FARSIDE

by Robspace54

The characters, places and situations of UFO are owned by Century 21 Television Productions. This story makes no claim of remuneration or ownership, nor do I make any attempt to infringe upon any rights of the owners or producers.

Thank you for reading and reviews are much appreciated.

Ed Straker's face stared out of the television screen, and Virginia Lake wondered why he looked so very tense, but the man was always tense. "And you approve the installation plan per the amended schedule?" she asked.

Two and a half seconds later, after that pesky lightspeed delay, he responded. "Colonel, now's as a good a time as any." He smiled. "Been a while since you've been on a lunar surface mission, so it'll be a good training exercise."

Virginia sighed to herself. Moonbase was cozy enough, but she never quite felt at ease wearing a spacesuit. 'Cozy'? Not quite. She glanced around the Moonbase Control Center. It was as cozy as a submarine, with exposed conduits and pipes feeding the electronic displays and control panels. Skydiver with a vacuum outside, she mused. She forced a nod to Straker, who was safe back on Earth where there was air to breath outside a building. "Fine."

"Fine?" Straker's face asked. "Does that mean fine as in 'I'll do it because you told me to' or as in 'I'm competent and agree with the order'?"

That made her laugh and that eased the tension. And she thought that Ed was tense. She flexed her fingers then interlocked her hands together. "Fine as in I understand the order and I am comfortable with the mission."

"You have been running Moonbase for six weeks, so you ought to have your 'moon legs.' Good, to hear Col. Lake. Very good. Who do want on your team?"

She had thought about this for some time. "I think Mark Gordon as pilot, and I'll take Lt. Barry as my assistant for the new technology installation."

That made Ed smile. "Nina helped to install the latest radar upgrades on Moonbase last year. You know, Colonel, all of Earth owes you a debt of gratitude for your invention, development, and deployment of the ulrtonics arrays at Moonbase, on Earth and on SID."

"Ed, you know as well as I that there was a huge team of people at Westbrook working on the technology."

"But thanks to your leadership and brilliance it all came to fruition, and you were able to bring most of your team into S.H.A.D.O. As you know, the ulrtonics development lets us track UFO's farther away and therefore sooner. A brilliant system giving us vital time to thwart their attacks."

She tipped her head slightly. For all the verbal praise she received not one bit of it ever would be made public. Secret layered on secrecy; wrapped in a cloak of confidentiality. "For the greater good, Ed."

That made him smile. "But back to the mission, do you have everything you need up there? If not we can rush a supply…"

She held up a hand to stop him. "We've checked out the equipment for the upgrade and all the material is on Moonbase and in A-1 condition."

Ed said, "Then good luck. You can send status updates to me through the Farside circumlunar relay satellite. Use the standard compressed bit stream ping to send updates as you go."

"As per usual," she replied.

"Fine. Then this mission should be a piece of cake for you."

"That's the idea. Lake, out."

The screen went dark and Straker's face was gone. Virginia stood up and walked over to Lt. Barry. "Well, Nina, seems we get to go to Farside. Commander Straker just okayed the final plan."

Nina Barry swallowed hard. "And we'll be on EVA."

"Part of the time, but there is a small habitat and equipment shelter at the installation. Any of the EVA will be plugging in new cables and power systems."

Nina didn't like small spaces and the sinking of Skydiver had only made her claustrophobia worse. "Good then. When's the last time anyone was out there?"

"Oh, three years ago; when the radio telescope went into operation. Being able to piggyback new technology on top of the existing antenna array will make our scanning more efficient." Virginia chewed on a slim finger. "As long as there haven't been any thermal effects from the freeze-thaw cycling. But the telescope is still working, turning out science data, so I don't see any real problems there."

Nina nodded. "Fine. When do we go?"

"Six hundred Zulu time tomorrow. Mark Gordon will be the pilot." Virginia touched the operator's arm. "Better get a good night's sleep."

"Night?" Nina looked at the port where slanting sunlight washed over the lunar landscape. "What I would not give for an actual day-night cycle. I miss sunsets, with an orange sky." Nine stared at the console clock. "Morgan is coming on duty in a few minutes, so I'll see you in the canteen?"

"I have some comms to send, but sure. I heard they have real faux stroganoff tonight."

"That's another thing I miss, Colonel. Real food."

"Back on Earth, I will not miss drinking and washing in recycled and rationed water."

The two women laughed for they both knew that staying clean on the base was always an issue. Water, precious water, was always the limiting factor for anything involving hygiene.

Virginia turned her mind back to the mission. "To and back from the Farside radio telescope all in 48 hours."

Nina bit her lip. "Just have to follow the mission plan, then."

"This will be straight forward, Nina." Virginia snapped her fingers. "Like that."

"Okay," Nina sighed, but she had a sinking feeling in her belly.