“Great.” They stood silent for a few long moments; then: “Hey, want to grab a cup of coffee before they close? My shout.”
“Sure.” They walked to the little coffee shop on the ground floor of the next apartment building and took their coffee outside. Late October was still ideal weather on California’s central coast, although fall had definitely arrived. “Man, it’s been a long day,” Brad said after several minutes of silence. “Are you keeping up with your classes okay?”
“Mostly,” Jodie said. “The profs are giving me a break until after the test firing.”
“Same with me,” Brad said.
They fell silent again for a few minutes, and then Jodie set her coffee down, looked at Brad directly, and said, “I apologize for my rant at the hotel in Battle Mountain, mate. I guess I was shook up, and I took it out on you. You did protect us from the guy with the knife.”
“Forget about it, Jodie,” Brad said.
Jodie looked at her coffee, then at the tabletop. “Going up to the space station in just a couple days,” she said in a low, halting voice, “made me realize that . . . what I mean is, if . . . if something went wrong, I . . . I’d never see you again, and I wouldn’t have had a chance to apologize.”
Brad reached over and took her hands in his. “It’s okay, Jodie,” he said. “Nothing’s going to happen. It’ll be a successful flight and test firing, and I’ll fly back. It’ll be an adventure. It already has been an adventure. I wish you were coming with me.”
“Brad . . .” She squeezed his hands and lowered her head, and when she raised it again Brad could see the glistening in her eyes, even with just the light from the streetlights. “I’m . . . I’m scared, mate,” she said, a slight catch in her voice. “I know how badly you want to fly in space, and I’m happy you got this opportunity, but I’m still scared.”
Brad crossed over to a chair on Jodie’s side of the table, put his arms around her, and held her tightly. When they parted, he lightly touched her face and kissed her. “Jodie . . . Jodie, I want—”
“Come with me,” she whispered when the kiss ended. Her eyes opened wide and locked on to his, silently begging. “Mate, don’t you dare bloody leave me alone again. Please, Brad. Take me before you leave me.”
This time, in their next deep kiss, there was no hesitation in Brad McLanahan’s mind whatsoever.
THE WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THE NEXT MORNING
“It’s a good thing you decided to have me check other launch pads and spaceports, Mr. President,” National Security Adviser William Glenbrook said after President Ken Phoenix and Vice President Ann Page entered the Situation Room and took seats. “The Russians have indeed been very busy.”
“What did you find, Bill?” Phoenix asked, setting his coffee mug down, his second of the morning. His coffee intake had definitely risen as Election Day drew closer.
“A massive and rapid Russian outer-space rearming program under way, sir,” Glenbrook said. He hit a button and the first photograph appeared on the screen at the front of the Situation Room, showing a rocket with a winged lifting-body aircraft on the very top, replacing the rocket’s nose cone. “This is the Plesetsk spaceport in northwestern Russia. The spaceplane we observed when the ROS was undocked from the ISS was confirmed as an Elektron spaceplane, likely launched from Plesetsk.
“There is another spaceplane already on the launch pad there,” Glenbrook went on, reading from the notes on his tablet computer, “and we believe these containers and this large storage facility near the launch pad is another Elektron and its Proton booster. We think it’s a Proton and not an Angara-5 booster because of a lack of cryogenic oxygen storage nearby. The Angara-5 uses liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene, while the Proton uses hypergolic liquids: dimethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, two very toxic chemicals that burn when mixed, without need for an ignition source. The Angara-5 booster is more powerful, but its liquid oxygen needs to be replenished once it’s aboard the booster because it boils off; the fuels in the Proton last almost indefinitely, so it can sit on the launch pad without needing service.”