Matt Eaton

SLEEPING GODS

The Apollo 8 spacecraft streaked manfully through the heavens at a mile per second, picking up speed rapidly as it approached the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders could feel no sense of speed nor acceleration but they knew their velocity would soon be a problem if they didn’t do something to slow down.

Their Command/Service Module was about 5000 nautical miles from the lunar surface and already under the Moon’s gravitational influence. They were unaware of its proximity because for some time they had not been able to see it through the window. They were heading into orbit backwards and awaiting the final calculations from Mission Control for firing the main SPS rocket. In Houston, the greatest minds in American space flight had been crunching numbers on the lunar orbit insertion, or LOI. Astronaut Jerry Carr was taking his turn at the capsule communicator console and called on the crew of Apollo 8 to check the maths.

“Apollo 8, Houston; with a preliminary LOI-1 PAD. Over.”

Lovell answered. “Roger. Stand by one.”

“Roger. Standing by,” capcom confirmed.

There was a long pause while Lovell readied himself to take the numbers. There would be no going at it half-cocked.

“Houston, Apollo 8. Ready to copy.”

“Apollo 8, this is Houston. Roger. LOI-1 SPS/G&N 62844, minus 1 point 61, plus 1 point 29, 069:08:19.05. Copy?”

“Eight is copying,” Lovell answered.

The numbers kept coming in a long line. Every digit needed to be right for the astronauts to execute a precisely synchronised rendezvous with the Moon, which itself was travelling through space at more than 3000 feet per second.

Houston had Apollo 8 lighting the candle at flight time 69 hours, eight minutes and 19 seconds. The burn had to last for precisely four minutes and two seconds. If the engine didn’t fire, their trajectory would become their fail-safe mechanism, bringing the spacecraft close enough to allow the Moon’s gravity to sling-shot them around and back toward Earth. If the burn was too long (meaning they couldn’t shut the engine down) the rapid loss of velocity would send them crashing into the Moon. If the engine cut out too soon and couldn’t be restarted, their command module would enter an elliptical orbit that would gradually decay under the counter influence of the Earth’s gravitational field and eventually catapult them into outer space.

“Apollo 8 this is Houston. At 68:04 you’re go for LOI.”

“OK, Apollo 8 is go,” said Borman.

“You’re riding the best bird we can find,” said capcom.

An hour later they said their farewells as they approached the far side of the Moon for the first time. Their velocity had increased to about 1.5 miles per second and was continuing to build rapidly. Strong emotions arose within each of the men in the capsule as they approached LOS… loss of signal.

“Thanks a lot troops, we’ll see you on the other side,” Anders told Mission Control.

Much to Commander Borman’s amazement, the Earth disappeared from view at precisely the moment stated in their mission schedule.

They were all alone. So far so good. Borman gazed briefly out of the window into the blackness. Back home it would soon be Christmas Eve.

NASA had given them the greatest Christmas gift ever — a trip to the Moon. They were right alongside it now, but for the moment the lunar night rendered the surface almost invisible. He strained for a sign of the lunar horizon — the sunset terminator — hoping to cross-check the ship’s attitude.

“On that horizon, boy, I can’t see squat out there,” said Borman.

“You want us to turn off your lights to check it?” Anders asked.

Lovell saw it first. “Hey, I got the Moon.”

“Do you?” asked Anders.

“Right below us.”

“Oh my God!”

The response alarmed Borman. “What’s wrong?”

“Look at that!” Anders called in astonishment. He was just admiring the view.

Borman was still nervous. “Well, come on — let’s — what’s, what’s the…”

“69.06,” Lovell replied, knowing LOI ignition time remained Borman’s primary concern.

“Stand by, we’re all set,” Borman replied. “2:13, 2:12…”

Just over two minutes to LOI.

But moments later Anders and Lovell were at it again, unable to restrain themselves from gazing out the window like space tourists. Borman had to marvel that years of training and simulation had utterly failed to prepare them for the toe-curling awe of the real thing. For all of human history it had been but a thumbnail smudge in the sky — and boy oh boy look at it now. But he didn’t want to think about it just yet. There was too much to do before they could relax.

“All right, all right, come on. You’re going to look at that for a long time,” he told them.

A handful of seconds later they fired the engine to start the longest four minutes of their lives.

“Everything’s good over here so far,” Borman called.

“Everything is looking good,” Anders confirmed.

In the stress of the moment it felt like time was slowing down. They were performing a task requiring a high degree of accuracy using equipment that had never before been put to the test so far from Earth. Catastrophic system failure was always a distinct possibility and halfway through the burn the tension was palpable.

“Y’know, it seems like about three gees,” Anders remarked.

A problem emerged about three minutes in. Apollo’s onboard computer told them thrust was two percent below optimal. They would have to burn a little longer to compensate, but it would be OK.

Finally Borman heard himself call out: “Shutdown”.

They successfully shut down the SPS and Apollo 8 was in an elliptical lunar orbit that took them as close as 60 nautical miles above the surface.

From Earth, the Moon was a crescent in the sky. This meant most of the far side (forever invisible from humanity) was illuminated in sunlight. It was an important consideration for the astronauts when they disappeared from the Earth’s view. They wouldn’t be in the dark for long.

From here on, their focus could shift to the one thing everyone was dying to take a close look at. Borman set the ship to rotate at precisely the right pace to keep the windows permanently pointed at the lunar surface. This created a strange effect. Because they were weightless, the notion of up and down had become almost meaningless. Their minds naturally adopted the interior of the capsule as the only frame of reference. That meant they felt as if they were alongside the Moon rather than above it.

Anders and Lovell began to set up the Hasselblad cameras to record what they saw. The surface wasn’t completely foreign — it had been photographed by a Russian satellite and NASA had acquired the imagery from the signal transmitted by the commie Lunar Orbiter. Seeing it for real beat the hell out of a few hazy satellite images. And back on Earth their photographs would offer far higher resolution for the boffins to examine in detail.

Although Bormann had faith and confidence in both NASA and the brilliant minds who had designed and built their spacecraft, it was nevertheless a great relief the first time they saw the Earth come back into view.

The familiar voice of Jerry Carr filled their headsets.

“Apollo 8, Houston. Over.”

The slightly uncertain lilt in old Jerry’s tone gave little away to the casual listener but it told Borman capcom had been getting a tad anxious. No doubt he had been calling them for some time without a response. Lovell put him out of his misery. “Go ahead, Houston. This is Apollo 8. Burn complete. Our orbit is 169.1 by 60.5.”

“Apollo 8, this is Houston. Roger. 169.1 by 60.5.”

As the astronauts passed over the Moon’s more familiar face they began to search for places where future Apollo missions might land. There were plenty of options. The Sea of Tranquillity was a strong possibility. Its gentle undulation looked positively inviting compared to the messed-up havoc of the far side. The face of the Moon forever pointed toward outer space almost felt like its hidden shame; craters upon craters, much more densely packed than they were on the near side. It was the result of a far greater frequency of impact from the relentless hailstorm of ice and rock from the asteroid belt and beyond battering its surface. The Moon’s near side was protected because it permanently faced the Earth due to the gravitational interaction known as tidal locking.

For Lovell and Anders, the job of photographing the Moon’s surface was proving tricky, owing to a fog of condensation that had built up on the main windows. This only left them with two small rendezvous windows, which had never been intended for photography.

Setting up the cameras and performing further spacecraft manoeuvres (including a second brief LOI burn to set them at an orbit with a low altitude of 70 miles) consumed much of their first three lunar orbits. They were on the fourth lap when they noticed Earthrise for the first time. It was breathtaking. Frantically, they snapped images of a lonely and fragile blue planet against a screen of dark infinity.

Borman was exhausted and knew he was going to have to rest. He decided to nap for two orbits. The others were too excited. They kept on working. Anders began taking a series of stereo photographs of the surface. Borman woke occasionally to speak to the others about how they were progressing. He began to realise his crew were making mistakes. They’d been awake 18 straight hours and were so tired they were no longer hearing each other properly. In a few more hours they’d have to perform a TEI — the trans-Earth injection rocket burn to escape the Moon’s orbit and begin their journey home. There was no way Borman could risk having a punch-drunk crew for that. He scrubbed all further scheduled experiments and ordered them to get some rest.

For the next two orbits, as they moved in and out of sleep, Borman found moments on the far side when he felt utterly alone in the universe. He snatched some time to gaze out the window, hopeful now for a glimpse of something they’d been warned they might see — something they’d agreed not to mention aloud because their every word was being recorded on the ship’s data storage equipment.

Shortly after LOS on orbit seven, the main window began to defog. The cameras were still rolling through the rendezvous windows, which meant they wouldn’t record what he now saw. They were still in lunar night. Yet beyond all reason and explanation he saw it, no mistake — a blinding light beaming up at him from the surface.

When Lovell and Anders awoke, he flicked them a pre-arranged hand gesture to indicate he’d had contact. It was all he had time for. They were on their eighth orbit, and the world was waiting. Shortly after regaining contact with Mission Control, Borman conducted a Christmas TV broadcast — ending it some 22 minutes later with a Bible reading by all three astronauts.

The reading was Borman’s idea. As a committed man of faith, he’d wanted to say something that would stay with people for a very long time. Bill Anders started the ball rolling. “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you…

“In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Lovell took over. “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. And let it divide the waters from the waters.’ And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

Borman closed it out. “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the Heavens be gathered together into one place. And let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. And God called the dry land Earth. And the gathering together of the waters called the seas. And God saw that it was good. And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.”

It was a fine way to sign off, an offer of praise and wonder from three spacemen. He hoped everyone hearing them back home would take the message to heart.

For the astronauts themselves, however, the best was yet to come. Shortly after LOS on their final transit across the far side they crowded around the window.

There it was again, piercing the darkness. Except this time it began to grow brighter.

Quickly, Borman fumbled with a pocket on his spacesuit and pulled out a small leather case. He snapped it open and extracted a palm-sized Minox camera. Feeling more like Maxwell Smart than James Bond, he began snapping away at what they were seeing.

The Minox wasn’t the best camera for the job, but it was the only option for working outside the flight plan. This was a part of their mission NASA knew nothing about. Air Force intelligence had seen fit to explain it only to the Apollo program astronauts, and even then only in individual briefings. They had been sworn to secrecy as the information was highly classified, and because they were military men they did as they were told. They were ordered never to talk about it to anyone, not even to each other. This had resulted in some very stilted conversations in their final moments alone together back on Earth — just enough to confirm they were all in on the conspiracy.

The light rapidly began to grow larger and larger, which indicated it was moving at incredible speed away from the Moon and straight toward them. It stopped just a few metres away from their spacecraft, at which point the command module experienced a short, sharp jolt. The astronauts exchanged alarmed glances, but remained silent.

A saucer-shaped light the size of a house was stationary alongside Apollo 8, matching their speed and trajectory perfectly. It was way too close for comfort, but Borman didn’t have time to worry. A few seconds later the object shot off into space. He stared down for a moment at the tiny camera in his hands, knowing he would never see the photographs he had just taken. He shoved the Minox back in its case and zipped it into his pocket. No time to reflect. They had to prepare for the TEI.

About half an hour later, as Houston reacquired telemetry, the spacecraft’s signal confirmed the trans-Earth injection burn had been a success. At 89 hours and 34 minutes into the mission, astronaut Ken Mattingly was capcom in Houston, trying to re-establish radio contact.

“Apollo 8, Houston.”

“Houston, Apollo 8, over,” Lovell responded.

“Hello Apollo 8, loud and clear,” chirped Mattingly.

“Roger. Please be informed there is a Santa Claus,” Lovell informed his fellow astronaut.

“That’s affirmative,” Mattingly answered. “You’re the best ones to know.”

* * *

At 4.51am local time on December 27, Apollo 8 careened into the warm waters of the Pacific like a ton of bricks, splashing down in utter darkness.

Borman had been standing by to cut the parachutes free at the moment of impact, but the force and surprise of their splashdown left him momentarily stunned. He was immediately doused with water, although from where it came he had no clue. He shook off his stupor and moved to jettison the chutes. But he wasn’t quick enough and the capsule flipped, leaving the astronauts hanging precariously upside down. Trash that had been stashed under their seats now rained down over them like a tickertape parade of crap.

“One more great moment in manned space flight,” Lovell muttered to no-one in particular.

Borman finally ditched the chutes and flicked the switch to inflate the balloons stored in the nose of the capsule, which were designed to keep them the right way up. The downpour of crud and dust sent him into a momentary coughing fit. It felt rather like he had just crashed the family wagon. They were around 220 nautical miles north-west of Kiribati and a long way south of Hawaii in what could poetically be described as the goddam middle of nowhere.

Thankfully it was only a few minutes before the world righted itself as the inflatables deployed.

The sea was rough that morning. They bobbed around like a cork in a bathtub and it didn’t take long for Borman to get seasick. It would be another 45 minutes before the US Navy recovery crew came knocking on the door. As previously agreed, they waited for dawn to break before beginning the retrieval operation. The Navy didn’t want to drop divers into pitch black water in case of sharks.

Borman spent much of the waiting time hurling his guts up. With splashdown his command had technically ended, meaning the other two, especially Lovell the Navy man, felt free to rib him mercilessly.

“I suppose this would feel pretty rough to a West Point ground pounder,” said Lovell. “I’ll say this for you Frank, you’re nothing if not consistent. Finish as you start out, eh?”

Up to this moment, Lovell had been quite restrained about the fact that his commander had suffered a good dose of the vomits for much of their journey to the Moon.

“Boy oh boy, we’re really bouncing around now,” said Borman, grimacing. He didn’t really care too much about the jokes, he was just happy to be home. They were alive and for that he was eternally grateful.

A day or two before lift-off, the head of flight crew operations Deke Slayton had told him privately he rated their chance of coming home alive at about 50-50. It sure seemed as though they had flipped that coin and won. He’d take a pain in the guts over Deke’s other option any day of the year.

With the light of dawn finally shining through their window, a shimmering black monster emerged from the deep to pull open the capsule door. A strangely foreign smell immediately filled the cabin and Borman smiled as he realised it was the taste of fresh air.

They had been locked in a tin can for six days.

The Navy Seal frogman pulled the mask from his face to greet them, although his expression was not exactly one of welcome.

“Everything all right, son?” Borman asked him.

“Yes sir, everything’s fine,” he replied. “Welcome back sir,” he added hurriedly.

Borman guessed they must be a sorry sight. Unshaved, unwashed.

A change of outfit awaited them in the Navy’s recovery chopper. Like men possessed, they ditched their flight suits and stripped nearly naked with a delirious eagerness. Never had clean clothes felt so good. White shirts adorned with the mission logo, white pants and aviator sunglasses. They felt human again.

Borman tried to be as casual as possible as he removed the Minox from his flight suit and slipped it into his trouser pocket. He knew the Seals would ask no questions.

In no time at all they found themselves on the deck of USS Yorktown amid a football crowd of faces — hundreds, maybe thousands of sailors dressed neatly in white and gathered across the ship at every available vantage point to catch a glimpse of the astronauts’ arrival. They watched through the window, amazed at the size of the assembled crowd. As the blades of the helicopter gradually ground to a halt, two sailors placed a set of stairs alongside the hatch for their descent to the deck.

“Those stairs must be for you, commander,” Lovell said, grinning.

“You better believe it,” Borman told him. “I have no intention of falling flat on my face with the eyes of the world upon us.”

NASA splashdown technician Eugene Geyer was the first up the stairs to greet them.

“Welcome home,” he called, holding his hand out to Borman and immediately losing his footing at the top of the stairs. Luckily Borman still had hold of his hand and kept him from falling back down to the deck. The poor man retreated quickly, partly out of embarrassment but also to clear the way for the astronauts to exit.

Borman turned quickly to the other two. “Let’s not follow in Eugene’s footsteps. Tread slowly and carefully. We’re all going to be a bit shaky on the pins.”

They stood together for some time at the top of the stairs, waving at the crew of the Yorktown. The sailors cheered and waved back. It was a welcome for heroes. Borman guessed that’s what they were, although until this moment it hadn’t occurred to him. He descended slowly to the deck of the ship. Anders stumbled at the top of the stairway but corrected himself by grabbing the hand rail. Nobody else seemed to notice.

A red carpet awaited them on the carrier flight deck. Borman felt slightly unsteady on his feet, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as when he and Lovell returned from their 14-day Gemini VII mission. That time he had struggled to stay upright.

“How’s those sea legs?” Lovell asked him. Borman just smiled, the cheers of the Yorktown crew so loud he could feel them in his chest. He was filled with a sudden sense of euphoria. They had done it. The greatest undertaking of his life and it had come off virtually without a hitch. He had never felt more proud.

At the end of the short red carpet, the Yorktown’s commanding officer Captain John Fifield waited for them alongside a microphone.

“Permission to come aboard, sir,” said Borman.

Captain Fifield smiled and shook their hands one by one before stepping up to the microphone. Their arrival was being broadcast live across the world.

Fifield gazed up as he spoke to the crew of the Yorktown. “On behalf of the entire Yorktown crew, a most hearty welcome aboard and congratulations on a tremendously successful flight. Colonel Borman, would you care to say a few words to the crew?”

Borman stepped forward. “Yes sir, thank you. Well, we’re just very happy to be here and we appreciate all of your efforts and I know you had to stay out here over Christmas and that made it tough. Jim and I always seem to fly in December. We made it home before Christmas in ’65.

“But we can’t tell you how much we really appreciate you being here and how proud it is for us to participate in this event because thousands of people made this possible and I guess we’re all just part of the group. Thank you very much.”

Captain Fifield handed them Yorktown caps which they happily donned, stopping to pose for pictures on the flight deck. Borman was dead tired, but he was keen to appear as amenable as possible to the folks on the Yorktown, knowing NASA would be reliant upon the Navy’s cooperation for many years to come.

“Now gentlemen, if you’ll just follow me, we’ll get you out of the glare,” said Fifield.

The Captain calmly directed them toward the nearest hatch, a path to it appearing as the crowd dutifully parted to let them pass. The ship’s interior was much darker as they left the glare of daylight. Borman’s eyes adjusted in time for him to register the ladder they now needed to negotiate. Fifield nimbly led the way. Lovell went next, then Anders. Borman brought up the rear, taking each step slowly, double-checking his footing was secure before moving down to the next rung.

At the bottom, Fifield led them along a narrow gangway. “Now I know you’ll want to shower and clean up,” he said, “but we figured after six days of sucking on tubes for sustenance a hearty breakfast might be top of your list.”

Lovell and Anders smiled. “Now you’re talking,” Anders told him.

“Don’t worry Frank, we’ll eat for you,” Lovell jibed. “The Colonel is still finding his sea legs,” Lovell told Fifield quietly, with more relish than Borman might have liked.

“Don’t worry about me, I could eat the leg off a horse,” Borman assured him.

Fifield stopped outside a hatch marked Officers Mess.

“We’ve factored in a bit of down time for you. Breakfast’s ready and waiting. The room’s all clear, so you can just relax and take it easy for a spell,” Fifield told them.

The astronauts saluted the Captain, who enthusiastically returned the honour.

“It’s a pleasure to have you aboard,” he told them.

“Thanks, Captain,” Borman replied wearily. “Care to join us?”

Fifield seemed to consider the possibility for a moment but finally shook his head. “I’ll buy you all a drink tonight. Another esteemed Navy man will be joining you as soon as you’ve had something to eat. Thank you, gentlemen.”

A veritable smorgasbord awaited them — a pyramid of fried eggs, their body weight in bacon, hash browned potatoes, cereal, fresh bananas and apples, and a large bowl of fruit salad. Tea, coffee and juices were lined at the far end of the buffet next to the plates and cups.

“What, no champagne?” said Anders.

“God, I hope that coffee’s strong,” Lovell sighed.

“Pour me one of those, would you Jim?” Borman asked as he grabbed a plate and began gathering food.

Anders snatched a piece of bacon and shoved it in his mouth. “Mmm-hmm, that’s good. I don’t think anything’s ever tasted better.”

“Don’t get too carried away,” Lovell warned. “You’ll be throwing up in half an hour if you overeat — after what we’ve been surviving on for the past six days.”

The voice of experience. With Gemini VII and Gemini XII already under his belt, Lovell had now logged more hours in space than any man alive. He knew all too well about the fall back to Earth.

They’d been fortunate on the return flight from the Moon. Deke had packed them a Christmas turkey dinner. Not exactly how Mum would make it, but a whole lot better than anything else NASA had to offer them. Borman had drawn the line at Deke’s little bottles of brandy. He had never been much of a drinker and cocktails in deep space was never going to be an option. The brandy had remained safely locked away inside the capsule, which by now should be on its way to the cargo hold of the Yorktown.

“How’s about that re-entry?” Anders remarked. “It was like being inside a furnace.”

“Yeah, it’s one heck of a flaming crescendo,” Lovell agreed. “Talk about ending with a bang.”

“I’m always mighty relieved to see those main chutes opening,” said Borman.

“Except we couldn’t see them in the dark,” said Anders.

“But we knew they were there, right Frank?” said Lovell. He was talking about their ignominious splashdown.

Borman grinned. “We sure did.”

“I hope I get to go back up there,” said Lovell.

“I’ll put in a good word,” said Borman. “What about you, Bill? Keen to try again?”

“Well, I’ve gotta say we made it look easy. Considering we were flying without a net.”

Anders meant the absence of a lunar module. The LM’s construction had been delayed. Because it was a separate spacecraft, the plan had always been to use it as a life raft if anything went wrong with the command module.

But with only a year to go before the end of Kennedy’s deadline to land on the Moon, NASA had decided not to wait for the LM to be ready. So Apollo 8 flew solo. Everyone agreed it was worth the risk.

“Ask me again when I’ve slept for a few days,” said Anders.

Borman was thankful at that moment they didn’t query his future intentions. He might have been forced to think long and hard about how to respond, despite the promise he’d made to his wife. His boys might see it differently. Teenagers had no fear of death, although it would be fair to say they might have a more sober take on their old man’s grip on mortality.

He had already put Susan through so much. He couldn’t wait to see her again, to share her happiness at his safe return. She would be so relieved. He couldn’t take that away. He needed to stand by his assurance to her that enough was truly enough.

But Deke had almost offered it on a platter. Won’t you regret it, Frank? He offered you the Moon, said you of all people deserved to be the first. And you said no.

Food piled moderately high on their plates, they ate in raptured silence, each man calmly reflecting on their achievements. Each, in his own way, thanking God they had made it home alive.

A proud-looking man of mature years with a face rather like a wrinkled prune entered the Officers Mess looking at once like he didn’t belong. The absence of a uniform told them he was a civilian. Late 60s, thin, educated by the look of him. He could have been a general or an admiral, but by the crumpled and oversized cut of his well-worn suit they could tell he was no serving military man.

Their visitor closed the hatch slowly and carefully before turning to face them. The expression that greeted them could only be described as one of steely determination. He held a stack of documents under one arm.

“I assume from the looks on your faces nobody told you I was coming,” the man realised. He had a definite air of authority.

“No sir, no-one said a word,” Borman replied.

“Hey, I know you!” Lovell realised. “You’re Dr Menzel, the astrophysicist.”

“Yes, that’s right,” said Menzel, clearly pleased his reputation had preceded him. He held out his hand to Lovell, who rose to his feet to shake it. “Dr Donald Menzel. An honour to make your acquaintance, Captain Lovell.” Menzel greeted Anders and Borman in turn, his grip firm, his focus unwavering as he stared confidently into their eyes. “An honour to meet you all.”

Borman said nothing. He had no idea what Menzel was doing here, but instinct told him surprises right now were unlikely to be a good thing.

* * *

“I hope you don’t mind the intrusion — well not too much, anyway,” said Menzel, chuckling to himself. “But, you see, Captain Fifield has kindly allowed us some time to speak in private ahead of your next round of public interviews and glad-handing.”

“That’s not why you’re here then?” Anders quipped.

Lovell tried and failed to stifle a laugh. Menzel showed no obvious sign of taking the remark as a slight, although Borman couldn’t help thinking in this instance appearances might be deceptive. Proud men usually struggled with self-deprecation in his experience.

“I’m an intruder, I know. Sit down, please, you must all be exhausted. I won’t take up too much of your time. That is, none more than necessary.”

“Exhausted would be putting it mildly,” Borman admitted.

“I have a few important matters to discuss with the three of you. Matters, I’m afraid, which must not be delayed.”

Menzel carefully placed his papers down upon the table nearest to the astronauts as they finished up the last of their breakfast. He pulled off his black suit coat and draped it over the chair beside him like he was settling in for a long visit.

Anders wasn’t about to let any man keep him from his food. He shoved half a fried egg into his mouth and began chewing rapidly, then washed it down with a slug of coffee.

“Sounds ominous,” Lovell suggested, perhaps reading an undercurrent in Menzel’s tone.

“Not at all, not at all,” the scientist insisted. “But please, you’ve got to tell me — what was it like to gaze down upon the Moon from up close?”

It was the first of many times today the question would be asked of them. Borman figured it might be a good idea to get their lines straight now, behind closed doors, so the words sounded crisp when they were uttered in public.

“Like a massive beach covered in dirty sand. A great big, dirty beach,” Anders offered.

“The biggest expanse of nothing you could ever imagine,” said Borman. “A vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing.”

“It looks like plaster of Paris,” said Lovell. “Parts of it — the far side especially — were like some sort of ancient war zone. Craters layered upon craters. Billions of years of bombardment have torn the surface to shreds, yet it was incredibly beautiful. It was a privilege to be the first men out there. But at the same time…”

“We felt awful small floating around out there in our little tin can,” said Borman, finishing Lovell’s sentence.

“No doubt, no doubt,” said Menzel. “I think it’s remarkable that you men were willing to put your lives on the line like that.”

“That’s why we train hard — to minimise the risks,” said Borman.

“On the other hand, nothing gets done in this world without taking a few chances,” said Anders. “But, you know, to me the most remarkable thing we saw out there was the Earth. We went all that way to discover the Moon, and in the end what we really discovered was the Earth. You wait until you see the photos I took, they’ll knock your socks off.”

“Photos. Yes. I look forward to that,” said Menzel.

“Nothing will ever be the same,” said Anders. “I feel as if what we’ve achieved will make me question everything from now on. It makes me think mankind can do anything we set our minds to.”

The others didn’t quite know how to respond to Anders’ declaration, although it seemed a suitably grand summation of their endeavours. They had beaten the Soviets to the Moon. They had taken a great leap toward their ultimate destination and their experience and success would mean in a few short months their fellow astronauts, perhaps even one of them, would go all the way to the lunar surface, meeting the deadline President Kennedy had set all those years ago.

“So what can we do for you, doctor?” Lovell asked Menzel.

“Right. Yes.” Menzel sat himself down and opened the topmost folder in his stack of material.

“I have come to give you an early heads-up on a report that is about to be handed to the Air Force. It concerns two of you directly in that it examines an incident that occurred during your journey on Gemini VII.”

“The bogey,” said Borman, nodding his head.

“This would be the Condon committee report,” said Lovell.

“Precisely, Captain Lovell. I have the advance copy of the committee’s findings with me. It hasn’t been formally handed over just yet and it certainly hasn’t been made public. But when it does, it is going to get a lot of attention. Suffice to say, it will shift the ground significantly in relation to the way the Government and the military deal with the topic of UFOs.”

“A shift you say?” asked Anders, eyebrow raised.

Borman and Lovell exchanged a knowing glance.

Lovell shuffled forward in his seat. “Are you telling us the Condon report is going to acknowledge the presence of visitors from outer space?”

Menzel sniffed at the astronaut’s choice of words. “Actually, I mean precisely the opposite. The Condon committee will conclude unequivocally that there is no evidence of anything non-terrestrial or unexplainable in any so-called UFO sighting thus far recorded.

“We, that is, they will be recommending to the Air Force that it should give up its official investigation known as Project Blue Book, that there is no advance in science to be gained from such an investigation and that there almost surely never will be.”

Lovell sat back in his chair. “But what about what Frank and I saw up there? That was no rocket booster, I’ll tell you that right now. It was not space debris. I don’t know what it was, but…”

Menzel held up his hand. “Captain, please. I mean you no disrespect. I hold every one of you in great esteem. I know you are brave men of science and exploration. Don’t misunderstand me. I think it is very possible that intelligent life, perhaps more intelligent than we are, may exist somewhere in the vast reaches of outer space. But it is the vastness of space that complicates this issue. The distances are almost inconceivable. It took you, what, three days to travel from here to the Moon? And you covered that distance at thousands of miles per hour. Do you have any idea of the distance between us and the nearest star around which there might be orbiting a planet with just the right conditions to support life? What you saw up there while you were orbiting the Earth was a military satellite. A top secret satellite whose position is unknown to civilian authorities lacking the proper clearance.”

Lovell turned to Borman and then looked back at Menzel. “Under whose authority are you here today, Dr Menzel? Because I’m not exactly sure you have the military clearance for us to be speaking to you about these matters — no disrespect.”

“Mr Lovell, it might surprise you to learn that I have Navy Top Secret Ultra clearance. How do you think I came to be here today? You must hold nothing back.”

“So the Condon committee report aims to discredit all the anomalous sightings and even the most credible of eyewitness accounts?” queried Anders. “Because let me tell you, there have been more than a few I’ve heard that are enough to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.”

“Gordo Cooper’s sighting springs to mind,” said Lovell. “Surely you’ve heard of it, Dr Menzel — at Edwards Air Force base back in ’57.”

Menzel nodded. “I’m familiar with it, yes. There is a perfectly rational explanation for that sighting. For reasons of national security, it was not on the Condon committee’s list for examination.”

Lovell was incredulous. “They ignored it?”

“Nobody’s ignoring anything. They didn’t need to see it. See, you have to understand something, gentlemen.” Menzel’s tone was colder than steel. “When this report is handed down, the scientific community will be as one in its view on this topic. In a nutshell: you cannot be a scientist and believe in UFOs.”

The astronauts looked warily at one another, each thinking the same thing. What they had seen on the far side of the Moon could not be blithely dismissed as space junk or a rogue military satellite. The object that appeared just metres from their window dramatically changed speed in order to match the velocity of Apollo 8: it was no random act. They watched it disappear into outer space at something approaching the speed of light.

“Let me tell you something,” Anders began.

Borman held up his hand to stop him. “That’s enough, Bill.”

Anders opened his mouth to object but read the look in his commander’s eyes and closed it again.

“I’m telling you this,” said Menzel, “because I know there has been a lot of chatter inside the astronaut program about the things you’ve seen, or should I say the things you think you’ve seen.”

“Chatter?” spat Lovell.

“Let me make myself perfectly clear. I am making it my mission to tear down any semblance of credibility this lurid topic has gained from the interest and input of high-profile people such as yourselves. If that means destroying a few reputations, then so be it.

“But it is my sincere hope that matters do not need to be taken to the extreme. What I’m saying to you — and I really want you to hear this — is that you need to be on the right side of this argument, because the fight is over. If not, you risk embarrassing yourselves and, more critically, undermining the space program. And that, gentlemen, is simply not acceptable.”

Menzel stood up as if to punctuate his statement. For a moment, Borman thought he was preparing to leave, but Menzel was a long way from done. He merely walked slowly toward the breakfast buffet and poured himself a cup of coffee.

“If there’s one thing you can rely upon in life, it’s that the US Navy knows how to make a good, strong cup of joe,” he said to no-one in particular. The astrophysicist carefully measured three teaspoons of powdered milk into his steaming java.

“I overheard something while we were out there on deck awaiting your arrival. You’ll like this. Time magazine is going to declare the three of you the Men of the Year for 1968. Very well deserved, may I add.”

“They’ll be expecting us back out there soon,” said Anders.

“The NASA boffins will want to debrief and we’ll need to take a look at the capsule,” Borman added.

“Oh you don’t need to worry about any of that just yet. We’ve got plenty of time. Hours, in fact.”

“I have to say I’m disappointed by the Condon committee’s decision,” said Lovell.

“I wish I could say I was surprised, but it is a let down. I did hold out some hope that men of science might want to approach this topic with a genuinely open mind.”

“Sounds to me like the fix was in from day one,” said Anders.

Menzel was unmoved. “I understand you are all men of God. Men of science too, although many might argue those two viewpoints will never be reconciled.”

“A little bit like relativity and quantum mechanics?” Anders returned.

“I will admit the committee did not come to this task with an open mind.”

“There you go,” said Lovell.

“But that’s only because the men involved had already seen enough to know there is nothing to be gained from a scientific point of view in chasing these shadows. The Air Force knows it too. The Government never agrees to these sorts of inquiries unless the outcome is known to everyone from the start. The Condon report is a means to a political end. It is designed to draw a clear line in the sand. The Government needed the weight of science to back up its position.”

“That sounds a little bit like the Spanish inquisition to me,” said Lovell.

“The Air Force is keen to discredit all efforts at serious inquiry in this area,” said Menzel. “It is worried about aligning itself with crazies and pot-smoking weirdos. When these findings go public, I can assure you nobody in their right minds will be speaking out against the Air Force’s position on the matter.

“The Condon committee is unequivocal in its finding. Denial and ridicule are the order of the day. From here on in, it will be career suicide to speak out in favour of little green men. You’ll find it will catch on quickly in the popular media and every level of officialdom you care to name.”

Menzel put the coffee to his lips and sipped at it like it was 10-year-old whiskey. “Scientists know where their bread is buttered,” he told them with quiet certainty. “Inside two months there won’t be a credible research institution in the country willing to touch this topic.”

Anders stared him down. “I remember you now. You’ve been debunking this stuff for years.”

“With a passionate fervour,” Menzel told him. “I abhor ignorance and superstition. And that’s all this is — a modern version of ghosts, hobgoblins and the devil.”

Borman bristled at mention of the devil, but once more restrained himself.

“If we truly have visitors from outer space buzzing through our skies,” Menzel continued, “why haven’t they presented themselves to the President? To Congress? Or to anyone from the National Academy of Sciences?”

Anders scoffed. “They haven’t come seeking you out personally — is that your problem?”

“I know what’s going through your minds,” said Menzel. “That the ‘bogeys’ you’ve seen were not flying randomly or haphazardly, they were under intelligent control. But this too is easy to explain. Intelligent control comes from within. It is nothing more than your mind conquering your perception of matter. Aviators flying through clouds often see a peculiar reflection that appears to be metallic. And sometimes if they elect to chase it, the object will seem to take evasive action. But this is nothing more than the reflection of light from ice crystals in those clouds. There is a long list of mundane objects that are often reported as UFOs. Things like birds, kites, seed pods. Or weather balloons.”

“There are no seed pods and weather balloons in space,” said Borman.

“Ah Colonel, you join us at last,” Menzel goaded. “No, you’re right, there aren’t. I merely cite some of the more common examples of objects mistaken as unidentified flying objects.”

“We are all men of science here, Dr Menzel,” said Anders. “As such, I’d very much like to hear how you feel about the fundamental principles of independent inquiry being cast adrift here.”

Menzel shrugged. “I don’t accept your premise. Nothing has been undermined. The Condon committee has carried out an exhaustive and comprehensive analysis of the data and intelligence presented to them.”

“But they didn’t examine the photos Gordon Cooper’s film crew took of the craft that landed in front of them at Edwards,” countered Lovell.

Cooper was one of the original Mercury seven astronauts. About two years before he was selected for the space program, he was one of an elite band of test pilots based at Edwards Air Force Base in California. They were in charge of several advanced projects. He was working with a professional film crew when an unidentified saucer-shaped craft landed almost on top of them. Cooper said the camera crew had time to film the saucer as it flew overhead, then hovered, extended three legs and slowly landed on the dry lake bed. His cameramen ran toward the saucer and got to less than 30 yards away.

Amongst friends and after a few drinks, Gordo talked about it incessantly. In his words it was a classic saucer — shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet across. He was adamant it was an alien spacecraft. He sent the film to Washington before it was even developed. It vanished, like the saucer itself, and Cooper never heard another word about it.

“There was no point in presenting Cooper’s evidence to the committee,” said Menzel. “because we already knew what that was.”

Lovell smiled knowingly. “Care to enlighten us?”

“I can’t say too much, Captain, because the matter is highly classified. But I think you’ve earned the right to know that the ship Cooper saw was one of ours.”

Lovell couldn’t believe his ears. “One of… I… you mean it was American?”

“Why do you think it landed at Edward Air Force Base?”

“Good God,” Borman exclaimed. “You mean we have aircraft like that and the Air Force test pilots program doesn’t even know about it?”

“Experimental aircraft, yes,” said Menzel. “Conceptual design, and a rather intemperate propulsion system if I’m to be brutally honest. I am a consultant to Lockheed Martin and there are many things going on out there in the desert that no more than a handful of men in the Department of Defence are aware of. The intelligence is highly compartmentalised.”

“Are these experimental flying saucers of yours capable of space flight?” Lovell inquired.

“No, Captain, of course not. I can assure you that the Apollo program is operating at the cutting edge of our space flight capability.”

“I’m really not sure what to say about all this,” said Anders.

“Say nothing,” said Borman. “Dr Menzel, I’m afraid I must insist we draw a line under this for now. We’re dead on our feet.”

“Of course. I understand. But I think you’ll agree that our conversation’s not quite over.”

Borman’s head tilted slightly. “Right now, Doctor Menzel, I’m struggling to keep my eyes open. But do me a favour, will you?”

“Name it, Colonel.”

“Leave me your copy of that report. I’d very much like to take a look at it when I wake up.”

For a moment Borman thought Menzel might refuse, but the scientist held out the report. “By all means. I’ll need it back, but take all the time you need.”

A ship’s steward was dutifully standing guard outside the Mess. He directed them along a series of narrow corridors to their sleeping quarters. They were grander than Borman had expected. The suite of rooms began with a large conference space where a table for at least a dozen people occupied only about half the chamber. From a door at the rear of the conference room they entered a separate lounge, off which there were a series of bedrooms. Each of them would have a room to himself. There was even a private bathroom at the rear of the suite.

Captain Fifield joined them as they squared themselves away. “I think you’ll be comfortable here,” he said. “This suite was designed to accommodate an admiral and his aides.”

Borman smiled in appreciation. “After what we’ve been used to, this is a palace.”

“Get some sleep. We’ve organised a dinner in your honour for tonight. But that’s hours away. Until then, make yourselves at home.”

Once more, Fifield made a rapid exit, making sure to usher their steward out ahead of him lest the sailor started having other ideas.

“We’ve got to tell Menzel what we saw out there,” Lovell told Borman quietly.

“Do you really think it’ll make a blind bit of difference?” Anders asked.

Borman held up his hands in surrender. “I can’t do this right now. I’d really like to stop smelling like a sweaty boot someone threw up in. I need a shower and some rest. We all do.”

Captain Fifield found Dr Menzel waiting for him in the corridor just outside the astronauts’ suite.

“Something else I can do for you, doctor?”

“No, no, you’ve been most accommodating, Captain Fifield. I just wanted to inform you that I will be in my quarters for the next couple of hours and do not wish to be disturbed.”

Fifield paused before responding, apparently seeking to choose his words carefully. “Thank you for letting me know. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

Alone in the claustrophobic cell the Yorktown reserved for visiting officers — and confident he would not be interrupted — Dr Menzel began preparations for a quick side trip. He planned to be away from the ship and back again before the astronauts arose and before anyone else realised he had gone.

The Yorktown was cruising in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The nearest island was several hundred miles away, yet it was but one small step to Donald Menzel’s next destination. In taking that step, he would, in all likelihood, no longer be at sea. From his frame of reference, the journey would be unremarkable. Mundane. Like stepping through a doorway — for that was precisely what he would be doing.

He removed the small Hub device from his coat pocket and stared at it. The multi-dimensional transporter never ceased to amaze him. The power it placed at his disposal meant his single step became a very bold leap indeed. He twisted a small dial on the face of the unit to point directly at a small red light now flashing midway along its row of indicators. This activated the wormhole. A bubble of space-time now rippled around him like a sphere-shaped gateway. He took a single step to pierce the sphere and, in so doing, was transported across the vortex that connected him to his pre-determined destination. He was folding space, just as Einstein had postulated. Actually he was doing much more than that, but Menzel took a certain comfort in maintaining a stubborn finger hold on the fundamentals of relativity.

As surely as if he was walking through the exterior door of a building, the world around him changed immediately. The walls, ceiling and floor of the chamber in which he now stood were solid concrete. The large room was cool and, from the smell of the air, mechanically ventilated. He had no idea of his physical location, but figured it to be somewhere deep underground.

There was a very neat and precisely ordered lab set up in one corner of the chamber. Transistors, wires and diodes were stacked in colour-coded arrays and clearly designated work areas. In another corner, he noticed what appeared to be a small open-plan apartment: a couch and two single seater chairs faced one another across a plush and decorative Persian rug, the seating area lit by a standing lamp and the entire scene looking rather like a stage set. Behind this makeshift lounge room, against the wall of the chamber, was a kitchen bench and a refrigerator.

Positioned in his line of sight, right between the lab and the lounge, two men were waiting for him. Neither was shocked at his sudden materialisation. There was, after all, nothing miraculous about it when the science was laid bare.

He immediately recognised one of the men. Father Clarence Paulson walked forward and held out his hand. “Good to see you again, Donald.”

Menzel shook Paulson’s hand. “Father.”

A Catholic priest would never have been Menzel’s first choice for a role such as this. Admittedly, he didn’t rate priests as having any useful purpose, yet he had been forced to accept Paulson’s pivotal role in many of his most clandestine endeavours. He headed an unacknowledged research group known as the Verus Foundation. It was tasked with collating all of the world’s greatest secrets and recording them for the purposes of humanity’s betterment.

It was a noble task, one Menzel himself approved of — an official record of all human and non-human endeavour sensitive enough to be classed as Beyond Top Secret. Outside Verus, this knowledge was often held by no more than a handful of people. Without Verus, there was a risk that some or all of this knowledge might one day be forgotten or misplaced, thus becoming lost forever to humanity. Verus took this task seriously, knowing its records may likewise remain secret for decades, perhaps even hundreds of years, but that ultimately all of humanity would benefit.

Part of the reason the foundation was trusted for the task was that Clarence Paulson was a man who held himself beyond external influence. He didn’t even have to answer to the Pope. Paulson worshipped only at the Tree of Knowledge.

“I’d like you to meet David Donovan,” said Paulson. “He’s our man in Washington.”

“A pleasure, David.” Menzel held his hand out to the other man. “A war hero, I’m led to believe.”

“Navy Lieutenant Commander, retired. Highly decorated,” said Paulson.

“Like father, like son,” Menzel replied.

Wild Bill Donovan was the colourful founder of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA. Some people called him the father of US intelligence. His son was not so much of a known quantity, although in the years before Wild Bill’s death in 1959, his mind slowly falling victim to the corrosion of dementia, he had insisted that David was the only person he trusted to replace him at the Verus Foundation.

“An honour to meet a member of the original MJ-12,” said Donovan, shaking Menzel’s hand vigorously with a vice-like grip.

Menzel smiled half-heartedly. It always made him nervous to hear mention of Operation MAJESTIC-12, the top secret research and development group originally answerable only to President Harry S. Truman, now so highly classified that no president since Eisenhower had even been informed of its existence.

“I don’t usually speak about such things,” Menzel told him quietly.

“You can relax,” Paulson assured him. “We’re 30 feet underground and there’s four feet of concrete above your head. Nobody can hear a word.”

“That’s comforting… I think.”

Unless the room itself was bugged, although Menzel knew this would be highly unlikely. Paulson had succeeded in keeping all Verus operations very much under the radar.

“Father told me a lot about you,” said Donovan. “I think he was jealous as hell Truman never included him in your dozen.”

Menzel smiled again. “Your father was a fearless warrior for his country, you should be proud of him.” He looked away, once more examining his surroundings. “What is this place, a nuclear shelter?”

“Very good, doctor,” said Paulson. He held out an arm, urging Menzel toward the lounge. “Please, take a seat.”

“I assume this a Verus facility,” said Menzel.

“It’s our primary research station. I won’t trouble you with the location — need to know and all that,” said Paulson.

Menzel noted a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a 1940s vintage omnidirectional microphone standing on a coffee table between the chairs. Paulson clicked the machine’s dial to the record position and the tape wheels began to turn.

“For transcription purposes,” said Paulson. “So what can you tell us?”

“The crew of Apollo 8 are catching up on some sleep,” said Menzel.

“Have you finished your debriefing?” asked Donovan.

“Not to my satisfaction. They haven’t told me about their encounter. Borman is playing his cards close to his chest. He won’t let the others speak about what they saw.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Donovan suggested. “Are you confident they will keep their mouths shut?”

Menzel’s eyes widened. “Confident isn’t the word that springs to mind. I’ve delivered all of my best material as the sceptical man of science, but to be honest I just don’t think they’re buying it. They’ve seen too much. Right now they’re itching to talk, I can see it in their eyes. They were clearly blown away by what they saw. Who wouldn’t be? But both Anders and Lovell want to fly on future Apollo missions, which is the best leverage we have on them. Borman will be the key to that. The others trust him and look up to him. He and Lovell have a strong camaraderie from their time together in space.”

“I take it, then, you haven’t procured the photos,” said Donovan.

Menzel shook his head. “I haven’t asked Borman for the camera. And for security reasons I won’t do so while he’s in the company of the other two astronauts, although it might prove challenging to get him alone. But they’re at sea for more than a day before they arrive back in Hawaii. I’ll make it happen.”

“It’s all a bit exciting, isn’t it?” said Paulson.

“It’s delicate,” warned Donovan. “We still don’t know how far the Anunnaki are willing to go.”

“This is just a warning,” said Menzel. “A shot across the bow. They are merely playing the game. Let me remind you this has all taken place on the far side of the Moon — it’s not like they’ve landed on the White House lawn. They appear to be as keen to remain invisible as we are to keep their presence a secret.”

“An alien base on the far side of the Moon. One can only imagine the sort of blind panic the news would be greeted with,” mused Donovan.

“I’m not sure we can assume that to be inevitable,” said Menzel. “They have, after all, maintained a presence on Earth since before the time of Christ. However, there is much to be said for the precautionary principle. The Anunnaki know this. They’ve seen us at war with each other. They must understand the risk they face from open antagonism, for this is almost certain to be the response from any number of nations once they step out from behind the veil. Not every nation on Earth is as reasonable as the United States.”

“So what is the point of them coming out of hiding like this?” asked Paulson.

“Like I said, they’re warning us to leave them alone,” said Menzel.

“He’s right,” said Donovan. “They’re defending their territory. They’re telling us to stay away from the far side. They know we’re going to land on the surface of the Moon, they’re telling us to stay on our side of the fence. To stay out in the open.”

“But we would never consider landing on the far side,” Paulson pointed out.

“The Anunnaki play a long game,” said Donovan. “They’re not thinking about the Apollo moon landings, they’re thinking about 20 years, 50 years from now when we’re contemplating permanent lunar settlement. Those photographs of their fly-by, about which they notified the relevant authorities in advance, represent a political statement. For us, however, it is a unique opportunity to ensure the evidence doesn’t simply disappear.”

* * *

Borman stared out the window at the curvature of the Earth as it loomed large in the capsule window. “Oh, here we go. Hang on.”

“We should have nought point oh five gees,” said Lovell. Point oh five gee, roll to EMS.”

“Right. Okay, gang,” said Borman, priming them for re-entry.

“They’re building up,” Lovell told him.

“Call out the gees,” Borman yelled.

“We’re one gee. Ohhh! Five gees. Six. Four. She’s doing a great job,” Lovell replied.

“Cabin temperature is still holding real good,” said Anders. “Quite a ride, huh?”

“Damnedest thing I ever saw,” said Borman. “Gemini was never like that, was it Jim?”

“No, it was a little faster than this one.”

“I assure you I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Anders. But his face darkened as he stared back at the console. “Cabin temperature’s starting to spike. Looks like the primary evaporator has crapped out. Secondary’s not much better.”

“We’re back to two gees and falling,” said Lovell.

They were skipping back out into space. Their descent had been too shallow. They weren’t slowing down.

“The drogues,” Borman yelled, “get them out.”

Lovell looked at him like he was mad, but he flicked the switch.

“Nothing. They’re not firing. Repeat. Not. Firing.”

“We’ve got to abort. Abort. Abort. Eject.”

“Frank, we can’t eject. We’re still in space.”

“Abort. ABORT,” Borman screamed. “Pull up. Pull up Elliot. Get your nose up. You’re gonna hit the roof. For God’s sake man, pull up. Too late. Eject! Eject!”

“Fire!” yelled Lovell. “We have a fire.”

“Eject. Houston, can you hear me? Houston?”

Borman sat bolt upright on his bunk. He was sweating. It took him the best part of a minute to work out where he was. For most of that time he was trying to work out who had rescued him from the capsule and how he came to be here. Finally it dawned on him he had been having a nightmare.

They were back safe. All accounted for. No mistakes, no mishaps.

No deaths.

This time.

The room was dark. He vaguely recalled a lamp on his bedside table, reached over and turned it on. He could feel the thrum of the Yorktown’s massive propellers vibrating through the ship’s hull. It was good to be back on Earth.

Since he joined the space program in 1962, eight of his fellow astronauts had been killed. Ted Freeman was the first. Crashed his T-38 jet trainer in 1964 when a goose flew into the jet’s port side air intake and caused instant engine failure on final approach to Ellington Air Force Base in Houston.

Elliot See and Charlie Bassett died together in their T-38 in February ’66. Pilot error was blamed for their crash. They’d been the primary crew on Gemini IX and they almost took the whole space program with them when they died. Elliot came out of cloud too low and too fast on approach to the McDonnell plant in Missouri. He continued his approach and decided way too late to abort the landing. They clipped the roof of McDonnell Building 101 where the Gemini IX and X were still under construction. A few more feet and he’d have taken out both spacecraft along with hundreds of the McDonnell experts who were building them. They found Charlie Bassett’s severed head jammed into the rafters.

A year later, February 21, 1967, came the tragedy nobody in the space program, least of all Borman himself, would ever forget — the Apollo 1 fire. Three brave men died that day: Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Their rocket never left the ground.

Sometimes, late at night, Borman awoke with the sound of their screams ringing through his head.

They weren’t the last to die. In June ’67, Ed Givens was killed in a car crash. He’d been support crew for Apollo 7. Then in October ‘67, mechanical failure in another T-38 took the life of Clifton Williams while he was flying to Alabama to visit his parents. He never got to see them and he never made it into orbit.

Eight dead astronauts.

Since the original Mercury seven, there had been five more intakes into the program. Knowing the dangers involved, NASA had chosen 66 men to train for space. They wanted bold men; risk takers. But with risk came mishap. Based on the odds so far, the chance of dying was better than one in 10. Even for test pilots those aren’t the sort of odds you’d choose to bet your life on.

Yet that’s precisely what Borman had been doing for the past six years, and it was wearing thin. He’d done what he set out to achieve. But he knew before lift-off that Apollo 8 would be his last flight.

If he had to pin it down, it was burying Ed, Gus and Roger that did it. Ed White’s loss had been particularly hard to take. He’d been a good friend and their wives were very close. When they first heard about the fire, he and Susan had driven straight over to Pat White’s house to be with her. That was nigh on two years ago, but it still seemed like yesterday. Borman had flown to Cape Kennedy the next morning to help with the investigation. That night, after seeing how those men had died, it was one of the few times in his life he’d gotten drunk.

NASA sent him to Washington to defend the Apollo program, which by then was facing the very real risk of permanent shutdown. It’s one thing to die in a plane crash. It’s another thing entirely to be burnt alive inside your space capsule on the launch pad. They learnt their lessons from the fire. He convinced Congress NASA knew what it was doing, that America needed to win the space race. Such a catastrophe would never happen again, he assured them.

But he wasn’t entirely certain he believed that. Isn’t that what any government agency said when it was being blamed for a disaster that might have been avoided? People always wanted to believe the lessons of history had been learnt, right up until the next time another peculiar set of circumstances contrived to prove them wrong.

He’d been aware they were having problems with Apollo 1. It was the first launch in the program, so that was to be expected. They had also shown, time and again, they had the manpower and the ingenuity to get past any problem.

But if he had been harbouring any doubt about retirement, this morning’s dream had told him all he needed to know about his state of mind. He was done. It was time to quit while he was ahead. Time to stop putting his wife through the pain and suffering. To thank God for His blessings and make the most of life with his feet firmly planted on the ground.

Just a few months ago they’d been a split second away from losing Neil Armstrong in an LLTV, their Lunar Landing Test Vehicle. Neil was one of the best performers in the lunar trainer, he’d logged more hours than anyone else — a dangerous necessity for anybody harbouring the ambition of landing on the Moon. But on that day it got away from him. He was only about 100 feet off the deck, plenty high enough to kill you if you fall but low enough to make ejecting exceedingly dangerous. He made it just in time for his parachute to slow his descent. The LLTV crashed to Earth and exploded. Neil drifted to the ground nearby and walked away. Later, they worked out if he had waited another two-fifths of a second to eject he would have died. After that near miss they asked Armstrong if it might be safer to call a halt to LLTV training. He insisted it was a risk they had to take, that the LLTV was by far the best way to prepare for landing on the Moon.

Borman couldn’t be at all sure he’d have given them the same answer. He’d logged almost no time at all in the LLTV and he knew one thing for certain — he didn’t want to start now. More astronauts were going to die, of that he was positive. Maybe not this year or the next. Hopefully not before they set foot on the Moon. But everything they had done in the Apollo program and everything they would do from this day forward was being done for the first time.

He opened the door to his room slowly, but heard no movement from Lovell or Anders. They must be still asleep. He had no idea what time it was or how long he might have slept, but figured it must have been at least five or six hours. He hadn’t slept for that long in almost a week. His rest periods in space had been stilted and broken, and never lasting more than two or three hours at most. He’d felt sick for much of the trip.

But he felt good now. Alert. Remembering to pick up the report Menzel had given him, he made his way as quietly as possible out of the sleeping quarters to the conference table in the adjoining room. He plucked a banana from a fruit bowl, pulled out a chair at the end of the table furthest away from where Lovell and Anders were sleeping and began to read.

The Condon committee’s report was a weighty document. Clearly some heavy duty work had gone into it. He had been aware of the University of Colorado UFO Project’s formation back in ’66 and knew there would be intense interest in its conclusions.

There had been early whispers that the head of the operation, Dr Edward Condon, had made his mind up on the subject from the outset. However, any serious scientific analysis would have to be conducted with rigour or those involved would leave themselves open to accusations of fraud or prejudice. He knew enough about Condon to believe the man was too smart for that.

He flicked through the index, noting headings that caught his interest. At the back of his mind was the section that referred specifically to the object he and Lovell had spotted while orbiting the Earth in Gemini VII. He didn’t find that reference immediately but noticed that the committee’s overall conclusions were front and centre in the early pages of the report.

The Condon committee’s work had been set in train by the findings of an Ad Hoc Committee of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board in March 1966. That committee, which included the renowned scientist Dr Carl Sagan and was headed up by Dr Brian O’Brien, had declared the US Air Force program dealing with UFO sightings, called Project Blue Book, was well organised, but under resourced. The O’Brien advisory board recommended Blue Book be strengthened to allow for scientific investigation of selected sightings in more detail.

Borman remembered this ruffled a few feathers at the time. The inside word was their finding hadn’t been well received by the higher echelons of the Air Force, which had been looking for a way to shut Blue Book down. The so-called UFO phenomenon had been a headache for the Air Force since the early 1950s. In 1953, a scientific body called the Robertson Panel, formed by the CIA to examine the subject’s troublesome public profile, concluded the best way to shut it down as a topic of debate was to declassify every UFO report in the Government’s possession.

Needless to say, this never happened.

In the years that followed, the public’s interest in strange visitors and foreign flying objects had grown dramatically. In the glare of such a bright public spotlight, the Air Force advisory board’s findings in 1966 were a sensation. The Condon committee was formed to tackle the beast head-on. They were tasked with examining whether deeper study of unidentified flying objects might in any way broaden scientific knowledge.

Seeing in print their summary dismissal of that suggestion put a wry smile on Borman’s face. They had been clever in framing the question that way. It meant they didn’t have to tackle anything uncomfortable or sensitive. They only had to evaluate the evidence at hand in relation to whether it held any promise in expanding upon the bounds of current scientific knowledge.

But the Condon’s committee’s findings on that point were, to say the least, troublesome. Firstly, they declared that a serious mistake was made in 1953 in not declassifying the entire UFO subject as recommended by the Robertson Panel. At the same time, they acknowledged that intelligence in this area deemed top secret was not under their purview and could play no role in their deliberations.

So on what basis could they possibly conclude that the refusal to declassify was a mistake when they themselves had not seen that information? The only possible answer was that they had begun with an assumption that all so-called UFOs had a rational and Earthbound explanation. From the outset they had dismissed any possibility of extraterrestrial involvement. But how could that starting point be justified when they didn’t have all the facts?

The Condon report declared that 21 years of scientific study of UFO cases had revealed nothing of value. Unspoken in this conclusion was the fact that anything even remotely interesting on the subject very quickly fell into military hands and was then unavailable for analysis by the broader scientific community. Ironically, in light of this, the Condon committee was probably justified in its conclusion that further scientific study on UFOs could not be justified.

But Condon seemed to be using that conclusion as a way of inferring that the entire topic was devoid of interest. The report noted that since 1947 officers of the US Air Force had consistently dismissed any possibility that UFOs were a hazard or threat to national security. In saying this, the committee at least acknowledged its own limitation in assessing the validity of the Air Force’s official position.

Borman, however, knew for a fact the Air Force’s official public position on UFOs was a crock of shit. Its concerns had for many years been deep and genuine. If Menzel was with Navy intelligence, he would surely know that too. It was similarly hard to believe the man was not smart enough to spot the flaws in the Condon committee’s argument. It was nothing more than a well-constructed smokescreen aimed at shutting down public interest in the subject.

Menzel was right about one thing — the serious media and the scientific community would eat this up. Sober consideration of the UFO phenomenon had just been thrown out the window like a paper plane tied to a rock.

“What are they doing up there, that’s what I wanna know,” said Lovell. He and Bill Anders had made themselves coffee and joined Borman at the conference table, looking much more calm and relaxed after a decent amount of sleep.

“Clearly their presence is no great surprise to the folks in defence intelligence,” said Anders. “Who briefed you, Frank? Was it the same guy who spoke to us?”

Borman was non-plussed. “He was ISR. Tall feller, jet black hair, thick-rimmed glasses. Said his name was Warren Frizell, but I figured that was probably a made-up name.”

The Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency was generally tasked with gathering strategic information for combatant commanders. But like all arms of the security and intelligence community, the lines of jurisdiction were often blurred.

“Frizell. Same guy I spoke to,” said Lovell.

“Me too,” said Anders. “Did he tell you much, Frank?”

“He didn’t say what to look out for, just that we might see something out there on the far side after LOS. He also told me not to talk about it with anyone, including you two. But heck, we all saw it, whatever it was.” He thought about it for a moment, half wondering whether to say any more. But he’d been through too much with these guys to hold back now. “I think they’re mostly concerned about us saying anything publicly, or to anyone else at NASA.”

“You don’t think NASA knows about this?” asked Anders.

Borman shook his head. “This sort of information is very closely held. It’s highly classified. You can’t keep control of those sorts of secrets if they’re being passed around inside an organisation as big as NASA.”

“Someone’s going to ask us whether we thought it was the Russians,” said Lovell.

“The Russians would be rubbing our noses in it if they had that kind of capability,” said Borman.

“Whoever, whatever they are, it looked to me like they’re operating from some sort of base out there on the far side,” said Anders. “Maybe ISR already knows that much. But I bet they don’t know a whole lot more. They’ll want us to assure them there’s no security threat.”

“If that bogey posed a genuine threat, I’m guessing we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation,” said Borman.

“What did Frizell want you to do with the spy camera?” asked Lovell.

“He said I’d be contacted when we get back to Houston.”

“It’s all a bit haphazard, isn’t it,” said Anders.

“I guess the mission happened so quickly they didn’t have a lot of time to work out a better plan. We threw this flight plan together in a couple of months. That must’ve caught them by surprise,” said Borman.

NASA’s decision to send Apollo 8 to the Moon had been made on the run. Their initial flight plan was to remain in orbit around the Earth to test docking and undocking with the lunar module. Except production of the LM was behind time. Then Apollo manager George Low had the bright idea to head to the Moon sooner — they couldn’t land, but they could be the first manned mission to go into orbit. That was back in August. A little more than three months later, Apollo 8 was heading to the Moon.

“So where exactly does Donald Menzel fit into the picture?” asked Anders.

“He’s a renowned UFO sceptic,” said Lovell. “He’s written a couple of books debunking the whole thing. But after our little encounter this morning, I can’t help wondering if there’s more to him than meets the public eye.”

“You heard him — he’s involved in secret aviation project development,” said Anders. “He’s not your typical scientist, he’s got an agenda.”

“It can’t be a coincidence he’s here now, waving around the Condon committee report,” Borman acknowledged. “He must know what the ISR knows.”

“But he can’t possibly know for sure that we saw something,” said Anders. “We haven’t told anyone. You figuring on letting the cat out of the bag, Frank?”

“Jim might have done that already with his little Santa Claus reference,” said Borman irritably.

Lovell shrugged sheepishly. “That was just a bit of capcom banter.”

“I don’t plan on saying anything if I don’t have to,” said Borman. “We’ve been ordered not to talk, remember? Maybe Menzel himself would prefer it that way. He’s already made it clear it’s in our interests to keep our mouths shut and he can’t have it both ways. No, I’m not telling him a damn thing.”

Lovell had begun flicking through the Condon report, perhaps initially to escape Borman’s ire, but the conclusions quickly caught his attention. “This thing’s a whitewash. They had their minds made up from the get-go.”

“That’s right,” said Borman. “It’s a crock. But Menzel is doing us a favour, giving us the heads up on it. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t see anything to be gained by going against the flow. Particularly if either of you are still harbouring ideas about heading back up there on later missions.”

“I’d go back in a heartbeat,” said Lovell.

Anders nodded in resigned agreement.

“If I know one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s that Deke Slayton will drop you both like hot pebbles if we go out there and start talking about strange lights chasing us on the far side of the Moon.”

“Or telling people we believe in Santa Claus?” Lovell quipped.

“Exactly who was that line intended for, by the way?” Borman asked him.

“Me and a few of the boys got to talking before the launch. We worked out a code,” said Lovell.

Borman bristled. “Tell me you didn’t mention your talk with Frizell?”

“No, of course not. We were just shooting the breeze.”

“And who precisely is ‘we’?”

“Gordo and Buzz, Pete Conrad and Edgar Mitchell. We were talking about what we’d seen, what we believed. It was Gordo who asked the question. Eventually we decided that with it being Christmas, I could mention Santa as a way to let them know if we saw anything strange out there.”

Borman wasn’t happy. “You do realise people are going to ask you about that? It’s on the mission log, and it’s a screwy thing for an astronaut to say from the Moon.”

“Oh I don’t think so, Frank,” said Lovell. “It’s easy enough to laugh it off. Hell, at one stage I was considering saying we’d seen a large black monolith.”

He was referencing Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had been a hit among the astronauts. The monolith had been one of the movie’s more enduring moments of weirdness.

“I figured Santa was more in keeping with the moment,” said Lovell.

Seeing that his commander wasn’t at all convinced, Lovell reached over and patted him on the arm. “It’s OK, Frank. All I need to do is tell people it was my way of saying the TEI burn had gone as planned and we were on our way home. Nobody will ever know any different.”

“When we get back,” said Borman, “you have to find a way to tell those guys to back off without spilling the beans. I mean it, Jim. Because if you don’t, the Air Force will wipe the floor with all of us.”

“We’re national heroes,” said Lovell. “They can’t do that.”

“Heroes can be shuffled off into retirement very quickly,” said Borman. “Look what happened to Scott Carpenter. He upset Chris Kraft with his poor focus on Aurora 7. He lands 250 miles off course, makes an offhand remark to a reporter about NASA losing sight of his ship on re-entry, which wasn’t true, and Kraft’s so angry he says he never wants him on another space mission. Sure enough, he never flew again. You get on the wrong side of the Flight Director and it’s all over, boy.”

* * *

The Navy PR department cameras were already rolling as the astronauts made their way into the cargo hold to take a look at the Apollo 8 capsule. The crew of the Yorktown had been penned back behind a rope to clear the way. Borman smiled coyly at the expressions of awe on so many of the young sailors’ faces as they made their way toward the gantry platform allowing them to inspect the capsule. They climbed the stairs of the platform to take a closer look.

“Wow, would you look at that,” said Anders.

The scorch marks in the steel hull looked like someone had taken a blowtorch to the ship, which was a pretty good description of what had occurred as the capsule hit the upper atmosphere at about 25,000 miles per hour. The temperature outside had hit 5000 degrees Fahrenheit in that furnace. Even now, the capsule looked too hot to touch. Nevertheless, Anders found himself gingerly moving a hand toward its metal skin.

“Better not touch until the boffins can take a look at her,” Borman cautioned.

He recognised one of the men standing guard on the platform as the Navy Seal frogman who had greeted them in the water that morning. “Hey Corporal, how’re you doing?”

“Very well sir, thank you.”

“You had a real funny look on your face when you stuck your head in the capsule this morning, what was going on there?” Borman asked him.

“Well to tell you the truth, sir, it was the smell. You stank pretty bad.”

Borman chuckled. “Yeah, I guess we did.”

Lovell peered briefly underneath the spacecraft. “Heat shield held together better than I thought it might have.”

“I was seeing bits of that flying in all directions at one point,” said Anders. “I was just hoping that’s what’s supposed to happen.”

They had already agreed there was no need for a more detailed inspection at this point, as all the ship’s systems had functioned like they were supposed to, so they hopped down again and walked back to the waiting reporters.

“How’s she look?” someone yelled.

“It’s a great ship,” said Borman. “I tell you, that re-entry was really something. Boy, my eyes opened wide on that one.” He paused for a moment in recollection. “It was a beautiful mission.”

“I’m happy to be back among sailors,” said Lovell. “I’ve been living with two Air Force men for the past week, and it’s great to be aboard.”

“We heard it was a bit rough out there on the ocean this morning,” another reporter remarked.

“Yeah, we were bobbing about out there for a while,” said Borman. “I’m no sailor and I got seasick right away.”

“I had to reassure them. ‘The Navy will be here’, I told them,” said Lovell, grinning.

“I’m glad to be at sea,” said Anders. “But to tell you the truth, I was just hoping we’d hit any ocean.”

“And he was the navigator,” Lovell quipped.

“So is the Moon made of green cheese?”

“It’s made of American cheese,” Anders returned, earning a laugh from everyone.

“Congratulations on your promotion, Lieutenant Colonel Anders,” someone else called out.

“Thank you very much, it’s a great honour,” Anders said sincerely.

“Would any of you like to go up again?”

“Well, I tell you, right now I just want to get home and see my beautiful wife and my sons, and eat a home-cooked meal,” said Borman.

“What was it like out there, Colonel Borman? On the far side of the Moon? What did you see?”

Borman exchanged glances with the other astronauts and smiled. Lightly, he touched the breast pocket of his jumpsuit, where the Minox camera was stashed, to make sure it was still there. It had remained with him since the Moon because he hadn’t dared to let it out of his sight. He thought about spilling the beans. He was never going to fly again, no matter what. If he spoke now, what could they do to him? Lovell was right, they were heroes.

But he would be damning Bill and Jim as well. If he spoke up, they would surely be asked about it. And then if they told the truth they were finished. If they denied it, they would be branding their commander a liar or worse — a fantasist. What would that say about NASA, the people who saw fit to launch Colonel Frank Borman into space?

Menzel was right, the Moon landings hung upon this moment.

“That far side is a thing of beauty,” said Borman. “I was filled with an incredible sense of awe. Mind you, I couldn’t get these two to keep their minds on the job,” he admitted with a wry smile. “They kept staring on out the window.”

Lovell smiled and nodded. There was more in his acknowledgement than anyone else would ever know.

“It’s hard to find words that are adequate. We were so close,” said Anders. “It’s really something when the Earth disappears and all you can see is this massive spread of battered lunar landscape.”

“Were you ever afraid? Out there all on your own?”

“No, not afraid,” said Borman. “We had trained hard for this, we knew what to expect. We had plenty of jobs to keep us busy. Bill here was taking photographs on the far side, and the near side, looking for future landing sites.”

“There’s one in particular you guys are all gonna love,” said Anders. “It’s a shot of the Earth rising up from the Moon. Incredible. It made me realise how fragile the Earth is, hanging out there all alone in the vast emptiness of space.”

“Sounds incredible. How soon do we get to see that shot?”

“You’ll have to ask NASA,” said Anders. “A day or two, I guess. We’ll need to get back to Houston and debrief.”

“How does it feel to be the first men to orbit the Moon?”

Borman demurred to Lovell. “Jim?”

“It was humbling. It was also thrilling. Greatest ride of my life. I guess I can thank old Mike Collins for that. If he didn’t have that bone spur in his back, it would have been him up there instead of me. Not that I want to make light of his misfortune.”

“Who knows, Mike may get another shot at it,” Borman added.

“So how soon before a Moon landing?”

“We’ve got a couple more flights before we get that far,” said Borman. “We need to get the lunar module into orbit and test that out, then we’ll probably want to do a test flight in lunar orbit. So at least two more flights before a landing, but it could be more if we’re not quite there on the technical side.”

“This is a risky business,” said Lovell. “We need to make sure we get it right. Nobody wants anything going wrong on a flight to the Moon.”

* * *

They found Donald Menzel waiting for them upon their return to the admiral’s suite.

Borman turned to Lieutenant Packer, the ship’s officer assigned to escort them through the bowels of the Yorktown so they didn’t get lost. “We’ll be fine now, Lieutenant, thank you. I think Dr Menzel would like a quiet word.”

Packer saluted. “There’ll be a man just outside in the corridor. If you need anything, you only need to ask.”

“Much appreciated, thank you.”

Packer closed the door behind him. It was thick enough to ensure they would not be overheard.

“I took a look at your report,” said Borman. “Can’t say I think too highly of its methodology.”

Menzel frowned. “Really? How so?”

“Let’s just stop playing games, shall we doctor? You and I both know that report was a foregone conclusion from the moment Condon’s group of scientists was drafted by the Air Force. Either they’re lousy researchers or they agreed to toe the line, but either way that report is nothing less than an orchestrated disinformation campaign.”

“Well of course I disagree with you entirely, but you seem to be quite determined in your position so I won’t attempt to talk you out of it,” said Menzel.

Borman suspected this was as close as Menzel would come to openly agreeing with him.

“Let me ask you this,” said Menzel. “Would it really be in the US Government’s best interests to have Apollo astronauts talking about visitors from outer space when so many of your brothers in arms are fighting and dying in Vietnam?”

“I’m not sure I follow,” said Anders.

“Then let me be blunt. You’re military men, all of you. If any of you were grounded by NASA, in theory there would be nothing to prevent your reassignment overseas. Do you think anyone at the Binh Thuy Air Base in South Vietnam will care about your stories of bogeys and space visitors?”

“That’s an awfully big stick to wave around,” said Lovell. “You ought to be sure you can back it up.”

“Oh I’m sure,” said Menzel.

“I really don’t think you are,” said Anders. “It’s not such a good look… the men who risked their lives to fly to the Moon getting shunted off to the front line in Vietnam. Sounds like a PR disaster to me.”

“Who said I was talking about any of you? There are more than 60 men in the astronaut program. NASA doesn’t need all of you. Hell, a bunch of you have already been grounded for one reason or another.”

Anders clenched his fists, but decided to walk away without responding.

“You men are heroes. You’re an inspiration to the nation — to the whole world,” said Menzel. “But you should never forget: half a world away your brothers are dying in the thousands in defence of their country.”

“I’ve been there already. I fought for my country,” said Lovell.

“Jim — don’t,” Borman warned.

“What? He sits there and smugly suggests we’re dodging the war effort by joining the space program? That’s horse shit.”

“That’s not what I said at all,” said Menzel.

“All right, all right. Jim, why don’t you and Bill go make a cup of coffee.”

Lovell marched toward the galley in the next room. Borman looked squarely at Menzel, who appeared unrepentant and unmoved. He wondered if the man had any idea at how close he had just come to having his teeth knocked out by an astronaut. “Give me a second,” he said, then followed Lovell into the next room.

Jim was still steaming. “That guy has one helluva nerve talking to us like that.”

“He’s bluffing,” said Anders. “No-one would be stupid enough to send an astronaut off to war.”

Borman raised an eyebrow. “Has it occurred to either of you that he feels free to talk to us this way because he really does wield some serious power? Look, leave him to me. I’ll sort this out.” He picked up the Condon committee report from under his bunk, returned with it to the conference room and placed it on the table in front of Menzel.

“You’ve got more of a problem than you may realise,” said Borman.

“Sit down, Frank.”

Menzel touched the top of the seat next to him. Borman pulled it out and sat down.

“What problem is that exactly?”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess you know we saw something up there on the far side of the Moon.”

Menzel’s eyes lit up for just a moment, but he said nothing.

“It’s all right,” said Borman, “I don’t expect you to openly confirm it, though I’ve got to say your poker face needs some work.”

“Go on,” said Menzel.

“We’re going to be sending more men to the Moon. A whole lot more. It’ll take us at least two more lunar orbital missions to get to the surface and we’re not just going to stop at one landing. We’re going to keep going back and maybe even one day build a base there.”

“Your point being?”

“Whatever it was we saw up there was not of human origin. It wasn’t the Russians, it wasn’t some rogue satellite. It was an intelligently controlled spacecraft with capabilities way beyond our wildest dreams. And they’re out there on the far side of the Moon. It looked a lot to us like they might be living up there. Now unless you want some over-eager astronaut inadvertently telling the world all about it, you’re going to have to brief each and every crew member of future Apollo missions on what they can expect to see.”

Menzel thought about it for a minute. “You’re right.”

“You can read them all the riot act like you’ve just done with Bill and Jim, but don’t be surprised if you get a similar reaction each time. These guys are the best of the best. They are members of the most exclusive club you could imagine. You’ll never stop them talking amongst themselves behind closed doors. They’re facing the threat of life and death every day. Their lives are already on the line. Threats are simply not going to get the job done.”

Menzel nodded. “I hear what you’re saying. I appreciate your candour.”

He turned around and saw neither Anders nor Lovell were in earshot.

“Now there is something I’d like to show you. Do you have a few minutes?”

Borman wasn’t sure what he was getting at. “I suppose so.”

Menzel placed a small metal device on the table in front of them.

“Do you have the camera on you?” said Menzel.

Borman was caught off guard.

Menzel smiled. “Poker face, Colonel. It’s all right. I’ll assume the answer’s yes. You don’t need to respond.”

Borman stared at the scientist, then at the strange device on the table between them, trying to fathom what the man was up to. Menzel placed his hand on Borman’s arm, then flicked a knob on the device. The world around them immediately took on a strange shimmer, as if the air had become super-heated.

“Now, Colonel, can I ask you to stand up?”

Borman pushed out his chair and rose to his feet. By the time he was upright, the scene around him had changed completely. The shock of it sent his head spinning, such that Menzel had to hold him by the arm to keep him from falling to the ground.

“What just happened?” Borman demanded.

The floor beneath his feet was concrete. He felt no vibration, no movement. His senses told him they were no longer on the Yorktown, yet that was a physical impossibility. Unless Menzel had somehow drugged him and he had blacked out. But that wouldn’t explain the sensation of standing up and instantly shifting locations. He hadn’t lost consciousness, and he was as confident as anyone might be in such a situation that he hadn’t lost his mind.

“You have just moved through a space-time gateway. Though such a device must seem impossible to you, I can assure you the technology is very real and that far from your eyes deceiving you, you have in actuality been transported across a vast distance in a fraction of a second.”

Menzel suddenly seemed menacing.

“Why am I here, doctor?”

The question was answered by another man from somewhere behind him.

“You are here, Colonel Borman, because we have a proposition for you.”

Borman turned to find a tall, bearded man, mid 30s, casually dressed. He held out his hand.

“My name is Clarence Paulson.”

Borman ignored the handshake option. “Kidnapping a member of the US Air Force is an act of treason. This little stunt could earn you both a death sentence.”

Paulson laughed lightly. “They’d have to find us first.”

Borman found nothing amusing in his response.

“Relax, Colonel, I’m joking. We’re not kidnapping you. We have every intention of returning you to the Yorktown in a few minutes.”

“I’d like to go back there right now.”

“Please Frank,” said Menzel, “just listen for a minute, will you? I said I had something to show you and you agreed. How could I possibly have explained what happened next? You would have thought I was insane.”

Borman smiled humourlessly. “Try to imagine what I’m thinking now.”

Paulson pointed to a makeshift lounge area. “Please, have a seat, Colonel. We won’t keep you long, I promise. Let me explain.”

Borman was unmoved.

“I understand you are reluctant to accept Dr Menzel’s explanation for the scientific rejection of unidentified craft as a serious field of study. It might interest you to know I have just finished reading a classified report compiled for the RAND Corporation that reaches a very different conclusion. It found a number of sightings almost certainly fall into the extraterrestrial category and that more serious attention along the lines of Project Blue Book is most certainly warranted. Now, will you sit down for a minute? Please?

Borman found himself walking toward the lounge, if only because his head was still spinning and he really needed to sit down to get his bearings.

“Who are you people?”

Paulson sat down beside him. “It might surprise you to learn that I am a representative of the Vatican. I am what they call a papal nuncio, a diplomatic representative of the Holy See. I am permanently attached to an organisation known as the Verus Foundation — verus being a Latin word for truth.”

Borman chuckled and pointed at Donald Menzel, who was sitting opposite. “You’ve got to be kidding me. This man has done nothing but dance around the truth from the moment we met.”

“Dr Menzel is not a member of Verus,” said Paulson. “I say that not to insult him, but to explain the difference in our positions. As the chief executive of the Verus Foundation, I offer you my personal word of honour that nothing I say to you now will be anything other than the unadorned truth.”

Though not himself a Catholic, Borman found he took some comfort in the idea that he was dealing with a man of God. “I’m listening.”

“Verus was set up at the behest of US president Harry S. Truman in 1947. From then until now it has remained at arm’s length from all government and outside control and is dedicated to building the complete and ultimate record of human history.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“History as we know it has always been slanted. As is often said, it’s written by the victors. But it is also obscured by the victors. Key facts are hidden, terrible secrets are buried forever. The job of Verus is to record everything: the good, the bad and the ugly if you will, for the future betterment of humankind.”

“How is that even possible?”

“We have many amazing tools at our disposal, such as the one that brought you here.”

“Why have I never heard of you?”

“Because the only way we can function effectively is to do so in the utmost secrecy. Much of what we have recorded remains too sensitive to be revealed to the world now. It is my fervent desire that one day in the very near future the human race will be mature enough, enlightened enough, for our work to be made public. Alas, now is not that time.”

“You’re right, Frank. I haven’t been honest with you,” said Menzel. “That’s the role I find myself in. An odd one for a scientist, I grant you, but I do it in the interests of national and international security.”

“You mean you’re seeking to advance US interests with alien technology,” said Borman.

“In a word, yes.”

“I have nothing to offer you in that regard.”

“Dr Menzel brought you here at my request,” said Paulson. “I have a proposition for you, in return for which I can offer to fill in some of the blanks. We are aware of the craft that Apollo 8 encountered on the far side of the Moon. We are also aware you were provided a Minox camera with which to capture an image of that craft. You have that camera with you now, do you not?”

Borman looked at one man and then the other. “I do.”

“The craft you photographed is a ship belonging to a race of people known as the Anunnaki. They have maintained a presence on our planet for several thousand years. They were known to the ancient Mesopotamians and even played an active role in government at that time. They gave us written language, civil order and advanced skills in agriculture. But around 2000BC, for reasons known only to themselves they chose to vanish from public view. Despite their invisibility, they remain here among us, to this very day. It is their base on the far side of the Moon over which you flew.”

Borman had no frame of reference for this information. It could merely be a work of fiction designed to placate his sense of curiosity, except somehow he knew beyond question that Paulson was telling the truth.

“What do you want from me?”

“It is really very simple. A request, not a demand. The choice is yours to make, but I ask you to give me the camera.”

“I can’t…”

“Before you say no, I’ll point out there is an easy and believable explanation for why you might return to Houston without the Minox in your possession. I understand splashdown was rather violent and wet. I imagine something as fragile and sensitive as a miniature camera could easily be destroyed in such an event. I can sense your horror and disappointment to find the camera smashed to pieces. You would, I think, feel more than justified in disposing of the evidence at sea. No risk then of anyone at NASA asking uncomfortable questions about contraband.”

“And what if I say no to you?”

“I am a man of my word, Colonel. If that is your choice, go now. Dr Menzel will return you and your camera to the Yorktown and we will never see one another again. But if you do so, you will never see the photos you took.”

“What… are you saying you’d send me a copy of the prints?”

“Not send. But we could certainly find a way to show them to you. At the same time, you would have the comfort of knowing they are safe and secure, and will one day be made available for all the world to see.”

Borman looked into the priest’s eyes. What he asked could be regarded in some circles as an act of treachery. It was certainly more than enough to justify his dishonourable discharge from the Air Force.

It was a long way down from national hero to universal disgrace, although he suspected it would never happen — that would reflect too poorly on the space program, right at the moment America was closer than ever to landing the first men on the Moon.

But men, it seemed, would not be alone up there.

“What do we know about them?” Borman asked.

“There is a dialogue of sorts between ourselves and the Anunnaki,” said Paulson. “This is where my involvement with Verus might become a little clearer for you. The Anunnaki have a liaison who is based inside the Vatican. Being the most enduring of human institutions of the past two millennia, they saw Vatican City as the most strategic place to work from.”

Borman looked at Menzel. “Meaning the intelligence community is forced to negotiate with the Catholic Church on matters of the utmost secrecy.”

“Secrecy has never been a problem for the Vatican,” Paulson assured him. “It is very much in the interests of the Church to keep a lid on the Anunnaki presence.”

“You’re confident they represent no threat to the planet?”

“The Earth is their home too,” Menzel said. “They’ve been here for thousands of years. If there is a point in time when one must assume a migrant to be naturalised, the Anunnaki passed it a long time ago.”

“They have a particular connection with Earth history you of all people will appreciate,” said Paulson. “They are mentioned in the Bible.”

Borman’s eyes widened and he examined the priest’s eyes closely for signs of a lie.

“Mentioned where?”

“In the Old Testament, of course. In a number of places — in Daniel and Jubilees they are called the Watchers. They’re also called the Nephilim.”

“The Nephilim were fallen angels,” Borman recalled.

“Angel is a very emotive word, Colonel,” Menzel replied. “One man’s angel is another man’s alien. But as those passages suggest, their presence on Earth was, in those days at least, openly acknowledged.”

“There are those among the higher ranks of the clergy who believe the Nephilim might be closer to gods than angels,” said Paulson.

Menzel rolled his eyes at the priest’s description. “Frank, you’ve no doubt heard mention of a missing link in anthropology — an undiscovered piece of humanity’s evolution absent from the fossil record that would link ancient man to homo sapiens. We believe the Anunnaki are that missing link.”

Borman was incredulous. “How does that work?”

“Cross-breeding,” said Menzel. “To quote the Old Testament: ‘The sons of the gods laying with the daughters of men’.”

“In theological terms, one might go so far as to call them our Creators,” said Paulson.

Borman didn’t know what to say. It was enough to make him — indeed anyone — question their most fundamental beliefs. This was a revelation so immense it had the capacity to bring about a paradigm shift in modern civilisation. Wars had been fought over less.

No wonder the Catholic Church was happy to keep it a secret.

Borman stared hard at Clarence Paulson. “If what you say is true, surely you are the last man I should trust with my photographs. The Vatican would never want them to see the light of day. If the Anunnaki are gods, as you put it, the Church is little more than an empty vessel.”

Paulson nodded, as if in agreement. “Which is why I operate at arm’s length from the Vatican. The Church has no authority inside the Verus Foundation.”

“I only have your word on that.”

“No, you have mine as well,” said Menzel. “And believe me, I have no interest in preserving the Christian myth.”

Borman shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He found Menzel both arrogant and offensive. But he also knew he must find a way to keep his personal feelings at a distance and think like a military man.

He pondered the value of the photographs from an intelligence perspective. On their own, they would not reveal much. The astronauts’ observations would offer a much more useful insight into the capabilities of the Anunnaki spacecraft. The photographic evidence would merely confirm their sighting. Photographic analysis might offer something more useful, but the existence of the alien craft itself was obviously no great surprise.

“If the Verus Foundation is already operating inside the intelligence loop, why not simply request a copy of the photos?” Borman asked them.

“That would seem an obvious solution, wouldn’t it?” said Menzel. “And if the various arms of US intelligence cooperated rather than competed with one another, it might even be possible. But the NSA and the CIA don’t trust one another, and neither has much faith in the competence of defence intelligence. The level of classification we’re talking about here also goes way beyond normal intelligence channels. Only a handful of people will be made aware of your photographs. To everyone outside that closed loop, they simply won’t exist.

“How do you request access to something that doesn’t exist?”

Once more, Gordon Cooper’s sighting sprang to mind. Borman could see his photos disappearing in just the same way. “What guarantee would I have you won’t use this against me, or that the photos will be leaked and my crew will take the blame?”

Menzel leant forward in his chair. “The Verus Foundation is not completely autonomous. Any decision to publicly reveal anything from its archives must to be unilaterally agreed upon by the people in that closed loop I told you about.”

“It’s the only way to ensure the foundation can continue to function,” said Paulson. “Any future release of information can never come from us. It must be attributed to a different source, most likely an arm of government.”

“Or science,” Menzel added.

“For the sake of credibility,” said Paulson.

“Look around you,” said Menzel. “In this room, there are no secrets. Here and now I give you my word as a scientist and a patriot this photo will remain in the Verus archive for at least 50 years. Probably longer. However, from the moment we return to the Yorktown I shall never admit this discussion took place.”

“This information changes everything,” said Borman. “What makes you think humanity will ever be ready to hear it? By what measure could anybody make that call? Surely the impact will be the same, whether you go public now or in 50 years.”

“Computers are changing the world,” said Menzel. “There will come a day when information will spread so quickly that no intelligence service in the world will be able to stop it.”

Borman wanted to trust them, but it was a big ask. “You’re with Navy intelligence,” he reminded Menzel. “I take it you realise this makes you complicit in an act of treason.”

Menzel shook his head. “Treason is an action designed to deliberately threaten one’s own nation. This is no such thing. All the relevant people will still see your photographs. I am merely acting upon an opportunity to record a moment in human history that might otherwise get lost in a miasma of compartmentalised secrecy. No-one but Verus has the bigger picture in mind with this material.”

It’s why Harry Truman set up the foundation alongside MJ-12 in the first place, thought Menzel.

“This is about so much more than intelligence, it’s about the truth,” the astrophysicist continued. “One hundred years from now, don’t you want the world to look back and see what you three have seen up there?”

Borman sighed. The man had a point.

This might be one last risk he simply had to take.

* * *

Thanks so much for reading my novella. I loved writing this story and I hope my fascination with both the Apollo era and the mysterious topic of alien contact made the story enjoyable for you too.

As reviews from readers are critical to all of us authors, I’d very much appreciate it if you found the time to pen a few words to express your opinion. The Sleeping Gods link at the Amazon US site is the best place you can do that. Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions: matt@mattjeaton.com

I promise I’ll respond.

If you enjoyed Sleeping Gods, you will also love my SF thriller, Blank.

Fellow science fiction and suspense authors rate Blank a five-star read…

“I would highly recommend this book. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I looked forward to my reading time. To me this is the ultimate test of a book.”

– Christopher Bowron

“I loved this book.”

– Ed Ryder

“I was very much surprised and captivated by the resolution. This is a great scifi read.”

– RM Gilmour

Copyright

Copyright © 2016 by Matt Eaton

mattjeaton.com

Cover design by Fleur Camacho

Ebook formatting by Jesse Gordon, adarnedgoodbook.com