MISSION 5 RESULTS
Here you are, all ten of you, at the launch pad, watching the steam twirl like lace around the rocket. She looks bigger in real life than you imagined. Sunbeams fall on her and she gleams against her backdrop of fluffy white clouds. Up at the top, behind the white fairings, inside its verified and validated compartment, lies your payload: the payload you have worked so hard to create.
The launch window is just thirty seconds. If she fails to launch, they can delay launch by twenty-four hours to hit the right orbit. But more importantly, the payload, a satellite, requires being in the right orbit at the right time to intercept the right communication. They can delay the launch, but as far as your mission is concerned, you only have one shot.
A million things can go wrong. You watch the countdown clock in silence. It’s about a minute to launch, and the go/no-go sequence begins. Each subsystem gets a mention. Each subsystem of the launch vehicle, and each subsystem of the pad. You almost expect someone to reply with the negative. You almost expect there to be a problem. But all along, it’s a go. Go. Go.
She’s ready to launch.
Engines fire, pressing plumes of heat into the earth. The rocket is consumed in smoke and steam, and your eyes smart from the bright of the flames. Slowly, she lifts up out of the cloud she’s created for herself, and rises higher, higher, until she is a speck in the sky. Your attention shifts to the digital displays showing her trajectory. She’s on course. In three minutes, her fairings separate and your payload is free.
In near-disbelief, you gravely shake hands with your colleagues. With five of your colleagues, anyway. The other four? They’re rewiring the launch clock to spell “BOOBIES.”
The mission is a success!
Having identified the four spies, the Resistance has won the game!
