A Conversation Before History - Flash Fiction #5

The two astronauts make their way to the flight simulator. It is just another day of training, preparing for the day that they might get their chance to make history. Today, the power of time is beginning to wear on the normal NASA optimism.

"You know Neil, Kennedy promised in ‘62 that we would do it before the end of the decade."

"Yeah, so what is your point Buzz?"

"Well it is 1968 and so far we haven’t done anything except put a man in orbit. Hell, we did that in ‘61. We are no closer to the moon than we were seven years ago."

"Sure we are. Next month we will send Apollo 8 to the moon and back."

"You know as well as I do that if anything else goes wrong, we won’t make it to the moon on time. Maybe we just don’t have the power to send a man to the moon. With all due respect, what was Kennedy thinking?"

"Maybe he was thinking that we need to do get there before those commie Russians do. I don’t know, but I am glad he decided this was the American priority, aren’t you?"

"Yeah, what a ride, huh."

The journey to fulfill the dream of a nation was coming to an end. In eight months time, these two men would walk on the moon. They would be the final proof that man’s ingenuity and desire was powerful enough to make any dream a reality.

---

This week's Flash Fiction challenge:
1. Maximum length: 250 words.
2. The theme is: power
3. The time is: 1968
4. Within the story, you must use this text: all due respect.

Make sure to link back to Diminished Fifth's site.