Chapter 6• Arrival
*Still Day 2 of Origenes Crisis*
Kingsley clued me in on what would be waiting for me once we got onto the plane.
"NASA already had some prospects on-wait for a mission like this one, in fact, the rocket you'll be studying soon was already in development. Now all the engineers have to do is kick it into high gear- so to speak."
My heart did something peculiar when Kingsley once again implied that I would be the first to fly in a particular NASA rocket.
He went on, "I'm really impressed that you read through all that so fast, I was saving mine for the flight. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You'll be all trained and ready by 'Day 13' of this…. mess. But they'll cover all of this once you get to the orientation tomorrow- at least that's what we're calling it."
Kingsley went on to ask me a bunch of questions about specific PAW Patrol rescues, I could tell he was actually paying attention to whatever Ryder had told him. That was comforting.
Since I was a government employee now (Federal Government I should say) I was given every possible accommodation that could exist on a 2-hour flight.
Memory foam pillows for every conceivable part of the body, a three-page menu of made-to-order food (and a separate one for desserts), any movie you could possibly imagine, $600 noise-cancelling headphones, heated blankets, you name it.
Aside from eating, I really didn't want to do anything except ask the pilot to turn the plane around and take me home.
I didn't much care for unexpected relocations.
In time, Kingsley bid me farewell and retired to his sleeping compartment shortly after we reached cruising altitude. This allowed me some alone time with my thoughts.
From what I had read, NASA administrators had held a long-standing suspicion that the Origenes telescope was fuel-heavy, with the more volatile stuff facing towards the Earth to be fired in case of a dire emergency. Unfortunately, it worked too well. NASA couldn't have predicted that they would lose control shortly after the emergency boosters fired.
It made sense to me, since the telescope would not only be entirely destroyed if it encountered Earth's atmosphere- as it doesn't have any sort of heat-shield- but the destruction that could have occurred if the telescope broke into pieces (hypothetically) was too risky for anyone to take a chance on. Better safe than sorry.
Apparently, there would be a specially selected cohort of nine astronaut dogs- abbreviated as 'astros'. These nine were to be split up into three groups of three- each of these three labeled as PC, BC, and RC, none of which I recognized.
So, I guess that means these rockets run on crews of three pups, I thought.
I turned the page and got my answer.
Between expansive paragraphs lay the only illustration of the entire packet, which was an extremely crude diagram of a rocket model. The model was old but was obviously meant to be a reference for how our current vehicle would operate without giving out any information regarding classified technology.
These rockets were much like a Saturn V rocket, which took astronauts to the moon and back from the late 1960's to early 1970's. These rockets had three stages in total.
They would ideally split into two vehicles once in lunar orbit, a lunar landing module (LM) and a command and service module (CSM). One astronaut would stay and orbit around the moon for as long as necessary while another would ensure the lunar module descended to the surface safely after a descent burn maneuver.
The way things stood, the third would be left with the final job of exiting the lunar module and fixing the telescope.
As if it were just that easy.
The training requirements, I decided, were the last things I would check before putting the papers aside to sit and process.
After the orientation, which began at 6:00am the next day, commenced a rigorous training regimen over the stretch of ten days. There would be daily schematic pop tests to identify technology familiarity, physical conditioning, zero gravity simulations, vehicular simulations and practice flights, g force endurance exercises, general piloting drills, underwater extravehicular activity simulations, and sensory deprivation.
This sounded insane to me, but I was still aware that there was a possibility that the telescope would crash into the moon and be unsalvageable by the time I had even finished the first thing on that list.
Sad, I know.
I sighed and put the papers down. I looked out of the plane window and watched the sun slowly set.
I actually managed to fall asleep for a while, but the plane hitting the runway woke me up.
By the time the wheels stopped, a NASA car was right outside, ready to take me to the hotel. It was a little disorienting, stepping off of a plane to the gazes of about twenty NASA officials. Some smiled, some didn't. But I couldn't help but feel relieved that I wouldn't be walking around like an idiot not knowing what to do with myself.
I followed the pathway of people to the car door, already opened for me.
Cape Kennedy, which was legendary for its space-travel history, would be my new home for a while.
It didn't look like much at night, but I was honored just to be close to it.
The hotel wasn't far away from whatever runway we'd landed at. Before we parted ways, Kingsley assured me that he'd see me soon and handed me another folder. This one had specific instructions as to when I could open it. I would be receiving a wake-up call at 5:30am and have time to ready myself, eat breakfast, and take a look before a car would take me to the suspicious-sounding "Building III" that the first documents had mentioned.
Kingsley bid me farewell and added, "enjoy tonight- you'll be transferred to the astronaut quarters on campus tomorrow."
I nodded.
I walked past a mountain of complimentary toiletries and goodies set beside my bed and fell into the sheets. I wasn't allowed to connect to any wireless networks, since this was a classified government thing. Which meant the one thing I wanted to do, call Ryder and the pups, was off limits. I once again fell into a dreamless sleep. Everything had moved so fast, I couldn't even keep track of how many hours had gone by. As my eyes closed, I found only one thought in my head.
Don't make a fool of yourself tomorrow Rocky, you'll be sitting with actual astronauts.
***End of Chapter 6***