Rocket City Blues

every nerve ending of his body; the same passion he always felt when she kissed him. It was the same one he’d felt as a young man, a rookie pilot, as the beautiful NASA dispatcher from the ancient Kentucky coal country had stood on her tiptoes and pressed those soft, delicate lips against his. His favorite had always been the slow, ‘not-too-hard, not-too-soft, on the verge of pulling away at any second.’ teasing kiss. She could always make his mind go blank and turn his knees to jelly when she kissed him that way.
And yet, time and again, he’d walked away, lured by the siren call of open space and grand adventure. He wondered, as he had countless times before, if given a chance… if he could do it all again, would he do it differently? Knowing what he knew now, would he give up this gypsy life? Would he settle down with this woman? Have a family?
He thought about her kids; the boy, Blake, and the girl, Brittain. By all rights, they should’ve been his, not some egg-head tie hangers like her ex-husband, Chris Launius. But, whose fault had that been? He couldn’t blame Chris. He’d only been willing to become what Tiger had never been able to bring himself to be, a husband and a father.
God, how Tiger hated him for that!
And, he hated himself for having that awful feeling that the window of opportunity for him and Lulah had closed. It was like re-entry angles into Earth’s atmosphere. Come in too shallow, and you get bounced back into space. Come in too steep; you burn up in the atmosphere. You had to ‘Goldilocks It’ as the old pilots called it. Tiger had never missed an angle yet.
As he lay here with the love of his life, he wondered how he could be so damned good with rockets … and suck so badly at love.
***
Special Inspector Matt Burlington of the Southeastern Economic Zone Patrol stood over the medical pod where Reginald “Jocko” DeWitt now lay comatose in a state of suspended animation at Huntsville Cybermedical Hospital. His body floated in a thick, gooey, transparent substance that reminded him of personal lubricant. It contained medications, nourishments, and nanobots which now worked tirelessly, unseen to the naked eye, to repair the damaged bone, organs and tissue in his bowels, liver and ribcage. Severely injured during the escape from the Spaceport Inn, he had been immersed in it since the night before, after being brought in clinging to life.
“So … when do you think we can do the scan, Doctor?” Matt asked, knowing he was going to get ‘the scowl,’ but it had to be discussed.
“Inspector Burlington, I don’t think you realize the severity of this man’s wounds!” Of course, the Doctor was offended. They always were when it appeared your work was taking precedence over their work. Matt had long ago surmised it didn’t have as much to do with their concern for the patient as much as it did their ego. After all, they were like gods. They held the power of life or death in their hands. Who was a lowly cop to question them? “He’s still in very critical condition. More than likely, he’s probably going to require a liver transplant and extensi—”
“Doc, Doc, Doc, I understand all that,” Matt interrupted, holding his hand up for silence. Beside him, it was all his executive officer and lover, Trooper Stella Jones could do to choke down a snicker, as the look on the good doctor’s face was just precious now. “I’m not questioning the man’s injuries. I’m just asking when … and mind you, emphasis on when … he might be strong enough.”
“What you want to do … even if he is strong enough at the time you perform the procedure … it could set him back weeks.” The doctor didn’t appear to be too long out of med school. He was young enough to think he could change the world, cocky enough to try and idealistic enough to care. “You do understand that, don’t you, Inspector?”
“I’m not trying to kill the guy, Doctor …” Matt leaned forward to read his nametag, “Samuels. “He’s not a bad man. He’s just a hacker who got mixed up in some bad shit.” Matt tapped the pod with his index finger. “But if we don’t find out what he knows, a lot of other people are gonna die. Some may be bad. Some may even have it coming. But, there are gonna be others that won’t … maybe even just innocent bystanders.” He raised his voice slightly, determined to get his point across. “Are you riding my rocket, Doc?”
Samuels looked to the floor, pondering the magnitude of it all. When he looked back up, he nodded his understanding, “I am aboard.”
“Good, I’d hate to think we weren’t on the same team,” Burlington hated to keep his thumb on the kid, but when he left this room, he wanted no doubt in the man’s mind. He would get what he wanted. “Here, let me give you my card.” As he reached into his jacket and pulled out his PDC, Samuel reached into his lab jacket and pulled out his. They tapped them together, and a digital business card passed between the two. “You will let me know when he’s strong enough … right, Doctor?”
“You’ll be the first person I call, Inspector.”
“I look forward to hearing from you,” Matt smiled as he extended his hand. “And that’s Special Inspector.”
As they stepped out of the elevator into the central atrium of the hospital lobby, Stella gave him a grin. “Where’d you learn your bedside manner, Special Inspector?”
“I need that scan,” Matt sighed. “I need to know what’s going on in case he kicks the bucket.”
“But, if you kill him in the process, you know you’re fucked.”
“Thank you, Princess Obvious,” he tried to sound light-hearted, but the worry eating at him wouldn’t allow it. “I guess all I can do is hope the fucker somehow