“THANK YOU ALL for meeting back here. Ace is with Molly, who will be fine, but he didn’t want to leave her alone. She suffered some low-level smoke inhalation,” Thor said as he addressed all of the candidates.
Izzy stood in the back next to Velosi and some of the others who’d been here since the beginning. She and Velosi had been at the Mick Tanner Training Facility since day one and they were familiar with the program. But today the stakes had been raised. Sundays were downtime. Everyone knew that.
Not anymore.
The smoke hadn’t been an accident. It had been a test. And while Izzy had no problem participating in tests and honing skills, she did think it was a little sneaky of Thor, Ace and program director Dennis Locke to have implemented this one the way they had.
Dennis stepped up next to Thor. Dennis was in his fifties but was fit and looked younger. His hair was graying at the temples but his gaze was still as sharp as his early mission photos when he’d been in his twenties. Izzy respected him and felt fortunate to be included in a program that he was heading up.
“I know that some of you have raised concerns about the test happening on your day off, and I’ve addressed most of you privately. But I do want to say publicly that from this point forward every day—even your down ones—will be some sort of training,” Dennis said.
“They could have mentioned that earlier,” Velosi said under his breath. “But let’s face it, we know you don’t get a day off in space.”
“So true,” Izzy said.
“Many of you have met the candidates who have joined us from the international and privately funded space programs like Space Now, but until today you didn’t have the chance to see each other in action. While the emergency situations occurred at the three locations where we had staff—the training facility, bunkhouses and the ranch pasture—you all were challenged in different ways.”
Thor stepped forward. “We felt it was necessary to see if you all could function as a team without us making you into a team first. These exercises were very successful and we have identified the candidates who have already made a strong impression.”
Dennis spoke again. “As you know, you are all qualified and have unique skills, but the first mission will be the one where we anticipate the most unforeseen problems, and that is why we have been training, testing and slowly building that first crew. The subsequent missions will be built on new knowledge.”
“We are going to divide you into two teams of twelve and each of you will be challenging yourselves within the group and against the other team,” Thor continued. “You will select a leader for yourselves and you will start to work completely with that team. You will eat together, do the ranch chores together, train together... In effect, you will be a unit.”
“Dr. Tomlin has a bowl with twelve red and twelve blue markers. Please come forward and select one to determine your team,” Dennis said. “Blue team, you will be rotating to the ranch for two weeks for intense team building, muscle building and general skills. Red team, you will be in the facility for two weeks in the new rocket simulator that has just been installed.”
Izzy felt a tingling in her stomach. The mission was becoming more real. From the moment she’d arrived in Cole’s Hill, she knew that the end goal was the way station in orbit halfway between Earth and Mars, but it had seemed so far away. Now that they had the rocket simulator that would mirror the actual vessel that would take them to the location where they would assemble the way station...she was getting excited.
She looked around for Antonio and noticed he stood with a group of astronauts from the EU. He caught her gaze and winked at her. She just shook her head. She was glad that she’d had her little lapse in control where he was concerned before this announcement. She hadn’t had time to change when they’d come back from their ride, but she was determined to keep her distance from him.
She was happily going to tuck Antonio back into the box marked off-limits and focus on the Cronus missions. Not that she hadn’t been before, but now that the missions were getting closer, she knew there was no room for error. And sleeping with Playboy had definitely been an error.
But it was in the past. Maybe they’d be on different teams and they’d hardly see each other.
Please let us be on different teams, Izzy thought as she walked up to the bowl behind Velosi and drew out her marker. It was blue. Velocity’s was red. He shrugged and walked over to the red group. Izzy did the same, joining the other blues.
She chatted with the candidates on her team, trying to appear as if she wasn’t paying attention as Antonio moved closer and closer to the bowl to make his selection. She looked deliberately away from the selection line and yet couldn’t help glancing back as his big hand reached into the bowl and pulled out the blue marker.
Damn.
No, not damn. She could handle this. It was better to have him in close working conditions so she could prove to them both he wasn’t going to distract her. She could handle anything NASA, the Cronus team and life threw at her.
Even a six-foot-one, sexier-than-hell astronaut.
“Looks like fate wants us together,” Antonio said as he took a spot next to her.
She wanted to say something to put him in his place, to challenge him and shut him down all at once. But words escaped her and she could only nod. “I think that we are going to be working really hard, and neither one of us wants to let this moment pass us by,” she said pointedly.
* * *
ANTONIO HAD HOPED to be on the same team with Izzy because he knew he’d perform better with her so close. She challenged him, and earlier when they’d both been working to get all of the candidates out of the facility, he’d realized how much he trusted her. That was very important.
He had the feeling she was going to keep him out of her bed, but he wanted to convince her otherwise. He wasn’t done exploring the sensuality that had always been between the two of them. Now that he’d held her in his arms, he wasn’t ready to let go.
Thor and Dennis stepped forward. Dennis said, “Ace will be the point person for the red team, but for this afternoon I will be filling in. Thor is the contact for the blue team. We will start the new team rotations in the morning. Tonight there is a barbecue at the lake and I give you all my word that there will be no more tests today. Let’s take fifteen minutes to meet with your teams.”
Dennis stepped to one side, leading the red group out of the common area and over to Bunkhouse 2. Thor waited until he was gone and then gestured for everyone to sit down.
“All right, team, this is how it’s going to work. There will be more of these pop-up experiences over the course of the next eight weeks. We will be rotating back and forth between the facility and the ranch. The main idea for this is to expose you to physical labor that tests different muscle groups and to see how you work outside of the rocket together. Eventually the way station will house several hundred staff, and we will need skills that go beyond your ability to operate at your station.”
“If we are on the ranch first does that mean we won’t be working on the simulator?” Antonio asked.
“You will have an opportunity to tour the simulator tomorrow between the ranch duties. You will be eating together as a team and continuing your lessons at the facility, and I have a revised schedule here. For the first few days you will be observed and then we will pick a handful of you to be leaders. The teams will need to have commanders rotating on and off duty and it’s important for you to remember that no matter what role you are chosen for, it’s how well you perform that counts in the end.”
Of course it was. Antonio’s bosses at Space Now were concerned that NASA might try to stack the deck in their favor. To choose their trained candidates over the other ones. It was paramount that he use all of his abilities to ensure he was at the top of this group.
Which was exactly what he would do. Keeping his personal and professional life separate was a specialty, but no doubt Izzy was too much of a distraction. At first he’d thought the challenge of having Izzy on his team would spur him on but now he was having second thoughts. What if she distracted him? Should he ask to be moved to the other team?
Or would that be perceived as a weakness?
For as long as he could remember he’d wanted to get away from his family’s ranch in Argentina. He didn’t like to dwell on the incident that had caused him to leave his family and the land they loved so much, and he didn’t let his mind go there now. As much as his father and brothers had loved the land, Antonio had loved the stars. He’d spent all of his time reading books about planets and cosmology, dreaming of a time when he’d be up in the stars and far away from cattle and horses.
The irony of this facility setup wasn’t lost on him. Of course he had to make peace with the past. His father had always said that he could never really leave it behind until he accepted it.
And Antonio figured Izzy was in the same mix. He had to deal with what he felt for her. Was it just sex? Well, right now of course it was. But it was mixed in with a healthy dose of respect for the woman—the astronaut—she was. She was clearly at the top of the candidate class. It was easy to see from her own ease in the situations that were thrown at them and the way that Dennis, Thor and Ace all treated her.
He could learn from her, and he knew that she had always challenged him to be better. A man who wanted to be with Izzy needed to be at least as good as she was. She had no time for someone who wasn’t.
He rubbed the back of his neck, realizing that he had added some extra stress to the next eight weeks.
But it had been so damned pleasurable. As if anything with Izzy could be anything but pleasurable.
“Playboy?”
“Yes, sir?” he answered Thor. He was falling back into the old military way of addressing his commanding officer. Most of the private space programs used the military structure for their own.
“I asked if you would mind being the leader when the team heads out on the morning ranch chores. You grew up on a ranch, correct?”
“I did. I know more about cattle ranching than I’d like to,” he said with a grin. He needed to stop worrying. His brothers would never let him live it down if they knew he had been. He was the middle son in a family of five boys, and his brothers had always pegged him for success. He was carrying more than just his own hopes and dreams with him. He was carrying his family’s, as well.
He noticed Izzy watching him. As much as he’d enjoyed their encounter, he knew he had to manage what happened next with her very carefully. He was close to having everything he’d ever wanted...his place in the stars, leadership on a team and, if he were honest, Izzy. She’d always been someone he coveted.
Now he just had to be sure that he didn’t screw it up.
* * *
IZZY WENT BACK to her room to shower and change for the barbecue. The last thing she wanted to do was think about Antonio or the fact that for the next eight weeks she was going to be spending all of her time with him. She wanted to make it into a test for herself. What better way to see if she was ready for eighteen months in space with him than to spend these next eight weeks honing her skills.
As she ran her hands over her body to wash, she couldn’t help but remember Antonio’s and the way he’d held her. There had been so much passion in each of his caresses; it was almost as if he’d imprinted himself on her.
She washed her hair and then stepped out of the shower onto the bath mat. She needed to get him out of her head, but as she toweled off, the memories of their encounter persisted. She remembered every inch of his body and how he’d felt pressed so close to her. She wanted...him.
Again.
Once wasn’t going to be enough, and yet it had to be.
One time she could write off as just a bit of fun, but if anything happened between them again, what would the result be? Would her heartbeat accelerate when she thought of him? Would she spend even more time remembering the taste of his kiss and how he’d looked naked? Would she start to lose her chance of getting the payload specialist slot on the first mission?
It was a risk she couldn’t take.
She blow-dried her hair and took her time with her makeup. Then she got dressed and realized she had about three hours until she had to be at the lake. She’d already cleaned her room and finished the reading they’d been assigned for the first week of this latest round of training. She got to her feet and walked aimlessly down the hall, looking at the names on each of the doors. She stopped in front of the one marked A. Curzon and rapped on it. She was answered by the sound of a dog barking.
“Who is it?” Antonio called out.
“It’s Izzy.”
The door opened a smidge and he popped his head out, glancing up and down the hall before he opened it wider and gestured for her to step inside. She did and was greeted by Carly, who seemed to be adjusting to her new quarters. The dog was small and cute.
She was glad she’d put on jeans as she sat on the floor and the little dog jumped onto her crossed legs, curling up between them.
Izzy petted Carly. Her fur was soft to the touch. Izzy had never had a pet growing up. She’d always wanted one, but her life was very demanding, so owning a pet hadn’t made much sense.
“I’m happy to see you, but what are you doing here?” Antonio asked.
She petted the little dog one more time and then lifted her to the floor and stood up. “We need to talk.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It’s not. But I thought it better that we have a few minutes to discuss what happened earlier.”
“Fair enough. I need to take Carly for a walk—can we talk then?”
They made their way slowly out of the bunkhouse. The three different bunkhouses surrounded a common park area in a way that looked more like a hotel than a ranch in the middle of Texas Hill Country. The park was green and landscaped, and there were several benches placed under trees that had been dotted around the border.
Izzy rubbed her damp palms on the sides of her jeans, not looking at him. As much as she knew they needed to talk, she was nervous, and for the first time in a good long while she wasn’t too sure of what she really wanted.