Vignette: The Dumbo Moment

By Matthew Kresal.

On the Sea Lion Press Forums, we run a monthly Vignette Challenge. Contributors are invited to write short stories on a specific theme (changed monthly).

The theme for the 46th contest was Elephant.

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"They did what?"

The president's scientific advisor, Jerome Wiesner, spat out the words in surprise. Before he could receive a reply, he reached toward his dark-rimmed glasses, adjusted them on his nose, and sat back in his chair.

"It's true, Dr. Wiesner," Allen Dulles, the pipe-smoking CIA director, answered. "Our station in Turkey has been monitoring their launch site and its transmissions for some time. The Soviets were broadcasting TV signals this time."

"TV signals?" Dr. Wiesner replied, unease in a typically confident voice. "They were monitoring it?"

"Presumably, they wanted to be sure that it was alive the entire time," answered the third man in the room. Jim Webb, the NASA administrator, with his combed-back graying brown hair parted at one side, sat forward in his chair, putting an index finger down on Wiesner's desk. "Not to mention releasing pictures for the entire world to see."

"Maybe," Weisner scoffed, looking away from the NASA administrator. They'd faced off 18 months ago, in the spring of sixty-one, and Webb had still never forgiven him for convincing the president to can Mercury.

Besides, this whole thing might still be a ruse, as he hoped the CIA director would confirm.

Unfortunately for Dr. Wiesner, Dulles was not so accommodating. The director held up a folder, nodding for the scientific advisor to take it. Weisner took the vanilla-colored folder with the CIA seal and "TOP SECRET" stamped across its front.

"These were taken by technicians off of the TV screens at our station, using a technique the British developed called telesnaps. They're a tad indistinct as the Soviet camera isn't of the highest quality, but you can make out what it shows."

Opening the folder, Weisner couldn't believe what he was seeing. The director was quite correct that the images weren't crystal clear, but even so, there could be little doubt about was there. The strands of fur, the tusks, even the beady eyes were apparent, shades of gray on glossy photo paper.

"They didn't launch an adult, did they?"

"We didn't think so," the NASA administrator replied. "They weigh four to six tons each, after all. A calf, I'm told, is only a couple of hundred pounds. But then Dulles told me what the CORONA satellite picked up on its pass of the launch site a couple of days ago."

"What was?"

"Turn to the last one," Dulles dutifully answered on cue. "You can see for yourself."

Weisner's fingers moved through the images of the mammoth, including one that showed small objects floating around in the cabin around it. Some fruit and a Soviet flag, in particular, caught his eye. Setting it aside, Weisner found a black and white image looking down on the launch site, conveniently labeled by Dulles' boys, and let out a sigh.

"It's the size of a bus?"

"And their booster is capable of heavy lifting," Dulles nodded. "That was on the pad two days ago. The film was recovered yesterday and brought here to Washington as per the procedure. We had no idea they were preparing something like this."

"All of which means," Webb paused to tap his finger on Weisner's desk again, "that they put an adult Siberian mammoth into orbit for three hours yesterday. And that they're proceeding with a program to put some large and heavy into orbit."

"Assuming this isn't a stunt?" Wiesner countered, closing the folder before handing it over to Dulles. "They still haven't put a man up there, after all. Unless we can believe the reports from last April, Allen?"

"My boys still think they attempted a manned launch, though whatever they launched burned up on re-entry."

"Either way," Webb interjected, "you're telling me the press isn't going to have a field day with this?"

"You think anyone will care that the Soviets launched Dumbo into space?"

Wiesner's chuckle showed he had regained his composure. Webb wasn't having any of it.

"You think the president isn't going to want a response to this? Mid-terms are in November, after all."

Wiesner shook his head. "I let the president worry about the politics. I'm about the science, Webb, not the publicity. And mark my words, no one will care about this next week. You and John Glenn can go banging your war drums on Capitol Hill to get Mercury back all you want, but robots are the way to go."

Weisner looked at his watch. "My next appointment will be here in a few minutes. Good to see you both."

There was the typical round of handshakes, albeit forced when it came to Webb. Finally, the two men made their way to the door, with Dulles opening the door and exiting first. Webb reached the door, his steps halting. Finally, he turned around, his steely blue eyes locking onto Wiesner until the White House science advisor acknowledged him.

"You're wrong, you know?"

"About what?" Wiesner asked.

"Dumbo was an elephant, not a mammoth. And people are going to care."

Wiesner took a sharp breath, but Webb turned and walked away. Wiesner sat in his chair, a moment of doubt crossing his mind. Only time would tell.

Afterword:

As Stephen Walker wrote about in his 2021 book Beyond, Yuri Gagarin's becoming the first man in space was a close-run thing. Indeed, Gagarin came close to being beaten by Alan Shepard (as likewise noted by Andy Cooke on the blog in 2019), but also came perilously to dying when the two halves of Vostok 1 failed to separate due to a cable not disconnecting. Only its burning through in time kept Gagarin from perishing on re-entry.

At the same time that Gagarin's mission took place, President Kennedy's scientific advisor Dr. Jerome Weisner issued a report to the president calling for the canning of NASA's Project Mercury, citing costs, lack of goals, and questions of human survivability. In OTL, Gagarin's return to Earth proved the latter concern unfounded, while the sting of the Soviet triumph and the sting of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion gave Kennedy a reason to push for a longer-term goal instead.

As for the choice of a mammoth, there continues to be speculation in cryptozoological circles of a relic population of them surviving in Siberia even today. As to what the Soviet space program in the 1960s might have made of them, if anything, is anyone's guess...

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Matthew Kresal is, among other things, the author of the SLP book Our Man on the Hill and short stories in the anthologies AlloAmericana, The Emerald Isles, and The Scottish Anthology.