suite could be made because the fields created by the ECC devices would be so large that the internal instruments of the Orbiter would be affected. That would be bad. Also, the device was in five separate pieces in the Payload Bay and wasn't an integrated spacecraft at this point. Jim and I wished Zephram a good night and I said I would chat with Jim in two sleep cycles.
We had to make a pit stop at the ISS before construction of Zephram could begin. I had completed my checklists and I was now a fifth wheel. I located Colonel Ames in the middeck eating area.
'Payload Specialist Clemons on schedule Colonel,' I saluted her and laughed. She didn't seem amused.
'Can it, Anson. Have you eaten anything?'
'Uh, not sure that's a good idea.' I hesitated at the thought of nausea and spins coming back.
'We don't need you passing out from low blood sugar. Eat!' she more or less ordered me. I wondered if she was giving the other astronauts as much of her attention or if I was just being a big baby—the word
'Okay, I'll eat. Just stop pampering me, okay.'
'Anson.' She clenched her jaw and I could tell she was changing her mind about what she was going to say. She started over.
'Listen. Just do your job, okay? No ego. If you feel the least bit funny, I don't want you on an EVA barfing all in your suit. Just do your job. I
'We have nearly two days. I have acclimated almost completely now. I'll be fine,' I told her. To prove it I squeezed out a bite of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and watched it float in front of me at over eighteen thousand miles per hour. Since I was moving along at the same speed and Newton's First Law—or in General Relativity speak, we were on the same geodesic—was working as expected, I leaned forward and then gulped it down. No problem. I finished my first meal in microgravity and prepared for a sleep cycle. Tabitha didn't say two more words to me that day.
Fines, on the other hand, must have been feeling better, too. He must also have been bored. He talked endlessly about his super polymer that when super cooled allowed for state-of-the-art piezoelectric micromotion control. His work would enable a whole new era of pointing accuracy. Not only would it be beneficial to military applications but to any space based platform. A modification of the Next Generation Space Telescope with his device would increase the camera long-term exposure times by a factor of ten to a hundred. This in turn would increase the number of objects that deep sky astronomy would be able to image by orders of magnitude.
It was all very interesting and exciting. But, thank God he finally shut up! I presently dozed off for my first real sleep cycle in space. The nap I had previously didn't count because I'd been sick out of my mind. This time I had no trouble getting comfortable and dozing off. What a relief from the past few weeks.
CHAPTER 8
I was looking out the window whether Colonel Ames liked it or not. The International Space Station loomed over as we approached the Universal Docking Module. Television just doesn't give you a feel for how immense the ISS really is. As you get closer you can tell that parts of it were made by different countries. The Russian components are either black or shiny. ESA and NASDA modules are shiny. The majority of the space station is white, these sections being made by the United States of America. Although the space station looks like a jumbled mish mash made by several different manufacturers, it does look like it was designed with some sort of madness to its designer's method.
I held on to a computer terminal stand as we docked, expecting a jolt. I never felt a thing. Ray and Tabitha knew what they were doing up front. A period of protocol passed (I assumed pressure equalization) and we were all allowed access to the station. I roamed wherever I could go. I bumped into a fellow from Japan and I realized that I was in the Japanese Experiment Module. I asked if there were any experiments going on outside mounted to the 'back-porch.'
Wang Che, as I gathered was his name, told me that, 'We had a marfunction on the Lemote Manipuratol system yestelday. It damaged the terescope plimaly millol and seized the tlacking motols togethel.'
'You don't say,' I responded. 'What caused it?'
'Not sule. But, we are wolking on it,' he replied.
My trek through Russian territory was about the same, so I returned to American soil, uh aluminum and composites, and just hung out. Tabitha finally relaxed a little. She introduced me to one of the astronauts who would be going home with us, since Carla and Roald were staying behind.
'Anson Clemons, this is Tracy Edmunds. Tracy has been up here for going on three months,' Tabitha informed me.
'Wow! Are you ready to go home yet?'
'Yeah, I miss my husband and kids,' she told me with a smile. Tabitha giggled a bit.
'Anson, this is Malcom Edmunds, Tracy's husband.' Tabitha laughed. Getting the joke, I shook Malcom's hand.
'Nice to meet you. You better hurry home. I think your wife is looking for you. Are your kids here, too?'
'The eight-year-old really wanted to come, believe me.'
Tracy shrugged, winked at Malcom and said, 'I don't know why they wouldn't let me bring her.'
I could tell that Tabitha must have known the infamous eight-year-old, since she responded with an outburst of laughter and then, 'ISS ain't ready for that type of malfunction yet.'
We talked for a while longer and then Malcom and Tracy began to ingress to the Space Shuttle.
Tabitha held my arm. 'Wait a second, Anson.'
'What's up?'
'I want to know what you think about something.' She looked at me seriously. I couldn't tell if these were her
