Bobbie comes on line.
“Sure. What clothes will I need?”
“Just what you wear to work. We can and will provide anything you need.”
She hung up and explained it to the family and they left for school. Just as they pulled out the phone rang. The man asked her to run up the garage door. She said, “Christy.” The response came back, “Brian.” She ran up the door and a van pulled into the garage. In a half hour she was packed. The woman followed her around the house as she picked up things. Christy noted she and the man were wearing a sidearms. When they got everything into the van the woman handed her a holseter with a pistol and 4 clips on it. “There is a clip in it,” the woman offered. “We know you have pistol training and a carry permit. You will wear this most of the time from now till you return home. There is a blank in the chamber.” Christy took the pistol, ejected the clip, then ejected the round in the chamber. She looked at the clip, “Eight rounds.”
“Yes.”
She reinserted the clip, chambered a round and put it on safety. “I don’t like a blank in the chamber. If I need to use it, I want it to be live.”
The woman smiled. “I carry the same way.”
They helped her to the car, loaded her chair and on they were the way to the airport.
They were waved through one checkpoint at the airport after another, pulled up next to a plane and she was helped into it. Everything seemed to be planned and ready. A young woman sat next to her as they took off. The woman was obviously tense and quiet till they were off the ground.
Finally she said, “I’m Sandy Easton. In case you don’t know I was back-up on the current mission. Christy Shenk is up there.”. Her eyes glazed and she choked out. “She got hurt. Bad. Really really bad.”
“The news said she was being treated on the station. It sounded like heavy duty first aid.”
Sandy tensed. “She. Mission is classified. Well. I. This is really difficult for me.”
“What?”
“She is like you. That is why I am here.”
“Like me? How?”
She choked out, “No legs.”
Bobbie just stared for a minute. “I didn’t think they had brought her down. You mean they brought her down and amputated her legs?”
Sandy choked out. “A panel blew out and hit her. She had compound fractures of both lower legs, her suit was breached and her legs up to here, where the seal cuff is, were exposed to a vacuum.” She pointed to her upper leg. “They did surgery up there, the station crew. Not real doctors, the crew. She could have died.” Bobbie just stared. Surgery in space performed by the crew of the station. This was important. “She doesn’t have legs. Of she hadn’t gone I would be there. I’d. If I lost my legs. And it is even worse. They want her to stay and work. No legs and they want her to work. It is awful. They want her to stay up there and work that way. Can you imagine that?”
“Having no legs is a bummer. But you don’t have to stop living.”
“A bummer. Where did you check your brains? It is a disaster. No legs. I would kill myself.”
“It depends on what you want to do. So what do they want me for?”
Sandy explained that she would be flying to Johnson where she would help Christy prepare for the work.
“This plane will be your first training. On they way down you will get a chance to work with me in zero g.”
Five hours later they landed at Johnson. Bobbie was exhausted. They had made one dive after another simulating zero G’s for her to learn. She was assigned to a crew quarters and spent the evening with Sandy. The following day there was another flight on Zero G.
To see the first chapter and links to other chapters see
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