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invitation he immediately accepted.
    Neither man seemed very talkative o n the way to breakfast or in the chow line. Conner finally broke the ice when they sat down to eat.
    “You both have been in space before,” Conner said, peppering his ham and cheese omelet, “Am I right?”
    “Yes, two shuttle missions each,” McKenzie stated, “We were only on one mission together though.”
    “Will this be NASA’s first shuttle launch since the ship arrived?” Conner asked.
    “Of course,” Lentz stated, eyeballing him curiously, “Oh, I forgot that you were in that POW camp for the past few weeks. Yeah, it’s our first physical attempt to communicate with them. China’s gone up already and so did that private organization Virgin Galactic. They accomplished nothing more than proving we can go near the ship without being fired upon. Heck, China went so far as to attach probes to two of the vents.”
    “Really?” Conner asked, taking a bit e of his sausage link, “And the ship didn’t respond at all?”
    “Nothing whatsoever,” Lentz replied, “The probes they placed let us know that the ship is venting off clean CO 2 every six and a half hours from one vent and radioactive steam every fourteen hours from the other. That tells us a lot actually.”
    “They breathe oxygen and consider CO 2 to be a waste product,” Conner offered, “Same as us.”
    “Yes, and they are also using a form of nuclear energy aboard or they wouldn’t have a need to vent off the steam from the reactors,” he replied, “Essentially, these creatures aren’t all that different from us.”
    “Are any other nations planning to go up there?” Conner asked.
    “Not once they heard about our plans,” McKenzie stated, “All eyes are upon us now, same as China had the world’s attention when they put the probes on the vents. For once, the whole world appears to be cooperating.”
    “Yeah, all it took was an alien invasion,” Conner laughed.
    . . . .
    They returned to the rec room by 6:00am and found the General already waiting for them. Conner was impressed to note that David Roberts was in uniform and that his uniform was neatly pressed. Dawn Crossway looked a little better today as her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and the dark circles under her eyes weren’t as prominent. She was however not wearing any makeup again.
    “Today is the day, people,” the General stated, “If you don’t master it today, you never will. No matter what happens, that shuttle is launching at 8:45 tomorrow morning.”
    After a short meeting to layout the plans of the day, the General dismissed them. They had fifteen minutes to report to the gun range where they would learn the effects of aiming and firing weapons while wearing a bulky spacesuit. They would be wearing spacesuits for much of the day as they learned to perform a multitude of tasks while suited up.

Seven
     
    It was almost ten o’clock at night before they were finally excused to return to the BEQ. Roberts, Lentz, and McKenzie were married and had spouses waiting for them to share one last evening together. Their spouses were permitted to stay with them tonight, though they had to leave by 5:00am.
    Conner had no family to speak of and Crossway apparently had the same problem. When Conner returned to the rec room at 10:45, Crossway was seated in the corner with a book in her lap. She glanced up at him for only a second, then returned her attention to her book. He walked toward the corner and took a seat on the nearby couch.
    “No husband or children to see you off?” he asked.
    She glanced up at him, then shook her head. He noticed just then that his belief in her athletic build was correct. She was wearing a tank top now and he could see some nicely defined biceps and forearms. He was ashamed to admit that now he was wondering if his question had been a little too presumptuous of her heterosexuality.
    “No significant others to see you off?” he asked.
    She shook her head again,