11 January 2036 – Baffin Bay Spaceport, Kenedy County, Texas
Sabrina was working in her office when her secretary (okay, her ‘administrative assistant’) answered a call.
“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll send her right over.” Mary hung up the phone and looked into Sabrina’s office. “Sabrina, Beth would like to see you as soon as you can reach her office.”
“Okay. I’ll head right over. Thanks, Mary.”
Sabrina saved and closed the file she was working on, stood up from her desk, and walked around the corner. A man in an Air Force major general’s uniform sat in a chair in front of Beth’s desk. She nodded politely to the general.
“You wanted to see me, Boss?” Sabrina asked.
“Hi, Sabrina,” Beth said. “Close the door and have a seat.” Sabrina did so, smiling as she sat in the chair next to the general. “How’s Marisa? Is she growing like a weed?”
“Four months old now. She’ll burn through the clothes you bought her before she turns a year old!”
“Funny how kids seem to do that all the time,” Beth said with a smile. She motioned to the general sitting next to Sabrina. “Sabrina, this is Major General Nicolas Cabrera, Adjutant General of the Texas Air National Guard. We have a proposal that we’d like for you to hear. General?”
Sabrina turned her attention and her chair to the general and raised an eyebrow.
“Mrs. Knox-Jones, I understand that you were a member of the Air Force Academy’s Class of 2020, spent fourteen years of active service in the US Air Force, and were one hell of a hot F-22 pilot?”
“Well, I’ll admit to the first two, General, but you’ll have a hard time getting me to admit to the last. The F-22 and I clicked, that’s all.”
“Told y’all she was modest as all heck, Nick …” Beth muttered.
“I spoke to all of your commanding officers, including General Pete Cunningham, former commander of Air Combat Command, and they all thought highly of you. With all the space and the two runways Beth is building, the Air National Guard would like to add a base here.”
“Forgive me, General, but how does this involve me?” Sabrina asked.
“We’d like for you to be the squadron commander here.”
Sabrina’s mouth dropped open.
“And I told y’all she’d be surprised as heck, too, Nick,” Beth muttered again.
“General,” Sabrina responded, “they forced me out of the Air Force with just under fourteen years of service. I’m too junior to be a squadron commander!”
“The governor will write you an exemption if she has to. Call it a below-the-zone promotion.”
Sabrina just blinked.
“We’ll reactivate the 217th Squadron as a fighter squadron and the 196th Fighter Wing. Neither has been around in a while.”
Sabrina looked at the planned squadron’s patch. It imitated the colors of the American flag, Air Force roundel, the Texas state flag, and vaguely mirrored the state’s coat of arms. The patch’s motto was “Adferre Optimum Ad Pugnum,” Latin for “Bring Your Best to the Fight.”
She then looked at the 196th Fighter Wing’s planned patch. The state’s yellow outline sat at the base of the dark blue shield. One lone, white star sat on the top left of the sky, above the state’s outline, while an F-22’s silhouette streaked across the shield toward the star from the lower right side to the upper left. The F-22’s contrails were white over red, mimicking the state flag again.
“And a name tag for the flight suits …”
General Cabrera tossed a name tag in Sabrina’s lap, mimicking what Beth had done eighteen months ago. The name tag once more resembled a Texas state flag. On the far left, a white F-22 silhouette dominated the blue field. Sabrina’s command flight wings were silver over the top white stripe, and her name and callsign were in white text over the bottom red stripe.
“And you’ll need these …”
General Cabrera tossed her a pair of dark blue lieutenant colonel’s oak leaves for her flight suit.
“It’ll take a couple of years to stand up the unit and build the base,” Cabrera said. “The 217th won’t even get planes until the first few buildings on the base are nearly finished.”
“Plenty of time for y’all and Tommy to have more children if y’all want,” Beth added. “Seems like y’all and he have a lot to talk about.”
“You’ll have to take the online version of the Air Force Air Command and Staff College, too, but I doubt that will be a problem,” General Cabrera mentioned. “It’ll be easier and less expensive than sending you to Alabama for ten months.”
“General, I got bounced out of the Air Force because I didn’t go to Maxwell for Squadron Officer School!”
“But y’all took the online version, didn’t y’all?” Beth chimed in. “Y’all’s commanding officer had it out for y’all, Sabrina. Don’t take what that moron said as gospel!”
Sabrina mutely walked out of Beth’s office with barely a nod.
“Think she’ll go for it?” Nick Cabrera asked.
“She’s a fool if she doesn’t! And her parents didn’t raise no fool!”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
Sabrina walked back into the house she and Tommy had been assigned when they started working for Ad Astra. She was in a daze, and Tommy recognized her look.
“What did you get roped into this time?” he asked jokingly.
Sabrina looked up and spread all the patches across the coffee table in front of him.
“They want to make me a squadron commander in the Texas Air National Guard, Tommy.”
It took Tommy a second or two to process everything, but he finally started smiling at his wife.
“This is something you want, right?”
“I don’t know, Tom,” Sabrina said. “I mean, I do, but I don’t know if I’m senior enough for this! Even if I had stayed in the Air Force, I’d be shy of the minimum sixteen years of Time in Service!”
“And did whoever you spoke to mention a ‘below-the-zone promotion?’”
“You know way too much,” Sabrina muttered.
“I know you miss having a Raptor as an extension of you! The PiperJet is enjoyable, but it’s not enough. Not for you, anyway!” Tommy put his elbows on his knees as he sat on the couch. “If it goes less than Mach Two, it’s not fast enough!”
Tommy slid his hand up Sabrina’s leg, which was bare under her skirt.
“Was Beth involved in this?” he asked.
“General Cabrera made the offer in front of her, in her office. She probably had something to do with this, though.”
Sabrina explained how the Air Guard base would be built on the other side of Baffin Bay’s runways.
“So, we have time?” Tommy asked.
“The General mentioned that, too.” Sabrina moaned. “You know that turns me on!”
“You still look as good to me as you did that day on the slopes in Breckenridge!” Tommy kept moving his hand. “Marisa just went down for a nap, you know?”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
The 196th Civil Engineering Squadron began work on the base after Sabrina talked to General Cabrera. Truthfully, the 196th was in charge of construction, but the base was mainly built by the same construction firms that built the rest of Baffin Bay Spaceport.
Hangars and buildings closest to the flight line were built first. The Baffin Bay Air National Guard fire station was one of those buildings. The Baffin Bay ANG fire station included an extra garage bay and crew quarters for the Baffin Bay Fire Department to base Ambulance 2 at the ANG fire station.
All the members of the BBFD were cleared to come on base. As the base was being built, each received their DBIDS ID cards and department-issued IDs. These would allow them on both sides of the runway.
It took a few months, but Sabrina learned she was pregnant again in March. General Cabrera made sure Sabrina’s official photographs were taken before she started to show. Sabrina was now officially in command of the 217th Fighter Squadron, even though they didn’t have any aircraft yet.
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
“Sure is weird flying back into Fitchburg when we’re not here to visit either pair of parents.”
“We’re not visiting them for that primarily, Tom,” Sabrina answered, playing with Marisa in her car seat. They were taxiing to the gate in their private jet. “We’ll get to see all four grandparents while we’re here, mainly because they’ll watch Marisa while we’re at the reunion.”
“We’re staying at my parents’ house this time?”
“Yeah, because we stayed at my parents’ house the last time we visited,” Sabrina answered.
“Have we been to a reunion before? I don’t think we have …”
“We’ve been too busy,” Sabrina said. “Duty here in the States, our time in Germany …”
“Poor us!”
Sabrina and Tom walked back into Devens Regional the next night and felt transported back in time. The reunion was in a section of the school that had been around twenty years ago when they were students there.
“Hi!” said a bubbly young woman running the check-in table. “I gather you’re here for the Class of 2016’s reunion?”
“Hi,” Sabrina answered. “Sabrina Knox-Jones and Tom Jones,” she said, pointing to themselves.
The other girl picked up two name tags and presented them to each one of them, separately.
“‘Hi, my name is …’” Tom joked as they walked away.
“Says the guy who looks so handsome dressed in his navy suit tonight …”
“Says the woman who will have every eye on her! The others will barely notice I’m here!”
“You’ll be hard to miss, Tommy,” Sabrina said while pressing herself lovingly against him.
The couple quickly found Erica Thorisson and Shawn Hurt with their respective spouses. Sabrina and Tom were filling the four of them why they were in Texas now when Sabrina felt a presence behind her. She turned in her chair to find a contrite-looking Peter Knapp and a woman standing behind her.
“Hi, Sabrina,” Pete said with some regret in his voice. “Hi, Tom,” he said next. “This is my wife, Linda,” Pete said, pointing to the petite blonde next to him.
“It’s very nice to meet the both of you,” Linda said politely.
“Would you two like to sit with us?” Sabrina asked. “There’s plenty of room.”
“Sabrina, before we sit with you two, and Shawn and Erica, I need to apologize for the way I acted toward you in Berkeley all those years ago.” Pete looked genuinely sorry while Linda tried to encourage him. “We were both under a bit of stress, but that doesn’t excuse how I acted that day.”
“Pete, I’ll admit that day hurt, but it allowed me to be free when Tommy showed up unannounced later that year. We’ve been together ever since. It allowed you to be free when Linda showed up, I’m sure.”
The old friends sat and got reacquainted with each other, as well as their spouses, who they didn’t know well up until that point. The hours flew by as pictures of all of their children were passed around. The friends danced with other friend’s spouses when that time came around.
Sabrina learned before the reunion that Jasmine Ruiz had sold her interest in their Dunkin’ Donuts stores back to her father and moved away. Ruby Sepulveda and Naomi Taggert didn’t attend the reunion.
Sabrina was a bit sad to hear that news, but she did enjoy the chance to meet up with other friends, such as Vic Thurmond, Faith Henderson, and Robert Thomas. Robert jokingly saluted Sabrina upon learning she was now a lieutenant colonel with the Texas Air National Guard. He’d gotten as far as captain in the Army before getting out.
Sabrina snuggled up to Tom as their family went back to the Corpus Christi area and the Baffin Bay Spaceport.
“It was good to see everyone again,” Sabrina commented.
“It was certainly nice to reconnect.”
“We’ve got a bunch of new addresses for our Christmas cards.”
“We’ll see if anyone makes the trip down to visit us,” Tom said. “We visit our parents in Central Mass often enough.”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
One thing that seems true across any work is that the higher you go, the more paperwork awaits you.
Sabrina sat at her desk on the ‘other’ side of Baffin Bay’s runways. Her growing belly meant she couldn’t fly the F-22s when the squadron finally received them next week. She went over the squadron’s needs with her deputy commander and the 196th Aviation Maintenance Squadron leader during the months, then weeks, before the planes arrived.
On her way back from another bathroom visit, she asked her deputy commander, “Are we all set for next week, Timmy?”
Major Tim Bryant looked up from the stack of paper on his desk.
“All good, Ma’am!” he replied in his thick South Texas drawl.
“Don’t break them all before I get to fly one!”
“I heard that Raikou can fly just about anything, Ma’am!”
“Timmy, it’s gonna feel weird flying one of those jets with my pencil up your ass!”
“C’mon, Ma’am! At least they have the simulators installed! You don’t have to worry about G-LOC or AGSM with those!”
“Thank heaven for small favors,” Sabrina mumbled.
Timmy smiled back at his squadron’s commander. He wasn’t sure about working for Sabrina when he was first assigned here. He soon learned to appreciate her relatively hands-off style of leadership. Sure, he had many meetings with her and the Aviation Maintenance squadron leader last week, but it wasn’t every day that a squadron was brought back from the dead and given new aircraft.
Sabrina had clearly defined what Timmy needed to do while she was out after having this baby. Otherwise, she let her subordinates follow their orders and would, like now, check in occasionally. Timmy was in a strange place as an active-duty Air National Guard member, but since Baffin Bay was in the middle of nowhere, Beth Oldham let active-duty members live on the ‘civilian side.’ She even authorized new housing developments to accommodate the extra people residing on the spaceport property.
The squadron was getting twenty, third-generation F-22As. The Collins Mark VI, the newest version of the Helmet Mounted Display System, made the F-22As even more deadly, making the F-22B irrelevant. With the F-51 Mustang IIs and F-52 Hellcat IIs coming online, the F-22B was even more irrelevant. That project was canceled.
The following week, Sabrina gazed longly as the ‘new’ F-22s landed on Baffin Bay’s Runway 33 and taxied to the Air National Guard Base side of the runway’s ramps.
“How was the flight down?” Sabrina asked Timmy Bryant as they shook hands.
“Not bad, Ma’am. Just long.”
“Any issues at Nellis or Edwards?”
“Not enough restaurants near the flight line at Edwards these days, Ma’am,” Bryant griped. The new used F-22s had come from the 53rd Wing at Nellis and the 412th Test Wing at Edwards, both units Sabrina had formerly served in. “Nellis had more, closer choices.”
“Do we have to send anyone back for my plane?”
“No, the 412th sent Lieutenant Oh down with us,” Bryant explained as he motioned to the young lieutenant standing next to him. “We’ll have to ship her home, but I figure one of the C-17s can do that on their training flights in the coming week.”
Sabrina returned the lieutenant’s salute and firmly shook her hand.
“Ms. Oldham will put you in one of the guest lodges until we get you back to Kern County.”
“That would be greatly appreciated, Ma’am,” Lieutenant Rebekkah Oh responded. “I brought a small bag and my laptop with me, too. I should wash my uniforms before I return.”
“Don’t worry, Lieutenant,” Timmy Bryant said. “The Colonel will hook you up.”
The lieutenant saluted Sabrina before leaving to find her temporary accommodations.
“You’re her idol, you know?” Bryant asked.
“Oh, c’mon! Not that ‘Raikou’ thing again!”
“Face it. Ma’am! You’re stuck with that!”
“Well, let’s look at your new ride …”
Years of experience in an F-22A allowed Sabrina to point out things to Timmy Bryant as he sat in the cockpit, especially the things he’d want to watch for. Her five-month-pregnant body prevented her from climbing into the cockpit. That didn’t stop her from standing on the ladder and pointing out certain things. Back in the simulator area the next week, Sabrina showed the rest of the squadron that ‘the old lady’ still had it.
“Remind me never to get on your bad side, Ma’am,” Bryant muttered to her over a discrete channel.
“I wish I could help you in a couple of weeks when you go up against the 147th.”
The 217th Fighter Squadron would face the 147th Attack Squadron during their Annual Training at the beginning of August. She’d miss out.
“You’ll help out by taking care of all that paperwork!”
She looked over at Timmy Bryant with a smirk.
“I’ll be sure to save some just for you, Timmy!”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
Beth Oldham sat on one side of her desk while Sabrina Knox-Jones sat back down on the other.
“Sorry about that,” Sabrina apologized. “This kid’s already good at using my bladder as a soccer ball!”
Beth smiled back at the woman she’d followed since they were teens.
“They do that. I called it ‘Friday Night Lights’ when I had my three. Football’s kind of a thing down here.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that,” Sabrina said with a laugh. “Boss, you know I don’t actually need all the money you and General Cabrera are throwing at me?”
“Is that why we’re meeting today, Sabrina? So y’all can argue for less pay than what y’all’re getting?”
“Much of my day is taken up with the remote Air University stuff General Cabrera’s got me doing! Take some of that money and give it to some kid who’s just starting out and wants to work for you!”
“Sabrina, even with all the money we’re spending building this place, it’s still rolling in. From our investors and Dad’s old company. He used to be in the ‘awl bidness’ before Neptune’s Forge took over the market, and he was smart enough to get involved in their fusion technology before it knocked the oil industry to the ground!”
“Beth, if you know my background and Alex’s then you know we’re not suffering, right?”
“I know, Sabrina. Sacha Cohen was one of y’all’s grandmother’s first math students. I knew this before I started Ad Astra. It’s part of the reason y’all are both are here!”
Sabrina just looked at her boss with a mystified look on her face.
“Sabrina, oil would have died anyway a few years after those first home fusion plants hit the market. Because they took over the market, we have some extra years to find alternatives for everything that uses petroleum. As far as y’all’s pay goes, I can’t let y’all work for free, and even while y’all’re trying to get the online military classes done, y’all’re getting y’all’s civilian job done, too.
“Now that a second child is on the way, shouldn’t we be talking about getting y’all and Tommy a bigger house?”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
Colonel Rodolfo Armas, commander of the 196th Fighter Wing, looked across his desk at the 217th Fighter Squadron’s commanding officer. Her uniform didn’t hide her swollen belly. At eight months pregnant, he didn’t think it’d be able to. The young woman looked nervous. Colonel Armas wasn’t sure why.
He looked down at the file in front of him. Academy Class of 2020, bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering, spotless officer evaluations until those two from that cabron in Virginia, a master’s degree in aeronautic engineering before she was promoted to major. Completion of online Squadron Officer School and Air Command and Staff College. One of the baddest F-22 pilots in the sky.
“Colonel Knox-Jones, I think you need to calm down a little,” he said. “We can’t have you going into early labor in my office! Or in the ambulance on the way to Baffin Bay General Hospital!”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Look, Sabrina?” Sabrina nodded in response. “Sabrina, General Cabrera, and Bethany Oldham have backed you. And that’s before I mention how your record is spotless!”
“Sir, my last two officer evals from Langley …”
“Are utter mierda!” Colonel Armas said, cutting her off. “Don’t tell me you are starting to believe them, too? You got the 217th back to operational status in record time! The 217th is gonna get the Outstanding Unit Award ribbon!”
“Sir, it can be argued that I’m past the minimum of sixteen years of Time in Service, but that would require you to ignore that I was out of the Air Force for over two years.”
“And I’d have to ignore that you had your squadron and others running at top-notch before the base was completed! Look, your squadron is the best in Texas. And that’s the Regular Air Force, Reserves, or the National Guard. Your leadership skill is pushing me to be better and making me look good.”
“Sir, if you’ve read up on my career, you know I don’t like talking myself up.”
“You have your deputy commander ready to take over your job while you’re out. Many commanders don’t care.” Sabrina sat quietly in the chair in front of the colonel’s desk. He came around to sit in the empty chair next to her. “Your squadron is bringing all of the 196th up with it. Your performance lifts the rest of us!”
Sabrina still looked unsure.
“Head home to Tom, Sabrina. Play with your little girl. Stare at the scrub and brush outside the spaceport. Whatever you do, don’t think about the Air Force until you’re getting dressed for your next tour of duty.”
Sabrina stood automatically, saluted the colonel, and left his office when he returned it. Rodolfo Armas sighed and returned to his desk. He picked up the phone, pressed the speed dial button, and waited for his call to connect.
“Beth? It’s Rodi Armas … No, Sabrina was just here, but she still has trouble accepting that this is real … Hey, I’ve tried to do everything I know how to do! … No, growing up with two big sisters did not give me the answers to the universe. Besides, I thought the answer was ‘forty-two?’ … Geeks exist in other cultures, too, you know?”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
When Sabrina returned home, she found Tom playing with their fourteen-month-old daughter, Marisa. Their laughter helped buoy her spirits slightly.
“Are you doing okay?” Tom asked her.
“I think so?”
“You think so?”
“I mean, Colonel Armas was pleased with how things are going …”
“So, no problem!”
“You know Campbell will hear about this somehow!”
Sabrina winced and bent over.
“Contraction?”
“I think so. My water didn’t break, so maybe it was just a Braxton-Hicks?”
“Sure. Just a Braxton-Hicks contraction …” Tom said while rolling his eyes.
“Go grab Marisa’s bag and some spare clothes for both of us!”
Tom rushed upstairs to grab a bag and some extra clothes for them, then raced back down to grab Marisa’s diaper bag from its spot near the front door.
“Ready?”
Sabrina held their daughter’s car seat, and Marisa buckled into it.
“Ready.”
Tom and Sabrina drove toward Baffin Bay General Hospital, with Marisa safely buckled in the back seat. She played with some toys, not knowing she might soon be a big sister.
Six hours later, totally exhausted, they drove home.
“So, Braxton-Hicks?” Tom asked.
“Seems like it,” Sabrina responded. “No dilation and no loss of membranes.”
“How many weeks along are you now?”
“Thirty-four. Shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Tom looked at the rear-view mirror and saw that Marisa was still asleep.
“Well, at least someone is getting some sleep …” he said.
“I doubt Beth, Clara, or Milt will hold a day off against us. Hopefully, the contractions will hold off and let me sleep.”
They did let the family sleep. Marisa, however, woke up before her parents.
“Three hours,” Sabrina said with a grimace. “For a night-shift worker, that’d be plenty of sleep! Too bad we’re not night-shift workers!”
“As long as I don’t drop the baby … what’s the old saying? ‘Well, pick it up, then!’”
Sabrina rolled her eyes.
“You’re hopeless!”
“And yet you’re still with me!”
“We all make mistakes,” she muttered.
“We’ve known each other since we were two, Sabrina!”
“I was three if you remember?”
“Oh,” Tom said. “That’s right! You’re the old woman!”
“I think that’s supposed to be ‘the older woman?’”
“Yeah, whatever! You’re older than I am!”
“By like six months, Tommy!”
“Older is older!”
“I say again: ‘You’re hopeless!’”
Marisa’s voice shifted from cooing to crying.
“Does that count as ‘saved by the bell?’”
“I think it counts more as, ‘Your daughter is smarter than you,’ Tommy!”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
Three weeks later. Sabrina had contractions again. This time, her body added what her father and the medical community would call ‘Rupture of Membranes.’ Her water broke while wearing her uniform and sitting in a wing meeting one weekend.
“Uh, Colonel?” Colonel Armas asked. The others just wore shocked looks. “You okay?”
“Um, not really, Sir,” she responded while looking down at the growing stain on her uniform and the chair she sat on. The wing commander started giving orders and throwing knife hands.
“Chief Jenkins, call the fire department and get an ambulance for the colonel!” The chief master sergeant bolted out of the room while throwing the colonel a salute. “Major Estrada, you will follow Major Perkins over to the spaceport hospital in Lieutenant Colonel Knox-Jones’ car. You two wait for her to get there in the ambulance and make sure she or her husband gets her car keys before you leave, got it?”
Major Estrada nodded with a quiet “Yes, Sir!” before Colonel Armas ordered him and Major Perkins out and not to follow the ambulance. They quickly took off, too.
“Sabrina,” the colonel asked. “Did you call Tom yet?”
“Yes, Sir,” she answered. “He and Marisa will be on their way to Baffin Bay General shortly.”
“Oh, drop the ‘Sir’ BS for the moment! We’re alone! Call him back and let him know Estrada and Perkins are on the way to the hospital with your car and to wait for your keys.” The older man looked at her with concern. “Is there anything you need right now, Sabrina?”
“Well, a clean pair of uniform pants would be good …”
Rodolfo Armas laughed at the answer to his question.
“I should have seen that one coming! Unfortunately, this isn’t Clothing Sales, so I don’t have maternity pants in stock at the moment. Or any pants in stock, actually.”
The levity disappeared when the ambulance crew and assisting fire company arrived. They took over and loaded Sabrina onto their stretcher, where she had another real contraction. Before leaving, they also told Colonel Armas he would probably have to replace the chair where Sabrina had been sitting.
Tom, carrying Marisa, met Sabrina on the ambulance dock. He had already seen Majors Estrada and Perkins and had Sabrina’s car keys; the two majors had already left. The ambulance crew took her to the maternity ward (the ER staff just waved them along) and wished her luck after they settled her in her room.
The maternity staff was great and remembered Marisa from a year ago. When Dr. Clarence arrived, his smile calmed everyone’s nerves as much as Sabrina’s epidural did for her. In the end, after ten long hours, Sabrina and Tom’s son arrived. Marisa, who had long ago fallen asleep, became a big sister.
“You know, Tom?” Sabrina whispered to her husband while holding their youngest. “I’ve been thinking about this young boy’s name.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me how it should be ‘John’ again?”
“We named our daughter after my grandmothers, so we should name our son after your grandfathers!”
“Look, Sabrina,” Tom insisted. “My grandparents are all gone! We can name him whatever we want! It’s not like they’re around to feel butthurt.”
“Then, what are you going to suggest?”
“‘Jeffrey John.’ ‘John Jeffery’ doesn’t sound right to me …”
Sabrina’s eyes watered. Aunt Heather had named her first son ‘Jeffrey’ years ago; Jeff Pelley was now thirty-four. Smiling at her husband, Sabrina picked up her phone and called her father.
“Are you calling with some good news, Princess?”
“Some you may have been expecting, Dad. I gave birth to your youngest grandchild last night. A boy.”
“Oh, Princess, that’s wonderful!”
“You might be surprised by the name Tom and I picked for him, though. We decided to go old school, Dad.”
“What do you mean?”
“His name is Jeffrey John Jones.”
“You’re really gonna do that to the poor boy?” Jeff asked. “‘Joker! Joker! And a triple!’”
“J-Three!” Sabrina answered with a laugh. “J Cubed! J to the Third Power! Hey, is Mom around?”
“She’s in a different room. Which is why she hasn’t taken the phone from me yet.”
There was a brief pause.
“Hello, daughter.”
“Mom, there’s someone else you’ll have to help learn Japanese …”
Keiko figured that out right away.
“And what will the baby’s name be, daughter?”
“Jeffrey John Jones, Mom.”
“He’ll have two good role models then, daughter. Your father and I will plan appropriately.”
“Are you coming down?”
“Unless you prefer that we do not?”
Sabrina snorted.
“Like I’m going to tell you not to come to meet your grandson! It’s only been a year and a half or so since your accident, though.”
“We cannot avoid what happened, Sabrina.”
“But you’ve just finished recovering!”
“Your father and I cannot avoid life, Sabrina. We have both lived a full life so far. Hopefully, it will continue.”
Sabrina and Tom called his parents next. Anne answered.
“Hello, Sabrina.”
“Hi, Mom. Tom and I wanted to call you to let you know that your latest grandson has arrived.”
“Well, at least you and Courtney added girls to the growing list of boys! How are you feeling, Sabrina?”
“Still some pains here and there, Mom. I should be able to start my workouts again in about a week.”
“You and your mother …” Sabrina could picture Anne Jones shaking her head. Anne was still a pretty blonde after having three boys. “AND your sisters-in-law! Anna and Ariel! You all make an old woman jealous!”
“Yeah, Anne, as soon as you find ‘an old woman,’ you let me know! We’ll ALL make her weep!”
“I knew Tommy picked the right girl!” Sabrina heard Anne mutter through the smile on her face. “So, what name did you and Tommy pick?”
“‘Jeffrey John,’” Sabrina said. “Tommy said it sounded better than ‘John Jeffrey …’”
“Don’t tell John I said so, but it does …”
“Are you both going to come down with my folks?”
“I think we will, Sabrina,” Anne said. “You can’t pass up a free plane ride these days!”
“Well, make sure you’re all careful! Little Jeff wants to meet all of his grandparents!”
“Says the girl who just pushed a basketball through a one-inch pipe!”
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦
Sabrina stepped back onto the mat in their dojo. She was still off-balance after giving birth two weeks ago, but the familiarity of karate was bringing that back quickly. Tom would say that it was bringing back her pre-pregnancy body, too … and her ability to make his arm numb following a solid punch to the shoulder.
Sabrina walked back into her building at the Ad Astra headquarters a month after Little Jeff was born. Her black flight suit was a bit uncomfortable in the South Texas sun, but hey, at least it was winter. Beth was there to welcome her back, as well as the other pilots in her charge. Beth also let her know that the new spaceship would be ready to be tested in a month or two.
Sabrina thought it felt good to sit at her desk again. A new photo sat on her desk, too. She and Tom sat in a field with the thirteen-month-old Marisa holding her newborn baby brother in front of them. The new picture looked great.
The pile of paperwork on her desk did not look great. It was almost as if everyone knew she was coming back today, and they held on to the paperwork they had until she did. Sabrina had her head in her hands and was staring at her desk when she heard a familiar voice.
“Lot a fun, ain’t it?” the voice asked.
Sabrina looked up.
“Timmy, did I leave you with this kind of mess before I left?”
Timmy Bryant laughed as he took a seat on the other side of her desk.
“It weren’t no fun, that’s for sure,” he said. “But it was much more organized than this mess, I’m guessing!”
“What’s up, Timmy? I know you didn’t just come here to harass me!”
Timmy Bryant sighed.
“I came to tell you that I’m resigning, Colonel.”
Sabrina sat up straight.
“Is it something I’ve done, Timmy?”
“Hardly,” he answered with a snort. “If anything, you’ve taught me how to become a better leader.” He shrugged. “A new local airline is gonna give me a better paycheck, that’s all.”
“Your pay from the Air Guard and your pay from your IT job?”
“The pay’s about the same, honestly. I’ll be home more often, though.”
“How soon until we lose you?”
“Colonel Armas got permission from General Cabrera for me to spend the next month cleaning off my desk.” Timmy shrugged again. “My other employer was less than impressed with my lack of two-week notice. I reminded them that is a courtesy most people extend and that most employers don’t extend that two-week notice the other way when they fire someone.”
“Well, I hope they assign someone worth having as my deputy commander.”
“I don’t think General Cabrera or Colonel Armas would let the opposite occur, Ma’am. You’ve brought this squadron and wing back from the dead!”
“You know how much I like talking about myself, Timmy.”
“That’s another reason I’ve enjoyed working for you, Ma’am. You’ve taught me how to be humble, too.”
