Read Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4) for Free Online Page A

Dave Slager turned himself in place to face Emil Taussan who was running on the Space Station’s simulated weight bearing treadmill. “We should all have known that the figures for the Vulcan 5 were too good to be true!”
    Emil shrugged. “But we all wanted them to be true.”
    Slager grimaced, “You know we’re going to be on short rations up here pretty soon. None of the previous launch programs, Russian, European, or Japanese really have anything in the pipeline. ILX was supposed to keep one of their old launch vehicles ready until they were sure the Vulcan 5 was reliable, but I’ll bet they don’t really have one that they can send up quickly.”
    Emil said, “If it gets too bad surely the Chinese would be willing to supply us.”
    “Hah! Do you know that their capsules won’t even connect to our airlock? They’d have to work up an adapter and you know that nobody will even start on it until it’s almost too late.”
    “What about India?”
    “What about? They could get something up here I suppose, but their capsules are small and I’ll bet they don’t have the correct mechanisms to lock to our door either.”
    “Maybe I should go evaluate the CRV’s rocket nozzle some more? Do you think there’s any chance we could repair it up here?”
    “No chance at all, none, zippo. Even if we had equipment to weld it, the kind of weld we could make wouldn’t hold up to the heat the nozzle generates.”
     
    ***
     
    Ed Candela looked up at a knock on his door. Mike Voight stood there looking grim. “How bad is it?”
    Voight’s shoulders slumped. “Bad! ILX says they have a Vulcan 4 that they can launch in case of trouble but it turns out they don’t have any motors for it! They had been ‘planning to fit it with the new motors’ that they’ve been building for the Vulcan 5! ‘Didn’t want to waste money making any more of the inefficient Vulcan 4 motors!’”
    Candela slammed a fist down on his desk, “Dammit!” He raised his eyes to the ceiling and slumped back in his chair. “How long to make more Vulcan 4 motors?”
    Voight’s eyes rolled. “Six months! They repurposed the fabrication equipment to make the Vulcan 5 engines!”
    Candela sighed and closed his eyes. “Please talk to the Chinese about whether they’d be willing to send a mission to the ISS. We’ll need to start now on building an adaptor to fit their capsule to the station. Then tell ILX we want them to try to send up another supply rocket using their existing Vulcan 5 after they’ve done what they can to stabilize the problem with their rocket motors. We’ve got to at least supply those guys up there somehow if we want them to last until we can get a mission up to retrieve them.”
     
    ***
     
    Roger pulled his pecan pie out of the oven. Living in a family that owned a restaurant made Christmas dinner kind of weird. The Emmerit family tradition was that everyone made one dish. Some of the family made something exotic and new each holiday dinner. Some made something awful, for instance Aunt Gert’s fruitcake. Roger made pecan pie. He’d learned to make a pretty good one years ago and wasn’t interested enough in cooking to try to make something different each time. The doorbell rang as he carried it out to the big buffet the family was setting up. He went to pull the door open. “Well, hello Ms. Donsaii.” A smile threatened to crack his face, “How are you this evening?”
    Ell grinned at him, “Well, I’m just fine Dr. Emmerit, thank you for asking.”
    Roger grinned back, “Please allow me take that.” he took the covered dish she had in her hands. “And your coat?”
    She handed him her coat too, then smirked at him. With both hands full, he wasn’t sure what to do next. Her eyes crinkled, “Perhaps I should take the dish back while you hang up my coat sir?”
    Resignedly he said, “Perhaps so. Pray tell, what’s in the dish?”
    “Mac and cheese. Probably not up to the standards of your family’s