chow11

Apollo 21 “Houston, this is Artemis: we have landed!” Libby Hatherton took a careful step from the ladder onto the dusty ground, the thick boots of her A7L spacesuit pressing into the fine powder: she was the first female astronaut to set foot on the moon and she felt an indescribable sense of joy and accomplishment. She had literally killed to get where she was. She glanced up at the stars, imagining her former rival, Emma Edmunds, floating through the vacuum, perfectly preserved inside her spacesuit, her dark skin frozen, eyes wide in terror and betrayal, forever trapped in the moon’s orbit. In Libby’s orbit! A smile spread across her lips as she thought about that. “I just wish that Emma could see what we have accomplished today,” It was not a lie. She did wish her rival had been left on Earth, forced to witness her triumph, but her hand had been forced when Houston selected Emma to lead the Apollo 20 mission instead of Libby. At least, that was how Libby felt. The reality was