USS ENTERPRISE

ATLANTIC OCEAN

It was absolutely amazing. Robert Sink found himself speechless when he looked at it. There was that big ring sitting on the hangar deck of the carrier, being as useless as the day he walked on board, and around it was a host of sailors, civilians, and even army personnel. The fact that they could all work together, without killing each other was an amazing feat that Bob just never thought he would ever see. Past that, his experience, with suddenly joining the navy, was a complete bust. He had become a soldier for a reason, not the least of which was because he hated ships. The way Robert had it figured, there were only a few ways you could die on one, and none of those ways were particularly pretty.

Of course people often became confused when Bob told them that. They would all say the same thing, “then why do you want to jump out of airplanes? You can burn up in one of those too.” Bob would always reply, “I’d have a parachute, I can jump out of those!”

Bill Darby walked up next to his comrade and joined him. He watched the welders make huge showers of sparks. He watched that navy guy, Rickover, running around and snapping out orders. The man was small in stature and he was an almost comical site considering the way he went about things. That made Bill comment, “why do I get the feeling I’m watching Bugs Bunny?”

Bob gave a snort of a laugh and replied, “I’m not sure you aren’t.” He then looked to Darby and studied the man’s expression. It made Bob want to ask a serious question. Being the good soldier that he was, Robert Sink simply followed orders and kept his trap closed. The question was heavy on his mind though. He was wondering if he was alone, “do you think this is all for real?”

Now it was Darby’s turn to chuckle, “you’re asking that like it really matters, Bob.” After a moment of silence, Bill Darby realized that he was not going to get out of the question so he said, “a lot of smart people seem to think it will.”

“Yeah but,” Sink replied, “a lot of smart people aren’t being asked to walk through that thing.”

“What the hell are you worried about,” Darby replied, almost laughing. “So far the only thing I’ve seen that’ll happen, if you walk through it, is you wind up further down the hangar deck. It’s not exactly, um, what did that Grant guy call it? One giant leap for mankind?”

Bob nodded, “yeah only I think he started it out with, one small step for a man and then…”

“Ah,” Darby just shrugged. Then he thought about it and replied, “that’s kind of catchy. I’m going to remember that the next time you push my ass out of the back of a C-47.” Darby thought even more and then asked, “since we got drafted for this job, how many times have you done that now?”

“You could stop crying like a little baby when the light comes on,” Robert shot back. “That might help.”

Bill Darby slapped his buddy on the shoulder, “that’s not crying. I told you I was just reliving my favorite moments with that wonderful dame who lives up on Victory Drive.”

“Of course it’s crying, Bill,” Bob told him, “I know what you caught from her, remember?”

“Hey,” Bill responded, “I didn’t see the Kilory Was Here stamped on her ass. That’s no fair!”

The highest ranking military man of their unit came strolling up just about then. Given the nature of where the conversation had drifted, Bob Sink was not so unhappy to see Chesty Puller. Both army men nodded to their Marine C.O. and then Puller asked, “how are they doing with that thing?”

Sink just shook his head in resignation, “you’re asking the wrong dogface, colonel. All I know is what they told us in the briefing. They tried to turn it on and blew out the electrical what-ya-macallits. That’s why they’re out there ripping up the deck plating.”

Bill Darby also ventured his opinion, “you take a look at that Rickover guy and you go measure his level of tension, and I’d give them at least a couple of more days.”

Chesty nodded and told his two sub unit leaders, “Yeah I just left Grant. He’s promising the stars, literally in this case but, he’s mostly just pulling his hair out right now.” After a sigh, Chesty decided, “well I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. They’ve given us the extra time so call a formation up on the flight deck. We’re going to practice some more close order drills. As I understand it, it’s harder to kill Martians. You have to cut off a couple of more heads.”

The two army officers laughed but, each trailed off with a moan. The one thing they had not missed out on, since they joined this project, was training. Chesty was a stickler for it and the kind of guy that left no detail unturned. If he wasn’t pushing combat training, then someone else had them sitting in classrooms. Every man in the outfit had learned every skill that they might not ever need to know. The War Department had paraded them past every technical type in it’s employ. They had even brought in a few “outside contractors” to teach them other skills. Bill Darby was still trying to figure out why he needed to know how to hot wire a thirty-eight Plymouth on Mars.

When they weren’t doing either of those kinds of training, then they found themselves listening to the egg heads of the project. Bill Darby had not understood a word that any of them had said. He just knew that every time somebody said the words, “worm” and “hole” he got sick at his stomach. Of course, he did not mind it when Bitrerlich gave a lecture since she had gams that could give Betty Grable a run for her money. Bill had a hard time concentrating but, not only because of that. Apparently she had some kind of degree in astronomy and the only thing Bill Darby ever understood about that subject started out with the line, “twinkle, twinkle.”

After the Marine colonel walked off Bill looked to his buddy and told him, “close order, well it could be worse.”

It was obvious that Sink didn’t take his meaning because all Bob had to say in response was, “yeah I know, Bill. They could have actually turned that thing on.”