Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Return to the Moon ❯ Where I found myself again in deep sh… ( Chapter 2 )

RETURN TO THE MOON

 

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Iridia Sunheart.

 

Notes: Hum… It's curious… This story is more adventurous and epic than “Return to the Lost Island” and yet, I'm less excited by it… Very curious.

 

 

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Where I found myself again in deep sh…

 

 

“Hurg… My head… What happened?”

 

I awoke in deep obscurity with a major headache and my body felt as if I had been beaten almost to death by a gang of giants.

 

I heard something whimpering near me and I searched by touch. My hands encountered a small furry and warm body and memories rushed into my mind.

 

It was Goku, my tamed monkey and friend and I was aboard the aluminium projectile of the Columbiad.

 

I remembered the automatic door of the projectile closing on me and my attempts to open it without success. When I decided finally to use my power, I saw that a chronometer was marking some sort of countdown inside the cabin of the 19° century space shuttle.

 

With horror, I then remembered that I was nearing the time of departure like in the novel of Jules Verne and I rapidly saw that the chronometer was reaching this precise time. I had just the time to lie down and prepare myself and Goku for the shock of departure, praying that the preparations of men dead for more than a century were accurate and enough to protect my life.

 

I reached for my power and screamed with frustration when I found it absent or more exactly unavailable for now. I sighed in relief when I checked the ring on my left hand. The “Ring of Light” was one of my major artefacts. It could be invoked to do one single feat of magic with unlimited power per day. I used it to stabilize Lincoln Island and made it my personal base of operation.

 

Well, since I had a trump card, I decided to examine where the hell I was and if I was really en route to the moon.

 

I localized some matches and lit the main gaslight of the projectile. It was remarkably still ordered after the shock of departure. Only the papers that I was reading before departure were still in disorder.

 

I calmed Goku, assure myself that it was just bruised and not severely wounded and began anew to explore the area.

 

I first quickly checked the gauges for the temperature, humidity, levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the cabin. I sighed in relief as they were within normal parameters for an earthling.

 

Using a wrench I ejected the protecting plates of the portholes to check where I was and was awed as I saw that I was in the vacuum of space. By the bottom porthole, I could see the Earth: I was really travelling through space aboard the projectile of the Columbiad.

 

I smiled as I saw that I was under an artificial gravity: Slow-burning rockets, working by pair, assured a small but constant acceleration that fixed me on the “floor” of the projectile.

 

I checked the chronometer and saw that it was built to time precisely the timing of the mission. I used a key to open the armoured cupboard and extract a voluminous book describing step after step what should I do in order to…

 

I blinked. The exact mission of Ardan and Nemo was to go to the moon and land because of what the French adventurer observed during his orbit around the earth satellite. There seemed to be abnormal emissions of light in one particular sector of the moon and only the close observation of Ardan detected it. Those lights were characteristic of light travelling through a gaseous environment.

 

I was incredulous: The moon was a dead planetoid. Could it be possible that some traces of life existed on the moon?

 

I rechecked the book of operations: It was as complete as it could be with 19° century technology. The time required for reaching the moon was 97 hours and 20 minutes exactly. The chronometer was completed by a gyroscope and an accelerometer to precisely time when the `turnaround' of the projectile was needed and when the firing of the retro-rockets was supposed to take place in order to assure a smooth landing.

 

Visual targeting was required and various points of reference of the surface of the moon were designed to permit the landing of the projectile exactly where it was needed. The use of the bottom porthole and an angled reticule completed the crude navigation tool.

 

Even the absence of atmosphere on the moon has been taken into account as two space suits were onboard. They were little more than glorified deep-diving suits. They were uncomfortable, bulky and probably sweaty. Still they had a crude plumbing system, electrical air pumps and heaters, water-based coolers and chemical-based oxygen production and carbon dioxide elimination. Wire mesh embedded in the rubber stopped the suits from stiffening too much in vacuum.

 

Goku signalled me that it was feeling wrong. I checked the gauges and hissed in dismay as the level of carbon dioxide has reached the danger zone. I quickly looked the mechanism using caustic potash to absorb the dangerous gas and growled as it wasn't working.

 

I sighed as I recalled that I simply didn't check the entire projectile before the departure since I really didn't think at that moment that I was about to travel to the moon.

 

I took a few hours to control, activate and repair the entire system that ensured my survival inside the projectile. I also controlled the material onboard: it was quite the collection. I found thermometers, barometers and other weather gauges, field glasses, spyglasses, a complete map of the visible face of the moon by Beer & Moedler, the “Mappa Selenographica”, ranged modern weapons, various types of bullets, gunpowder, small labs, picks, mattocks, shovels, saws and other assorted tools, clothes for all type of weather, casket of seeds, a camera, caned food and…

 

I blinked and smiled as I even found a small collection of games with cards, chess, dominoes, board games and others. Nemo and Ardan certainly didn't want to be bored during their travel.

 

It was a good thing that there was so much material because a few mechanisms were damaged or were simply not here. For example, I had to replace with gunpowder the entire charge of one of my retro-rockets.

 

During all this I asked myself why I didn't use my ring to simply teleport back to Earth. I thought it was because of the respect I felt for Nemo, Barbicane, Nicholl and Ardan. They had prepared everything for this expedition and even died for it. It was perhaps ridiculous for a 21° century modern woman, but I simply refused to let it go. I felt it was my duty to finish what those great men have begun.

 

I nodded to this and despite the fact that I didn't like drinking, I poured a glass of wine and toasted to their memory, pledging myself to push this mission as far as I could.

 

Then I organized my time with the magnificent and efficient chronometer: A real masterwork. I ate and drank and checked the life-support systems. I also red and re-red the operation book until I could cite it from memory. The first hurdle of the travel approached and I wanted to be ready for anything.

 

I watched as the chronometer reached a certain time. We were at half the way and the accelerating rockets cut off with a precision worthy of our technological level.

 

I laughed as the poor Goku felt the effect of weightlessness. I was better prepared because I knew what could happen and it was a good thing.

 

My jury-rigged reservoir of caustic potash began to leak because of its imperfect lid. I growled in irritation: I had to intervene rapidly if I didn't want to breathe the acidic compound. I used an improvised scoop with a jerry-can and managed to catch the bubbles of the caustic liquid.

 

After that, I bound myself to the bottom window and activated the small rockets that enabled me to turn around the projectile until I could see the moon instead of the Earth. I reactivated the now-decelerating slow-burning rockets and re-established the artificial gravity.

 

Consulting the manual, I fired the control rockets at precise intervals and used the visual references of my map to plot my trajectory near the place where Ardan had observed the strange lights on the moon.

 

It was the most crucial time: after a little more than four days I reached the point of no-return and prepared for landing on the moon. I checked and placed the main retro-rockets in their slots and watched as the chronometer ticked.

 

When it reached the right moment, according to my calculations and the book of operations, I began the landing procedure. Using the accelerometer and probably a very high dose of luck, I fired the retro-rockets and lay down with Goku, waiting for the shock of landing on the moon.

 

Now everything was in the hands of God

 

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Notes: A little boring. I suppose I could have used the mission Apollo 13 as a guideline… Oh well…

 

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