Back to the Moon by Travis S Taylor & Les Johnson

Author:Travis S Taylor & Les Johnson [Taylor, Travis S & Johnson, Les]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction - Adventure, Science Fiction - High Tech, Fiction - Science Fiction, High Tech, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Manned Space Flight, Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction - General, Adventure, Space Rescue Operations, General, Space Flight to the Moon
ISBN: 9781439134054
Google: -uuHRAAACAAJ
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2010-12-07T06:15:54+00:00

Chapter 20

In the three days since Paul Gesling and the passengers of the Dreamscape heard the plea for help from the stranded Chinese taikonauts, the inescapable forces of gravity had been pulling them back home toward Earth. The moment of their return was now imminent, and they were busily preparing themselves for entry into the atmosphere and a not-too-distant landing on the desert runway in Nevada.

To most of the passengers, coming directly back home and landing on the same runway from which they left seemed like no big deal. After all, didn’t airplanes do that sort of thing all the time?

To Paul Gesling, who understood the complexities of orbital mechanics, the relative rotation of the Earth, and the effects the pull of gravity from the Moon had on his craft, it was simply amazing. Here they were, coming back from a quarter-of-a-million-mile journey to another world, and they were about to enter the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds beyond the human mind’s ability to imagine to pull off a pinpoint landing at the same spot from which they had left several days ago. The timing had to be perfect, and, from all indications, it likely would be. Nonetheless, he was nervous and continuously checking for updates on their position from the onboard computer.

In-space acrobatics behind them, the passengers were all buckled in their seats, running through the various checklists now scrolling on the screens in front of them. True, many of their tasks were trivial and designed mostly to keep them busy and to make sure they didn’t hurt themselves as the pull of Earth’s gravity noticeably returned. But it worked.

Gesling was in the pilot’s seat, running through his own, less trivial, checklist. One by one, the ship’s systems were checked out and appeared to be in perfect operating condition.

Dreamscape would enter the outermost region of the Earth’s atmosphere within the hour and be on the ground shortly thereafter.

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