Now, "Orby" was one fine piece of work. Brought together for
about two and some million buckos, not counting labor and some
other things. She was a little smaller than a Cessna 310, a little larger
than a Mooney, two seats side by side, a jet engine and liquid rockets,
and other accoutrements.
        Jess and Kit suited up that October 12th and went through the
final briefing with all their engineers and the rest of the family. The
press was camped outside the ranch fence, but a few were invited
in for the party.
        Sundance gave the guys a call before they boarded, telling Jess
that they were going to have to do a movie on her life before they
were done. She appreciated Sunny's words that he would not mind
teaming up with her (at all), but Jessy gently let him know that she
was Kit's. But now, "RR"'s was quite the compliment, she let the
Sunman know, telling him too that she had been in love with him
ever since "'Lectric Cowboy", having forgotten to tell him that
during that night in his Utah bed.
        Well, they did their ceremonies, climbed in, strapped Orby on,
kissed and shook with everybody before closing the canopy and
firing up the jet. And they taxied right out and punched a little hole
in the troposphere, and then the stratosphere, flying on up at, O,
25o knots indicated airspeed. Then at, uh, 9o,ooo feet or, um, 17
miles, they kicked on the rockets and zoomed on up to, ah, about
one hundred miles and O, about 15,25o knots cruise and gave the
rockets a rest. Man. Talk about "sumthin'", Wiley was calling it, as
the groundlings back at Eagle Josh monitored the telemetry and
partook in the radio transmissions. Yea, it was something.
        "We've done it, smackerpuss!" Jess grinned as they saw
Hawaii out to the South, uh, some clicks away.
        "Fark 'n dam, I think we have!" the ole pudster knocked back,
going through instrument checks. He was feeling good. Man. And
relieved. And they just gawked at the view awhile. Of course, at the
time, there was nothing to look at but the deep blue Pacific and the
little clouds and islands way down and way out there. They held
each other as they commed back to Eagle until they were over the
horizon, Asia coming into view, then unstrapped themselves and
flew united just like the good ole days, looking out at the huge ole
moon, blazing ole sun and glorious ole stars shining out to them
from that black velvet of the infinite ole universe.
        "I think we're going to be pretty rico, Flash," she noted as
they, uh, conjugated.
        He looked up at the moon, and she did too, thinking about
going there, then he looked back at her face and she turned hers to
look into his and he said, "you can have all the money, honey..." and
looked down at Earth, then back at her, "but do you still really want
to stay with me?"
        "Well, Massah Cody...I ain't goinna sass ya none..." she smiled,
"but, yeah, Kit, I really do...why can't ya believe that, darlin'?" And
they, uh, osculated some more.
        "O...lovers get tired...um...our ages....'n...."
        "Aw honey, I think you oughtta just forget about that...awww
...my dear bro....Age doesn't matter all that much. You're not some
old fucker, y' know...and you're still pret-ty fark-ing cool, I might
add," and she lipped and tongued him down as they came together.
Man. O man.
        And, after those minutes, she pulled a puro out of a breast
pocket of her flight suit that was floating around and lit it up for him
with the plug-in lighter as they came around the horizon again, over
the Atlantic. They were thinking about all the guys at the farm in
Kentucky and all the family around that area, then Mama Cody and
Jane, Dave and family down in Florida - "that penis-looking thing
looking hard and sticking out of the continent's pants" over there on
their left - then they were thinking about everyone at Truchas and
Alaska, and then the guys were calling them up from Eagle-Joshua-
Jessy.
        Jess finally answered "A-OK" and told the guys on the ground
that they were going to go around again and would try adjusting the
orbit and all and Flece was wrestling with Wiley for the mike, trying
to talk with the guys - Wi getting in at least a "you're clear to go,
pudknockers". And the wrestling match and comments went on until
our "spacenauts" were over the horizon again and able to get back to
private time, the heck with adjusting the orbit.
        Well, two orbits was about three hours, and their little ship only
had enough oxygen for five. So they got redressed and ready for
re-entry and turned Orby around on the baby rockets, refired the
mains and slowed down to O, about 25o knots indicated from the
rear pitot tube. The rocket thrust was countering the gravity, so there
was no big heat-up from re-entry, and they were pulling about two
and a half G's, and feeling pretty darn exhilarated.
        Jessy had the piloting honors in their "celestial pussy" pit and
was thrilled to max. She chattered away on the radio with Flee and
everyone as they got down into the atmosphere, shut down the
rockets and went back to the jet. They glided on down toward
Eagle, made a perfect landing, greeted all the guys out on the ramp
and enjoyed their newly-made history.
        Wile was commenting his surprise that the ship came back in
one piece while everyone else was going wild with the success and
vying for the next flight. BR was saying it was a good time to take
the company public. And they all walked back to the Jessy Ranch
B'ar N' Girls talking over that, the flight, production issues and
such. And the rest of that day and night was one more amazing
party as buyout offers came from everywhere and got into some
real serious money. But they weren't selling.
 
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