Origin & Earth (The Orris Project Book 1), page 33
“I think there are a lot of eyes out there also liking the fact that you like the night air on your skin,” he said.
She shrugged and smiled, “I doubt it, but I also don’t care.” Garrett looked at the clock. “Why? Don’t look at that. Let’s stay here for a while. We don’t have to be anywhere tomorrow.” She slid off the windowsill and down to the carpet in front of it and pulled him down next to her. “Just enjoy the air, the breeze. You’re going to miss it.”
Garrett did enjoy it. She was right. Feeling her pressed against him with both of their backs to the open air also felt good.
6
During the next week and before Joe Burkman’s launch, Lauren and Garrett spent three evenings with his parents for dinner, and the last weekend with Brenia, Rodney, and the baby. Lauren’s moods did not improve, but she and Garrett dealt with them quietly.
The morning of Joe’s launch, Lauren felt sick and said she did not want to go. Garrett asked her to put her final decision off to the afternoon. She agreed, and when the afternoon had come, she announced she was better and willing to accompany him.
They arrived at the facility for the last time, such that they would also leave together, and made their way down to Joe’s departure gathering. During the drive there, and even after they had arrived, all life appeared drained from Lauren’s face. She was a statue. She stood and stared into the distance, not wanting to participate. As time with Joe grew short, Garrett asked her to say goodbye to him. Her stone face broke. She looked up at him, nodded, and walked over to Joe, placed her hands on either side of his head, and kissed him on the mouth. When she released him from her grip, she said into his surprised face, “Godspeed, Joe. We will miss you.” Joe shot Garrett a look that said, What the hell? Garrett closed his eyes and shook his head.
In the observation pavilion, Lauren had returned to her statue form and Garrett watched as Joe’s father scuttled through the crowd with his camera held high. Only a few minutes after that, Joe was gone, and Garrett was on deck.
7
The last days leading up to Garrett’s launch were painful. Lauren cried a lot. The reality gripped him, and he often questioned his decision. The day before he left, he ate a large lunch. Protocol dictated that he could not eat twenty-four hours before administering the Sterilex, which he had estimated would be about 16:30 the next day. He ate slowly, knowing that his next meal would not be for about a hundred and fifty years.
For the same reason, Garrett skipped dinner. In its place, he drank two quarts of water over a four-hour period. Lauren had been in their room, crying. He visited her several times, lying next to her on the bed and holding her. She turned and kissed him on his third visit.
“This is our last night together, Laur. Do you want to spend it like this?” Garrett asked. She shook her head and stood up. Holding hands, they exited to the living room. Garrett sat on the couch and Lauren pushed him over to lie on his chest. He stroked her hair.
“Are you scared?” she asked.
“Yes. But less so now that I have seen the other guys do it. It seems pretty routine at this point.”
Lauren laughed. “Routine? I couldn’t imagine doing something like that. Just getting off the ground… strapped to a bomb? No thanks.”
“It’s not a bomb. Our trainers told us the acceleration training was worse than the actual launch, anyway. I guess I’ll find out if that’s true soon enough.”
“Do you think you’ll miss me when you wake up?” She had a standing tear in her eye, but she was not crying.
“Of course! I’m leaving tomorrow, but when I wake up it will be as though no time had passed. For me, I’ll wake up tomorrow night, but it will be a hundred and fifty years from now. I’ll have every memory and emotion that I had in the moment I went under.” She hugged him tightly.
They laid that way, talking and enjoying each other’s embrace for another hour. Garrett finished the last of his water and they both went to bed.
8
It surprised Garrett and Lauren both that, although it was not a perfect night, they both slept a good deal leading up to the life-changing morning. Garrett had showered upon waking, dressed in his OPM issued launch clothing, and went into the living room to go through his stretching routine while Lauren was getting ready. When she emerged from the bedroom, he handed her his ring. She removed a simple chain necklace and threaded it through his wedding band and rehung it around her neck. The couple hugged for what would have been an unusually long time under normal circumstances.
They left early and arrived early, as Garrett had planned. When they walked through the front doors, Dr. Murray and Dr. Paige were standing in the center of the lobby, talking. Dr. Murray looked up at the two entering and extended a hand to Garrett.
“Glad to see you, Garrett.” The men shook hands and Alex turned his attention to Lauren. “Dr. Rhodes.” Lauren smiled, few people called her by her proper, legal name and title. Most people did not know she was a doctor, and even fewer still knew that she had married Garrett. It had been a hell of a road from Ms. Astor to Dr. Rhodes. Christine approached her and kissed her cheek.
“Good morning, sweetie.” She stepped back and hugged Garrett. She whispered to him, “Hard day, Gar. A really hard day.” When she stepped back from him, he nodded. Dr. Paige returned her attention to Lauren. “How do you want to do this? Do you want to stay with us? Or, if you like, I can probably find you a vacant office with a couch if you want to take a nap while he gets ready.” Lauren shook her head. “No, I want to be with him for every minute I can be.” Dr. Paige smiled and nodded. “I thought that would be your answer. Ok, everyone. Let’s go downstairs. We’re early, but Arthur is already here and waiting for you.” She walked away from them, and they all followed. Down the long staircase again, Christine pushed open a large door immediately at the bottom and they all followed her into a corridor that must have run beneath the pavilion. Another right, and they entered a room that had the door propped open. Arthur sat on a stool opposite an empty one in front of a large metal table pushed against the back wall of the tiny room.
“Garrett, excellent.” Arthur stood and shook his hand. He smiled at Lauren and said, “Good morning, Dr. Astor.” She smiled as Alex leaned in.
“Rhodes. It’s Dr. Rhodes now,” Alex said. Arthur looked back and forth between Garrett and Lauren.
“Oh! Well, that’s wonderful. And a little heartbreaking.” Lauren shrugged and smiled again. He held a hand out to show Garrett he should sit on the stool opposite his, and he picked up a gray canvas satchel that sat on the table next to him. “Garrett, this satchel contains your life. So, don’t lose it.” The two men sat, and Arthur emptied the contents first into his hand and then spread them out onto the table. Christine, Lauren, and Alex all chatted while Arthur went through the contents of the satchel in great detail with Garrett. After they had concluded, Arthur reloaded the satchel and hung it around Garrett’s neck. They exited the small office and progressed to the next room over, which was much larger and much brighter.
When they arrived, Christine stood outside the door and gestured for them to enter. She said, “We will wait out here for this one. You’ll understand in a minute.” Confused, Lauren followed Garrett into a room that had one young man in it wearing pale blue scrubs and writing on a clipboard.
“You’re the envoy?” the young man asked. Garrett nodded. He looked back at the clipboard. “Garrett Rhodes?” Garrett nodded again.
“Excellent, my name is Dennis. I will get you prepared to jump time.” He walked over to the windowless door, swung it shut, and bolted it. “Take off your clothing, lay it there.” He gestured with his pen to a single chair in the front corner of the room. “Is this your wife?”
“Yes, it is. Do I take off everything?” Dennis nodded, not looking up from his clipboard.
“Every stitch,” he said. Garrett undressed, and Lauren realized why Alex and Christine had stayed outside the room. With Garrett standing as naked as the day he was born, Dennis said, “This is a little unpleasant, but once you’re in your suit, you won’t even notice it. Now, when you’re out there, do this last. If you put it on too early before you take the Sterilex, it could kill you. An hour at the most is fine, but not four or five. Do you understand me?” Garrett looked confused.
“Not really. It will be at least two hours before I go under this time,” he said.
Dennis nodded. “This time your suit will monitor your body temperature and adjust as necessary. In the field, you won’t have that luxury.” Garrett nodded. “Feet apart, arms out.” Dennis demonstrated the pose he was looking for. Garrett assumed the pose, and Lauren watched as Dennis put on rubber gloves and then smeared a sticky, clear gel all over Garrett’s body. Every square millimeter, including in his ears, nose, and other parts not mentioned in polite company. When he finished the application, he said, “You can wipe your eyes, but not too much. Just wait for it to dry. You can get dressed.” Garrett wiped his eyes and squinted as he walked to the chair containing his uniform.
The next room was similar to the one with Arthur, and Jack Abbott was there with a large backpack. Much like Arthur, he emptied the bag and reviewed all the items with Garrett. Lauren noticed while they were reviewing its contents that Garrett seemed to be getting more comfortable with the process he had just undergone, as he was no longer squinting and looked more at ease. After the review, Garrett slung the bag over one shoulder, and Alex said, “Okay, let’s get you suited up!”
For the next stop, they walked through a series of corridors in multiple directions until Lauren and Garrett alike lost any sense of their absolute location in the facility. The group walked into a room with rows of monitors and a team of two men and a woman charged with outfitting him for the flight. They first pulled up Garrett’s shirt and applied several sensors to his chest and abdomen. They assisted him as he stepped into his flight suit. With the suit secured, they added his gloves, then showed him how to fix his helmet in place before removing it and handing it to him. The three of them nodded with smiles on their faces, and the group then walked through a set of solid double doors that led to the patio.
Garrett’s parents were already there, as well as Breni, Rod, and baby Rodney. Lauren’s sister, Denise, was there with her husband and their three children. Lauren had always found it comical that all of their children had bright blonde hair while their parents both had dark brown. Arthur and Jack were there, and Ben Estes. Lauren watched Garrett counting the people he recognized when Olive came through the glass doors with Terry Stone in tow.
They all took turns shaking hands, hugging, kissing, offering well wishes and calls for good luck. Garrett navigated through each person until Lauren finally seized his hand as she had been keeping track. She looked up at the flight display and was disappointed to find only minutes remaining before he would have to board the craft. She locked her arms around his waist, and Garrett dipped his head so they could whisper to each other. They did just that for several minutes. The rest of the group looked at them and felt some of the emotion that must have been occupying that small space between the couple’s lips and ears.
Dr. Murray looked at the countdown timer and knew he had to break it up. He approached them with some extra time and put a hand on each of their shoulders.
“It’s time,” he said, and Lauren broke into a sob.
“Remember what I said,” Garrett told her. She sniffled and nodded, trying to repress the tears. He kissed her temple, her forehead, and finally, her lips. He let go of her and stepped back. She unlocked her clasped hands and as he moved away, let her hands slide down his arms until they disappeared into his gloves. “I’ll love you forever, nerd, I’ll love you until the end of time.”
She had stifled most of her tears and said, “It better be longer than that, slouch!” They both laughed the short laugh that one can manage during emotional times. Garrett let go of her hands and turned toward the gate. Once through, he blew her a kiss.
9
Garrett arrived at the transport and the four members of the launch team greeted him. One man took the bag off his shoulder and stowed it under the operator’s seat, swung a panel up, and latched it. The four worked as a team in assisting him up and into the craft. Once seated, they strapped him into place and showed him the two release levers to undo all the restraints. The only woman on the team stepped up so she was half-inside the craft with Garrett, took his Sterilex satchel out of his hand, and stowed it in a small compartment.
“Do you need help with your helmet?” she asked. Garrett shook his head. “Okay, but put it on as soon as we lock the doors; the air is already on.” Garrett nodded, and she stepped down.
“Godspeed, Envoy,” one of them said, and waved. They all repeated the farewell, closed the large transparent door of the transport, and went through the external locking procedure. With the last step complete, they all stepped back, waving, then turned and walked back to the command center. Garrett put the helmet on his head and locked it in place. Only the back of the helmet was opaque, and he found he could swing his head left to right with a full view, only losing his peripheral vision at the extremes. The touch-panel of the transport exactly mimicked the simulators he had been in, and Garrett scrolled through the different screens and found them all where they should be. He settled on the launch screen and noted there were only eight minutes left. He looked out the right side of the craft at the observation pavilion and saw his family gathered on the private deck. Lauren stood at the railing, with her hands nervously rubbing at her belly. It was at that moment when Garrett first suspected she was pregnant with their child. He put a gloved index finger up to the clear surface of his face shield and pretended to kiss it through the space. He did the same thing with his other index finger, and then pressed the tips of both to the glass, both pointing toward her. She smiled but started sobbing. Seconds later, she was visibly working to get herself under control.
At the six-minute mark, a voice simultaneously crashed into the pavilion and Garrett’s helmet alike. “Good afternoon, folks, this is Commander Mark Harris, and I’m the command supervisor for this flight. As always, we have this channel for the exclusive use of the command center and its various department heads, but also linked up to the pavilion speaker system so our observers can be closer to the action.” Garrett’s family were talking amongst themselves, but Lauren’s eyes were fixated on him. The launch was imminent, and he knew he would have to drop his gaze from her soon. “Today’s launch is the eighth such launch we’ve had for the OPM Migration Division. It is an interstellar flex-transport bound for the planet Distria, at a distance of 39 parsecs, or about 127 light-years. Our operator today is Envoy Garrett Rhodes, who will begin his journey to secure five alien civilizations to join us in our effort with the Orris Project. At this time, we will begin our system checks.” The voice crackled out for only a few seconds. Garrett tore his gaze away from Lauren and stared down at the launch screen, illuminated with the system checklist.
“Rail maintenance.” The voice roared back to life.
A softer voice answered it, but still loud coming over the pavilion speaker, “Rail maintenance is ready.”
“Power.”
“Power system is ready, sir.”
“Navigation.”
“Navigation confirmed, ready.”
“Chemical propulsion.”
“Chem prop is ready, sir.”
“Engineering.”
“Engineering is ready, sir.”
“Flex drive.”
“Ah, yes sir, the flex drive is confirmed, ready.”
“Nuclear.”
“Nuclear is ready.”
“Systems.”
“Systems check complete. Confirmed ready, sir.”
“Operator.” Lauren’s heart sank. It would be one of the last times she ever heard his voice.
“Operator is ready, sir,” Garrett responded.
“Power on…” The high-pitched whining started faintly and got louder and louder before settling into a painfully loud, vibrating buzz.
“Power? Confirm, please.”
“Full power confirmed.”
“Track clearance.”
“Track is clear, sir.”
“Launch window.”
“Window is clear, sir.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have confirmed this launch. Note the countdown on your overhead displays, and thank you for visiting the Dinesta Control Center today.” The voice crackled out.
Garrett looked down at the timer to see only seventeen seconds left. He looked back up at Lauren; her gaze had never left him. He placed his right hand on the transparent door and stared at her. A moment later, he could read the lips of the crowd as they chanted 10, 9, 8, 7… The whole craft lifted eight or ten inches and rocked back and forth. As the crowd chanted 3, then 2, he gripped his harness with both of his gloved hands as they had instructed him to do and forced himself to look away from her, straight ahead. The banging sound was so violent that the whole craft shook for the first few cycles, but Garrett did not notice. His attention was focused on the weight of his torso being crushed into the soft back of the operator seat. The landscape first moved by, and in the next instant it rushed by; an instant after that, it flashed by and had become a blur. He expected to see the craft turn up toward the sky, but it seemed more like the planet fell away from him. As he raced toward the bright baby blue of the sky, he noted that he could not see the end of the track. He next heard a rapid snapping sound, like a fuse-less circuit shorting to ground, and the solid rockets lit. He thought the initial acceleration had pressed him hard into the seatback, but he was wrong. When the rockets lit, he could feel himself sink even deeper into it, and he was uncomfortable for the first time. He never witnessed the track ending, but only a moment after the rockets flared up, the sky’s baby blue faded to an oily black. As his eyes adjusted, the stars became sharp and pronounced. He was in space.
