And there was Mars.498Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNvufbGFeWI
Its dry, rocky surface a red-orange. And there was the Enterprise IX Landing Module standing wide-legged on that alien ground.
Roddenberry crossed the soundstage and stepped onto the red dust of Mars. He halted, then beckoned to the three astronauts. "This is how we're going to save the space program, my friends," he said.
Kirk went first. Walking very slowly, taking it all in. The huge grid-ceilinged room, the watching television cameras, the panorama of space painted meticulously on a cyclorama, the exact replica of the Command Module suspended nearby.
"No," Kirk cried, a tear welling up in the corner of his left eye. "No! Gene, you can't be serious!"
Roddenberry was looking across the glowing Martian landscape, eyes narrowed as he signaled to someone in a glass-faced booth which sat in the shadows. "Want you to hear something, Jim."
Voices came from a speaker concealed in the shadowy cross beams.
"Your system analysis looks good, for TMI."
"Roger, Houston," came Kirk's voice, "TMI burn time will be 5 minutes, 45 seconds."
"Enterprise IX, 5:45 is correct. Donovan advises you are in tracking."
"Roger, Houston."
"What'd you do?" asked McCoy, joining them, "send up Rich Little instead of us?"
Kirk said, "Do you think you're really going to get away with this?"
With a sad shrug Roddenberry said, "It's a chance. Probably not a very good chance, but the only one we've got."
"Who knows about this?"
"As few people as possible," answered Roddenberry. "Houston's monitoring the actual flight. All the telemetry is coming from the Command Module. So are your voices and medical data. We recorded everything from the practice simulations. So Houston doesn't know." He paused, rubbed his hands over the front of his coat. "All we need from you is the actual television transmissions during the flight and the Mars landing. That's all."
"That's all?! We parade on this---this phony movie set and pretend we really went to Mars?"
"If there's one thing we know how to do, Jim, it's construct a realistic and convincing mock-up of the surface of Mars. Believe me, this one will look completely believable on camera."
"Unless," said McCoy, "one of your goons walks through it on the way to the john or something."
Roddenberry said, "We inserted a change on the onboard computer, so the spacecraft will land two hundred miles off target when it returns to Earth. You guys'll be flown to an island near that point. From there you'll be transferred to a chopper. The copter flies you to the capsule and you'll be put inside. It should take the recovery forces a minimum of an hour and a half to reach the splashdown site. When the prime recovery carrier arrives, they'll take you out of the spaceship."
"Golly, you thought of everything," observed McCoy.
"I don't know, Leonard, but I hope so."
"And you're sure we'll just go along with this, huh?" asked Kirk.
"No, I'm not. Not at all."
"And if we say no?"
"Don't say no," said Roddenberry slowly.
Pike said, "When does Allen Funt come in and tell us we're on Candid Camera?"
"Jesus, do you think I like this?!" said Roddenberry, turning towards him. "You think I want to admit I'm really standing here telling you all this crazy crap about patching in tape recordings and sneaking you guys back into an empty craft? It's just that----I care so damned much that I think it's all worth it. Well, no, I'm not even sure of that."
"We participate in a monstrous fraud," said Kirk. "What does that do for anybody?"
"Dammit, Jim, it'll keep something alive that mustn't die," said Roddenberry. "We're important to the country, we mean something. But right now we're...…..it's like being on the edge of a cliff and just hanging on by your fingernails. If you back out, well, it gives a lot of innocent people one less good thing to believe in."
Kirk laughed. "What kind of bullshit are you handing out, Gene? We go along with this crazy thing, we lie our asses off. And somehow the world of truth and ideals and beauty is protected." He shook his head. "If we don't take part in this super rip-off of yours, then what does that makes us? The bad guys? The Ugly Americans? Oh, gimme a break, please!"
"Well, you gotta admire his gall in trying it on us, boss," said McCoy.
"Don't twist my words around, Jim," pleaded Roddenberry."
"Listen, Gene," said Kirk, putting a hand on the man's shoulder. "I don't see all this quite the way you do. I'm not so sure that canceling a flight or cutting off appropriations, for that matter, is going to mean America dies off."
"Don't try to make me sound like some kind of simplistic Washington idiot," complained Roddenberry. "You know me better than that."
"Do I?"
McCoy said, "Listen, if the only way to keep something alive is to become a liar, then I don't think it's worth keeping alive."
"Please," Roddenberry said to all of them, "you have to help. Don't you understand, you have to!"
"What the hell does that mean?" demanded Kirk, taking his hand off Roddenberry and stepping back. "What do you mean we have to?"
"Just what I said," said Roddenberry in a low voice.
"What if we don't?"498Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuDlIEvvsHu
"Please, Jim. Please. Don't put me in a corner."
"You're crazy," shouted Kirk. "You are absolutely one hundred percent out of your frigging mind, Gene! You've got us standing here in the middle of this nuthouse and you're worried about being put in a corner. Jesus H. Christ!"
"Your families," murmured Roddenberry, head down.
Kirk took hold of both the man's shoulders this time. "What did you say?"
"Your families," repeated the NASA director, his eyes downcast.
"What about our families?"
"Please, just help me and we...."498Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡslaATk2OTQ
"What about our families?" Kirk shook him hard, then let him go.
Roddenberry stumbled and fell over. Red Martian dust went swirling up. "This thing is out of my hands," he said, getting up. "You may think it's a couple of jerk scientists who don't know when to throw in the towel. But it's not, Jim." He brushed himself off. "There are people out there, forces out there. They have a lot to lose. They're adults, and they're playing adult rules."
"What about our families?" said McCoy.498Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rozDkVJLM
"They're flying back," said Roddenberry. "Jesus, this isn't my idea. But---they're all on the plane between the Cape and Houston. All together, you know, on the plane."
Kirk started to reach for Roddenberry, then let his hands drop and stood staring at him. "You're not serious, Gene?"
"Don't make me go on with this, Jim. Just---please---say yes."
"Tell me! Tell me, you crazy son of a bitch!"
Roddenberry took in an instant breath. "Okay, they're on the plane. There's a device on the plane with them," he said. "There are these people, powerful people. If I don't give them the all-clear signal by a certain time, they'll explode the device. Can't you understand this? I didn't mean for it to get out of hand, but it has."
"Gene, you couldn't," said Kirk. "You couldn't do anything like that."
"I have to," answered Roddenberry.
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