Chapter 448 - 439: Cave Collapse_1

"After half a century, humanity will set foot on the Moon again."

"NACA: After returning to the Moon is the journey toward Mars."

"An elderly Floridian stormed into Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with four alligators."

"Jeff Bezos discusses how Blue Origin created the safest, most powerful lander."

"It has been confirmed that the first to set foot on the Moon will be a woman, followed by a Black astronaut."

"’Little Bird’ has 30 minutes to land."

"Flat earthers claim the Moon landing live broadcast deceived all of humanity."

"The live feed switches, NACA has not yet made a statement."

"Moon landing mission halted, will choose another opportunity to land."

"The reason for the temporary suspension of the Artemis II mission is unclear."

"Claire debunked the rumors of a lander malfunction, saying it was part of the scheduled plan."

"Russia and Abe stated they would provide unconditional rescue to any country, and Borisov suggested the United Nations assist countries with underdeveloped space technology."

"A passerby stealthily photographed astronauts’ families entering the Presidential Palace for a summons."

"Why is the flag planted by Dawn III higher than the Stars and Stripes?"

The above are various trending news headlines published by various media outlets in America all morning.

The news of the lander’s loss of communication is still being kept secret, but the outside world is already suspecting and dissatisfied.

Dawn III planted a flag, addressed the whole world, and even interacted with robots, but the whereabouts of Artemis II are unknown, which is understandably infuriating.

"The four astronauts are doing very well, receiving families is a normal procedure."

John powerfully debunked the rumors by posting a photo on Twitter of himself hugging a Black woman and then he connected to Houston’s direct line.

No sooner had the call connected than Claire heard John’s voice trying to suppress his anger:

"Where is ’Little Bird’? Why haven’t you found them? You must give us results today, or else I can only mourn to the entire nation tomorrow, and I will become the most disgraced boss! If they are alive, you have to toss them safely into the Pacific Ocean; if they are dead, at least find their bodies to give our people an explanation!"

Claire wanted to say something, but the phone had already been hung up.

A series of accidents and pressures had left this elite in his forties emaciated beyond recognition, and Deputy Director Jim was very worried about his health.

"Director, you should rest now. There’s nothing more Houston can do. We can only trust them or... by latest, tomorrow, we’ll have to issue an obituary."

"No, no, I believe they are alive, and I believe in our astronauts."

Claire, eyes swollen and voice hoarse from speaking, was holding on by sheer willpower.

"Asking the Chinese for help is useless without communication. Unless we find them... proceed with the emergency plan. Have Reed and Jeremy fly the Orion at a lower altitude, conduct optical observations besides radio, and lock the target on the potential landing area."

"Hmm... That’s the only option left."

Using optics to search was a last resort, but at this point, there were no other landers available.

...

B04 Highlands.

climbed to the highest point near the landing site, pulled out the extended antenna on its back, and kept listening to unfamiliar frequencies for radio signals.

In 10 minutes, the signal broke twice, each gap lasting two or three minutes, before starting to send out distress signals again.

This time, 14 was almost certain of the direction of the radio signals.

At the ground control center, the staff roughly pinpointed the origin area of the signal based on changes in signal strength and 14’s measured movements:

It was a low-lying hill area southwest of the Kuum Impact Crater, about 150 square kilometers in size. In prior robotic exploration, it was an area with fragmented geology. There had been volcanic activity, and many spaces were hollow beneath the surface. Weaker areas were prone to collapse, and New Yuan had almost lost an Explorer there before, ultimately deciding to avoid the area.

If the signals were being transmitted from there, it would make sense; the undulating small hills could severely interfere with radio transmission distance, and the outcome of a forced landing there was probably not very good.

To save time, Academician She and Lin Ju made their first decision after discussion:

"Dawn, this is the ground.

03, prepare immediately to conduct a focused reconnaissance of the suspected area in space, there’s a high-power optical telescope in the command module.

and 02, there’s a spare high-gain antenna outside the lander, it can be easily dismantled, and you can make a very powerful radio rangefinder with your existing equipment—let 14 drive out to explore.

It’s extremely dangerous there, wait for 14 to find the exact location and a safe route then hustle over, got it?"

"Understood, Dawn! *3"

...

"Warning, warning, the System offline; warning, warning, the System offline..."

"Koch, that warning noise is so annoying, I’m going to be driven crazy by it."

In front of Victor Glover was darkness, with only the faint cold light inside the helmet providing a glimmer of light, blurring his face’s reflection on the visor.

The gentle female voice in the headset had been repeating the warning for over an hour now, causing his ears to ache.

He really wanted to turn off the warning with the switch on his wrist, but doing so now would be an act risking his life.

"Don’t move recklessly, Victor, if the spacesuit is damaged, we’re done for."

The sound of Christina Koch’s voice comforted him somewhat as he took a deep breath.

They were in a cave, with him trapped under the lander by debris, while Koch sat at the highest point of the tilted lander, holding up a makeshift antenna, transmitting an S.O.S. signal with a radio transmitter assembled from batteries and mechanical scraps, hoping someone would hear.

Koch had been pressing the switch for over ten minutes, but reason told her she must not stop, must not sleep—they only had at most 10 hours left.

They were both dressed in hard-shell extravehicular spacesuits, a new generation designed for the Artemis mission, which greatly improved protection and flexibility, with the life-support pack on the back also supporting quick replacement.

Two spare packs that could support 12 hours of normal activity were available inside the lander for replacement.

Koch could replace her pack, but Victor, pinned down by a huge rock, couldn’t move at all, and even with one-sixth of the Moon’s gravity, it was difficult, and the tight space made it easy to incur a secondary injury.

Victor was stuck in place, having to listen to the tormenting noise, and he was in an incredibly foul mood.

During the emergency landing, he had tried his utmost to get closer to the Dawn III’s position. He succeeded, but couldn’t control the lander’s attitude:

Only someone who has lived through it can understand how hard it is to manually pilot a monster weighing over 30 tons, especially when the beast is uncooperative, maimed, and swinging its center of gravity wildly.

Victor could say he used up all his luck and his extraordinary control to maintain the descent speed at the lander’s survivable limit, but who knew that beneath the surface was a lava tube from ancient volcanic activity.

The lander crashed through the roof and slid down the tube, suffering severe damage to the entire exterior, with almost all automated equipment damaged and unusable.

Victor was the first to crawl out of the hatch, hoping to walk to the Dawn III for help, but a large piece of the fractured surface rock immediately fell with him toward the ground. He was saved from instant death by the excellent protection of the hard-shell spacesuit.

Previously, Victor had always mocked the hard-shell spacesuit as a "tin tortoise," but now he felt the tortoise shell wasn’t too bad after all.

Koch, who came out later, found that the lander’s communication antenna was completely useless, and the spacesuit’s communication devices couldn’t detect any signal at all.

She tried with a temporarily extended antenna, but even now, sitting at the very top of the lander at least seven or eight meters above the lunar surface, there was only a hole three to four meters in diameter, right where the fallen rocks had trapped Victor.

In the end, the solution she came up with was to use whatever materials she could find to make an antenna that barely peeked out of the hole, and then broadcast a simple distress signal using a high-power battery.

The communication device on the spacesuit couldn’t be removed for external antenna connection, and doing so would be extremely dangerous and might cause the spacesuit to break, so for now they could only send distress signals this way.

While mechanically pressing the transmitter, Koch also chatted with Victor over the radio, encouraging and cheering each other up.

"I think next time I will definitely include one of their flags in my personal items so that I can wave it from my arm. If aliens see it, they will take us to the Chinese embassy."

"Christina, have you seen Wolf Warrior?"

"I’ve watched every one of JingWu’s movies, he’s a real man."

"Bullshit, although I also like him, I bet he couldn’t beat me—my forearms are as strong as his thighs."

"But they all know kung fu, the smaller the person, the tougher they are."

"I’m a black sash master, a Shaolin Kung Fu master!"

"Victor, actually I’ve always wanted to tell you that as far as I know, Shaolin Kung Fu doesn’t include black sashes, that’s Karate from Korea, the martial art practiced by Samurai."

"Whaaat? If that’s true, I’m definitely going to kick that Korean groundhog’s ass hard!"