It has been a week since the accident and you are glad that Jay is recovering well. You are getting ready to testify at the congress. You are dreading this part because you may have a negative effect on the congressmen if you say something wrong. You hope that what you have to say will help save the Constellation Missions. You are thinking about Jay who will testify after you. Your thinking makes matters worse for you.
"Lilly are you ready yet?" The man himself interrupts. He is still a little wobbly on his feet but he is walking which is a good start.
"I'm ready, how about you?" Jay asks. You have to think about it.
"To ruin my career or save it? You respond. You are worried that you will get something wrong but you are glad that Jay is walking again. You start mentally preparing your notes. You are starting to be visibly stressed. Neil enters the room. You can tell he is happy with himself.
"Lilly are you alright?" he asks. You feel like you are reliving the day of the accident. You get the feeling that Jay will be ten times worse than you.
"Well, I will talk about it after we are done here," You respond. You really don't want to talk about it. Neil gives you an understanding nod. The person that escorted Neil back gestures for you. Here we go. You straighten up your blouse as you are led away. Two minutes later you are led to a booth that is in front of the congress members. You can feel their eyes bore into you.
"Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?" The man that led you asks.
"Yes," you respond. You are now under oath.
"Miss Collins, what was your job on the day of the accident?" Here come the questions.
"I was the commander of the backup crew of the mission and I was also one of two capsule communicators," You respond. You feel like the air is being sucked out of you. You hope it doesn't show.
"Do you have any doubts before the day of the accident?" That is something you never really thought of. You are unsure if they mean doubts about the systems or the crew. The only thing you had doubts about was the length of the mission.
"About the systems or the crew?" You ask to clarify. Hopefully, they do clarify for you.
"The systems," the congressman responds. At least he didn't say the crew. It will make it a lot easier for you.
"NASA should have considered using a new rocket or a less powerful rocket than the Delta four heavy but the capsule it's self, although one of the parachutes didn't work, it handled the abort well," You respond. An hour of painful questions later you are finished. You head back to the room you were in before. Neil is still there and Jay is sitting down while he waits.
"So how did you do?" Jay asks as you help him up.
"Well, I think I ruined my career," You respond playfully. You know it is better to use humour during these intense situations.
"Lilly I think I will treat you to something," Neil offers. You know he wants to get the stress off of you. You decide to take him up on his offer. Fifteen minutes later you have made it to a semi-formal restaurant. You start to look at the menu. You have made up your mind.
"Don't worry Lilly it will be alright," Neil gives you his full reassurance. You know he is right but you still dread the verdict.
"I know," You respond. Two minutes later you've ordered. You are thinking about why Neil sponsored you in the first place. You decide to change the topic because talking about the verdict is making the wait worse.
"You're thinking about why I sponsored you right?" Neil remarks as if he is reading your mind. You nod because you were convinced that if you were sponsored it would be your dad.
"It's because Mike asked me too because he was worried that It might look bad if he sponsored his own daughter now let's talk about something different," He responds. He gets you to change the topic because he doesn't want to talk about work. He confirms your feeling. You are glad he suggested a topic change. You can't think of anything to change the topic too.
"What was it like when you broke free of Earth's orbit on the way to the moon?" You decide to ask him about Apollo 11. It should do for a topic because it's not work-related.
"It was good but I didn't have long to think about it," He then goes on to explain the mission in great detail and you are glad because you get the feeling that the Constellation Mission will be similar. You are impressed that he is telling you all of the information because it's a subject he doesn't really talk about.
"So you're saying there was a chance that the design will let the pilot, not the commander leave first?" You have so many questions about the Apollo program. You will have to ask him the questions at another time. A minute later you get your food and you start eating. You didn't realise how hungry you were.
"Thank you for taking me here," You say as you take a bite. It is the day after the hearing and you are with the group who are awaiting the verdict. Even Neil is there. Danny walks into the room. You can tell that it is good news. He has cheered up from the last time he had to make an announcement.
"Ok everyone I have some good news," Danny announces. Everyone turns their heads to Danny.
"Since we are working with the ESA they have agreed to human rate the Ariane five based on the Kennedy capsule specs," A ripple of excited mumbles flow through the crowd. He managed to use your suggestion of asking the ESA to human rate one of their rockets.
"So how are we going to do this?" Kelsey asks. You can tell he is thrilled with the verdict.
"Kelsey, Jones as ESA astronauts, I want you to follow the progress of getting the Ariane five human-rated," Danny starts the process of pulling everything together. At least this part of your career isn't ruined. Ten minutes later the full briefing has finished. You are talking to Neil to get his opinion of the verdict.
"What do you think of the situation Neil?" you ask. You are glad that things are somewhat on track now.
"It's good that there is a workaround," He responds. At least Neil is on board. Kelsey strolls up to you.
"So Kelsey how does it feel to play an important part of the mission?"
"What do you mean it's made my work harder," Kelsey complains. You can tell he is just trying to use humour. It doesn't work. At least the suggestion of getting ESA to human rate one of their spacecraft was chosen. It shouldn't take long for the Kennedy missions to get back on track for good.
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...
