Love or Liberty Page 2

  A gentle tap on his shoulder caught his attention. ‘Lieutenant Commander Cobb? Welcome,’ said an officer.

  Still startled, Jim swiveled around and exclaimed, ‘Oh, that was close. You don’t know how …’ He paused to look down at his suit and saw the back of his knees looking browned. His sleeves looked charred. ‘Well … I was about to say, just how close that was.’

  Both he and the officer ducked as the Skyhawk’s cockpit suddenly exploded in a fireball on the dark deck. Gusts fanned the flames but the ground crew scrambled, blowing their extinguishers at it, just as Red Three dropped in quickly and as quietly as a black panther in the night. It was parked in a row with other tails in under thirty seconds and disappeared below deck on a giant lift in under sixty.

  Jim turned back to the officer, utterly speechless. The man simply grunted with a calm wry smile, and still inspecting Jim’s tattered suit, said, ‘You’d better change quickly. The CO’s expecting you in his quarters. You might want to think up a story.’ He glanced back towards the burning plane. ‘You picked a bad day. He’s not a happy man. Said he was about to lose one of his much needed new crew. But that could be a whole lot easier now.’

  Jim’s eyes searched for an explanation. ‘I’ve blown it, haven’t I?’

  CHAPTER 2 - STONEWALLED

  Moments later

  Jim had already showered and changed into a new flight suit when he arrived at the Commanding Officer’s door around twenty minutes later. He knocked twice then turned the handle and saw Captain Powell sitting at his desk.

  Powell pulled the phone from his ear. ‘Come in and take a seat, Jim. I’ll be with you in just a moment.’

  He entered the room and settled at a round meeting table which overlooked the deck and glanced around the room. The walls were wood paneled and peppered with ship’s memorabilia, gifts and photos of the captain with friends and colleagues in uniform on different ships. A large world map covered the largest expanse of wall and a game of chess lay unfinished on a small round table in a corner to his right.

  Powell put the phone down. ‘That looked like a lucky escape.’

  Jim shot to his feet and turned to salute, standing as straight as a pole. ‘Yes, sir!’

  Powell got up too and asked (as if they were genuine concerns), ‘Cold or something, were you, out there, Cobb? Far from home?’

  Jim swallowed quietly. Powell was clearly toying. He must have known the Soviets took pot shots at him—he’d reported it. Jim buttoned his lip but Powell nodded that it was his turn to speak.

  ‘Sir, the cabin heat was jammed on. There was nothing I could do.’ Jim paused for a reaction, not daring to repeat the incident for fear of sounding insolent or shifting blame. ‘But, I managed to save the plane. Well, I mean, I didn’t ditch, sir.’

  Powell said nothing at first, but walked around his desk and looked Jim straight in the eye. His tone turned. ‘Save the plane, did you? That’s not what I would have said. It was burning on my deck and I don’t have a spare for you.’ His remark hit Jim in the face like he’d been called out for a blatant lie. Powell walked back around his desk.

  ‘Sir,’ Jim hesitated at first. ‘It was tricky. I was patrolling a wider section of ocean, there was the storm … the Soviet shots. I just made it in. It must have been the shots, sir. I’m sure there’s an explanation.’

  ‘And, just what were you doing getting shot at, Cobb? You know as well as I do, that we may be at war in a matter of hours. This young lady maybe about to see her first piece of real action,’ he added, glancing around the room. Jim didn’t have an explanation—he should not have flown so close and rattled that hornet’s nest. ‘The Soviets are trying to add more nukes to Cuba. This ship and its crew can’t be crippled at a time like this. Can you imagine that?’

  Jim stood silent, then said, ‘I saw them, sir.’

  ‘Saw what?’

  ‘I have to write my de-brief. I saw what looked like missiles on that ship.’

  Powell paused and reconsidered his tone. ‘I want to see it on my desk before you leave the ship.’

  ‘Yes, sir … leave the ship, sir?’

  ‘Okay, stand at ease now.’

  Jim’s face remained taut from the reprimand.

  ‘You’ve been re-assigned to shore duties,’ Powell said, ‘But, your plane’s broken, so, it’ll be the transporter back to dock. In one hour.’

  Jim stood quietly stunned. It sounded like he’d screwed up for the last time with Powell, though the sanction seemed harsh. The Captain looked him in the eye again.

  ‘I had a call from the Secretary and CNO,’ Powell continued. ‘You, Cobb, are leaving this ship now.’

  Jim flushed hot as the words what the hell? rattled around inside his head. He swallowed hard.

  ‘The thing is, the CNO and I have been asked to propose you for a role at NASA.’ Powell handed him a sealed telegram.

  Jim was astonished, thinking damn Soviets knew what they were doing, as he tore it open and read. He felt like he’d just been fired in writing. ‘But, sir—’

  ‘It’s not a regular process. You’ll have to find out why that is—I can’t tell you. I’m guessing they aren’t taking applications or talking to people who aren’t suitable. The stakes seem very high from what I’ve heard.’

  Jim held his tongue while his head whirred with mental calculus to figure out what was going on.

  ‘What’s on your mind?’ Powell asked.

  Jim glanced at the note again and replied firmly, ‘Sir, my job’s here, to … well, to protect our country. The blockade needs everything we’ve got, like you said. What’s the use in going to—’

  ‘Jim. I think I know what you’re thinking—’

  ‘Sir, my fight here is with the Communists. They took shots at me. My role is here with you. I’m not ready to leave the battlefield just when I need to be here. The blockade—’

  ‘I haven’t given you permission to interrupt, have I?’ Powell walked back around his desk and said, ‘You’ve been a good pilot on this ship.’ He stopped abruptly and glanced at the window to where Jim’s plane would have been. He rolled his eyes and turned back. ‘And I’ve known you throughout your Navy career. But, I’d advise you to go check it out before you react badly.’

  Jim felt closed down.

  ‘I know you just got here, but it has to be now or never. Between us, you won’t be able to leave the ship from tomorrow,’ Powell added.

  Jim thought for a moment, relented and simply replied, ‘I’ll gather my things, sir … thank you.’ He saluted again then walked to the door, seeing that the conversation was over, and thinking that he’d either been given his orders or sidelined for losing a plane. But, it couldn’t have been the latter—the telegram had already arrived.

  Powell glanced up from his desk as Jim was stepping out the door. ‘By the way, you were browsing that chess board over there.’

  Jim turned back. ‘Yes sir, it looks like you’re getting, erh, Stonewalled. I presumed you were black?’

  ‘Stonewalled?’ Powell muttered, glancing at the board as Jim closed the door and disappeared.

  Still feeling irascible, Jim packed his meager belongings, wrote his de-brief quickly, then climbed into the helicopter for shore exactly sixty minutes later. The sky had cleared and the moonlight was now full on. The first thing he did was to reach up and turn on the cool air vent above his head before he sat down, feeling relieved to be the passenger on this flight.

  He pulled out the note Powell gave him and read it again in the faint light over his shoulder. He was to report to Ellington Air Force Base in Houston at eight on Monday morning. And in strict secrecy. He was not to disclose the order to anyone. That was it. Not a clue what they wanted.

  ‘You okay buddy?’ the pilot asked, stepping out of his office in the sky up front and interrupting Jim’s thoughts.

  Jim looked up. ‘Yeah. I, erh, just need to get some proper shut eye. It’s been a long day. And, it sure seems like we’re marching into war with
the Soviets, doesn’t it?’

  ‘It’s looking grim. Well, if it all blows over, my wife and I are going to a new show in town. You on shore leave? Give me a call if you and JoAnn are around.’

  ‘I’m heading to E—erh, Langley … Field next week.’ Jim’s tongue had only just managed to keep his news from escaping his teeth, but he found that Carl was a smart cookie.

  ‘Langley?’ he exclaimed. ‘You off to the moon or something?’ he joked. ‘That’s where all them spaceboys are stationed, isn’t it?’

  Jim bit his lip then said, ‘I’ll give you a call.’

  ‘Okay, buddy.’ Carl saluted and jumped back into his cockpit.

  As they took off, Jim’s mind turned back to the standoff in the ocean below. The world, it seemed, was on the precipice of another catastrophic conflict following the Second World War. If just one of the Soviet ships crossed the line, Kennedy and Khrushchev would fill the skies with nukes within the hour and there would be no more NASA unless it jumped into one of its own rockets and sped away to the stars. And, it was just possible that he’d not even make it back to shore to see JoAnn today. All it would take was one Soviet submarine captain to get an itchy finger or a rogue order, so deep under water that he’d probably not know what else to do but push the button.

  Exhausted, he promptly kicked back, though his mind continued to race. Powell began to preach inside his head. ‘We don’t ask soldiers which battles they’d prefer to fight. Choices get made for you, Jim, unless you’re the one making them.’

  He was still agonizing over it all when his eyes closed, tired and with a bruised ego from losing the second plane in his career that day.

  CHAPTER 3 - STARS

  The next day, Wednesday October 24th, 1962

  Jim walked through the front door at home outside Houston around dinner time the following day, having spent the previous night at the Norfolk naval station Chesapeake Bay. He stopped for a moment to take in the delicious smell of apple pie which hung in the air. His first sight, after closing the door behind him, was of JoAnn watering pots of snake plant with a little handheld canister. She was in a slim blue shirt and tight white pants, just like she’d dressed when they’d decorated the lounge the previous summer. Elegant, he thought, in its simplicity, neutral colors, not at all a mishmash of old rags, but selected for the job. It reminded him of the white tail on a plane before the fancy logos and swirls were painted on.

  He looked around for paint tins, but there were none. The room was tidy and ordered and he felt satisfied that his own place in the world had some sanity while outside didn’t. To his right, next to the entrance, wide wooden stairs led to the first floor. Straight in front, he noticed the white sofa had an assortment of new cushions, though clearly not all for keeps for there was no more than an inch left to actually sit on. A matching footstool stood next to it on top of an orange patterned rug which hid a solid white tiled floor underneath. Cream-colored armchairs were on the other side of the sofa and a pedestal, within arms-reach, stood between them, on which sat an equally pale green telephone with a circular dial. Horizontal pale brick shaped tiles adorned the walls around the living room and a hearth punctured the wall behind them to his left. Bright streams of light came in through Venetian blinds and cut through the diffused hue in the room.

  Jim put down his keys along with a book on a small round table next to the door, then walked over and kissed JoAnn on the lips in the center of the room. With one hand still behind his back, he handed her a bouquet of red roses wrapped in green paper.

  She looked delighted, put down the watering can and beamed at them. They hugged, and with an inquiring face, she asked if he was okay.

  Jim was still admiring her delight but shrugged and replied, ‘Yeah.’ With a big sigh, he added, ‘But I lost the plane.’

  She looked concerned. ‘Was everything okay out there?’

  Jim nodded. ‘It’s fixable. No one’s hurt.’ Jim thought his plane was probably not written off, but it would be an expensive repair for the Navy or for whoever had to put it right. A nagging self-doubt remained. The investigation report might turn up something he did or forgot to do.

  ‘And what about the …’

  Jim thought for a moment. ‘I think the Soviets will get the message and it will blow over. They’ll back down.’ He winced with a mild pain.

  JoAnn stopped and looked him up and down. ‘What? Are you hurt?’

  Jim brought his hidden hand forward and revealed a medium-sized tub of ice cream, swapping it with the other hand and feeling instant relief. He held up the tub with a grin. ‘Something for later.’

  JoAnn relaxed again, smiled and laughed at it. ‘Let me see.’ She took it from him. ‘Chocolate Chip? What’s the occasion?’

  ‘And, I also got a book about the stars.’ He pointed to where he’d left it by the door with the keys.

  ‘Something going on?’

  ‘Just—you know.’

  JoAnn looked down at her flowers again. ‘Well, okay. I’d better put these in water. Come.’

  She held his hand and led him into the kitchen, just visible around the corner, and put down the ice-cream while she fetched a vase from a cupboard. She began to fill it with water at the sink.

  Just behind her, he pulled out the telegram from his back pocket. ‘Take a look at this.’

  She turned with the flowers still in her wet hands, put them down and dried herself on a dishcloth. Extracting the note from an envelope, she read silently. ‘Ellington? On Monday? And, not a word?’ She looked intrigued. ‘What is it?’

  Jim hadn’t told her on the phone, knowing the line might not be private. Instead, he’d said his plane was broken and he was coming home for a few days while they found him another one. She knew that that was baloney and code for something else.

  ‘NASA,’ Jim said.

  She was puzzled. ‘NASA? What do they want?’

  ‘I’m not sure. That’s all it says. Even Powell didn’t know, and he handed it to me. They didn’t take the trouble to post it.’

  ‘That can only mean one thing, right? NASA? Astronaut? What else would it be?’

  ‘Can’t think. Testing equipment or something?’

  She looked amazed. ‘That’s … wow. You okay about that?’

  ‘I don’t know yet. Maybe.’ Jim’s head hadn’t let go of having to leave the ship in the middle of the conflict. Now was his second big chance, after Korea, to hit back at communism and prevent its advance around the world. He had to get his own back for the loss of his father to the Soviets, and needed to stay focused on that goal which had driven him to the Navy in the first place. Just how was he going to do that at NASA? And what if he got a desk job there, calculating flight paths or something? ‘Perhaps when the blockade’s over. Let’s see what they want on Monday.’

  JoAnn was clearly intrigued. ‘Imagine that,’ she said, turning back to her flowers. She glanced around the kitchen. ‘Good thing I’ve been tidying this place, if it is. Can you imagine? Cameras everywhere?’ She laughed at the idea, hardly believing her words. ‘Are you okay with that?’

  Jim thought she was getting a little ahead of herself but let her play with the idea. Truth was, it might be cool some other time when mankind wasn’t staring at its end. He sat on a yellow bench seat in the diner style cubicle to the left of the window and said, ‘I am a little camera shy. That may be a problem.’

  ‘You’ll have to get used to it.’ After a thoughtful pause, she added, ‘I’ll need some clothes.’ She seemed to have an idea. ‘I could borrow some.’ She put the flowers into the watered vase and asked, ‘So, what happens on Monday?’

  ‘Honestly, I’m clueless. Maybe they’re expecting a chimp or something with four legs to put to the test,’ he joked.

  She dried her hands and walked over to him, put the flowers square in the center of the table and stopped to admire them for a moment. She then sat astride him on the chair and looked into his eyes. ‘I can’t believe it. I could have my very own spac
eman here.’

  Jim thought she hadn’t remembered all the rockets which had blown up on take-off. That would surely come to complicate matters at some point.

  They kissed. ‘So, talking about tidying up, what did you think of the colors?’

  Jim said he liked the blue cushions on the white sofa, that there were too many, that they worked well, though, in truth, he had no real idea other than they didn’t look bad. He also knew she wasn’t really asking for approval, but just needed to know there wasn’t a problem. She’d furnish their home and he’d stay out of the way.

  She went on, ‘I began to move furniture in the bedroom so we can start decorating. But it was too hot. I couldn’t do much. I need your help.’

  ‘You began that already?’ One of the smaller rooms needed a repaint. ‘You should have waited.’

  She shrugged. ‘I had time. And, you had another world war to prevent.’ She smiled at him.

  Jim put his arms behind his head to stretch. ‘I can’t believe how hot it is out there. It’s all coming off of that hurricane, Ella. I got caught in it on the way back to the Enterprise.’ He glanced out the window. ‘It must still be ninety out there. That’s got to be a record this time of year.’ Then he had a thought. ‘You know, that’s a nice name for a baby, don’t you think?’

  JoAnn laughed. ‘Ella?’ She weighed it up and said, ‘Well, it would be nice to grow some kids if you’re going to be out there exploring the universe. We’d better get going.’

  Jim could see that she was imagining and building a future in her mind when she kissed him again, though he still had part of his brain on the war brewing in the Atlantic. He held it in, so as not to burst their bubble.