Eagle Station

“Whoa there,” Brad said, backing away a bit with a hand held up in caution. “Please, please, please… do not hug me… at least not just yet.” Through his helmet visor, she saw his familiar, crooked grin. “Especially not while you’re still wearing that big-ass robot. Because I think I cracked a few ribs falling halfway down that damn rim wall.”

Now it was Nadia’s turn to smile. “You have a bad habit of making me think you might be dead, Brad McLanahan.”

“True,” he admitted. “But I promise it’s a habit I’m going to try real hard to break from here on out.”

Over the radio, they both heard Peter Vasey’s voice calling. “Wolf Two and Wolf Three, this is Lunar Wolf One. I’m approximately two minutes out from your location. Since it looks as though you’ve made a bit of a mess of things, could one of you find me a safe place to set this beast down?”

Turning toward the east, they saw a faint spark against the black sky — a spark that grew ever brighter as the Xeus drew nearer.

Aboard Lunar Wolf One, Departing Engel’gardt Crater

Two Hours Later

Strapped awkwardly into the lander’s rightmost seat, Brad listened to Vasey run through his pre-liftoff checklist. Not even counting his own injuries, both he and Nadia were physically exhausted and emotionally numbed by the battle they’d just fought and won — and only by the narrowest of margins. Neither of them was in any fit state to argue with the Englishman when he’d told them he’d be handling the outbound flight on his own.

“Main engine on standby,” Vasey announced. “Thrusters are go. Flight control and lunar navigation systems are go.” He turned his head, checking over his passengers with a faint smile. “We are go for liftoff. Any unfinished business you two need to take care of before we spread our wings and fly?”

Brad shook his head tiredly. “Not me, brother.”

“I, too, am ready to leave,” Nadia confirmed. She reached out and took Brad’s hand, holding on tight as if she never intended to let go.

With a satisfied nod, Vasey tapped his control panel. Seconds later, the Xeus lifted off from the plateau — riding thruster plumes that carried it higher in a swirling cloud of dust. Behind them, bright flashes flickered across the high crater rim as the demolition charges they’d rigged to destroy their CLADs and the Sino-Russian habitat detonated in sequence.

Several thousand feet above the surface, the Englishman lit their main rocket engine, throttling up slowly to spare Brad’s cracked ribs for as long as possible. Steadily, the lander accelerated, climbing higher on its way into orbit around the moon.

Forty minutes later, they watched in awed silence as the beautiful, cloud-streaked blue orb of the earth rose over the barren, cratered landscape sixty miles below. Then Vasey cleared his throat and keyed his radio mike. “Sky Masters Control, this is Lunar Wolf One. Our mission is complete. I say again, our mission is complete. Requesting assistance, over.”

For what seemed an eternity, they heard only static-filled silence. All of them were only too aware that the Xeus could not carry them home. Their only hope was a rescue here in lunar orbit before their oxygen and supplies ran out.

But then Hunter Noble’s voice crackled over the radio. “Copy that, Lunar Wolf One. This is the Sky Masters Orion. I’ve just completed a good translunar injection burn. I’ll rendezvous with you in just a few days.”

Epilogue

Aboard the Orion, Homeward Bound

A Few Days Later

The cramped Orion crew vehicle’s lights were dimmed. Except for the faint hum of air-recirculation fans and water pumps, everything was quiet. Wearing a clean flight suit sent out with the repurposed NASA spacecraft, Brad McLanahan lay back in his reclined crew couch, feeling pleasantly lazy. Nadia lay cozily entwined in his arms. Behind them, Boomer and Vasey were asleep in their own seats. This was a crew rest period, so even the radios were silent.

Through the windows above their heads, they could see the earth growing steadily ahead of them. The moon, now far behind, would be tiny in comparison. Neither felt sorry they could no longer see it.

“We will have to go back soon, you know,” Nadia said softly, from inside the circle of his arms. “Us, or those like us. Those who are warriors at heart.”

Brad looked down at her in surprise. “Back? To the moon?”