"Don't be ridiculous," Tyler answered. Marc momentarily felt proud that his boss stuck up for him. "Marc can be an idiot sometimes but he's no snitch."

"What did they want with you then?"

"Nothing that you have to be concerned with," Tyler answered. "They just asked about the seacraft, making sure we weren't developing it to use as a weapon."

"And you're sure they didn't ask about me?"

"They said nothing about you. They have no idea about you. Besides, all I had to do was mention Clement and they stopped-"

"You told them about Clement? Are you out of your mind?" Nigel yelled. "They're definitely going to be on to me now."

"Just calm down," Tyler said. "Everything will be fine, trust me. If mentioning Clement keeps them off my back, then I won't have to deal with any more interruptions. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

Marc rushed down the hallway and hid in the shadows as Nigel's door opened. He saw Tyler walk toward his room, but not before Nigel stuck his head out and gave one last warning.

"Beware of the government, they're always watching."

The doors to Tyler's room and Nigel's room shut simultaneously. Marc headed out of the seacraft, continuing to ponder why Nigel was so worried about the government.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

A week after watching the space shuttle takeoff with a piece of the space station inside, Maddox saw that piece up close yet again. This time, he watched it through the window of a space shuttle.

"Say hello to your new home, fellas," Captain Michael Martin, the shuttle's lead pilot, told Maddox and Slava Kovalchuk.

It felt like they drifted slowly toward the huge space station piece though the shuttle and station piece orbited Earth at thousands of miles an hour. Docking the shuttle with the station was done by computer. Even if something unforeseen happened and they were forced to switch to manual, this task would be routine for Captain Martin. But Maddox worried about the process, as his heart felt like it was in his throat.

But that wasn't just from stress. No matter how many flight simulators or G-force tests Maddox endured during his abbreviated space training, nothing adequately prepared him for the intensity of the shuttle launch. It was a good thing his only job requirement was to keep from vomiting; he couldn't have done anything else. In fact, he almost didn't succeed in that task. Maddox would never again find a roller coaster exciting.

The distance between the shuttle and station piece quickly decreased and the captain of the shuttle soon pressed a number of different buttons on the control console. Captain Martin explained exactly what he was doing to Maddox and Kovalchuk.

"The navigation computer is linking with the computer on the corner piece," he said. "The two computers should sync their coordinates for a perfect link."

For a few moments, the small navigational computer screen flashed the word "SEARCHING," even as the two crafts were nearly on top of one another.

"Is this always taking so long to be searching?" Slava asked.

"No," Captain Martin answered. "The computers should have already linked. I'm switching to manual."

Maddox had plenty of questions about the computer link-up failure but realized now was the time to stay quiet. Captain Martin lightly tapped his control stick twice, each time causing the sound of a light puff of air. The shuttle still moved swiftly toward the piece, but Maddox knew the shuttle pilot could not slow to a crawl as if parallel parking a car.

Maddox did not consider the danger he'd be in if Martin failed. There was no concern for his personal safety, just worry for the protection of his piece of the space station. If an accident destroyed his systems control corner, construction would be delayed longer than Maddox or his teams could afford. Before Maddox had too much time to worry, though, he felt a slight jolt in his seat as the shuttle and the station piece linked together and became one.

Captain Martin hit one final button that caused a loud clicking sound. He turned around in his seat and smiled.

"Welcome home, boys. The beds are hard and the food is nasty but I hear this place has a great view."

Martin unhooked from his seat and made his way out of the cockpit area, informing Maddox and Kovalchuk that he had to run pressurization tests to ensure that the two men could transfer safely from the shuttle to the space station.

Maddox relaxed for a moment and allowed himself to take in the entire view. He had been too focused on the docking procedure to fully appreciate that he was finally in space, that he finally reached the ultimate destination. He still had years of construction before he could proclaim success but reaching orbit and connecting with the space station was a major step.

He clearly saw two of the other station pieces, which were already docked with their space shuttles. Maddox recognized them as being Teams Two and Three, leaving Team One as the last remaining shuttle.

"Do you see the third station piece, Slava?" Maddox asked his Russian counterpart.

Although Slava had already logged hundreds of hours in space, his previous experience did nothing to diminish his level of excitement. The Russian stared wide-eyed out of the cockpit window.

"Is over there," Kovalchuk said, pointing to the right.

The other two space station pieces were located straight ahead but the final piece was off to the right. Maddox had been so enthralled by the view of Earth that he paid no attention to deep space. Now that he looked away from his home planet, he saw an equally spectacular view. Thousands of stars, dots brighter than he'd ever seen, littered the pitch-black backdrop.

Right in the middle of this view was a box-like structure, the last of the Four Corners. And Maddox picked the most opportune moment to find it.

"Check it out, Slava. The shuttle is about to dock with the station."

"Twenty seconds until link-up," the pilot of Team One's shuttle called back to her passengers. "Don't be worried if the ride gets a little bumpy momentarily."

Team One's ten-man crew was strapped down in a small room adjoining the shuttle's cockpit. With only one small porthole to see outside, the ten workers had almost no view of anything beyond their tiny room. The shuttle's pilot called back updates during the trip but the construction crew had only their imaginations to visualize the reason for every bump and jolt.

A few of the Russians with prior experience knew these bumps were routine, so they did not appear concerned. But the Americans were total newcomers to this line of work and failed to hide their anxiety. Despite the level of tension, the men remained silent during their journey.

All except one. Frankie Barnes ran his mouth from the moment the men strapped into their seats.

"I got a problem, Vlad," Frankie said.

The last thing any of the men wanted to hear about was a problem.

"There is nothing wrong, Frankie. This bumps are normal. Or is your throat hurts from so much talk?"

A few of the other construction workers laughed.

"No, it's not the bumps that are the problem. And my throat feels fine. It's a relationship problem. I know you're married so I'm not sure if you're the best person to give advice."

"I am married years now," Vlad responded. "I can give you good advice because of my experience. Yet is now best time for this?"

"Years, huh? Okay, you might be useful. This is the problem. My girlfriend, she's real proud of me for doing this whole space thing. She says I'm heroic and she's never been so proud that her boyfriend is going to help build the space station."

Frankie stopped talking. Vlad waited a few moments for his partner to continue with the story and tell him the problem but that seemed to be the end of what Frankie had to say.

"I do not understand," Vlad said. "If she has great pride in you, what is problem you have?"

"Come on, Vlad, the problem is pretty obvious. I'm going to be in quite a predicament once I get back to Earth and have to deal with the fame of being one of the construction crew members who assembled the biggest project in history."

"Fame is the problem? I still do not see why this is problem with you and girlfriend."

"First of all, you have to start thinking like a man, Vlad. The problem is that even though I love my girlfriend and all, I don't think I should limit myself to just one woman once I'm famous. For the first time in my life, I won't have to beg women to notice me. I won't have to get them real drunk before I start looking good. In fact, women will be begging me for the attention this time."

"You are right," Vlad said.

"Then you agree with me? I shouldn't have just one girlfriend once we're done?"

"No, you are right that I not help you with advice. In Russia, a man feels honor and lucky to be having one woman in his life."

"Spoken like a true married man," Frankie joked.

"And if I say anything different than that, my wife can be making life for me most unpleasurable," Vlad said. "I think we must be thinking about our mission now rather than our woman."

"You're right, Vlad. Like always," Frankie said. "Besides, I was just kidding about other women anyway. No amount of fame would ever be able to change what my face looks like."

"That's for sure," one of the other construction crewmembers agreed.

The men shared a laugh. But laughter quickly died away when they felt the biggest jolt yet.

"Connection has been made with your section of the space station," the pilot announced. "Your ride is over."

"The systems aboard your station piece are running normally," Captain Martin informed Maddox and Kovalchuk. "Your new home has been properly pressurized, the temperature is a comfortable sixty-five degrees and the lights are on. You boys are ready to move in."

Martin pointed to multiple computer screens that displayed normal readings. The shuttle captain then escorted the two construction leaders through the shuttle, where they reached a hatch that led to a chamber. This chamber, now properly pressurized, connected the two space vehicles.

"Helmets on, gentlemen," Martin commanded. Vlad had already donned his suit's helmet but the shuttle captain noticed a look of trepidation from Maddox. "It's only a precaution. The computers have perfect readings but you always want to be prepared for the worst, especially when that hatch opens and the shuttle is susceptible to the vacuum of space."

Maddox snapped his helmet in place and after the three men performed cursory inspections of one another's suits, they were ready to transfer to their new home.

"Would you like to do the honors?" Captain Martin asked Maddox, motioning to the hatch.

"And be the first one sucked into space if something is wrong? No thanks. Slava, you do it."

"You Americans are very self-important," Slava responded, shaking his head.

Without saying another word, Slava pulled open the hatch. A quick hiss escaped the short, cramped connection-chamber. The chamber was about eight feet in length and only big enough for one man to pass through at a time.

"I go through first, too?" Slava asked.

"No," Maddox answered, suddenly feeling braver. "I'll go. If something goes wrong with my space station, I'll be the one who suffers the consequences."

Slava floated aside, giving Maddox room to crawl into the small chamber. He took his time passing into the small hole, careful not to bang into either side of the tunnel, as if that might somehow dislodge the shuttle from the station piece. Maddox quickly floated to the end of the chamber. Miles above the Earth's atmosphere, the only thing between him and space was an eight-foot toilet-paper tube.

I can't get claustrophobic now, Maddox thought to himself. I have way too many years left floating through these metal cans in outer space.

Maddox grabbed the lever on the hatch to the space station.

"I'm opening the second hatch," Maddox spoke into his helmet microphone.

"That's affirmative," Captain Martin responded.

Maddox yanked on the hatch harder than needed, sending the door to the space station flying open. It clanged against the inside of the connection chamber, momentarily sending Maddox's heart somewhere near his feet. He looked at the chamber where the hatch struck, waiting for a breach to appear at any moment.

"Don't worry, the chamber can take a lot more damage than that," Captain Martin said. Maddox looked behind, where Martin and Kovalchuk watched him from eight feet away. Both gave the thumbs up.

Maddox steered himself through the hatch and into the space station piece. Having walked through this particular piece hundreds of times during the ground construction phase, the project leader knew every square inch of the large command center. But now that he was inside the station piece with its power on the systems running and the view of Earth through the large window it was as if Maddox saw his company's creation for the first time.

Floating around the structure in a state of weightlessness also added a different perspective.

"Everything is in the exact order of how we sent it up here," Maddox said.

"That's good," Captain Martin said. "Because if anything from your space station had been stolen, I wouldn't want to come face to face with that thief."

Once Maddox stopped admiring his creation, he began to help Kovalchuk and the shuttle pilot unload supplies. Since the two construction leaders would spend more time in their station piece than the crews would in their shuttles, they required a great deal of food and other personal items. The actual construction supplies would be housed in each of the teams' shuttles, with none being held in the space station until significant progress was made.

"Feels like I'm going off to college again," Maddox said as the three men transferred bundles of goods.

"Then I'm definitely like the parent," Captain Martin said. "Because once I drop you and all your stuff off, I get to leave you behind."

Frankie Barnes suddenly acquired a dislike for something he'd always possessed on Earth, but never really thought about: gravity. Although he was not technically flying, he certainly floated freely.

After his shuttle safely linked with their assigned space station piece, Barnes and the rest of Team One had some free time to explore the space shuttle. The shuttle's pilot took a few of the Americans on a quick tour, pointing out the newest modifications that had been made since the last time the shuttles were used. Alterations had been required to accommodate a larger-than-usual crew for a longer-than-usual time.

One of the major changes was a larger pressurization chamber, which would allow more crew members to go into space at any given time. The pilot also explained the expanded cargo hold and the addition of the SPACE (Safety Provision and Crew Extension) lines, a subject on which the entire crew had become experts.

Prior to the start of construction training by the Russians a few years earlier, Slava Kovalchuk realized the size of construction teams needed for this job would be larger than any he'd ever trained. While most space construction jobs consisted of two people performing space walks, Slava knew that entire crews of ten would be moving in space at the same time. With so many people needed in so many areas at once, Slava decided a new safety system was required to keep track of the men and avoid catastrophes.

SPACE lines were part of an elaborate system allowing the larger crews an infinite amount of time to perform their space walks and construction tasks. Instead of having time limitations using oxygen tanks, SPACE lines allowed crews to follow their own schedules. Each member of the construction crew had a SPACE line that connected directly to the back of his or her helmet. The other end of the line was connected to an oxygen generator, which fed an unlimited supply of air to the workers.

While a bit more archaic in design than some of the space suits used on previous missions, this design proved the best option for large crews. Sensitive computer sensors were in place throughout each of the lines and would immediately warn of possible danger or breach of the system. Although highly sophisticated, the lines were also very strong and flexible. Computer readings of the SPACE line system kept track of every single worker in space.

The main problem with the SPACE line system, of course, had to do with the restrictions placed on mobility of the construction workers. Tangled lines, while not especially life-threatening, could prove dangerous if not properly handled. These potential problems had been addressed during countless training sessions. Members of each crew perfected the art of moving together as a team and avoiding any line entanglements. They spent hours in the training pool simulator performing team movement exercises. Besides, if construction went according to Slava's plan, mobility issues during construction would be non-existent. Each crewmember would be assigned specific tasks at specific locations, all of which should lead to a streamlined workflow.

"Frankie, you must be coming up here to see something," Vladimir called back to his American buddy.

Frankie floated behind Vlad to the cockpit, where they had a view of one of the shuttles detaching from a space station piece. Frankie immediately recognized the systems control corner of the station, where Wesley Maddox and Slava Kovalchuk would direct the entire operation.

"I don't know about you, Vlad. But I wouldn't want to be aboard that with Slava and Maddox," Frankie said. "I feel a lot safer inside this shuttle that I would in there."

The communication console crackled to life.

"All teams, please check in now. I repeat, all teams huddle around and check in," Maddox's voice said through the speaker. "Over."

Vlad left Frankie momentarily and gathered the rest of their construction crew. The shuttle pilot was first to enter the cockpit. She made her way to the console and pressed the transmit button.

"This is Shuttle Exploration," she said, a hint of pride in her voice. "Team One checking in. Over."

"Team Two. Over."