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propositions her one more time, he’s liable to end up with something removed from his anatomy and stuffed in his mouth by an irate Mr. Tara. I could go on.…” Gesling’s voice trailed off.
    “Ha.” This time Childers’s laugh was genuine. “So, the unflappable Mr. Gesling doesn’t like his job as babysitter-in-chief?”
    “Damn right I don’t” came the clear and unequivocal response.
    “Believe it or not, I understand. But that doesn’t mean I can or will do anything about it. What you need from me isn’t action; you need me to be your counselor. You probably want me to tell you to suck it up and be a man. But I won’t.” Childers sighed and leaned back in his chair before he continued. “Yes, Thibodeau is an ass. He has a reputation for being selfish, self-centered, and an all-around difficult person to work with. He’s also well connected, and if he takes the flight and enjoys it, I suspect at least five others from his circle of friends will sign up for a future flight.”
    “Money, Paul. Money.” Leaning forward for effect, he intoned, “That’s one hundred twenty-five million dollars.” Once again leaning back in his chair, he continued. “Mr. Mbanta is a special case. He doesn’t have many friends eager to fly in space. But there are many filthy-rich Africans who have spoiled family members eager for that next thrill that will be lining up at our door once Mr. Mbanta gets home and the African press runs with his story. I cannot do anything about his overactive libido other than offer your trainers hazardous-duty pay.”
    Paul was taking it in. He knew he had to suck it up, and he knew that it took money, lots of money, to go to the Moon. But he was not sold yet. Gary Childers rose from his seat and walked around his desk to stand by Gesling’s chair.  
    “Paul, I’m the president and CEO of a Fortune 500 company. I don’t just deal with contracts, the futures market, and keep up with the latest green-energy legislation. I find that I spend over half my time managing people. The buck stops here on everything in the company. We recently fired an employee for selling sensitive corporate data to a trading company that was actually owned by a Chinese sovereign investment fund. The guy is now under investigation by the FBI, yet he sues us for some alleged prejudicial misconduct. It seems the man is also a member of some offbeat religious cult, and he claims we singled him out because of it. I can’t tell you how many meetings—how many hours—that’s taken. And the list goes on. I simply do not have time to whine nor to hear my key people do so.”
    “I am not whining. I’m just used to dealing with people who take orders and, most of all, take their mission seriously. Out of the five passengers you’ve given me for the first flight, three are okay. The other two I’d just as soon see kicked out of line and replaced with their backups.”
    “Kicked out?” An incredulous tone appeared in Childers’s voice. “ Captain Gesling, that is simply out of the question. Let me remind you that I have a backup for you. This is a business—not the military—and these are paying customers. They are paying us millions of dollars for this trip, and unless I determine that one of them is a risk to the flight, they will all, by God, be flying. So, and I said I wouldn’t say this, but by damn, suck it the hell up, Paul! Stop your damned whining and do your job. Make it work and quit involving me at every hiccup!” The tone in Childers’s voice went from incredulous to borderline anger, and it was clear that he wasn’t going to put up with much more of Paul’s whining. Gesling really hadn’t thought of it as whining until just then.
    “Yes, sir!” was all Gesling could say at this point. He was used to following orders, and that was exactly what had just happened. He had trained too long and too hard to let Thibodeau and Mbanta cost him a trip to the Moon. It was all he could do not to stand