black business skirt and a white blouse, unbuttoned aggressively low. She completed this classy yet seductive ensemble with a beautiful pair of sexy high-heeled black boots; Peter’s favorite. She was dressed to impress. This was a woman Peter wanted to meet.

As Peter continued to stare, the lady turned and looked his way. To his surprise she seemed to smile in his direction. Does she know me? She turned to say something to the gentleman before rotating back around, flipping her hair in a titillating manner as she started walking Peter’s way. Wow! She walked with a mesmerizing air of confidence. He assumed she must be a woman he had met in the past, maybe a past lover, or one of his one-night-stands. He scanned through his rolodex of past woman in his mind. Come on Peter, you’ve got to be able to remember this hot babe! No luck. Peter prided himself on his ability to remember faces, especially women he had dated. He frantically continued searching but he was still coming up blank.

As she approached he felt he should be a gentleman and stood from the booth with a smile to give the impression he knew her. He was preparing to give her a hug, but to his surprise she walked right past him as if he wasn’t even there. She bent over and gave Dmitri a kiss on his cheek. Peter, feeling a bit silly, smiled. Dmitri, you lucky dog. He couldn’t help checking her out from behind—she looked good from all angles. Dmitri leaned away from the kiss, jerking his gaze from his menu, but upon seeing who it was, quickly stood and gave her a big hug, grinning.

Peter, still standing next to the two, watched awkwardly. Finally he interjected with some jealousy, “Dmitri, aren’t you going to introduce me to your beautiful friend?”

Dmitri looked at Peter with a big smile. “Peter, don’t you remember Anya?”

Peter stared, open-mouthed. “Anya your baby sister?” The last time Peter had seen Anya she was fifteen years old with braces and acne. He’d been around twenty-three at the time—right after the wall fell.

“Yes, my little sister.” Dmitri looked at Anya and asked, “You remember Peter, don’t you?”

Anya turned, her face alive with a youthful spirit as she stared in Peter’s eyes, saying nothing. A chill raced through his body, a feeling he hadn’t felt before. She had the most piercing blue eyes he had ever seen. “Oh, yes. Hello, Peter.” Her voice had a softness of a sweet song as she spoke with a slight Russian accent.

Peter said hello and was going to give her a hug, but as he moved in she abruptly turned back to Dmitri and continued their conversation, as if not interested the least bit in Peter. It was not every day he was brushed off by a woman, especially one so attractive. A rueful smile came across his face. He took her brush off as a challenge, and he loved challenges. She was definitely a woman he wanted to get to know better. Feeling third-wheelish, he continued standing next to the two as they spoke.

After a few moments the guy Anya was with walked up holding a coat and tapped her on the shoulder. In a groomed Virginian accent, he said, “I have your coat, are you ready?”

“Hello, I’m Peter, an old friend of the family.” Peter angled himself squarely toward the other man and put out his hand.

The man looked at Peter, as if sizing him up too, before switching the coat to his left hand and taking Peter’s hand. “I’m Dean.”

Anya turned back to Dmitri and said, “I got to go, call me tomorrow,” and gave him one last hug. She turned to Peter and said, “It was nice seeing you again.”

Before he could respond she turned and walked away, her date following close behind. As Peter watched, he was impressed with everything about her.

Both men sat back down in the booth as Peter still stared in her direction. “Wow, your sister has grown up. What in the world is she doing here?”

“She’s visiting Dean. Ten years ago she left Russia to go to Georgetown University to get her doctorate in physics. That’s where she met Dean. After finishing school, she got a job with Zaftra, thanks to her dual citizenship.”

As Anya walked out the door Peter looked back at Dmitri. “That’s right—I forgot she was born in America.”

“Yeah, when you and I first met. Remember our families were at Disneyland as part of the goodwill tour promoting the U.S.-USSR mission. Mom asked not to travel to America because she was eight months pregnant. But senior Soviet officials insisted that she go. Anya lives in Russia now and is Zaftra’s liaison with NASA, so she travels often to the States.”

“How come you never told me she came out to America, especially dealing with NASA?” Peter couldn’t help the frustration in his voice. He felt there were missed opportunities of getting to know her better while he was at NASA.

“I guess I probably should have. But Peter, I know how you are and this is my little sister.”

“Dmitri, knowing she is an Alexandrov, you know I would treat her with utmost respect. Besides I wouldn’t want to do anything to cross your family.” Peter took a sip of his drink as he looked in the direction of the exit saying, “She sure is beautiful. I guess she got the looks in the family.”

Dmitri smiled. “And the brains.”

Focusing back on Dmitri, Peter asked, “So what’s her story with that guy?”

“They’re engaged. They have been together forever, engaged for six years, I think. Not sure why they haven’t taken that next step, probably because neither one is willing to give up their current job and move. He seems okay to me, kind of a stuffy and boring though.”

“Since she lives in Russia, I guess you and your dad get to see her.”

“Yes, we’re happy she caught on with a Russian company. She loves the States, but lucky for us she came back to Russia, especially for Dad. She enjoys working at Zaftra and the traveling, and since Zaftra does business with FKA, I get to see her every so often at the office.”

Still amazed that beautiful creature was Dmitri’s sister, Peter said, “I can’t believe she is the same girl I saw the last time our families got together in Houston.”

“I think she had a crush on you after that visit. She talked about you for years.”

“Well, she didn’t seem too impressed with me tonight.”

“Maybe, but I was surprised to see her here. We talked this morning on the phone about some family issues, and I mentioned I was meeting you for dinner. She asked me where we were meeting, but gave no indication she would stop by. Maybe she wanted to check you out,” Dmitri said with a slight laugh.

Peter puckered his mouth. “Maybe.”

After placing their order Peter asked Dmitri how his job was going.

“It’s great. The organization has gone through a big change since the wall fell. We are working more closely with NASA and other countries allowing FKA to stay at the forefront of space exploration without taking on the full cost. I am excited about our future as we have a great group of young cosmonauts. Oh, I have to share with you something you will think is funny. When I was named assistant director, the first policy I implemented was no drinks of any kind allowed in the control room.”

Both Peter and Dmitri laughed. “What was a full glass of water doing next to the simulator control panel, anyway?”

“It was just a different time with different policies.” Dmitri shrugged. Sobering, he asked, “Peter, do you think your dad has any regrets on how he handled that situation back at Star City, wishing he would have done things differently?”

Peter shook his head. “Dad and I had a serious discussion on that a little over a year ago. I asked him the same question and he was disappointed he didn’t fly the Shuttle. Lots of people deemed it a ‘truck to orbit.’ In talking to friends who flew it, he heard it flew more like a fighter plane that required a great deal of piloting skills. Many of the same astronauts also told him if they had their choice of going to the moon or flying the Shuttle, they all would have taken the trip to the moon. He reminisced on how lucky he was to walk on the moon. He was happy to see your father fly three successful missions. But his face really lit up when he said how proud he was when you flew. He remembered how you were as a kid and the burning desire you had to be a cosmonaut. He said that made it worth not flying the Shuttle, to see you reach your dream.”

Dmitri raised his glass of wine. “A toast to a wonderful and unselfish man.”

Peter smiled and raised his glass. After taking a sip he decided this was a good time to discuss China. “Dmitri, what can you tell me about China? Any idea why they’re claiming we never landed on the moon?”

“They want to humiliate the U.S. and be the top superpower of the world,” Dmitri answered, very matter of fact.

Peter nodded in agreement before explaining what he knew at this point, basically holding nothing back.

Dmitri then surprised him with information he had not heard of, or thought of, before. “Peter, this information I am going to tell you is top secret and I will never acknowledge I said this.”

Peter nodded in acceptance.

Intensely, Dmitri leaned in close, his voice quiet. “During the space race of the ’60s, we felt there was a chance America might beat us to the moon. Even though we were the first on every major space achievement, our superiors felt if the Soviet Union did not land on the moon first, all of those great feats would be forgotten. The world would only remember who landed first, thus look at America as the superior country. For years, our country was developing a laser weapon that could be put on the moon to shoot down orbiting satellites. If the U.S. was going to beat us to the moon, there was the possibility of deploying the laser to shoot down any spacecraft sent, thus preventing success. When NASA was ready to send up the first lunar landing mission and we were still way off, it was decided to send up the laser to destroy America’s mission. The problem was the laser wasn’t ready yet. High ranking officials decided to send it anyway and launched it shortly after your astronauts left.”

“Luna 15?” Peter questioned in amazement.

“Yes, or at least what the world knew as Luna 15, but in fact, it was a weapon. As we all know, it crashed on the moon. I’m sad to say our hope was to have it fire at NASA’s command module when your astronauts were on the moon, thus destroying it and stranding your men to die. Fortunately that never happened.”

“Wow.” He was very aware of the Luna 15 probe. NASA thought the Soviet Union was just trying to upstage America by landing one of their Luna probes to bring back lunar soil before America arrived back with rocks, thus getting a minor victory. He had never heard of Luna possibly being a weapon. This was heavy stuff. If Russia had been successful, who knew if Peter’s dad would have ever walked on the moon, or even other Americans? If the first astronauts had died on the moon, probably not.

Dmitri went on, “Peter, China knew of our plan forty years ago and later stole our laser design. We believe they put portions of the MK Laser, probably the nuclear power pack and its computer system, into our design to solve problems we encountered. We speculate China put one of these lasers on the back side of the moon.”

Peter was wide eyed listening to all of this and impressed with Russia’s intelligence, especially knowing about the MK laser. “If you’re right, then they deployed it during their last mission to the moon. Do you think they sent it down from their spacecraft? Do they have the technology to do that?”

Then Dmitri revealed even more astounding news. “We believe they landed on the back side to deploy it.”

Peter pushed himself back against the leather booth, as if a shock wave just hit him. “Do they have the capability to land?”

“Our intelligence says they do. We felt they might give it a try. We know they’re a lot farther along than they are telling the world.”

As Peter started thinking of such a possibility, it now started to make sense how China could claim they had similar rocks… because they did! If the idea they had landed was true, they probably were able to gather 300 lbs of rocks, take pictures, all of which was now being studied by the UN. Peter knitted his brows together. “If you’re right, then I’m sure they collected rocks when they were there. The UN will conclude the rocks and photos are similar to ours and either both came from the moon, or from the earth. Since China is claiming Earth, that is much easier for the world to believe. Oh my God!” Peter said in disbelief. Dmitri just nodded in agreement. Peter began to think of the possibilities and how, if this was true, the United States had been compromised.

Dmitri calmly stated, “I still imagine China will have a difficult time convincing the UN and the world the landings never occurred.”

Peter did not feel the same; this changed everything. He couldn’t comprehend why China would go this far to humiliate America. They just put men on the moon and they don’t tell the world? Why? This makes no sense. “What’s Russia’s position on all of this?”

“Unfortunately, the leaders of Russia are not taking a stand either way. As much as I have tried to press taking the side of America, Russia is going to stay neutral, even though we know the landings happened. The leaders feel it’s only a matter of time before China is the superpower of the world and they don’t want to piss them off.”

Dmitri went on to discuss the technical details he knew of the laser. One item that interested Peter was China integrating Byington’s software requiring human involvement to operate the laser, meaning only a manned flight could arm and disarm the laser. He assumed this was to prevent another country from sending an unmanned automated system to reprogram it.

Still in shock, Peter thanked Dmitri for giving him this valuable information. He also knew his friend would do what he could to influence his country to side with and support the United States.

Later that night at his hotel, Peter began to put the pieces together. He figured China had landed on the back side of the moon, gathered rocks, took photos and deployed the laser weapon which used the MK laser. Knowing how the laser worked, Peter concluded it probably fired on satellites within range, unless it was disengaged, which could only happen by China since they were the only country sending men to the moon. Peter called Gavin, and without naming his source informed him of this incredible news.

Exhausted, Peter had done all he could for the evening and was ready for bed. After getting in, he put his head on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, recapping all the information passed on to him. But even with the magnitude of all he had learned, his last thoughts before falling asleep were of Anya and those sexy black boots.