Free To The Stars (The Harry Irons Trilogy) by Thomas Stone

wouldn't go without me or one of the other people he's connected to. I was the only one who was qualified. I'm a botanist, you know. Anyway, at first Edward didn't want to take us both. When he returned after his fourth trip, he phoned me and asked if the deal was still on. I said yes and here we are."
    "But what about the selection process and all that? I mean, I understand Fagen tries to sponsor his own crew, but he has to contend with other sponsors, right?"
    "Well," Kathleen thought about it, "quite simply, yes, that's right."
    "Then how was he able to sponsor two instead of just one?"
    "Oh," Kathleen said, "I'm a sponsor too. With Edward's help, I bought myself in."
    Harry stared at the young woman.
    Kathleen laughed. "Didn't I tell you I was rich?"
    *
    A short time later, Harry and Kathleen walked into the simulator control lab. A technician sat at a console and waved to Kathleen.
    "Carl, feed us the Neptune orbital simulation." Kathleen turned and faced Harry. "I like the colors."
    Harry grinned.
    Set on stilts in the middle of an auditorium-sized room, the simulator was much larger than Harry had imagined. They climbed a gantry-way and entered the simulator through an open hatch. Inside was a duplicate of the interior of a corporation spaceship bridge.
    "Everything looks and works like the real thing." Kathleen explained. She punched a button beside the hatch and the door slid shut.
    It was more spacious than Harry had imagined. There was room for six at the vacant positions. "Which spot shall I take?"
    "For now, let's take the commander's position. Since you and I won't be running the ship, Edward will relegate us to positions in the back during actual flight. " Kathleen sat before a console and began flipping switches. She leaned forward to a microphone.
    "Carl, can you hear me?"
    "Loud and clear," came the reply. "Ready when you are."
    "All right, give us a minute to hook up." She handed Harry a headset. "Here, put this on, then you can hear everything that's going on."
    Harry put on the headset and adjusted the tiny microphone that dangled before his mouth. Through the earpieces he heard periodic navigational reports as well as the buzz and pop of simulated radio interference.
    "All right Carl, I'm going to open the viewports. You can leave us alone for awhile." Without waiting for an answer, Kathleen pressed a switch and the metal louvers that covered the viewports began to slide back. As they moved out of the way, they revealed a scene that took Harry's breath away.
    In the upper half of his field of vision, Neptune appeared to float in a blackened sky, the great rings so close that Harry could see the individual boulders and ice. In the background, stars shined through, illuminating the velvet carpet of sky.
    "What do you think?"
    "It's... amazing."
    "And it's not even the real thing."
    "You could've fooled me." Harry again began to feel the rising excitement. It was what he had dreamed about for so long that he was afraid he would wake up and it wouldn't be real. But now here he was, a Braithwaite Corporation employee, a survey team member, poised to fly into the unknown and explore the stars.

 
     
    Chapter 8
     
     
    The days and weeks that followed were lost in a blur of training sessions and preparations. It was a time of discovery and excitement for Harry, as well as big changes. For the first time since his father died, there was money for his family. Complying with corporation rules, Harry moved into survey team quarters. Compared to what he was used to, his suite was luxurious. Unfortunately, due to an arduous training schedule, he didn't get to spend much time there.
    The part of the day he most looked forward to was his ninety minutes in holographic situations. Typically they weren't as difficult as those encountered during the testing, but they were just as interesting.
    In one of the sessions, he found himself alone, squatting on a dirt floor inside a mud hut with small, smelly, furry creatures