Аннотация

Life on the moon under anything less than optimal conditions had always been a nightmare, and as Joe Kenmore and his colleague, Moreau, drove back to the City On The Moon on that day the Earth shuttle was due to land, the nearby mountain supporting critical elements of the shuttle's landing mechanisms crumbled causing an avalanche and resulting in chaos. Optimal conditions were no where in sight that day and as Kenmore and Moreau's investigations lead to their conclusion that explosions had been responsible for the avalanche.Now they realized that they were in a race against the clock to restore the landing beam before the shuttle had reached it's point of no return prior to landing.Kenmore had more than strictly humanitarian reasons for wanting to prevent a mishap aboard the shuttle that day, because on this particular mission, Arlene Gray was aboard.Kenmore had been anxiously awaiting her arrival, and while in the scope of things Kenmore's comparatively meaningless love life might hang in the balance, so too did the fate of the Earth and perhaps the universe. Kenmore had a feeling for history and destiny and that was why he had always wanted to be stationed on the moon. This was a time of challenge for both the Earth and Kenmore, the hour when the civilization that he knew would make its most fateful decision.From this point on he knew humanity would either go forward to other planets and stars or the time when his still relatively young race (in galactic terms) would close the doors on further progress and civilization would begin its steady decline.The announcement he awaited would come from the space station, situated in geosynchronous orbit between Earth and the moon. There within The City on the Moon, under conditions of incredible stress, atomic experts labored and toiled over research problems far too dan­gerous to be undertaken on Earth.The City on the Moon existed for one purpose only: to supply the Space station from the moon rather than Earth.Kenmore, among thousands of others, waited for the critical news; the news that could come about by the potential instantaneous destruction of the station. A "wrong" answer from Earth might very well bring this reality about.To make matters much worse, in the midst of this turmoil there proved to be more sinister powers and forces which did not want to see any solution to further atomic progress or progress among humans, and that opposition expressed itself in simple and unmistakable terms – sabotage.