CHAPTER 25 – TAKING OFF THE UNIFORM
13:36 (Universal Time)
Wednesday, March 20, 1985 ‘C’
South Docking Station, space station AURORA
Low Earth orbit
‘’The PROMETHEUS has now docked safely, Mister President. We have the green light to board the ship.’’
‘’Excellent!’’ replied George Herbert Walker Bush, who was surrounded by his Secret Service bodyguards and a few officials, including the current commander of the AURORA space station, Brigadier General John Reynolds. ‘’Please guide me in, General: I still am not very familiar about what steps to take while passing through an airlock system.’’
‘’That’s quite understandable, Mister President. Please follow me!’’
Filmed and photographed by the dozens of media members present for the arrival of the PROMETHEUS from its nearly five-year-long space mission, the presidential party made its way through the large airlock of the space station and was cycled through it and through the ship’s own main airlock before stepping on the deck of the reception compartment of the PROMETHEUS, where Ingrid and her most senior officers and scientific staff were waiting for President Bush. On the latter arriving inside the compartment, Ingrid, wearing her Space Corps parade uniform, called her subaltern to attention, then saluted Bush.
‘’Welcome aboard the PROMETHEUS, Mister President!’’
‘’Thank you, General Dows! Let me first congratulate you and your crew for your long and epic voyage to Jupiter and Saturn. You were an inspiration for both our country and for the rest of the World, while what you discovered during your mission revolutionized many areas of our sciences.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President! May I first present my senior command staff to you before we go further?’’
‘’Please do, General Dows.’’
Walking to the waiting officers and scientists and shaking their hands one by one while exchanging a few congratulatory words with them, President Bush looked again at Ingrid at the end of the presentations.
‘’What’s next, General?’’
‘’I am planning to give you a tour of the ship, Mister President, but I would like first to present to you my whole crew and their families, who have assembled in the main food court in anticipation of your visit.’’
‘’And I will be most pleased to meet with them all, General. Lead on!’’
Ingrid saluted again, then guided President Bush and his followers out of the reception compartment and through a series of communication tubes which were in micro-gravity conditions. While floating down the tubes, Bush and Ingrid exchanged small talk about how the mission went and about the state of the crew’s morale. That last point attracted a slight smile on Ingrid’s lips.
‘’The morale is truly great, Mister President. To have their families with them on this long trip did wonders for the spirit of my crewmembers. I definitely recommend that all such future deep space trips of more than a few months should be done with crew family members aboard, Mister President.’’
‘’Well, while I would agree with you on that, General, that is still a bit of a politically contentious issue. Some of the more conservative members of Congress, pushed on by a few prominent religious preachers, are still a bit, uh, sanguine about this. I however am ready to fully support your point of view on this subject.’’
‘’And I thank you for that, Mister President. Once you will meet our people, you will be able to see what kind of effect this family trip policy had on my crew. By the way, we started this mission in August of 1980 with 92 children of all ages aboard. Today, you will be greeted by 145 children aged between a few months to seventeen years old, while you will also see ten young men and women who reached adulthood during our mission.’’
Bush couldn’t help stare at Ingrid then, truly stunned by her numbers.
‘’You mean that 53 children were born aboard your ship during your space mission?’’
‘’Yes, Mister President! Furthermore, those children were able to enjoy and learn from their space trip while growing up. You will be able to see that once we are at the main food court.’’
‘’I can’t wait for that moment, General.’’ said Bush, being sincere.
The trip became easier for the President and his followers once they arrived at Carrousel ‘A’, where its rotation provided apparently normal gravity. Now able to walk normally, Bush let Ingrid guide him to the entrance of the big compartment housing the main food court. The President, like his accompanying cabinet members and advisors, stared in near shock on seeing the double row of toddlers, preteens and teenagers standing in the front of a crowd of nearly 600 people, with some women behind the rows of children holding small babies. Ingrid then shouted out loud at the crowd.
‘’LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE HONORABLE GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH!’’
Everybody in the crowd, including the young children, then stopped moving and came to attention, with the military members in the crowd saluting Bush. The latter quickly went over his shock from seeing so many children inside a spaceship and spoke up loudly.
‘’AT EASE, PLEASE!’’
Ingrid then led him to a lectern and microphone set up near the entrance of the food court, where Bush was able to better look at the crowd, whose front row of children stood less than five paces away due to the lack of space. He was not a little surprised to see that over two thirds of the children sported embroidered patches of various designs on their clothes and spoke in a low voice to Ingrid.
‘’What are those patches the kids are wearing, General?’’
‘’Those are their mission patches denoting various trips and accomplishments during the mission, Mister President. Each kid, whatever his or her age at the time, who participated in a space activity, like space walks and rover tours on some of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, got a dedicated embroidered patch for the occasion. Let me show you. DARIEN ONIZUKA, PLEASE STEP FORWARD AND COME TO THE LECTERN.’’
A cute oriental girl of about ten years of age then came forward timidly, stopping next to the lectern and President Bush, who was then able to detail the patches she wore on her sports vest as Ingrid described them.
‘’Darien Onizuka is ten-year-old and is one of the two daughters of one of my officers, Mister President. The patches she wears are the overall mission patch, given to all aboard the ship, a patch for spacewalking in deep space and three patches for rover trips on the surfaces of Ganymede, Enceladus and Titan.’’
‘’My God! Qualified astronauts would be proud to wear those! And are you proud of wearing those patches, little Darien?’’
‘’Very much, Mister President.’’ timidly replied the small girl.
‘’And did you like your trip in Space?’’
‘’A lot, Mister President. I learned a lot of new things during our trip.’’
‘’I see! Congratulations for your trip, Darien. You may now return with the other children.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President.’’
Bush smiled as he watched the girl return to the front of the crowd.
‘’Damn, she is so cute! They are all cute, in fact.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President.’’ replied Ingrid. ‘’Feel free to address my crew before we tour the ship.’’
‘’I certainly will, General.’’
Not having a prepared speech for this unexpected occasion, Bush did his best at that time, keeping his speech quite informal while praising the accomplishment of the ship’s crew and the devotion of their families. That speech, which went on for about two minutes, was greeted by warm applauses from the crowd. With Bush’s approval, Ingrid then dismissed her crew and faced her President.
‘’If you will now follow me, Mister President, I will give you a quick tour of the ship.’’
‘’I’m all yours, General!’’
That tour took a good two hours and ended up in Ingrid’s command office, where she and Bush went in to speak in private. The President’s expression was a sober one as he eyed Ingrid after sitting with her on a sofa of her office.
‘’General Dows, my predecessor, Ronald Reagan, briefed me about your powers and the fact that you are a ‘Chosen’, a representative of a spiritual entity I would tend to equate with God. I also was briefed about the various powers you demonstrated publicly aboard your ship while on its mission to Jupiter and Saturn. I was at first quite skeptical of what was said to me but I have now accepted those pieces of information. What do you intend to do with those powers of yours, General?’’
‘’Nothing except to occasionally help others in times of need, like when I healed a crewmember’s spouse burned in a kitchen fire, Mister President. Be assured that I have no intention of using my powers for any other purposes, especially political or personal purposes. Personal power is unimportant to me and I do not want either to become some kind of religious preacher, something I personally loathe. The One may have been shepherding Humanity along for millions of years but he has zero interest in being worshipped. When he acts, which is rare, it is through its angels or via a Chosen like me. However, you may rest in peace about me and my powers, as the only goal I have now is to retire from military service in order to pursue a quieter personal life and to raise my little daughter Nancy, who is now nearly two and a half years old. President Reagan did tell you of my wish to retire at the end of this mission, didn’t he, Mister President?’’
‘’Yes, he did and I must say that you will richly deserve your retirement after what, forty-some years of military service?’’
‘’Forty-three years of service, Mister President. I officially enrolled in the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942, after fighting the Japanese as a fighter pilot under a Filipino uniform. In those 43 years, I have fought in a total of six wars while wearing American uniforms and led two long, deep Space missions: this one and one to Mars. I am quite ready to retire, Mister President.’’
‘’And what will you do next, once out of uniform?’’
‘’I am not sure yet, but I will certainly take much of my time to raise and care for my daughter Nancy. I am quite well-off financially, thanks to all those years of general officer’s pay accumulating in my bank accounts while I was traveling in Space, plus thanks to my full general’s pension, which is not exactly small change. I thus don’t have a real need to find another job. However, I have aviation and space technology in my blood and will probably end up seeking a designing engineer position with a big aerospace company. I am sure that I would have no problems securing such a job, Mister President.’’
‘’Oh, I believe you on that, General: I can tell you that headhunters from the major aerospace companies in America, starting with Lockheed, are already preparing ambushes for you the moment you step foot again on the planet.’’
Ingrid chuckled a bit at those words.
‘’It’s true that me and Lockheed have had a rather successful history of cooperation with each other, Mister President. I could do much worse than ending in their pay as a senior designing engineer.’’
‘’Well, I do have an offer of my own for you, General.’’ said Bush, now appearing dead serious. ‘’I would like you to stay on in a civilian capacity as a presidential special advisor and as our Director of National Space Programs. Furthermore, in view of your various incredible talents and vast experience, I am also ready to use you as my special plenipotentiary envoy if and when delicate overseas situations will emerge. As such an envoy, I am ready to give your word primacy over that of even my present cabinet members when on a mission in my name.’’
‘’That is a lot of power, Mister President. Aren’t you afraid to create some jealousy among your cabinet members towards me?’’
‘’Screw them if that happens! You proved your worth as a presidential envoy in the past, in Indochina, in Palestine and in the more recent Israeli-Arab conflict. As for dealing with military situations, you showed yourself without equals. So, are you ready to accept my offer, General?’’
Ingrid only had to think for a few seconds before extending her hand, which Bush shook.
‘’I accept your offer, Mister President. However, expect fully to get the unvarnished truth from me.’’
‘’Did you ever do otherwise, General? I am after a presidential special advisor, not a sycophant.’’
‘’I hear you on that, Mister President. I however have one condition: to be able to first spend a few months on quiet personal vacation, away from the limelight.’’
Bush grinned at those words.
‘’After spending nearly five years on a deep Space mission? You would have been entitled to such a leave period anyway! Hell, I believe that you have close to a year of unused paid leave time, thanks to all your space missions and your incessant work at the command of the Space Corps. I can only wish you the best of time during your vacation, General.’’ Bush then got up from the sofa, imitated by Ingrid, and shook again her hand.
‘’I have arranged for a retirement ceremony for you in Washington, General. There is no way that I will let go such a meritorious officer as you without a proper sendoff. After that, you will be free to go on vacation with your daughter.’’
‘’I truly can’t wait for that moment, Mister President.’’ replied Ingrid, meaning it.