CHAPTER 7

Dee was not even sure that she could count the number of times she had stopped in this little grocery store. The guy who ran the place, Andy, even knew her first name. He used it every time she came. It was a kind of comforting familiarity that always signaled the end of her working day. She never thought about work here. It was one of the few, rare, places where that happened.

As she waited in line, to buy her milk, Dee noted the television behind the counter. The image up on the screen captured her attention. She ignored the numbers that were constantly scrolling across the bottom. That seemed to be the only thing that anyone else, standing around the set, was paying attention too. Dee thought those numbers were for the lottery drawing but that was only a guess. She never played the lottery. Normally, television sets never commanded much of her time either. Dee always tuned them out. There was no way she could do that now. She kept hearing her own name coming out of the set!

Dee stepped out of the line as she watched this woman radiate for the camera. The woman sounded so chipper and that was in direct contrast to her guest. He acted like he was angry at the world. It all made Dee wonder why anyone watched this crap. It was so stupid.

The woman was practically giggling as she said, “but everyone else is so excited about this. You don’t agree that this is a truly historical step for not only us but, the entire world?”

Dee had never considered herself media savvy but she knew a dodge when she heard it. That was exactly what the guy did with the woman’s question, “the point is that the OK Corporation is simply interested in profits only. They have enlisted the aid of the military to secure these worlds for them, only. That’s what this all about. That’s what this has always been about.”

The woman on the screen came back with, “but if I understood your position correctly, you are saying that getting there is impossible anyway. If you think that then why are you so concerned with the rest?”

The camera gave this man a close up as he replied in a very dignified way, “well for one, it is a matter of principle. We have to come to understand and deal with this legacy of corporate greed that has penetrated our society at every level. The other is physics. The spaceship that the OK/Government alliance is trying to build will never work. It’s been proven impossible. That’s not even counting the effects of long term space travel on human bodies. Such a journey would kill anyone on that spaceship.”

As the images on the screen switched, to old stock pictures of astronauts wobbling out of old space capsules, Dee just rolled her eyes. Who was this guy? She mumbled to herself, “yeah and where did you get your physics degree jackass?”

“Dee?” came Andy’s voice from behind the counter. The line had vanished as well as most of the people watching the lottery numbers. Dee walked up to the counter and put her half gallon of milk down. She started digging for money when Andy asked, “is that you I’ve been seeing on TV?”

Dee stopped digging for change and was a little bit surprised by the question. When Andy pointed she looked back over to the television. That was her picture! It was an older one, from about ten years ago, and Dee recognized it as the one in her OK press release file. It had been a studio picture, almost a glamour shot, and Dee thought it was barely recognizable.

She shrugged and smiled at Andy, “yeah I guess that’s me. I had no idea.”

“Wow,” Andy was not very energetic in how he said that but he sounded genuinely impressed. The strange notion that struck Dee was that he was more impressed by her being on television than anything else. Flying to another world seemed to be only a secondary concern to him. It was like he thought that she was flying to another world just to get on TV!

He waived her off, “hey don’t worry about the milk Dee.”

That was even a stranger notion, “no I need to pay for it Andy.”

“No you don’t,” he winked at her and then vanished into the bowels of his store. A moment later he showed up with one of those disposable instant cameras that he was tearing out of the packaging. Andy quickly got one of the lottery guys to snap a picture of him with Dee. Then he asked, “now you’re going to come back and sign this when I get it developed, right?”

Dee fought to keep her face from turning red with embarrassment, “uh, yeah. You bet.”

The moment disturbed her all the way home. It was still playing in her mind when she sat down at her home computer. Dee wanted to get back to work with the files she had here at home. It was always easier to work in sloppy shorts and a wrinkled T shirt. She just had a hard time making herself do it right now. It was from a combination of things not the least of which was lack of sleep. That was not to mention the general fatigue and, finally, the incident back at the store.

She fidgeted, squirmed, and then finally decided to do something simple like check her E-Mail. That did not make her feel any better. Her mail box was packed with notes from one person that she had no desire to communicate with. Without opening any of those mails, Dee highlighted them and then hit delete.

After that she forced herself back to work. She slid on her glasses and just moaned at the computer screen. Dee sniffled and then sighed in frustration, “I’m never going to make this work.”

She laid her head down in the hope that her brain would clear. Then the knocking on the door caused her to jump up from the keyboard.

The banging kept right on as Dee took stock of everything around her. There was daylight coming in the window? She looked at the clock above her computer. It was six in the morning already? Dee suddenly realized she must have fallen asleep at the computer. She took her glasses off and set them down on her little desk. Dee still felt like she was in a daze. It felt as if she had just come home. How was it morning already?

She was still moaning and rubbing her eyes as she reached the front door. Dee barked at the person on the other side “would you stop that!”

Dee cracked the door and peeked out. She tried to focus her eyes better as she looked at her visitor. She rubbed her eyes but not because he looked blurry. It was just because she was sure it was Colonel Kelly standing on the other side. It couldn’t be, could it?

“What are you doing here Colonel?” Dee mumbled in a daze, “I thought you were at Vandenberg?”

“I was at Vandenberg Dee. Now I‘m here.” Jack replied full of energy. He must have been a morning person and such a thought made Dee want to puke.

He went on with the same gusto, “well get it all in one sock kiddo. We got to kick the tires and light the fires.”

Dee leaned up against her semi opened door and sighed, “and that means in English?”

Jack had his hands in the pockets of his beat up leather flight jacket as he rocked on his heels. Dee could not even guess how anyone could be so upbeat at this time of the morning. Jack looked around for a minute like he was making sure the coast was clear. Then he said, “what it means is we got to catch a plane to Kazakhstan. We don’t have a lot of time so get it together woman.”

“Uh,” Dee winced and then squinted at him. She actually pinched herself after that. Then she took in a heavy breath and tried to wake up, “ok this isn’t a dream. That means I’m either too asleep to understand what you just said, or it’s a joke. Did you say we’re going… Where?”

Jack grumbled something to himself and then said, “you know it’s kind of cold out here Dee.”

“I didn’t tell you come bang on my door at six AM, Colonel.”

Jack grumbled a little more, “can we discuss this inside, please?”

Suddenly Dee was wide awake. What had caused that was beyond Jack. Dee had always struck him as a human calculator. In the past couple of months he had watched all kinds of things get thrown at her from unexpected directions. She never lost her cool. Dee always just put the problem into perspective and rolled with it. In fact, Jack kind of thought she thrived on such situations. Dee seemed to be almost the epitome of a pure fire, low level, stress junkie.

The woman slammed the door in Jack’s face and for a moment he heard all sorts of mayhem coming from inside the apartment. When the door cracked again she opened it wide and smiled, “come on in Colonel.”

The mystery of what had shocked her was gone just as soon as Jack walked into the living room. Dee was obviously not expecting company. In Dee’s natural habitat she was a slob. That kind of surprised Jack. When she was at her plant here in Stockton, or at NASA, the woman never had a single hair out of place! To Jack at least, how someone could be two things, that were so totally opposite, was the real mystery.

After shutting the door, Dee walked by Jack and he could have sworn she kicked something under the couch as she went by. She also noted, “and next time you decide to drop by Colonel. Could you try ringing the doorbell instead scaring the crap out of me with that knock of yours?”

Jack took up a position by the little bar, that was full of junk, and obviously seldom used, “I did ring the doorbell Dee. I’ve been out there for twenty minutes. Course you were supposed to have been at the plant an hour ago.” Then as an afterthought he added, “oh yeah. And I do believe I told you to call me Jack, didn’t I?”

Dee stopped by her bedroom door and let out a heavy sigh. She dipped her head and then shook it in reluctance, “I… I mean I just don’t feel comfortable doing that. You do realize that before our little marriage of convenience you guys were the enemy, at least as far as I was concerned.”

“Bull,” Jack said as he looked back towards the kitchenette, “got any coffee around here?”

Dee pointed, “over the sink. Now Colonel, um,” she bit her lip and hesitated before she managed to force out, “Jack. Why didn’t anybody call me? I mean what’s this all about? Ka-where-istan?”

“Somebody did call you,” Jack found a jar of instant and pulled it down from the cabinet. He pointed to it as he looked too Dee, “you really drink this crap? Sacrilege girl. Don’t you know all true work-a-holics do the real deal?”

Dee moaned, “I don’t even drink coffee… Jack. That’s just for… well you know, times like this? When somebody drops by.”

After pulling the cap off Jack discovered the tamper proof seal had never come off. He gave up on the coffee and set it aside as he got down to business, “they located Vitosk.”

Suddenly Dee became attentive and a bit more energetic, “you’re kidding me? He really is still alive?”

Jack shrugged, “apparently. I kind of always figured he was.”

Dee cautiously eased her way over to the counter, “what’s the catch?”

“Oh it’s a doozy,” Jack replied as he pointed to the bedroom, “now go pack a bag darlin’. You’ll get briefed on the flight.”

Dee vanished into her bedroom and once again Jack heard the sounds of things falling over. Then she poked her head out, “what do people wear in Kazakhstan?”

Jack grunted out a short laugh, “these days? Probably mostly camouflage. I hear tell they got themselves a little war going on right now.”

Dee gulped, “that was a joke right?”

He didn’t reply.

Dee gulped again, “right?”