Chapter 305 - The Final Drills (1/2)

Four days had passed since the last tragedy. Because the incidents involving the five astronaut candidates were so bizarre and complicated-four were eliminated, in which three of them were killed, the investigation team was stretched a little too thin. NASA had meant to keep the happenings under covers until they could come up with an answer to deal with them. But the very next day, it was already all over the media. And the more the news spread, the more nefarious the stories became. A group of people even named the series of accidents as ‘the moon landing curse’, claiming what NASA was doing triggered the anger of God, ultimately leading to all these disasters.

During the past few days, massive crowds had marched in protest outside the Kennedy Space Center and Congress.

NASA was forced to hold a press conference to explain the situation. The remaining three astronauts who attended the conference were bombarded with questions for forty-five minutes. The reporters present kept throwing out elaborate questions, some of which were trick questions with hidden traps.

However, the three candidates were prepared for this situation like this, and their answers were all airtight. Once the interview was over, Public Relations immediately led the three men to the lounge at the back of the building.

When the door was shut and all noise outside was isolated, they were finally alone. Only the three of them were in the room, and Bruno immediately served Zhang Heng and Jia Lai with a glass of water. He said in a somewhat subservient manner, “Brother, have a drink.”

Jia Lai laughed. “A fat guy like me prefers coke.”

“Then I’ll get one for you right away!” Bruno smacked his chest.

“There’s no need for that. We’re going to the moon soon. It’s better for us to lay low until then.” Jia Lai’s voice had a hint of concern. “Have you had LSD recently? We’ll need you to pilot the Lunar Module. You should be able to do that, right?”

“No problem. It’s won’t be a problem at all. I haven’t touched that stuff for a long time now, and I’ve never been soberer,” Bruno said.

In the end, Jia Lai’s so-called ‘opportunity’ and ‘choice’ did not exist at all. He had already decided earlier on to keep Bruno and kill Zhen Xiong… not because she lied to him but because she was more difficult to deal with than Bruno. So, Jia Lai had killed his opponent early in the game in the highest respect, leaving the not-very-threatening Bruno to be the final member of the moon landing trio.

They were less than ten days away from the launch of Apollo 11. Considering that there was still a one-week quarantine period before the launch, the team had two days to do whatever they liked. As for training, there were only the final survival drills left.

This was to ensure that in case the spacecraft landed in a hostile environment, the astronauts would be able to survive until rescue arrived. During the Gemini Project, the astronauts were required to go through rescue training and intensive five-day survival course in three harsh environments – the tropics, desert, and water. NASA even sent the team of astronauts to Iceland and the Amazon for secret training.