Objects In Space
Title: Objects In Space
Group/pairing: NEWS, implied NishiKato w/ cameos by Erika Toda and Sakurai Sho
Word Count: 2,756
Summary: AU = NASA!NEWS :D
Kato is the flight captain for the next International Space Station mission and there’s a new CAPCOM in town. Kato is curious, but hardly gets the chance to meet this Nishikido guy. Despite never truly having a real conversation with each other, there is a connection, and perhaps that is the only thing that will matter.
Notes: Remixed into Subjects on Earth by 0_konayuki_0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johnson Space Center, Houston TX
I’ve only met him in passing, but he seems like a pretty crass kind of guy. And from what little I’ve gathered from my fellow astronauts, he’s also not a social person. I guess you kind of have to be that way after going through countless launches and holding the controls of the spacecraft, and nation, in your hands.
Communication is one of the major lifelines in space travel, so even if he doesn’t get the titles and praises of heading NASA, he deals with the crucial elements of its success.
But thinking about it from that perspective, wouldn’t he want to be surrounded by people, to let them cushion some of that stress?
I guess Nishikido Ryo just isn’t that kind of person. But I would only know that in passing.
*
“Shigeaki, Kato. You’ve been assigned team leader for this mission. Just a standard payload flight to the International Space Station.” Director Kitagawa said.
I bowed and said the usual, ‘it’s my honor, I’ll do my best,’ response. It’s not like I didn’t mean it, but it’s been several times now, and it’s kind of an unspoken rule:
Leave no one behind. Do whatever it takes to save your lives and the lives of others. Respect that, even though humanity has stepped in the world of space, space does not necessarily care and this pride could land you in open vacuum if you weren’t careful.
Well perhaps it didn’t go that far, but it’s my version. I’ve lost a few friends and colleagues to the vastness; it’s not as peaceful as one would think.
*
I met up with some of my crew, practically family, in the mess hall. The best gossip happened around lunch time. Even astronauts and geniuses had to find amusement outside theoretical astrophysics.
“So, there’s this new guy who’s rather cool looking. He keeps to himself, but he seems to know what he’s doing.” Erika said, the only girl of our group.
“Figures you would find that out immediately.” I said, but the rest of my crew was more interested in the guy than my not so witty response.
“So is he new new, or like transferred new?” Koyama, one of my closer friends, asked.
“With his job, he can’t be fresh.” Erika replied, adding an air of mystery.
“What’s his job?”
“CAPCOM.” Erika stated, and then grinned widely as she saw our reactions. “I hear he’s going to be our capsule communicator for this mission too. Should be interesting.”
“Most CAPCOM’s are astronauts; I’ve hardly heard of the guy.” I said. I didn’t know why, but I was feeling a little defensive of my position. Suddenly this new guy comes in and is going to be our lifeline. I wanted to know what his background was.
“That’s because he’s not. It’s an ISS mission, so it doesn’t have to be.”
I sat back in my chair. I needed to get to know the guy. Even if the mission was a standard one, between space and I, the unexpected should be expected. If he was going to tell me what was going on with my crew and ship (for the moment at least), I needed to know the man on the other end.
It’s not that I don’t trust whoever is assigned, I just need to know for myself.
After lunch, I went to the training room and found the rest of my crew there.
“Tomo, Taka” I greeted them.
“Yo,” they both said, their hands too busy lifting weights to wave. By the looks of it, Taka was beating Tomo by 50 pounds.
“So Capt’n, did you speak with our new CAPCOM yet?” Tomo asked.
“You know me too well, XO.” I had dubbed him my second in command for his leadership skills, even though he hated to admit he had them. With how carefree he usually was, some people wonder how he got his position in the first place.
Taka, who normally spoke little, said “He’s a nice guy. Quiet, shy maybe, but nice.”
*
The next time I saw Nishikido, I felt like I needed to save him. From Erika, that is.
She can be rather persistent when she wanted to get something; I wondered what she was asking from him.
From afar, I could tell he was smiling and nodding, but also trying to get back to his work station. I was about to walk over there when Erika decided to set the guy free, possibly bored already.
When she walked by me, she gave me a quick pat on the shoulder.
“No luck?” I said.
“Says he’s too busy. “
“Gee, I wonder why.” I said under my breath as she walked out of hearing range.
In the few seconds it took for this conversation to occur, the guy had disappeared from the room. I strolled into the adjacent hallway and happened to see the backend of Nishikido humming his way to the bathroom. Against my better judgment, I followed after him.
When I walked in, Koyama was standing next to Nishikido, both doing their business. I walked into the first bathroom stall and pretended to do my own.
“That’s a nice song you were humming,” Koyama commented while washing his hands.
I could hear Nishikido zipping up and turning to wash his hands too. “Thanks,” was his gruff reply.
Koyama, god bless him, didn’t really know common courtesy of going to the bathroom in silence, especially with people you hardly knew, and pursued the question further. “You know, me and some friends are thinking of starting a band here, maybe you’d like to join-”
“Thanks, but I’m not a singer. And I don’t play any instruments.” He said even before Koyama could say anything. By the sound of it, Koyama was just trying to smile it off. I flushed the toilet and opened the stall door, Nishikido briefly nodding to me as a greeting before he left with a rushed pace.
“Nice guy,” I said, a smirk plastered on my face.
“Shut up, you stalker.”
I stopped smiling, “I was going to the bathroom.”
“Right.”
*
I was kept from thinking about how I’d get to talk to Nishikido again by the mission preparations, and I told myself that I really shouldn’t care if some new guy was taking care of the communications between my shuttle and Earth, but there was still something nagging at me from the inside.
I was heading to the medical office for a quick check up, because my back had been acting up lately, and happened to see Nishikido walking out of the room. He didn’t seem very happy, still walking in a rushed pace, brushing past me without even a glance. I was tempted to yell out to him, partly in annoyance and partly in concern, but I stopped myself. Being a leader, I knew how to read people, and it appeared best to leave Nishikido alone.
Dr. Yuya, the head psychiatrist, stuck his head out of the door a few seconds later and peered after the other man who was already at the end of the hallway. Then, he looked at me and said, “Sho’s ready for you.”
I nodded and walked in. I tried to inquire subtly about Nishikido and the answer I got intrigued me further.
“Poor boy, he’s got a heart issue.” **
I gave a concerned look, and he chuckled in turn.
“I’m a psychiatrist, remember? I don’t deal with just any old heart problem.”
I gave out a visible sigh of relief.
“But, sometimes I wonder which is worse.” He walked away after that statement.
I’m pretty sure my eyes and expression surprised Dr. Sakurai when he ushered me into his office.
“Is everything ok?”
“Well, I don’t know. My back-”
“No, I meant just a few moments ago. You seemed a little…disoriented?”
“Oh, that. I was just a little baffled at Dr. Yuya’s choice of words. He said Nishikido Ryo, the new CAPCOM, had heart issues, and you know, the first thing I think is ‘oh my god, please don’t let one of my crew be sick,’ but then he says, in a rather blaze way, that it’s not a physical problem. So, I don’t know what to think.”
Dr. Sakurai smiled and said, “Well, I can understand. Tegoshi can be a little, what’s the word, dramatic. However, I will say that if you keep emotional or psychological stressors inside without a healthy outlet, they can be manifested in physical symptoms. Which is why I happen to be located across the hall from Dr. Yuya. Sooner or later, heart issues really do become heart issues. Or lung issues. Or back issues.”
He gave me a searching look, and then proceeded to write stuff down on my medical chart. “So yes, let’s figure out your back issues, shall we?”
As Dr. Sakurai continued to press around my back muscles, my thoughts couldn’t help but linger on Nishikido’s possible ‘heart issue.’ What could those issues imply, and with whom?
In the end, Dr. Sakurai could only subscribe me some slight pain medication and a notice for vacation time after the mission. It was only standard procedure to have a check up if you felt anything was wrong with your body. The most minor things can compromise a mission.
*
I was sitting in the shuttle stimulator for a last minute run through when I hear Koyama’s voice crackling through my ears.
“Shige! Stop spacing out! You’re about to enter orbit and you still haven’t released the main rear thrusters.”
I rush to do just that and push the remaining buttons I’m supposed to by muscle memory. My mind kept wandering to that conversation I had in the doctor’s office, and the stress of messing up in a stimulator test was starting to get to my head.
“What’s wrong?” Koyama asks as soon as I step out and into the control room.
I rub the bridge of my nose and sigh. “I don’t know. I went to the doctors and they gave me back pain medication…”
“There has to be something else. I know you’re stressed, but you usually get over that to actually do the job.”
I tell him about the doctor’s visit, including my insightful chat with Dr. Yuya and then I couldn’t help but let it all out to him. My worries, the need to have everything under control, my control, namely meeting the guy who would be in contact with me and my shuttle, and not doing things in a certain order screwed with my list of tasks to do, and hearing those words come out of my mouth was just laughable.
And he did laugh, for a few seconds, but then he put a hand on my shoulder and steadied me. “Let’s go fix that problem of yours.”
“What?” Was he serious?
“Yeah, come on. You’re the captain; I am not about to go on board with a captain who is not 100% into the mission.”
He was right and I knew it. I didn’t want to admit it, but worse yet; I didn’t know how to deal with my problem.
It seemed Koyama did though.
*
I couldn’t get any sleep that night. That’s usually normal, except you would think I had gotten used to the pre-flight jitters by now. But there were checklists still flying around in my mind, with boxes still unchecked. It had to wait till the morning, and my brain would just not let me go to sleep without getting those things done.
I was expecting Koyama to ambush me as soon as I got through the breakfast lines the next morning, but I was met by my crew eating quietly at the table instead. For a second, I wondered if the flight scheduled tomorrow had been canceled due to weather conditions, but there were other reasons for my friends’ silence.
They were trying to avoid the awkward ‘captain-has-gone-crazy-and-we’re-trying-not-to-aggravate-the-situation’ conversation, but I wasn’t about to let this kind of atmosphere ruin my pre-flight routine.
“Koyama,” I started warily.
He gave me an apologetic smile, as if that explained everything, while Tomo tried to defend him.
“He didn’t show up to breakfast today and we didn’t bother trying to find him. He’s probably even busier with preparations than we are, so let’s just leave it alone. I know you want to talk to him, get to know him, but it’s a little late for that. We have to leave for Kennedy soon, so eat up.”
Erika chimed in as well, “Just think about this from a logical standpoint. NASA’s not going to have unreliable people in the control room.”
Taka had already eaten a refined breakfast and was just sipping some milk. “Mmm,” was his emphatic contribution to the conversation.
The droning in the cafeteria was beginning to get to me, but I knew that it was more in my head than anything else. But if I left the safety of the noise, I would most certainly be tempted to go looking for Nishikido who had somehow taken over my thoughts. I had labeled and neatly filed it into the list of things to do, but there was also something that I didn’t want to see there.
This is not some school-boy crush, Kato. The mission is perfectly fine without your irrational desire to meet this guy. I had to shake myself out of it, for the sake of my crew and this mission.
In the end, my checklist remained incomplete and crumpled to the side, but turns out later, it wouldn’t really matter anyway.
*
Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral FL
Me and my crew were securely strapped in. The nose of the shuttle was cramped, but we were working so we didn’t notice it. The quiet thrumming of the shuttle calmed our nerves into a familiar, trained, state of mind. Everything was in order and all that was left to do was to wait.
Suddenly, the voice that I had not quite heard before, but had always known belonged to him, sounded through my suit’s headset. “Don’t worry, Kato. We’ll get you there and home safely.”
Somehow, even through some of the interference and crackling of the usual correspondence, this message came through clearly. To me, it was like a wash of relief; I could tell just by the tone of his voice that we would be okay.
“Roger that, Nishikido. Thank you.”
Before I knew it, the countdown was down to seconds ... 3, 2, 1, and we have liftoff.
Successful detachment…
Solid rocket booster separation.
In the midst of the roaring wind hitting the shuttle at 17,500 mph, only Nishikido’s voice broke through the chaos. Although it was mostly techno babble, we had the most important conversation of our lifetime in the eight minutes it took to hit orbit.
Phase two complete; external tank separation…
I checked to make sure the light turned on for that procedure, but the seconds trailed on without change.
“Houston, the flight system doesn’t seem to be reflecting tank separation.”
No answer.
“Houston, do you read me? Houston, we have a problem.”
While I was running all possible diagnostic scenarios and solutions through the flight system, I could only imagine how the control room would be buzzing with panic, frustration, fear, and hope. My voice wasn’t reaching them any more than they could reach us. They could speculate, predict the sequence in which we tried to fix the issue, but we were on our own now.
Space is deafening. Once you get up there, you can tell it anything you want, but you will never hear word of it again.
--------
Deleted Scene:
After Kato left the doctor's office, Sho and Tegoshi compared notes.
“Your prognosis?” Sho asked first.
“Ryo’s fighting whatever his heart is screaming at him. He won’t admit it, and I think he’s also worried about what others think of him. He’s a real brooder, that one. And your hypothesis?”
“Kato’s got something to do with it,” was Sho’s calculative response.
“I wouldn’t argue with that. Saw him looking after Ryo in a very concerned and distraught manner. But only for a second; then the expression was gone. That’s not unusual between familiar crew members, but Ryo’s new.” Tegoshi was eager to add.
“That’s right,” Sho said, remembering something. “Kato referred to him as if he were a member of his crew. Do you know him well enough to gauge whether that is significantly different than his usual protective self?”
“No, but that’s a Freudian Slip if there ever was one.”
**This is technically completely unethical in reality. Psychiatrists DO NOT talk about their patients with others; it is against the code of ethics and confidentiality rights.
Author’s Note: This whole story came about based on one line I wrote for silentchord, “The first time Shige has any real communication with Ryo, he says, “Houston, we have a problem.” found here.
I’ve discovered that it’s really hard to write two characters who barely meet, but also seem to develop an unspoken code between each other…
I hope you liked it:) I enjoyed writing this and creating a different universe for NEWS to play in ^^ I’m just sorry that Yamapi and Massu weren’t more involved, but I’ll try on working on more for this AU. I also tried to make it as accurate as possible, researching locations and procedures and lingo, but I also wanted to have fun with it, so I apologize if there were any mistakes.
Group/pairing: NEWS, implied NishiKato w/ cameos by Erika Toda and Sakurai Sho
Word Count: 2,756
Summary: AU = NASA!NEWS :D
Kato is the flight captain for the next International Space Station mission and there’s a new CAPCOM in town. Kato is curious, but hardly gets the chance to meet this Nishikido guy. Despite never truly having a real conversation with each other, there is a connection, and perhaps that is the only thing that will matter.
Notes: Remixed into Subjects on Earth by 0_konayuki_0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johnson Space Center, Houston TX
I’ve only met him in passing, but he seems like a pretty crass kind of guy. And from what little I’ve gathered from my fellow astronauts, he’s also not a social person. I guess you kind of have to be that way after going through countless launches and holding the controls of the spacecraft, and nation, in your hands.
Communication is one of the major lifelines in space travel, so even if he doesn’t get the titles and praises of heading NASA, he deals with the crucial elements of its success.
But thinking about it from that perspective, wouldn’t he want to be surrounded by people, to let them cushion some of that stress?
I guess Nishikido Ryo just isn’t that kind of person. But I would only know that in passing.
*
“Shigeaki, Kato. You’ve been assigned team leader for this mission. Just a standard payload flight to the International Space Station.” Director Kitagawa said.
I bowed and said the usual, ‘it’s my honor, I’ll do my best,’ response. It’s not like I didn’t mean it, but it’s been several times now, and it’s kind of an unspoken rule:
Leave no one behind. Do whatever it takes to save your lives and the lives of others. Respect that, even though humanity has stepped in the world of space, space does not necessarily care and this pride could land you in open vacuum if you weren’t careful.
Well perhaps it didn’t go that far, but it’s my version. I’ve lost a few friends and colleagues to the vastness; it’s not as peaceful as one would think.
*
I met up with some of my crew, practically family, in the mess hall. The best gossip happened around lunch time. Even astronauts and geniuses had to find amusement outside theoretical astrophysics.
“So, there’s this new guy who’s rather cool looking. He keeps to himself, but he seems to know what he’s doing.” Erika said, the only girl of our group.
“Figures you would find that out immediately.” I said, but the rest of my crew was more interested in the guy than my not so witty response.
“So is he new new, or like transferred new?” Koyama, one of my closer friends, asked.
“With his job, he can’t be fresh.” Erika replied, adding an air of mystery.
“What’s his job?”
“CAPCOM.” Erika stated, and then grinned widely as she saw our reactions. “I hear he’s going to be our capsule communicator for this mission too. Should be interesting.”
“Most CAPCOM’s are astronauts; I’ve hardly heard of the guy.” I said. I didn’t know why, but I was feeling a little defensive of my position. Suddenly this new guy comes in and is going to be our lifeline. I wanted to know what his background was.
“That’s because he’s not. It’s an ISS mission, so it doesn’t have to be.”
I sat back in my chair. I needed to get to know the guy. Even if the mission was a standard one, between space and I, the unexpected should be expected. If he was going to tell me what was going on with my crew and ship (for the moment at least), I needed to know the man on the other end.
It’s not that I don’t trust whoever is assigned, I just need to know for myself.
After lunch, I went to the training room and found the rest of my crew there.
“Tomo, Taka” I greeted them.
“Yo,” they both said, their hands too busy lifting weights to wave. By the looks of it, Taka was beating Tomo by 50 pounds.
“So Capt’n, did you speak with our new CAPCOM yet?” Tomo asked.
“You know me too well, XO.” I had dubbed him my second in command for his leadership skills, even though he hated to admit he had them. With how carefree he usually was, some people wonder how he got his position in the first place.
Taka, who normally spoke little, said “He’s a nice guy. Quiet, shy maybe, but nice.”
*
The next time I saw Nishikido, I felt like I needed to save him. From Erika, that is.
She can be rather persistent when she wanted to get something; I wondered what she was asking from him.
From afar, I could tell he was smiling and nodding, but also trying to get back to his work station. I was about to walk over there when Erika decided to set the guy free, possibly bored already.
When she walked by me, she gave me a quick pat on the shoulder.
“No luck?” I said.
“Says he’s too busy. “
“Gee, I wonder why.” I said under my breath as she walked out of hearing range.
In the few seconds it took for this conversation to occur, the guy had disappeared from the room. I strolled into the adjacent hallway and happened to see the backend of Nishikido humming his way to the bathroom. Against my better judgment, I followed after him.
When I walked in, Koyama was standing next to Nishikido, both doing their business. I walked into the first bathroom stall and pretended to do my own.
“That’s a nice song you were humming,” Koyama commented while washing his hands.
I could hear Nishikido zipping up and turning to wash his hands too. “Thanks,” was his gruff reply.
Koyama, god bless him, didn’t really know common courtesy of going to the bathroom in silence, especially with people you hardly knew, and pursued the question further. “You know, me and some friends are thinking of starting a band here, maybe you’d like to join-”
“Thanks, but I’m not a singer. And I don’t play any instruments.” He said even before Koyama could say anything. By the sound of it, Koyama was just trying to smile it off. I flushed the toilet and opened the stall door, Nishikido briefly nodding to me as a greeting before he left with a rushed pace.
“Nice guy,” I said, a smirk plastered on my face.
“Shut up, you stalker.”
I stopped smiling, “I was going to the bathroom.”
“Right.”
*
I was kept from thinking about how I’d get to talk to Nishikido again by the mission preparations, and I told myself that I really shouldn’t care if some new guy was taking care of the communications between my shuttle and Earth, but there was still something nagging at me from the inside.
I was heading to the medical office for a quick check up, because my back had been acting up lately, and happened to see Nishikido walking out of the room. He didn’t seem very happy, still walking in a rushed pace, brushing past me without even a glance. I was tempted to yell out to him, partly in annoyance and partly in concern, but I stopped myself. Being a leader, I knew how to read people, and it appeared best to leave Nishikido alone.
Dr. Yuya, the head psychiatrist, stuck his head out of the door a few seconds later and peered after the other man who was already at the end of the hallway. Then, he looked at me and said, “Sho’s ready for you.”
I nodded and walked in. I tried to inquire subtly about Nishikido and the answer I got intrigued me further.
“Poor boy, he’s got a heart issue.” **
I gave a concerned look, and he chuckled in turn.
“I’m a psychiatrist, remember? I don’t deal with just any old heart problem.”
I gave out a visible sigh of relief.
“But, sometimes I wonder which is worse.” He walked away after that statement.
I’m pretty sure my eyes and expression surprised Dr. Sakurai when he ushered me into his office.
“Is everything ok?”
“Well, I don’t know. My back-”
“No, I meant just a few moments ago. You seemed a little…disoriented?”
“Oh, that. I was just a little baffled at Dr. Yuya’s choice of words. He said Nishikido Ryo, the new CAPCOM, had heart issues, and you know, the first thing I think is ‘oh my god, please don’t let one of my crew be sick,’ but then he says, in a rather blaze way, that it’s not a physical problem. So, I don’t know what to think.”
Dr. Sakurai smiled and said, “Well, I can understand. Tegoshi can be a little, what’s the word, dramatic. However, I will say that if you keep emotional or psychological stressors inside without a healthy outlet, they can be manifested in physical symptoms. Which is why I happen to be located across the hall from Dr. Yuya. Sooner or later, heart issues really do become heart issues. Or lung issues. Or back issues.”
He gave me a searching look, and then proceeded to write stuff down on my medical chart. “So yes, let’s figure out your back issues, shall we?”
As Dr. Sakurai continued to press around my back muscles, my thoughts couldn’t help but linger on Nishikido’s possible ‘heart issue.’ What could those issues imply, and with whom?
In the end, Dr. Sakurai could only subscribe me some slight pain medication and a notice for vacation time after the mission. It was only standard procedure to have a check up if you felt anything was wrong with your body. The most minor things can compromise a mission.
*
I was sitting in the shuttle stimulator for a last minute run through when I hear Koyama’s voice crackling through my ears.
“Shige! Stop spacing out! You’re about to enter orbit and you still haven’t released the main rear thrusters.”
I rush to do just that and push the remaining buttons I’m supposed to by muscle memory. My mind kept wandering to that conversation I had in the doctor’s office, and the stress of messing up in a stimulator test was starting to get to my head.
“What’s wrong?” Koyama asks as soon as I step out and into the control room.
I rub the bridge of my nose and sigh. “I don’t know. I went to the doctors and they gave me back pain medication…”
“There has to be something else. I know you’re stressed, but you usually get over that to actually do the job.”
I tell him about the doctor’s visit, including my insightful chat with Dr. Yuya and then I couldn’t help but let it all out to him. My worries, the need to have everything under control, my control, namely meeting the guy who would be in contact with me and my shuttle, and not doing things in a certain order screwed with my list of tasks to do, and hearing those words come out of my mouth was just laughable.
And he did laugh, for a few seconds, but then he put a hand on my shoulder and steadied me. “Let’s go fix that problem of yours.”
“What?” Was he serious?
“Yeah, come on. You’re the captain; I am not about to go on board with a captain who is not 100% into the mission.”
He was right and I knew it. I didn’t want to admit it, but worse yet; I didn’t know how to deal with my problem.
It seemed Koyama did though.
*
I couldn’t get any sleep that night. That’s usually normal, except you would think I had gotten used to the pre-flight jitters by now. But there were checklists still flying around in my mind, with boxes still unchecked. It had to wait till the morning, and my brain would just not let me go to sleep without getting those things done.
I was expecting Koyama to ambush me as soon as I got through the breakfast lines the next morning, but I was met by my crew eating quietly at the table instead. For a second, I wondered if the flight scheduled tomorrow had been canceled due to weather conditions, but there were other reasons for my friends’ silence.
They were trying to avoid the awkward ‘captain-has-gone-crazy-and-we’re-trying-not-to-aggravate-the-situation’ conversation, but I wasn’t about to let this kind of atmosphere ruin my pre-flight routine.
“Koyama,” I started warily.
He gave me an apologetic smile, as if that explained everything, while Tomo tried to defend him.
“He didn’t show up to breakfast today and we didn’t bother trying to find him. He’s probably even busier with preparations than we are, so let’s just leave it alone. I know you want to talk to him, get to know him, but it’s a little late for that. We have to leave for Kennedy soon, so eat up.”
Erika chimed in as well, “Just think about this from a logical standpoint. NASA’s not going to have unreliable people in the control room.”
Taka had already eaten a refined breakfast and was just sipping some milk. “Mmm,” was his emphatic contribution to the conversation.
The droning in the cafeteria was beginning to get to me, but I knew that it was more in my head than anything else. But if I left the safety of the noise, I would most certainly be tempted to go looking for Nishikido who had somehow taken over my thoughts. I had labeled and neatly filed it into the list of things to do, but there was also something that I didn’t want to see there.
This is not some school-boy crush, Kato. The mission is perfectly fine without your irrational desire to meet this guy. I had to shake myself out of it, for the sake of my crew and this mission.
In the end, my checklist remained incomplete and crumpled to the side, but turns out later, it wouldn’t really matter anyway.
*
Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral FL
Me and my crew were securely strapped in. The nose of the shuttle was cramped, but we were working so we didn’t notice it. The quiet thrumming of the shuttle calmed our nerves into a familiar, trained, state of mind. Everything was in order and all that was left to do was to wait.
Suddenly, the voice that I had not quite heard before, but had always known belonged to him, sounded through my suit’s headset. “Don’t worry, Kato. We’ll get you there and home safely.”
Somehow, even through some of the interference and crackling of the usual correspondence, this message came through clearly. To me, it was like a wash of relief; I could tell just by the tone of his voice that we would be okay.
“Roger that, Nishikido. Thank you.”
Before I knew it, the countdown was down to seconds ... 3, 2, 1, and we have liftoff.
Successful detachment…
Solid rocket booster separation.
In the midst of the roaring wind hitting the shuttle at 17,500 mph, only Nishikido’s voice broke through the chaos. Although it was mostly techno babble, we had the most important conversation of our lifetime in the eight minutes it took to hit orbit.
Phase two complete; external tank separation…
I checked to make sure the light turned on for that procedure, but the seconds trailed on without change.
“Houston, the flight system doesn’t seem to be reflecting tank separation.”
No answer.
“Houston, do you read me? Houston, we have a problem.”
While I was running all possible diagnostic scenarios and solutions through the flight system, I could only imagine how the control room would be buzzing with panic, frustration, fear, and hope. My voice wasn’t reaching them any more than they could reach us. They could speculate, predict the sequence in which we tried to fix the issue, but we were on our own now.
Space is deafening. Once you get up there, you can tell it anything you want, but you will never hear word of it again.
--------
Deleted Scene:
After Kato left the doctor's office, Sho and Tegoshi compared notes.
“Your prognosis?” Sho asked first.
“Ryo’s fighting whatever his heart is screaming at him. He won’t admit it, and I think he’s also worried about what others think of him. He’s a real brooder, that one. And your hypothesis?”
“Kato’s got something to do with it,” was Sho’s calculative response.
“I wouldn’t argue with that. Saw him looking after Ryo in a very concerned and distraught manner. But only for a second; then the expression was gone. That’s not unusual between familiar crew members, but Ryo’s new.” Tegoshi was eager to add.
“That’s right,” Sho said, remembering something. “Kato referred to him as if he were a member of his crew. Do you know him well enough to gauge whether that is significantly different than his usual protective self?”
“No, but that’s a Freudian Slip if there ever was one.”
**This is technically completely unethical in reality. Psychiatrists DO NOT talk about their patients with others; it is against the code of ethics and confidentiality rights.
Author’s Note: This whole story came about based on one line I wrote for silentchord, “The first time Shige has any real communication with Ryo, he says, “Houston, we have a problem.” found here.
I’ve discovered that it’s really hard to write two characters who barely meet, but also seem to develop an unspoken code between each other…
I hope you liked it:) I enjoyed writing this and creating a different universe for NEWS to play in ^^ I’m just sorry that Yamapi and Massu weren’t more involved, but I’ll try on working on more for this AU. I also tried to make it as accurate as possible, researching locations and procedures and lingo, but I also wanted to have fun with it, so I apologize if there were any mistakes.