Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (67 page)

“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 pointed 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’. ‘Did 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 4
^th
2009 it got the best of her.”