Incongruity
Incongruity
Koenig solves a mystery concerning Sandra in a brief visit to Medical Center where Alan hangs between life and death during events, from ‘The Eagle has Landed’
Medical Center was dimly lit and dead quiet. It reminded her more of a morgue than a place of the yet living. The only sounds in the muted silence were the soft beeps from monitors and the regular exhalations of the man lying in front of her. She knew the surgical nurse sat at the desk behind her and that Helena Russell was still in her office, yet she felt completely alone. The operating room was being kept prepped and on standby. There was a fifty-fifty chance he would live. Or die. Helena said the next seventy-two hours would decide the outcome. If he did not re-bleed into his chest, if the low oxygen levels had not damaged his brain, if…. so many things could still go wrong.
‘Touch and go.’ The three words again sent a wash of cold fear through her body. “Don’t die,” she whispered in to the silence. Discouraged, she sagged back in her chair.
“He’s tough, Sandra. He’s survived worse with less reason. Don’t write him off yet.” Sandra somehow was not surprised to hear the Commander’s quiet voice from behind her. Pilots stuck together, she was learning. She nodded to let him know she heard him. The Commander walked away to return with a chair. He placed it on the other side of the bed and sat down. Silently, they sat in vigil. She was glad to have him there.
“That was one hell of a landing. I don’t think many could have pulled it off. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to try, not with all that power frying every relay and control around me.” Koenig was carefully not looking at Sandra. He knew he could still inadvertently intimidate her, even after all these years. Watching the monitor’s above the head of the bed, he continued quietly, as if not to startle a wild creature. “If we had Eagle simulators, that landing would make for an impressive training program.” Out of the corner of his eye he noted the startle of surprise from Sandra. Yes… I was right, he thought.
“I imagine someone with connections might have been able to get some simulator flight time back on Earth, even if he, or she, wasn’t an astronaut pilot. Someone whose stepmother helped design the engines… Or whose father invented the interstellar transmitter…
“Alan worked on quite a few of the training programs we used in the late 1990’s. He always did like the ones with unexpected twists, especially if he thought the pilot might be getting complacent. Like on the approach to a routine landing.” Koenig still did not make eye contact. He simply let the silence be for a while.
“It took me a while to remember. It was back in ninety-seven, when I was assigned to the ESA’s astronaut training site in Cologne, Germany after the Ultra Probe. There was a visiting Alphan who asked to see the Eagle flight simulators. A young RAF pilot was very persuasive on the visitor's behalf. Was that Peter Rockwell?” Sandra nodded. “Did you try to fly any of the training programs? I’m sorry Sahn, that was a stupid question…. of course you did.
“Flare out? Cricket? Freefall?” The Commander chuckled. “That was his best. The trick was to wait until the Eagle was in free fall and only then pull up on the nose and punch the engines, otherwise, you would crash, most spectacularly if I remember my attempts correctly.” Sandra nodded slightly. “Figured it out, did you?”
The two sat and watched the lights flash regularly and the telemetry squiggles continue their steady march. It was all which showed life persisted in the tattered shell in front of them.
“I’m glad Peter was so persuasive that day. I almost said ‘no.’ You did well, Sahn.”
He stood up and walked around the foot of the bed. He looked gently into the young woman’s eyes. “I’ll let you tell him, once he’s better. He might like to know it was his own much be-damned training programs that saved his skin.” Koenig rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. Nodding toward Alan he added, “Helena always says that it’s important to talk, that you never know if he might hear you.” And with a gentle squeeze on her shoulder, he left.
Sandra picked up Alan’s hand, willing him to live. “I love you.” One hour down, seventy-one to go.
MGK