Launch

by Richard Perth

  Jim showed them how to use the fireman’s pole, and the team followed him down to the middle floor. It was at the widest part of the round cabin, and on it were the command center, kitchen, pantry, dining area, and lounge.

  The command center extended from the cabin wall to beyond the center of the cabin and occupied most of the space on the middle deck. It contained seven compartments with four doors that opened to the cabin.

  The shirtsleeve control panel occupied the space along the full width of the front of the command center. Video screens across the front wall of the compartment above the panel would show space in all directions around the starship.

  On each side of the shirtsleeve control compartment was a door that opened to the cabin.

  As Jim led the team into the compartment, he said, “The control console and video screens in this compartment are painted plywood. The live shirtsleeve-control-console simulators I showed you this morning are where you will learn every detail about the ship.”

  He then led them through doors at the back of the shirtsleeve compartment into two compartments, which were connected by a door between them. A reclining couch mounted in what looked like a gimbal structure was in the center of each compartment. Screens and controls were mounted surrounding the couch.

  “This is a maneuvering control simulator,” Jim said. “The real starship will be flown from the real maneuvering controls for launch and landing and during all critical maneuvers. And this is where the beast meets the butt, where you will learn to fly Origin. The screens and controls are live and will duplicate the performance of the starship.

  “The gimbal mounting here is bolted to the floor, and it will not move. In the maneuvering controls in the real ship, and in the advanced simulator we are having built at Vandenberg, the gimbals are live. It will almost instantly spin you in any direction to offset g loads applied to the ship. It will be like riding all of the wildest roller coasters in the world at once.

  “Be grateful for the time you will have here with this simulator. It won’t snatch your hair off while you are trying to deal with a dozen problems at once.

  “One of you will be in one maneuvering control compartment, and your spouse will be in the other. All doors will be closed and sealed during flight, including the door between these compartments.

  “You will spend at least five hours per week in your maneuvering simulator. Your standard work day will be one hour shorter to give you time to spend in here. A NASA computer will assign training tasks and monitor your progress. Your simulator flying scores will be part of the primary crew selection process.”

  Doors led from the back of the maneuvering control compartments to the sides of a king-size bed. After the group had arranged itself around the bed, Jim said, “This is the bedroom compartment. As you can see, off to one side of the bed is a medical treatment area with an examining table. The ship’s medical supplies will be stored in cabinets built into the wall nearest the table.

  “Three doors are at the end of this compartment. The one in the middle with frosted glass is the shower. Like all doors on the ship, it can seal air tight and can be opened or closed from the control panels. In the event of a pressurization emergency, you can stay alive in there until your spouse can re-pressurize the bedroom compartment. Communication facilities are built into the shower and every compartment in the ship.

  “The other two doors lead to toilet compartments that also have doors to the cabin. A toilet, wash basin, a mirror, and storage for toiletries are in each.

  “In the event of a cabin pressure emergency, the command center can be sealed. You can live in it and fly the ship from it. The shirtsleeve control compartment and each of the toilet compartments can be used as airlocks to allow access to the rest of the ship. Space suits will be stored in the maneuvering control compartments in Origin.

  “That is the end of this tour. You will become very familiar with your quarters as you live in them, starting tonight.

  “Are there any questions?”

  Claire felt like she had just had a tour of a travel trailer, and she felt as stunned as the other astronauts looked.

  Are we supposed to spend three years in space confined in an oversized beach ball?

  After Jim’s question was met with silence, he led everybody down the fireman’s pole to the bottom floor and out of the cabin.

  Jim took the team to headquarters to sign official papers and get ID badges. The rest of the day was spent to moving in.

  ▼

  Before Claire and David went to sleep that night in their new king-size bed, she said, “I’m not an experienced fighter pilot or test pilot like Leah and Susan, and I’m the lowest ranking member of the team. Do you think we have a real chance to be Primary Crew?”

  David kissed her. “From here on, it’s how we perform in training that counts. I think the rest of us on the team will have to work hard to keep up with you.

  Chapter 15

  After a typically hard day during their fourth week of training, Claire and David returned to their quarters to find a message from David’s grandmother. When they returned her call, Karen Sands invited them to have an early dinner at her home and to go to the opera with her.

  He raised an eyebrow about the opera as he asked Claire. She nodded her head vigorously and said, “Yes!”

  After he accepted and put the phone down, Claire explained. “She’s the only family we have. I liked her very much when I met her at our wedding, and I’d love to go to the opera.”

  ▼

  That Saturday afternoon, David drove Claire’s car: It did not leak whereas the snap-on windows on his MG were little better than a sieve in heavy rain. She was surprised as the GPS led them ever deeper into an exclusive Houston neighborhood. They arrived at classical wrought iron gates, which opened immediately.

  David drove through and stopped the car in the curving driveway at the front of a mansion. A butler was there to open Claire’s door and offer his hand.

  Karen met them at the open front door and greeted them enthusiastically. She took Claire’s arm and escorted her and David to a large, lavishly-furnished drawing room that was perfumed with the scent of fresh-cut flowers. There she offered appetizers, champagne, and sherry before dinner.

  After Claire was served a flute of champagne, she said, “This is a magnificent room.”

  Karen said, “Thank you. My husband and I used it often when we were in the social whirl surrounding the oil business. This house is much too big for me now. I would sell it, but it’s been my home for so long I would feel homesick if I lived anywhere else.”

  “Did David’s mother grow up here?”

  “Oh no. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were much younger, and poorer, then. But Eric had high hopes for Erica.” After a pause she said, “He was very disappointed when she dropped out of college to get married—as was I. But she had a very happy marriage, and Eric would have been delighted to know his grandson.”

  She took a sip of her dry sherry and smiled. “He would have been especially pleased to meet you, Cougar. You have achieved everything—and more—that we hoped for our daughter.”

  With a bit of a blush, Claire said, “Thank you. I would like to have met him, too.”

  Karen asked David, “Did you really give her that call sign?”

  He grinned. “Yes.”

  Karen looked at Claire and said, “From what I’ve read about you, Cougar fits.

  As David told Karen about his and Claire’s training, she felt her tummy rumble and she eyed the delicious looking hors d’oeuvres, including baked brie. But then Claire noticed a fantastic cooking aroma. She decided to save her appetite for whatever it was that smelled so good, and she put her glass down.

  Flanked by Claire and David, Karen sat at the end of a long dining room table. The food was Cajun style: lobster bisque, a mixed green salad with roasted pears, roasted pecans, and crumbled blue cheese were served before stuffed pork chop and side dishes of asparagus with hollandaise
and twice-baked potato.

  Claire thoroughly enjoyed all she could eat. She and David both passed on the offer of dessert and thanked his grandmother and her chef for a superb meal.

  Karen’s limousine took them to the Houston Grand Opera where they were escorted to Karen’s box by ushers who seemed to be glad to see her.

  They saw Show Boat, which included songs such as “Old Man River,” “Make Believe,” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.” At the end, Claire noticed David was smiling with moist eyes. She thought he had enjoyed it as much as she did.

  It was nearly midnight when Claire and David got back to their quarters. As they were getting undressed, she told him that he was very lucky to have Karen as his grandmother.

  He said, “Yes, and since she’s your grandmother-in-law, you’re lucky, too.”

  Claire nodded. “That I am.”

  ▼

  NASA’s public relations office received requests from all over the country for appearances by astronauts. After the team finished Winddancer refresher training, they were encouraged to use their spare time to satisfy as many requests as they could. Claire and David frequently made weekend trips to visit children in hospitals. Their faces lit up to see and talk to astronauts in their NASA blue flight suits.

  On one such trip, David asked Claire to buy some toothpaste while he took the luggage to their room. Near the checkout counter in the hotel gift shop, she found artificial bunny ears mounted on a plastic headband. Later, when she and David were at the hospital, she slipped the bunny ears on his head. Some of the sick children enjoyed their first laugh in months.

  ▼

  Just after takeoff on another weekend trip, a fire warning light for the right engine lit up in Claire’s Winddancer. She punched the light. It was a switch that discharged the fire extinguisher and shut down the engine.

  “Tower, Cougar One is declaring an emergency for a right engine fire warning,” she transmitted calmly. “I have discharged the fire extinguisher and secured the engine. I am returning to land.”

  David had taken off immediately behind Claire as part of a two-plane formation flight. She put out the fire before he could tell her about it.

  “Roger,” the tower transmitted. “Cougar One is cleared to land. Cougar Two remain in the pattern.”

  Claire landed and was followed down the runway by fire trucks. David was cleared to land after the runway was cleared.

  In accordance with Team Thunder procedures, Cougar Flight continued the trip in David’s plane with her, as the junior pilot, flying from the front seat. They had to leave some luggage behind, but space was found for the bunny ears.

  Chapter 16

  Claire and David were diligent about using their maneuvering simulators. But once David had mastered the programmed problems, he was bored and asked programmers for a combat maneuvering program. It allowed any two of the six simulators in the Team Thunder quarters to be connected for simulated aerial combat between the astronauts.

  Eagle Flight and Wolf Flight soon grew tired of losing dogfights with David, and they were concerned that it made them look bad to NASA. So they stopped accepting his aerial combat invitations.

  Claire did not quit. David had the edge in skill, experience, and situational awareness, but she had faster coordination and never forgot a situation.

  After the first time she beat him, she pounced on him in bed.

  Exciting dogfights frequently led to exciting sex and inspired more dogfights. They were in their simulators almost every evening during the work week, usually just before bedtime. The result was that their ability to fly Origin developed substantially beyond that of Eagle Flight and Wolf Flight.

  David began running up against the limits of the laws of physics and running out of new ideas in his contests with Claire. As she gained experience, her win rate against David began creeping up toward 50%, and everything became more exciting.

  Chapter 17

  During jungle survival training in Central America, the instructor was talking as he led Team Thunder through the jungle. He did not see a poisonous snake coiled behind a plant before he put his foot down in front of it.

  David happened to be close behind. He was moving before the snake struck and caught it behind its head, fangs just inches from the instructor’s leg. Carrying the snake with both hands, David released it into the jungle.

  When he came back to the group, the instructor said, “Thank you, David. Do you know what that was?”

  “Yes, sir. A bushmaster, a pit viper, like the rattlers, cottonmouths, and copperheads we had where I grew up.”

  “Why didn’t you kill it?”

  “It’s part of the ecosystem here, sir.”

  ▼

  On April 8, 2049, Claire and David returned to their quarters after another Friday of training to find orders promoting him to Lieutenant Colonel. There was also a message from his grandmother. It said she was in the hospital.

  ▼

  Claire and David had seen his grandmother every month or so since they had been in training, and on one occasion she accepted an invitation to go for a flight in David’s Winddancer. She had seemed cheerful on the way to the airport, and even remarked about the beauty of the plane as they walked toward it. But her expression became serious as David explained the instruments and controls. By the time she was seated and belted in the front cockpit of his plane, she looked apprehensive.

  Claire asked, “Would you rather not go?”

  She looked at Claire and nodded, “Please.”

  After she got out, Claire held Karen and comforted her. There were tears in Karen’s eyes when they separated. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It was so utilitarian in there, like being all alone in the barrel of a gun. I would have been terrified in the air with nothing around me but gadgets I didn’t understand.”

  Claire and David took Karen home and stayed with her because the servants had been given time off. Pizza was delivered. They ate it in the big dining room and washed it down with champagne.

  By the time Claire and David left, Karen was smiling and making jokes about her “almost” ride in a supersonic plane.

  ▼

  When they walked into the hospital room the next day, Karen’s eyes filled with tears. She looked very weak. Claire and David went to the sides of her bed and took her hands. The shock in David’s voice was clear when he asked, “What happened?”

  “I had another heart attack and another cardiac arrest. My implanted defibrillator kept me alive. I need a new heart, but I’m too old.”

  “What can they do?” Claire asked.

  “Nothing. Just try to keep me comfortable. I’ve had an enlarged heart, cardiomyopathy, for years. My heart and my systems are just too weak.”

  “David,” she said, “I want to have my ashes scattered with those of my darling daughter, whom I have loved and missed for so long. Can you do that?”

  Tears were streaming down David’s face, and he found it hard to speak. He nodded and managed to say, “Okay.”

  Claire was crying, too. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

  With a weak smile, Karen said, “It’s not so bad. I have two heroes holding my hands, and they’re my grandson and granddaughter. Soon I’ll see my Eric and Erica again. I’ll tell them all about you and how you’re going to change the world.”

  ▼

  Karen Sands died the following week. Claire and David went to her funeral at one of the largest Lutheran churches in Houston. All of the seats were taken and people were standing in the aisles while speaker after speaker paid tribute to David’s grandmother.

  ▼

  He returned a call from his grandmother’s attorney several days later. The attorney said, “I have your grandmother’s ashes, and we need to talk about her estate.”

  “What estate?” David asked.

  “One hundred and fifty-three million dollars,” the attorney said. “Half to the Sands Children’s Fund and half to you.”

  ▼

  On the
flight to take Karen’s ashes to the ranch, David was following Claire in formation, as usual. He told her he was going to drop back for a few minutes. When Claire was far enough ahead and they were over vacant land, he accelerated to catch her and briefly exceeded the speed of sound. His grandmother’s ashes were aboard his plane.

  Cougar Flight landed their Winddancers at the jet airport nearest to the McGregor-Archer ranch and rented a single-engine plane with side-by-side seating. David flew to the ranch and landed on the grass airstrip. He parked beside the hangar sheltering the J-3 Piper Cub in which he had taken his first flying lessons.

  A single, wide Dutch door beneath the high wing on the right side of the J-3 opened to allow access to both the front and rear seats. David locked the top half of the door flat up against the bottom of the wing and locked the bottom half straight down against the fuselage.

  Claire sat in the front seat. She felt strange to be in a fabric covered plane with a side completely open. Only gravity and a seat belt of unknown age and condition would keep her from falling out of the plane. Only faith in David got her in the seat.

  The small plane took off after a very short ground roll. David flew to a meadow of bluebonnets where the ashes of Liz, David’s parents, and Mr. McGregor had been scattered. Tall trees, lush foliage, and softly rising land embraced and protected the deep-blue blossoms.

  David asked Claire to take the controls and fly across the meadow. She looked back over her shoulder to see him holding the urn with both hands beside the plane while he slowly released the ashes. Claire flew back to the grass strip, and David talked her through her first landing in a tail dragger.

  After they landed, she asked, “Why did you hold the urn that way?”

  “To keep ashes from blowing into the cockpit. I’ve had a lot of practice. . . . Too much practice.”

  They spent the night at the ranch and were treated like visiting royalty. Everybody dropped everything for a party with people coming from miles away.