She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands for a second, and then rose from the chair. “What is this – Grand Central Station?” She muttered... as she walked to the door. “Hey,” Jim said with a grin when she opened the door. “I can’t believe I’m about to actually say this, but could I borrow a cup of sugar?” He laughed and continued, “I just want enough to cover my coffee for a couple of days until some of this mess melts off.” Marie laughed with him, glad for the distraction from her nerves.. And, honestly, I was fucked out. I wasn’t sure that would have been possible. And maybe it wasn’t, because if Cody had been home when we arrived, I would have happily fucked him. And I did miss him and want him. But the next morning would be just fine, too.And the next morning it was! After Tim left for work and I was just puttering around the kitchen cleaning from breakfast and doing an inventory of our food needs so I could go shopping later in the day I heard a car drive up in front. I. What does your girlfriend do for a living, by the way?” Stacey asked him now.“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. We just met last Saturday. Maybe I should just call her, eh?” Abel laughed at himself for not knowing Christina’s vocation.Apparently, from what she said, it paid better than his, but that description covered a lot of jobs.“Men! You guys really don’t give a shit what women do for a paycheck, with some obvious exceptions, of course. I suppose that it’s because I’m a woman and. Our training syllabus has been modified to include reliance on ground control via normal radio communications, only. Any questions or comments?”One of the young pilots raised his hand and asked, “Does anyone know why the Van Allen Belt blocks us?”“Professor Hawthorn, would you like to take that question?” Ed asked.Bran didn’t bother standing, simply saying, “We don’t know why, but we’re guessing it’s because of the excited electrons in the Van Allen belt caused by the solar wind’s interaction.