HRVST, Ch.12: Secret Race For An Open Place
On A Long Enough Timeline Even Deep Secrets Are Revealed
1962 Washington D.C.
America was electrified by the vision of landing a man on the moon in the 1960s.
To achieve this, NASA created an astronaut program.
There was a second astronaut program few knew about.
In 1962, the Secretary of Defense authorized work on a variety of special space projects, including a black project, the Military Observation Laboratory, "MOL".
In public, the MOL's "cover story" was funding for a laboratory.
Its classified mission was as a military orbital platform to watch the Soviets. Special cameras were built by Eastman Kodak in an underground factory.
A school was begun to train recruits, the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), headed by Chuck Yeager, the legend who broke the sound barrier.
Recruits were informed after they were selected that they were chosen for a space program with a black ops mission. They had two choices, resign or accept the mission.
Trainees were granted security clearance, with access to arial and satellite reconnaissance intelligence. It was believed that people could monitor strategic locations with more effectiveness than machines.
The program’s orbital platforms would begin with 4 astronauts, and then be expanded into command posts for 12 and then 40, empowered to make war-time decisions.
The first test flight, in November 1966, re-used a prototype Gemini capsule, the first reused space craft in history, and a mockup laboratory built from a Titan missile fuel tank. The unmanned lab remained in space until its orbit decayed 3 months later, as planned, and burned up in re-entry.
The program was ended by a new presidential administration interested in cutting the fat. What would have been America's first space station lost its funding.
Half of the MOL astronauts were transferred to a new program, the Space Shuttle.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world, there was place known by a few as Star City.
The Soviet Union built many secret cities during its time.
Founded 1960, as “Military Unit 26266 in closed townlet number one”, it was the latest in a constellation of secret places that were not on any map, populated by citizens who did not exist, to do things that did not happen.
Here, rivals to the U.S. space program trained their astronauts, in a city that did not exist east of Moscow.
The citizens who did not exist had all the things that cities did exist have, schools, post-offices, theaters, and families who dreamed of the future and the heavens.
For decades the secret city operated in the shadows, until a secret war faded away.
In the decade when a centralized closed network, the U.S.S.R., evaporated, and another emerged, the open decentralized Web, the city that did not exist reappeared.
One of the last trainees of the Soviet space program, Sergei Krikalev, was stranded in space, adrift on the Mir space station. His landing site was in a newly independent country, Kazakhstan, and negotiations began to bring him home. The last citizen of the U.S.S.R. returned home from space months later to a changed Earth.
In 2008, control was transferred to a civilian authority, which sold flights to the U.S.
Luna, Aitken Basin, Armstrong
“I wish you were here.”
“I wish I was there too. How are the kids?”
“They’re happy, playing with their cousins. They’re enjoying the games I taught them. They miss you.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m glad they’re doing okay. You remember Grissom Hall? I want you and the kids to take a trip to the outer boros. This is where cousin Valentin threw his reception, you remember him? Now, there’s going to be a party, and it looks like most of our friends from work are going.”
“Oh. Oh, yeah. Okay, sure, the kids would love that. They’ll see you, they keep asking.”
“I know. I’ll try, honey, but you know how work is, this promotion. Do something for me. No matter what, you and the kids go, even if I can’t. They’ve got all kinds of fun things planned, pack for a long weekend.”
“Okay.”
“Listen, honey, I have to go to back to work, so much to do. I’ll call you when I can. I love you.”
“I love you.”
Aleksander ended the cryptcall, and turned back to the visitor sitting in his office.
“Valentin, that was the last of the calls. I’ve posted the notice you wanted sent on the intra-office stream.
My wife knows what to do. Before we found a hiding place for her and the kids, we made up a code, even on a cryptcall, it was her idea.”
“Thank you, Aleksander. Everybody who needed to know got a call. The notice on the stream is for the minders hired by Hyperion. They’ll think this is their chance to grab everyone.
When they see all of your people going inside the Hall, the minders will take the bait.”
“There are a lot of people counting on you, your captain, all of you.
When I came here, this place, these people became my family. I met my wife here. It was good for a long time. I thought I had it made.
After what happened, after the CME, a few people found out it was because of our work on Hyperion, for “the Harvest”. The last administrator tried to do something but after they found what was left of him, that scared everyone. I’m scared too.
When we realized what happened, what choice did I have? We can’t go on like this. But I can’t protect my family like this, can’t hide them forever. Neither can the others.
A lot of good people are being used as bait, this is what it’s come to, I hate it.”
TwoTwo stopped himself from answering. He looked out of the Administrator’s office window, down at the open square in Armstrong. He wished the Captain was here to talk but he wasn’t, so he said what was on his mind.
“I came up the well, like you, to start over.
You won a job lottery and got to work the Quito Skyhook, right? You were looking at 25 years of it, honest work but that’s all there was. But one day you save your boss, and out of gratitude he gives you your shot for more. Luna.
Me, it was the service, and the Cooperative. You can say my lottery win was meeting the captain. There’s more to the story but you get the idea.
This is what I know how to do.
Not everyone can or wants to.
I can’t promise what happens, but I promise I’ll go all the way with what I can do.”
“What next?”
“Everyone you called will head to the depot deep below the Hall. Hyperion’s muscle won’t make a move until they think everyone’s inside upstairs, headed to the deck.
At the right moment, a train will take your family and the others to a station in Armstrong that’s been closed for maintenance. Nobody will see them. Not Hyperion.
When it’s over, you won’t have to hide.”
“That train runs in two directions, to Armstrong, the other way leads to Shackleton. What is the captain going to do?”
TwoTwo paused a moment before answering.
“What the captain promised. He’s never broken a promise, this I know. It’s better you don’t know the details. Everyone caught up by Hyperion will be free after it’s over.”
TwoTwo got up to leave.
“We both got a lot to do, Aleksander. As soon at it starts, you’ll get a message to leave work and be given an address. Do not go back. See you on the other end of this.”
NOTE - For those who just read this and been dropped in the middle of things:
You are reading a chapter for the end of a book I began writing a few months ago.
It is being shared as it is written daily.
You do not have to know or read what “happened” to get something out of it.
In the first third of “HRVST”, we learned about the mythology of moon and sun. It was also a SciFi story set in real places on the moon.
This second third of “HRVST” will focus on recent history. Over 10 days (8 now).
The final third will focus on the future, and the end of this book#2, “Ledger Domain”.
The backstory of “HRVST” was written in Part 1 and Part 2 of “Ledger Domain”. Part 3 featured what the “captain” was looking for. Each part was 30 chapters in 30 days.
At the same time, in between, I will write pieces about the past and the future.
(Such as deep piece I wrote about a historical connection between today’s A.I. Art to William Blake, Da Vinci, & open source “Web” in “You’ve Got That Infinite Feeling”.
I shared it with an exec. chair on Stability AI’s board. He liked it and shared it with the founder and others, which encourages me to pursue AI Art and storytelling.)
NOTES:
AI Lexica Prompt
full shot of a beautiful john f kennedy with defined facial features, intricate abstract. cyberpunk, symmetrical facial features. biomechanics. betta fish, jellyfish phoenix, bio luminescent, plasma, by ruan jia and artgerm and range murata and wlop and ross tran and william - adolphe bouguereau and beeple. in the style of jin kagetsu, james jean and wlop, key art. fantasy illustration. award winning, artstation, intricate details, realistic, hyperdetailed, 8 k resolution.