Bright Horizons Read Online Free Page B

meetings
starting tomorrow for a more detailed look at their assignment.”
    Kyle
nodded as the Ambassador gathered his folder from the desk, smiled and left the
briefing room. After he had gone, Kyle looked over at the wall and the large
‘3’ that dominated one of the white boards.
    Three
days until launch.
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
    15 May 2042
     
    The low murmur slowly
faded to almost quiet as Kyle walked through the door. The rest of the Marines,
the Ambassador and the rest of his team were there and the NASA personnel were
following close behind him.
    Kyle
nodded and the Marines went back to their idle chatter.
    “Colonel,
looks like all personnel are here,” Lieutenant Colonel Howard “Cowboy” Jackson
said as he looked over the room.
    “Is
everyone suited up?” Cowboy asked in his booming voice.
    Greeted
with a round of “Yes sirs”, he nodded and went over to the walkway hatch.
    “Good.
Now we need to board and be ready for takeoff in ten minutes. I’ll check you on
and make sure we are secure. Any questions? Let’s board ladies and gentlemen,”
Cowboy said as he motioned to the walkway.
    Eight
minutes later they were all secure in their seats and Cowboy was securing
himself into the pilot’s seat.
    “Kennedy,
this is STS Fletcher, all personnel are secure and the ship is ready for go.
Over,” Cowboy said to the control tower.
    “Fletcher,
all is secure. Begin prelaunch.”
    Kyle took
a deep breath and tried to keep focus. All of his time in fighter jets, all of
his time on the STT, had still not prepared him for space travel. He couldn’t
help but think of Cindy and what she had told him of her first space flight. He
had been excited to hear about it, but that was based on the fact that he knew
he would never have to chance to go. 
    Now he
was nervous and a little overwhelmed by the feeling of riding what was
essentially a giant roman candle out of the safety of the atmosphere.
    He was
thinking about Cindy a lot today. It had been almost a year since the Endeavour
was lost. For fifteen years Cindy had been the Martin that everyone in the
family looked up to. Bill was an investment banker, and Kyle was a Marine, but
Cindy was an astronaut!
    She had
such a sense of normalcy about her job, but she worked in the last frontier.
That’s how Kyle saw his sister; a pioneer, striving to understand and tame a
new environment. And now she was gone and it was his turn to make history in
this dark and foreboding arena.
    He took a
deep breath and focused back on the discussion going on between Cowboy and the
tower.
    “Life-hib
system check a-ok, looks like we are go for launch Kennedy.”
    “Roger
Fletcher, countdown commencing. Launch in nine minutes.”
    Kyle
looked around, as best as he could, and saw Jennings doing the same. The two
Marines were with Cowboy and Major Nestor, his co-pilot, in the cockpit. The
rest of the mission’s crew were in the passenger compartments below.
    Cindy
always told him that it was a thrill to be in the cockpit because you could
watch space coming right at you. The engines kicked in and he felt, more than
heard, the rumble of the boosters as they lit up. He sat back and recited the
itinerary from launch to contact again.
    “T-minus
thirty seconds.”
    Broken
from his thoughts, Kyle instinctively checked his buckles to make sure they
were firm. He felt the hum of the main engines whine to full speed.
    “T-minus
ten seconds.”
    “Crew of
the Fletcher, we are past the terminal launch point. God speed to us all,”
Cowboy said over the intercom system.
    Kyle
found himself mouthing the countdown, just as all kids have since the 1960’s
and space launches were shown on television.
    “Liftoff
Fletcher, Good luck gentlemen.”
    The final
phrase was almost completely lost in the roar of the engines as Cowboy released
the clamps and started the ascent.
    Kyle was
shocked at how fast it really was. He had spent several years as a Marine
fighter pilot and knew how to handle a Mach