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2007-05-28 - 12:15 p.m. Complete silence met her words. For a few shocked moments nobody said a word. Then Bob and Bryan rushed to her side. "What do you mean it isn't there. Of course it is!" Bob said, grabbing the binoculars from her. "I meant what I said," replied Kathy. "The flag should be in near vicinity of the landing spot, right? Well, I looked all around it as far as I could see, and it's not there." Her hands were shaking and she grasped them tightly together trying to subdue or at least disguise it. "Dust may have covered it when the LM left the moon?" Bryan suggested. "Please Bryan, check the coordinates?" Kathy asked. "Perhaps we're not in the right spot after all." "Of course we're in the right spot, where else would we be?! It's probably just not as prightly coloured as you expected. You must have overlooked it." "Fine, YOU try to find it then!" Kathy was annoyed now. Of course she understood the others, because it made no sense. But still, did they really think she was that incompetent? She knew what she was looking for! Handing the binoculars to Bob, she moved away from the window, giving him a better view. For a long time he just stood there with the binoculars in front of his eyes, searching. He was looking so intently that Bryan had to speak twice before he heard him. "Bob? ... Bob? It's about time that you and Kathy enter the LM and get ready for departure." "What? Oh yes, sorry. You're quite right. It's just that... I can't find it either. It looks like the flag's just... just gone." Kathy bit her lip to refrain from saying "I told you so!" She was glad to be proven right, but could see how shaken Bob was. Instead she floated over to give him a pat on the back. "Come on Bobby. We'll look for it more thoroughly when we get down there. Perhaps it has just fallen over or something?" "Fallen over?" he replied with an incredulous laugh. "And that should make it any less weird? What, pray tell, do you suggest should have contrived to make it fall over?" "Calm down, Bob. I'm sure there is a logical explanation. You and Kathy had better get into the LM now. We'll know more once you're down there." Bryan shooed them toward the LM as he spoke. They knew he was right, so they made no further protests. Besides, it was nice to have somebody else tell them what to do. Kathy knew she would soon have to get back on track, but for now she was content to have somebody else do the thinking for her. "Should we tell NASA?" she asked. Bryan pondered this for awhile. "No," he finally replied. "After all, what is there to tell? That we can't see the flag from the ship? What if we're just looking the wrong place after all, and you find it without problems as soon as you get down there? We'll be the laughing stock of all of NASA. No, let's wait and see if there actually IS something to tell them." "You think we'll be safe down there?" Kathy asked, felling slightly silly. "Safe? Of course! Well, as much as you would under normal circumstances anyway. Come on Kathy, you're not starting to believe in aliens, are you?" "Of course not!" Kathy replied indignantly, although truth be told, she couldn't aquit herself completely from such beliefs at the moment. She knew what she'd seen and the flag wasn't it! Still, no solution seemed plausible other than that it should be there and they'd find it once they got closer. Together with Bob she went into the LM. He wasn't feeling completely like himself yet either. He was fidgiting and mouthing something that Kathy assumed was a prayer. Just because they closed the door behind them he seemed to think of something. "Bryan, won't you try to ask NASA if they have the coordinates for the flag? They don't have to be exact, just a radius from the old landing site." "I'll do my best, but won't they find it a weird question?" "Let them. If they ask you for an explanation - which they probably won't - I'm sure you'll think of something. Or don't say anything. We might just have been curious, needing to recalibrate our portable computers or something like that. Anything. It doesn't matter. I just want to KNOW without a shadow of a doubt, that we're looking the right place for it." With that he closed and sealed the hatch, and they sat down to go through the pre-disconnecting procedures.
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