“Ares, Houston. You’re right smack-dab on the trajectory.”

“Roger, John,” Stone said. “This baby is really going.”

“Roger that.”

“Go, you mother,” Gershon shouted. “Shit hot!” York could hear his voice shaking with the oscillation.

“Ten thousand and point five Mach,” Young said.

Point five Mach. Less than thirty seconds into the mission, and I’m already hitting half the speed of sound.

John Young didn’t sound scared, or nervous. Just another day at the office for him.

John had ridden around the Moon in Apollo 10, back in 1969; and if the later Apollos hadn’t been canned, he probably would have commanded a mission to the lunar surface.

In fact, if he hadn’t been so critical of NASA following Apollo-N, Young might have been sitting in the cabin himself.

The vibration worsened. Her head rattled in her helmet, like a seed in a gourd. The whole cabin was shaking, and she couldn’t focus on the oscillating banks of instruments in front of her.

“Point nine Mach,” Stone said. “Forty seconds. Mach one. Going through nineteen thousand.”

“Ares, you are go at forty.”

Abruptly the ride smoothed out; it was like passing onto a smoother road surface. Even the engine noise was gone; they were moving so fast they were leaving their own sound behind.

“Ares, you’re looking good.”

“Rog,” Stone said. “Okay, we’re throttling down.”

The engines cut back to ease the stack through max-Q, the point when air density and the booster’s velocity combined to exert maximum stress on the airframe.

“You are go at throttle up.”

“Roger. Go at throttle up.”

The pressure on York’s chest seemed to be growing; it was becoming more difficult to breathe, as her lungs labored against the thrust of the stack.