In the course of writing this narrative, of recounting what happened during the events of the mission in order to get a lot of things clear, I realized just how out of touch with reality some authors who have written about our mission really are, some of them have some inaccuracies while others have just practically written fairy tales / 'Fake News' , and don't get me started about the movie adaptation - Ares ended up suing the producers.
There is at least one author, Dr. Filmon F. Nantasan, of the University of the Philippines - of all institutions - that has written an accurate novel, maybe the most accurate one, about our mission, and as such I would be using his writings to fill in the gaps with regards to what was happening on Earth during the mission, because as far as I knew during the mission, there had been a lot of things going on in the background, lots of critical decisions were made, in fact I never knew much of these background events until I picked up his book years later, and even internet articles cite him as THE source for The Falcon - Discworld Mission, even though there are other authors after him who had written books as accurate as his, no one could have written their books without citing Dr. Nantasan.
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From 'Houston, we've got a turtle over here!' by Dr. Nantasan, U.P. Institute of Spaceflight;
June 12, 2021 -
On the midnight of June 12, GMT, The Falcon had completed its insertion burn over the Discworld and this was the day considered by historians to be the date of formally reaching their destination, this sits alongside November 23 2020 of B.F.R - Lunar Mission 01 and the Red Falcon Mars mission on December 23 2020, both missions were launched in the wake of the seemingly surprise man rating of the commercial B.F.R by NASA immediately after the launch of The Falcon during the post-launch pre-conference.
The reason behind the quick human rating of the B.F.R was mostly because of how the complicated launch and refueling was executed without a single failure - in comparison, Apollo 11 had suffered 200 minor failures during launch, and because of political pressure to launch a human to the Moon and Mars as soon as possible.
The orbital insertion and initial missions within the Discworld's Sphere of Influence were all broadcast on international news channels as well as live streamed by NASA and SpaceX, the first exciting event was the moon landing on the moon of the Discworld with EVA 01 composed of James Thompson, Ares Bacon, and John Howell, which was conducted in the wee hours of June 12, approximately around 2:30 am, GMT.
However it was the landing by EVA Alpha that had been the main event, it was when a human being was to set foot on a once considered fictional world, a fictional setting, of course there had been much debate and discussions as to how the policies would be decided upon in interacting with the Disc.
Due to the fact that the mission fell under NASA's jurisdiction, the astronauts - whatever they do, whatever they may end up saying and doing - are therefore under the command and responsibility of the United States, which when translated to certain individuals would mean the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the Administrator of NASA, and the Director of the Johnson Spaceflight Center, in that order.
As far as the public knew when the international news networks began their coverage on midnight, GMT, that it was all calm and normal within the walls of NASA and the White House, in fact the general consensus was that the President would simply take the chance of having a photo of him phoning the astronauts in the same way that Nixon did with Apollo 11.
The issue with the Buran Space Shuttle did not make much headlines, mainly because it was initially misinterpreted by news sources as a malfunctioning Russian satellite that SpaceX and NASA had agreed to fix, this was before any live photos or videos of the moment the Shuttle passed by was released, and notably it happened after midnight where there was no live news camera at Houston, this was however corrected during the mid-morning press conference by NASA later that day.
When EVA 01 had landed, the general headlines were 'Men on alien moon; the historic first steps' or 'Falcon Disc Mission - Moon Landing' or anything that uses those words in any configuration, however when EVA Alpha, under the command of Mission Commander Jack Dudley, Bob Howell, and Jeb Baxter, the words were initially something around the lines of 'Man makes historic step on Discworld' however this was quickly overshadowed by 'The President of the United States calls for emergency meeting.' and 'NASA declares an Emergency'
I, the author of this book that you're reading, has been the man waiting in the wings, in that I was there initially as a scientist hired by NASA during the lead up to the mission as a specialist in astrophysics, however I found myself to be in the meeting room of the President of the United States because of the State Visit of the President of the Philippines, Luis Balroa Quezon, to whom I served as science adviser.
We were in the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C having an early breakfast at around 5 am, Eastern Standard Time, with President Quezon when a staff member of the embassy approached us and said "Mister President, the White House is on the line."
President Luis Balroa Quezon, who was once the Ambassador to the United Kingdom before running for the 2016 Philippine Presidential Elections, was also known to be a fan of Discworld, having been spotted at the midnight release of the last book - which some have said has helped his campaign because of how his social media accounts have showed an intelligent but friendly candidate compared to the other candidates who were from political families and it all started with the photos of him goofing off somewhat with the other fans at the book shop.
The President left the table and went to the office of the Ambassador where the phone was located, he then came out shortly after and said, "Gentlemen, we have to go now, to Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House."
"Were you invited or were you told to go there?" I asked.
"Both, they sort of need an expert of the Discworld that they could trust, and you know how I've been spewing nothing but about the Discworld for the past few days I've been here." said President Quezon.
We took the diplomatic sedan to the White House under police escort, in fact we became an object of breaking news when CBS first broke the headline; 'President of the Philippines heads to the White House, may serve as temporary Discworld adviser to the President of the United States, according to sources in the White House'
I'll be honest with you, I'm not a lawyer but a friend of mine, the Dean of the U.P. College of Law, had told me later on that what we did was unprecedented, in fact not even the legal adviser of President Quezon had knew precisely what to say about a head of state being phoned by another head of state to serve as the latter's adviser, he had nothing to say whatsoever.
However President Cruz, for the years in the lead up to the mission, has always said that the mission was for all mankind and not just for America, this might have been his way of putting that idea into action, by inviting a non-American expert into his office.
When we reached the White House, we were not greeted by U.S. Marines in Dress Uniforms, we were instead greeted by Secret Service personnel who were hurrying us to get in. We were escorted to this special meeting room within the White House, it was where most of the 'war room' photos were taken, such as the one when President Barack Obama had monitored the mission to arrest Osama Bin Laden.
But that photo was ten years old, the war room that we were escorted to looked state-of-the-art, it was most probably as high tech as The Falcon by the looks of it, when we entered this war room we found the President of the United States seated along with the Administrator of NASA, along with his other aides such as the Secretary of State, his Chief Legal Counsel, the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Adviser.
"President Quezon," said President Cruz who stood up and shook hands with his Philippine counterpart, "we're sorry for phoning you up, but we think that you're the best Discworld expert within the D.C. area."
That was not hyperbole, when President Quezon was studying at the University of the Philippines for his pre-law course, Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing, he took the then recently released 'Color of Magic' by Terry Pratchett and argued point-by-point that the book had taken all the concepts of fantasy and broke it down, he would win the Best Thesis for that year under the College of the Letter and the Arts.
Furthermore, President Quezon had written blogs about the books as they came out, in fact he was known more for being intelligent but a huge geek and the former appealed to the older voters while the geekiness side of his appealed heavily to the young voters.
"Yes, I do believe I've heard that title bestowed upon me multiple times." said Quezon, "However I do believe that this is all unprecedented."
The Legal Adviser of the President of the United States stepped forward, "Your Excellency, actually this is nothing more than a discussion of plans, similar to how President Bush and British Prime Minister had held video conference calls."
But in my opinion it was lawyer talk for 'A, B, and C are similar…since D is made up of chunks of those other three, then therefore D is also similar to A, B, and C.', but I digress.
We sat on one side of the table while the Americans sat on the other side, with the President of the United States seating ahead of the table with President Quezon to his right. There was this huge screen composed of several TV screens stuck together, the screen was dominated by two windows; the round table at the Pentagon, and Air Force Two; the Vice President's Airplane.
"Gentlemen, thanks for being here. Now we're here because NASA has declared an emergency, and it would be great if you can explain what it is." began President Cruz, who was glancing at the NASA Administrator.
The NASA Administrator began, "Mister President, EVA Alpha of The Falcon made landing on the Disc at approximately 3 am, Eastern Standard Time, which then the Mission Commander had made contacts with the President of the country he landed on, in fact the spacecraft, Dragon Two, landed at the front yard of the Presidential Palace of the country they landed on."
"Have they been detained?" asked the Secretary of State.
"No, Mister Secretary, the Mission Commander had actually been welcomed by the President of the country, known as BangBangduc, and then the Mission Commander had actually used his knowledge of the books in order to bluff his way through in order to win their trust."
"Does NASA know what he said to them?" asked President Cruz.
"We have a transcript of what he and the others have said, their spacesuits had good microphones and cameras that could pick up what they've talked about, the problem is that we have no idea what it was about." said the NASA Administrator, "Even the ones who have read the books did not have that much of an understanding of the area, which was why we requested that a trusted and well known Discworld expert could be here with us today, which apparently would come in the form of the President of the Philippines."
"Can we have a look at the transcript?" asked President Cruz.
This meeting table had computer tablets embedded on them in an angle, the digital transcripts were sent through those computer tablets, it took some time for me to read through them but President Quezon simply glanced through it and had a shocked look on his face.
"What is it, Mister President Quezon?" asked the NASA Administrator.
"If all of these are true, then you've sent American citizens to die, possibly…certainly, in the worst possible ending of a Discworld story." began President Quezon.
This statement had drawn the ire of the guys at the Pentagon, "Mister President, please explain to us what the threat is." said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the screen.
"The threat is The Cunning Man, who should not be treated as a human enemy, it's a supernatural one, and if these transcripts are right, then one of the greatest enemy of the Discworld universe has become the enemy of the United States of America, and maybe even the world given the vested interest in this mission." said President Quezon.
"So who the hell is this 'Cunning Man'?" asked the Vice President on the screen.
"He's this creature that spreads hate and anger directly into people's heads, much like how Hitler had gotten a nation to hate on Jews." said President Quezon.
"How did he lose in the books?" asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
"He was defeated at the hands of Tiffany Aching, the younger protagonists of the books, who-…look, you would also have to understand the witches, they wear pointy hats, are composed entirely of women, and they start at an early age but not everyone could be a witch, and these witches are more akin to Red Cross Doctors, UNICEF Volunteers, U.N Peacekeepers, than the usual idea of witches." President Quezon explained, "You see, the witches are the 'do-all' kind of people, they are there to serve their rural communities, they act as midwives, caretakers, veterinarians if they're in a farming community, wise women for political leaders - a.k.a akin to your chief political advisers, Mister President - undertakers, judges where there is no courts of law, you name it."
"And the connection between the Cunning Man, Tiffany Aching, and the witches?" asked the Vice President.
"Tiffany Aching was their best upstart witch, she was to be the leader of the witches after the death of their then leader Esmerelda Granny Weatherwax who would pass on naturally in the beginning of the last book, the same book where Tiffany would assume the leadership of the witches." said Quezon, "But then the Cunning Man…he is the greatest enemy of the witches, he fights the witches through dirty ways."
Quezon then reached for a glass of water and gulped the whole glass before resuming his lecture, "These dirty ways would include influencing hate, suspicion, and anger against the witches, influencing certain murderous criminals and psychopaths to conduct witch hunts, and the thing he wanted to do with Tiffany, the most powerful witch at the time, was to possess her, tear her soul out and occupy her body." he then did this dramatic pause and ended with "Gentlemen, the Cunning Man is a demon, a plague."
I saw the reaction of the Vice President, he did a silent sign of the cross and said "Damn.", while the guys at the Pentagon I overheard asking "Can't we send in SEAL Team Six to hunt down this motherf*****?"
"But that's not all, these witches acts as the guards between the division of worlds, both figuratively and literally, the other enemy of the Discworld would be the Elves who uses the same influencing powers as the Cunning Man, but instead of hating witches, they could instantly enslave normal humans having humans bow down to them." Quezon paused and gasped, "But if the Cunning Man has won, then that means …the elves are going to invade with little to no resistance!"
"Mister President if this all true then we have to get our own astronauts out of there." pleaded the National Security Adviser.
"Wait, have you spoken to the Mission Commander himself?" asked President Cruz.
"He wanted to speak to you directly, sir." said the NASA Administrator, "He said he had something to explain, but we're sort of having trouble in patching him through Houston and to the White House."
"But are your staff working on it?" asked the Vice President.
"They should be calling at any moment." said the NASA Administrator.
Lo and behold, the main computer that had the control of the screen made a ringing noise, a technical assistance guy answered the call and said "Sir, it's Houston."
"Put it on screen if there's a video feed." said President Cruz.
There was in fact a video feed, it was that of Mission Commander Jack Dudley who was inside one of the Dragon capsule/lander, we heard the voice of Houston Mission Control, "You're now connected with the White House, the President of the United States is on the line."
"Thanks, Houston." said Dudley,"Mister President, I could see you from here and I hope you can too from there."
"Yes we could hear and see you clearly, Mister Dudley, and I do hope you can recognize our guest here." said President Cruz, referring to President Quezon.
Dudley did a double take, "Wait a minute, Ambassador-…I meant President Luis Balroa Quezon? Didn't I meet you at the book store?"
"Yes, that was me, Captain." said Quezon, "I have been invited here to explain your transcript between you and the officials of BangBangduc."
"So they all know about the threat of the Cunning Man?" asked Dudley.
"Yes, Captain, they also know more or less about the witches, Tiffany Aching, and the elves." said Quezon, "So how do you propose we solve the possible issue?"
"Possible?" asked Dudley.
"Have you visited the Chalk and checked it?" asked Quezon.
"Not yet, sir, but we are planning to." said Dudley.
Quezon then turned to the others and said, "Oh and the witches operate at around a good chunk of the Discworld, mainly the center area with some witches reaching the biggest city of the planet." he then turned to the technical assistant, "Can you show a picture of the Discworld's topography?"
The touch screen tablets and the huge screen then showed the map being used by NASA as a reference in navigating the Discworld, Quezon went to the screen and pointed at the main continent, "This here composes a good chunk of the population of the whole Discworld, this is where the witches mostly operate in, and thus this is the battleground."
"Then where is this BangBangduc?" asked the Vice President.
"Mister Vice President, BangBangduc would be here where we are" said Dudley who then transmitted a 3d rendered picture of the Disc with their entry trajectory and landing zone, it too popped up on our screens.
"So I do believe that the government of BangBangduc wanted to invade and declare Martial Law?" clarified President Cruz.
"Yes sir, that is what I discussed with them-…I was able to convince them that I was an inventor who had built a flying machine - slash - house and that I just came from the Ramtops region." said Dudley.
"Please tell them do not." said Quezon, "We've seen how bad Iraq went, what else with an entire continent infested with elves and the Cunning Man."
"And possibly other creatures." said Dudley, "I mean with this supernatural uprising…the vampires may be in it too! But that's only a possibility."
Quezon nodded, "Don't forget about the other supernatural creatures that the elves might summon."
"True," nodded Dudley in agreement.
"Do you have any plans on how to defeat this Cunning Man?" asked President Quezon.
"Sir, I do, and I also guess that you know that the solution would be to…"
"Kill Tiffany Aching, she's now as much of a target as Osama Bin Laden, with her as the host of the Cunning Man…well her soul is gone, might as well get rid of the body." said Quezon.
This had caused a stir, depending on where you were, some would say it started with the Pentagon, or Air Force Two, or the White House, but I would say it began at the same time, that's what happens when people are trying to get their voices heard at the same time.
"Gentlemen, please, this is a formal and serious meeting." said President Cruz, "You first, Secretary of Defense, what do you have to say?"
"With all due respects, we cannot just send in our astronauts to suddenly become SEAL Team Six, if you know what I mean, we only trained them for self-defense and not to start a war or conduct an assassination mission."
"But what if this Not-Tiffany would suddenly attack Dragon Two or, God forbid, The Falcon?" asked Quezon.
"Then only under self-defense can we authorize the use of the weapons cache." said the Secretary of Defense.
"Do you have any strategic weapons in this cache?" asked President Cruz.
"We do have strategic weapons such as a modified orbital Tomahawk missile battery that we engineered to be hidden inside The Falcon." said the Secretary of Defense, though in retrospect, it was quite interesting how they took President Quezon into their confidence this quickly, but then again no one knows the Discworld as much as Quezon and he was in the room right there and then.
"How about you, NASA Administrator?" asked President Cruz.
"Sir, I agree with the Secretary of Defense, however I agree more with the National Security Adviser in that we have to evacuate our astronauts immediately, we could instead maybe land on Titan instead before going back to Earth." said the NASA Administrator.
"How about the Joint Chiefs?" asked Cruz.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs remained in thoughtful silence for few moments, "Well, sir, I think we should know the scenarios if we evacuate without fighting the enemy."
"How about this, the Cunning Man invades our planet and causes chaos here." said President Quezon.
"It's true, Mister President, I think - as an expert of the theories of this planet - that the Cunning Man coming here might be possible." said Dudley, "Look, this planet works and exists upon story-belief, in that portals and other things which we may think of as fictional may be real, of course with respects to the fact that this world is a fantasy one."
President Cruz rubbed his chin and took a few moments to think it through, "Gentlemen," he began, "if this threat would become worse, I am authorizing you, Captain Dudley, to initiate a military strike-kill order with those Tomahawk batteries if you cannot stop this Cunning Man with your small-arms, are we alright with that?"
The Secretary of State raised an interesting point "But what about the civilians?" he asked, "I know that they're under the influence of this enemy, but if ever we end up killing them as well…"
"Then we shall decide on when we can use those Tomahawk missiles." said Cruz, "Captain, if you know what you're doing, and we trust that you know what you're doing, I am authorizing you to take any actions necessary to fight this enemy, even if you have to help the nations there, but if you know that your supplies are about to run out, you are to leave immediately."
"Don't worry sir, we have made connections with people in high places here." said Dudley reassuringly.
"Good, is there anything else?" asked Cruz.
"No sir, I have said everything I had to say." said Dudley.
"You may leave now, Captain." said Cruz.
"Thank you, sir." said Dudley before the line was cut.
President Cruz then massaged his temples, "President Quezon, you're our expert here, is there a way to kill that planet?"
"Sorry, you do mean that you want to kill the turtle of which the worlds sits on top of?" said Quezon.
"Has the Cunning Man been killed before after becoming successful in taking over the most powerful witch?" asked Cruz.
"No, you have to understand that the Cunning Man comes again and again, whenever he senses a powerful witch, and somehow…just somehow…Tiffany lost, the first and last loss the witches can maybe handle based on what we know." said Quezon.
"And we can be certain that whatever the books say…their backgrounds…the theories, they're all applicable to this situation?" asked Cruz.
Quezon nodded, "The mere fact that the Discworld is here in all its entirety, that the map that NASA uses was the one made by the author's illustrator and it is turning out to be very accurate…then the 'facts' here also include the bad ones."
Cruz nodded, "Mister President, I understand that you come here as an adviser, but you are not given a security clearance…"
"I understand, I shall leave immediately." said Quezon.
"No, I need you to stay…or rather I need for you to have communications with us, just in case, but we're about to discuss something that should only fall to the ears of my aides." said Cruz, "No, I cannot discuss the technical details…but where can we hit this world so hard that it dies out?"
"What, like throwing an asteroid on Earth type of apocalyptic?" Quezon clarified.
Cruz nodded, "I know you're a fan of the Discworld but…this is no longer a fantasy story where the ending is the ending, the ending would result in our end if this Cunning Man is not handled."
Quezon nodded, "Okay…there is one way to destroy the Discworld with one nuclear shot."
"We're all ears." said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Quezon walked to the big screen where the map was still showing and pointed to the tall spire in the center, "This is the Hub, this is where ALL the magic emanates from and is the reason why the Discworld exists, if we hit it here with a nuclear warhead…all life will be wiped out, that is if our planet's safety is under threat."
Cruz nodded, "Thank you, Mister President, and I do believe that as an allied nation of the United States, military secrecy is in force and was in force during the meeting."
"Yes, of course I understand, this is similar to the old Yalta Conference between the heads of the allied nations." said Quezon.
"We thank you for coming here, oh and a happy Independence Day to you and your countrymen." said Cruz, who stood up and shook hands with him, "We hope that we can talk to you when we need you."
"Thank you, and of course." said Quezon.
We left the White House immediately, as in we were hiding from the reporters who were waiting outside, wondering why the President of another country was 'invited' in the wee hours of the morning.
When we were inside the diplomatic sedan, I remembered looking at my President and saying, "Mister President, are you sure that showing up there had been a good idea?"
Quezon shrugged, "I only came there as someone who knows about the setting, I had no other intentions or agenda with them."
"But committing genocide, sir, if they do execute their plan…"
Quezon looked at me and smirked, "You know, you have no idea about Narrativium, in the end, the real good guys win."
I was perplexed to be honest with his confidence at that idea, but if it floats his boat, then so be it. As we went back to the embassy, I was still curious as to what they have been up to, in fact I did my best as a researcher to unearth documents with regards to the following decisions, and I think for the first time in history, we now know precisely what happened after we have left, based on the interviews with the officials there which I conducted, as well as the transcripts and minutes of the meeting.
Apparently the President had ejected the NASA Administrator shortly after we left, and that's when the more interesting plans were brought out.
"I heard that the British had developed an engine technology that has failed at NASA's hands," began President Cruz, "If this is real, then maybe we can ask them to build a spaceship to carry nuclear warheads."
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs asked, "Sir, can't we have SpaceX build a special B.F.R to do that?"
Cruz shook his head, "Sorry, I know that SpaceX is a private company and I think we need something more in the government level of security."
"We'll try to have a video conference with the British Prime Minister as soon as we could, mister President." said the Secretary of State.
"What do you have in mind, sir?" asked the Vice President.
"I have heard of the Skylon single stage to orbit spacecraft, it could take off like a plane, coast to space, and then land again on any major international airport, and since it could do that in one tank, then why not loft it to space, refuel it, and send it off to the Disc, after all as someone who has worked in the field of aerospace and astronautics, I know that if you can have a ship go to low Earth orbit in one tank, refuel it, it could be sent as far out as Saturn." Cruz said.
After much discussion within the table at the Pentagon, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs nodded, "Sir, we're to agree with that plan, sir, we suspect that the crew of The Falcon may have grown too attached to the Disc, maybe because they've been exposed to this Cunning Man or whatever, but we do not think that they would pull the trigger if we hand them a nuclear missile, but we're afraid that they might shoot the Skylon - should we ever get the British to launch it for us - down."
Cruz was said to have nodded, "Then we shoot The Falcon as well, the survival of our planet is now the foremost concern, if a bunch of foolish individuals want to get in the way then we'll just sweep them aside, understood?"
The Chiefs of Staff around the table said in unison, "Yes sir."
"We'll also need to search the author's home, by force if necessary, and also we'll need to forward the transcripts to the British." said President Cruz.
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When I ended the conversation with the President, I found myself stuck in a certain problem in my head, or rather I have to decide on what to do next, logically we have to go to the main continent and see for ourselves the problem, but I don't think we could do it alone.
A few moments after the conversation had ended, Bob and Jeb came back and they brought back a lot of food, in fact they were carrying four bags each, I opened the hatch as soon as I saw them, "Gentlemen, don't tell me you looted a store."
"No captain, a baker and someone selling all sorts of food on sticks sort of just gave these to us…actually they were frequented by civil servants from the palace you went into, they told them to give us food and anything we need that they have as a reward for helping the country greatly, these are paid by your Presidential buddy." said Jeb as he and Bob laid the bags down inside Dragon Two
I nodded, not a bad deal, "Look, we sleep here for the night and decide further what to do next, but for certain we have to go to the main continent and to the hot zone."
"Can't we just follow them when their invasion comes?" asked Bob.
"We need to have the Dragon with us, but we can follow them, though I think we should get them to mount their troop movement plans sooner." I said, maybe because I was getting a little impatient, "Either way, we cannot go alone."
"I agree, Captain." said Jeb.
