Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 83368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
So they each chose a glass of good wine. She went for white and he for red. Both were California wines from the best wineries.
With everything ordered, Mila sat back in her chair and really relaxed. She looked at the hot man opposite her and decided she wanted to know everything about him. “So,” she said, setting down her champagne flute, “I don’t meet many astronauts, like pretty much every other person on the planet. What’s it like?”
He chuckled. “The question I get asked most often? ‘How do you go to the bathroom in space?’”
She said, “I’m going to guess you talk to a lot of school kids.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Public outreach is just part of the job.”
“Well, don’t worry. I’m not going to ask about your bathroom habits. What I really want to know is what it feels like to be out there. It’s so hard for me to imagine.”
As she had known he would, he paused as though he was really considering her question so he could give the best answer he could. But he didn’t look away, holding Mila’s gaze as she anticipated his answer. “My last mission was to the International Space Station. When you live there, there’s a small community, and even though it’s miles away from Earth in a zero-gravity environment, it becomes very routine. Honestly, you’d be surprised at how mundane the days are. Full of cleaning and checks and documenting the most minute details. And exercise, of course. We spend two hours every morning exercising to keep our bodies regulated and to ward off as much muscle atrophy as we can. Time in space weakens and ages us.”
She stared at him, not quite believing that his strong, muscular body could ever weaken. But after watching his crash and hearing the commentator mention his muscle atrophy while swimming, she decided to stay clear of the subject for fear of upsetting him. Instead, she said, “First of all, whatever you do in space is not boring, because it’s space. And second, take me back to zero gravity. I mean, do you have to, like, strap yourself down to get any work done?”
He shook his head. “It’s not that bad. I strap in to sleep in a sleeping bag that attaches to the wall.”
She was puzzled. “How do you lie down in space?”
He laughed a little. “You don’t. Because there’s no gravity, you don’t know whether you’re up or down or sideways, and the funny thing is that it doesn’t matter to your body. I tend to go vertical just because, and you don’t need a pillow, because your head’s not going to flop, so you kind of sleep upright, I guess.”
She shook her own head in response. “Now I’m super glad we got you that luxurious new mattress. You deserve it.”
He grinned, and then the fresh oysters appeared.
As they ate, he said, “I may not want to go into the ocean, but I do love the food that comes out of it.”
“And what were you working on up there?”
“A lot of what we do is scientific research. I was a medical doctor first and originally thought I’d practice as a doctor all my life, but I’d always had this fascination with space. Well, when your name is Herschel, and you’re named after an astronomer, you get an interest in the stars and the sky along with it—at least, I did. When I was a kid, I loved hearing all the stories about my grandfather in the war, flying fighter planes, and then my dad was a commercial pilot. He passed away five years ago. Cancer. So I guess flying seemed like something I should do.” He paused. “I just went a little higher than they did.” He chuckled. “I do like to take things to the next level sometimes.”
Mila wondered if he’d be willing to take things between them to the next level. She finished her flute of champagne and then said, “It sounds like flying is in your blood.”
He nodded. “I think so. I already had my pilot’s license, and when they recruit astronauts, they look for people with STEM degrees—that’s science, technology, engineering, and medicine. I had the medicine, but I also had a PhD in molecular biology.”
She was blown away by how modest this man was. “Wait—so you’re Dr. Herschel Greenfield.”
He nodded again, looking almost bashful. “Both MD and PhD. That is correct.”
“Wow. I can’t even imagine what kind of competition there is to get into the astronaut program.”
“Oh, it’s fierce. You have to have the right background in education. They really like some flying experience, which is why a lot of jet fighter pilots have become astronauts in the past. They used to come more from the military. and now it tends to be quite a few from the scientific and medical communities. But yeah, something like less than one percent of the applicants—and we’re talking solid, capable applicants—even get into the training program. And that is rigorous. You also have to have the fitness and the right kind of personality to live in a small space for a long time. We are thoroughly screened.”