It Was the Right Thing to do.

This is a story prompted by an old and recurring injustice. It is my hope that I will generate interest in this injustice and bring it to a halt, once and for all. Thank you for reading this story.

                 “It Was the Right Thing to do”

        by

 Allan Cook

    "Houston, we are prepared to initiate our re entry burn."

     "Roger, that Armstrong, reentry burn in thirty seconds."

     Unfortunately for the Lunar Spacecraft 'Neil Armstrong' the reentry burn did not go as planned. The rocket engine fired twenty-three seconds early and lasted twelve seconds longer than intended. Mission Control needed to do some critical calculations to determine how the aberrant re entry burn would influence the fate of the mission and the lives of the three astronauts on board.

     While the  computers analysed the new data they had received, Mission Control feverishly attempted to make contact with the ‘Neil Armstrong’ spacecraft. 

    “‘Neil Armstrong’, this is Mission Control, do you read me? 

    “‘Neil Armstrong’, this is Mission Control, come in, ‘Neil Armstrong’.

    Over and over, the CAPCOM called into his microphone, hoping against hope to get a response. Finally the Flight Director intervened. “CAPCOM, you can stop transmitting. If they’re out there, by this time they would have entered the re entry communications blackout zone. Begin again in six minutes.”

     “Roger that, Flight.” the CAPCOM replied.

     What Mission Control couldn’t know was that the ‘Neil Armstrong’ was suffering through a particularly rough, and potentially fatal, re entry. If they were fortunate, all they would lose were the onboard electrical systems.

     In Mission Control, time appeared to have slowed down as the minutes seemed like hours. At last, the agonizing six minutes had elapsed and the CAPCOM resumed calling out.

    “‘Neil Armstrong’, this is Mission Control, do you read me? 

    “‘Neil Armstrong’, this is Mission Control, come in, ‘Neil Armstrong’.

    The only response he received was the sound of static. The CAPCOM kept at is for twenty minutes. His calls became more and more desperate. Then came the message he’d been dreading.

    “CAPCOM, this is Flight Director, you can cease your efforts to establish communications. We’ve lost them.”

   Ths CAPCOM did not stop though, he continued shouting into his headset microphone.“‘Neil Armstrong, please come in. I beg of you, for the love of God, please come in!”

    The Flight Director allowed this to continue for ten minutes before directing the Master at Arms to remove the CAPPCOM’s headset.

    Silence filled Mission Control as the reality of the situation set in.

    Aboard the ‘Neil Armstrong’ the situation was becoming critical. The temperature in the Spacecraft was rising quickly as the heat shield underwent the ablative process designed to protect the Spacecraft from the build up of heat during a normal re entry. This was not an ordinary re entry and the heat shield was in danger of failing. A failure would result in immediate and complete destruction of the spacecraft and its occupants.

     The three Astronauts were veterans of many space missions and not easily frightened. The Mission Commander was Navy Commander Perry “Birddog” Lowell, the Command Module Pilot was Marine Major Bernie “Meatball” Wilson and the Lunar Module Pilot was Navy Lt. Commander Gary “Stone” Harper.

    Stating the obvious, Birddog declared “Getting a little toasty in here, Meatball.” 

    “Hey Stone!” Meatball called out. “Open a window for Bird Dog.”

    “Roger that, Meatball, employing my can opener,” Stone responded.

    “You guys are regular Milton Berles!” Bird Dog shot back.

    “Huh?” Stone was completely stumped by that remark.

    “Google it when we get home,” Birdog told him, with a belly laugh. “Seriously, it’s getting hot.”

    “I’ll take care of that right now,” Stone told the others. 

    With the electrical systems out of action, Stone reached up and pulled a handle, releasing their drogue chute. The three were slammed back into their seats as the drogue chute deployed the main chutes. The ablation process on the heat shield stopped and the temperature began dropping.

    “This is as good as opening the window.” Bird Dog was laughing uncontrollably now. His infectious laugh spread to the others and hilarity filled the Spacecraft.

     It took a minute or two for the laughter subside and the seriousness of the situation to manifest itself once again.

    “Can you tell where we are?” asked Birddog.

    “I’m afraid not, Commander,” Major Wilson reported. “Every electrical system we have, is out.”

    They was a jolt as the Spacecraft hit the water. The craft began bobbing up and down in the heavy waves.

     “Without our communication or guidance systems, we have no idea whether recovery vessels are coming for us, or in the area. They may not even know where we are,” Commander Lowell declared, stating the obvious. “We have to assume that we’re on our own, at least, for a while.”

     “Our oxygen supply is nealy depleted and won’t last much longer. We’re going to have to open the hatch, soon,” Major Wilson warned.

      “We’ll wait until the last possible moment before we do that,” Commander Lowell ordered. “Without divers to attach a buoyancy ring, we’re  take on water and sink.”

     “We’ve got a leak!” shouted Lt. Commander Harper.

     Sure enough, there was a crack in the Spacecraft and water was seeping in.

    Commander Lowell quickly assessed the situation, and took action. “That changes everything! We’re going to have to get out of here and take our chances in the water. Blow the hatch, Meatball!”

     One by one, the bolts exploded and the hatch loosened. When the final bolt was gone, Meatball pushed the hatch outward and it fell into the ocean. Immediately, the spacecraft began filling with water. The waves were too high.

     “Let’s get out of here!” Meatball shouted.

    He was about to dive out of the spacecraft when it was suddenly lifted out of the water and into the air. Before they were able to comprehend what was happening to them, the spacecraft moving. It seeemed to be floating above the waves. Since they were out of immediate danger, they sat back to consider their situation. They decided that their best choice was to let this situation play itself out. 

     With no way to determine time, they had no idea how long or how far they were being carried above the water. They calmly sat there waiting for the situation to change.

      As suddenly as it began, the movement stopped. Inside, they were rocked as if the spacecraft had run into a wall. Then nothing. No movement forward and no bobbing up and down. The spacecraft was sitting still. Carefully, Lt. Commander Harper pulled himself forward until he could see outside, through the hatch. 

     “We’re on land!” he reported.

     The staff at Mission Control was busy working the problem, but they kept coming to the same conclusion. No one wanted to say it, but they all were now aware that the ‘Neil Armstrong’ had burned up on re entry and the three astronauts were gone.

     “Secure all of the work stations,” ordered the Flight Director as each technician was escorted from their station by security personell.

     Several days later a select committee of experts was empaneled to investigate what happened to the ‘Neil Armstrong’ Spacecraft. It went unspoken, but everyone knew that someone had to take the blame for the disaster. 

     For the next three weeks, the committee pored  over the data and interviewed dozens of the people involved with the mission. Their goal was to interview everyone involved. They were sure that they would find some discrepancy that could be exploited to place the blame on someone.

     During those same three weeks, the crew of the ‘Neil Armstrong’ was working to get something on board the Spacecraft to work. Their emphasis was on the communications system and the emergency beacon. 

     The island they had been deposited on was a paradise. There was plenty of food and fresh water. The days were warm and sunny and the nights were balmy. The sea breeze cooled the air during the day and warmed it at night. They could not have selected a more pleasant place to be stranded.

     “Alright, here goes nothing,” Stone announced as he flipped a switch on the ‘Neil Armstrong's’ control panel. 

     Seconds later, a green light began flashing, indicating that the Emergency Beacon was functioning and sending out a distress call. He began to hoot and a holler. Birddog and Meatball joined the howling and they all celebrated the belief that they would soon be rescued.

     Back at Houston Mission Control, a red light on the began flashing, alerting everyone that someone was in danger. 

     “It’s from the “Neil Armstrong” one of the technicians shouted in disbelief. 

     Word quickly spread across the Johnson Space Flight Center. When the mission Flight Director heard the news, he rushed from his office back to Mission Control.

     By the time he arrived, many of the stations were already being occupied and functioning. The Flight Director donned his headset and asked, “Are we sure it’s the ‘Neil Armstrong’?" Before anyone could reply, he further asked, "Where is it coming from?” 

     Despite his calm exterior, the Flight Director’s insides were churning. Waiting impatiently for answers to his questions, he repeated, “Where is the signal originating?”

     “Flight, this is Telemetry, we have pinpointed the location. It’s coming from Isla Genovesa, in the Galapagos Islands.”

     The Flight Director notified the Director of NASA who, in turn, contacted the President. The President notified the Chief of Naval Operations for the Atlantic.

     “Mr. President, our nearest ship is a nuclear attack submarine. I’ll need a Presidential order to use that ship for the rescue mission,” the Admiral in charge informed the President. “It’s location is currently Top Secret.

     “When can the submarine carry out the rescue?” the President asked.

     “Within the hour,” the Admiral replied.

     “How far away is the next nearest ship?” the President asked next.

     “It will take the best part of a day for the next nearest ship to get there,” the Admiral answered.

      The President declared, “I order you to have the submarine make the rescue.”

     “Yes, sir,” the Admiral affirmed the order and the line went dead.

     The crew of the ‘Neil Armstrong’ waited, as patiently as they could, as the minutes passed.

    “Do you think our signal is being received?” Stone asked, hopefully.

    “There’s no reason to believe that it isn’t.” Birddog answered, with a reassuring tone.

    “We have no idea where we are,” Meatball added. “It’s quite possible that there aren’t any ships near enough to get to us as quickly as we’d like.”

    “So we wait.” Stone was becoming disheartened.

    The three of them laid on the beach, under the cover of a lean-to they had constructed to protect them from the Sun. All they could do now was stare into the blue waters of the Atlantic and wait. The seas were calm and the waves small. They were in no immediate danger as they lay contemplating their fate.

     Their peace and tranquility was suddenly shattered as the black mast of a United States Nuclear Attack Submarine broke the surface, about a quarter of a mile from where they lay. The mast was followed by the submarine’s tear shaped hull.

    Their rescue was at hand.

    Only three days later they were in a room at the Johnson Space Flight Center, being debriefed.

    The debriefing was being conducted by a panel composed of a mixture of seven military and civilian personel.  The debriefing was going well. The three astronauts were able to tell their story and adequately answer all the questions put to them.

     Imperceptibly, Commander Lowell made eye contact with Major Wilson and Lt. Commander Harper. In return, each gave him a nearly invisible head nod.

     The Commander waited until the mundane question being asked of him was completed. His, off topic, response stunned everyone in the room. The words, “We believe that we encountered an intelligent species,” were delivered in a calm, nonchalant manner. Dead silence filled the room as everyone in attendance tried to reconcile what they had just heard.

     The silence was broken by the Chairperson of the committee asking, “Would you repeat what you just said?”

     “Of course,” Commander Lowell responded. “I believe that we encountered an intelligent species.”

     “Would you describe the speciesto this committee, Commander?” asked one of the panelists.

     Commander Lowell hesitated for a moment then began replied. “Major Wilson, Lt. Commander Harper and I have discussed this matter and believe that a description of the species could result in a bias, for or against, with regard to the determination of this species’ intelligence.”

    “How do you propose that determination be made?” asked the Chairperson.

    “Major Wilson will answer that question,” Commander Lowell told the Chairperson.

    “Very well, please proceed, Major,” said the Chairperson.

     “Thank you, Sir,” Major Wilson began. “We propose that the United Nations create an Ad Hoc Committee to make that determination. The committee would be composed of representatives from all nations that currently have an active space program.”

     The United Nations doesn’t do anything in a hurry, and this was no exception. It took them six months to approve and empanel the committee Major Wilson requested. The process was complicated by the fact that several dozen countries have space programs but only thirteen have actually been able to launch rockets into space. After an insufferable amount of debate, it was decided that only those countries that have actually launched rockets into space would be on the committee. The members were: the China National Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Israeli Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency, the Korean Aerospace Research Agency (North Korea), the Korean Aerospace Research Agency (South Korea),  the Indian Space Research Organization, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (United States), and the National Center of Space Research (France).

    On November 11, 2019, nearly eight months after Commander Lowell’s pronouncement, the committee convened for the first time. Each committee member was armed with its own list of criteria that the species in question must demonstrate in order for it to possess intelligence. 

    The committee’s first concern was to adopt a definition of intelligence.  Six weeks of, frequently, heated debate ensued at the end of which the following definition was adopted. Intelligence is, “The capacity to act, think and deal rationally in order to adjust to any type of environment.”

    With a definition to work with, the committee next had to elucidate what qualities were required in a species to fit the definition. 

      The nine weeks of debate on this subject were so heated that, at times, it threatened to destroy the committee. It was only through the hard work of the Chairperson and Co-chairperson that the job got done. In the end, the committee unanimously adopted a set of standards necessary for intelligence.

     “The species must be able to problem solve as well as demonstrate self-awareness, empathy, innovation, teaching skills, grief, joy and playfulness.”

    A full year had passed since the astronauts announced that they had encountered an intelligent species. The United Nations Committee was finally ready to assess the species in question and make a determination on its intelligence. 

     The three astronauts were seated at a table facing the committee members. Whatever documents they needed were in folders, close at hand. Each was provided with a pad of paper on which to take notes.

     When everyone was settled, the Chairperson called the meeting to order and made a few predictable and mundane opening remarks. The co-chairperson did the same. Each committee member was then allowed five minutes to make an opening statement. 

    Once the grandstanding and politicing was completed, the Chairperson said to the astronauts,“Gentlemen, you are now free to make your case,” 

    Commander Lowell was the first to speak. “I first want to thank the committee for their work and for holding this meeting. We have read your criteria for intelligence with great interest. I’m certain that we can convince you that what we present here today, is undoubtedly evidence of an intelligent species. I will first discuss the self-awareness of the species. You set the bar rather low here, at being able to recognize itself in a mirror. We have. On many occasions observed members of this species looking at itself in mirrored surfaces. There actions, when doing so, were similar to what a human would do under the same circumstances. We witnessed them turning to see different parts of their bodies in the mirrored surface. They would not have done so if they weren’t aware of what they were looking at.” The Commanders lifted a card with all the criteria listed on it. He showed it to the committee and placed a check mark next to Self-Awareness. “The next item on the list is Empathy. Major Wilson will address that criterium. You’ve got the floor, Meatball.”

     Major Wilson stood and faced the committee. “I too would like to thank the committee for their diligence. The event we witnessed demonstrated, not only empathy but also teaching skills. Among the group of this species we were watching, was a member that had suffered a disabling injury and was unable to feed itself. The members of the group not only figured a way that the injured member could feed itself and taught that method to him. Birddog, you may check off empathy. Just put a dot next to teaching skills; we have a better example of that.”

     Major Wilson sat down and Lt. Commander Harper stood. “Our next observations will demonstrate their innovativeness, along with their ability to be playful and feel joy. Get ready to check those off, Birddog. We witnessed an interesting display where several of the larger members of the species used their bodies to create a, sort of, slide. Water was allowed to run down the slide, making it slippery. The smaller members then took turns sliding down the slide. The sound they made could only be interpreted as laughter. This is also that exhibition of teaching ability Meatball, oops I mean, Major Wilson mentioned. The smaller members were having so much fun that their laughter attracted more large and small members of the species. It was obvious to us all that the sounds the larger members made were a form of veral communication. The new arrivals copied the slide making behavior as if they were being instructed on how to do so. After only a short period time, the new arrivals were joining in the fun as they slid down the slides, over and over. Birddog, please check off innovation, joy, playfulness and teaching skills. Somewhere on the bottom there, add effective verbal communication and check it off.”

     The Lt. Commander sat back down and Commander Lowell stood. “That only leaves grief. I am sorry to have to report that we did witness grief. While we were there, an older member of the species died. At the moment of death, several of the members clung to the body of the dead one, refusing to let it go. What we witnessed was complete and unbridaled grief.” Slowly he checked grief off of the list. “With our goal of checking each box, we only gave examples of each of the behaviors you required. There is so much more though. The complicated and continuous interactions among the members of the species defies any explanation other than the actions of a species of advanced intelligence. I only touched upon their ability to use veral communication. Truth be told, they displayed a very complicated language.  

     Our presentation is now complete. I thank you once again for making this presentation possible. I pray that you recognize that what we have described here is, beyond any doubt, an intelligent species and that you will mandate that the species will not be exploited or subjugated during future encounters.”

     The Chairperson retook control of the meeting. “I want to thank the three of you for bringing this interesting problem to our attention. Would you now provide us with a description or, better yet, a picture of the species?”

     Commander Lowell responded. “I won’t do that because, as I have stated on previous occasions, the appearance of this, or any, species could cause a conscious or unconscious bias, for or against intelligence.”

     “I understand your reservations, Commander,” the Chairperson replied. “I will require you to identify it once a decision, pro or con, has been reached. Failure to do so will result in a punitive action. Do you understand?”

    All three acknowledged their understanding of the Chairperson’s warning. The members of the committee stood and left the room to deliberate the fate of an intelligent species.

   “So, how do you think we did?” asked Commander Lowell. “Do you think we convinced anyone?”

   “I couldn’t get a reading on any of the committee members,” Major Wilson replied. “They were pretty stoic  throughout the whole presentation.”

    “I didn’t get any feeling, one way or the other either,” Lt. Commander Harper added.

     “I was convinced all over again,” Commander Lowell said with a laugh.

     “ I guess we just wait,” Major Wilson said woefully and sat down.

     The committee took only a little over an hour to come to a decision. As the committee members filed back in, they’re faces displayed no emotion.

     The committee chairperson shuffled a few papers in front of him, took a drink of water and presented the committee’s decision. “Commander Lowell, Major Wilson, Lt. Commander Harper, you have made a srong case. We could find no weakness in your arguments. It is the finding of this committee that the species you represented here today is, indeed, highly intelligent and deserving of protection if, and when, humans encounter it in the future. I personally want to thank you for undertaking this quest. Now can you show us what we’ve been discussing?” The Chairperson smiled widely and sat down.

     Birddog, Meatball and Stone all stood as one. Each took a folded up poster from folders that had been sitting on the table during the entire hearing. Each of them, slowly, unfolded the poster with the back toward the committee. 

    “Now, gentlemen,” said Commander Lowell. 

    All together they turned the posters toward the committee. The members were shocked when they saw what was depicted on the poster. There was picture after picture of the numerous members of the Cetacean order; whales, dolphins and porpoises.

     The Japanese member of the committee jumped to his feet and, pointing an accusing finger shouted, “You’ve deceived us! You told us you encountered the species on the far side of the moon!”

     The Commander was about to reply when the representative of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stood and interrupted him. “My friend from Japan is in error. At no time did any of these gentlemen say that they encountered the species on the moon.”

    “There’s nobody up there,” the Commander added with a sneer.

     The Japanese representative shouted in response, “It was implied!”

     Before the NASA representative could reply, Major Wilson replied, calmly, “No, you inferred it.”

    “Japan will not recognize these findings,” the Japanese representative continued shouting. 

    “I will remind the representative from Japan that we agreed at the outset that the findings of this committee will be legally binding to all members of the United Nations.” the chairperson declared.

     Upon hearing what the Chairperson said, the Japanese representative stormed out of the room. The chairperson then pounded his gavel three times to restore order to the room.

“Commander Lowell, Major Wilson, Lt. Commander Harper, it would appear that you have put an end to whaling once and for all,” said the Chairperson.

     “If it weren’t for these, I don’t know what to call them now,” Commander Lowell replied. “However we decide to refer to them, we would not be alive today if it weren’t for their intelligence, and I should add, patience and forgivingness. This was the least we could do!”

                       The End

     

    

Author's Note

I wrote this in a hurry and rushed to get it published. The whole problem irritates the crap out of me and I had to say something. Please don't pick it apart.