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Title: Undefined
Author: The Great Hippo
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Music: Through the Fire and Flames (DragonForce)
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July 24, 1969.
| TAPE 70/24 | Page 377 |
APOLLO 11 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE/VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
monitor, but we can make out a fair amount of detail.
[04:13:22:28] LMP: Okay. Will you verify the position - the opening I ought to have on the camera?
[04:13:22:34] CCM: Stand by.
[04:13:22:42] CAM: [CDR moves down the lander's ladder, descending toward the lunar surface.]
[04:13:22:48] CCM: Okay. Neil, we can see you coming down the ladder now.
[04:13:22:52] CAM: [CDR pauses, then climbs back up to the ladder's first rung.]
[04:13:22:59] CDR: Okay. I just checked getting back up to that first step, Buzz. It's — not even collapsed too far, but it's adequate to get back up.
[04:13:23:10] CCM: Roger. We copy.
[04:13:23:11] CDR: It takes a pretty good little jump.
[04:13:23:25] CCM: Buzz, this is Houston. F two — one one-sixtieth second for shadow photography on the sequence camera.
[04:13:23:35] LMP: Okay.
[04:13:23:36] CAM: [CDR once again descends the lunar lander's ladder, arriving at the final rung.]
[04:13:23:38] CDR: I'm at the foot of the ladder. The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Down there, it's very fine.
[04:13:23:40] CAM: [CDR pushes back from the lander's ladder, easing down toward the lunar surface.]
[04:13:23:43] CDR: I'm going to step off the LM now.
[04:13:23:45] CAM: [CDR makes contact with the lunar surface.]
[04:13:24:48] CDR: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
[04:13:24:56] LMP: Wait. What?
| TAPE 70/24 | Page 378 |
APOLLO 11 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE/VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
[04:13:25:05] CAM: [CDR commences to slowly walk along the lunar surface.]
[04:13:25:12] CDR: And the — the surface is fine and powdery. I can — I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and —
[04:13:25:21] CAM: [LMP emerges from the lander module and descends toward the lunar surface.]
[04:13:25:23] LMP: Neil, can you repeat your previous transmission to me?
[04:13:25:28] CDR: — and the treads in the fine, sandy particles. There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. It's — sorry, Buzz, come back?
[04:13:25:32] CAM: [LMP makes contact with the lunar surface.]
[04:13:25:38] LMP: Repeat your previous transmission to me.
[04:13:25:43] CDR: About the surface texture? I said —
[04:13:25:49] LMP: Negative. Repeat what you said when you touched down on the surface of the moon.
[04:13:25:53] CAM: [CDR stops moving along the lunar surface, and turns to face LMP.]
[04:13:25:55] CDR: I said, 'One small step for a man, one —'
[04:13:25:58] CAM: [LMP approaches CDR.]
[04:13:26:02] LMP: No, you didn't. You said, 'One small step for man'. You left out the 'A'.
[04:13:26:08] CDR: Buzz, we just landed on the moon. I don't think it matters whether I — and no, for your information, I — I did not leave out the 'A'.
[04:13:26:15] CAM: [A large figure can be seen approaching from the horizon, approx. fifteen meters from CDR's position.]
[04:13:26:17] LMP: Yes, you did. I heard you. You left out the 'A'.
| TAPE 70/24 | Page 379 |
APOLLO 11 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE/VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
[04:13:26:22] CDR: I did not leave out the —
[04:13:26:28] CCM: Neil, this is Houston. We didn't hear an 'A' down here.
[04:13:26:33] CDR: Houston, stay out of this.
[04:13:26:34] CAM: [The figure is now approx. ten meters away. It appears humanoid.]
[04:13:26:37] LMP: Look, we'll just do it over.
[04:13:26:40] CCM: Guys, this is Houston —
[04:13:26:42] CDR: Do it — are you — we can't do it over. It's done. We landed. My footprint is already there.
[04:13:26:46] CAM: [The figure is now five meters away. It can be identified as a bronze full-body deep-sea diving suit. Its design is notably bulky and antiquated.]
[04:13:26:48] CCM: This is Houston, come back, there's, uh, some sort of —
[04:13:26:54] LMP: We'll dust it out.
[04:13:27:01] CDR: What — no. No. For Christ's sake, no. This is history in the making. We have accomplished what no other human being has ever done — we have set foot on the lunar surface. We are not doing this over. There are no do-overs on the moon.
[04:13:27:17] CAM: [The figure is now directly behind CDR and LMP. It proceeds to forcibly shove both astronauts aside, and climbs up the lander's ladder.]
[04:13:27:20] LMP: What the —
[04:13:27:25] CCM: This is Houston, come back, Neil, come back. Are you alright? Come back.
[04:13:27:30] CAM: [The lander door closes. As LMP and CDR recover, the lander initiates its lunar lift-off sequence.]
[04:13:27:32] CCM: What the fuck just happened?
TRANSCRIPT OF A RECORDING OF A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN GENE KRANZ AND ███████████████████ ON JULY 20, 1969, FROM 4:21 PM (EST) TO 4:25 PM (EST)
| KRANZ: | Hello? Hello? |
| █████████████ | ██████ ███ █████ |
| KRANZ: | We have an emergency. Two of our — |
| █████████████ | ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████████ █ ████ ██ ███████ |
| KRANZ: | Fine. I don't care about your 'plan of action', though. What matters right now is that we've got two of our boys on the surface of the moon — and some goddamn lunatic just stole their module. |
| █████████████ | ███ ██ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ |
| KRANZ: | I… what? Did he — no, he didn't look like — why would you ask if he looked like a — are you saying ███████ are real?! And there's — there's one on the fucking moon?! |
| █████████████ | ████ |
| KRANZ: | And you didn't think that was something you should have briefed us on before we went there? |
| █████████████ | ███ |
| KRANZ: | Fine. Whatever. I don't care. How do we get our boys — |
| █████████████ | █████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ |
| KRANZ: | Okay. Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. |
| █████████████ | ███ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ██████ |
| KRANZ: | Yeah, we can — but, we won't be able to recover it. And I don't think there's enough fuel left to — the orbit will eventually decay. I think — uh, one sec. Let me check. |
| █████████████ | ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ███████ █████ ████ █████ █████ ██████ █ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ████ ███ |
| KRANZ: | Jesus Christ. Okay. Okay, fine. I don't know how you're going to, uh — but — I guess that's above my pay-grade. And, yeah, I just checked my notes. We can do it, but the orbit won't be — |
| █████████████ | ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ |
| KRANZ: | Yeah. I'll brief them personally once you've brought them back. And the orbit won't be stable. Whatever that thing is, it won't stay up there forever. |
| █████████████ | ███████████████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ |
| KRANZ: | You got fifty, maybe sixty years before it drops back down. And it's gonna drop hard. |
| █████████████ | ███████████ |
| KRANZ: | Yeah, sixty years — give or take ten. |
Sixty years (give or take ten) later.
"So… we thinking moon wizard?"
Crunch crouches and shakes her head. "Not his style."
The three agents are crammed into the cargo bay of a refurbished Shin Meiwa US-1A — an amphibious propeller-driven rescue plane that resembles an ugly boat with grotesque delusions of flight. It's landed just off the coast of North Carolina, where the contents of its bloated gut can now be examined, cataloged, and discharged.
Said contents consist of the charred remains of Apollo 11's command module — a compact dome. It was designed over fifty years ago by a generation's brightest, most brilliant minds to handle the catastrophic force of an atmosphere smashing into it at over 25,000 miles per hour.
Something has split it open. Like tinfoil. From the inside.
With its hands.
"According to the transcript, it looked like some sort of deep sea diver," Crunch says. She leans in to examine the one of the strips of chrome that have been peeled back, exposing the cramped, empty interior. "Footage confirms it."
"Wait. There's footage?" Yorkie makes a face. He's a mountain of a man — a plump silver-bearded viking with more hair on his chest than his head. The skin on his hands is like tanned, corded leather. "How the hell don't I know about this? I saw it on the news. I was just a kid, but I'd remember seeing someone jack their ride."
Crunch is short and wide. Not quite as wide as Yorkie, but it's close — and mostly muscle. Her dark, sleeveless top leaves her biceps bare; they're thick and scarred, with red lines that branch out from her shoulders and wrap down to her wrists. The patterns resemble jagged, fractalized bolts of electricity. Her head is shaved down to a mocha peach-fuzz. At Yorkie's question, she tilts her head back and throws him a grin: "How do you think?"
Yorkie's scowl deepens. "Are you fucking with me?"
"Um —" Clark-Bar (or just Clark) is a young man with russet skin and dense, tightly curled charcoal hair. He's got on a black leather coat with a satchel over his shoulder and carries himself with all the dignity of an over-excitable puppy. "Can we rewind, a bit? You said 'moon wizard'."
"You're telling me they actually faked the moon landing."
"Like… a real wizard? Wizards are real?"
"No," Crunch replies, standing up. She wipes her hands off on her trousers. "Moon landing happened. They just re-shot the footage."
"Wizards are real, and — one lives on the moon?!"
"For fuck's sake — yes, Clark!" Yorkie throws up his hands. "Santa Claus is real, the Tooth Fairy wants to eat your teeth, and there's a fucking wizard on the moon. Can we please move on?"
Next: ???
When I was a man, I thought it ended,
When I knew love's perfect ache.
But my peace has always depended,
On all the ashes in my wake.All you have is your fire,
And the place you need to reach.Don't you ever tame your demons --
But always keep 'em on a leash.- Arsonist's Lullaby, Hozier
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