STRANGE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OMNIBUS (6 page)

The story referred to the bodies of the victims being torn apart and mangled as though by some wild beast. It added that the police had been forced to break into the mansion as all doors and windows had been securely fastened from the inside. There were no signs of any attempt at forced entrance and no indication that the murders had resulted from a botched robbery attempt.

So sensational were the murders that follow-up stories about it appeared on succeeding days. .Many of the facts from the original story were repeated, along with statements from the police that no motive for the crimes could be uncovered. The story on the third day told Jimmy something he had no seen before. The paper had uncovered the fact that a very similar still unsolved crime had taken place in the mansion some six years before, An entire family including three small children had been brutally murdered, with the victims’ bodies torn apart and mangled beyond description. Following the earlier crime, the house had been boarded up and left uninhabited. Prospective purchasers, it added had been discouraged by the violent crime that occurred in it and because of the gossip in the neighborhood that it “was haunted.”

After work, Jimmy on a whim hired a taxi to take him to see the mansion. It was fortunate that he had copied down the address. When he arrived at the site, he found it completely changed. The mansion had been razed and all of the tall trees cut down. Where his parent’s home once stood, he saw eight very modern town houses occupying the lot.

When his assignment to the Washington Bureau was over, Jimmy carefully warded off suggestions by the Bureau Chief that he might wish to become a permanent member of its staff. He departed Washington by train as rapidly as he could, heading for the shore to spend the weekend with his wife and children at his in law’s beach cottage. Jimmy never returned to Washington again. He was always very grateful he had not learned whether had been his imagination or if he had really glimpsed something horrible in the mansion cellar. It was something it was better not to know. But of one thing he was absolutely certain. He was very glad he had refused to let his parents convince him he had not seen anything there and that one of the most fortunate days of his life was the day he left with his grandfather to return to Ohio.

Herman Hawthorne was unique in two distinct areas. He was the third richest individual in North America, thanks to his late father’s early investment in the shale oil industry. Secondly, he was the world’s worst curmudgeon. Hawthorne cared not one iota for the opinions of other people. Everyone except him, he said often and loudly, was either a fool or a charlatan, or both. Naturally, he could hardly be said to be well liked.

None of Hawthorne’s views were widely accepted and most were almost universally discredited. His claims that the germ theory had no basis of fact but was actually invented by the Pinnacle Pharmaceutical Company in 1904, in what was a highly successful campaign to increase the sales of its drugs was universally scoffed at, despite Hawthorne’s proof that a high percentage of all pharmaceutical products are today actually purchased by individuals responding to widespread television advertising. Similarly, his assertions that earthworms actually do fall from the sky when it rains, rather than simply fleeing their flooded homes was flatly denied by all reputable scientific bodies, notwithstanding Hawthorne’s clear evidence that no widespread scientific research had ever been conducted to objectively look into his theory.

Hawthorne was born and raised in northern Florida, far from the family’s holdings of shale oil leases but close to the bank, to which all the royalties from the shale oil operations were funneled. As a child, Hawthorne was taken by his father to observe one of the space shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral and this incident made a lasting impression on him. Not a favorable impression. Even as a child, Hawthorne distrusted what anyone told him and thought the so-called space shuttle launch was a giant fraud.

Growing to adulthood, Hawthorne’s greatest campaign was aimed at proving that NASA’s statements about space exploration were all part of a giant hoax, designed to illegally obtain funds by whichever corrupt administration was in power in Washington. “Can you honestly believe,” he would assert to all who would listen, “That we actually sent a manned expedition to the moon? Why even Jules Verne’s novel
A Trip to the Moon
is more creditable.”

Hawthorne was so certain of his derogatory opinion about NASA that he decided to obtain the necessary proof. There were fewer obstacles to Hawthorne attempting to do this than for most other individuals because of his great personal wealth. But even for a person with Hawthorne’s resources to replicate the American space program would have been too costly.

Fortunately, Hawthorne had other arrows in his quiver. Alone among prominent Americans, Hawthorne had strongly endorsed the Russian annexation of the Crimea. Ignoring popular outcry, he further loudly identified himself with Moscow’s call for Ukraine to cease its effort to join the European Economic Union. Russian President Vladimir Putin was so grateful over this rare show of foreign support for his policies that he sent a warm, personally hand-written note to Hawthorne, thanking him and inviting him to visit Russia.

Hawthorne quickly accepted the invitation and travelled to Russia. In Moscow, he was treated with the same ceremony as would be accorded a friendly head of state. At the formal dinner in his honor, he was seated at the table next to the Russian President, and he and President Putin spent almost two hours in friendly conversation. It was during this meeting that Hawthorne extracted from Putin a promise that Russia would permit him to use its space facilities to send his own expedition to the moon.

The Russian President probably did not expect he would have to honor his promise to Hawthorne. After all, of what use is a commitment to use Russian space facilities if one does not have a space capsule. Hawthorne had no official backing so there was no practical chance of his buying or borrowing a space capsule. Undaunted, Hawthorne thanked Putin, departed Moscow the next day and back in the United States began furious efforts to obtain a space capsule. With his great wealth, it was still difficult but not impossible.

After examining his options, Hawthorne heard of an ex-Air Force Major and former astronaut, Harley Mathews, who had been forced out of the program after a series of highly-publicized extra-marital affairs. The one-time astronaut had NASA Training to pilot a space capsule. Mathews was now in bad financial shape, attempting to eke out a living as a salesman of aluminum siding while paying large alimony payments to his former wife, and providing child support to the unwed mother with whom he had fathered a child.

Hawthorne contacted Mathews and offered him a six-figure salary and two year contract if he would agree to head the proposed expedition to the Moon. His duties would include designing a capsule for the journey and then piloting it. Despite the great temptation of the financial package, Mathews truthfully explained the many practical obstacles in the way of such a project. His objections were dismissed and Mathews agreed, assuming that Hawthorne would come to realize the futility of his plan and abort it, but not before Mathews would receive a healthy cash infusion.

Without further delay, Hawthorne purchased a closed auto manufacturing plant in Michigan and installed Mathews in an office on the top floor, formerly housing the factory management. From his office, Mathews could observe the work of the labor force on the factory floor below. Mathews’ first task was to draw up the plans for a space capsule capable of transporting a crew of two from the Earth to the Moon, landing on the Moon’s surface, and then safely returning the crew back to Earth.

Initially Mathews just went through the motions, aware of the apparent futility of the project. He was astounded when Hawthorne asked to see the plans, carefully inspected them and then gave Mathews detailed instructions on how to improve them. Mathews realized that although Hawthorne was eccentric, he was nevertheless extremely intelligent and had good technical knowledge.

The finished design was for a space capsule resembling in appearance a rustic log cabin. Despite its odd appearance and its smaller size than the space capsules designed by NASA, it was theoretically possible for it to reach the Moon. In some respects it was even better. Mathews was aware, from personal experience in piloting a space capsule, of defects he could now correct. He now

employed new technology and material developed since the original space capsule design was finalized. Its thrust engines were more powerful than earlier ones and capable of extreme speeds, despite the relatively heavier weight of Hawthorne’s capsule, due to the reinforcing of its sides to prevent damage from collisions with dust particles in space.

The plans completed, it was now time to begin the manufacture and assembly of the various component parts. Some were to be manufactured in the plant, others to be obtained from outside suppliers. Hawthorne showed great skill in supervising the award of the contracts. He was aided by the fact that he did not have to employ certain companies as suppliers that had powerful advocates in Congress, nor was he obliged to purchase from the lowest cost bidders who might actually be unable or unwilling to supply the highest quality item.

Mathews had no difficulty in assembling a trained work force, being able to choose from among the many unemployed workers in the area. The space capsule was completed ahead of schedule and shipped to the East coast to be loaded onto a fast merchant vessel chartered by Hawthorne to transport it to a Russia Black Sea port. When the ship neared its destination, Hawthorne and Mathews flew directly to Moscow on Hawthorne’s private jet.

Russian President Putin was surprised and annoyed by Hawthorne’s arrival. He was deeply involved in handling the crisis with Ukraine, seeking to keep that country within the Russian orbit while avoiding a rupture with Western Europe and the United States. He never anticipated when he made his vague commitment to Hawthorne that he would actually request the use of the Russian space facilities to send an expedition to the Moon. Putin therefore invited Hawthorne to tea at the Kremlin, planning to spend only a few minutes with him and then return to more important matters.

Their meeting did not go as the Russian President had planned. Hawthorne not only voiced his strong endorsement of all Russian actions toward Ukraine, but volunteered to repeat them at a news conference in Moscow and again in Washington. Putin was particularly overjoyed by Hawthorne’s declaration that “If he had been in Putin’s shoes, he would react just as Putin had reacted.” A public statement like this from one of the most powerful American business leaders would clearly aid Russian propaganda and greatly bolster Putin’s standing in Western Europe.

Unsurprisingly, the Russian President quickly agreed to Hawthorne’s request for help with his expedition. Putin issued instructions for Russian officials to accord every possible assistance and to treat the proposed launch to the Moon as the equivalent of a top priority Russian project. When the vessel transporting Hawthorne’s space capsule docked, it was unloaded promptly and sent by rail to the Russian space launch facility at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. After his press conference, at which he repeated the statements on Russian policy toward Ukraine which he had told Putin, Hawthorne and Mathews were flown on Putin’s personal jet to Baikonur.

The lift off a few days later went according to plan. Mathews, extremely nervous and not certain that the capsule would actually survive in space, found that when he took control it functioned perfectly. The capsule and its two man crew enjoyed an uneventful flight to the Moon with everything going well except for Hawthorne’s stomach, which rebelled at the feeling of weightlessness in space. At the critical moment when the capsule was to land on the Moon’s surface, Mathews did an excellent job, executing a smooth landing.

As soon as the ship stopped moving, Hawthorne rushed to dress himself to begin his exploration. He had equipped the capsule with only one protective suit, seeing no reason why Mathews needed to leave the ship. Giving Mathews instructions to prepare for a return to Earth as soon as he returned, Hawthorne went through the airlock and stepped down onto the moon.

Hawthorne did not expect to spend much time on the moon. He was quite sure that he would learn enough in a few minutes to confirm his suspicion that no human had ever actually landed on the moon, and that all accounts to the contrary had been fabricated for ulterior purposes. He felt much better even in his confining space suit than he had during the trip, his stomach having returned to normal.

Notwithstanding the heavy space suit, Hawthorne made good progress, aided by his much lighter gravity on the moon. He ascended a small hill and then saw in front of him a depression in the surface, about twelve feet deep and probably some thirty yards long and wide. In the center was a large circular mound. The height above the mound declined on a gentle gradient and Hawthorne was able to walk down it with no difficulty.

Nearing the mound, he changed his mind about it. It did not look like a hill and in fact like something not naturally made. Could it be a house? His mind rebelled at that thought. Circling the mound he saw what might be a door. Feeling very foolish he approached it and knocked. The door swung open. Inside Hawthorne saw a human type figure. At first glance, it appeared to be his own height, but when looking down he realized it was floating about a foot in the air. It was wearing some type of white garment and emitted a type of soft radiance.

“Are you a Moon Man?” Hawthorne asked, hardly believing his eyes and feeling very foolish in asking.

“Don’t be idiotic!” came back the answer in perfect English. “What else could I be? Do you really think I might be a Martian?”

Hawthorne was taken aback. He was pondering what to say when the Moon Man went on. “You might as well take off that helmet you’re wearing around your head. There is plenty of oxygen in this depression for you to breathe properly.”