The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1)(100)

The room spun around me like I was strapped in a centrifuge chair. Breath pressed out. My vision darkened at the edges.

Astronaut.

3.14159265359 … Someone said my name. If I fainted, what would people think? Parker would like that.

Astronaut.

Why the hell wouldn’t they tell me that in private first? You didn’t blindside someone with a thing like that, unless you wanted to watch them flounder …

Parker. Parker must have suggested this.

Someone said my name again, and I turned to the voice. The room was a blur of sound and light. There wasn’t enough air. Keep your eyes open. Keep talking. This was just another test.

“Gentlemen…” I fought gravity to raise my hands. “Gentlemen, if you all talk at once, I can’t hear you.”

They ignored me and kept shouting over each other. “When will you go into space?” “What does your husband think about this?” “How does it feel to be an Astronette?”

That voice belonged to a round, balding man with his tie pulled loose.

“An astronette? That sounds as if I should be doing kicks in a chorus line.” The laughter gave me a boost to find a smile somewhere. “So, please, I’m just an astronaut.”

Just an astronaut. Ha. I was a goddamned astronaut. Not that they would print that.

“Now, now … you’re the Lady Astronaut, from Mr. Wizard.” Parker smiled genially beside me. “We wouldn’t want anyone to forget that.”

“Is she the only lady astronaut?” Another reporter fired at Clemons.

Damn Parker. That moniker was going to stick, and it would make sure we were always second class to the men.

Clemons waved his cigar, leaving contrails of smoke. “No, she is not. But you’ll meet the rest of them next week at our press conference. I just wanted to give you a preview of the talent and beauty of our lady astronauts.”

Goddamn it. I smiled until my teeth hurt. “Well … this astronaut has some calculations to do.”

“Of course.” Clemons waved me back to the door. “Sirius is waiting.”

The reporters hollered for some more photos, so I had to stand there, smiling, between Parker and Clemons. Both men beamed at the camera, and in the pictures, we all looked like the best of friends.

Then Parker held the door for me, as if he were a gentleman. I stepped into the stairwell and the door shut behind us.

His smile dropped.

“This must really rankle you.” I started down the stairs ahead of him. “After saying you’d keep me grounded.”

His laughter bounced down the stairs after me. “Please. If Clemons hadn’t hired you, it would have been a public relations nightmare. The other women? They’ve earned it. You’re just a publicity stunt.”

Bastard. My heart galloped as if I’d run up five flights of stairs instead of down one. I slammed the door open and stalked onto the floor of Mission Control. A few heads lifted as my heels clicked across the floor.

The reporters were probably still watching. Thank God my back was to them. Whatever Parker said in the stairwell, I was still an astronaut. I’d been selected, and, by God, I was going to go into space. Publicity stunt? Ha. I was going to be the best damn student they had.

Back at my table, the tableau was much as it had been before. Carmouche had evidently made a move, because he was slumped in his chair, shaking his head.

“Did you lose again?”

“No. But she has me in check again. A different one, at least.”

Helen studied the board. “I will try to put you out of your misery quickly.”

“The offer to play against me still stands.” I settled into my chair, smoothing my skirt to wipe the sweat off my palms.

Helen nodded to the skybox, from which all the reporters were staring at us. “What was that all about?”

This was good news, despite Parker, so I smiled, and in smiling found the joy that should have been there already. “I—I made the cut. I’m an astronaut.” Laughter bubbled out of me. “I’m an astronaut.”

For a moment, Helen’s mouth dropped open and then she jumped up. Grinning, she ran around the table and swept me into a hug. “I knew it!” She straightened. “Nathaniel! Your wife astronaut!”

Across the room, Nathaniel’s head jerked up. “What?”

Carmouche had also stood up at some point. “Clemons just told her she made the cut. Dr. York is one of the new astronauts.”

“Yes!” Laughing, Nathaniel jumped up and punched the air. “Yes!”

All around us, engineers and medics and everyone started to cheer.

Bubbles and Carmouche and someone else grabbed my chair and lifted me into the air like I was a bride. I laughed and wept and laughed again, clutching the chair as they paraded me around the room.

Above us, the skybox flashed with cameras going off. When my chair was back on the ground again, I got swept into a long series of hugs and congratulations.

And then Nathaniel had me in his arms. He spun me around, giving me a moment of weightlessness. Kissing him, in front of everyone, sent me into orbit.

When he pulled back, tears brightened his eyes and a smile threatened to split his face. “I am so, so proud of you.”

This was the way I wanted to learn about becoming an astronaut. Not in a room of random reporters, but here. With my peers. With my husband.