Love in the Time of Campaigning

By Leigh Kimmel

As Frank Correra brings his family to a lunar settlement to get them away from a worsening political situation on Earth, he reminisces about how he and his wife met.

 

Frank had always dreamed of the skies. As a clone of an astronaut who subsequently became a US Senator, Frank thought he had a clear path ahead of him. But when it comes time to apply for the Air Force Academy, it is an election year. His ur-brother can't promise a nomination until he's won another term, and this year promises a hard race to run. When the other side puts up an ugly attack ad, can Frank find a way to discredit it before it destroys his ur-brother's chance of re-election, and with it Frank's slot at an Academy appointment?

 

A short story of the Grissom timeline.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Starship Cat Press
• Release date: Apr 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223879220

Book preview

The crew transport crawler made its stately way across the landing field of Farside's principal spaceport. Frank Correra curbed his impatience and put his phone back away. Watching the camera feed wouldn't make the crawler move any faster, and it still had to mate airlocks with the Shepardsport main entrance and equalize pressures.

Understanding why he couldn't have flown his family down to the surface didn't make the wait any easier. By the time Linnea and the kids were moved to an earlier launch, he already had the flight to Coopersville. Although he could return before they arrived at Luna Station, there wasn't time for the mandatory rest period before an orbital flight.

The familiar clang of mating airlocks had never sounded so welcome, yet the wait for pressure equalization dragged. No doubt it felt even longer for Linnea and the kids, waiting to pass under the architrave engraved with the first words of the settlement's eponymous astronaut on the lunar surface. Frank knew the months since receiving permission to bring his family to the Moon had a subjective duration far longer than the other times duty had taken him away.

The inner hatch slid back and here they were, alongside Commander Maitland and his pilot. Frank curbed his urge to run across the mosaic floor and sweep Linnea off her feet, cover her face with kisses. No, the formalities must be observed.

Maitland herded his little flock across the mosaic floor with its emblem of the Shepardsport squid with tentacles wrapped around a map of Farside, over to the Wall of Honor. As Maitland scanned the columns of names, his features tensed, giving him a hollow-cheeked appearance of age.

He looks so much like his ur-brother. Minus the scars, of course.

Now that they'd paid their respects to the fallen heroes of spaceflight from Gemini VIII to the present, Frank could acknowledge their arrival. The children struggled to restrain themselves from shouting and running to him.

Only when  they were in the corridor did Maitland smile and nod to them. It's OK, kids. You can say hi to your dad now.

Released from the bonds of propriety, the children were mobbing him, competing to get their arms around him as high as they could reach. Frank bent down to kiss each of them on the cheek: Jeff trying to be mature beyond his years, Cassie whose curls were as bouncy as her mother's with a touch of Daddy's red, and little Roger looking overwhelmed by the whole affair.

And here was Linnea, having to stretch a bit to get her arms around his neck. Much as