by L. S. Wood
Instead of being the first astronaut to circle the globe in space, she might very well have been one of the last astronauts to be in space, for she thought at the time that the space program everyone knew had come to an abrupt end. The monster up in the atmosphere had remained still and quiet all afternoon leaving everyone enjoying the towns crowded common enjoy themselves, but could have at any unsuspecting moment taken someone from them.
The crowd felt extremely uneasy having so many people all crowded together in one location as everyone held their jittery breaths. They spoke to one another in total anticipation of the monster’s arrival at any given second all during the afternoon. The number of deaths the monster had been causing regularly snuffing out innocent people and animals on a daily bases was beginning to dwindle more and more with each and every passing day as time marched on.
Either the earth was silently winning its war against this monster, or the neutron monster living in the sky was getting ready to destroy humanity for eternity. Only precious time would tell, and everyone could only surmise what would next take place. The earth seemed to be getting back to normal these past few weeks except that there was still no way to produce electricity without severe consequences. This was when the neutron monster would come out from its hiding place invisible in the air and snuff out whoever was brave enough or foolish enough to try to produce electricity for their own or someone else’s use and benefit.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The Visitor
Ann finally settled in to her new way of life as a full-time mother, chief cook and bottle washer, house cleaner, homemaker, nurse, and parental councilor. She found herself becoming extremely happy while being busy this new way. Working hard every day helping Ben out with doing the many hard chores a farmer’s wife would normally perform. She helped out the neighbors by doing chores as they were all so short-handed and everyone had so much they had to get accomplished before winter was upon them. She was getting tired from working so hard all of the time, but was enjoying every last moment spent with Ben, the girls, and her mom and dad. Ann felt she could adjust to any of these new circumstances thrown at her that might arise as long as she had Ben, the kids, and her parents around to keep her mind off the other things in life that bothered the hell out of her. She was becoming a typical seasoned farmer’s wife, whether she wanted to or not.
It was an early Tuesday morning several weeks after Ann had arrived back home, and someone came knocking at the front door of the farmhouse. When she went to see who was at the front door she was quite pleased and surprised to see Commander Anderson standing there all dressed prim and proper in his dressed military blue attire.
“Good morning, sir!” Ann said with enthusiasm. “Won’t you please come in Commander? What a pleasant surprise to see you so soon. Would you like to have the misses come in with you for a cup of hot tea or a coffee and a bun with us, sir?”
“Sorry Lieutenant! She is not with me today. I am here on official business only from the Pentagon, the Air Force, and of course from the people of NASA. Here are your new orders Lieutenant.”
“But Commander,” Ann said with trepidation written all over her face. “I am due out of the military in just a couple of more weeks. I thought we had come to an agreement back at Cape Canaveral before I returned back here to the farm. Personnel told me that I did not have to report to anyone or anywhere anymore. They told me that my time spent in space had accumulated enough time to fulfil the remainder of my stint of service sir. My time of military obligation of my enlisted contract with the government is over. I really do not want to reenlist again, sir. All I want to do now is to be a devoted mother to my children, a good wife to Ben, and take care of my aging mom and dad for the remainder of their lives.” Ann’s voice was becoming louder and more stern as she talked on, almost yelling at the Commander, with her eyes starting to mist up and almost cry from her instant nervousness.
“May I come in, lieutenant?”
“Why of course, sir, come right in.”
“What’s all that blasted noise about out there? Did someone get hurt or something? What is going on? Is there something wrong, Ann?” “No Pa, there is nothing wrong.” “What the hell is it then?”
“Nothing is wrong, Pa. This is Commander Anderson. He was my captain and was my commanding officer while I was aboard the Twitchel.”
Suddenly Ann broke down and did cry. “What in the hell is the matter, Ann? No one comes into my house and makes my little girl cry for nothing. What in the hell is going on?”
“Could we be alone for just one moment please, Mr. Hamlin?” No you certainly cannot. Not in my damned house. You cannot be alone especially when whatever it is has something to do with my little girl Ann here. No you damn well cannot. Whatever it is you got to tell her, you get to tell me as well.”
“It is ok, Pa. I have spent an entire whole year up in outer space with Commander Anderson. He is really a real nice man.” “Are you sure Ann?” “Yes, I am quite sure and am positively absolutely sure of it. Could you please put some water on the stove for us to have some coffee please Pa? Maybe Commander Anderson would like to have a cup of coffee with us.” “That would be very nice, thank you. I am truly sorry, Ann. I had these orders drawn up for you myself, and I can have them cancelled just as fast as I had them made out.”
“I am very sorry, Commander Anderson. It has been a real hard time for me to readjust these last few weeks back here to all this new way of life for me, sir. I am just barely getting used to being around my family again and what it is like being a mother to my children again, as you can well imagine.”
“Well, Lieutenant, family is what these orders are all about.”
“Sir”, Ann spoke with bewilderment in her voice and on her face as well. “I don’t quite understand what you mean family, sir?” “Well Lieutenant, its meaning is explained explicitly inside this envelope. Open up the envelope Lieutenant, and see for yourself. These orders are all about family, Ann, maybe not your immediate family down here on earth, but is about your extended other family in another world if you would want to call it that in space.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Orders To Fly Again
Ann read her new orders: “Promote Lieutenant Ann Mitchell to the rank of Captain. Extend time of enlistment for the purpose of one rescue and relief mission only. The mission’s purpose is to deliver much needed life support supplies to the International Space Station in outer space. This special mission is to deliver desperately needed oxygen, food, carbon mixture for water supply systems, medical supplies, and transportation of as many Russian cosmonauts as possible back to Earth to Cape Canaveral. Welcome aboard the rescue mission, Captain. President of the United States, President Stallman. P.S. This mission holds with it a sizable reenlistment package that will take care of your family should something ever go amiss with this mission. Glad to have you aboard, Captain.”
“I wouldn’t have asked for you directly, Ann, if I didn’t have full faith in you, especially your qualified abilities to make this mission a success. I do have to tell you a couple of things about this mission though before you agree to it. First, I think this mission will work quite well with you onboard to help me. Secondly, if it does not work, none of us will ever be coming back home this time. Third and foremost, if we don’t try this mission, all the crew aboard the space station will perish out there except for a very few lucky ones that will fit into that damn relic of a space capsule they have with them out there.
Six lucky ones will make it, but that’s all that will be able to return home to Earth.
Consequently, according to new figures just out back from NASA, calculating everything we used up as an added load on the supplies and equipment, the space station has maybe a mere few weeks or less of usable oxygen and supplies left onboard for them to survive if NASA’s calculations are correct and Commander Ivan’s were wrong. I guess Commander Ivan and I did not calculate th
e added load on everything correctly using the amounts of supplies needed when we decided it was time for the Twitchel to pack it up and leave a few weeks ago for their safety.
We used up way more of their oxygen supply than we had previously calculated because we didn’t take into account a couple of determining factors in our calculations when we did the math together, and they will die soon if we don’t return the favor of life to them that they extended to us. I just thought that you, being one of the lucky ones to have used up some of their supplies, might like to help us on this mission of mercy if possible, Captain Ann. I just thought we had an obligation to them that is all.”
“You know my answer, Commander Anderson! I just did not think, well I tried to put that idea out of my head completely, about their needs. In the back of my mind, I have been scared to death for them all. I felt that somehow they would all survive one way or another. I just did not think it would have to be up to us again to be the ones sent back up there to help save and rescue them. I figured their own government would take enough pride in themselves to send someone up there to try and save their own people for goodness sake. Pardon my attitude, Sir.”
“That’s quite all right, Captain. I along with several other dignitaries from NASA tried in vain to talk to the newly installed Russian Parliament. They would like to help, but cannot do a thing soon enough to help anyone out up there. If we don’t do it soon, they will all perish. I will feel personally responsible if they all die for my part in it as I am sure you would too, Ann?”
Commander Anderson really knew how to make Ann feel real guilty, and he sure did one hell of a good job of it. He felt the mission would be a flop without her, and would try to say anything to convince her to help them. If he had her going on the mission he was sure he could and would convince the others of the old crew to go along with him also.
“Here is your danged cup of coffee, Mr. commanding officer, sir. Now what in the tarnation was all that damned crying about out here in the first place? What did you go and tell my little Ann to get her all fired up like she was anyway?”
“Well Mr. Hamilton, I guess I will have to let Ann tell you all about it. Mmmm, how did you make this wonderful cup of coffee taste so delicious? Thank you, Mr. Hamilton.” “I used my own natural sugar for it, that’s how. I put a little of my extra honey in it for the sweetener. That old monster thing in the sky did not wipe out all the honeybee hives, thank goodness. Took half our cows though, but it didn’t get any of the chickens, our faithful old horse Dixie, or the pigs or goats out in the barn either. I guess we been pretty lucky round the farm here compared to most folk and farmers livestock around these parts. Guess we have been good and lucky is all I have to say, sir. Damn good and lucky our family is. Anyway, Ann, what did this here Commander, this Commander Anderson say to you, to get you all fired up and crying that a way?”
“Where is Mom, Pa?” “She is upstairs in the bathroom, dear.” “Ok, well I will be right back down then.” Ann turned around and went out the archway toward the stairs.
“Ann is the sweetest little girl in the world you have their Mr. Hamilton. She is a real sweetheart, and the nicest little girl I have ever met in my days. Wish I had a daughter just like her.”
“Have you got any children of your own, Commander?” “I have, sir. I have four pretty good boys of my own, sir. The likes of having a daughter like your Ann would have surely made our family complete. My boys are all grown up and gone out on their own now, but having a girl would have been a real nice treat.
How many children do you have, Mr. Hamilton?” “Just my one little girl is all we have, Commander, Ann is our only child. Has a stubborn damn fool mind all her own too, that dang-nabbed little filly of ours. She went off to school all by herself looking for a better way to spend her life and did not give a hoot about us at the time. She just didn’t want to be a plain old Jane like the rest the nice girls around these parts. Met up with that there Ben guy one day at school, and got herself hitched up to a stranger to us back then.
Came home one day and wanted to sleep in our house in the same bedroom with a strange man, she did. I did not like that idea one bit, but what in the hell was I to do about it, it was her husband. Always wanted to fly them no good for nothing flying machines, too. God would have put a good set of wings on our backs if he intended for any of us to fly, I always said. I cannot tell that thick-headed girl a thing, not a dang blasted thing. When she gets her fool head set what she wants to go off and do, there just is not a dang thing anyone in the whole-wide world is going to do to turn her fool mind around any other way.
Dang fool girl is going to go off and get herself killed one of these days if she doesn’t settle down real soon.”
“Come in here, Mom. Sit yourself down beside Pa. I have something very important I have to tell the two of you.” Ann’s mother began to cry. “What the hell did you tell your ma, Ann? Holy cow girl, for crying out loud Ann, why did you not go and tell me first. Couldn’t you at least have had the common decency to have waited and tell the two of us together, couldn’t you have?”
“Ann didn’t tell me anything, Pa. Every darn time she gets the two of us to sit down together, she always tells us something we just do not want to hear. Just like when she wanted to go off to that college school of hers, and we both were against it. We both knew we were going to miss her terribly, and then fool girl came home with Ben, and then went off to fly those airplanes. I just know it is a going to be something awful she is a going to tell us, Pa. Go ahead dear, your pa and I are waiting and a listening for whatever it is.”
“Well, Commander Anderson here wants me to help him out for a little while.” “What do you mean he wants you to help him out for a little while?” Ann’s father asked. “He wants me to help him on a mission to help save the lives of those people still stuck on the space station.”
“NO! DAMN IT ANN, YOU ARE NOT GOING! You are not going to help him out this time. I damn well forbid it, Ann! It is ludicrous and crazy, Ann. I read it in the paper, Ann. If you fly, you die. You go and tell him no. You are not going to help him save those blasted Russians that caused this damn mess to happen in the first place. I forbid it. You hear me ANN. I FORBID IT! You tell him NO! You are not going to help him out this time, and I mean it, Ann!”
“I am truly sorry you feel that way Pa, for there are two innocent German astronauts up there as well. They did not do anything wrong to anyone and neither did the Russian cosmonauts that are stuck up there against their own will. If it was not for them, I would not be standing here alive today and arguing with you about going there or not. I cannot just sit down here all happy and idle and not do something to help them if I am capable to do so. I have to try to save them, don’t you understand, or I wouldn’t be able to live with myself, and I wouldn’t be a very good human being for it, if I didn’t try, either.”
Ann’s father broke down and shed tears right along with Ann’s mother. “Damn fool girl anyway.” Her father said. “You still don’t have any damn brains left up in your head, do you, Ann? Can’t our government find someone else to take her place, Commander?” “We gave it a lot of thought Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton. We could not come up with anyone quite as well qualified as Ann. She is the only one in our command center unit that knows how to navigate the Twitchel or any other one of our shuttles properly. We had one person in training just as the big blast came, and he is still with us, but hasn’t had hands-on training like Ann has, and we have no simulator for him to practice in now. All the other ones who were well qualified to take her place all died trying to blast those foolish neutron rockets with bombs out of the sky that awful day. She is the only one left around the world that I can really count on to have a successful mission. Without her onboard, I am afraid our chances are about one in a thousand, if not less.”
Ben then came in from the field carrying Amber on his back after letting the cows out of the barn to graze, while Sarah was fast a
sleep on the sofa in the den after playing hard before breakfast, and did not awake to the entire commotion taking place in the next room.
“What is going on, Ann? Why are both Mom and Dad sniffling and wiping tears away from their eyes?” “I have to go away again, Ben, for just a few weeks or maybe longer, I don‘t know how long this time.”
“Why? You said you were never going to go away ever again. You said you were giving up the military life for good. What in the hell is more important to you than your own family, Ann, the Military or us? Did you not make a promise to us, to me, Ann? You said you were never ever going to leave us again and be here for us forever.” “Yes I did, Ben, and I meant it too, but right now the people who helped me stay alive all the while I was gone for over a year in space are in desperate need of supplies and oxygen. I have to help them stay alive if I can, and if I don’t, they will all die.”
“How the hell do you even know if they are still alive now? No one can even talk to them. Maybe they are all dead as we speak. You cannot do this to me again, Ann, I cannot live another day without you in it. You do not really know what it has been like for me these last few months without you with me. I am asking you not to go, damn it. I am begging you for my sake and for the kid’s sake of happiness along with the good of your mom and dad’s sake. Please. Ann, for God’s sake, Ann, please don’t go!”
“I have to go, Ben. Does anyone of you care enough about what happens to those poor people up there? I have to go. They saved our lives when we were in need of them, and they could have just as easily have said no to our crew and me. I just have to go this one last time and help save my friends if I can. They are more than just friends to me, Ben, they are like all of you, they are my family, too, and I love them. I love them like I love the lot of you too, and I am going to help save the ones who saved my life, and that is that! I am going, and nothing anyone says or does is going to change anything.”
