Bill kicked up to the ring and pulled the hatch. It opened, and he found himself staring at the smiling face of the Dreamscape’s captain. He held a hand out, and Paul Gesling took it.
“Bill Stetson.”
“Paul Gesling. Nice to meet you.”
“Believe me, Paul, the pleasure is all ours.” Bill smiled back at him. “Now, we’ve got two incapacitated and one walking wounded. We should move them first.”
“Understood.”
They set about moving Ming and Zhi into the Dreamscape and buckling them in. Zhi didn’t put up a fight at all. Ming, on the other hand, pushed away Bill’s hand when he tried to drag him up through the docking ring. Both Tony and Xu rushed to him to check his vitals and pupil response. Testing the waters again by squeezing Ming’s hand resulted in a similar response. Ming appeared to be trying to pull away from the stimulus.
“Is that involuntary, you think?” Bill asked the two doctors.
“Can’t say for sure, but it is a good sign. Some coma patients do that and some don’t. Some do it before they wake up.” Tony sounded very enthusiastic.
“Good news.” Bill nodded. “Let’s get this done and get home.”
It took about thirty minutes to get everybody into the Dreamscape and strapped in. There was one more astronaut than there were chairs, and Hui argued that she would sit on the floor. Bill shut her down quickly and said he would do it.
“Ladies and gentlemen. If you will, this is my ship, and I am her captain. From the duration, here to the ground, I am the one calling the shots, if you don’t mind.” Paul took charge. “Captain Hui, while I’ve no doubt that you can handle the ride back not in a couch, you have been in distress far longer than Captain Stetson. Therefore, it is my decision that he will be the odd man out.”
Hui didn’t like the order, but she followed it.
“Now, Captain Stetson.”
“Call me Bill.”
“Very well, Bill. I have this figured out.” Paul led Bill to the toilet room. The little room was larger than the toilet on a 767 and had a window in it. “Sit there. Here are some straps that I want you to buckle yourself in with.” The toilet had connection rings in the wall for use during zero gravity.
“Who’d ever thought I’d be riding back home while sitting on the pot?” Bill laughed.
“Best seat in the house, Bill. Hold on and good luck.” Paul winked at him.
“God speed, Captain,” Bill told Paul as he closed the restroom door. “Now, why don’t we have one of these on the Orion capsules?” Bill laughed to himself.
“Lady and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. Be prepared for reentry burns in ten seconds,” Paul said gleefully. “Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
The first thing that Bill Stetson did after they stepped out of the Dreamscape onto the landing pad in Nevada was to grab his wife and kids, who were waiting at the bottom of the stairs of the vehicle, and hug them to him and kiss each of them with all his heart. An ambulance rushed Xu, Ming, and Zhi off to a hospital for “treatment and evaluation,” according to the official story.
Gary Childers had made certain that the original crew of the Dreamscape was there to meet the remaining Chinese crew members—on camera, of course. After all, had it not been for them, the Chinese taikonauts would have never been found. And there was Paul Gesling waving and shaking every hand thrust at him. The Dreamscape, her crew, and her captain were definitely heroes of the rescue.
Bill, Tony, and Hui stuck around for debriefing and then interviews. Gary Childers had catered food trucked in and a live orchestra. The gala was nothing short of a black-tie event. Senators and members of Congress were there to pump the flesh and ride the media wave. The NASA Administrator made a speech, and at one point there was a joint phone call from the President of the United States and the Paramount Leader of China. Space hadn’t been so on the forefront of the world’s mind since the first Moon landing.
Later that evening, Bill Stetson stepped out to look at the Dreamscape one more time. It was a good little ship. He liked the design and actually wondered if it could be redesigned with the docking ring on the nose so an Altair lander could be mated there. He liked the little ship better than the Orion. Perhaps future missions might marry up the NASA and private space-industry technology to a single, better system.
Bill wasn’t sure about any of that, but he did plan to work on it in the future. He looked up at the full Moon glistening in the clear, star-filled night sky. After taking a few minutes to let his eyes get adjusted to the darkness, and his mind clear from all of the events of the day, Bill had a smile on his face as big as the one he’d gotten when he was five years old.
“We did return, and not only did we get there, but on a rescue mission—maybe there’s hope for us after all,” he said aloud. Bill thought about his aging mother and that first night that he had seen Gene Cernan leave the Moon. “I told you, Mom. I told you I was gonna go to the Moon someday.”