The soldier arrived at the men’s room, and opened the door for Peter. Peter walked in, and sure enough the soldier followed him in. Peter turned to him. “Oh, you have to go too?” The soldier showed no expression, which made Peter chuckle. Fortunately the launch center had western toilets; Peter hated dealing with “squat” toilets. Peter walked up to the first urinal and the soldier followed, standing only a few feet behind. As Peter did his business he couldn’t help himself and started whistling the tune from the movie, The Great Escape. Smiling, he wondered if the soldier had any idea what the tune was from. Peter finished up and was escorted back. As they passed the same hallway where he had seen the control room, he looked again. Sie and the others were no longer there.
Peter reentered the conference room, and found most of the gentlemen were back, standing around Rob. Sie turned to Peter and said the new instructions had been passed on to the workers, and they should know in about an hour if the outcome was successful. Peter figured it had already been ten minutes since they told the taikonauts. He wondered why they were not able to get feedback sooner if the laser worked; arming it shouldn’t take more than five minutes. If Sie was able to communicate with the taikonauts then they should have been able to test it soon after getting the instructions.
China must be testing the laser behind the moon, and Sie had to wait for the spacecraft to come around the back side before learning if the fix solved their problem. This made sense, since China probably wanted to insure they were not observed firing the laser. Peter questioned if the world even had the capability of seeing laser blasts from such a far distance, but maybe China just wanted to play it safe. Still, he needed them to think he believed their story, so he asked, “Why an hour?”
Sie bowed furtively. “Because of the remote location where the laser is, we do not have direct radio contact and the information has to be relayed manually. We will be contacted letting us know if they had success breaking up the boulder trapping the taikonauts.”
Peter simply nodded in acceptance.
Sie excused himself saying he would continue to monitor the situation and would return once he knew the outcome. Peter passed the time talking with some of the engineers, hoping to learn more about their operation.
When Sie returned to the room he had a broad smile on his face. “The laser worked and all the taikonauts are alive and safe.”
So the laser was now working and they were test firing it on the back side of the moon. The remaining engineers in the room gave out a loud cheer while Peter and Rob slightly clapped.
Sie walked up to Rob. “Thank you for figuring out the problem. I am embarrassed it was such a silly mistake, but we would have never figured it out without your help.”
Rob shrugged. “I was just doing my job.”
Sie bowed and smiled at each. “You will now be escorted back to the helicopter to return home.”
As Rob and Peter followed the guards down the hallway, Peter chewed on what he had learned. China was using the laser on their current mission, probably testing it on the back side, firing at targets on the moon. He had to assume it was still going to be used in a “Star Wars” type of weapon in Earth orbit. He needed to communicate this information immediately to SID. He figured when he got back to Britain he would write up a report and forward it via the embassy.
As they continued to walk, Rob turned and interrupted Peter’s train of thought. “Wow, a moonwalker’s son?”
Without turning Peter answered, “Yeah… no big deal.”
4
THE ACCUSATION
China requested a special session at the United Nations General Assembly to present some incredible news. The General Assembly was surprisingly full with most of the one hundred ninety-one countries in attendance. The United States suspected the news involved them since there had been rumblings and threats between the two nations recently. In fact, the world was made aware of shocking news planned to be revealed at the UN, which could change the balance of power.
Secretary of State Steve Russell arrived at the U.S. designated sitting area, which was on the far right row halfway back next to Uruguay, definitely not one of the better seating areas in the assembly. Before sitting, he turned to Jose Fernandez, the Uruguay delegate, to say hello and shake hands.
Jose said in broken English, “Session to have many fireworks, you think?”
Steve raised his eyebrows. “We’ll see.” He turned back and took his seat next to the young U.S. ambassador to the UN, Andy Lansford. Steve figured he was probably twice the ambassador’s age.
“You would think as the largest contributor to the UN budget we would get a better seating location,” Steve said half jokingly to Andy. The secretary had not attended many sessions at the General Assembly, but was asked by the president to attend this session in case China’s news was directed at the United States.
The secretary turned around to look back at where the Chinese delegates were sitting to see what their mood was and maybe get an idea about what was going to be presented. China sat two rows over and five desks back. The delegates seemed to be in heavy discussion. One of the delegates looked Steve’s way as if referencing the United States in his conversation. When the delegate saw the secretary looking, he quickly turned away, not acknowledging him. Disappointed, Steve turned to Andy and said, “It looks like China’s news will be directed at us. I bet they are going to say we are being too aggressive in the world and probably state we need to withdraw our forces from third world nations. Damn those Chinese. As a Communist country they have no right to make such a statement, considering their track record.”
China’s status in the world had recently been elevated after its successful manned flight to the moon, which the United States was supportive of. Though they did not land, the fact they had flown men to the moon was a feat still only performed by one other country, the United States. China’s success with this recent manned moon shot showed their advancement in science and technology. They also had been reaching out to the world, especially with the recent Olympics held in their country. They were definitely becoming one of the superpowers of the world and a threat to the United States.
The session got under way with opening statements. Steve wasn’t listening. Instead, he was angrily thinking of the Chinese accusing the United States of using excessive force in parts of the world. The more he thought about it, the more upset he became. After the opening statements were completed, the UN president said this special session was granted to China because of their standing as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. He then introduced China’s state councilor, Mr. Fei Chen.
Chen proceeded to walk confidently up to the podium and looked over the whole audience. By the smug look on his face he had some big news that would certainly get a reaction from all those in attendance. With a scowl, Steve was now focused on Councilor Chen, anticipating what he was going to say. The councilor paused for a moment before he spoke. He then said words that shocked everyone, especially Steve.
“China has undeniable evidence that the United States has never landed a man on the moon and the moon landings were a complete hoax,” he stated.
The audience immediately started rumbling. The secretary of state practically fell off his chair at hearing this crazy accusation. How could China make such a claim? The United States had overwhelming evidence proving they had been to the moon, most notably over 800 lbs of moon rocks in safeguarded storage. The Chinese delegate went on, saying they had suspected this for years, but wanted to get visual proof before going forward to the world. The final piece of evidence was the visual proof from their recent space flight. They purposely selected an orbit that would fly over two of America’s landing sites, and as suspected, found no evidence of hardware at either site.