Zero-G by Alton Gansky Read Free Book Online Page B

put you back in orbit. Too many questions.” He raised a hand. “I know you’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing or error. In fact, the world thinks you’re a hero. They should. I do too; otherwise I wouldn’t be here right now.”
    â€œStill, it’s pretty cocky to say you know what NASA will or won’t do.”
    â€œHave you been getting odd looks from others on the astronaut corps? Do they look at you like you’re a Jonah?”
    Tuck didn’t answer and he hoped his face didn’t tip his hand. He would never admit it to anyone — never admitted it to himself — but he had caught a few questioning stares. Worse were the fleeting looks that broadcast doubt or pity.
    â€œI know your kind is the best and brightest. You’re not only superjocks but brainiacs too.”
    â€œYou may be exaggerating.” Tuck tossed his gloves on the table.
    â€œOnly to a point. Let’s face it: you guys breathe a different air than the rest of us mortals.”
    â€œI’m just a man like you, Roos. I have a family. My back hurts if I work in the yard too long.”
    Roos laughed. “Three times you let them harness you into a vehicle strapped to thousands of pounds of explosive fuel. Before that, you flew fighter jets. In between you were a test pilot.” He laughed again. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure your kind is different.”
    â€œNormally, I’m a patient man, Mr. Roos — ”
    â€œI want you to work for me.”
    Tuck’s mind chugged to a stop. “What?”
    â€œI want you to quit NASA, retire from the Navy, and join me on the front lines of space. I want you to help turn humans into a space-faring people.”
    It was Tuck’s turn to laugh. “NASA has been doing that for decades.”
    â€œOne time, maybe, but not so much now. Look, Commander . . . they call you Tuck, right? May I call you Tuck?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œFine. Have it your way, Commander. You know as well as I do that NASA has been tasked to go back to the Moon and then on to Mars. President Bush laid that down in 2004. All well and good. And they’re planning to do it in the same fashion they’ve gone about everything else, chained to big businesses as contractors. They will spend billions upon billions. The estimated cost of sending astronauts to Mars is five hundred billion dollars.”
    â€œAnd you don’t think we should spend that kind of money.”
    â€œOf course we should. I think we should spend more. It’s not as if NASA is breaking the US budget. Their percentage of the national budget is little more than a sliver. Less than seventeen billion dollars. The National Institute of Health gets twice the funds.”
    â€œMost people think NASA gets too much money.”
    â€œI’m not one of them. Let’s get down to it, Commander. The Shuttle program is on the way out. In a few years, its budget will be less than 1 percent of all NASA dollars. How many orbiters do you think will be riding the flame into space? Not many.”
    â€œWork on the ISS continues and will continue.”
    â€œSure it will, but who cares? It took thirty years and a hundred billion dollars to get it to this point. For NASA, low-Earth orbit is passé. Good work has been done. Worthwhile experiments have been performed. But near-Earth work is now on NASA’s back burner.”
    â€œThere’s plenty of excitement with the effort to reach the Moon again and Mars.”
    â€œLike I said, I’m all for it, but with the end of near-Earth missions, a vacuum has been created. If you’ll pardon the pun.”
    â€œAnd you want to fill it?”
    â€œMe and others like me. I plan to put people in space.”
    â€œRich people.” Tuck knew where this was going.
    â€œAt first, but the dream is to make space available to almost everyone: carpenters, educators, and business people.”
    â€œSounds noble but not