Putting on the Dish Page #4

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How about the backup generator?

Sh*t.

Sorry about that Howard.

No trouble, as long as everything

is fine at the installation.

They have all that under control.

Backup generators, the works.

Still, I'll check with Al.

Where's Al?

Anything?

Nothing.

And we've lost lock.

What happened to the generator?

The fuel pump.

- What about it?

- When I drained it...

I forgot to prime the lines.

You forgot? Jesus!

How could you do that?

- This is what happens...

- Don't you dare!

All right.

We must find that ship.

Switch to manual drive.

Get a lock.

What's its position?

Come on.

I think the computer's wiped.

Sh*t.

- Are we stuffed?

- Kinda.

Yep, we're stuffed.

What's that noise?

- It's moving.

- How?

- M.E.'s chasing its own tail.

- Shut it down.

We'll have to override...

How far did it move?

Far enough.

Are we sending anything?

Sydney, this is Flight Control.

Are you receiving a

signal from Parkes?

Negative, Houston.

PKS, Flight Control here.

Do you copy?

Flight Control, this is Parkes.

We copy.

Parkes, we'vee lost your

signal. Confirm status.

Houston, Parkes here. We

still have a strong signal.

Must be a relay problem.

Copy, Parkes. We'll look

into it. Stand by.

Parkes standing by.

That's bullshit.

You bullshitted NASA.

That's not good.

I bought us some time.

Let me get that straight.

You've lost Apollo 11.

Yeah.

Southern Hemisphere's prime

receiving station...

has no idea where Apollo 11 is?

On it's way to the moon.

Computer can't lock us back on?

No. If it loses power,

it loses data.

I thought we had an

uninterruptable power source.

It was, but you see, the

generator didn't kick back.

How come?

Ltjust didn't, that's all.

- Power's on. It's under control.

- Except we've lost Apollo 11.

Except for that.

We still have the data.

It must be programmed back in.

How long will that take?

Hours? A day? Months?

How long, Glenn?

Take a shot.

It's a lot of calculations.

We're not relaying data.

Houston would've noticed.

Well, they did call.

What'd you tell them.

I told them that...

the problem wasn't at our end.

- You lied?

- Bullshitted them.

- We have to tell them.

- That we stuffed it?

Like they stuffed the Southern

Hemisphere coordinates.

- Call for a current position.

- They say we're not required.

Excuse me?

We're d*ckheads who can't

maintain a signal.

- Cliff, NASAwill...

- Listen, Al.

We can reprogram the system.

Just keen NASA off our

backs for a while.

I am NASAand I say

we tell them now.

PKS, Houston N.C.

Go ahead, Houston.

Spoken to INCO. No closer

to finding this breakdown.

Are you sure it's downstream?

PKS...

it's still on-line. Confirming

loss of signal downstream.

Roger. We'll maintain

alternative feed.

What have I done?

- You bullshitted NASA.

- Good man, Al.

Let's get cracking.

I've never been more proud

of being mayor of Parkes.

Plus, I went home with the

prettiest girl at the dance.

- You look great in yellow.

- Lemon.

Lemon.

Who's that?

Crikey!

Press will come and

won't be mugs.

All right...

what if you come clean?

Just tell NASA.

- Tell them what?

- That...

we lost Apollo 11.

- I wouldn't say that first.

- What would you say?

"You'll never guess

what happened."

Bob, it's Apollo 11.

What would they do?

- I'm not sure.

- Pull the pin?

Not officially, but

they'd downgrade our role.

We'd lose the moonwalk.

Keep a lid on that.

This will be a joke.

Who goes there?

It's just us, Rudi.

Oh, okay.

Who?

Cliff and Bob!

Oh, hi, Bob.

Rudi!

How are you?

Good. Fine.

Nighty-night.

We know when they reappear,

but not where.

- Same place as yesterday.

- They were orbiting.

Now they're translunar. We'll

have to redo every angle.

That'll take forever.

You can get an approximate

fix, and then scan.

That should do it.

I'll give you a hand

with the figures.

- I know about the generator.

- What?

I forgot to prime the fuel lines.

Well...

those things happen.

Let's get to work.

If we come on stream tomorrow,

it never happened.

You think you can do it?

I made a commitment to NASA...

and I intent to fulfill it.

No tone for a while.

Remember trying to sort out

that contract with NASA?

"What about this or that?"

"Gentlemen, this should be

the contract:

We agree to support

the Apollo 11 mission."

Just one sentence.

It was wonderful, man.

But this isn't.

This is a shithouse moment.

Halt. Who goes there?

I'm not sure.

- You said you were confident.

- I am. I was.

It's got to be in this range.

If we sweep here, it may be

outside and we'll miss it.

If we sweep wider, we

still might miss it.

You confident about that?

They're in the service module.

The rockets aren't on.

- They just sit and wait.

- Is that right?

- The fastest man has traveled.

- Go on.

It's the most chauvinistic

exercise ever.

That's why nobody asks you.

Here you go.

- I'll get my Saturn V rocket.

- Yeah, go get it.

Thanks, love.

Is everything all right

at the Dish?

- Can you keep a secret?

- No.

What's happened?

What if we split the difference?

Ship's moving too fast.

Let's call Houston,

ask for coordinates.

They'll know we bullshitted.

Let's say what happened.

That we lied?

That'll go down well.

I don't it will.

Morning, everyone.

How's it going?

- Good.

- You were on the new last night.

Is everything all right?

Yeah. It's fine.

Glenn was just checking...

- some stuff.

- Really?

I'd better let you get to it.

- Sorry for interrupting.

- Not at all.

- Thanks for the food.

- It was my pleasure.

What do you wanna do?

Let's give this some thought.

Sector G, come in.

Let me try something.

- Not now, Rudi.

- You've got a visitor.

It's the ambassador.

From America.

Oh, God!

- Is this thing working?

- Just a moment, Rudi.

Roger, Sector G. Confirm

Sector A. Hold on.

Didn't think he'd come so soon.

Well, he's here.

Space nut knows

all about Apollo 11.

He know where it is?

Let's make the brief.

Send him up, Rubi.

Roger that.

This is the main control panel.

That moves the Dish up and

down, and that sideways.

It's incredible.

You can pinpoint a tiny spaceship

thousands of miles away...

and lock onto it.

Pretty much.

The ambassador didn't sign in,

but I've let it go.

I didn't want to pull rank.

The other facilities, North

West Cape and Honeysuckle Creek...

also have voice and telemetry?

But in TV, yours is the

only dish large enough?

Yeah.

How does that make you feel?

Where do you get them glasses?

I'm afraid that we're

entering overlap now.

So you'll be getting transmissions?

Yeah.

You'll be able to hear Armstrong?

Yep, just by hitting

a couple of buttons.

Oh, let's do that.

Sure.

If I... I don't think...

You're right. I don't...

Just a brief listen, then I'll go.

Not a problem.

I'll have to reorient the...

Al?

If you could patch the audio

in for mezzanine three.

Columbia, Houston, systems

O.K. You're go for audio.

Copy that.

Neil, telemetry reports O2

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