To the Moon and Back

14. The relief crew arrives

When he woke up Xie Lian was gone, probably already at the Control Room, getting all last-minute updates from Wenchang. Feeling a tightness on his chest, Hua Cheng had a shower, then forced himself to have an apple, and went straight to the lab. He missed Xie Lian, he always did when they weren't together, but he didn't want to see him.

He should at least say hi on the communicator. "Gege? Morning".

"San Lang!", he replied, "I'm at The Control Room. I don't know why hell breaks loose on Wenchang on every launching – after so many times these guys have sent a spacecraft over?"

"I'm at the lab", Hua Cheng said, "Doing some last things, wrapping up you know".

"Alright", Xie Lian said, "I'll drop by to see you when I have a minute".

He showed up only two hours later, smiling brightly, wearing The Agency's red jumpsuit – bringing Xie Lian's colours up, making his eyes sparkle, not to mention fitting his body perfectly. Hua Cheng knew how hot he was under that jumpsuit, so he couldn't help looking on.

Xie Lian gave him a hug, "How you're feeling? You couldn't sleep?"

No, he couldn't, he spent hours just looking at Xie Lian sleeping by his side, playing over and over in his head that last bit of pillow talk they had. And Xie Lian had no idea, not even now, he was still thinking Hua Cheng was just anxious. Maybe he is cool and detached like they say at Wenchang, with no one knowing what he was thinking. Hua Cheng certainly didn't.

"I'm alright don't worry", he replied with a muffled voice. Then he remembered that – sexy looking – jumpsuit and asked, "You're going out?"

Xie Lian said, "Yeah, helping to unload the cargo. They'll arrive in about 3 hours now – I'm telling you, horizontal landing is such a pain!"

"Right. I better go and suit up – "

"Oh no San Lang, no need. Just finish off your things and come up if you want to see the landing. I'll just go, help the guys, and we'll be back before dinnertime", he smiled brightly again.

Hua Cheng agreed sulkily, and Xie Lian left. He was in his element, single-handedly managing the landing of a cargo spacecraft, the arrival of a relief crew and the handover of the Moon Station. He wondered if Xie Lian wasn't anxious about going back to Earth anymore – for real, not faking like him – but maybe he wasn't really thinking about it.

After a while, Hua Cheng went up. He's seen many lift-off and landings films during his training, but just a few in real life, let alone a horizontal landing on the Moon – he was interested in spite of himself. Xie Lian was in the Landing/Lift-off control room, and when he walked in, he smiled and linked arms with him, resting his head on Hua Cheng's shoulder.

Tianzhou was huge: it was no mean feat to leave the Earth's atmosphere carrying 8 tonnes of pressurised and unpressurised cargo after all. It was a VTHL vehicle – vertical take-off, horizontal landing – , as being launched vertically allowed its wings to be smaller, and the spacecraft to carry only the landing weight, rather than its lift-off weight.

It was the oldest spacecraft in use too, still having liquid hydrogen as its propellant for lift-off on Earth, its design a bit too bulky, but on the Moon's runway – signalled with flashing blue lights – on the Sea of Tranquillity, it softly descended on a straight line, landing smoothly like any ordinary commercial plane on Earth.

The whole landing was controlled by Wenchang, so after the usual exchange of messages, Xie Lian got the radio on to give his usual greetings.

"Welcome to the Moon! Xie Lian, station manager here. Hope you guys had a nice trip, I know Tianzhou can be a bit of a bumpy ride. Over".

A deep voice replied in a monotone, "Relief crew preparing for disembarking. Unloading cargo, waiting for station crew cargo handling. Over".

Xie Lian winked at Hua Cheng and replied, "Station crew coming over for handling cargo. Over". He then whispered, "Did you see how OCD he is?", and pffted a laugh.

Hua Cheng gave him a strained smile – he was like this too, right when he arrived, but he doubted this He Xuan would be as nervous as he was. Xie Lian touched Hua Cheng's face, and kissed him, "I'm off, but I'll be back soon. Will you miss me?", he smiled teasingly.

"Yes", Hua Cheng replied – he wasn't lying, he always missed Xie Lian, but he didn't want to think about it. He was so very hurt.

Xie Lian put his helmet on, locked it, then closed its visor. He waved and walked off, closing the Landing/Lift-off control room's hatch, and Hua Cheng saw him walking away under the airlock orange lights, then climbing on the rover, opening the gates remotely.

Now that he was alone, Hua Cheng drowned even more in self-pity. Xie Lian hasn't noticed anything off with him, and Hua Cheng didn't think he was hiding his feelings too well either. Not what he was feeling now anyway: it went to show how Xie Lian didn't know him, or wasn't paying attention.

He kept watching everything on the screen: Tianzhou's crew disembarking, its cargo being unloaded automatically via a door below the spacecraft, the runway blue lights still flashing. Xie Lian arriving – it wasn't very far, maybe around 15 minute drive – , waving to everybody, and linking one of the cargo trolleys on his rover.

One member of the relief crew climbed on with him, the other two drove on the rover brought with Tianzhou. Xie Lian drove his rover to another hill, apparently a kind of deposit – it'd certainly be machinery or equipment not needed to be brought back.

The other guys drove straight to the station, but while they were unlinking and roughly emptying their trolley, Xie Lian arrived, so they closed the gates, got the airlock on, and removed their helmets, chatting among themselves. They then walked in.

"San Lang", Xie Lian called, opening the door to the Landing/Lift-off control room, "I'm back!"

Thanks for reading, let's just cry with Hua Cheng for a bit... 😭

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