The Boys' Club

Chapter 11

    The space shuttle Copernicus slowly drifted down towards the moon's surface. This time Carmen was in the pilot's seat and she was landing the craft manually. Adam was in the seat next to her closely supervising, but giving her free rein. Things had changed so much in the last three weeks. Most of the staff on the island were now friendly with her and she was included in all social get togethers. Adam still called her 'Taylor' in front of other staff, but if no one else was around he actually called her by her first name. There were no more insulting remarks and he actually treated her almost the same as the other men.....well almost.

Dr Hammond had arrived on the island the day after the incident in space and had individually questioned everyone involved in the mission. The results were that the course correction circuit which had failed hadn't been checked prior to the flight which in turn was the result of the spacecraft being rushed into service with a skeleton maintenance staff, and no individual was blamed for it. New procedures would apply in future. It was found that Carmen's actions had not only saved the spacecraft from severe damage or destruction by the space debris, but had also undoubtedly saved Adam Bailey's life. 

The mysterious craft which appeared just before Adam and Carmen made it back to the Iridium, remained a mystery. Probably the same unidentified 'bogie' which had been seen on radar on some previous missions. Dr Hammond had said if it was terrestrial then someone on Earth with highly superior technology had invented a way to accelerate and decelerate a spacecraft at a fantastic rate. He stopped short of saying it could be extra-terrestrial.

Just before he returned to the mainland Dr Hammond had taken Carmen aside and congratulated her on her performance. "I never doubted for a minute that you would be a valuable addition to the team and a first class astronaut and pilot," he said with a smile while shaking her hand. "And on the moon flight on the 27th I'm putting you in the pilot's seat for the outward journey with Adam as co-pilot. I also want you to try manually landing the ship at Mainbase." Carmen had thanked him while feeling rather overwhelmed at his confidence in her. Manually landing the shuttle on the moon would be a huge responsibility.

Barry Fitzgerald had recovered quickly from his concussion. He and the other engineer Glen Hewitt had not been fired for planting the microphone in Carmen's room, they were allowed to keep their jobs, but placed on probation at a lower rate of pay for twelve months. 

With a minor jolt the shuttle set down on the landing pad. Carmen shut down the operating systems, then radioed the base that they were safely down and the 'bus' could be driven over to pick up the fifty six passengers and crew.
"Not bad," Adam said, "You gave us a bit of a jolt, but still....not bad on your first attempt."

Dr Hammond had travelled passenger on the trip leaving the flight crew to handle all flight operations. On the morning of lift-off, the plane from the mainland had brought an additional welcome passenger. Tracy ran up to Carmen and gave her an enthusiastic hug. "I'm coming with you," she announced, "I only found out yesterday. Hellen, one of the passenger attendants was sick and couldn't make it so Dad asked if I would like to come along and fill in for her, so here I am. We can hang together on the moon."

Carmen laughed at Tracy's turn of phrase. She was talking like a teenager again, but she was happy to see her. Tracy had been her 'rock' during those first two months she had been on the island when she had been feeling lonely and isolated with no friends.

Later in the lounge area of the underground lunar research base they sat at a table sipping coffee. "We're here for five days before going back," Tracy said, "so since you and I don't have any specific duties while we're here, we should borrow a Rover tomorrow and go for a drive, do some sightseeing. What do you think?"
"Sure, sounds great," Carmen answered, "I think your father also wants me to go on the monorail over to the Farside Base. I didn't get time to go on our last visit back in December."
"He's going the day after tomorrow, so we can go with him then. That monorail trip to Farside is something to be experienced."