Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Forty
10th August 1966
Saint Mary Bethlem Royal Hospital, London, England
While Roger had been sectioned six months earlier the Doctors were reluctant to let him go and were moving to have it extended. At first it had been thought that the stresses of University had gotten to him, resulting in him landing in old Bedlam. Then as time wore on, they had come to a different conclusion and that had changed everything, Schizophrenia. While Roger had responded well to drugs, it was feared that he would be the type who would relapse as soon as he got out because he would stop taking them. It didn’t take a genius to understand why, the drugs left Roger feeling rotten most of the time and he had not been shy about his desire not to take them.
So, Roger was stuck in the hospital until this impasse was resolved. During her last visit, his mother had told him that she wanted him to come home and eventually return to University so that he could eventually become a Doctor like his father had been. Roger considered that a complete farce. After the circumstances of his departure from the dormitory that he had lived in during his breakdown, he doubted that they would be too welcoming of him in the future.
Walking through the ward after his latest session with his Doctor, Roger saw Edward reading a newspaper while seated on a chair. Everyone knew that he was Royalty and he had his own room because of that, just he insisted upon drifting around the wards as if he owned the place. The fact that he was the former King of England until he had become an embarrassment to his family and his niece was the Queen afforded him special treatment.
“How goes the battle young Mister Barrett?” Edward asked as Roger sat down on his bed.
“They still think I’m mental” Roger replied.
“I find that insanity is relative” Edward said, “What if I told you that as we speak there is a German Rocketship Captained by a Scotsman circling the moon?”
“That sounds like something from bad Science Fiction” Roger replied, wondering why Edward had chosen him to bother today.
“Yet here it is” Edward said, showing Roger the article that he was reading. Amicitia III, composed of three modules that had been launched from Cam Ranh as part of the Taxidiotis program, was in orbit around the moon. “Amicitia means friendship in Latin, in case you were wondering.”
Roger hadn’t been wondering at all.
Lunar Orbit
The insertion into orbit around the Moon had gone off without a hitch and everyone had looked out the windows transfixed by the landscape that was passing below. After a few minutes, they had needed to get to work. Even as he was helping Viktor Himmel with the checklist to start the scientific portion of this flight, but only if Vik needed the help, which he didn’t. Ben still looked out the window at the dark side of the moon that was lit up. It had taken him a moment to realize that with the Moon being in the last quarter, as seen on Earth, of course the dark side would be lit up. Fortunately, Ben had not said anything, otherwise he probably would never have heard the end of it. Captain Brown and Dieter Dohman, the Systems Engineer were already preparing for the return trip that was due to start in twelve hours. Brown had said that he would need Ben as soon as he was done meeting with Dohman, so he should enjoy the sightseeing while he could.
“Look at this!” Vik said excitedly as he looked at the feed that he was getting through his console, data that was being fed to him through the Recon Module where Ayano was working feverishly now that they were over target.
“What?” Ben asked.
“Craters” Vik said with a sly smile.
Ben tried not to be annoyed by getting pulled into a silly joke like that. Vik had not minded when Ben had been pulled from being his Alternate and had leapfrogged him in the Mission hierarchy. Instead he had been delighted that a friend was getting a chance to come on this journey. Back in Cam Ranh, he had told Ben while they were on the elevator going up to the capsule that he would be a passenger for most of the trip while at the same time Ben would get stuck with a great deal of work. That had certainly turned out to be true.
Looking at one of the screens, Ben saw the Earth rise from behind the Lunar horizon, he had seen that through the window on the last pass. Everything that they were seeing on those screens was being recorded. “It looks like the people back home must be getting quite a show” Ben said absently.
“I would think so” Vik said, “Not the same as being here.”
“Certainly not” Ben said.
“While we are here, is there anything you want to name?” Vik asked.
“Can we do that?” Ben asked in reply.
“One of the perks of being an explorer Benjamin” Vik answered, “Sometimes the name even sticks. We got mountains, craters, and mares. Which will it be?”
Looking out the window, Ben saw a mare passing below.
“How about that one?” Ben asked, “For Kristina.”
“Your girl, the wayward Princess” Vik said, “The press will eat that one up.”
“I don’t care” Ben replied.