"Davis, Jerry - Abandon in Place" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

That could mean only one thing: The booster was firing again.
"Translunar injection," Tessa whispered. "They're going for the Moon."
"Who's 'they'?" Rick asked. So far none of the telemetry indicated a live--or
even a ghostly--passenger in the command module.
"It's got to be Neil," Tessa said. "And who knows who else is going with him."
"Neil is in a box in Arlington cemetery," Rick said. "I saw them put him there."

"And you saw the launch this morning," Tessa reminded him. "Neil being on board
it is no more impossible than the rocket itself."
"Good point." Rick shrugged. Every dead astronaut from Gagarin on could be in
the mystery Apollo capsule for all he knew. This bizarre manifestation was
completely new territory; nobody knew the rules yet.
#
Enough people claimed to, of course. Psychics seemed to crawl out of the
woodwork over the next few days, each with their own interpretation of the
event. NASA had to close the gates and post guards around the perimeter of the
space center to keep it from being overrun by curious mystics, but that merely
fueled speculation that they were developing a new super-secret space vehicle at
the taxpayers' expense.
The administration tried the silent approach at first, but when that charge was
levelled they reluctantly admitted that for once the fruitcakes were closer to
the truth than the whistleblowers. In a carefully worded press release, NASA's
public relations spokesman said, "What appeared to be a Saturn Five moon rocket
seemed to launch from the deserted complex thirty-four. This alleged launch was
not authorized by NASA, nor was it part of any program of which NASA is aware. A
complete investigation of the incident is being made, and our findings will be
made public as soon as we learn what actually occurred."
That was Bureauspeak for, "We don't have a clue either." Rick spent days with
the investigation team, going over his story again and again--careful to say
"appeared to" and "looked like" at all the appropriate spots--until he could
recite it in his sleep, but no one was the wiser afterward. They examined the
launch pad, which revealed no sign of a liftoff. All they could do was listen to
the telemetry coming from the spacecraft and speculate.
Three days after its launch, the ghost Apollo entered lunar orbit. A few hours
after that, the lunar module separated from the command module and made a
powered descent toward the surface. It wasn't headed for the Sea of Tranquility.
It appeared to be landing at Copernicus, one of the sites proposed for further
Apollo missions before the last three had been cancelled. But when it reached
500 feet, the telemetry suddenly stopped.
"What the hell happened?" demanded Dale Jackson, the impromptu flight director
for the mission. He stood beside one of the consoles on the lowest of the
terraced rows, looking around at the dozens of technicians who were scrambling
to reacquire the signal.
Tessa and Rick were watching from farther up, sitting side by side at unused
consoles and holding hands like teenagers on a date at the best movie of all
time. When the telemetry stopped, Tessa flinched as if a monster had just jumped
out of a closet.
"What happened?" Rick asked. "Did it blow up?"
Tessa shook her head. "Everything stopped," she said. "The command module too,
and it was still in orbit."