SUNGLASESS AND ROCKETS Part 2: The Machine

APPRENTICES

The doctor was not exaggerating. Since the moment when we got out of the bags all confused until a bit before completing the journey, we kept a frenetic work pace. I'm sure that I didn't look at Earth through the window more than a few seconds.

And I admit that the duties the doctor assigned us were not tedious or boring at all. They did me good somehow. They took my mind away from worries and somber predictions.

We learned how to operate a TLD*work station. That is, the monitoring system of

our space suits and the space ship, due to the eventual exposition to HCP** particles among other exotic radiation fields that exist in space, according to the doctor's information. In other words, we received a crash course in dosimetry, as it is called in the physicists' world. Plus, we learned to examine the "cryo" system, which is the system formed by oxygen and hydrogen tanks in a cryogenic state, which produce three basic commodities in a spaceship when combined in an electro-chemical process: water, heat and electricity.

Likewise, we learned to use the bathroom (we even became experts).

That was all. In some way because many devices were showing defects, in such cases the doctor did all the repairs without our help. On the other hand, Darwin's ignorance as well as my own regarding the ship's functioning, which you only see in the movies, was, of course, alarming.

Our training was slow.

We still had a pending long list of 11 inspections, now that we were entering the lunar orbit, 220,000 miles away from Earth.

Piled up in a rear receptacle of the shuttle, we were trying to find a way to open the valve of the auxiliary nitrogen tanks; although, there were only a couple of hours left for the landing, the doctor wanted to guarantee an additional air supply just in case of a contingency.

The valves had shut down for some reason.

"I got it!" Darwin exclaimed all of a sudden. I noticed that he was removing the top of a small box adhered to the upper part of the tank. "It's only a fuse!"

I strained my eyes. Surprised, I observed that, indeed, Darwin had hit the nail on the head: the small box contained a series of fuses, one of them was burnt. Euphoric, thanks to the feat; he removed rashly the top of the other box stuck on the wall of the receptacle.

"Here are the spare fuses!" He grabbed one with no hesitation. "You just have to insert it!"

I took a breath of relief and made use of the moment to take a look toward the flight cabin: the doctor had already set himself in the captain's seat and from there, still with the seat belt loosened; he remained glued to the controls on the vast front panels. The large western lunar curvature loomed at the rear end, in which irregular contours outlined the gigantic craters and mountains.

Almost involuntarily, I heaved myself to have a better view.

To the East of that colossal shiny claw, everything was dark. You couldn't even see the stars. I understood that it was the rest of the lunar disc—as it is expected in the waning moon, an absolute blackness appeared.

I could hardly believe that we could be so close. I felt excited. We were approaching it.

The doctor had been correct the whole time. His predictions were coming true one by one: the cracks in the fuselage had not spread out one half of a millimeter; nobody had chased us from Earth and no one was setting an ambush for us on the moon.

Things were going well. You could smell optimism in the cabin. I congratulated my pal keeping my eyes on the window.

"We made it. We're getting there."

The doctor called us.

"Take your places."

I turned to Darwin. I noticed that he was watching the stars from a window.

Patting his back I said:

"Good job, come on."

"They're following us..."

*Thermoluminescense Dosimeter.

**Heavy Charged Particles.