LANCE SAUNDERS, ASTRONUT
BY
Melvin C. Duncan Copyright TXu849-356 4/6/98
CHAPTER 1
WHERE THE HELL AM I
Lance stood on the platform looking up at the ship. A silver needle gleaming in the morning sun, towering 90 feet into the hot dry New Mexico sky. She was a little bird, paused for flight. Her lines were clean and smooth. The small winglets for Atmospheric control were folded away beneath the hull. She was like a ninety foot long needle ready to launch herself into the fabric of the New Mexico sky. All the pre-flight checks were done. All the simulator time had been logged. Now, it was time for the real thing. He was nervous, thinking of the thousands of things that could go wrong. Coolant leaks would be the most devastating. He was lost in thought as he ticked off the possibilities.
"Not very big for a star ship." He commented to his attendants. He was used to the big freeze ships that were to fragile to land on a planet. They parked in orbit and passengers and supplies were ferried up to them. It took weeks to load one of them. This little bird was ready to go on a moments notice.
"Guess not, but she has all the latest gadgets, and a new drive system. Guaranteed to get off the pad, but after that? Who knows." The attendant responded with a giggle. She was a smashing redhead, dressed in an orange jump suit that was so tight it would burst from a pin prick, topped off by a pair of black knee length boots. Blondes, Brunets, and red heads were what got him in this mess. A few to many of each. faces ran through his memory as he remembered some of the more memorable ones. That is, the ones that had caused him the most trouble. "Well, may as well get on with it." Lance said, as he walked toward the launching platform. He gritted his teeth as he mounted the gantry that led to the all too cramped space above the machinery and drive systems. She was terribly small for an interstellar spacer but Lance was rather large to be an astronaut. He stood six four, weighed two thirty-five and wore a size fourteen shoe. Put him in anything that flew and he would have it soaring as graceful as an albatross in no time, but turn him loose on the ground and he tripped over everything, ran into and fell over the rest. Women seemed to find his
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LANCE SAUNDERS, ASTRONUT