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Post by Evangeline on Jan 18, 2009 18:20:37 GMT -5
"Got it from Harrison." Zoe referred to her family's NASA contact. "I admit, the frequency and pattern of the outages is starting to look a bit suspicious to me even if the rest of the jury's still out on it." She paused and glanced back. "Jon flew over with me, and we brought Dylan along. They're out by the seashore watching the campers come in. Doesn't matter how tight you try to keep things nailed down, people know when a launch is coming. So I assume Picard's already getting prepped?"
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Post by elizar on Jan 18, 2009 18:31:46 GMT -5
"Yeah, and we're quite swamped right now." Miles said. "Helen has ordered us to take a short break from anything to take a physical exam, and we're now bringing a satellite back here, while not properly equipped for that task."
"I haven't heard from Steph in a while. How is she and her kids?" Miles asked. The two had actually distanced themselves apart quite quickly when growing up. Steph hadn't quite gotten that it was bad to scan others when little, and it had gotten to the point where Daniel and Miles didn't visit Aron unless Steph was somewhere away for most of the time. But they still kept some contact, either through emails, phone calls, or third parties.
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Post by Evangeline on Jan 18, 2009 19:01:26 GMT -5
"The little one's keeping her pretty busy now," Zoe rolled her eyes. "Only time will tell if they show any ability, but given who their grandma is, it's a dead certainty that they'll show SOMETHING eventually." She sighed as only a mother could. "And I think I already told you that Dylan manifested a few months back. That's a year or two sooner than I did." She came back to the subject at hand. "What have you got, anything to secure it with?"
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Post by elizar on Jan 18, 2009 19:09:22 GMT -5
"That's the problem." Miles said. "We don't have anything. It will just have to be ready by tomorrow. We were never supposed to bring one back. If we couldn't fix them, we just put them in deteriorating orbit so that they would burn up in atmo, saving some space for other satellites. A lot of money spent, but given that they weren't even supposed to be fixed in the first place, it isn't that big of a deal."
"Gives us also a great deal of information about how humans cope in space, along with Picard." Helen said. "But in regards of Picard, it is more Steeves forte."
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Post by Evangeline on Jan 18, 2009 19:34:25 GMT -5
Lionel had been absorbed in his printouts, underlining certain items with a pen. He looked up at the mention of his surname. "The added mass is gonna play hell with our stability on re-entry if it's not buckled down good. Picard knows it too, he had that swearing-with-his-eyes look as he headed out just now."
"Damn." Pilar hissed. "I hope that whatever they've got will do the job."
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Post by elizar on Jan 18, 2009 19:43:05 GMT -5
"Yeah." Miles said. "But we should work on the schedule now." He said. "I'm sorry Zoe, but you couldn't have come at a worse time than now. But we got two day work to be finished in one day."
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Post by Evangeline on Jan 18, 2009 21:40:24 GMT -5
"I understand," Zoe nodded, "And I won't keep you. I'll be renewing the wards and seeing you get up there and back with no interference. Speaking of which, I'd better get busy. See you later." She moved off.
Weather-wise, they couldn't have asked for better. The skies on launch day dawned clear, with only a few mare's tails tracing across the blue. Picard was in place on the launch pad, having been rushed into readiness as fast as dozens of ground support personnel could manage. Now he awaited his crew as the countdown to launch began. Miles away, he knew that the crowds would be waiting to see him off, camping in their thousands on the seashore. But, in the meantime, there was only tense boredom as others took care of the pre-launch checks and inspected his systems.
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Post by elizar on Jan 19, 2009 1:25:06 GMT -5
The crew was in the cramped, pressurized hab for them. They talked to control as ticking down every pre-flight check. Even though the hab was pressurized, they wore their space suits. It also served as their toilet as well. Only part of the spacesuit not on them was the helm. They had one day in total to be in orbit. They would land tomorrow morning, taking shifts so Picard wouldn't get bored.
Helen quickly ticked off the checks for the hab they were in. "Alright. All done on this end." She said. "The airlock system is okay, and we got enough pressurized oxygen to use it three times." She announced to the crew, as it was required.
"Got that." Miles said. While most would have considered his job just to tick off on his clipboard when work was done, he knew that if work wouldn't be done, he was the one giving the orders for real, instead of reading them off the clipboard.
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Post by Evangeline on Jan 19, 2009 2:41:00 GMT -5
Lionel was running through his own checklist, occasionally consulting with Picard or the ground support team over some matter. So far, there had been no major delays, which, in Lionel's mind, was not necessarily a good thing. He remembered the saying "When you think everything's going well, you obviously don't know what the hell's going on." So in this area, he had a very suspicious mind.
Picard and Pilar were deep into it with the ground team and the specialists on the ground who were to assist with the liftoff and orbital burn phases. By now, Picard had confidence that the human crew members each had their jobs down, and Pilar was coming along fine for it being her first actual mission. The clock ticked down to T-minus 30 minutes, and the tension was building.
Zoe had spend the previous day reinforcing wards, establishing new ones, and making sure of the gantry and surrounding area. She was now on the apron with her husband, Jonathan Tulugaq Crawford III, and their son, Dylan Amaruq Crawford, who had just made his first long flight with them. From their area, they could also see the launch, albeit from a distance. They could see the MP's - cars, helos and jets - patrolling the vicinity, keeping it clear. They listened in on the communications and the news feed and like every other reasonable person, hoped for the best.
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Post by elizar on Jan 19, 2009 8:40:47 GMT -5
Christine approached the ramp. Her eyes were on the crowd moreso than the launch pad. She had seen enough launches to be bored by them.
"Hey Zoe." She said as coming up to the trio. "About time I got to see your son."
Miles was not as critical as Lionel, even though he should have been. He wanted to get this done with already. He faintly recalled that this was what his father wanted, but he believed he had gotten there on his own. And no better way to escape the baby talk than by going into space. Miles smiled inwardly. His sister was ahead of him, having snagged an import who was now back to humanverse helping with constructing dams for power, and she was a large vet assistant there as well. Miles had never gone 'home' sort of. This world was his home. He had grown up with cars, airplanes and helicopters all around him. He had seen his uncle's old jeep and that had unnerved him slightly.
He was happy with that there was still something to do. It was the waiting that was boring.
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Post by Evangeline on Jan 19, 2009 16:13:53 GMT -5
"This was Dylan's first big trip." Zoe remarked. "We didn't want to take a chance until he had mid-air refuelling down pat."
Zoe's "better half" smiled modestly to Christine. He didn't seem to be the "social lion" type, though his emerald-green eyes were steady. The Avro lines were still famous for that eye color, which was rare outside of their kin group.
Dylan looked up at Christine. His eyes were gold, like his mother's, though he'd also inherited his father's milk-white color. "Hi. Daddy says you make humans throw up for a living." A blush appeared beneath his father's pigment.
At ten minutes before launch, the crew began to put on their helmets. Picard locked his jaws shut and sealed his lips. From here on, they would stay sealed until after he returned to earth. He would communicate only by his internal diaphrams, which took impulses directly from his brain and functioned like speakers. "Ten minutes to go."
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Post by elizar on Jan 19, 2009 16:36:11 GMT -5
Christine chuckled. "Well then, did he now?" She said to the boy. "But some of them do throw up. They get a badge for it, called the throw-chunks badge." She said smiling. "All but two have gotten it yet, but I strive towards it."
"Picard's sealed up." Miles said.
"Biomonitors transmitting clear signal." Helen said.
"And Pilar, everyone lied to you." Miles said. "Zero gee is nothing like the water pool."
Harold was watching the launch from his cabin. It was unexpected. In just one day since the launch, the humans were launching as well. It was out of the norm.
And it was time to call the lesser of two devils.
"Rolph." Harold keyed in the private channel. "I need to talk to you."
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Post by Evangeline on Jan 19, 2009 17:27:22 GMT -5
"I'm getting that." Pilar's mouth was dry.
"Rolph here." Rolph-Carl answered. "Yes, I know about the launch."
"Ah, yes." Zoe laughed. "One should always strive for excellence, eh, Jon?" She ribbed her husband, who finally had to laugh in spite of himself. "Jon does data analysis for the family. This is the first time I've been able to drag him out of his office."
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Post by elizar on Jan 19, 2009 17:37:51 GMT -5
"This is out of the norm." Harold said. "I would like to know why. What has changed to prompt this fast response. You said you got a contact there."
"And be ready for the elephant." Miles grinned, followed by few grins from the others in the cabin.
Christine wondered just what data analyst he did, though it could have been related to the fact that they were cousins. "Well, you got a treat today." She pointed towards the launch pad. "Last minute launch."
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Post by Evangeline on Jan 19, 2009 19:12:28 GMT -5
"According to my contact, they had another satellite go out, and moved up the launch before the others were overloaded." Rolph said. "He says they're going to bring it back down to figure out exactly what's going on."
"Elephant? How about a whale?" Lionel fasted his helmet.
"Yes. Dylan's sure excited." Jon moved to restrain the six-year-old. "Don't get too far from us, now."
Zoe was concentrating on something else, as she stood still with eyes half-shut. It would be up to Jon to mind the child for the next twenty minutes.
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