Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1)

by Gregory Gates

  Heidi sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

  “Ah, come on. Every man at Michoud and in the MCC – um, well, except maybe one – has been drooling over black leather for two years now.”

  She giggled. “Who’s the one I missed?”

  Jeff laughed. “Bob Vandergriff, the one that’s been making eyes at Chrissie.”

  Chrissie gave a painful laugh. “Oh, god. We just went out to dinner once.”

  “Well, that’s a start.” He glanced back and forth into their eyes. “It’ll be a long two and a half years. Don’t be hermits.”

  They nodded.

  Abby, Gabe and Susan hugged them each in turn.

  “I wish we could stay here and see you off,” said Chrissie.

  Jeff nodded. “Yeah, I wish you could too. But you guys have things to do. Besides, this is a no parking zone.”

  Chrissie tried to laugh, but couldn’t. She broke into tears again and clung to Jeff. “Oh god, I’m so afraid.”

  He held her close and kissed her forehead. “It’s okay, we’ll be fine. I’ll bring you a T-shirt… if I can find a store that’s open.”

  She laughed and sobbed at the same time.

  They all huddled together, arms wrapped around one another’s shoulders, everyone sobbing except Jeff, and he certainly felt like it. “Okay, it’s time. What say we get this done?”

  They all nodded.

  “You two have a safe flight back. We’ll talk to you tomorrow… and we’ll see you in 31 months.”

  Chrissie trembled as she hugged Jeff one last time. “Godspeed.”

  “Je t’aime. And you take care, both of you.” He turned to Gabe, Abby and Susan. “Okay, gang, let’s go.” At the van door, Jeff turned and waved to Chrissie and Heidi, then climbed in. “Alright, Molly, we’re ready… I guess.”

  #

  Fifteen minutes later the van pulled to a stop in front of the O&C building at Kennedy. “Molly, what’s the plan?” said Jeff as they walked up the steps to the front door.

  “About the same as the rehearsal. We’ll get you settled into your rooms, then there’s a meeting with the Test Director at 1:00 to go over a few procedural changes in the launch that resulted from issues in the rehearsal. As I understand it, they’re pretty minor, but you need to be aware of them.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then there’s a press conference at 4:30. Our PAO has told the media that it’ll be fairly short, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  Jeff nodded. “That’s good.”

  “You guys don’t really have a whole lot to do at this point, but there’s no need to wear you out answering a bunch of fool questions.” Molly grinned.

  “I’m for that,” said Abby.

  “Then we have an afternoon barbeque planned at the Beach House. Just a small gathering, I think you’ll know everyone. We’d normally do that for astronauts and their families, but you didn’t bring any family with you.”

  Jeff smiled. “We’ve said our goodbyes. At this point the four of us pretty much are the family.”

  In the elevator Molly continued. “Tomorrow, we’d like you to just take it easy. Rest and relax, and turn in early, as you’ll be up early Tuesday.”

  Jeff chuckled. “Rest and relax? With our booster launch first thing in the morning?”

  “Yes but there’s nothing you need do about that.”

  “No, but if anything goes seriously wrong with it, we’re probably done. We’re right up against the edge of the launch window for this opposition, and waiting another 26 months isn’t really an option, since most of our stuff on Mars will have reached it’s shelf-life expiration date by then.”

  Molly nodded. “Yes, I understand, but it’s out of your hands now.”

  “Yeah, I suppose.”

  “Can we watch tomorrow’s launch?” said Gabe. “This will be our third launch from Kennedy and we have yet to actually see one in person.”

  “Of course. I think we can find you a good seat.”

  #

  Jeff, Gabe, Abby and Susan looked over the shelves of astronaut memorabilia in the Beach House living room.

  Abby shook her head. “Wow, not much left.”

  “No,” said Jeff. “A lot of shuttle and ISS stuff, but not much from the good old days. Too bad.”

  “Vultures,” said Susan.

  Jeff nodded. “Yeah. This place should have had a live-in curator for the past 50 years.”

  “With a gun,” said Abby.

  “Yeah. Oh, there’s somebody we know,” said Jeff, pointing at a wine bottle.

  “Who?” said Gabe.

  “Ken Mattingly. STS-51-C.”

  “He was sure helpful, and knowledgeable.”

  Jeff smiled. “Yeah, and maybe a little envious.”

  Gabe pointed at another bottle. “Silvia Creighton. Her ISS mission.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Do you think that bottle we signed will still be here when we get back?”

  “Hell, I’d be surprised if it’s still here when we launch. It’ll probably be on eBay by this time tomorrow.”

  Abby frowned. “Maybe we should take it with us. Just leave a note that says if anybody wants it they can come get it.”

  Jeff chuckled. “That’d work, for a while at least.”

  Susan glanced at him. “Do you believe someone else will go to Mars during our lifetimes?”

  “No, probably not. But if we prove it can be done, who knows?” Jeff thought for a moment. “You know what most astonishes me about going into space?”

  “What’s that?” said Abby.

  “That once you’re on the pad and ready to go, it only takes about four minutes to get there. Hell, during rush hour in Los Angeles it takes twenty minutes to get from Hollywood Boulevard to Sunset Boulevard, and that’s only two blocks.”

  They all laughed.

  Molly came up behind them. “You guys sound like you’re having fun. Nobody’s nervous?”

  They all glanced at each other.

  Jeff shrugged. “I’m not… yet. Ask me again Tuesday morning when we’re sitting in the command module and somebody in the firing room says, ‘Go for auto sequence start’.”

  Gabe cringed and nodded. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”

  Molly nodded. “Yes, I would imagine so. Anyway, dinner’s ready out on the deck.”

  “Excellent.” Jeff glanced around. “Shall we?”

  As they stepped out onto the deck, Hal Creighton walked by with a plateful of barbequed lobster tail, steamer clams, corn on the cob, and Caesar salad. “Gotta hand it to you, Jeff, you know your barbeque.”

  “Uh, thanks. You eat like this on the ISS?”

  “Hell, no. You planning on eating like this on Mars?”

  “Uh, probably not.”

  Hal grinned. “Space sucks.”

  Jeff smiled and nodded. “For the moment, I’ll take your word for it.” He turned to Abby and spoke out the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t order this stuff.”

  Abby smiled. “Yes you did, you just didn’t know it.”

  “Ah, gotcha.”

  #

  Jeff leaned against the deck railing, staring at the surf and the Atlantic Ocean beyond, and wondering if he’d ever see either again.

  Abby came up and stood beside him. “Nice view.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Not as good as ours.”

  “No.”

  They stood silently for a minute, then Abby shook her head. “It’s not too late, boss.”

  “For what?”

  “We’ve got plenty of money. We could just fly to Bermuda and spend the rest of our lives having sex on a beach.”

  Jeff glanced at her and grinned. “That’s a very tempting proposal. But then there’s those footprints you want to put on Mars.”

  Abby nodded. “Yeah, there is that.”

  “Isn’t this what you always wanted to do?”

  “Yeah, but wanting it when you’re certain you’ll never get it is easy.” She point
ed northwest toward LC-39A. “Have you looked over there lately?”

  Jeff groaned. “I’ve been trying not to.”

  “Well, in about 36 hours we’re gonna be in that thing and on our way to a place nobody’s ever gone before. That’s a little harder to chew on.”

  He glanced toward the pad. “Bermuda, you say?”

  Abby chuckled. “Uh huh.”

  “Hmmm.”

  Gabe and Susan joined them. “So, what are you two talking about?” said Susan.

  Jeff shrugged. “Oh, we’re just trying to come up with ways to keep our minds off…” he nodded toward the launch pad, “… that.”

  Gabe frowned and sighed. “If you find one that works, I’d sure like to hear about it.”

  “Anyone want to take a walk on the beach?” said Jeff. “Probably our last chance for a while.”

  “Or ever,” said Abby.

  “Well, aren’t you the cheery one?”

  “Just sayin’…”

  “Well, stop sayin’,” said Gabe, and she reached around Jeff and smacked Abby on the back of the head.

  “Ouch.”

  Susan nodded. “A walk on the beach sounds nice, I’ll go.”

  The four of them filed down the path to the beach and strolled along the sand, silently.

  After a time, Susan glanced at Jeff. “What are you going to miss most?”

  “Hmmm, I dunno.” He thought for a moment. “I’m definitely going to miss bacon cheeseburgers and onion rings.”

  They all laughed.

  “And my bed.”

  They all nodded.

  “What about you? What are you gonna miss?”

  Susan shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure. Um, I’m going to miss dressing up and going out to dinner… and Gabe playing the piano.”

  Gabe glanced at her and smiled.

  Jeff nodded. “What about you, Gabriel? What are you going to miss?”

  “Gravity.”

  He laughed. “There’s gravity on Mars.”

  “Yes, but for almost half the trip we won’t be on Mars.”

  Jeff cringed. “Uh, yeah, forgot about that. Okay, but aside from that, what are you going to miss?”

  Gabe shook her head. “Um… I’m going to miss Daphnis and Chloe. I’m going to miss them sleeping on my bed.”

  He nodded again. “They’re good dogs. I’ll miss them too. Fortunately we’re not likely to encounter many paparazzi on Mars.”

  “No, probably not.”

  “Oh, and they’ll probably still be sleeping on your bed.”

  “No, they’ll go in and sleep with Chrissie or Heidi. They’re Weimaraners, Velcro dogs. They don’t like being alone.”

  “Yeah. Abby? What about you?”

  “Oh god, I dunno. Um… I’m gonna miss warm evenings at my folk’s villa, sitting in the pavilion and sipping very expensive vintage port.” She chuckled. “And the aroma of your cigars.”

  Jeff smiled softly. “Yeah. That reminds me.” He reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and offered it to Abby.

  “Oh, yes!” She took one and lit up with the lighter he offered.

  Jeff followed suit.

  Susan glared at them. “I thought you both quit.”

  He nodded. “We did. And in a few minutes we’ll probably quit again.”

  Abby took a deep drag. “Ahhh.”

  Susan rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  Gabe stared at Jeff. “Can I have one?”

  He frowned at her. “Have you ever smoked?”

  “No.”

  “Well, okay, here.”

  She took one and Jeff lit it for her. She stared at the cigarette. “What do I do?”

  Jeff laughed. “Occasionally puff on it. You probably won’t want to inhale.”

  “Why?” She took a puff, inhaled, and immediately started coughing.

  “That’s why.”

  Gabe grimaced. “Oh, that’s awful. How do you do it?”

  “It takes a little getting used to.”

  She held it out and looked around.

  Jeff pointed at her feet. “Sand.”

  “That’s littering.”

  “Yeah, but day after tomorrow we’re leaving this planet and by the time we get back any evidence will be long gone.”

  She shrugged, dropped the cigarette in the sand and stomped on it.

  Abby chuckled and shook her head.

  “Don’t you laugh at me.”

  Abby took a step away from her. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  They walked for a while in silence, then Gabe glanced at Jeff. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  “I suppose.”

  “How did you meet your wife?”

  “Hmmm, four years and we never talked about that? Huh.”

  “No.”

  Jeff drew a soft smile. “Well, we met on a Friday night in August of 1985 at the Junior Officer’s Club – a place called The Datum – at the Naval Education and Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island.”

  Gabe smiled. “Huh. What a coincidence.”

  “Not really. It was my time in the Navy at Newport that eventually led me back there. I was in OCS and she was at OIS.”

  Gabe shook her head. “OIS?”

  “Officer Indoctrination School.”

  “She was in the Navy?”

  He nodded. “Uh huh. A nurse, fresh out of school.”

  “How long did you date before you got married?”

  “Well, that was kind of a, um… split-session.”

  “Huh?”

  “Marsha and I hit it off right away – sort of a mutual attraction – and started seeing each other whenever we could, mostly on weekends. She was a Massachusetts native from a Boston suburb called Somerville and knew the New England area pretty well, including all the best places to eat.”

  Abby chuckled. “Well, that explains a lot.”

  Jeff grinned and nodded. “Yeah. She’s the one that introduced me to Durgin-Park.”

  Gabe grinned. “No wonder you like it so much.”

  “Uh huh. That… and the food. Anyway, we spent our time with her showing me around Boston or Cape Cod, or sailing on Narragansett Bay.” He laughed.

  “Remember something funny?”

  “Yeah, the first time we went sailing.” He laughed again.

  Susan smiled at him. “Is there a story here that you would care to share with us?”

  “Yeah, okay. The evening we met we were just sitting at a table in the Datum, chatting, and I asked her if she liked to sail. She said she’d never been sailing. So I invited to go the next day. She hummed and hawed a bit, but eventually agreed. So the next morning I picked her up at the nurse’s quarters and we rented, I don’t remember, I think it was about a 20-foot O’Day, a little sloop, from the Navy Yacht Club and headed down the bay to take a cruise around Rose Island. Once we got underway she went down into the cabin and changed into a bikini and t-shirt, then came back and sat in the stern with me. The water around the north end of Rose Island shoals… quite a bit. I didn’t know it. While we were still around a hundred yards offshore the keel scraped bottom. She was steering. I yelled turn right! So she pulled the tiller right. Which of course turned the boat left. So with the keel stuck in the mud, a gust caught us and knocked us over. And both of us went in the water.”

  Gabe cringed. “Oh god! What did you do?”

  “Righted the boat.”

  “How?”

  “Sat on the keel. A small boat like that will right easily. So, I climbed back in, dropped the mainsail and raised the keel. Marsha was hanging onto the side looking, um, displeased. So I grabbed her hands and pulled her up into the boat. It was only then that I noticed she’d only put on half her bikini, and at that point looked like a contestant in a wet t-shirt contest.”

  They all laughed.

  “She eventually glanced down at what I was staring at, peeled the t-shirt away from her, frowned and said, ‘You did that on purpose’. ‘Di
d not’. ‘Did too’. Etcetera, etcetera.” Jeff shook his head. “Try as I might, I was never able to convince her otherwise. But, it worked out for the best. After we got off the shoal, we anchored, went down in the cabin, dried off and, um… how shall I say? Kissed and made up?”

  “I wish I’d known that before I let you take me sailing,” said Gabe.

  “Why? I never dumped you in the drink.”

  “Just lucky, I guess.”

  Jeff chuckled. “Whiner. Anyway, that all lasted for about a month, then she finished OIS and got orders to Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego.”

  Abby sighed and shook her head. “The Navy sure knows how to screw up love affairs.”

  “Yeah, it does at that. Particularly since after commissioning I had a year’s worth of EOD schools ahead of me, nearly all on the East coast. We phoned and wrote one another for a while. A lot at first, but with time and distance it just kind of tapered off, then stopped altogether, and I… forgot about her. Then six years later, when I was wounded in Kuwait, I came out of surgery and heard a familiar voice saying, ‘Jeff? Wake up Jeff.’ And I opened my eyes and… there was Marsha.”

  Gabe smiled at him. “Now that is a coincidence.”

  “Yes, and a big surprise. We both left the Navy shortly after that and I talked her into going back to Long Beach with me. We got an apartment and she got a job at Memorial Hospital. I went back to school and got my teaching credential. A couple months later we got married, bought the house, and settled into the quiet life.” He glanced off toward the ocean and winced. “About two years later she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and a few years after that, breast cancer. They call it hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome.” Jeff took a deep breath and sighed. “She fought it for sixteen years, but on November 4th 2009 it got the best of her.”

  Gabe wrapped her arm around Jeff’s waist, leaned her head on his shoulder, cried softly and whimpered, “I’m sorry.”

  He pulled out his handkerchief, smiled and handed it to her. “Now, stop that. We had a good life together and treasured the time we shared, and she’s not forgotten.”

  “I wish I’d known her.”

  “I wish you had too. She would have liked you. She would have liked all of you.”

  Monday, March 21, 2016 (T minus 25 hours, 22 minutes)