Chapter 1

I've always liked songs with airplanes in 'em. For instance, Some Old California Memory by Henson Cargil:

Two Allegheny engines broke the silence of the morning. Cause whisper jets don't whisper when they take your world away. The one that I was living for flew out and she was glad. That's too bad cause she's all I've ever had. And there she goes on that seven-forty-seven. Climbing higher into heaven than my angel ever dared to fly. And she's twice as high on some old California memory than she ever was on me.

Or Silver Wings by Merle Haggard

Silver wings shinning in the sunlight, Roaring engines headed somewhere in flight. They're taking you away, leaving me lonely, Silver wings slowly fading out of sight. "Don't leave me," I cried, "Don't take that airplane ride." But you locked me out of your mind. Left me standing here behind.

The tables were turned on those old songs for me though. Gloria was the one left behind and for the first time since damned near forever I was the one flying away. The trouble was I wasn't so sure now it was everything I always wanted.

Until the last six months I'd been sure. I'd been sure since I turned sixteen and decided what I thought I wanted to do with my life. Once I decided I wanted to go into space I gave up everything else for it. Other boys my age were smoking weed, chasing girls, and getting laid.

Smoking weed was a no go for sure then and I didn't really have time for chasing girls. It didn't mean I couldn't take a little time to get laid, but not so much time.

Even if they didn't want you for their half assed varsity team the service academies all thought you'd be a much more well-rounded prospect if you played some sport in high school, and of course football was the best.

Luckily for me I was fast. I was also big enough to be a good running back. Also lucky was it didn't require a lot of practice to run the ball. I kept my grades top notch, was enough of a star to get laid without a lot of chasing time, and it looked good on my application.

Another lucky plus for me was my Congressman's position on some committee having something to do with military appropriations. When he gave me his official stamp of approval the air force saluted and I was on my way to Colorado Springs shortly after graduation in the late spring of 2006.

Yes, I was getting an early start. My Mom and Dad were so proud of me they were about to pop, and when I suggested I go out early and get accustomed to the territory they thought it was a fine idea.

Even though my Dad was so tight he nearly squeaked he was all for footing the bill for my early start. Maybe it was in appreciation of me getting the government to foot the bill for an outstanding higher education.

All I can say about the air force football team was thank God I wasn't quite fast enough to be included. I was busy enough with learning the military rigamarole and the hazing. I didn't have time for practice.

All that crap was years ago now though and here I was after practically ten years of constant study perched on top of all the rocket fuel in the world and hoping like hell no low bidder had made another fuckup.

In a way it was a little odd something I'd picked up on my own starting when I was about five years old had been as responsible as anything else for me getting this shot at time on the ISS. Maybe you could have guessed, but I never could have.

My Christmas tree erector set had made me handy with my hands and with things mechanical starting when I was barely five years old. It's a little like riding a bicycle, but not exactly.

You learn how to ride a bike and you never forget even if you don't do it for years. I learned to fix things with my hands and I never forgot, but then again I never quit doing it either. I couldn't stand to have anything that didn't work right.

If it was broken I fixed it. If it was too damned cheap to be fixed I threw it away and bought a better replacement. It was part of who I was. It was also one of the reasons I was bumped up in the rotation and was set for one of the last Space Shuttle flights.

Let's face it. The space shuttle was OLD with capital letters and there still wasn't a workable replacement. At least all the biggest parts for ISS were up there spinning around with it, but they'd finally decided they needed to get their asses in gear and send a few guys up who could put the rest together and not let their tools go drifting off into forever.

This was the first part of the last big shuttle bonanza. We lifted today and another would lift in two more days. We had a pilot, co-pilot, Carl Jarvis, Nick Savage, and me. Every other cubic inch left was for parts, equipment, and supplies.

The Russians were also sending up one of theirs with mostly supplies, a few parts, and as a swap out for the escape capsule. The next shuttle was to change out the normal station crew and it had some supplies too.

I can now tell you leaving earth the way we did is a genuine experience. No matter how much training and how people tell you what's going to happen you are not prepared for the rush. Luckily my job on the way up was mostly just to stay seated and out of the way. It was still the most excited I'd ever been in my life.

Euphoria reigned for nearly eighteen hours. And happy as a pig in a shit hole kept going for the other twelve until we docked and got onto the station. The shit started hitting the fan about then.

It was November 21, 2012 when the little dribble of money NASA spent out in Colorado looking for incoming finally paid off. It was in time to scrub the next shuttle mission and the Ruskies even put theirs on hold. The object found heading for earth was thirty-five miles across and was due to arrive within thirty or forty days.

The sighting was so new the figures hadn't been refined yet and it was still possible it would miss the beautiful blue ball with the white streamers around it below us, but there wasn't much of a chance.

We had a two day pause for everyone on earth to shit their pants and there was damned nearly some of it going on where I was. Contingency plans weren't put in place yet, partially because they didn't have the trajectory nailed down, but mostly because they didn't have any plans ready.

I can report there was plenty of hand wringing and nail biting going on in not a lot of space up where we were spinning around the globe. We killed time by unloading what needed to be unloaded and loading what needed to be loaded, mostly.

When the trajectory was nailed down the news wasn't any better. The object would strike earth somewhere; they didn't have it nailed down that tight yet, and around noon on December 21.

Well that was certainly worth the price of admission. I wasn't sure anyone else up here realized it was practically to the hour of the time the Mayan Calendar ended. I wondered how in the hell they'd known five thousand years ago.

At first I was a little surprised by the way everyone up here wanted to get down now. I mean, I could understand about those with families, but I didn't see what the fascination was for everyone else.

Personally, if I was going to choose my place to die in this clusterfuck I was on station already. To my way of thinking a slow death from running out of oxygen beat hell out of burning up in boiling lava all to hell.

Of course I knew boiling lava wouldn't be the most popular way of dying on earth anyway. Falling buildings would probably take the honor, or maybe it would be tidal waves if it hit in an ocean.

The pissing and moaning came to a halt a few hours later when they asked us to all gather for a conference. They made the happy announcement half of us could go ahead and buckle on the shuttle we had and leave. They were going to go ahead and launch the other one in two days for the rest of us. Then they called for volunteers, and it saved a nasty scene.

They wanted to know if someone could be persuaded to stay up and take care of things during the excitement. I didn't jump up and scream ME ME ME, but I did let them know I was the man for the job right away. I was elected I guess, since not another voice made a sound. In fact, most of the others just looked at me funny.

Since I was staying they were going to throw on a few things to make sure I lasted as long as I could up here, just in case they couldn't come back to get me in time.

It made me wonder who in the fuck they thought they were fooling. I kept my mouth shut though and damned if everyone with me didn't start talking about how brave I was and it actually seemed as if they were trying to help me buck up my courage.

Hell, no courage was needed as far as I was concerned. Wasn't there anyone else who realized the very best they could hope for was getting back to earth in time for it to be thrust back into the stone age, or earlier. That Mayan civilization I'd thought about would have been millennia ahead of what they were about to face if the big rock did hit the pretty blue marble.

Our meeting broke up then, but they scheduled another one for six hours later. We got our asses busy and emptied the shuttle we still had and the others started trying to figure out who would ride down first. Since I wasn't going they were only short two seats getting the whole job done.

Six hours later we had another meeting with the pros on earth. The first five minutes cleared up all the hanging chad for everyone. It took another ten minutes to straighten out the details and then they were done with everyone, but me.

Since there was plenty of payload space and weight available they asked if there was anything they could send along especially for me. Of course there was and I told them.

Since they were coming anyway I wanted my own computer system from my apartment, and every DVD of information they could burn for me in the time they had allowed.

"What kind of information do you want?"

"Every kind, but especially history and science. You have to know I'm going to make it longer up here than most of you are down there. Who knows, some alien might notice the crash and drop by."

"I'm not sure we have time to deal with those sort of requests," Major Jenkens said, and I could see he was getting set to put on his I am important act.

"Let me tell you something you officious asshole. If you don't have time to send it I don't have time to sit up here by myself."

I hadn't even finished the start of my mini rant before General Frankston, the big cheese in charge jerked Major Jenkens out of his chair and took over.