Phases of Gravity

'Yessir, twice,' says Toliver. 'Once in the morning and again after I got the call from Major Munsen telling me that Congressman Muldorff would be flying it.'

'Did Dave do a preflight?'

'Sure did,' says Toliver. 'He said he had to connect with a commercial flight in Salt Lake, but he still took time to look at my PIF and did his own look-see. Did it right, too.'

'And you're convinced that the aircraft was airworthy?'

'Yessir,' says Toliver and there is steel in his voice. 'You can read my PIF 720, sir. They say there was a structural failure after takeoff and I can't argue with what happened, but as far as we could tell from the external inspection and cockpit check, that machine was in perfect order. The engines were new, sir. Less than twenty flying hours on them.' Baedecker nods. 'Kitt, did Dave do anything or say anything during the preflight that you thought was unusual?' Toliver frowns slightly. 'During the preflight? No, sir. Oh, he told me a joke about . . . uh . . . well, about having oral relations with a chicken. But other than that, no sir.' Baedecker grins. 'Did he have luggage with him?'

'Yes, sir. An Air Force flight bag. And the big package.'

'Big package?' says Baedecker.

'Yessir, I told Colonel Fields and the team all about that.'

'Tell me,' says Baedecker.

Toliver lights a cigarette. 'Not much to tell, sir. I went back to the wardroom to get a jacket, and when I came back Congressman Muldorff had loaded a box out of his car.

'How big a box?'

Toliver holds out his hands to signify a shape about two feet by two feet.

'Did it go into the storage locker?' asks Baedecker.

'No, sir,' says Toliver. 'When I got back to the plane, the congressman was settling in and the box was strapped in the backseat.'

'Well strapped in?' asks Baedecker. 'Any chance it could have come loose in flight?'

'No, sir,' replies Toliver. 'It was well secured. Seat belt and harness.'

'Was the backseat armed?' asks Baedecker.

Toliver shakes his head. 'No, no reason for it to be.'

'But Dave's seat was?'

'Yes, sir,' says Toliver and the silent of course, idiot, is all but audible. Baedecker takes some notes on a small pad. 'Did he tell you what was in the box?'

'Yessir,' says Toliver and grins. 'He said it was a birthday present for his son. I said, ‘How old's your boy?' The congressman sort of smiled and said, ‘He'll be one minute old in about two weeks.' Said his wife was due about January seven.'

'Did he say what the present was?' asks Baedecker.

'No, sir. I just said, ‘Congratulations, sir,' and we got him ready for takeoff.' Baedecker closes the notebook and holds out his hand. 'Thanks, Kitt. I appreciate your time. If you think of anything else, you can get in touch with me through Major Munsen.'

'Will do,' says Toliver. He turns to go and then pauses. 'Colonel, there was the one unusual thing I told the team about. I thought you'd probably heard about what the congressman'd said, but maybe you haven't yet.'

'What's that?' asks Baedecker.

'Well, when I was ready to pull the ladder off, I said ‘Have a good flight, sir.' I always say that. And Congressman Muldorff, he sort of grins and says, ‘Thanks, Sergeant, I'm planning on it. This is going to be my last one.' I did-n't think about it much at the time, but it's been bothering me since the crash. What do you think he meant, sir?'

'I'm not sure,' says Baedecker.

Toliver nods but does not leave. 'Yessir. Did you know him well, sir?' Baedecker starts to reply but pauses. 'I'm not sure,' he says at last. 'We'll see.'

'Hey,' said Dave, 'I'm feeling a bit beaucoup drunk.'

'Affirmative,' said Baedecker.

They had cut firewood all Sunday morning in the hills above Lonerock. Baedecker had enjoyed the hard work, the sweat evaporating quickly in the high, cool air. Then they had loaded the pickup, eaten a lunch of thick corned-beef sandwiches with plenty of mustard, had a couple of beers from the cooler, driven back to Lonerock, had a beer or two on the way, unloaded the truck, stacked the wood in the shed behind Dave's house, had a beer, brought the truck back, and had a couple of beers with Kink. Then they had returned to the house to sit on the porch and drink beer.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when Dave made his announcement. 'Jesus, drunk from beer,' he said. 'That's high school stuff, Richard.'

'Affirmative,' said Baedecker.

'Hey, you know what we forgot to do? We forgot to tell you to have me remind you to remind me to take you up to see my dad's ranch.'

'Yes,' said Baedecker. 'Remind me to remind you to do that tomorrow.'

'Nuts with that,' said Dave. 'Let's do it now.' Baedecker followed him down to the jeep and watched as Dave tossed things into the backseat. Baedecker eased himself into the passenger seat, taking care not to spill his beer. 'What're we, moving up there or what?'

'Have dinner there,' said Dave, setting the last of the cargo in place and clambering into the left seat. 'Ignition sequence countdown.'

'Check,' said Baedecker, swiveling to look at the heaped backseat.

'Cooler?'

'Check.'

'Beer?'

'Check.'

'Barbecue grill?'

'Check.'

'Hamburgers?'

'Check.'

'Buns?'

'Check . . . no, wait a minute. Red light on the . . . no, there they are, under the charcoal. Check.'

'Charcoal?'

'Check.'

'Lighter fluid?'

'Check.'

'Flashlight?'

'Check.'

'Winchester?'

'Check. What the hell do we need that for?'

'Rattlesnakes,' said Dave. 'Lots of rattlers up there. Lots of rattlers down here, come to think of it. Been real warm this fall. Still out.'

'Oh.'

'S-IVB LH2 precool and fast fill, S-IC LOX tank replenish, glycol fuel jacket topping.'

'Check,' said Baedecker. He pulled a tab on a beer and handed it to Dave. 'We have ignition,' said Dave and started the jeep, backed out of the drive, turned in a cloud of dust, and accelerated north down Main Street at high speed. They sped past the rusted gas pump. 'Houston, we have cleared the tower,' drawled Dave.

'Roger,' said Baedecker.

Dave swung onto a narrow road leading northeast into a canyon. The jeep bounced along the ruts for a quarter of a mile and then emerged onto smoother ground. 'Roll and pitch program completed,' said Dave. 'Stand by for Mode One Charlie.'

'Affirmative,' said Baedecker. They rattled over a cattleguard, and some charcoal bounced out of the bag and disappeared into the dust cloud behind them. 'Inboard cutoff,' said Baedecker. 'Stand by for staging.' The jeep's right wheel jolted over a large rock, Dave's AIR FORCE 1 cap flew off his head and ended up in the backseat under the small charcoal grill. 'Tower jettison,' said Dave.

'Roger.'

They rounded a hairpin curve and began climbing a steep grade. Dave shifted down into second gear and then into first. 'Be advised, Houston,' he said, 'we are GO for staging.' They leveled off on a ridge far above the valley. The jeep trail led along a narrow strip with boulders to the left and a sheer dropoff to the right. 'Affirmative,' said Baedecker. 'GYSA.'

'KYAG,' said Dave.

It was more than six miles. The road ran along treeless ridgetops, dropped into a shadowed canyon, and climbed out across a flat expanse of high desert so that it was half an hour before Dave turned onto a graveled county road and the ranch finally came into view. They drove across a broken cattleguard and down a lane overgrown with sagebrush before pulling to a stop in front of an abandoned wood-frame building. Baedecker could see a barn and a huddle of smaller outbuildings beyond.

They walked through the brittle grass to the house with Baedecker watching for snakes every inch of the way. The ranch house showed signs of long abandonment — windows gone, plaster fallen in most of the rooms, banister missing on the stairway, a rear porch collapsed on one side — but it was also easy to see that it had been built with care and precision. The porch continued around three sides of the building and there the hand-carved gingerbread remained, the interior woodwork had been meticulously crafted, and the large stones in the central fireplace obviously had been set by hand.