Travels of the Orphan (The Space Orphan Book 3)

by Laer Carroll

  "Hey, Ricky. How's married life suiting you?"

  "Great. You should try it sometime. What can I do you for?"

  She explained her situation. He happily congratulated her on her promotion and gave her some suggestions as to where and who she could go to for a good mess officer.

  Even more important was an executive officer. Jane had been spoiled by Kate but that woman was unavailable. She didn't have enough rank or time in grade to achieve the rank a "light" Colonel's exec needed to be.

  Within a day Jane received a list of those available and qualified for the slots Jane had open. It was in the form of three files for each slot with a suggested priority.

  In most cases Jane liked the #1 choice best, occasionally the #2 suggestion, and one #3.

  Except for the executive officer position.

  She became a cyborg and delved into the Personnel Center's database. SHE came up with several candidates which, for some reason, Personnel had not ranked as high as JANE would have.

  The lowest-ranked choice intrigued JANE. She seemed just right despite the low ranking. SHE widened HER investigation to civilian databases. There SHE discovered what seemed to be the reason. SHE dropped fully back into HER biological part and went to investigate.

  <>

  Vandenberg Air Force Base was a missile test and satellite launch site on the west coast of California. It was a hundred-and-something miles northwest of LA and a hundred-and-something miles southwest of Monterey. Its nearest city was Lompoc ten or so miles to the south.

  A lieutenant colonel named Kuznetsov could easily hitch a ride from Colorado Springs to Vandenberg on most aircraft. She packed a small suitcase and got a ride leaving the Friday after receiving her silver stars.

  At the base she was given a courtesy car provided by the base to visiting dignitaries. She drove it to base temporary housing, a large three-story motel built and managed by one of the larger motel chains. She checked in there and unpacked her changes of clothing into the closet and her toiletries into the bathroom.

  It was now nearly five pm. Time to begin stalking her quarry, twenty-year veteran Captain Marishka Lopez.

  Jane became JANE for several thousand milliseconds. This was plenty of time to break into a few million smartphone records and narrow HER search down to a couple hundred possibilities. Only one was in the area.

  She was in luck. The phone was in the Club Pacifica. A quick look at GoogleMapica showed that the club was on the other side of a park from the motel. The park had courts for several sports: tennis (four courts), basketball (two half-courts), baseball (one), and soccer (one). Beyond the club was a bowling alley, the large base commissary, and several fast-food places for burgers and pizza and Mexican food. A huge parking lot surrounded all of them making the central businesses into an outdoor mall.

  Jane had been traveling in her dress camouflage uniform with silver stars on her shoulder tabs, a breast holding her miniature "traveling" ribbons, a billed cap, and boots. Now she changed into jeans, a very loose off-one-shoulder tee shirt, and running shoes.

  Her pale blond hair, now long enough to sport a pony tail, she let down and combed out. It fell to her shoulders. She washed off her "nude" (barely pink) lip gloss and replaced it with bright red lipstick. The final touch was a large pair of variable-dark glasses by a fashionable French designer of (as far as she could tell) every damned thing a woman could possibly wear.

  She examined her image in the large mirror on the back of her bedroom door and was satisfied. With a slightly exaggerated hip sway she could be almost any wanna-be-sexy teenager. Or a second lieutenant just graduated from the Academy and exploring a no-longer-cramped life style.

  At nearly 6:00 the heat of the day was being relieved by a cool breeze off the Pacific just a mile or two to the west. Sunset was still an hour and a half away so the puffy white clouds in the sky had not been tinted with gold or evening purple. Jane almost skipped along as she threaded her way through the park, already loud with shouts and impact sounds from tennis balls, basketballs, and a baseball.

  The bright white Club Pacifica sprawled over several interconnected buildings. When she entered and stood looking around she could see why. It housed a restaurant, a billiards room with at least a dozen tables, a bar, and an adjoining dance floor.

  "Miss, can I help you?"

  Jane turned to look more fully at the greeter who gazed at her from behind a waist high podium. She was thirty-something, dressed in a glossy blue short-sleeved dress, and carefully made up.

  "Yes, thank you. I'm a visiting officer and would like to dine and maybe later dance or play pool."

  "Could I see some ID? Under 21 have to be accompanied by someone over 21 to consume alcohol."

  Jane was delighted. Her perennially youthful appearance was aiding her disguise.

  She took her drivers license from her tiny clutch purse and showed it to the woman. She'd had it changed from California to Colorado. This supported her story that she was a visiting officer rather than a sort-of spy.

  The woman carefully examined it and Jane and handed it back.

  "Thank you, miss. Just go in that entrance to reach the restaurant." She pointed.

  "I'd better freshen up first. Where's the restroom?"

  The woman pointed again and turned to greet new customers, an older couple with a teenaged girl and boy in tow.

  Jane did visit the restroom but then followed Robot's directions to locate Lopez.

  She found her in the bar, sitting on a stool at the bar with friends on barstools on each side of her and standing in front of her. She was smiling and chatting with the rest of the group.

  Jane glanced at her only briefly, scanned the bar as if looking for someone, then left. In the restaurant she ordered a fish and rice meal with veggie sides and a glass of chilled white wine. The waiter didn't ask for her ID.

  Later she played a few games of pool, carefully keeping to the level of play of her opponents instead of the deadly perfect play of which she was capable.

  Jane returned to the bar. The overhead lights had been dimmed a bit and brightened around the podium where the Karaoke singers belted or crooned to recordings. Lopez assayed a country and western song with hilariously disastrous results, apparently on a dare. She dissolved into laughter with the audience, then did much better with the Beyoncé song "Pretty Ladies (Put a Ring on It)."

  Jane slipped out before Lopez left the dazzle of the Karaoke podium. She entered the dance area next to the bar, still tracking Lopez via Robot, and danced salsa and swing for the next two hours.

  When Lopez left Jane sluffed off one persistent young man who wanted to talk to her. She walked away from Lopez, however, toward her lodging through the well-lighted sports area, still tracking the woman via Robot.

  By the time Jane used the bathroom and changed into night clothing Lopez had driven a mile into the on-base housing area and parked. Lying in bed Jane closed her eyes and via Robot called up a satellite view of the suburban area. Apparently Lopez rented a garage apartment next to a large two-story brick house.

  The next morning Lopez's smartphone stayed in one place. Then at 1:00 it began to move--back toward Jane's location. When it passed her by Jane guessed where it was going and hurriedly left to follow.

  Jane via Robot tracked Lopez passing by Club Pacifica to the parking lot surrounding the small almost-mall Jane had noticed the day before. Lopez visited several businesses: a credit union where she drew out some money, a small post office, dry cleaners, a GNC nutrition center, and back to her car to leave off the clothes and sack of vitamins or whatever.

  Then she entered the Main Exchange. It was large and had several small businesses and one big one: a grocery store.

  That was where Jane made her attempt to meet the woman.

  She tracked the woman, always at least one row of groceries away, while placing several items into her shopping cart: Small Miss tampons, some vitamins and minerals, soap, lettuce, tomatoes, bread, condiments, and a small lo
af of hamburger meat.

  Coming around a corner she near-clashed her cart into that of Captain Lopez.

  "Oh, I'm so sorry! I should have looked better where I was going."

  "Who never makes a mistake? It's my fault too." She was smiling. Jane took that for a good sign. She made her second move.

  She gazed at the woman's face and frowned. Then let her face brighten. She pointed at the woman.

  "Beyoncé! Pretty Ladies! That's where I know you. You did a good job of that one."

  Jane fell into place beside Lopez as she began to continue her shopping for other items.

  "Not so good on the first one."

  "Did you do that on a dare?"

  "Yes. Dumb. I'd already had one too many drinks. I cut myself off after that."

  Jane continued to chat, adding an occasional item to her cart, and followed Lopez to checkout. She paid as the woman did, with a credit card, and so was near her when their purchases were sacked up.

  Lopez stopped beyond checkout. "Are you here on duty?"

  "Temp, yes. You?"

  "Permanent duty. At least till I retire in a couple of months." She grimaced.

  "Why are you retiring? If I may ask?"

  Lopez turned to walk to her car.

  "It's a long depressing story."

  Jane followed along. "I wouldn't mind hearing it."

  "No, you wouldn't. To change the subject, what were you planning to do with that?"

  She nodded her head at Jane's one sack, both her own hands tied up with four heavy bags of groceries and such.

  "Oh, attempt to use the apartment's outdoor grill. Probably ruin the meat."

  "Why don't you come visit me this evening? My land lord and lady and I are going to have a cookout around the pool along with a few of our neighbors."

  "Sure. I'd like that. I don't know anybody here."

  The woman put her sacks into her car and, hands freed up, tapped Jane's smartphone with hers to transfer her address to Jane's phone, telling Jane to buy a swimming outfit "back there" if she didn't already have one and to come to her residence at 7:00.

  Jane got a swim suit in another part of the Main Exchange semi-mall.

  At Lopez's residence she was introduced to nearly two dozen people and surrendered her meat and veggies to a self-styled backyard chef. She doffed a robe and plunged into the pool for a spirited game resembling water polo whose idea of scoring seemed to be who splashed who the most.

  The next few hours were spent in eating and drinking and chatting. In disjointed fashion Jane learned why Lopez had been passed over so much despite her outstanding job reviews. Her youngest daughter had had an illness that interfered twice with Lopez's work. The second time she'd had to take a sabbatical of several months to help deal with it.

  Nowadays the girl, like her older brother and the middle sister, was healthy and in college or graduated. Lopez and her husband had grown apart and (according to Lopez anyway) divorced but on good terms.

  Sunday morning early Jane surrendered her base car at the base airport and returned to Colorado Springs.

  <>

  Jane worked on Sunday getting Lopez promoted to major, using Robot ruthlessly and the Mars mission priority to speed the Air Force Personnel machinery along. By Wednesday Lopez was officially promoted, the only matter left to email the notification to the woman's superior. Such unprecedented speed triggered the Personnel guardian software to alertness. Robot and it dueled for a few hundred milliseconds before the super-advanced robot soothed the guardian to acquiescence.

  On Monday at 8:30 California time, 9:30 Colorado time, Jane video-phoned Lopez from her office. Her white-blond hair was up in its usual pony tail and she wore her usual discreet makeup. She wore her grey-and-brown camo working uniform with silver stars on her collars, KUZNETSOV on her right breast, and US AIR FORCE under wings on her left breast. The wings insignia had an upright rocket crossing its center. The cross thus produced instantly identified her as both an aerial and an astronaut pilot.

  "Good morning, Captain Lopez. Had any more Karaoke triumphs?"

  The woman carefully eyed Jane's image, her gaze lingering on the KUZNETSOV name tag and the rocket-crossed wings.

  "This is not a prank, is it?" She seemed half convinced it was one.

  "No, Marishka. It is not."

  "Hard for me to believe. You were a very convincing newbie on Saturday. But I'll go along with the joke, if it is one. What can I do for you, Colonel?"

  "Is there any reason why you would not like to work here in Colorado Springs?"

  A pause, then, "No, Ma'am, there is not."

  "Is there any reason why you would not be able to work in space?"

  "Are you kid--?! No. As you very well know. Saturday you very sneakily wormed out of me my sad story of getting two master's degrees and zero-g certification in prep for just such duty. And have it all go to waste."

  Jane grinned. "I WAS super sneaky, wasn't I?"

  She sobered. "It will not go to waste, Captain. You have been promoted to major as of yesterday at 1543 Washington time. An email and a couriered postal copy of the notice of promotion are on their way to your commander. The email will arrive by noon. You are to be formally promoted by your commander this afternoon.

  "You may wear the set of gold stars to wear as soon as he--or she--gives them to you. I suggest you wear them while traveling. But I have another set to give to you when you arrive here: the ones I wore till last Monday. I would like you to wear them."

  "My god, Jane-- Ma'am. I'm honored."

  "I want you to finish up there as soon as possible. Cut corners as much as your conscience allows. Use professional packers if that will speed you on your way. Use professional cartage to send your automobile here. Both costs will be reimbursed.

  "If at all possible, I want you on a plane tomorrow morning. I will arrange passage from Vandenberg on the first available aircraft."

  "Aye, aye, Ma'am. If I may ask, what do you want me to do?"

  "I want you for my second in command, Major Lopez. No, for God's sake, don't faint!"

  <>

  Within a week Major Marishka Lopez was fairly well settled in and very capably acting as Jane's executive officer.

  One of her first major tasks was to help Jane finalize her choices for the rest of the crew of the Constellation. Her twenty years of experience with the realities of military service was a real help. It was to Jane's credit that only eight of her choices were questioned. In all but two cases Jane agreed with Lopez and approved her number two choices instead.

  On her exec's suggestion Jane approved staging the acquisition of the personnel, the most senior before the less senior. The 13 officers trickled in over a two week period. The same two weeks plus one more week brought in the 21 noncoms. That third week saw the arrival of the first of the 37 airmen (and airwomen), most of them Airmen First Class. It was two more weeks before the last of the crew came in, was assigned housing, and began work.

  In all the manning up took five weeks. The term "manning" was only half appropriate, for half of the 71 people, 73 counting Jane and Marishka, were women. On the average the women had the better and the more varied educations. Almost everyone had a master's degree. Three women and two men had PhDs.

  A storm of studying was inflicted on everyone, short classes for the most part, zero-g training and certification near the top of the list. As soon as someone was certified space-capable they were measured for spacesuits. Standard parts were assembled into unique suits for each person. Red colors indicated officers, yellow noncoms, and lime green for airmen.

  Jane's was white with blue accents, Lopez's white with green accents.

  Much of the work was done onboard Constellation, familiarizing personnel with the duties the women and men would do in space. This included simulations of emergencies.

  <>

  In mid-February in Colorado Springs the weather was warming up. Newscasters were suggesting, more from hope than past experience, that the area wa
s expecting no more heavy snows. Jane called a meeting of the 73 people in Constellation's crew for a Monday morning at 10:00 o'clock.

  The conference room was one of several in the Space Command's Training Center. It had seating for up to 200 and a four-foot high stage with a podium off to one side to allow the audience a good view of the large flat screen on the wall behind the podium.

  Jane walked up short stairs near the podium, adjusted the microphone on the podium to her height, and looked out over the audience.

  "Everybody seems to be here. Everyone have coffee or whatever?"

  She expected no reply and did not get it except for three or four people who lifted a cup to show they had something to drink.

  "Good. This is our last week here for a couple of months. During the next several weeks we will be in space.

  "Next Monday we will meet at Connie at 9:00 am. We will stow our personal allowance, suit up, and check each other's suits. We will then take her out for her shakedown cruise.

  "You will shortly receive an email with details about what you can and can't take upstairs and other details about this deployment."

  She looked around the room and took a sip of unneeded water to let the message soak into her people. Everyone seemed at least ready for space duty, some excited.

  "During this week you will have light duty and Friday off for a long weekend. This will give you time to visit your family and friends and otherwise get ready for a month away. Such as paying for next two month's rent as you will not be here for the first few weeks of March.

  "Starting Monday you will receive flight pay and hazardous duty pay. We won't be doing anything with any chance of danger but it is always possible we will encounter it.

  "Now I have other duties. I leave you with Major Lopez to go deeper into matters surrounding our deployment."

  A master sergeant in the audience with a carrying voice called for attention. The audience stood, braced, and saluted Jane. She returned the salutes and left the room by way of the short stairs at the edge the stage.