Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (52 page)

“Well, there are some, particularly
within the astronaut corps, that are a little annoyed that you didn’t come to
us for a crew.”

“Elgin, you know full well what
would have happened if I had.”

“Yeah, sure. You wouldn’t get off
the ground for twenty years. The safety checks alone would take a decade. But,
you know how it is, there are a lot of other people just as crazy as you, and
they want to go.”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah. Steve, what about
JPL?”

“Oh hell, we’re thrilled to death. Like Elgin, we
wish we had a much larger role, but, jeez, what’s to say? We’re going to Mars.
I mean, damn! Still, there is an awful lot of concern. You fail and public
sentiment will likely see it as a failure of the entire space program,
including us.”

“What’s your big concern?”

Steve pursed his lips. “I hope you’ll forgive my
bluntness, but like Elgin said… the crew. You’ve got no experience.”

Susan glared at him. “Things are going to break on
this mission, that’s inevitable. But it won’t be us. Just get your part right.
We’ll be fine.”

Abby and Gabe glanced at her and smiled.

Jeff nodded. “There you have it. Dwayne? Grumman
happy to be back in the business?”

“Oh, yeah. We’d sure rather be
building the Altair, but since you’re the only game in town, we’ll take it.
It’s been forty-five years, but we’re finally going somewhere again. Jeez, what
more can we ask for? Hell, we’re probably going to have octogenarians that
worked on the LM show up at the door wanting to torque a single bolt on these
things just so they can say they were part of it.”

Jeff laughed. “Well, you let ‘em.
They deserve it. And make sure that everyone who works on it gets to sign their
name on it somewhere.”

“Yeah, okay. And I don’t think most
people believe you’re crazy, your plan’s sound. Not elaborate, but sound.
Though you may be crazy when you get back after living in those cramped
quarters for two and a half years.”

Abby grinned. “If we don’t come
back, it’s liable to be because we all strangled each other.”

“No, I think most folks are with
you. It’s a hell of a thing. Go with God. And come back.”

Jeff nodded and smiled. “Thanks.
That’s the plan.”

“Oh, by the way, somebody at Grumman started a pool
recently on what your first words will be when you step onto the surface. An
awful lot of folks will be listening to the radio when that happens, cause
there’ll be a lot of money in that pool.”

Jeff chuckled. “Yeah. You might
want to put some money on, ‘Uh, we’re here.’”

While Gabe, Abby, Sue, Heidi, and
Chrissie poured over the preliminary MAV schematics with Elgin and Dwayne,
Steve pulled Jeff aside. “Look, Jeff, it’s your mission and I’m just a minor
player, but… well, I know Gabe. I’m sure she’s doing a fine job for you but,
are you certain she’s got the right temperament for this?”

Jeff smiled. “Steve, she worked for
you on the MSL and you fired her because she drove you nuts.”

Steve gave him a look of surprise.

“Yeah, I know all about it. I also
know all about Gabe, probably a lot more than you do. You thought she was an
emotionally unstable nitpicking nag. For my part, I think she elevates
‘attention to detail’ to a whole new level, which is exactly what I need. She
also may be the brightest bulb on the entire human tree. She’s the smartest person
in the room, the building, and perhaps the entire planet, and there is no one
on Earth I would rather have sitting beside me in that command module when we
lift off, and you can quote me on that.”

Steve shrugged. “Okay.”

“Steve, you shouldn’t have fired
her, you should have listened to her… then done as you pleased. But you threw
away an asset of incalculable value.” Jeff smiled smugly and shook his head.
“That’s not smart.”

Saturday, June 7, 2014 (T minus 654 days)

Gabe leaned back in the pilot seat of the Flight
Safety International CJ3 simulator and, tongue hanging out the corner of her
mouth, sighed, “Wow, that was, uh, interesting.”

Jeff smiled, reached over from the
copilot seat and grasped her arm. “I thought you did good.”

“Thanks. I think the engine out on
the missed approach could have gone a little better.”

They both looked around quizzically
at Mark Albright, the Training Center Examiner seated behind them. Mark frowned
for a moment, then broke into a broad smile. “Good job. Pass.”

Gabe grinned at Jeff and shook her
fist. “Yes!”

He lunged over, gave her a hug and
a kiss on the cheek. “Excellent! Well done! Congratulations, you’re a jet
pilot.”

She rested her head on his shoulder
for a moment then looked up, tears welling. “Thank you. Thank you for
everything.”

Jeff smiled softly. “Now, don’t
start.” He wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. “Come on, let’s go
give Abby the good news.”

In the lounge adjacent to the
simulator, Abby was wearing a scowl and pacing. Spying Jeff and Gabe, she
stopped abruptly. “This better be good.”

They both smiled and nodded, Gabe
giving her a thumb up.

Abby broke into a broad grin.
“Outstanding!” She ran up and hugged Gabe, then glanced at Jeff. “Goddamn, it’s
true!”

“What’s that?”

She shook her head and glanced up
at Gabe. “I can teach anyone to fly.”

Gabe sneered at her. “I may yet
strangle you in your sleep.”

“Yeah, but in the meantime, now I
can sit in the back of the plane, have a drink, and let you do all the work.”

Gabe put her arm around Jeff, squeezed
them both and started crying, her chest heaving with each sob.

Abby glanced at Jeff and rolled her
eyes. “Oh lord, what now?”

Gabe sniffed and shook her head. “I
never imagined I’d have friends like you, or that I’d ever be able to fly a jet
airplane.”

Abby sighed, grasped the back of
Gabe’s neck and pulled her head down till their foreheads met, then looked her
in the eyes. “I can fly jets, but I’ll never be able to do logarithms in my
head or play the piano like you, so… shut up.”

Jeff chuckled. “Okay, we’ve been
out of the ballgame for two weeks with these certifications and we’ve got work
to do. Let’s go finish up the paperwork and get out of here. I want to get down
to Michoud and see how Heidi’s coming along.”

Gabe smiled and nodded. “I think
she just wants to show off.”

“She’s made a lot of progress.
She’s entitled.”

#

Back in the Citation, Abby
immediately headed for the bar. “One of you fly, I’m gonna relax for once.”

Jeff smiled. “Alright. Gabe?
Pilot-in-Command?”

She grinned. “Okay.”

After settling in the right seat,
Jeff fumbled around in his flight bag for a moment, then produced a small
gift-wrapped package that he handed to Gabe. “Here, this is for you.”

“Oh god, thank you. What is it?”

“Well, open it and find out.”

She gingerly unwrapped the package
to find a glasses case. She looked at Jeff, puzzled. “Glasses?”

“Open it.”

Inside was a pair of gold-rimmed
Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses.

She gasped softly. “Oh god.”

“Try ‘em on.”

Gabe pulled her glasses off and
slipped on the Ray-Bans. “Oh my god, they’re in my prescription.” She glanced
around. “Oh, they’re even graduated bifocals, and I can read the instrument
panel!” She leaned across the cockpit and hugged Jeff. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. Now, light fires
and let’s go.”

She grinned broadly. “Okay.”

#

Gabe set the Citation down at
Lakefront Airport in New Orleans and taxied to the AeroPremier Jet Center
terminal.

Jeff grinned. “Nice landing.”

“Thanks.”

He pointed out the window. “There’s
somebody waving frantically over there. Looks like it might be Heidi.”

“Should I park there?”

“Yeah, I guess. I haven’t been here
before.”

Gabe pulled to a stop, shutdown the
engines, and waved out the window at Heidi.

Heidi pointed at her, and started
jumping up and down, clapping and grinning.

As Gabe descended the stairs, Heidi
snapped a photo of her with her cell phone camera. “You did it!”

Gabe grinned. “Yep. I did it.”

Heidi hugged her. “Congratulations!
Jet rated.”

“What’s with the photo?”

“I’m gonna email it to the Physics
Department at MIT. Eat your hearts out kiddies.”

Gabe smiled and shook her head.
“Thanks for the thought, but don’t; you’ll just get me hung again. But I’d like
a copy.”

“Okay, I’ll email it to you. Hey
Jeff, Abby, how you doing? Good to see you.”

Jeff gave her a hug and a kiss on
the cheek. “Doing good. How about you? The weather down here meet with your
approval?”

“No. It’s hot, and humid. But the
food’s good.”

Jeff gently pushed her back and
looked her up and down. She was wearing a tight black form-fitting outfit. “Um…
wow!”

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

He laughed. “Yeah, that’ll work.
You look like Kate Beckinsale in
Underworld
. Impressive.” He eyed her a
bit more closely. “Um, is that leather or… body paint?”

She grinned. “Leather.”

“You don’t actually wear that
around here, do you?”

“Yeah, I do. It’s kind of hot
outside, but inside it’s fine.” She grinned again. “And everybody knows when
the boss is on the assembly floor.”

Jeff chuckled. “I’ll bet they do.”

She pointed to a nearby GMC Yukon.
“Car’s over here.”

#

Jeff, Gabe and Abby clipped on
their I.D. badges and followed Heidi. “Have you been here before?”

Jeff nodded. “Well, Gabe’s been our
point-man, er, uh, woman here. I’ve been here a couple times, but not for a
while.” He glanced at Abby. “Have you been here?”

“No.”

Heidi led them onto the main floor.
“Well, welcome to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Building. With forty-three acres of
environmentally controlled space, it may be the largest manufacturing facility
in the world – under one roof. And for the time being, it pretty much all
belongs to us.”

Jeff cringed. “Oh god, my checkbook
just had apoplexy.”

Heidi smiled. “Boss, Lockheed
Martin adores your checkbook. Without you, all these folks would be on the
unemployment line.”

“So I’ve heard.”

She led them across the thirty-two
football fields’ worth of concrete floor. Each employee they passed smiled and
nodded to Heidi.

Jeff eventually chuckled. “Um, are
they just being polite, or do you scare the hell out of ‘em?”

“A little of both, I think.
Alright, over here are our four external fuel tanks. They’re all set and ready
to go. Lockheed had them built long before the shuttle program was ended.
Spares. Now, this one has the mockup of the J-241 engine mount affixed.”

Abby’s jaw dropped. “Jeez! I’ve
never seen one of these up close before. I had no idea they were so big.”

“Yeah, 153.8 feet long, 27.6 feet
in diameter, and can hold more than 1.6 million pounds of fuel. We’re using the
mockup to validate all the plumbing and electrical runs. So far, so good. The
actual mount is over on the other side of the building. We’re currently in the
process of x-raying the welds. Once that’s complete, and we’re satisfied with
the mockup alignment checkout, we’ll start mounting the engines.”

“So this will be Echo, the resupply
ship?” said Gabe.

Heidi nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you plan on mounting the
engines here and barging the whole thing complete?”

“No. I think we should stick with
proven practice and follow NASA’s assembly procedure. We’ll barge the tanks and
engine mounts together, but unassembled, then follow the standard High Bay tank
checkout in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy, move the tank into the
assembly High Bay where the SRBs will already be waiting, and bolt the whole
damn thing together.”

Jeff nodded approvingly. “I like
it. If we know something works, let’s stick with it. If it ain’t broke, don’t
fix it.”

“Agreed.”

“How about the EDS?”

Heidi pointed to the other side of
the building. “The payload adapter mockup is ready to be fitted to this tank
for validation, and the aft section of the Foxtrot lifting body should be here
next week for fitment test. Once all that checks out, we’ll begin construction
of the actual adapters. Probably two to three months, then another six months
for construction.”

Gabe raised her eyebrows. “Won’t
that be cutting it kind of close on assembly and checkout at Kennedy?”

“We should still have at least nine
months. That should be plenty of time. Boeing is coming along nicely on the EDS
tanks. No major glitches… yet. And Rocketdyne has assured me they’ll have the
first refurbished J-2s in Seattle by the end of next month. So, barring any
major complications, all four EDSs should be at Kennedy and ready to go when
called for. Abby, how’s the CSM coming?”

“Great. I was out there last week
and it’s looking really good. The glass cockpit’s to die for.”

“I’ll bet.” Heidi shook her head.
“But no changes on the back end. We’ve already locked the design on that
fairing. The mockup, after god only knows how many modifications, fits great,
and the actual fairing is now under construction in the machine shop. Don’t
mess with it.”

Abby nodded. “I gotcha. They know.”
She crossed her arms and looked up and down the Shuttle fuel tank, shaking her
head. “So, in twenty-one months I get to drive one of these, huh?”

Jeff nodded. “Yep.”

She sighed. “Wow.”

“Yeah, wow.” Jeff put his arm
around Heidi’s shoulders. “Good job.”

Heidi smiled. “Thanks.”

“I can’t believe the progress
you’ve made in six months.”