Solar Umbrella (Book 1)

25: Training

EVERYTHING SINCE KATE had arrived seemed to be going amazingly. Parker and the teams belonging to the governors were keeping everyone happy with their cable time allotments, and The Bear at NASA and his counterparts around the world wanted to take their blue sky project and expand it. They hadn't seen the public this interested in science since, well, ever. Parker could feel things ramping up at the base as well. Each twenty-four hour period broke new records for material carried up and down the cable. Kate's team was making headway as well. They had worked closely with the coding team at the base and thought they had a solution. They were running simulations now to make sure everything was perfect. Kate had messaged him saying she would have some time once the sims were running if he wanted to meet at the cafeteria again. He hadn't seen her since the tour, so he was excited to see her again. After all this time, it felt like nothing had changed. He had a conflict that he couldn't get out of though. The base had a simple simulator—not like the one he had used previously—that simulated the space station almost perfectly. It even simulated zero gravity by strapping you in with cables to the walls. Anyone hoping to go up to the station was required to complete training and scenarios in it. Parker was scheduled to go through his first one later today. He had a plan though. After getting the message from Kate, he had replied that he needed a few minutes to straighten something out.

He took off to the simulator room to check for an extra suit. Each member of the team had their own space suit fitted to them. It was a requirement for the training, and something they kept on hand. In an emergency or special situation, any of them could be called on to ride the cable. Luckily the station had several spares for executives and members of the media who wanted to try out the simulator. He grabbed one that looked like it would fit Kate. He messaged her to tell her that he'd meet her in the cafeteria after all and made his way there.

She was sitting in the same spot, waiting patiently for him. Instead of sliding in behind, he passed the suit over instead, looking like a strange deflated human.

Kate laughed and poked the suit in the helmet. "You look good Parker. A little thin though," she said to the suit.

"Hilarious," Parker said as he slid in on the other side. "You wanna try the sim with me? I need to complete a bunch of them if I ever want to get up to the other station and my time is in fifteen minutes. I don't see why you can't come as well, it can fit up to five people and I'm the only one in the system."

"Do I want to...put on a space suit and go in a simulator at the base of a space elevator?" she asked, stroking an imaginary beard. "Hmm, I'm not sure. I saw they had pizza today, so I might just do that instead. Of course I want to come!"

"Excellent! I've seen the simulator in action, and it's pretty solid. We'll have to see how it compares to the real deal," he suggested.

"About being in actual space Parker, I want to talk about it," her face became serious, her eyes squinting a bit.

"It's fine Kate, I was just a kid," he said quickly. "You were right, it wasn't fair and I'm sorry. Let's enjoy this time, we don't have to go back." It killed him to say it, but it was the right thing to do. She was entitled to her own life and her own choices. He had enjoyed his vacation from reality with her long enough.

"No, Parker, listen," she said, taking a deep breath. "You put it all out there that night. You opened your heart to me and I slammed the door." She took his hand in hers. "The truth of it is, I wanted you to say what you said. I had wanted to hear it forever, but I froze. My mind was spinning out of control. How do you break up with a guy on the moon? Was that even fair to him?"

Parker couldn't believe what she was saying. He wanted to interject, to say a million different things, but he worried if he did, he'd break the spell or wake up or something. He just sat there and looked her in the eyes when she spoke.