The moon

Neil paused as he was donning his helmet, sure he must have misheard the message from mission control. He tapped his headphone to open a channel.

“Say again Flight?” He waited the three seconds it would take for his message to reach Earth and them to reply to him.

“Our systems are reading a critical engine malfunction in the Lunar Module. Can you confirm?” The voice crackled back over the radio.

“Copy, checking systems now.” He pulled off his bulky helmet and re-entered the control deck of the lunar module, where Buzz was already running through checklists.

Buzz turned to Neil in the tight space, a grim expression on his face. But neither man said anything, both reverting to the training they had perfectly honed before setting out on the mission.

After a few minutes of silence, they turned to face each other again, shaking their heads. There was nothing they could do.

Neil opened a channel to mission control. “We can confirm. The Eagle has suffered a critical engine failure.” He paused and looked over at Buzz, who only nodded. “We will be initiating plan B.”

There was a delay before mission control replied. “Copy. Initiating Plan B. God speed gentlemen.”

Neil carefully donned his helmet and left the lunar module as they’d practised so many times in training.

As he left, he uttered the words, “this is one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.”

Twenty minutes later, Buzz joined him. They spent time investigating the lunar surface, planting the American flag and filming video that was being streamed live to every inhabitant of Earth. But when the oxygen in their suits began to run low, rather than returning to the Lunar module, they cut the public feed to Earth and radioed mission control one last time.

“Initiating plan B. Please tell our families we’re sorry we’re not coming home.”

“Copy. Initiating plan B.”

Neil knew that NASA would say more, make a speech, try and comfort them. But he didn’t need to hear it, as it wasn’t going to change anything. So he disconnected the radio to Earth for the last time. They’d rehearsed plan B several times, and it had been decided that no one from the Earth should have a record of their demise.

Buzz walked up behind Neil, putting his hand onto the backpack that contained the suits life support.

“Are you ready?” Buzz knocked on Neil’s back.

“Yes, do it” In a quick motion, Buzz enacted plan B by pulling Neil’s carbon dioxide absorber out of the backpack and throwing it on the ground, then crushing it beneath his boot. He turned and waited for Neil to do the same to his, and with two quick stomps of their boots, Plan B had been fulfilled.

A lot of thought had been put into Plan B. If the worst should happen and they were stranded, what would be the most painless way for them to die? They had finally settled upon the astronauts rebreathing their own carbon dioxide and gradually drifting into unconsciousness.

The first men to walk on the moon sat next to each other, watching the Earth, the place they would never walk on again and marvelling at its beauty.

They sat in silence, contemplating how they were the first living men on the moon and now the first dying men on the moon.

They never got to hear the speech that announced their fate. They never knew that the world, as one, looked up to the moon to salute the men who gave everything to make a giant leap for mankind.

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace”.