“By the Maker, you are like a bunch of hungry chicks, mouths all open and pointed upward. Stop cheeping for a moment.” A pause. “There are spacesuits in stock, but they probably would not fit you, being designed for Gennan physiology. I will begin printing some human-sized units, just in case they are needed at some future time. And as to the immediate problem, for your viewing pleasure I present … ”

All around the periphery of the bridge, the wall became transparent. We all walked slowly to the edge of the room, taking in the view.

“Hold on,” I said. “This looks like we’re only about twenty feet up. This ship has to be at least forty feet tall, plus the height of the landing struts.”

“Inside, yes. Outside, the ship measures thirty feet in diameter and fifteen feet tall.”

“What? It’s bigger inside than outside?”

“Why, yes. I keep forgetting how primitive you people are. Dimensional manipulation is basic technology. Of course, the total mass can’t be changed, and the engines still have to deal with that.”

I did a calculation in my head. “Son of a bitch.” I looked at Patrick. “We actually can hide the ship in the barn.”

“Okay!” Patrick said. “Let’s do this. Make it so.”

“I don’t understand,” Sheldon replied.

Natalie rolled her eyes at Patrick. “Let’s skip the Next Generation trivia, okay? Please take us to the Apollo 11 landing site, Sheldon.”

“Acknowledged.”

Without a sound, without so much as a perceptible jiggle, the view of the outside world began to drop. Within moments, we were looking down at Taft County from drone height, then airplane height, then before I could even get used to the idea, from the height of an intercontinental flight. The sky was perceptibly darker, and the world was developing a visible curve. Still we continued to rise.

The ship adjusted attitude and the Earth shifted to one side of the bridge. At the opposite side, a quarter moon glowed against a backdrop of stars. A rotation, and the moon was centered on the forward view. The quarter moon grew as I watched, until within less than a minute it filled almost half the view.

Another shift in attitude and the moon disappeared below us. Thirty seconds later, we were hovering over a nondescript lunar valley with the bottom half of a lunar module clearly visible in the foreground. The dust still showed all the boot prints as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. And to finally settle the controversy, the flag had indeed been knocked over.

“I will be dipped in shit,” Patrick said.

“I … I … ” Nat seemed unable to get beyond the first syllable.