THE MEMORIAL DAY weekend saw a shift in the way the teams were treated. Each team had completed time in the simulator on their own to allow each of the specialists time to get comfortable in the surroundings. But now they had to check all of the variables of personalities and team dynamics.
It was the second week in June and everyone was exhausted. Izzy had never seen the astronauts in such good shape and also so anxious. Everyone was honed to the razor’s edge, including herself. Though she and Antonio had been spending their downtime together, the amount of time available to them was becoming less and less.
She missed him.
It was silly. She was physically in the same space as he was at least ten hours a day, but they were so busy, everyone doing their own tasks, that there was no time to talk or bond. Today they were going back into the simulator. They had been working on assembling the first part of the space station in the large indoor pool that had been specifically designed for them and held the prototype shuttle vehicle. Yesterday had been particularly long because the first piece of the way station was bigger than anything any of them had tried before to assemble in the space environment.
“I don’t understand why it works in virtual reality,” Izzy said to Antonio as they were suiting up for the underwater extravehicular simulations that they would be working on today.
“Me, neither,” Antonio said. “Last night when I got back to my room, I ran through the virtual program again, and nearest I can tell is that possibly there is a variable written into the algorithm that we don’t know about.”
“That’s what I was thinking. I’m not sure if that is something deliberate to ensure that we don’t get too complacent in thinking that because we could do it on the computer it will be easy in space,” Izzy said. It was the only option that made any sense to her.
She looked around the locker room where everyone was suiting up and talking quietly in pairs like she and Antonio were, or rereading manuals. She reached over and touched Antonio’s shoulder. Gave him a little squeeze.
He turned and dropped a kiss on her hand. Which made her feel so much better about the two of them. They’d had a fight yesterday in the control room about what needed to be done about the order of operations, and she hadn’t been able to tell him afterward that she wasn’t mad at him personally. It was just the job.
The door opened and Hemi walked in, followed by Ace. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the only two men who knew they were going on the first Cronus mission.
“Good morning,” Ace said. “We are going to be joining you in the simulator today and in the water.”
“Why now?” Velosi asked. “Is it because of our failure to stay on track yesterday?”
“Not at all,” Hemi said. “It is because we realized that there is something different in the practical than all of the virtual test runs, and as we are going to be working together as team, it made no sense for us to be in the booth.”
“Plus, Thor was jealous. He wants a chance to be in the thick of it with all of you,” Ace said.
“I was,” Hemi said, putting his hands on his hips. “We want to make today’s exercise as real as possible. So Ace will be in the command module with myself, Meredith and Hennessey. The rest of you are experts on building and assembling and we are going to let you all work together.”
“Great. One of the options I thought about last night was that we might need more hands than we initially thought,” Izzy said.
“I agree,” Antonio added. “The left section seems to be off balance. Possibly due to the space dock. We might have to break it down.”
The other candidates added their ideas, and Hemi and Ace listened and then drew the group over to a large whiteboard at the end of the locker room. Ace sketched the docking piece that was giving them all such a hard time and everyone took turns adding ideas to the board, trying different combinations of staff inside the space shuttle and outside of it.
As they worked side by side, Izzy, Antonio, Velosi and Vicki seemed to be driving the ideas, and since they had been working with everyone on the teams every day, they knew who would work well together. Izzy realized that instead of taking away from her ability to do her job, working with Antonio was making her stronger. She was used to hearing his thoughts from the hours they’d spent talking and going over things, so their minds ran along the same paths.
“I think we have the beginnings of a very workable plan. We will all go onto the space shuttle and then deploy outside the vehicle one by one and start work,” Ace said. “Dennis is here observing, as is Mal from Space Now and Jose Velasquez from the international space program. They are anxious to see us in action. Let’s not disappoint them.”
“That’s really why you are in here with us, isn’t it?” Velosi asked. “They want to see us all in action.”
“Yes, they do, and rightfully so,” Ace said. “They deserve the chance to see what we can do and how we are progressing. To be fair, the video updates that they have been receiving have everyone very excited and that is why they are here. You are a very impressive group,” Ace said.
“Everyone, gather your stuff and let’s go,” Hemi said.
“Ready to be impressive?” Antonio asked.
“You bet,” Izzy said. “Let’s show them that they have everything they need in our teams.”
The excitement in the group was palpable. They’d been working for the last six weeks for this moment.
* * *
THE FIRST THING Antonio noticed when they were all off the shuttle and moving into position was that everyone was paying close attention to every detail. He wondered if it would have been better if Ace hadn’t talked to them about being observed by the people who were in charge of the mission. The candidates were very aware that today they had to get the dock assembled.
“Everyone looks nervous, but also ready to go,” Izzy said.
“I think there is added pressure today,” Velosi said. “I know I’m feeling it.”
“Me, too,” Antonio added. “We need to do something to break the tension or we are all going to be too on edge to deal with assembling the dock.”
“Agreed,” Velosi said. “Anyone got any ideas?”
Izzy shook her head. “The team is so diverse, and everyone responds to different types of motivators.”
“Guys,” Antonio said abruptly. “Can we have a minute?”
The blended teams all turned toward them and he saw his own feelings reflected in the faces of the people he’d come to know over the last six weeks. They all wanted this—badly. They had all worked their entire lives to be here and they needed the Cronus mission program to continue and to not have any more delays. Some of the astronauts had been waiting too long for an opportunity like this.
“Sure, Playboy, what’s up?”
Antonio rubbed the back of his neck and then cleared his throat. He thought of the things that he feared most in the world and knew they weren’t here in the command module or out there in the simulated space environment.
Everyone wore the white suits that were modern versions of the iconic space suits that the original astronauts wore for the Apollo missions. Their spot in history suddenly felt very real to him as he looked at the men and women he knew so well.
“Don’t forget we are standing in the footsteps of giants,” Antonio said. “We are the product of everyone who has made it their goal to leave this planet and explore space. And today we are going to take it one step further.”
“Playboy is right. We are the best of the best, and there is no reason for us to doubt ourselves,” Izzy added.
“Over the last few weeks we’ve all had the chance to observe each other in action. We are the best—as evidenced by our coming up with the new plan of action,” Velosi added.
“I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. We’ve worked really hard and become a family, not just a team. And one thing I know about family is that you always have each other’s back. I wanted to say that no matter what happens out there today, we were chosen for this and we shouldn’t forget it.” He had started rambling, and it was only when Izzy put her hand on his forearm that he stopped talking.
“I agree. I get the feeling that Ace and Thor were just as surprised by our visitors as we were,” she said. “But we all know if they are here it’s because they’ve heard that we are getting close to being mission ready.”
“Hell, we are already mission ready,” Velosi said. “Let’s blow their expectations out of the water and show them what multinational cooperation really looks like. No politics or teams competing, just astronauts doing what we were trained for.”
“What we’ve dreamed about for the longest time,” Antonio added. “No matter what happens today, everyone only has to do their job.”
“We got this,” Izzy added.
“Yeah, we do.”
There were cheers from all of the candidates. Antonio looked at Izzy and Velosi, knowing that the three of them worked really well together. The teams would too today.
Everyone finished suiting up and checked their oxygen tanks, and Antonio pulled Izzy aside. He leaned in and kissed her. “I’m glad that we are both here. And no matter who wins today, who earns those three remaining spots on the first mission, I don’t want our relationship to end.”
“Now? Seriously, we can’t think about each other right now,” she said.
“I can. You make me stronger,” he said. “With you by my side I know I can do anything. Sorry if I distracted you.”
“You didn’t,” she said. “I just... Never mind—we can talk later.”
Antonio nodded, but he felt her pulling away from him. No matter what she’d said earlier, there was some part of Izzy that needed to do this by herself. To prove to herself and the world that she didn’t need anyone.
How had he missed that before this? How had he not noticed that while he’d been letting himself fall in love with her, she’d been managing to figure out how to prove that she could still be independent?
It bothered him, and he had to shake his head to clear it. She was right—he shouldn’t have pulled her aside to talk. He should have stayed focused on the mission.
He felt someone watching him and looked up to see Hemi staring from across the room. Antonio hoped he hadn’t just screwed up and taken himself out of the running.
But the truth was that he and Izzy were a couple. Everyone knew it, and her acting like they were just teammates today unnerved him. Everything in his relationship with her was harder than he’d expected it to be.
He’d talk to her tonight and they’d get this sorted out. Today he had to make sure he and his team performed the way they all knew they could.
* * *
THE FIRST UNDERWATER session went flawlessly. Everyone was pumped and the nerves that had been present in the locker room had dissipated once they were in the water and working together.
They had finally gotten the first piece into place, but it had taken three more astronauts than everyone had originally thought it would. But since this was a new environment and something no one had done before, Izzy guessed that the director wasn’t going to be disappointed that they needed more staff.
With so many different agencies working together, it seemed to her that they would be able to come up with the additional funding. Everyone reentered the main shuttle for a lunch break. Because they were under water but on the station they had the simulated artificial gravity working. The corridors were small for so many people, and the eating area had been designed for eight people at most. So it was uncomfortable as they crowded in there and were handed rations.
Everyone talked about what had just been done and the next steps they would take when they went back out into the water. Antonio was seated with a few of the people from Space Now, and Izzy knew she’d hurt him when she’d brushed him off earlier.
She might make him stronger, but she wasn’t sure he did the same for her. When they were out there working, she hadn’t been distracted by him. She’d known she could count on Antonio to be where he was supposed to be and to do what was needed to get the job done.
She knew they had to talk. She had expected some kind of announcement about couples on the mission soon. There were a few other couples in their group, but everyone was ready to accept whatever Dennis and the powers that be stated. If couples weren’t allowed on missions together, they would do what they had always done. Go back to the single, solitary lives.
It wasn’t really that big of a deal.
Except that Izzy realized she wanted Antonio to make the first mission almost as much, if not more, than she wanted it for herself. She thought of how hard they had both worked to get here and she realized that she didn’t want anything to keep them from achieving their goal...together.
Velosi came into the room with his suit on and a look on his face that she’d never seen before. And she’d known the man for a long time.
“Let’s go. Something is wrong with the dock and it’s listing. It looks like it might hit the simulator.”
Everyone dropped their food and started suiting up. The process was meant to take at least fifteen minutes but everyone seemed to be double-checking each other so they could get out in the pool more quickly.
She ended up next to Antonio and they checked each other’s tanks.
“Turn around,” she said, noticing that his was low and reaching for a replacement one. “You only have half a tank of oxygen.”
He did as she asked and she changed out his tank. They were the second to last people to leave the shuttle, but safety had to come first and Izzy wasn’t bothered by that.
As they exited the shuttle, a loud explosion ripped through the air. Antonio grabbed Izzy’s hand as waves rippled through the pool and they were propelled backward, spinning and spinning. Izzy felt the first panic she’d experienced in a long time. She closed her eyes and when she opened them she saw Antonio next to her.
“You okay?” he asked, using the radio in his helmet that linked them all together.
“Yes, you?” she responded.
“Yes,” Antonio said.
“This is Bombshell. Everyone report in. Just call signs so we know you are okay,” Izzy said after flicking a switch to broadcast to everyone.
After the call signs had poured in, she realized that Velosi hadn’t reported in.
“Where is Velocity?” Izzy asked. “Does anyone have eyes on him?”
“I just caught sight of him. He’s drifting toward the bottom of the pool,” Hennessey said. “He’s pinned under a piece of the dock.”
“Red team, we’ve got the dock,” Antonio said. “Blue team, get Velocity.”
“On it. Blue team switch to B channel so that we aren’t interfering with Red.”
Izzy squeezed Antonio’s hand before she used the built-in mechanical engine to propel herself to the rest of her team. They were all doing the same thing. Their suits were meant for space, so there wasn’t an easy way to swim down to Velosi. They had to use the suits to descend, which Izzy hoped wouldn’t take up precious time.
“Velocity, we are on our way to you.”
“Hurry up, Bombshell,” Velosi said, sounding winded. “I’m trapped.”
“Whoever reaches Velocity first, assess his medical condition and, if we need to, we will free him from the suit and take him to the surface,” Izzy said.
“Bombshell, I’m with him and he is wedged. His leg is under the structure.”
“Copy that. I’m switching channels to relay the information to the red team. Frosty, you’re in command,” Izzy said. Dean Winters was very reliable and she trusted him.
She switched channels.
“Playboy, come in.”
“Go ahead.”
“Velocity’s leg is wedged underneath the platform we just installed. We can’t free him unless we move it,” she said.
“Got it. We are already working to shift the collapsed part of the dock. We should have it free in about ten—”
Antonio was cut off by another rumble. More waves ripped through the pool. Izzy went tumbling again and looked up to where Antonio had been and only saw a cloud of rubble.
“Playboy, come in?”
Nothing but silence. She switched to the B channel. “Team report.”
“We’re all good—we were able to hang on to Velocity.”
“Got it, everyone switch to A.”
“Playboy?” she asked. Despite the lump in her throat, she’d continue to do her job. But she needed to know that Antonio was okay.