Pilgrimage (The New World) by Kurt Winans Page A

could be done, and Ross had made the decision to turn off each of their voice recorders so the painful death of his friend would not be heard and dissected by the entire world.
    When asked why he had not turned back on his own voice recorder after Dennis had died, Ross explained that there was nothing to say at that time and he was more focused on figuring out a way to get his friend’s body back to the rover. In spite of the lessor gravity, it took a great amount of time and effort to move Dennis the required distance. During that process Ross had determined that he needed to remove the backpack from his friend’s suit to lessen the weight of the lifeless body. That was a boldface lie he was telling NASA, but the chances of them finding out the truth were minimal at best. Ross had been helped with moving the body, and the pack with a now missing part needed to be left on the surface. His story was plausible, and would explain the time lapse that had been used in quiet contemplation back at the rover.
    After several minutes of waiting for instructions from NASA, Ross was informed that the overall length of the mission would be cut short. He had suspected that would be the course of action due to what had taken place, but he wasn’t happy with the decision. Privately he knew that this was a tremendous opportunity to communicate with the alien species at greater length, but he couldn’t tell NASA that was why he wanted to stay for the remaining scheduled days. Ross was instructed to get the dead body of Dennis aboard the shuttle by any means possible, even if that meant using the robotic arm normally reserved for cargo. Ross then lost his cool for a moment when he sharply informed NASA that, “I fully intend to bring Dennis back to Earth, but I will attempt to find a more humane way to get the body back on board the Discovery!”
    Ross climbed the ladder leading into the cargo bay, and ran one of the tethers attached to the rover around the top rung. He then tied and clipped it around the chest area of Dennis before slowly moving the rover away from the shuttle to pull the body across a few feet of the lunar surface and up the ladder. Ross climbed the ladder with the other tether that he had disconnected from the rover, and tied it around the legs of the lifeless body. It was difficult for Ross to get past the body with limited space on the ladder, but he was on a mission and determined to climb inside the cargo bay. He then wrapped the tether attached to the legs around a harness, and used it as a pulley system to lift the majority of Dennis’ body over the lip of the cargo bay. After unclipping and tossing away the first tether, Ross then lowered the body as gently as possible down into the cargo bay.
    With the most significant aspect of the challenge behind him, Ross now only needed to move the body along the floor of the cargo bay towards the hatch. He pulled Dennis into the airlock area, shut the door, and heard the hissing sound of the compartment being pressurized with oxygen. Once inside the shuttles flight deck and living area, he placed Dennis in a bunk and strapped the body down with the bright orange tether.
    He returned briefly to the surface of the Moon to power down the rover and stow away any loose equipment. As had been the plan from the beginning, the pole holding the American flag was then lashed to the rover with the remaining tether so it would never fall down, and Ross climbed back up the ladder into the cargo bay. He saluted the flag and flung the ladder away from the ship before returning to the airlock. With the cargo bay doors closed, he got out of his spacesuit to get some much needed sleep before the flight back to Earth.
    The next morning, at the direction of mission control, Ross began the launch sequence. He would need to do the work of two men, so the pre-flight sequencing took a little longer than usual. Soon the shuttle Discovery was ready to go for the first ever horizontal liftoff by any