Supernal

Chapter 42

9:00 am Tuesday, 17th July 2029

Airlock on the OCF

"That's what I call a perfect fit," Rob remarked, closing the door on one of the hazmat suit lockers near the airlock.

"Okay, Jayal," Toby said. "Make sure you can open it from the inside."

The small recessed handle on the door turned and the door swung open to reveal Jayal standing inside with a pair of pliers.

"I can turn it easily with these," she confirmed, pulling herself out of the confined space.

She placed the pliers in the locker and closed the door.

"Fine," Rob said. "So ... I'll be meeting the test team when they arrive, and the flight crew will want a short comfort break. I'll make sure everyone is ahead of me and then I'll tap three times on the door when I follow them. You wait a couple of minutes and then sneak into the shuttle."

Summers had stressed that none of the test team must catch a glimpse of Jayal. They would be sure to ask questions. She would have to avoid them until they were well out of the way.

Rob had come up with the idea of removing the protective clothing from one of the hazmat lockers and distributing it amongst the others. He had gauged that Jayal was slender enough to squeeze into the narrow locker and had been proved correct. That solved the problem of concealing Jayal's presence from the test team.

It would also be preferable if the two SpaceX pilots didn't catch sight of Jayal, but they decided they'd just have to hope for the best. There was nowhere to hide inside a Spaceplane but the high-backed seats should conceal Jayal from view. Rob reckoned the crew were so used to operating the shuttle service that they weren't particularly interested in their passengers. He had never seen one of them come back into the cabin area.

Jayal was happy with the arrangements so the three of them passed through the airlock and into the pod. Once inside Jayal began to give the intelligence unit its instructions while the other two watched quietly. She carefully worked out the timing. The pod would undock itself at 11 am and return to the blimp on its own.

#

There was not much left to do except sit around in the crew room until the Spaceplane was scheduled to arrive. 

Summers congratulated them all for the success of the plan and reminded them that he would be busy in the cargo bay, unloading the supplies from the shuttle after it docked, so he would be saying goodbye to them earlier. Then he went off on his constant rounds of checks and inspections.

Just before eleven, they made their way to the main assembly bay and watched as the pod obediently returned to the blimp. The pod compartment door slid open to allow the pod to enter and then closed behind it.

Rob shook his head sadly.

"All that beautiful technology going up in smoke," he groaned. "I hope the president knows what she's losing."

"Who cares?" Charlie responded. "At least none of our children are going to be losing their brain cells. Some technology just isn't worth the price. I think she's doing the right thing."

"I guess so," Rob admitted sheepishly. "Who needs a photon packet communicator anyway?"

#

Summers joined them to make sure the blimp made its departure on time and at exactly twelve o'clock they watched as it silently accelerated and disappeared from view. Toby noticed Jayal wipe a tear from her eye and pulled her to him.

"That's my last connection with Vitu gone," she said with a wan smile as Toby hugged her close. "From now on I'm an earth woman."

#

"I don't know about you lot," Rob announced back in the crew room, "but I feel like celebrating. We haven't any booze but we've got plenty of food. I say we have a banquet!"

"Good idea," Summers agreed. "Break out the rest of the kids' special meals. You four have got a long journey and who knows when you'll get a chance to eat next."

Rob took charge and the center of the table was soon covered with a variety of food cartons to choose from. Jayal quickly developed a taste for pasta dishes while Toby preferred Aliya's spicy Arabian tajines.

The impromptu party passed the time quickly and Toby was surprised when Summers got to his feet and gave them a brief speech of thanks. He said he had a few things to attend to before the Spaceplane docked and then he would be going straight to the cargo bay to unload the supply container.

They said their goodbyes and Rob told his boss he'd see him in two weeks. Then they touched elbows and Summers was gone.

"Come on Jayal," Rob said, glancing at the wall clock. "Time to lock you in your locker."

#

Toby and Charlie stayed in the crew room and waited for Rob to return.

"It's a shame we aren't going to get our reputations restored isn't it?" Charlie commented. "I was looking forward to having my theories proved correct. I might have broken through the glass ceiling at my university."

"Yes, it's disappointing, but at least we both know we got it right. No one can take that away from us. And what do our reputations matter compared to the big picture?"

The docking alert sounded and they both looked up at the indicator light on the wall.

"That's our ride," Toby said.

#

Rob led the test team and flight crew filed into the crew room and invited them to help themselves to coffee. They clustered around the coffee dispenser laughing and joking with each other. None of them took any notice of Charlie and Toby who nodded a brief hello and headed for the airlock. No one spoke to them or asked them who they were.

They found Jayal already strapped into one of the rear seats on the Spaceplane and Toby slumped into the adjoining one. He grabbed her hand.

"Not long now," he smiled and she squeezed his hand and smiled back.

After a few minutes, Rob appeared and drifted to the seat in front, next to Charlie.

"The crew are taking advantage of the OCF's facilities," he told them. "They'll be here in five minutes."