Steve said.
Jack paused and thought about what he’d just heard and then responded by saying.
“Come on Steve if you have an objection out with it.”
It took a while but when they came back on line he could hear Steve and the crew members on the ISS laughing. He had no way of knowing it but the atmosphere on the spacecraft had been tense for a long time and now everyone was laughing their heads off.
“Okay. Ya got me Jack, we are all having a good laugh, thank you, you have no idea how much we needed that, thank you….”
Steve’s words faded as the ISS moved out of radio range beyond the horizon.
“So there are a few problems.”
Jack spun around startled when Sara spoke he had been concentrating so hard he did not hear her come up the stairs.
She said, “I like the idea, we can figure this out. Do they really think some gardener down in ‘Roo” land will come up with a cure? That does not seem too likely; we need to have real scientists working on this.”
She walked over and stood beside him under the skylight with her hands on her hips looking up at the night sky. He noticed that she did not seem to be talking to him; she seemed to be talking to herself.
“First thing we gotta do is get our butts down to Nevada and find that spaceship. We load it with rocket fuel and Cheetos and other space stuff and blast off. All we need to do is get close enough for them to grab us with their grabber thing,” she turned to him making a motion with her hand like she was plucking the virus sample from the spacecraft. She waited watching his face as he thought this over.
He’d shown her his model of the ISS in his bedroom and he noticed that she’d been impressed by the articulated remote manipulator arm. We hand them a sample of the plague,” she said, not waiting for him to join in, ”they work on a cure, give themselves a shot, climb on board, and BAM we’re all back on earth, too easy,” she said.
“What about the part where they are three hundred miles up and we can only go to one fifty?” he said.
“Details details,” she said and smiling brightly turned and slowly made her way down the stairs to the bookshelf where earlier she’d spotted a Rand McNally road atlas.
He came downstairs after taking down the antennae and locking the skylight and she brought the Casa Grande over to where he was sitting. She sat close beside him so he could watch as she flipped it open to a map of Nevada. He was aware of her arm touching his as she flipped between Arizona and Nevada looking at routes.
“First things first, where in Nevada is this place?” she said.
“What place?” he croaked.
He’d lost the thread of the conversation. He was intensely aware of her sitting close to him on the couch and for the first time in his life he was unable to focus on the subject of space travel. She turned to face him wide eyed.
“The spacecraft, you know-Nevada- space tourism. Earth to Jack… Earth to Jack,” she said grinning.
He tried to come back to the subject at hand but his mind was not really on it he was too preoccupied with thinking about her sitting close to him. She spent the next twenty minutes planning how they would do it and all he managed to contribute was an occasional head nod. By the time the ISS came around again she had questions for the crew.
***
“Hi Steve, its Sara I have some questions.”
“Okay Sara, go ahead.”
“Do you have a lab up there?
“Yes several.”
“Is it possible to do complex biology work in space?”
“Yes of course.”
“If you had a sample of this plague could you find a way to stop it?”
There was silence on the other end so she continued.
“So if we did get a sample to you if we managed to get close enough for you to grab it with the robot arm thing. Couldn’t you work on this problem?” she said.
“Yes we could, but the problem is we…”
“I know the problem Steve, but if we could get to Nevada and somehow get the spaceplane airborne and
Jack paused and thought about what he’d just heard and then responded by saying.
“Come on Steve if you have an objection out with it.”
It took a while but when they came back on line he could hear Steve and the crew members on the ISS laughing. He had no way of knowing it but the atmosphere on the spacecraft had been tense for a long time and now everyone was laughing their heads off.
“Okay. Ya got me Jack, we are all having a good laugh, thank you, you have no idea how much we needed that, thank you….”
Steve’s words faded as the ISS moved out of radio range beyond the horizon.
“So there are a few problems.”
Jack spun around startled when Sara spoke he had been concentrating so hard he did not hear her come up the stairs.
She said, “I like the idea, we can figure this out. Do they really think some gardener down in ‘Roo” land will come up with a cure? That does not seem too likely; we need to have real scientists working on this.”
She walked over and stood beside him under the skylight with her hands on her hips looking up at the night sky. He noticed that she did not seem to be talking to him; she seemed to be talking to herself.
“First thing we gotta do is get our butts down to Nevada and find that spaceship. We load it with rocket fuel and Cheetos and other space stuff and blast off. All we need to do is get close enough for them to grab us with their grabber thing,” she turned to him making a motion with her hand like she was plucking the virus sample from the spacecraft. She waited watching his face as he thought this over.
He’d shown her his model of the ISS in his bedroom and he noticed that she’d been impressed by the articulated remote manipulator arm. We hand them a sample of the plague,” she said, not waiting for him to join in, ”they work on a cure, give themselves a shot, climb on board, and BAM we’re all back on earth, too easy,” she said.
“What about the part where they are three hundred miles up and we can only go to one fifty?” he said.
“Details details,” she said and smiling brightly turned and slowly made her way down the stairs to the bookshelf where earlier she’d spotted a Rand McNally road atlas.
He came downstairs after taking down the antennae and locking the skylight and she brought the Casa Grande over to where he was sitting. She sat close beside him so he could watch as she flipped it open to a map of Nevada. He was aware of her arm touching his as she flipped between Arizona and Nevada looking at routes.
“First things first, where in Nevada is this place?” she said.
“What place?” he croaked.
He’d lost the thread of the conversation. He was intensely aware of her sitting close to him on the couch and for the first time in his life he was unable to focus on the subject of space travel. She turned to face him wide eyed.
“The spacecraft, you know-Nevada- space tourism. Earth to Jack… Earth to Jack,” she said grinning.
He tried to come back to the subject at hand but his mind was not really on it he was too preoccupied with thinking about her sitting close to him. She spent the next twenty minutes planning how they would do it and all he managed to contribute was an occasional head nod. By the time the ISS came around again she had questions for the crew.
***
“Hi Steve, its Sara I have some questions.”
“Okay Sara, go ahead.”
“Do you have a lab up there?
“Yes several.”
“Is it possible to do complex biology work in space?”
“Yes of course.”
“If you had a sample of this plague could you find a way to stop it?”
There was silence on the other end so she continued.
“So if we did get a sample to you if we managed to get close enough for you to grab it with the robot arm thing. Couldn’t you work on this problem?” she said.
“Yes we could, but the problem is we…”
“I know the problem Steve, but if we could get to Nevada and somehow get the spaceplane airborne and
Similar Books
