Chapter Seven

Warner awoke alone in bed. The clock was blinking 12:00AM and the room was dark. His head swam slightly from the bourbon remnants. At first he wasn’t sure what had happened to him. Slowly, though, as consciousness tightened its grip, he remembered falling asleep holding Linda in his arms. He reached for her thinking she’d be curled up in the bed beside him, but he felt only emptiness.

The door to the veranda was open and the cool ocean breeze stirred the curtains gently. The moonlight lit the room just enough for him to find his watch after a bit of fumbling. He looked at it. It read 3:22 A.M. He had been asleep for about 4 hours.

He rose and walked over to the balcony door. Linda was not there. He looked in the bathroom, but it was likewise empty. He turned on the bedside light and began gathering up his clothes which were strewn about the room. Looking at the bedside table, he found a note from Linda written on the Inn’s stationary.

Warner,

I wanted to stay here with you all night. I left to finalize the plans for your trip to the space station. I don’t think I can bear to watch you off … it was hard enough for me to leave here tonight watching you sleep. When you awake and find me gone, please forgive me.

At 06:00 in the morning there will be a shuttle waiting for you in the hangar. I will never forget these moments we’ve shared, Warner. You will always be my love.

Linda

He folded the note and slipped it into the inside pocket of his jacket. He went into the bathroom and washed his face. Through the drops of water he stared deeply into his own eyes in the mirror. They looked haggard – like someone else’s. The job was taking its toll on him and he knew it. His brain kept returning to Linda and a picture in his mind’s eye of a life with her away from the Agency and the stress of his work. He shook his head.

He grabbed the hand towel and dried his face. He tossed it on the unmade bed and quickly made his way down the long hallway and stairs, and out the door of the restaurant.

He walked down the boardwalk and up two blocks to the main thoroughfare. Even at this early hour it was fairly quick work hailing a cab.

He arrived at the Agency Headquarters at 05:40. He half-expected to see Linda there, despite her note, but did not find her. He went in to suit up for launch to the space station and found a video message card in his personals. He placed it on the counter and pressed the ‘activate video message button’ which was blinking.

A hologram of Linda dressed in her business attire came to life.

”Warner, your shuttle will leave at 06:00 for the launch site. I have arranged a separate shuttle for Gray who will rendezvous with you on the space station. I had intended for the two of you to ride together but he has apparently been detained.”

He thought he detected a strange tone in her voice when she mentioned Gray. He only thought about it for a second, though, because he had to finish gearing up for his space jaunt.

After compiling the same list of gear for the trip as he had done a week before, he made his way down the gangway to the shuttle landing at approximately 05:55 and found a shuttle waiting. He climbed inside, securing his pack and himself in the seat. This time out there was no friendly face at the controls. Only the cold voice of a recruit who probably did not even know who Scoffield was, or what had happened to the three of them.

“Passenger secured?” The voice inquired mechanically.

Warner flipped the intercom switch and replied, “Passenger secured.”

The shuttle engine began to whir as the door slid closed. Within seconds the shuttle was racing down the tracks to the launch site. As the lights flew past the window his mind wandered back to Linda. He wished she had shown up to see him off. Even though they kept conversation to almost nothing at work, he still wished he could have looked into her eyes before boarding the shuttle.

They reached the launch site without incident. A bell sounded and the door slid open. Warner freed himself and his gear making his way out to the landing.

A long gangway led from the shuttle landing to an access door on the command module in which he would be riding to the space station. The command module was nothing more that a 5 man craft with several small ion boosters and a small cockpit. It was attached to a military aircraft much like a cargo jet, which would take them to the upper atmosphere and let them go. The booster rockets would then fire and carry them the short distance to the space station docking bay.

Warner climbed aboard and fasted himself into the seat. The two pilots climbed aboard and fastened themselves in as well.

After several pre-flight procedure checks and much radio chatter with the ground control group concerning preflight checklists, the massive aircraft engines roared to life. Although Warner had been launched into space numerous times, and in fact had visited the space station several of those times, he nonetheless found space travel unnerving.

* * *

The aircraft taxied out and began heading down the runway. Warner looked out the large windows at the earth as the craft picked up speed. The front began to pull up as the back dipped, and Warner got an uneasy feeling in his gut as they left the earth. It would take only a few minutes to climb to the altitude at which they would disconnect and begin their short trip through space.

Warner thought about Gray. What could have detained him? It wasn’t like him to miss anything mission related because of his personal life. He had no real life that Warner knew of, outside of the Agency of course. How could he? This was the longest the partners had gone without speaking since they had been assigned.

The aircraft pilot’s voice came over the command module’s intercom.

“Two minutes to separation. Pre-flight check enabled,” said the voice.

One of the pilots in the module with Warner flipped a couple of switches and stared intensely at a monitor in front of him. He was going through a checklist with the other pilot and murmuring things that made no sense to Warner.

“Thirty seconds to separation,” chimed in the voice again.

Warner reached for the note that Linda had left him at the Inn. He had put it in the sleeve pocket of his flight suit. He read her words again and thought of her soft skin… her fragrant hair… the nape of her neck. He was lost in her, hearing, but not really listening to the chattering of the pilots in front of him.

Just then, with a loud metallic screech, the craft disengaged itself from the aircraft. G-forces ripped at Warner’s insides as he struggled to breathe through the weight that now pressed against his chest. The command module began its freefall which lasted several seconds until the rockets kicked in and straightened their flight path. Warner’s stomach was in his throat when the rockets finally smoothed their descent. The pilots righted the craft’s path as it began to disappear out of Earth’s orbit rapidly. The planet began to take on a beautiful blue hue as it became visibly smaller through the windows.

Entering space always gave Warner a lonely feeling which was only accentuated now by the fact that Gray was still on Earth. He wondered again what could have detained his partner from joining him. He thought again about the strange tone and slight pause he noticed in Linda’s speech when she said that he would be joining him on the station.

Something is amiss here, his mind told him. It’s not like Gray to be unavailable at the start of a mission.

Warner could now see the expansive bulk of the space station coming into view. It looked rather like an enormous industrial complex or chemical factory with several dozen windmill blades each a ½ mile or so in length on each side that rotated irregularly with respect to one another.

He could hear the pilots making flight adjustments in what seemed an unfamiliar language to Warner as they approached the docking station. The dock was a small area toward the aft end of the station and was completely indiscernible from the rest of the complex mass of twisted metal works. As they approached the station, the large exterior door to the docking area slowly opened and inside Warner could begin to make out small figures in space suits working in the hangar. Several shuttle craft like the one they were currently in could be seen therein docked.

“Implementing docking bay landing procedure,” he heard one of the pilots say.

A low whining sound came from the rear of their craft as it made an about face and began to float toward the open door backward. A subtle vibration began to emanate through the craft slowly increasing in intensity and coming up through the seat making Warner’s teeth chatter and nose tickle.

Several more statements were uttered between the pilots, the meaning of which Warner did not know, and the craft maneuvered itself still facing backward just in front of the bay door and stopped abruptly as it was caught by the magnetic field protecting the landing bay from the vacuum of space.

“Piercing magnetic field in 10, 9, 8 …” the pilot began counting down.

Just as he reached one, the craft began to slide backward through the field as a large hydraulic clamp came down from the ceiling of the hangar. The craft entered the hangar just as the hands on the clamp fastened around a large hook on the top of the craft.

“Docking by entry procedure complete. Welcome aboard gentlemen,” said a cheerful voice over the ship intercom.

The craft was lifted by the hydraulic arm across the hangar to an empty cargo bay between two like craft. The command module came to rest with a dull metallic ‘clunk’ as the claw opened, releasing their craft, and was retracted back up to the ceiling of the hangar with the loud hydraulic whine. The door slipped open as Warner disconnected his safety harnesses and gathered his belongings.

Two members of the dock crew dressed in orange jumpsuits came over to help the men out of the craft. They led the way up the gangway as Warner fell into place third in the procession, with the two pilots following him.

“It’s good to have you here, Agent Warner. It’s been a long time,” said the closer of the two dock personnel turning around and extending his hand.

Warner shook his hand but was unsure.

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember…” said Warner, still shaking the young man’s hand.

“Johnson, sir, Reed Johnson. I was a cadet on deployment up here last time you came. You gave me your copy of ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, remember?” He was eager for Warner to remember.

“Of course, Agent Johnson. Good to see you again.”

Warner vaguely remembered him as nothing more than a boy the last time he’d come. He’d just finished reading ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ and gave it away to the boy having read it a half dozen times already.

“Sir, it’s really great to have you aboard. Thanks for giving me that book. I really enjoyed reading it. Say, if you’re not too busy later, perhaps you wouldn’t mind meeting in the mess hall for some coffee. I’d love to hear your take on the book,” said the young agent. His eyes lit up when he talked to Warner like a child looking at a puppy.

“If time permits, Johnson that would be fine,” answered Warner, with mock enthusiasm.

“Boy, two agency shuttles in the same day!”

“So, is Gray already here?” Warner assumed that the other agency shuttle the boy was referring to was Gray arriving before him.

“I’m not sure. Who’s Gray, sir? Is that who that lady was?” Asked the young agent.

“Agent Johnson…” The elder of the dock crewman who walked first chimed in sharply with disapproval oozing from his tone.

“Have any of you been told when Gray will be meeting me up here?” He addressed the elder crewman.

He turned slightly and peered at Warner from the corner of his eye.

“No orders have come through for any more shuttles today, sir. Haven’t checked the logs on tomorrow’s arrivals, yet.” He was an older gentleman with almond skin and wiry black hair a few strands of which had grayed and poked out in different directions from under his hat. He had a deep voice and a demeanor that made Warner think he was in charge. He wore a badge with the name Redmond.