By

Brian W. Antoine

Oct 25, 1993

Penny and I had been watching them on TV for the better part of a day now. NASA had a shuttle up for a repair mission on a satellite, and they could not capture the thing to do the repairs.

"Damn, he missed it again!"

"I'll bet they have to censor the audio feed. That guy has to be cussing a blue streak by now."

"I don't doubt it. That has to be the worst publicity they could have for the shuttle being a repair base. I think it's time they got some help."

"Boss, I don't know whether that's such a good idea. They were pissed as hell when you followed that flight to orbit last year."

"Fuck-em!" I watched the astronaut on the screen make another attempt at latching the docking ring of the satellite. Once again it was wobbling slightly and he couldn't get a good latch. "I wanted to know if I could do it, and we needed the data on the efficiency of the flight field. At the rate were going, it's going to be the year 2000 before we even get started building my starship."

"2006 at the rate we've been going."

"And that's my point. If I don't get us into space for real, we can't let the rest of the planet pull out because they can't design a simple piece of hardware." I checked the orbit plot Penny was keeping on the shuttle overhead. "Can you give me closing instructions when I get close?"

"Just don't loose the remote, and I'll relay the coordinates as needed."

"Ok, let's do it." I pointed at the screen. "That's painful just too watch." I grabbed the headset that was my radio link with Penny's remote and double checked it to make sure it worked. "You hear me ok?"

"Loud and clear. Try not to get lost again."

"Phhhhhhtttttt....." I focused and teleported to the outside of the mountain that I used as a base. I'd had to move out of my apartment years ago when the threats got too violent. Since then, I kept a car hidden for normal traveling and lived at the base. It was a little after 1AM as I stared up into the night sky above. "You have the initial plot ready?"

"Ready and on the boards. Just follow the remote until you leave it behind. I'll take it to a high orbit to keep the link with you."

Taking a deep breath and relaxing, I established my flight field and the environment field that would keep me alive. The flight field was an application of something I hoped would on day drive the starship Penny and I wanted to build. Until then, it worked to get me places I couldn't teleport to. "Get moving, I'll be right behind."

Penny's remote flared white so I could spot it overhead and I took off into the sky. We immediately angled south so we could get into the same equatorial orbit as the shuttle. By concentrating as hard as I could, I would just about be at orbit velocity by the time I reached it. Less than half way there, Penny's remote peeled off and headed for a high orbit as I outran its ability to accelerate.

"Your getting to fast for me boss. I'll see you when you get back. Take care, I will not be around to guard your back."

I chuckled at the worry in her voice. "Who the hell is going to take a shot at me in orbit?" As I passed 150 miles and came within 500 miles of the shuttle, I began to slow my acceleration and cloaked myself. Until I got a look around, there was no use scaring the hell out of the shuttle crew and NASA.

"450 miles and closing. You need drop your rate of climb and angle off to your left just a hair. You're drifting to the right again."

"Yes mother, just don't run my up their tail pipes."

I had to slow even further as I got closer. I'd managed to come in a little above them and I needed to loose the speed I'd used to overtake them. "I don't see them. You sure you didn't vector me to an old orbiting booster?"

"They are about two miles ahead and 500 feet below you. Keep an eye out, they are just crossing the terminator and you should see their reflection."

"Nothing yet, I'm going to... Got em!"

"Ok, I'll keep at the remote. It should catch up with you in about half an hour or so."

Still cloaked, I approached the shuttle from the rear. I hadn't taken that long to get here and the astronaut was still trying to manipulate that stupid arm to get in position to latch onto the satellite. "Hey Penny, are they within range of any of the TDRS stuff?"

"No, they are out of contact at the moment. They don't hit the next TDRS coverage for about 15 minutes."

"Good, then the most they will need to do is edit a tape." I floated closer until I was about 100 feet away. It was easy to see what the problem was. The guy standing out at the end of that stupid robot arm had no leverage to speak of. Every little movement he made sent the whole arm jerking around.

*Excuse me. Is that as frustrating as it looks?* I didn't hear anything, but the astronaut jerked at my message and started looking around.

"Shit. Penny, can you tap their comm for me. This guy is psionicly dense."

"Adjusting..."

A few seconds later I heard a burst of static, followed by some guy chewing the hell out of someone.

"That wasn't funny damnit!"

"I didn't say a thing!"

"He didn't say anything, I did. Are you guys on tape at the moment?"

"Who the hell is this?"

"Answer the question. Are you taping this for later transmission?"

"Yes, now who is this?"

I dropped my cloak. "If you would be so kind as to edit this before it goes out over the air, I'd appreciate it. I have enough trouble with Tele-evanglists as it is. You want some help with that thing?"

The guy on the end of the arm finally spotted me. "Holy shit! Commander, you're not going to believe this."

"Don't worry, I see him too."

I looked over at the shuttle windows. Several of the crew were staring back at me, so I waved to them. "Did somebody call for a repairman?"

"Christ, it's that damned Witch."

I almost left right then. "That's Mage, not Witch. When are you assholes going to start paying attention. Now, do you want some help, or do you want to keep fucking with this thing until you turn blue?" I didn't hear anything over the radio, but I could see them talking about it inside the shuttle.

"What help can you be?"

I pointed at the arm and the satellite. Both were still wobbling from the last docking attempt. "You guys are going to be here forever until you figure out how to damp out that wobble. I'll tell you what I can do. If you will make sure the camera never shows the top of the satellite, I'll hold the damn thing steady while you latch on. The folks on the ground need never know I'm there."

"How are you going to hold it still? You have even less leverage then Tom does on the end of the arm."

I flared my flight field for an instant. "Trust me. I got into orbit under my own power. If I don't want that thing to move, it isn't going to go anyplace."

"Ok, I'll give you that one."

"That's nice of you." I had drifted over to the view port so I could see the mission commander up close. He was safe inside his billion dollar tin can, and I was floating in space a few feet away. As he stared back at me, I got the fleeting impression he would have traded places with me if I'd offered.

"Next question, why?"

"Why what?"

"Why help us?"

"Good question. Let me put it this way. I happen to believe in the space program and I don't want to be alone out here. Until people quit trying to kill me and let me teach others how to get out here, you guys are the last company I'm going to see. Good enough?"

"Good enough. I'll get the camera's changed so you don't show in the picture."

"That's all I ask." I flew back to the top of the satellite and gently touched down on it. "You're called Tom, right?"

I could see the astronaut tied to the end of the arm looking back at me. He kept looking at me, then at the bulky spacesuit he was wearing. "Yeah, Tom's the name. Would you answer a question?"

"Probably."

"What's it like to be free in space like that?"

"It's kind of hard to describe. I suppose sex is more exciting, but not by much." I expanded my flight field to encompass the satellite and froze it in place. "Now where do you want this thing placed?"

It took several minutes to explain how they wanted the capture to appear to take place. In the end, I locked the satellite in a fixed position to the shuttle and they moved the arm to let Tom capture it with the docking clamp. With only one thing moving, he got it on the second try. While we had been talking, the shuttle had come within range of the next TDRS and we were on a live feed to NASA. Someone had sent them a coded FAX that warned them of what was going on and told them not to screw with the cameras via remote control. Since we were live, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye over the radio.

*It's all yours. Have fun and keep the faith. Maybe some day I'll get to show you what a real walk in space is like* With a final wave, I accelerated towards the planet below hard enough to leave an airglow trail as I entered the atmosphere. "Hey Penny, you still with me?"

"You left me behind again."

"Sorry, you want to give me directions home again. I think I'm over Africa at the moment. At least that's what it looks like."

"You should have left some bread crumbs for a trail..."