"Launch Site"

[Hunter Matheson 0]

"Launch Site"

 

The world of 1969 was a whole lot different from the one Kal knew. Not that he expected it to be the same, but he just wasn't quite ready for, well, pretty much everything, the sounds and smells being the worst.

 

'Course he had to admit that seeing contrails slice the sky was something - what he'd never get to see in his lifetime had he not been on this mission. But the earthshaking, bone-rattling roar those birds needed to get off the ground? Damn. Took all he could do to keep from duck and cover. Then there was the stench of atmo aviation fuel on the ground, burning rubber and combustion engines on the highways, and cigarettes. Seemed they were everywhere you turned there were cigarettes. But let's not even go there.

 

"Zeus 1, check your five o'clock."

 

A casual change in patrol pattern brought Kal around at Momoa's com call. Not far from a supply truck stood someone who just didn't look like he fit, like he was either lost or looking for something. A few seconds later NASA security guard approached the wanderer, removing him from Kal's area of responsibility, but Kal continued to watch. Just in case.

 

"He's showin' green," Kal replied as he watched, "but scan to be sure."

 

"Copy that."

 

The tracker in his ocular told Kal that, whoever it was and whatever his business, he wasn't blue - military or assigned law enforcement - but green: he belonged on the base for some reason. But around the launch site? Might be a different matter.

 

July 5 fell on a Saturday in 1969. It was the weekend, and by all accounts it was supposed to be a non-work day. For those assigned to Kennedy Space Center, though, it seemed that not much stopped for weekends. Oh, everything stopped to celebrate the 4th, the U.S. Independence Day, but everything started up again on the day after.

 

And so it went throughout their first morning: watch, check, and verify - watch, check, and verify. Step back for the real guys; watch for the bad guys. So far no sign of the supposed terrorists that might try to stop the launch - operative word here being 'might.'

 

Kal turned to resume his patrol pattern, kept regular so he wouldn't stand out among NASA security and the bolstered military and federal pre-launch presence. A quick check with the rest of Delta told him all was quiet. But was it too quiet? Not goin' there either, just goin' with the flow.