It wasn't a test. He seemed genuinely curious how she'd describe it. She thought about how to say it without making it about her. I had a man in front of me who was doing something I couldn't do myself, she said slowly. Working that hard, caring that much, and still being precise about the work.
And I think some part of me when I walked in and saw him on the floor, some part of me needed it to be weakness. Because if it was weakness, I didn't have to look at it too closely. I could just be above it. She stopped. That's not a good thing to admit, but it's what happened.
Caleb looked at her for a long moment. "That's honest," he said. "It's the least I owe you." He unfolded his arms and turned back to the stove and lifted the lid on the pot and stirred. "You should probably go," he said, not unkindly. "We're about to eat dinner, and Mia has questions about the solar system that are going to require my full attention." "Right," Sloan said.
She stood up and picked up her bag from the floor. "Thank you for letting me in. You drove across the city twice, he said. Seemed rude to leave you on the porch. She walked to the door.
She had her hand on the knob when he spoke again. Sloan. She turned. He was still facing the stove. You asked the right question on Monday when you said why I didn't wake up in time.
But you asked it too late. You already had your answer decided. He paused. Start asking before you decide. That's the whole thing.
She stood there for a moment with that. Then she opened the door and went out into the night. The 10 days before the Meridian demonstration flight were among the most demanding of Sloan's professional life, which was saying something because most of her professional life had been demanding. The replacement of the hydraulic actuator had set back the pre-flight certification sequence by 36 hours, which cascaded into every department simultaneously and required a reorganization of schedules that made absolutely nobody happy. On top of that, the board had gotten wind of the termination and the technical fault through some channel Sloan couldn't immediately identify, and two board members had called within 48 hours of each other to express concern.