A Step Beyond Read Online Free Page B

He was not concerned about himself; he had accepted his death. He knew there was nothing he could do to prevent it. Nor was he overly concerned about her. She was a strong woman. She would marry again and probably sooner than either one of them would feel comfortable predicting. But she had a way of stirring his emotions in unpredictable ways. He felt that all he had worked for, his high hopes of a grand and historic contribution, would now end in an unavoidable setback to the program. He thought of his children and wondered how they would handle his death. His son possessed an understanding of death, and this troubled Titov greatly because he knew his son would suffer. But he also knew that in a few years his youngest child wouldn’t even remember him. And that pained Titov even more. He opened his eyes. To his surprise, he saw tiny droplets of water floating before him. Titov had never seen tears in zero gravity before. They looked tranquil and pure.
    With a swift swipe of his hand the tears broke into a thousand smaller tears and scattered across the room. It would not do for his men to see him like this.

The Brick Moon
    Four years later . . .
    M ission specialist Dr. Carl Endicott, the Canadian member of the American-led crew, twisted his face into an exaggerated grimace as he brought up the day’s menu on the high-definition screen along the galley wall. Thermostabilized, irradiated corned beef with rehydratable asparagus, two slices of irradiated, natural-form bread, intermediate moisture-dried peaches, powdered lemonade, and peanuts. Endicott, who enjoyed fine cuisine, found his appetite considerably diminished. The dehydrated food they served on the International Space Station
Unity
was a far cry from the thin slices of chateaubriand with béarnaise that had been his last, now deeply savored, meal on Earth.
    He pulled six trays from a lower cabinet and attached them vertically to the magnetic strips on the doors of the galley. He opened the drawer marked DAY 1 MEAL A THRU DAY 5 MEAL C . Tightly packed side by side and arranged by day, each meal was wrapped in a prunelike plastic bag. He selected the bag marked DAY 3 MEAL B . It was not much larger than a book, but it contained enough food for six astronauts. Examining the bag, he sighed. The rehydratable food expanded and slowly assumed a more reasonable size as he injected water into the individual packages. He turned on the small oven and placed the plastic bags and aluminum pouches inside.
    Lieutenant Colonel Al Carter propelled himself from the far wall and floated eagerly toward Endicott. He was amused by the doctor’s dislike of space food, and goaded him by sniffing the air suspiciously.
    “I believe it is the rehydratable asparagus that you detect,” Endicott said. He considered Carter’s behavior childish, but he kept that thought to himself, for he knew that he would have to spend the next two years in close quarters with Carter, and it was best that they got along. With his thin lips pressed tightly together, he returned his attention to the preparation of the food.
    Al Carter was the pilot for the American-led team. He had taken the experimental X-51 on its first flight into space six years earlier, an accomplishment that would almost certainly guarantee him a place in aviation history alongside Yeager. He had been president of his class at the Air Force Academy and had graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering. He understood the complex propulsion systems that powered the crafts he flew better than most auto mechanics understood a simple four-cylinder engine.
    But he did not fit the clean-cut image NASA liked to project. He was known for his reckless behavior, and though such behavior was not unusual for test pilots, Carter was more reckless than most. One antic had nearly gotten him fired. Late at night, after he had drunk a few at the local bar, he would take his car, a black Porsche, and head for the nearest highway. He would don a pair