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at attention and salute. Given Childers’s mood at this point, doing so might have cost him his job—and a chance to go to the Moon.
    “Damn right.” Childers’s tone returned to a more businesslike one as he retraced his steps back toward the other side of his desk. “Was there anything else?”
    “No, sir.”
    “Very good. Now, I’ve got that personnel matter to attend to. If you will excuse me?”
    Taken aback at how this informal “chat” had nearly cost him his job, Gesling arose uncomfortably, but quickly, and walked back toward the office door. As he neared the exit, two models on the rocket table caught his eye. Clearly visible on a simulated lunar landscape were the Apollo lunar lander and the new Altair lander that NASA at this moment was commanding into low lunar orbit as part of their unmanned test flight.
    “Yeah,” he muttered as he opened the door. “I envy those guys.…”
       

Chapter 5
    Mission Specialist Anthony Chow awoke with a start. He turned his head and saw the red LED numbers gleaming on his clock radio, seemingly taunting him as they informed him that it was 2:45 a.m. He looked to his left and saw the slumbering form of Paula, his wife.  
    Thank goodness I didn’t wake her up again, he thought to himself. This was not the first time he’d been awakened by that recurring dream. Merely thinking about what he’d been dreaming caused him to shudder.
    Carefully and ever so slowly, he pulled back the covers and eased himself out of bed. Remaining in the bedroom only long enough to pull on a pair of socks, Chow moved toward the hallway door and then down the hallway and stairs to the kitchen. A late-night cup of hot tea and then a few minutes with the newspaper were becoming a ritual that he’d just as soon not become a habit. And it was all because of that dream. The dream.
    “Tea. Earl Grey—hot,” he said with his best English accent as he stood solidly and looked at the microwave just before it beeped. He pulled the teacup from the appliance and halfheartedly chuckled to himself. “Replicator’s a little slow tonight. Gonna have to get Mr. La Forge up here to have a look at it.” He smiled to himself and sat at the kitchen table.
    After sipping the tea and perusing yesterday’s headlines, Chow once again became drowsy enough to fall back asleep. He put down the teacup and padded his way back up the stairs and into bed. Paula’s regular deep breathing was not interrupted as he pulled the covers up over his shoulders.  
    “Good. I won’t have to tell her that the dream came back.” Chow was asleep in minutes.
      
    As usual, Chow began his day with a 5:30 a.m. run around the neighborhood. He was forty years old, in excellent physical condition, and intended to remain that way. The average age of a payload specialist was forty-two. He still had years of his astronaut career left if he took care of himself. He focused on his breathing and took in the sun as it started to rise. The reds and oranges cast rays across the sky that made getting up early worth it. It was going to be another glorious day with clear blue skies and not a cloud as far as he could see.
    His MP3 player finished his five-mile playlist just as he reached the front porch of his house. He shut the device off, pulled the headbuds from his ears, and eased open the door, uncertain if Paula was awake or not. As he started up the stairs, he passed Paula as she came down them and moved toward the kitchen.  
    “ ’Morning.”
    “Good run?”
    “About the same as usual. I need a shower.” He smiled at his wife.
    She was dressed and ready to begin her day at Oak Park Travel. She was a “travel consultant” for one of the more successful travel companies in Houston. The sight of her slight figure and long blond hair falling seemingly haphazardly over her left shoulder was always enough to remind Anthony why he’d asked her to marry him.
    “I’ll leave breakfast on the counter behind the stove. I’ve