CHAPTER 14

Since Jack had been ordered back to Houston, he figured he would make the best of it and try and get to know some of his crew while he was there. He should have figured that a lot of them would be somewhere else when he arrived. Jack wondered about that and put the question to Pete. That only got a very long winded explanation of how the training program was being run. Jack only half paid attention but he did gather that the first phase was over with.

Pete called it ‘Phase Baseline’ and Jack had thought it was a bizarre baseball reference till he realized the specifics about what his future crew had been subjected too. They were going to be the biggest lab rats on the ship and hence the pokers and prodders wanted a reference before they left. Jack’s heart just bled that he missed that phase. Not.

At the moment, the majority of the crew was at Fort Benning, under the capable guidance of Sergeant Major McCandles. Apparently those were his old stomping grounds and he was a natural to teach the familiarization course with small arms. Initially that block of instructions had been scheduled to be two weeks long. Like everything else about the project now, it had been abbreviated. Now they would only be there for three days.

Jack didn’t complain about that course being cut though. Of all the things he needed these people to learn that one was way down on the list. It was not like he was going to Alpha Centauri to fight a war. They were explorers and his only concern along those lines was a possible encounter with some carnivorous animal that was looking for an exotic, gourmet, meal. For that kind of thing there was little need for tactical training. All the crew really needed to know was how to aim and pull a trigger.

Pete had already packed the crew list with military, or prior service, people so if worst came to worst, like a hostile encounter with explorers of the Japanese variety, they would be able to defend themselves. Of course, Jack thought it unlikely at best. Once they were out there all of the politics of Earth would mean next to nothing. They might actually need the help of the Japanese team, or vice versa, and Jack was certain that whoever was commanding the other guys would be of a like mind on the matter.

That was the main reason Jack was not so concerned about some of his fellow crewmates who had managed to duck this latest block of training. Jack figured the overwhelming reluctance to go had less to do with firearms and more to do with a certain Sergeant Major. These people had been watching too many war movies!

Someone like Gina Fujitsu should have had plenty of weapons training already, but she was gone. On the other hand Harry Wu was still wandering around the Space Center and Jack was sure he didn’t know which end of a weapon was the dangerous part. When Jack asked Harry about it, the kid just played it cool and announced that he was a veteran paintball player. Jack only shook his head and walked off.

Then there was the biggest surprise of all. This person should not have been at Houston right now, and for that matter, anywhere connected with the mission. Jack had no idea what to say, or do, when a ten year old boy ran up to him. The kid was dressed in one of the blue jumpsuits that you could buy in the gift shop over at the visitors center. Someone had even made a name plate for him.

He actually saluted Jack. The surprise was only secondary to the fact that the kid even knew who Jack was! Jack returned the salute and the kid ran off. At first Jack was a little puzzled by the encounter. Then he just figured it was probably another one of those publicity gags that was coming by the dump truck load these days. Then he realized the kid was wearing a NASA ID badge that was not stamped ‘Visitor.’

One look at Pete’s face told Jack the rest. Jack sighed as he asked, “don’t tell me. The Vertically Challenged Anti-Defamation League sued us and now we have an official midget on the crew?”

Pete was pulling at his collar as they walked towards the elevators. He waited till they were alone and riding upwards before he explained what Joey Rice was doing here. All Jack could do was scratch his head, “how in the hell did that happen?”

The door opened and Pete walked out with Jack right behind him. Pete let out a deep breath and answered at that point, “I only wish I knew. The real question is what are we going to do about it?”

Jack stopped at the secretaries desk and the woman he had come to call Attila the Nun was as adamant as ever about him signing in. Didn’t she get the memo that he worked here now? It was of little comfort that the frog faced, attack dog, that worked for Rockmont, made Pete do the same thing. Jack did not wait for his fellow Marine either. He had quickly noticed who else had gotten a summons.

Dee was standing by the closed conference room door. Her hands were full of files and she looked to be completely agitated with having to wait. She was actually whistling and swaying from side to side until Jack showed up next to her. She forced a smile, “Jack.”

“So what’s the word?” Jack asked.

“Nice to see you too,” she replied.

Jack got the message loud and clear but decided to pretend otherwise, “you didn’t bring der commissar with you?”

“Nope,” she said with a big smile. This time Jack figured the smile was real enough. He could easily guess why.

By the time Pete joined them, the conference room door was open and Rockmont was busy telling a group of NASA engineers to, “get the hell out.” As the guys in white, coffee stained, shirts with blue ties walked by, Jack checked his watch. Rockmont hadn’t changed one little bit. The man was good at knowing exactly when to throw people out of his conference rooms. He was also very practiced at sending them on their way with the impression that he wanted to stick. Jack had learned a long time ago that it was all an act. Apparently this group of white shirts had yet to figure that out. They looked like men who were worried about getting pink slips in the mail.

Rockmont seemed easy enough as his next group sat down. Doctor Mike and Harry Wu both arrived shortly after Jack. That put all the department heads at the same table for the first time ever. As far as Jack was concerned it was a meeting that was long overdue. It could not be helped, of course, but Jack still didn’t like it. They were going to have to learn to be a team and as of yet they really had not even gotten started on it.

“I guess I should just start off with the bad news first,” Rockmont said. He looked to Jack, “this is going to put a bug in your boo the worst Jack. We’re moving up the time table.”

That drew a less than enthusiastic sigh from everyone but Jack. He remained passive and just shrugged it off, “I figured that already. That’s why I made the changes when I got back.”

“Oh that reminds me too,” Rockmont said cutting Jack off, “Capcom asked me to pass on a message to you Jack. He said, no way in hell was he going to turn a packet over to that guy you sent to the cape.”

Jack snickered, “yeah well Red Darby won’t be his problem. So do me a favor and tell Capcom to shove it up his ass.”

“Duly noted,” Rockmont said without another thought on the matter, “so when can you be ready?”

“We can’t,” Jack said easy enough, “it’s that simple.”

Rockmont looked disgusted but also looked as if the answer was of no surprise to him. Jack had little doubt that Rockmont was feeling more than a little heat from the White House over this. The progress the Japanese had made on their starship had not hit the press yet but it was only a matter of time before the story broke. Jack could only guess as to the ramifications of that.

Apparently, Rockmont was not guessing. He was very adamant as he said, “well you see Jack. I got fifty-thousand people who work for me. Some of them folks, you see, they know these things. They’re telling me it’s possible. Now I know the shuttle pilots aren’t going to be completely up to snuff but they should be able to do the job. I have to know when we’re going to have parts to start assembling.”

“That’s not up to me Rockmont,” Jack said bluntly. Then before the NASA director could tell him otherwise, Jack looked to the woman sitting beside him and pointed, “it’s up to Dee and her team.”

Dee’s eyes flew wide open and instead of being defensive she went right to attack mode, “how’s that up to me Jack? I’m not the one building the hull. Don’t try and lay your problems…”

“Dee,” Jack replied sternly. It was enough to shut her up, “is the specifications for the drive train sitting in my fax bin at Vandenberg?”

She huffed, “no? But then you should know that already Jack.”

Looking back to Rockmont, Jack nodded, as his point was made. He explained, “if we start hoisting modules now, and for some reason we find out later that the specifications for the drive train are going to be different, we’re screwed. It’ll either lock Dee’s team into one design, that we don’t even know will work yet, or we’ll have just built the most expensive and useless space station in history.”

That did not please Rockmont nor did it seem to change his resolve, “can’t be helped Jack.”

Jack did not move from his point either, “well it’s going to have to be. You can’t change the laws of physics just to suit a time table.”

Instead of getting angry, which Jack fully expected, Rockmont only sighed. He was trying to be reasonable and that had never been Jack’s experience with the man. Rockmont tried to explain, “and the laws of politics are just as immutable as those of physics. I don’t know how much you folks read, what I send you, but the Japs are almost done with their ship.”

Dee growled, “I don’t believe it. I think they’re bluffing.”

Rockmont replied, “that very well might be the case Doctor. We’ve considered that possibility. Only if it is, then it’s a bluff that might very well pay off. In politics, perception is sometimes just as important, if not more so, than reality. The Japanese are not blind to what’s going on here. They know what our public opinion polls are saying. God only knows what the average guy in Tokyo thinks. The UCO doesn’t care nor do they have to deal with what we do.”

Dee slumped in her chair and was visibly angry, “and if you bozo’s hadn’t come along then neither would I.”

Jack gruffly told her, “can we please stick to the present? That’s not getting us anywhere Dee.”

“Easy for you to say, Jack,” the way she said his name sounded more like ‘eat shit’ than anything else.

Rockmont, always with an eye to his advantage, took Jack up on that, “glad you feel that way. The first launch is set for two weeks from now and you’re flying it.”

Now Jack found himself in the brooding seat, “wait a minute now. I do have one or two other things…”

Cutting him off Rockmont replied, “it’s already been decided, and I might add, at a higher level than me. We’re going to be flying it out of the cape too.”

That was just plain crazy! Jack had already set up a time table and got his launch resources lined up. There was no need for a manned flight to start with. The initial components could easily be delivered into orbit by unmanned rockets, quicker, and cheaper. Vandenberg was the perfect place to do that from. It was why Jack had decided to put his team there.

Now they were talking about having to transfer a Venturestar from California to Florida, prep it, load it, man it, and launch it. That was going to take up time and resources when it was being made perfectly clear that those were the two things they had the least of! It was insanity!

Before Jack could get all of that out, Rockmont took it off the table by saying, “we’re going to announce the name of the ship, your official appointment as commander, and have the launch on the same day. That’ll give us some press coverage and hopefully a boost in the polls. Right now there are a lot of congressmen holding off from signing on to this project because they don’t think we can actually do it. Nobody wants to be the guy who endorsed a multibillion dollar version of the Titanic.”

Pete perked up when he heard one part of that, “name? We got a name for it now?”

“Yeah we do,” Rockmont said as he eased off. “Course we wanted to hold back till we actually had a spaceship. Part of one is going to have to do though.”

Harry Wu became excited, “so what’s the name?”

Pete bit into him, “well it’s not going to be the Rubber Duck.”

“Quack Quack,” Harry replied.

Rockmont was not going to ask what that was about, “they finally gave up with all of the public opinion polls. Mainly because I got tired of farting around with those idiots over in Public Affairs. If I left it up to them they’d wait till you guys got back before we put a name on it.”

Jack shrugged that off, “so what’s the name Chuck?”

“We’re going with the original one,” Rockmont said flatly, “your ship is going to be called the USS Hermes.”