{"id":32783,"date":"2026-04-02T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/?p=32783"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:19:36","slug":"niners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/niners\/","title":{"rendered":"Niners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nMiles was not pleased.<\/p>\n

Three devices sat in front of him on the broad expanse of the 4th Floor Conference Room table. He looked up at the assembled faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cOK. You don\u2019t expect me to lead the Daily with one of these? Where is the shot of Artemis II lifting off over the Cape\u2014heading for a sling-shot around the Moon?\u201d<\/p>\n

A few uncomfortable looks circled the room.<\/p>\n

Rocket sat up, took a sip of flat Yank coffee. \u201cWe were going to use that as the pivot. Splash got distracted yesterday\u2014turning off North Glebe toward Pershing to pick up the Zoomers. Something loud made him look up. The building in front of him didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMiles sighed. \u201cThat\u2019s impossible unless he had that Japanese fusion rock blasting.\u201d He lifted the iPad, displaying a sedan embedded halfway into a condo wall near the old HQ. \u201cBut given recent precedents, we\u2019ll call it a malfunctioning throttle.\u201d<\/p>\n

He set the device down beside the others.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, we\u2019ve got nine and a half days to watch astronauts head deeper into space than we\u2019ve ever gone.\u201d He picked up the phone, showing a familiar, matronly smile. \u201cDierdre sent in a recipe. Not hers\u2014Mamie Eisenhower\u2019s fudge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dee laughed. \u201cYou can tack it on the end like usual. But what about this?\u201d She nudged the third device\u2014the one showing nine faces. Aerospace and UAP analysts. All gone since Covid.<\/p>\n

Miles nodded slowly. \u201cAliens. Accidents. Disappearances. Something there. But not this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked back at the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween a missed turn in Arlington and a planned arc around the Moon, the margin for error seems about the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

General laughter followed.<\/p>\n

Decision made: go with the fudge. Unless Splash can get the duty sedan running again.<\/p>\n

The rest\u2014the Niners, the pattern, whatever it is\u2014can wait a day.<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\u2014 Vic Socotra<\/p>\n

www.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miles was not pleased. Three devices sat in front of him on the broad expanse of the 4th Floor Conference Room table. He looked up at the assembled faces. \u201cOK. You don\u2019t expect me to lead the Daily with one of these? Where is the shot of Artemis II lifting off over the Cape\u2014heading for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32789,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32783\/revisions\/32789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}