CHAPTER 16

With the exception of a few protestors, out near the front gates, Cape Canaveral was very festive today. With the way Jack was feeling right now, decidedly not festive, he could almost walk out there and join the sign waiving, ‘save the alien,’ crowd. Instead, he sat around in the white room as Doctor Mike hooked up his bio-monitors and the various technicians helped suit him up for the hop into orbit. His flight was for the same reason as everything else had been for the last two days, publicity. Jack had reached the point where enough was enough.

It was not really all the photo ops, the publicity stunts, or even the pending television interview that Jack was told he had to make. He understood all of that to a point. Such things had always been a part of an astronauts life. There were even times when guys like Jack were begging to give them and nobody wanted to listen. Maybe the publicity really fell under the ‘be careful what you wish for’ category?

Even this flight did not bother Jack too much. Sure it was a waste of gas. Sure it upset his schedule. Sure he had better things to do. Jack had spent no time in the simulators brushing up on his skills. There had been no time, so, he didn’t bother with it even though his own orders had specifically told him to. Jack was not planning on handling the controls anyway. Jim Morton was going to be doing that and he was already suited up. So this ride amounted to Jack’s vacation and it beat the hell out of any amusement park ride you could find. For that reason alone Jack was willing to go along with it.

The final straw had nothing to do with the circus they were enduring. It had everything to do with a situation that, up till now, Jack had no knowledge of. The situation alone was infuriating. The fact that Jack had been left out of the loop, by everyone concerned, was a real wake up call. Here he was sitting on a table, being prepped for space flight, and now he had to find out about all of this? That was unacceptable and it was all about to change.

With the last monitors glued to Jack’s chest, and the final tests performed on the equipment, Jack got up. As he was helped into his spacesuit he looked to Pete. The guy was glumly standing around with his shoulders slumped over. He kind of reminded Jack of the hunchback of Notre Dame. It was a very un-Marine like pose.

Jack groaned in frustration and looked to Mike, “what do you think?”

Doctor Mike sighed, “pretty dirty if you ask me.”

Jack cracked a half smile, “I hope you aren’t talking about my vital signs. Course I do get a hard on every time I fly into space.”

For whatever reason, and it was a complete mystery to Jack, his new Executive Officer was quite touchy about this issue, “Jack would you be serious for a minute?”

“Pete,” Jack turned his back on the technicians so they could finish adjusting his suit, “I’ve been trying to be serious about this since the day you dragged me into it. It’s everybody else that’s acting like jokers. What it comes down too is that we aren’t going solve this problem by solving this problem.”

Pete arched an eyebrow, “I’m not following you.”

“And that’s exactly the problem here Pete,” Jack snorted out with a certain amount of contempt in his voice. His fellow marine did take offense but, Jack cut him off with, “and don’t you try and deny it. You’ve been playing independent operator for way too long. Are you my Ex-Oh, or are you a company man? It’s time to make up your mind and pick your side.”

Pete did not back down, “and what are you Jack? You know you’re a company man too, or have you forgotten? Then again, I’m not sure you ever figured that out. Maybe that’s why they ran your ass off the first time, Jack? Did you ever think of that?”

Jim Morton had been standing silently over in the side of the room. He started to squirm a little bit and then, “Colonel Winston, that’s a little bit…”

“Shut up Jim,” Pete said quite harshly.

Jack remained easy about all of it. He was even smiling, “All right Pete, fair enough. I don’t think I ever made a secret about the fact that I’m a pain in the ass. That’s different though.”

Pete crossed his arms and sneered, “yeah and how’s that?”

“The difference is Pete,” Jack explained very calmly, “that I’m their company man and you’re my company man. Now, are you my Ex-Oh or not? Cause this is the time to figure it out, now. When we get out there, it’s going to be just us. There isn’t going to be anybody to call for help, or radio for instructions. There isn’t even going to be a mission control.”

“I know!” exclaimed Pete in an explosion of rage. After a moment he calmed down and thought about it for a second, “what are you saying here?”

“It’s time,” Jack cracked another smile, “for you to perform your first official act as the Exec. You’re going to back my play.”

Pete squinted in confusion, “what are you talking about?”

“Mike,” Jack asked the ships flight surgeon, “are we done with all this crap?”

“Yeah Jack.”

“Good,” Jack had never taken his eyes off Pete, “send ‘em in.”

The little group of dignitaries, minus the Vice President, were the same group that had been at the dinner last night. They were mostly elected officials looking for a good photo op. The important ones that Jack was concerned with were the NASA officials. Rockmont was the main target and basically the congressmen were just going to play witness here.

“You ready Jack?” Rockmont asked in an easy and polite way. He was smooth in public. Jack had to hand him that much. Rockmont continued, “You know we’re getting crew pictures right now. I think the rest of you should head over that way.”

No one moved. It took Rockmont a second to notice. He laughed it off but found that Jack had an ice cold look on his face. Rockmont cleared his throat, “is there a problem Jack?”

“Yeah,” Jack said bluntly, “you want something from my people you need to go through the chain of command. That starts with me.”

“Um,” Rockmont leaned over to Jack and tried to quietly pass off his statement, “could we discuss this at another time?”

Jack held out his gloved hand and Red Darby promptly placed several papers in it. Jack started reading them over, mumbling as he went. This only served to alarm Rockmont even more. The man was anything but stupid and easily saw what was happening here. The top paper was Jack’s orders. The one that Rockmont had personally presented to him. It said that he was commander of the USS Hermes.

At the bottom of the page Jack pointed to the signature and smiled. He commented to Red Darby, “hey that’ s not a photocopy. That’s the presidents real autograph. Think this might be a collectors item one day? I mean, I know there are about twelve other copies and everything but…”

Most of the stack was Jack’s civilian contract with NASA. Rockmont’s own signature was even on that one! Jack had to comment on that, “guess that one won’t be worth much. I can use that as toilet paper.”

The NASA director quickly became agitated, “all right Jack. Fine. You’re their boss. Are you happy now? Just remember I’m still your boss.”

“Fair enough Chuck,” Jack pulled a paper out of the stack and handed it over to his boss, “I can take care of that too.”

Rockmont glanced over the paper and his eyes grew wide, “your resignation? Jack you can’t… what kind of…”

Jack snatched the paper out the man’s hand, “now that we understand each other mister Director. There are going to be one or two changes in how things are being handled in regards to my crew.”

Rockmont deflated with a, “goddamn it Jack. You have to wait till now don’t you?” The man played his last card, “What? You think you can’t be replaced or something?”

Jack chuckled, “I know you can’t. My exec just informed me of a personnel situation about one of my crew members. One that your people did not see fit to consult me on.”

With a grunt, Rockmont replied, “so that’s what this is all about. We didn’t have a choice.”

Jack pretended like he had to think that over, “you’re right. You didn’t, just like you don’t now. If anything, that situation illustrates all to well you can’t afford to loose a single one of us now.”

After some silence Jack went on, “besides, that’s only the tip of the iceberg here. This is about how things are being handled and how they are going to be handled, from this point forward.”

Looking away, Rockmont noted Pete Winston. From the look in the Marine’s eyes it was obvious he was going to line up behind Jack on this. That told Rockmont a lot more than just where the Marines were landing. It told him that Jack had thought the matter through in some detail.

“Ok Jack,” Rockmont said with no attempt to hide his displeasure. “Can we at least discuss the details in a civilized fashion, after you get back?”

Jack slapped him on the shoulder, “sure thing Chuck.” Before walking out the door, to the ready line, Jack looked back, “You know Chuck. We got a dialogue going here. I like it. We should try it more often.”