Page 5 of Starlight & Dark Nights

“Hmm?” Derek is straightening his own tie now. “What is?”

“You know, a woman raising three kids, writing stories like she does.” Maxine walks back over to one of the open boxes and bends awkwardly at the waist, digging through it as she looks for the star that goes atop the tree. “Most of us just make dinner and raise the kids, but Jo really does it all. And can you believe she named one of her characters Maxine?”

Derek walks up behind his wife, putting his hands on her behind; she straightens up in a hurry, laughing in surprise. “Derek!” she shouts, looking at Wendy as she pulls herself up onto the couch with her Night-night tucked in next to her.

“Oh, all she knows is that her father is making her mother laugh,” Derek says as he leans forward and puts his lips to his wife’s ear. “And as for naming a character Maxine, why wouldn’t she? Only pretty girls are called Maxine.”

Derek smiles as his wife blushes and turns her face into his neck.

“I’ll miss you today,” she whispers. “You smell nice.”

It’s Derek’s turn to laugh. “Does the way I smell have an impact on how much you miss me?”

Maxine stands up on her toes and kisses him fully on the lips. “No, it’s just a nice bonus.”

Derek accepts one more kiss from his wife, picks up Wendy for one last cuddle, and then sets her back down on the couch.

He revs the engine of his white Corvette in the driveway just for good measure and then pulls out onto the street just as Vance Majors opens up his own garage next door. The men exchange a quick wave, and then Derek steps on the gas.

He’s got a mission to lead.

* * *

The day is full of anticipation. Derek drinks too much coffee, listens to everyone intently, and tries to keep his head in the game. He is hyper-focused, but also exhausted from lack of sleep. Still, he will not get a second chance to make a good first impression on Arvin North and the bigwigs at NASA, and he wants this to go well.

It has to go well.

“Trager,” Bill Booker says. It’s late afternoon, and the men are in the preparations area where they suit up for missions. They’ve done a dry dress rehearsal, they’ve gone through all the procedures. They are as ready as they possibly can be for this first space orbital mission.

“Booker,” Derek says in return. Both men put their hands on their hips and face one another. It’s like looking in a mirror.

Bill had been a lieutenant colonel in his previous life, as had Derek. They both wear their hair short, neat, close to the scalp. At about six feet tall, they are both among the tallest of the astronauts, and their personalities are even similar. When Arvin North had taken Bill from the position as lead astronaut and subbed in Derek instead, the switch had made perfect sense.

“Talk to you for a second?” Bill asks, his brow furrowed.

Derek follows him across the high-ceilinged, cement floored space, and they find a quiet corner to talk.

“I have some concerns,” Bill says, running a hand over his face as he talks. His eyes shift around the large room, taking in the astronauts and engineers as they bustle around under the fluorescent lights high above.

Derek feels the bubble in his chest start to deflate; of course Bill Booker has some concerns. Why wouldn't he drum up some concern that might alter the course of this mission now that he's not sitting in the lead seat anymore?

"I'm listening," Derek says gruffly, folding his arms across his chest. In the way that humans tend to mirror one another, Bill does the same.

"Listen, you're not going to like what I'm saying here, but I think it's important."

Derek continues to stare at Bill with a firm look. "Okay."

"There's an issue with the bolts on the door. I don't like the way the latch sticks, and I think if there were any sort of hazardous leak or anything happening inside the capsule, the bolt could be a serious detriment. I'd like to push for postponing and have it looked at."

Derek hears the words, and he understands the severity of the issue. But there's something bothering him about the way that Booker has left this concern for the day of the mission. Couldn't he have brought this up way sooner--even while he was still assigned to lead the mission? Why wait and dump this on someone else?

"We're not even leaving the atmosphere," Derek counters. "This is suborbital. We're testing for different things, and I highly doubt that we'll face anything that even compares to what we'd face once we hit 330,000 feet."

Bill lets his arms fall and he puts both hands in the air, waving them back and forth like an air traffic controller. "No, no, no. You misunderstand me, Derek. This isn't me trying to kill the mission because I'm envious. I can assure you of that.”

Derek lifts an eyebrow, but wisely stops it mid-arch and continues to listen.

"I'm not trying to throw a wrench in this because I think it should be me on that flight," Bill goes on. "But I won't be able to live with myself if I don't point out the questions and concerns that I have right now. Trager, I need you to hear me out."

---