Gifts of the Future Ch. 10

Brad picked his son up and smiled at him as he stated, "Of course not, Tommy. It's just a dream... and dreams aren't real. They're just pictures we see in our head while we sleep... that's all. So don't let it worry you, OK?!!" Tommy smiled and nodded and hugged his father around the neck before he put him down.

Brad smiled even wider, hiding his nervousness from his son, and watched him playing again for a moment before he went back into their house. Then he turned to look into his wife's wide eyes and he couldn't hide his fear from her. "I think he might be like you, Barbie... he said he's been having dreams about seeing a shuttle blow up. Have you had any dreams like that?!!" he asked her suddenly.

She shook her head, "No!!! You know you'd be the first one I'd tell if I did! But you know I usually don't have a dream like that until just before something happens! Maybe Tommy's dreams start further in advance... or maybe this is nothing more than the active imagination of a five-year-old boy! Let's not try to read too much into this right now. OK?!!!" she said softly as she went to her husband and wrapped her arms around him.

Brad swallowed his slight fear as he watched his son playing in the back yard, running around with the shuttle in his hand and making noises like it was a jet streaking across the sky! Barbie was right... maybe Tommy's dream meant nothing. Maybe he'd seen something blow up in one of the cartoons they let him watch sometimes and that had just carried over into his imagination...

Besides, there was another STS mission scheduled in January before the one to which he was assigned as an alternate. If Tommy was seeing the future, maybe that was the one he saw exploding! Damn... what if it was?!! What should he do?!! What COULD he do?!! No one would listen to him... not if he tried to explain why he was concerned!"Umm... my five-year-old son is having this dream..."

Brad snorted a harsh laugh... it sounded ridiculous even to him! But he just could not discount the fact that his wife... the mother of his son... saw impending danger in her dreams! He closed his eyes and prayed for more proof one way or the other...

The Seldons did not get to spend the holidays with their families. Brad was kept busy with all the training that he had to endure along with the crew and the other alternates. They also did not want to alarm any of their family members with Tommy's continual playing out of his dream that he said he was having almost every night...

They all intensely watched the launch of STS-61-C, Space ShuttleColumbia on January 12, 1986 on closed circuit TV from Johnson Space Center in Houston. Brad did not realize he was holding his breath until Tommy smiled up at him a little over a minute after liftoff and said happily, "See, Daddy... the shuttle didn't go BOOM!!! It's not real!"

Brad left for Kennedy Space Center several days before the originally scheduled launch of STS-51-L, Space ShuttleChallenger, on January 22, in order to be available in case he was needed as the alternate. But after several delays in the launch date, just 48 hours before the new scheduled launch, the doctor pronounced pilot Mike Smith in perfect health, so Brad was advised that he could leave. He unconsciously heaved a sigh of relief and then asked for permission to stay and watch the launch and if his wife and son could join him for that, which was granted.

Barbie and Tommy arrived the afternoon of January 24th but were disappointed when they learned that evening the launch had been delayed again because the forecast had called for rain. Then they heard the next day that the pilot had expressed his concerns to NASA officials that the launch shouldn't have been delayed for rain because a cold front was also fast approaching and he worried the cold weather would cause other problems.

Sure enough, on January 26th, a cold front came through the area, delaying the launch for another day. On January 27th, there was yet another delay due to a servicing equipment latch that couldn't be detached from a shuttle exterior hatch. The cold front was also still lingering and it brought a chilling nightmare for Barbie...

She sat upright in the bed in their quarters, gasping for air as she shook her husband awake. "Brad... Brad!!! Wake up!!!" When he opened his eyes and saw her panic, he instantly snapped to attention and sat up beside her. "Oh God, Brad... I just saw it, too!!! Tommy's been right all along! That shuttle is going to blow up if it launches tomorrow!!! We've got to stop it!!!"

Brad got up and dressed, telling Barbie to wake Tommy in a few hours and get both of them out of there and somewhere she could prevent their son from watching the launch. He drove directly to Kennedy and asked to speak to someone regarding the status of the launch, but he was told they were busy with final checks and preparations and they could not be disturbed.

He was directed to the visiting VIP's area and told that they would ask one of the mission ground crew to come speak to him when they could. That didn't happen until after 9:00am when it had already been announced that the launch was proceeding and was scheduled for sometime around 11:30am.

Brad did his best to convince the ground crew technician that they needed to do some closer inspections. He tried to make it sound like he was worried that the prolonged exposure to cold air may have had unknown effects on some of the fuel tank or SRB external components... it was the only logical argument he could think of! They'd never believe his real reason for concern...

Brad thought he was getting through when he saw the man's eyes widen for a second and then he frowned as he said, "Captain Seldon... I appreciate your concern, but please... rest assured we have already checked and re-checked all of those external components and we could find no evidence of anything wrong. Now if you'll please excuse me..." he muttered politely as he scurried away.

Brad spent the next two hours pacing around the VIP observation area, his stomach churning... praying that, for once, his wife was wrong... that their son was also wrong!!! He felt his heart pounding as he watched and listened to the final countdown...

At 11:38 EST, liftoff commenced and it appeared to go as smoothly as the ones he'd watched before... for about the first minute. Then suddenly, a chill raced through his body as his worst fear was realized when his son's and his wife's nightmares came true as he watched the trails of white smoke and steam billowing out from where the shuttle had disintegrated, little bits of debris still falling away...

Brad sat down and burst into tears... mourning the loss of people he'd known and come to like as he'd trained with them... grieving for their families who were feeling the pain of their loss even more than he. Feeling sick at the fact that his wife and son had seen this disaster and there was nothing he could do to stop it... He looked up toward the clear blue sky, away from the trails of smoke and steam that he was afraid had just signaled the end of his dream...

**********

NASA did suspend operation of the STS program when the President appointed a commission to investigate the disaster and determine what went wrong. Violence in the rest of the world seemed to be slack the first half of 1986. But Brad wasn't paying any attention... he was only interested in knowing what had caused theChallenger disaster. The Rogers Commission released its report in June, and Brad was startled by the findings...

The explosion had been caused by a faulty O-ring on the right Solid Rocket Booster because of exposure to temperature extremes! And what was worse, officials at NASA had been warned by Morton Thiokol, the manufacturer of the O-rings, that they were unsure of the possibility of failure by the O-rings due to extreme changes in temperature.

NASA engineers were also aware of this problem, but somehow, NASA managers failed to be made aware of the engineers concerns! The commission also stated in their findings that the problem with the SRB O-rings had to be resolved and that NASA had to make some extreme adjustments in their communication policies before resuming shuttle launches.

Captain Brad Seldon of the U.S. Air Force was transferred back to Edwards AFB in July 1986 but continued to travel to Houston from time to time to keep up his skills with the Shuttle Training Aircraft. He believed that NASA would work out their problems and eventually resume launches... and he wanted to be ready when they did!

Everyone was so happy to have Brad and Barbie and Tommy back in the L.A. area, even if it was only temporarily! The young adults got together as often as they could by having potluck dinners at different homes each week. Then they'd all sit around playing cards or games and the boys, Jonathan, Tommy and J.J. played together while Jasmine and little Sophia watched and laughed; baby Lana was usually asleep by then.

The second half of 1986 seemed to be progressing just as quietly as the first half in terms of worldwide violence... until September. Terrorists with the Abu Nidal Organization hijacked a Pan American flight at Karachi International Airport which resulted in the deaths of 22 people and more than 150 injured. And the very next day, two more ANO terrorists opened fire on a synagogue in Istanbul during Sabbath services, killing another 22 people.

Megan realized that a number of terrorist organizations seemed to be getting more active and their favored activities seemed to be either bombings or hijacking airplanes. And their acts of violence were starting to spread beyond the Middle East... European countries were also being targeted. It was getting more and more dangerous for anyone to travel to those areas, especially Americans.

She was feeling guilty every time she urged the news show to send a crew anywhere in that region to cover terrorist activities. She couldn't keep risking their lives so she decided to concentrate her efforts on investigating her OPEC / U.S. government / American oil companies / American automakers conspiracy domestically.

The government was already aware of her nosiness in regard to their dealings with OPEC, so no one was willing to talk to her any more. Ditto with the American oil companies... so at the end of 1986, she started digging into the American car manufacturers.

None of them were very anxious to talk to her either, but a man who claimed to be associated with GM called her one day and gave her the name of another man who briefly worked with GM in the early 70's on the idea of engineering an electric/battery operated vehicle. When she tried to question him further, he cut her off.

"Do not try to find out who I am... we never talked... I've never met you. You understand?" He didn't hang up until she promised. The last thing he said before he hung up was, "Good luck finding him... no one has heard from him since he left." Then the line went dead.

Megan immediately went to work on researching the name she was given, but it was no easy task... she really had no clue where to start. She tried searching old records for residents of Detroit and it's suburbs during the early 70's, but that much information was not easy to dig through and she was not as computer savvy as she would like...

Then she remembered that Wayne Seldon, her youngest half-brother, was somewhat of a computer "geek." He was 24 years old and had graduated from UCLA with a degree in computer science and he was working for some company as the manager of their operation's database.

She remembered hearing him claim that, with his personal home computer, he could "hack" into any company's records that were stored in a computer if it was networked for communication with other computers. And he'd said most major companies had jumped on that idea because of the ease of data sharing... even if it was data they didn't want to share!!!

Megan went to visit Wayne at his apartment one evening to enlist his help. She knocked on his door and it was answered by a younger guy she'd never met, but he sure knew who she was. His face registered total awe and she laughed at his comments.

"Oh MAN!!! You're Megan Richards-North... from that news show!!! OH GOD... I watch you all the time!! You're like the hottest news chick I've ever seen!!! And the way you're always pokin' at the government and tryin' to tell everybody to wake up and smell what's been goin' on with gas prices and that OPEC is like... keepin' us 'over a barrel' and we're just takin' it up the ass... You're like... one of my heroes!!! What are you doin' HERE?!!!"

Then he turned his head and yelled back into the apartment, "WAYNE... DUDE!!! You're never gonna believe who's knockin' on your door, man!!! You gotta come here and see this, dude!!!"

Megan was standing in the hallway laughing softly when she saw Wayne approaching the door. "Geez, Lizard! Stop blocking the doorway and leering at my friend and let Meggie in!" he said exasperatedly at the guy who looked even more shocked to realize Wayne knew her personally.

She continued to chuckle as she walked passed the stunned "Lizard" and put her arms around Wayne as he hugged her. "Hey, little Duke!" she murmured as he squeezed her tightly for a moment, calling him by his childhood nickname that she hadn't used in years! Then it struck her as funny that they'd always called him "little Duke" and he'd actually grown up to be almost as big as his namesake!

Wayne grimaced as he released Megan when he heard Lizard ask curiously, "Little Duke?!!! Why did she call you that, Dude?"

He chuckled when Megan looked at him and winced, putting her hand to her mouth, like she hadn't meant to embarrass or offend him. "That's OK... I know it just slipped out!" he told her gently. Then he looked at his friend and explained, "That was what Meggie and my brothers and sister and friends used to call me when we were kids."

Lizard rolled his eyes. "Yeah... I sorta figured that part out, Dude. WHY were you called little DUKE?"

Wayne sighed heavily. "Because... I was named after The Duke. My full name is John Wayne Seldon... OK?!!! And if you tell ANYONE else about this, I'll tell everyone what YOUR real name is... LESLIE!!!" he growled and then chuckled when his friend looked scared shitless for a moment and then sheepishly nodded his agreement.

He turned back to Megan and asked, "So... to what do I owe the honor of this visit out of the blue?!!"

She took a deep breath and gave him her most serious look. "I'm hoping you can live up to the legacy of your namesake and be the cavalry to ride in and save the day. I need you to try to find someone who supposedly disappeared almost fifteen years ago... Do you think you can help me?" she asked hopefully.

Wayne looked intrigued. "Does this have anything to do with your investigation into that conspiracy you've been hinting at on your show?" he asked with a devilish grin on his face. When she grinned in response and nodded, he added, "The government is rife with dirty politicians... I think it's time for The Duke's legend to ride in, kick some ass and get this country headed in the right direction again!"