Good Morning, Sunshine!
Just a brief glimpse into the life of International Space Agency astronaut Sandra Harris.
I wrote this to go along with a lovely image a friend commissioned from Pac of my astronaut jackal. I can't thank either of them enough for it! Please make sure to favorite the original over here!
"Good Morning, Sunshine!," by Golden Fox.
"Okay, let's try getting a couple near that little crater to the west."
Sandra blinked a bit and turned to look at where the other figure was pointing. The move had been something she'd discovered on Earth to be more than a little annoying, as it required her to turn her whole body in order to properly look at something. It afforded her a good look at the state of the tiger's white Constellation EVA suit in the process. It was stained charcoal gray from the boots up to his hips, and the once brilliant emblem of a phoenix soaring over the lunar south pole was now a dull gray from his months of work at the lunar base. She could only imagine what her own mission patch and suit would look like after three more months on the surface.
Off in the direction the tiger had pointed, a small crater only a few hundred feet across sat and beyond it lay the yawning expanse of Shackleton itself, a vast hole in the surface of the Moon over two and a half miles deep and more than twelve and a half miles wide. As tired as she was, she nodded and couldn't suppress a grin as she took a quick sip from the straw in her helmet. "I like how we're calling that crater 'little', David."
Despite the helmet on the other figure, she could almost hear the grin through the speakers in the 'Snoopy Cap' in her helmet. "Compared to our old friend Shackleton over there, this fella's tiny, yeah. That's the one, though. Up for a little hike?"
The jackal frowned. "Not especially, no, but I suspect that the fact you're bouncing that way now means we're going."
"Smart puppy! Knew you got here with that brain of yours."
While the tiger's back was turned, she took a quick moment to give him the finger with one of her gloves... maybe he couldn't see it, but the cameras on the rover could, and she delighted in that idea. She took another sip of water from the straw in her helmet and sighed. "Okay. Before I do the kangaroo move again, do you mind if I pick some different music? I'm starting to really get sick of Hank Williams at this point."
Sanders immediately stopped bounding forward and stumbled to a stop. His tail, covered by his space suit and looped through a strap like a motorcyclist's on his right leg, didn't have the freedom of motion to lash around, but she did spot the tip of it flick in annoyance. "...you're from the South. It is physically impossible to get sick of Hank Williams if you're from there."
The jackal shrugged and pointed to her left arm. Above the Omega Speedmaster on its Velcro strap, the suit's cuff computer sat. It was a glorified smartphone that the agency had certified for use in a vacuum on the Moon as a modern replacement for the pages of paper that were used on Apollo. What appeared to be a playlist of songs sat on it and she smirked. "Maybe, but if you play "Honky Tonkin'" one more time, I'm going to throw a rock at you."
The tiger held up his hands. "Alright, alright, keep your diaper on."
"You know for a fact that I'm not wearing one, Sanders."
"Yeah, yeah. Alright, pick something good and grab the drill, if you don't mind. I'll get the cart."
Sandra couldn't help but give a flick of her tail in triumph at that. The feline had picked every song so far on the trip out to explore a few locations near Armstrong Base. They were on their second day of the five day field trip and it had started to wear on the jackal. Glancing at the cuff computer, she tapped a few buttons on it. The glass and plastic cover over the device were starting to scratch... that was something they were going to need to bring up in the post-flight conference, she suspected. After a moment, a soft guitar began to strum on the radio frequency and Sanders slowed again to listen to the voice that began to sing.
Didn't know what time it was and the lights were low, I leaned back on my radio. Some cat was layin' down some rock 'n' roll, 'lotta soul he said.
The grin from the other figure a few feet away was almost audible. "Alright. You get that one for free. Keep 'em coming, DJ."
Sandra nodded and grabbed the large drill from the dirt nearby, hopping forward to join the tiger as he dragged the sample cart towards their next location. Bowie's words felt like a tonic as she skipped forward again. Some of the exhaustion wore off as Ziggy Stardust seemed to reach into the future from a time when the crew of Apollo 16 had done the same things they were now doing on the Moon. And here she was now, some part of her realized... one of those children he was telling to lose it, use it and boogie. It was crazy, the more she thought of it. A decade into the 21st Century and here she was, still a kid, bounding around in the footsteps of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan... and next to her was one of the four men who had returned people to the Moon only a few years earlier after a hiatus of 39 years. Of course...
"Whoops!" The tiger tripped on a rock in the dirt and stumbled forward onto his hands and knees. "... ah! Dagnabbit! Hang on..."
The jackal moved over to help him up and help pick up some of the scattered items from the cart, trying not to tip over herself. She still didn't fully understand why 1/6th gravity was just enough to really screw with your vestibular system and make you fall over. "... okay, hang on... I'll get these cores back in there."
The tiger nodded a little and paused a second. "You as tired as I'm feeling? I swear I saw that boulder, I know I did, and I still walked into it." This, she mused to herself, was more than likely why Sanders was the second person out of the Altair module on both of his lunar missions. She nodded a little as she grabbed another spilled sample and placed it back in the cart.
"Yeah, I'm getting worn out. This thing's a lot harder to move in than I thought before coming up here."
"Yeah, no shit... turn down the music a sec, would you?"
"Sure, no problem." She paused to adjust the volume on the music from the cuff computer.
"Thanks." Sandra heard a soft beep on the frequency before he spoke again. "Sierra, this is Rover 1. Uh. Listen, we're getting a bit worn out. This next crater's a little farther out than we thought, so I think if it's alright with Magnolia, we're going to cut the EVA short here and play catch-up tomorrow."
"Rover 1, standby." The voice sounded like that of the commander for Sanders' flight, Harold Hamilton. The wolf was something of a legend within the astronaut office. A veteran Space Shuttle commander, he and Sanders had been the obvious choices to send on the first lunar landing of the new millennium and the first lunar base construction mission. He and Sanders probably stood a good shot at leading a mission to Mars, but God only knew when that would be. The jackal picked up a slightly odd rock near the cart and frowned at it as they waited for mission control in Louisiana to respond to their request. It had an odd shine to it and she reached for a sample bag.
"Hey, David, while they're cooling their heels, check this out..." She held the rock out to him to examine.
"Huh. That's interesting, ain't it?" He gave it a light brush with a gloved finger. "That one from here?"
"Yep. Found it next to the cart."
"Good eye. Got a bag for it?"
"Sure do, yep... Here we go. Uh. Sample number's PX-09-5981."
"Alright. Bag 154, then. Huh, there's another one right there, look at that." He pointed near her to another rock in the soil. The tiger reached for his camera as she zipped the sample bag shut. After taking a quick photo of it, he moved to bag it himself.
"Rover 1, Magnolia just got back to us, sorry. They're in agreement with that and say if you want to leave the crater for tomorrow, they're alright with that. You're looking good on the core sites so far, so you should be fine to hold off for the night."
"Okay, Harry, and guess what, sports fans? Our junior geologist may have found something neat out here. Got a couple of pieces of what looks like basalt here with some pretty nice looking veins of olivine in it... We're going to take a couple of samples and then call it, I think."
There was a noticeable pause on the frequency as the tiger handed Sandra the sample bag and took a photo of the identification tag on the top.
"Okay, David, sounds good. Doctor Trentlear would like you to mark the site, if you can. They want you to gather a few samples from there tomorrow before moving to the crater."
Sandra frowned a little. "Mark it? With what? A golf flag or something?"
The tiger chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, Alan Shepard isn't here to lend us one... that's not a bad idea, though."
She stared at him as though he had sprouted antlers from his helmet. "David? You sure your O2's flowing okay?"
"Yes, you silly-... alright, hand me that drill bit. The meter long one. I've got an idea."
Sandra reached into the cart and produced a large drill bit. The tiger smiled and hammered the drill bit into the soil a few times with a rock hammer to make sure it was upright, then pointed to her leg. "Alright. You found it... mind if I borrow one of your stripes?" She glanced down to her right leg and nodded, pulling off one of the gold stripes on her EVA suit. Each of the crew had unique ones to keep track of each astronaut on video when there could be up to four (or more) people on the surface at once. Hers were gold, and the ones on her leg were simply affixed on with buttons. She handed one to the tiger, who tied it around the drill bit and stood up with a slight bounce of triumph. "Voila! We have a flag."
She grinned at him and nodded, giving him the thumbs up. "Hey, clever idea. Think it'll stay up?"
"Should do until tomorrow, if nothing else. Let's go, though. I'm getting beat out here, and there's a steak with my name on it in that rover."
"Keep the steak, I'll take that chicken I saw with some spinach on the side."
"Oh, hey, now you're talking. Alright, I've got the drill. You take the cart this time."
"Okay, got it."
The two picked up their respective supplies before turning around towards the large rover parked a few hundred feet away. The rover was still surprisingly clean for the few months of driving it had endured at the base. The vehicle was about the size of a large recreational vehicle, with six pairs of wheels per side on the large chassis. A pair of airlocks were set into each side of the machine, and a pair of smaller ports were set into the rear of the cabin where the suits "docked" to the vehicle. NASA had gone with so-called "suitports" on the vehicle, and the International Space Agency had carried on with the idea given how terrible lunar dust was for someone's lungs. Sandra, for her part, had needed only a single trip out to the lunar surface to see the brilliance of the idea. As she hopped forward toward the front of the vehicle, she noticed the slightly odd touch someone had added at the front of the vehicle under the bulbous windows and the lower headlights: A Louisiana license plate, emblazoned with a gold fleur-de-lis and the words "WORLD CHAMPIONS" below the number, which had been customized to read "RVR01". Someone had apparently spent a lot of money on a license plate for a vehicle which would never actually drive on Earth... and a customized one at that. Clearly, some football fans were a little more diehard than others. The jackal grinned and moved past the left airlock to the rear of the vehicle, where a second chassis with a cargo container on it was hooked up to the rover. This one acted as their trailer, and the tiger placed the drill back onto it in its spot as Sandra leaned the sample cart next to it. "I'm going to leave the samples right here, if that's alright, David."
"Should be, yeah. Remind me to make a note and slap it on the dash, so we don't move with it there tomorrow."
"Okay, will do. Heads up, moving to the right port to ingress."
"Okay. Heading to mine, then. See you inside in a bit."
Sandra nodded and hopped onto the rear of the rover. The motions to reconnect the suit to its respective port on the rover had taken her a good bit of practice on Earth to master, but even then it still took her longer than she liked. After a moment, a small screen set between the suits flashed a message at her: "EVA 2 SUIT CONNECTED. INGRESS CHECKLIST:" Below the message was a checklist of items required to open the port on the rear of the suit, allowing her access to the vehicle's interior. After going through it, she felt the back of the suit swing out and felt the cool air of the rover's interior flooding past her. She withdrew her arms from the gloves and contorted a bit to slip her muzzle free of the helmet before scratching her nose with a sigh of relief. From behind her, the tiger smirked as the sound of fabric hitting the deck of the rover could be heard.
"Heads up, I'm in the front with the blind covering it, so you're good to change... by the way, why didn't you just use the valsalva thing in the helmet?"
Sandra turned to glare at the front of the vehicle, where a green curtain had been drawn to divide the rear from the cockpit. A white and black striped tail flicked a little from under it before withdrawing behind the curtain. "I couldn't reach it with my nose. You've got a smaller one than I do, pussy-cat."
"Yeah, well, we can't all be perfect, kiddo."
"This is why people hate cats, you know." She shook her head a bit and grabbed a handlebar set above the port, which she used to pull herself out of the suit. The liquid cooling and ventilation garment (the glorified pair of long underwear with tubes sewn into it) she wore was soaked with sweat and she winced, unfastening it to take it off. She placed it on the lid of the small toilet set between the two ports, pausing a second or two at the realization of just how undressed the move had left her. "David, please tell me you turned the cameras off."
"Hm? Oh, darn, I forgot. You just gave CNN a good peepshow! Whoops, that's going to be one for the Christmas-"
"David, I swear to God, I'm going to hurt you if it's actually on."
The tiger stuck both hands around the curtain, holding his palms out to the jackal as she frowned and toweled the sweat from her fur. "Relax, relax, Jesus. Yeah, they're off. Frankly, I'm more worried about E.T. spotting me flashing my butt out the window at him than anything else."
Sandra sighed and moved to the left side of the rover to unzip a bag of clothes she'd left by the airlock door. They'd made a mistake of picking the wrong bunks on the first night of the trip and had stuck with it out of sheer laziness. "Other than the six other people here, man, the closest people who could see you would need a telescope and a couple of telephoto lenses to see anything." There was a palpable pause for a second or two before she sighed. "I wasn't making any jokes about the size of your HANDS, tiger."
"Didn't think so, but thanks for the clarification!"
She rolled her eyes and pulled on a pair of underwear and shorts. After a bit of rummaging around in the bag, she pulled a black shirt out and smiled. On the front of it, an image of an art deco style winged toaster lay emblazoned between the words "WHERE THERE'S A JOB TO BE DONE, THE FLYING TOASTERS WILL BE THERE!" It had been a gift from the astronauts of the group she'd been selected in a few years before. The twenty-four other men and women of ISA Astronaut Group 18 had all collectively chosen to adopt the name "The Flying Toasters" in tribute to a screen saver which had featured the aforementioned winged toasters flapping across the screen. As she turned it over, their names were all screened onto the shirt, like a high school graduating class, divided into pilots and mission specialists, all in alphabetical order. She had ordered a few of the shirts and it would have been almost criminal not to bring one with her on her mission. After digging around for a bra, she slipped the shirt on and sighed. "Alright, David, I'm decent again."
"I call B.S. on that, but okay, I'll take your word for it."
"I'm clothed again, David."
"Ah, there, you see, that's better!" The tiger grinned and moved the curtain aside to reveal the lunar landscape outside. "Anyway, I'm going to get the grub going. Chicken for you, right?"
She nodded a bit and gestured to the front of the vehicle, where four screens sat in front of the seats. "We watching a movie or something tonight?"
Sanders pulled what looked like a metal suitcase out from where it was stored next to the right airlock door before he pulled down the bunk from its stored position and locked it into place on the floor. He glanced over to the toilet, blinking at the LCVG on it. Sandra flushed softly before moving to hang it in the cockpit of the rover to dry as Sanders set the suitcase on his bed and plugged a small power cord into it. "There we go. I'd prefer not to, if that's alright. Music?"
Sandra leveled a cool glare at the tiger before dropping down her own bed. She reached above it to a set of cloth drawers hung from the ceiling of the rover in front of the left airlock door as she growled back at him softly. "If you suggest Hank Williams again..."
The tiger rolled his eyes before opening the suitcase. Inside, a metal plate with straps had been positioned. The tiger placed a pair of MRE style packets within the suitcase and nodded a bit before sealing it up again. "Nah, nah, you pick."
The jackal nodded and reached for a different drawer, pulling an iPhone and a Bluetooth speaker out after a moment of digging. "Okay. Say, did you make a note about the cart?"
The feline nodded and gestured to the cockpit, where a small Post-It note sat on one of the screens of the rover. "Got it, thanks. Spinach, right?"
"Yeah, please. I'm starving." The tiger dug into a similar set of drawers on his side of the vehicle, pulling out a bag of dehydrated spinach, along with one that appeared to contain green beans. He plugged the first bag into a small panel on the wall of the rover, where hot water was injected into the packet. After handing the spinach to Sandra, he repeated the process with his own bag. Sandra placed it next to her phone, which had started to play a bit of Coldplay, and began to rummage for her silverware.
"You know something," the tiger started, stretching as much as he could in the cramped space. "I'm going to sleep like a sack of bricks tonight. You'd think this would get easier as it goes along up here."
Sandra shrugged and gestured at him with a fork before she cut open the packet of spinach. "You'd know more about it than me, David."
The tiger paused for a few moments before smiling at her a bit. "You know, you don't give yourself enough credit, kid."
Sandra paused, her fork halfway to her muzzle. "Huh?"
"Come on. You don't think they spent God knows how much money to train you and you still don't think you're supposed to be here?"
The jackal sighed and placed the fork back into the spinach, rubbing her neck with her other hand. "Oh, come on, David. There are better people out there than me. I cut in front of actual scientists and geologists and people who worked their asses off to get the chance to be here... just 'cause I know the sad sap you flew up here with."
The tiger shrugged. "Maybe. That sad sap of a fox is the director of the space agency, though."
Sandra nodded and felt her ears splay out. "And that makes it better? Hell, that means he and I both cut the line."
Sanders cut open his packet of green beans with deliberate slowness before taking a deep breath. "Let me ask you something, kiddo. How many field geology classes did they give you?"
Sandra blinked a few times. "About... ten? A lot, I lost track."
The tiger nodded and took a bite of his green beans. "Okay. Let's say I pass out in the bunk here from the Andromeda Strain or from a terminal case of hemorrhoids. Do you know how to drive back to the base in this thing?" She slowly nodded again and the tiger smiled warmly. "Look, Sandra. Maybe you got up here 'cause your mom works for a guy whose ego is big enough to see on the ground with a pair of binoculars. Maybe he has a soft spot in his heart because your brother died and you wouldn't accept no for an answer until he caved in and gave you a spot. I don't know. Honestly? Anybody who actually gives a damn about that can stick it in that crater over there out the window." He hooked his thumb towards the windows of the rover. "Who really gives a shit? What, like you didn't bust your ass to get here? You're the-" He paused a second and counted on his fingers. "32nd? 31st? person to walk on the Moon. They can't take that away from you and they don't just give that sort of thing away."
Sandra stared at her spinach and sighed softly. "I just-... it feels like I'm in a dream. Like I'm not supposed to be here."
Sanders smirked. "Well, shit, Sandra, that's a normal reaction to this. Hell, I wake up and it's like I'm in Oz. I mean, there's eight of us up here and we're in a car on the Moon! That kind of crap is the stuff you read in a science fiction novel. You know that rock you picked up earlier?"
"Yeah?"
"That thing? That might be something important. It might be some rock that tells some guy down on Earth something nobody has ever known about the Moon before. And you picked that up. I didn't see it at all. Hell, I tripped over its big cousin and nearly kept going. You know what that means? That means you know what the hell you're doing up here." The tiger reached over and patted her gently on the shoulder. "Besides, if anyone gives you shit, you're tough enough to kick their ass. Trust me, I know. Besides, you're stubborn as all hell. That's got to count for something."
The jackal stared at the other figure and sighed. "Thanks, David. Sorry, I just-..." She trailed off and sighed before he shook his head.
"Ah, relax, don't worry about it. Just trust yourself a little, yeah? I mean, shit, you're doing great work. And you're a rookie. We're not going to expect you to leap out here and own everything we do. You're mortal, not Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel. Shit happens." The timer on the wall of the rover beeped and the tiger grinned before moving to open the Suitcase Food Warmer that served as their oven. He grabbed the packets from within by the corners and handed one gingerly to her. "Alright now, Self doubt time's over. Eat up. We've got a crater to hike up tomorrow."
* * * * * * * *
Someone was playing music. Whoever it was, Sandra decided, had earned the right to die a painful death for disrupting her sleep and waking her from a profound, if slightly strange, series of dreams. She whimpered softly and covered her head with her pillow, trying to cover her ears as best she could. The sound was coming from the front of the rover and someone was humming nearby. Awareness slowly began to return to her as she remembered a few details of the day before, and she had just started to worry she had overslept and missed the wake-up call for the day when a loud clicking sound caught her attention.
"Ah, crap. Still blurry."
Under the pillow, her eyes opened again as the sound came again from the other side of the vehicle. Her tall ears swiveled towards the sound and she pulled the pillow off her face to turn towards the source.
A tall white Siberian tiger dressed in long underwear with small tubes sewn into it was humming along to Greg Bates as he held a Nikon camera wrapped in what looked like the material that covered their space suits. He was staring through the viewfinder of the camera, aiming it towards the front of the rover at the control panels. Sandra frowned a bit and turned to slip off the bed as Sanders took another picture, a few more bars of 'Fill In the Blank' slipping from his muzzle. The camera's shutter clicked loudly again and she saw his tail flick a little.
"Ah-ha! Gotcha in focus now, you little son of a-"
"David," Sandra growled. "If you tell me the time is anything before 7 AM, I swear you're going to lose some whiskers."
The tiger's grin didn't leave his lips as he turned towards her, still looking through the camera. "Ah, mademoiselle! Très jolie you are!" He turned the camera sideways a moment, doing an atrociously bad impersonation of a French accent. "Ze lighting, she is terrible, but vwe vwork with it, I think!"
She glared at him again and reached out for the camera as he straightened back up and rotated it again. "Alright, very funny, Coco Chanel."
Sanders grinned and flicked his tail once more. He dropped the accent. "Hey, perfect! Hold that pose, would you?" She heard the camera click once more and she growled loudly at him.
"You ass! I just got up!"
Sanders nodded and winced. "Yeah, I know. Your hair looks terrible. This ought to be funny to see posted on Twitter later."
A brief vision of a tiger with their tail caught in the inner door of the lunar base's main airlock flashed through her head as she reached for her fallen pillow and hurled it at him. Sanders chuffed softly and ducked. "Hey, Jesus! Calm down. We'll run it through Photoshop, put some filters on it, and-"
"David," Sandra snarled softly as she fumbled in one of the drawers next to the bed. "When I get some coffee in me and can fully function again, I'm going to plan my revenge for that stunt."
The tiger's grin faltered for a second. "Aw, come on, have a little fun, why don't you?"
She felt herself grin from one ear to the other slowly. "Oh, I will. And trust me, it'll be epic and I'll certainly enjoy every moment of it. Hell, I'll even take a few snapshots of it for you..."
The feline stared at her a second, the camera slowly lowering from his face. "Alright, see, now you're starting to freak me out, kiddo." He glanced at the control panel of the rover a second, and then at the suitports on the back of the vehicle. "HEY! I just thought of something!" He had apparently forgotten the childhood concept of an "inside voice" for a moment and rapidly placed the camera on his bed, moving to the open port connected to his suit. "Going to go get a head start and surprise NASA and our guys in Louisiana. See you-" He paused a second and stared at her. The jackal's grin hadn't faltered. "You know what? Take your time. See you in a bit!" With that, he rapidly slipped into his suit and shut the back panel.
Sandra took a deep breath as she heard the suit disconnect from the rover. "Going to get him for that stunt," she sighed softly. She frowned and glanced at her watch. It was 5:48 AM, and they weren't due to start the day for a few minutes. She sighed and fumbled in the drawers for a moment. After a few minutes of searching, she pulled out what looked like a silver tube of toothpaste. The label on the tube featured the logo of the Phoenix Program, a vivid firebird, and had the words "HASH BROWNS WITH BACON" written on it in colorful text. She placed it on the bed and fished another tube out, this one labeled "CAFFEINATED APPLE PIE", as well as two straws that screwed into the tubes. She grinned and placed the items in a small "equipment lock" on one side of the vehicle, sealing it tightly. She'd be able to open it on the surface and get them. "Breakfast of champions," she muttered softly and reached up to close the curtain to the cockpit of the rover to change.
* * * * * * * *
The line for coffee at the Starbucks in Building 2 was incredibly long and Sandra felt her ears fold against her head looking at it. She took a quick glance at a badly scuffed Omega Speedmaster watch on her left arm, the Velcro strap permanently stained gray from lunar dust. Lunch would be over soon, and she was due in her next class within the hour. She didn't mind the excuse to delay learning about how many different ways a person could permanently damage the Hubble Telescope, but knew it was a necessary evil. She'd never be forgiven if she accidentally ruined Hubble forever on the ISA's first mission to it.
The tiger standing directly in front of her growled softly and muttered something in Russian as the husky ordering at the counter fumbled for his wallet. He had to be one of the people on the day's behind the scenes tour. He was clearly too busy eyeing the murals on the walls of the expansive cafeteria in between bouts of trying to spot astronauts to properly focus on ordering. Perfect. Taking a deep breath, Sandra decided it was time to employ technology to her advantage and stepped out of line. She rummaged in her pocket for her phone for a moment while leaning next to the glass wall of the small gift shop in the room and finally pulled the device out, her finger unlocking it as she eyed another few pilots glaring at the canine at the register. She placed her order on the coffee chain's app and sighed as she glanced down at the screen: YOUR ORDER WILL BE READY IN 5-7 MINUTES. Well... it was an improvement, if nothing else.
Sighing, she glanced at the far wall, near the cafeteria's main registers, where an expansive mural to the space program was. On it, a pair of suited figures were depicted shaking hands on the surface of Mars, the flags of the United States and of Russia covered with a thin layer of red dust on their respective arms. She smiled at the sight. They were still a few months removed from that scene, assuming all went well, but the launch of Ares 1 the month before had finally meant that mural wasn't an overly optimistic vision of the Agency's goals in space. It was finally happening. Six representatives of the planet Earth were going to be leaving boot prints on the Red Planet in about four months time and it continued to amaze her. She shook her head slowly and sighed. They truly lived in interesting times. Shaking her head slowly, she glanced back at her phone. Her order was almost ready. She walked back to the kiosk, where the husky who'd been holding up the line had wisely taken his order and moved off to rejoin his tour group. The barista grinned at her and shook his head. The jackal just shrugged and reached out to take the tall cup of coffee the otter handed her.
She was halfway to the doors leading to the administration building when she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. Sandra slowed a little and pulled it out to check it. There was a single new email message in her inbox and she stared at the email in confusion a moment.
_From: ARES 1 - PLT (D. SANDERS) RE: SERVING TEMPERATURE OF DISHES _
She stared at her phone in confusion for a few minutes. David had been emailing her a few times in the lead up to his flight, and she'd been grateful for the tiger's insights into how the Shuttle worked, now that she had been assigned to a flight on one. This, though, didn't seem like something they'd talked about before and her phone was steadfastly refusing to show her a preview of the message. Sighing, she tapped it and opened it fully.
Now that we're in deep space, I can send this without worrying about you getting revenge on me. At least I'm safe for the next two years. We're even. See you on TV - David.
Below the brief message, an image showing a floating plastic spider appeared. It took her a moment, but then she remembered and her heart skipped a beat. It had been her way of getting revenge on the feline for the photo. She'd taped a small plastic spider to the inside of his helmet and when he'd slipped into the suit on their last day out on the field trip, he'd had the single greatest moment of panic she'd ever seen. She'd nearly wet herself laughing and had regretted not having a diaper on at the time. Now, five years later, it could only mean one thing. The second image hadn't loaded, and she took a deep breath as she tapped the button to download it.
Her own face glared back at her, her hair a complete mess from the lack of a brush, and her hand reaching out towards where she knew a Nikon camera had been. The coffee in her hand nearly slipped and she quickly gripped it harder to keep it from tumbling to the floor.
"That son of a bitch," she snarled. Below the image, another short message had been typed out.
P.S. - Relax, I didn't post it anywhere. Like I said, we're even. Screw up that telescope, though, and I post this from here to Pasadena. ;) Your move, though. See if you can one up this on the practical joke scale.
She rolled her eyes and growled again. Even a quarter of the way to Mars, the man and his strange sense of humor were completely insufferable.
"If and when he gets back," she sighed, pushing open the doors that led towards the main atrium within the administration building. "I am going to punch him so hard in the balls his stripes will fly off..." As the thought went through her mind, she grinned and felt herself wagging slightly. He'd be on Mars for two years. It was more than enough time to devise the mother of all revenges for this. She sighed and saved the picture to her phone before powering it off, her mind full of plots to get revenge on the feline as she walked towards her classes.