You are in the astronaut green room at Cape Canaveral with Pierre. You are listening to the communications on a squawk box as well as watching the launch on TV. You wish You could watch the launch outside but the rules are annoying that way. The only thing on the squawk box is the pre-flight chatter so you decide to turn the volume on to listen to the commentary. It is just talking about how the Kennedy missions will act as the bridge between STS missions and the constellation missions. It's a little boring.
"Pierre, what do you think of this?" You decide to ask Pierre his opinion because you feel like yours is too harsh on the commentators. You always feel like they dumb it down but not everyone understands rocket science like you do.
"The cinematography of the Delta four heavy is amazing but the commentary is dumbed down," He responds. He is feeling the same way you are. You understand that not everyone has insider knowledge of the project.
"Launch in T minus one minute," Danny announces. You can hear the announcement on the squawk box and on the TV. The tension in the room has reached its climax. You wish you were acting as the capsule communicator but that job has gone to one of the others.
"Good luck Jay," Pierre utters. You hope it all goes smoothly but something tells you it might not.
"Launch in t minus t ten...nine...eight...seven... six," The rocket comes to life as your eyes are glued to the TV which you have muted again.
"Five... four... three...two...one," You can see something is not right. Hopefully, Jess and Jay can fix it. Your hopes are smashed when you hear the master caution chime through the squawk box. Oh boy. You jump up because you are desperate to help. I
"Something has gone wrong," You announce as you leave to go to the mission control room. To your surprise, Pierre follows you. Thirty seconds later you have made it there to find it in a complete scramble. You notice the fact that one of the parachutes has failed. It's not going to be good.
"I need a rescue team dispatched immediately," Danny demands. He is a frazzled mess. It must be the worst feeling to see your project fail.
"Danny if there is anything Pierre and I can do let us know," You offer.
"Can you make sure the rescue team knows where to look," Danny responds. You and Pierre hit the maps. You are making sure that the trajectory of the capsule is mapped correctly. You snatch a pencil from one of the mission control staff. You start to scribble a line on the map.
"As you can see the abort tower took the capsule to the left so we should look towards the left," You take charge for Danny. You draw a quick circle around the area you should look at. A minute later you have got the search area sorted. You are getting ready to head out. You are in charge of one of the rescue teams and Pierre is in charge of the other. You are following the trail of debris. You hope you will find a promising sight. You see Pierre raise a green flag. He has found the capsule.
"The other team has found it," You call out to your team. A minute later your team has made it to the wrecked capsule. They are struggling to get the hatch open. Your heart sinks at the sight of the capsule.
"Let us help," Pierre demands. The rescuers gesture for you and Pierre. You join them on the capsule. You and Pierre get to work on opening the hatch. After a few seconds of fighting the hatch finally opens. You are shocked by the sight of battered bodies. You hope they are ok.
"Let's go," You respond. You don't want to see the sight any longer. Pierre nods. You both let the rescuers do their work. Three minutes later they have extracted the bodies. They give a thumbs up. They are alive, at least. It has been a day since the accident. Everyone has been gathered in the classroom. The air is riddled with tension. Danny enters with a sullen look on his face.
"Danny, what's wrong?" One of the cadets asks. He is asking because he didn't watch the accident play out.
"Yesterday there was an issue with the launch and Jay has been seriously hurt," Danny struggles to get the news out. His voice is quivering at the news. He is worried that it may follow in the footsteps of the space shuttle challenger but Jess and Jay were alive when they found him.
"Until the investigation is complete the Kennedy program has been suspended," You can tell that Danny is devastated. He gestures for the group to leave. Everyone but you leave. You have decided to see if you can make Danny feel better.
"Danny it will be alright," You decide to comfort him. He slumps down on his chair.
"I should have pushed harder for a new rocket," He muses. You wonder what he means by that.
"Maybe we could talk to ESA to see if we could human rate one of their spacecraft," Danny's face brightens at the suggestion.
"maybe," He responds. It's not a stretch for them to do. An hour later you are with the group who has gone to the local pub and You are thinking about the accident.
"Hey, Lilly don't worry," Pierre tries to reassure you. It doesn't work
"I know but it could have been us," You retort. You feel bad for everything that has happened in the past two days. You take a sip from your drink. One of the others passes you a get well card and a pen. You sign it with the most humorous message you can think of.
"Jones, do you mind if I deliver it?" You ask the person who came up with the idea.
"Go for it," He confirms. You can tell he is glad that someone else offered. It has been two days since the briefing. You are about to walk into the room but you hear Jay sigh.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," You remark as you enter.
"Who says I'm feeling sorry for myself?" He playfully retorts. At least he hasn't lost his sense of humour. You can't help the smile that has crept up on your face.
"Well read this," You pass him the envelope that contains the get well card. He rips it open and reads it. He lets out the tiniest of chuckles. At least the team knows how to get a good reaction from him.
"Can you tell me what happened between today and the day of the accident?" He asks. It's a good thing that there is not much to tell.
"Well the Kennedy missions have been suspended till Danny can figure out what went wrong and that's about it," you respond. You can tell that Jay has started to think about what went wrong. It clearly doesn't take long for him to think about it.
"I think the Delta heavy was too powerful for the capsule to handle," He concludes. You are surprised that he has come to a similar conclusion. You nod because you can't think of anything to say about his hypothesis. It also lines up with what Danny said after the announcement.
"How is Jess doing?"
"She only has cuts and bruises," You confirm. You will talk to Neil about Jay's theory later.
YOU ARE READING
Constellations
Fanfiction"I am so sorry Neil" "It will be alright Lily," he responds. Lily Collins yearned to follow in her father Micheal Collins' footsteps but there was one problem. She was stuck serving coffee to people at NASA. One fateful day she ends up spilling cof...
