CHAPTER 10

With so much important stuff going on, so much that needed to be done, so many sticky note reminders stuck to his work station, Harry Wu could not have found a better way to goof off than what he was doing right now. The best part about it was that it had not even been his idea. He just sat at the table, slumping in a metal fold out chair, and quite literally twiddling his thumbs.

Harry studied the curly headed guy that was sitting across the table from him. Harry watched with a dispassionate interest as the guy fumbled over papers. Occasionally this guy would stop and do something on his laptop computer before returning to his scratch pads and biting on his pen. Harry was starting to get the idea that the man was lost.

Finally after twenty minutes of not a single word passing between them, Harry just had to ask, “Doctor Barringer, they said something about you being a head shrink?”

The question almost threw the guy out of his chair, “uh, actually no. I guess in the literal sense maybe. I do have a doctorate in clinical psychology but not psychiatry.”

“Oh, I see.” Harry replied feigning agreement with the guy. Then he mentioned, “you know I’m not one of the rookies? We took a psychological battery already.”

“No, no,” he corrected Harry without looking up, “this has nothing to do with the selection process.”

“Oh,” Harry replied with the same agreeable tone he had used before. Then he blurted out, “how come I never read any of your papers?”

Barringer looked up now and was somewhat astonished, “I thought you were an Astronomer?”

“Among other things,” Harry replied with a smile.

Gary put down his pen and eased back in his chair, “well if you must know I have more than one degree. Psychology just happens to be my second post grad. It also just happens to be the one that they needed for this trip.”

“Yeah I guess I could see that,” Harry nodded and looked as if he had to think real hard on that one. Then he looked Gary in the eye and smiled, “Somebody else told me you were on this trip because you’re just real good at kissing the CEO’s ass over at OK.”

Gary held up three fingers, “this many degree’s Doctor Wu. I‘d say I‘m more than qualified.”

“Wow,” Harry whistled, “I’m impressed. Two more and you’ll have caught up with me.”

Gary replied, “all Doctorates?”

“Yeah,” Harry stood up and shrugged, “know what that’s like. So are all of mine but, hey, I guess you got to start somewhere.”

Gary looked like he was almost catatonic when he asked, “how old are you again?”

“Twenty six,” Harry gave a strategic pause and then, “on my next birthday.” Then he walked to the door and in passing he added a parting request, “well if you find out I’m crazy or anything, just send me a memo.”

Gary sighed and began scribbling frantically away at his note pad until his next ‘customer’ arrived. Gary was not even sure who this middle aged man was. He was trying to find his appointments schedule when the man relieved him of the burden, “I’m Jerry Pullman.”

“Oh,” Gary said as if a light bulb had just lit over his head, “the priest.”

“No,” Pullman replied. “I’m actually a Baptist Minister. They told me you were a shrink from that toilet bowl company. I thought we’d all been confirmed already?”

If Pullman’s agitation was obvious it was not enough to get noticed since Gary was far more so. How many times had he been called a shrink? How many of them asked why they were getting tested again? All of them by last count! Who was telling them all this stuff?! Gary only needed one guess.

“You, um,” Gary wondered what to call the guy.

“Well I’m usually called Brother Jerry but since we’re all going to be locked up together for a real long time why don’t we just skip all the formalities.”

“Ok,” Gary nodded, “Jerry. What I need here is just for you to take a few quick tests, personality profiles really. Then we’ll go over the biographical data and make sure it’s right. You being a Reverend, I’m sure you’ve had some training in counseling and the likes.”

The Reverend nodded in the affirmative but still did not look all to happy. In fact, Jerry looked very stone faced. Gary felt as if he needed to explain, “I’m trying to establish what we call a baseline. It’s for the research I’ll be doing on the expedition. You see you have to establish norms…”

“I know what a baseline is Doctor Barringer,” the reverend said with no more emotion than he had displayed since walking in.

Gary had no idea what to make of this guy. He just clicked his teeth and let out a deep breath, “well in that case let’s get started.”

_________________________

All that Pete needed right now was another smart ass comment about his current dilemma. He looked up from the stationary bike, that he was pedaling for all it’s worth, and saw Harry walking in. He was always good for such things as off hand remarks. The only good thing, about Wu’s arrival, that Pete could think of at the moment, was that it meant he was almost done here in the gym.

Actually, to call this place a Gym was not really accurate. Pete worked out regularly, ran every morning, and he was never pushed so hard as he was here. This room, and all of it’s work out gear, was in complete control of the projects medical team. They seemed to delight themselves in deliberately pushing you past your physical limits. As such, Pete decided this place was really a torture chamber.

Almost to illustrate the point, Pamela Short, serving as Doctor Mike’s star pupil at the moment, made a whip cracking motion with her hand, “come on Colonel you’re not there yet.”

As expected, Harry stopped next to Pete’s bike and had to expand on that statement, “not there yet huh? Pete you’re good. I mean covered in sweat, and everything, and you haven’t even touched her yet.”

If Pete had not been pushing the pedals, as hard as possible, for over two minutes then he might have actually found that funny. He did manage a polite, “screw you Harry.”

“One at a time big boy,” Harry replied with a laugh. Then he looked to the doctor, “so am I next? Can’t wait you know. Hey Pam, didn’t Doc Mike tell you to put on that black leather suit for this?”

Pam pushed the button on the bike’s digital clock and Pete was never more thankful. Then Pam gave her new victim a cute little smile as she pinched his cheek, “oh you won’t be so peppy when I’m finished with you.”

Pete was still sitting on the bike. His feet were now on the floor and he was leaning over the handle bars desperately trying to catch his breath. In between gasps he managed to cough out, “is that all?”

Pam checked her clipboard, “yeah Colonel. You’re done.” She added ominously with a twinkle in her eye, “for now.”

With a heavy sigh of relief Pete slipped off his instrument of torture and grabbed his gym towel. As he wiped his face he asked Harry, “did you already go talk to that Barringer clod?”

Harry was busy pulling off his jacket and sweater as he replied, “yeah. I think you were right about that guy too. So I told him what you said.”

Pete cracked a smile at that but said nothing else.

It was Pam who asked, “so what was that all about? Come on one of you is going to talk or I can guarantee your next session will not be pleasant.”

After he caught his laugh Pete only said, “oh you’re not the only one who is going to get to play with everybody like they’re lab rats. So get ready for your turn Doctor Short.”

Harry sat down on the bike and noted to Pam, “so will you crack the whip on my lower back. I like it better there.”

Pam ignored Harry as she thought about the morning schedule she had gotten. She was supposed to go see this Barringer too. She wanted to know what it was all about, “so what’s he supposed to be doing?”

“Supposed too is the operative term,” Harry replied. When he saw the looks he was getting Harry explained himself defensively, “well I just don’t think that guy really knows what he’s doing. My opinion, for what it’s worth, you know?”

Pete grabbed his bag and was really looking forward to a shower, “oh come on Harry. I just want to harass the guy. I’m not questioning his competency. Besides you’re no psychologist.”

“True,” Harry found his eyes drifting to Pam. She had a very evil look on her face and that told him it was time to start dying. He decided to prolong it just a tad bit longer, “but you know, I remember reading one of his papers a few years back.”

Drawing out his explanation looked like a good way to keep from pedaling that much longer. Harry milked it, “I mean you know my thing is like, pioneering new fields and stuff.”

Pam seemed to take his bait by asking for an explanation so Harry ran with it, “well I want to be a Xenologist. You know exobiology, exosociology, all that alien stuff?”

That drew a snorting giggle from Pam, “a real Star Trek fan, huh? And I thought that computer kid was bad.”

“No,” Harry quickly corrected her, “this is real stuff. We just haven’t had anything to study. Well except for all the work I was doing at JPL. Now I’m going to get a chance to really pioneer that field.”

“If you two will excuse me,” Pete said, “I’ve heard all this before, and before, and before.”

“Hang on Pete,” Harry said just before the Marine walked out the door. He was going to play for time as best he could. “You didn’t hear this part. The reason why I read Barrigner’s paper.”

Pete looked down at his wrist but his watch was still in his bag. He grunted in frustration and then just assumed, “I’m already late so would you hurry it up?”

“Well he’s not really a psychologist. I mean he might be but that isn’t his thing.”

Pam was curious now, “so what is he?”

Pete just had to say it, “well OK sent him over here so he’s probably a plumber.”

Harry shrugged, “he’s a linguist. His paper was on theoretical and hypothetical language structures.”

___________________

As Pete walked down the hall towards his office he passed by McCandles who came to his usual position of parade rest. As was normal, with the Sergeant Major, he barked out what he had to say, “Colonel sir, we have a problem.”

Like that was something Pete didn’t know? Every time McCandles initiated a conversation these days it usually started with that. Pete had already figured out how to reply with his own prefabricated question, “is it on my desk?”

“Yes sir, it is only…”

“I’ll look at it later,” Pete walked right into his office without ever having really stopped. Having been around NASA for a long time came with a perk that even Jack didn’t have. Pete had his own bathroom and while it was devoid of a shower he could clean up there. After doing so, and changing clothes, he found Airman Fujitsu waiting for him by his desk.

Gina was comfortable enough, with the Marine Colonel, and was a little less formal than the Sergeant Major. McCandles seemed to frown on any behavior that was less than military. Then again, Pete had never known a Sergeant Major who didn’t. Unfortunately, sometimes at least, Gina probably needed to take a few more queues from McCandles. She acted almost like she was the boss or at the least, a mother hen. This time she did so by trying to straighten out Pete’s tie.

As Gina did she blabbered out a list of things that Pete was currently late for. Pete found himself on the defensive, “well you know somebody could make a more realistic schedule around this place. Everybody and their brother thinks his agenda is more important than the next guys.”

“Absolutely Colonel,” Gina replied in a snap. “I think you should go see the director first. He’s probably on the top of that list.”

“Who else!” Pete walked out the door no sooner than his Airman finished with straightening his suit. The Sergeant Major was still waiting on him but Pete cut him off, “when I get back Sergeant Major. This can’t wait.”

With the Marine Officer gone, Joseph McCandles dropped his more formal, and sub-servant, face that he saved for officers. It was the kind attitude, and look, that displayed both respect and contempt all at the same time. He then went back into the mode that Sergeant Majors were more accustomed to playing. That being the role of god.

Gina was standing nervously by the Colonel’s office door. She certainly acted a good bit more nervous around non-commissioned officers than she did around colonels. McCandles looked to the young girl and she almost, but not quite, shuttered. He asked, “did he look at it?”

“Uh,” Gina squirmed. Then she replied questioningly and almost as if she were expecting a missile launcher to be fired at her for being wrong, “no, Sergeant Major?”

Without another word, McCandles marched right back to the waiting area and the woman who was waiting on him. The woman stood up and was a bit frantic. McCandles got right to the business at hand and in a very pointed way, “my apologies Mission Specialist Rice. I’ll make sure he knows just as soon as it is possible.”

Julia deflated and then blew up, “and how soon is that going to be? You know I’m not used to all this military crap! Why can’t somebody around here just hear me out? I mean, god, it’s not like it’s important or anything!” She went on, and on, and on.

Then Julia clamed down and became apologetic, “thank you Sergeant. I know you’re trying. I just… it’s hard.”

When she kissed McCandles on the cheek and then walked off without another word the Sergeant Major had yet to move, flinch, react, or do anything but stand at the position of parade rest. Once the woman was out of sight he then took note of Airman Fujitsu giggling near the row of cubicles. He let her know in no uncertain terms, “get back to work Airman or I promise you that you’ll regret the day that your mother and father ever had sex.”

______________________

Staying busy was easy enough. There was always more to do than time to do it in. Gina had learned a long time ago how to handle that situation. She looked on a horde of tasks with an eye to her advantage. It was kind of like a smorgasbord or work and that let you pick the task that suited you best. With that in mind she decided the best thing to do for the moment was find some work that was not anywhere near Sergeant Major McCandles.

She had all kinds of papers to deliver so she picked the ones she wanted and wandered over to the computer labs where nobody really knew who she was. Such situations were advantageous in that there was nobody there to order her around. Once out of sight and mind she was free to wander and look at everything going on.

Everyone acted like she should not be interested in the mission. Did it ever occur to any of them that she was taking the same risk that they were? Was it completely lost to them that she might want to know what was going on?

Gina was certainly feeling used and abused right now. The thought of mentioning this to Colonel Winston had crossed her mind. Gina figured he was basically a good guy at heart, even for an officer, and would probably listen to her. She would not do it though. If she did, then Gina just might have to admit that she was scared as hell about this mission she now found herself on.

With all of that being the case, Gina picked the computer lab because it was here that she could work out her frustrations. The only member of the project that didn’t treat her like a little flunky was always wasting time here. At least Gina suspected he was wasting time. With what Saiid Animpor was doing, who could really tell?

When the guy first got here he had managed to single handedly piss off every NASA computer dweeb that he talked too. Most of them tried to ignore him now. They gave him a little office in the back of the building and kept their distance.

At first, Gina had figured that this Saiid character accomplished such a feat by being himself. He had sure caused her and Colonel Winston all kinds of headaches. She figured he was probably doing the same thing with his fellow geeks.

As she walked through the computer building she noticed that the attitudes about Saiid had changed. The engineers were no less hostile towards him but they had also stopped making jokes. Whatever the tension had been about, apparently, they had all come to see he was right. Now they hated him for different reasons. It made Gina want to giggle but she kept her emotions tightly rapped as always.

As for Saiid, he never kept anything under his hat. He wore his emotions on his sleeve. Maybe it was a good thing that he barely noticed what anyone else thought of him. Gina had kind of figured the guy was usually oblivious to anything but what was on his monitor. Every time she saw him he was sitting in front of that screen, totally engrossed. He did not even see her walk in his little messy office.

Gina did notice he had made an attempt at decoration. He had taken one of the probe pictures of the planet everyone was now calling Moe. The unofficial joke names, that the OK people had come up with, got leaked to the media. They apparently thought it was a great story and now it looked as if the three stooges had left behind more than a legacy of laughter. These days, if you called the planet in the photo, Alpha Centauri A Two, no one would have a clue what you were talking about.

Of course, the name of the planet was probably the only thing that Saiid was in step with. Had he just put up a picture, of the planet, on his wall then Gina would have thought nothing of it. Saiid could not leave well enough alone though. He had superimposed a picture of a Federation Starship next to the planet and labeled it ‘US.’ Then he even went further by having his fictional starship zapping the planet with a laser beam.

Gina mumbled along as she read the little caption at the bottom of the picture, “To seek out new worlds, new life, and destroy it, to coldly go where no man has gone before.” She rolled her eyes, was obviously contemptuous, and sneered at the computer junkie, “Saiid, you are such a nerd.”

“Huh?” he looked over his shoulder as if he had just noticed her standing there. That was probably the case. A big smile came to his face, “hey Gina! You’re just in time. I got like this…”

Gina put her hand over his mouth and slapped a paper down next to his keyboard, “read ’em and weep big boy. They‘re packing you off to Vandenberg.”

The news made him reel back for a minute and then, “where’s that at?”

“California,” Gina crossed her arms and cocked her head and hips, “you know? Where Colonel Kelly’s team is at. The guys who are building the spaceship thingy? Ring a bell?”

“Oh,” he looked to be considering that for a moment. Then Saiid’s face lit up, “cool!”

It might have been true that Colonel Kelly had requested a computer expert for his team, some time ago, but there was a lot more to it than that. Gina just didn’t have the heart to tell the guy that Colonel Winston was glad to get rid of him. Saiid was a major pain in the ass and for a lot more reasons than his annoying personality, or tendency to alienate the NASA computer team.

In fact, Saiid had been the main reason there was a delay in getting their civilian computer team together. He had been working for one of the biggest software companies in Seattle. The fact that Gina had lived there before joining the Air Force was something that Saiid kept constantly wanting to talk about but Gina avoided that subject. It was just like she avoided telling him that his unusual application process had caused her all kinds of headaches.

Apparently, when his company was asked to send an applicant they had not picked Saiid to be it. Gina was not sure of the exact details but, as she gathered, Saiid had quit his job and came to Houston on his own. Since his name had originally been on the list, and he still had all of his paper work, nobody thought anything about him showing up until somebody else from his company did.

That caused all kinds of confusion and why they didn’t kick Saiid’s butt right out the door was totally beyond Gina. Apparently he was good at what he did. Gina wondered if maybe he was just a little too good. At any rate she was half way glad they didn’t.

He was only a year older than she was but that was only physically. Saiid was apparently still at the same developmental stage, mentally, of a thirteen year old boy. That meant when he looked at her he never saw that uniform with the pathetic little E-3 stripes. Those told everyone else she was worth ignoring. Instead, Saiid saw a woman and to him that meant everything under her uniform was mysterious, exciting, and as his posters proclaimed, ‘where no man had gone before if his name was Saiid.’ This gave Gina the upper hand with him and that was something that she did not have with any one else around here.

She put her hands on her hips, “well what are you staring at? Go get packed! Shoo!”

“Oh yeah!” Saiid started to gather his things.

Gina only shook her head and grunted, “you are just so pathetic.”