The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1)(89)
Betty raised her hands, palms out in a conciliatory motion. “I just have to figure out the angle.”
“How about ‘Racists Running Astronaut Selection’?” Imogene grabbed the knife from the table and nearly stabbed the cake. “Dr. King is going to have a field day with this. Bet all the candidates are white.”
“I can…” I stopped and cleared my throat. Was I really about to offer this? “Would it help if you had a list of who got in?”
Ida nodded and broke off a piece of her cake. “It would. And don’t worry, Betty, we’ve got black papers that are going to be more than happy to run this story. They won’t have any trouble understanding the ‘angle. ’”
TWENTY-NINE
LUNETTA ORBITING PLATFORM POISED TO SET NEW RECORD
KANSAS CITY, KS, April 26, 1957—Tomorrow morning, if all goes as scheduled, the three astronauts of the Lunetta 2 crew will blast off for a record 59-day mission in the orbiting international station in space. Successful completion of the astronauts’ assignment will represent another milestone passed toward attaining the capability for long-term manned spaceflight, whether in orbit, as with Lunetta, or on some future crew’s flight toward Mars, Venus, or Jupiter.
On Monday, most of my morning went to helping Bubbles with data from his latest engine tests. He bounced on his toes as he leaned over the desk. Across from me, Basira had her lower lip firmly clamped between her teeth and a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. His enthusiasm was just so … enthused.
“All right, Bubbles … The amount of thrust is consistent.” I slid the sheet of calculations over to him. “Even with a payload, you would only need two stages instead of three to get to orbit.”
“I knew it!” He punched the air, tie flapping. “Launchpad, here we come!”
I cleared my throat. “On paper the Sirius is ready. But that’s Dr. York’s call.”
He grinned. “You’re Dr. York too.”
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “You know which one I mean … I’m just a computer, he’s the lead engineer.” That said, the engine tests had been very consistent, and it was the most stable fuel structure I’d seen come through our department. This had the potential to be a game changer for the moon missions because it would consume fewer resources. More importantly, a two-stage launch process meant less opportunity for failure. “Go on. Show him.”
He picked up the pages, shrugging. “Ah. He and the director are off-site right now. But when he comes back, for certain! Thanks!”
Of all the engineers, Bubbles was probably my favorite. He bounced out of the room, paper and tie fluttering with each step.
Basira gave up her battle with laughter and bent forward to bury her face in her arms. “Does he end every sentence with an exclamation point?”
“I heard one question mark in there.” There were at least three other computation requests on my desk that I needed to work through. Ah … the glamorous life of a computer. “It’s a really lovely engine, though. At least on paper.”
Helen pushed back from her desk and came over to ours. “He said the director is off-site?”
My skin prickled with unease. Crap. We’d talked about this at the 99s. “Right … I think it’s a visit to Lockheed-Martin to look at the command capsule for the moon landing.”
“I guess that’ll take the rest of the day, huh?”
“Probably.” I stood up and stretched as casually as I could. It’s a good thing that the fate of our nation didn’t depend on Helen’s or my espionage skills. We were about as subtle as a cat in heat. “Be back in a bit. I’m going to visit the powder room.”
Nodding, Helen went back to her desk and picked up a pencil, as if she’d never stopped working on equations. Myrtle looked between us with some confusion, but thankfully didn’t ask what we were up to.
I headed out, skipping the ladies’ room in favor of Clemons’s office. Though Helen and I both had access to the same areas of the IAC base, I had less risk than she did. With Nathaniel working here, I could always claim to be on an errand from him. She would probably be fired, which would mean getting sent back to Taiwan.
The door to Clemons’s outer office stood open, as usual, and the sound of typing popped out of the room in staccato bursts. Mrs. Kare sat behind her desk, copying over a report. At least three layers of carbons filled out the pages.
She smiled, fingers still moving. “Well, hello, Dr. York. What can I help you with?”
“I need a copy of the astronaut candidates list.” Bluffing, as if this were totally something I should have, seemed safer than trying to dig through her filing cabinets.
“Oh … I wish I could help you, but I just sent all of that over to Stetson Parker’s office.” She brightened. “You might check over there.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.” Of course the head astronaut would have some involvement over was chosen. He must have been livid when Clemons made the decision to add women to the roster. And why had he let me on the list, after he’d sworn to keep me grounded? Waving, I backed out of Clemons’s office and headed down the hall. Now I steered into the bathroom. Stepping into one of the stalls, I locked the door and leaned against the cool metal partition until my heart slowed down.