The new week began with a wonderful simulated day. The prospect of departure to points unknown was becoming more a reality, and our crew was formed and beginning to bond. I rode right seat for Doc and then Shelly. To my surprise, Terry allowed Doc a docking procedure with the One-World space station and the man greased it in as if he had been doing it all his life. “Just like a video game,” was his only remark.
Shelly was also the consummate professional. Where Danica was usually aggressive, Shelly was patient and precise. Watching two gifted pilots work a new spacecraft was something I would have paid to see. It was a privilege to admire their skills from the right seat and I never had a single word to offer. They could have cared less that I was there, and seemed to consider me an unnecessary distraction. Afterward, in the TCC, I found Terry just as silently jubilant as I, and we both acted a bit stiff trying to conceal it.
Someone ordered pizza. We milled around the break room trading jokes and upbeat conversation when my phone interrupted. Balancing a sagging piece of pepperoni and mushroom, I managed to flip it and answer. It was RJ.
“Hey, Kemosabi, I’m here at your place getting your waders.”
“We just had a couple text book flights, RJ. Life is good.”
“Couple of things. Did you forget to lock the side door?”
“I don’t think so. Was it unlocked?”
“Yeah, but I’ll lock it when I go.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“You’ve got a steady drip in your kitchen sink faucet and I can’t get it to stop. You might want to get that fixed before departure.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Just one thing. There’s someone sleeping in your bed.”
“What?”
“At first I thought the blankets were just piled up but then I saw the dark hair underneath the pillow.”
“Long dark hair?”
“Familiar-looking long dark hair.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’d better get home.”
“Remember not to speed past the guard.”
I hurried down the hall to let Terry know I was going, and then sprinted to the Vette. The guard took notice and stood ready. Clutching the wheel for tension relief, I gave a forced smile and wave as I went slowly by, but as soon as he was out of sight, I brought it up to float level, just short of the legendary Dale Earnhart Sr. loose front end. If any municipal satellites were monitoring my stretch of 528 I would be assured a summons in the mail. By the grace of the slowness of government, I probably would not be at home when it arrived.
Creeping into my own house I found her still asleep, her head covered by pillows. Without waking her, I sat gently on the side, and ever so slowly lifted a pillow away. Her deep dark hair was splayed across her face. I carefully pushed it aside and stroked it. Without opening her eyes, she moaned and the right hand came up in an uncoordinated seeking until it found my chest and pressed against it, clinging to me for security.
Some light years ago, Nira Prnca and I had bonded by chance in the vacuum of space in a few frightening moments where life had become an uncertain prospect. We had clutched at each other like fierce lovers, separated by layers and layers of pressurized life support, droplets of her blood tinting her damaged armor, the redness squeezing through my fingers as I fought furiously to heal the carnage. We had shared life from my backpack, exchanged breath through an umbilical cord of cold plastic, and stared at each other though the glass in our helmets, hoping for reassurance that each was still there and that nothing else was more important. And, when life had regained its composure and the threat of timelessness past, we both discovered something had been left behind. Somehow, we had revealed more of ourselves to each other than people should. Secrets had been compromised. There needed to be an understanding that those unintended exposés were safe. There needed to be intimate trust.
She understood what had happened better than I, and had explained it to me soon after in such a primeval way that even I came to the realization something extraordinary had changed us. Inside, a tiny fusion-reaction had taken place leaving new starlight where there had been only darkness, a perpetual light that graced our minds and hearts.
I brushed the strong chin line with the back of my fingers. The hand clutching me pulled me down. Without opening her eyes, she turned and hooked the other arm around my neck, murmuring in half sleep. I touched my lips to hers, and was pulled in harder. The blankets covering her naked form were pedaled away. The left hand wrenched at my flight suit accompanied by an annoyed moan. With all barriers resolved, we locked into each other, turning and twisting, gasping from the effort, pausing only to collect on the exchanges of sensuality and lust. Each time the desire faded, it returned with a greater vengeance. Too much time had been missed, but nothing had been forgotten. The star was still burning, the pact of intimacy still in place. Sunlight from the curtained window turned golden and faded. The islands of sleep that crept in between lovemaking grew longer. Finally, we lay wrapped in each other in corporal exhaustion.
When new sunlight began beaming in through the curtains, I opened my eyes to find her lying on her side staring at me, her hand pushing down on the pillow to see.
“What did I do to deserve this?”
Her voice was dry and sultry. “Someone has to look in on you from time to time.”
“How’d you get here?”
“You would think a flight from D.C. to Orlando would be quick and easy. Got stuck in Atlanta for three hours. Ended being up all night and getting here late in the morning.”
“Aren’t you going to be missed?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“Rumors and clues.”
“What?”
“One of us has signed on for something off-world without telling the other.”
“Uh-oh.”
“So what has my six-foot-two knight in dented armor got himself into this time?”
“It all just happened. I was trying to find the right time.”
“Mmm, I see your dilemma. There would not have been a right time.”
“I didn’t have a choice. I had to take it.”
“I didn’t have a choice, Mommy. I had to eat the candy.”
“There’s some very serious issues involved. Debts to be paid. Allegiances to maintain.”
“Aren't there always, dear? How long?”
“The consignment is for twelve months, but from what I’ve seen it will probably be less.”
She sat up on one elbow. “A year? A whole fucking year? Are you shitting me?”
“It could be as little as six months. I don’t have all the details yet. It’s so damn classified we only know half of it.”
She flopped over onto her back and threw her arms up in disgust.
“I had no choice, please believe me.”
She looked at me with a sullen, narrowed stare. “Let’s make a pact that for now on, we only sign on to long missions that we both can take.”
“Okay, but we need to modify that slightly. It needs to be, we will try to accept only missions that we can both be on. I do not want to be in a situation where I am forced to break a promise to you or you to me.”
“Okay. I guess.”
“You know there is the M-word. It gives people more leverage in those situations. But the concept has always scared the hell out of me.”
“No way. I don’t want the married stigma again. When you show up in my stateroom, I want to know it’s because you want to be there, nothing else.”
“I can’t imagine anything else.”
“Remember I told you about my ex-husband, the diplomat, and how he was always going back and forth while I was in space systems going up and down, so that we hardly ever got together?”
“I’m not so good at relationship counseling. Why are you asking?”
“We’ll I’m sort of stuck in group data analysis for a while, and now you're going vertical again. I don’t want that same
thing happening here.”
“Nira, there’s no way you could go along on this trip.”
“But why are you going? I know this must be one fucking dangerous mission 'cause the agency picked you for it. It must be something really important to them and so fucking dangerous that they think you’re the only one who might have a chance of pulling it off, right? I know them. That’s what they do. Am I right? Why the fuck did you accept it, anyway? You’re set up. Wasn’t the Electra close enough to dying for you? Why would you get in another crap game, and believe me that’s a good play on words. Why did you take this?”
“Doll, sometimes you are too smart for your own damn good. I’ll tell you what; enlighten me about the extraterrestrial we brought back sedated from the last trip.”
She hesitated and stammered, “I can’t go into that. It’s above top secret.”
“I’m classified above top secret.”
“But I still can’t talk about it. You know that, for God’s sake.”
“That’s my point. I have to go on this mission, and I can’t talk about why. Did I get you?”
“You’re a tricky bastard, Adrian. Yes, you got me.”
I pushed her back on the bed and kissed her, then spoke an inch from her lips. “You couldn’t go anyway because I couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to you. It would screw up my command structure. Here on the ground, I’ll know you’re safe. That’ll help me get through the mission and back to you.”
She made a “humph” sound and hit me with a pillow.
I made her scrambled eggs with cheddar. She attacked them with the ferocity of a tiger. We sat with coffee and stared at each other, riding a train of emotions that were in constant conflict. She had to get right back. Her flight was a little past five. We squeezed lawn chairs into the back of the Vette and went to her favorite place on the beach, just south of the Pier. We set up where the incoming tide could run up under our chairs and tried to find meaningful things to say. We would plan something special for when I got back. A trip where no one could find us. We’d stay as long as we felt like it and the hell with whatever was going on back home. She was fiercely serious, and for once, so was I.
I took her to OIA and went as far as security would allow. The place was packed but in our minds we were the only two there. We held on for a long time until boarding calls threatened. She did not wave. We just stared each other down until she disappeared into the concourse.
The day became morose. I thought to push her to take a leave of absence and stay in Florida until T-0 day, but that would have made the parting even more painful. Too many hours of preparation were being invested to ask her to wait around for my free time--what there was of it. Back at Genesis, my work was suddenly not inviting. I wandered around the place watching the intense discussions going on, the drama of simulated failures and mitigations. Even through gloom, the Genesis teams were so exceptional in their work it forced an uplifting. Julia’s staff would show up periodically with questions. The break room was a mess since everything else going on was too important for anyone to care. People were upbeat and enthusiastic. All except for me.
Chapter 14