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bulldozed out of the jungle and used by
bush doctors, ivory smugglers, and such. And about half the length
needed for a VStar rollout.
    "Reconstructing it, later, the tire marks began just about ten feet
from one end of the runway. There were branches and leaves stuck in the
landing gear. The chutes and the brakes stopped the ship with its nose
gear twenty feet past the other end of the runway. Hitting a water
buffalo with the nose gear probably slowed it down a bit, too."
    Travis had brought the
California
down at dusk. There were
no lights at the field, so the first Americans didn't get there until
the next morning. It was the ambassador to Congo and some of his staff,
and a small contingent of U.S. Marine embassy guards. There had been no
radio contact, so no one knew what to expect.
    "The ambassador stepped out of his helicopter and into the remains
of a fine African barbecue. The crew had raised enough money among them
to pay for the water buffalo, and they had cooked it and danced and
drank long into the night. The farmers and herdsmen from the area all
had souvenirs of some kind. Space suits, crew seat cushions, packets of
Tang, bits and pieces of the instrument panel...
    "So they killed another water buffalo, and the embassy staff, the marines, the
California
crew and passengers feasted all day and toasted everything they could
think of in buffalo blood mixed with vodka. And she sits there still."
    "You're kidding."
    "You doubt the Pig?"
    "No. But I don't get it. NASA gave him a medal... but they made a much bigger deal out of other ships that almost crashed."
    "Going all the way back to
Apollo 13
," Pig confirmed. "Not much they can do if the mission
really
goes balls-up. Three astronauts burned to death on the pad in
Apollo One. Challenger
blew up on live television. No way to soft-pedal those.
    "The
California
wasn't much of a news story for a lot of
reasons. It was over before the media even heard of it. It was remote.
Nothing to show but that big old whale sitting in the dirt. NASA found
the image embarrassing. Everybody was okay, so what's the big deal?
Give him a medal and move on. Nobody's career would be advanced by
making a big deal, except Broussard's... and nobody quite knew what to
do about him."
    "Why not? He sounds like a hero to me."
    "Oh, he was. Maybe the biggest hero NASA ever had. One hell of a bit
of flying, and they still drink toasts to him in astronaut bars...
quietly.
    "You didn't ask me how he made the hole in the spacecraft. The one
that sucked the smoke out and let him see. The hole that saved the
California
and crew."
    "I was going to.
    "It was hushed up. No one on the crew wanted to talk about it, and
neither did anyone higher up in the bureaucracy. But these things leak.
The Pig learned of it years ago, and because of his great respect for
Colonel Broussard, seldom tells it. But I sense you mean Broussard no
harm."
    "Of course not. None of my business."
    "Quite so. Broussard made the hole with a nonstandard piece of astronaut equipment known as a Colt .45 automatic."
    We both just let that one hang there for a minute. A pistol? For what, protection from space aliens?
    "He might have got away with it if he hadn't told the inquiry board
himself. Not one of the passengers or crew said a word about it in
their debriefing. They knew they were alive because of the gun and
Broussard's piloting skills.
    "I have it from one of the inquiry board members that Broussard told
the debriefers he just 'felt naked' without a piece of some sort. So
he'd carried the weapon on all his previous flights."
    Travis became the sort of problem bureaucrats hate. There were those
who wanted to kick his redneck ass out of the astronaut corps, a few
who would like to send him a bill for the
California.
But he
had saved a lot of lives, and those he saved promised a really ugly
fight in the media if Broussard was punished in any way.
    "So they did what the military customarily does when a man screws up
so badly he ends