Axelrod smiled coolly. “Not entirely. But we’ll orchestrate the press conferences. You keep your stories to yourselves, and our legal department will handle your separate contracts.”
Viktor asked, “Contracts?”
“Your memoirs, interviews, so on.” Axelrod beamed. “You are planning on coming back and telling your story, aren’t you?”
They were officially media figures now. The world was steadily going Mars-mad and the four of them were at the center of it all.
First they were invited to all the big social events in Houston, thrown by people they didn’t know. Later they received invitations from all over the country. Wannabe “megabillionaires”—a media misnomer—offered to send private jets to whisk them to posh mansions. Cost was no object. Your party was an instant success if one or more of the Marsnauts attended.
“Another big do,” Julia said one morning, looking at the latest round of invitations. “This one’s in New York. Wanna go?”
“To big doo-doo? I think not. Too much caviar is bad for astronaut training.” He put a hand over his liver with a pained expression on his face.
It was a game they played. Julia would read Viktor the most outrageous of the invitations, and he would pretend to take them seriously.
It was their way of dealing with the craziness of it all. As astronauts, they had been faces in the crowd, lost among one hundred others. No one had recognized them in the street, wanted autographs, or invited them anywhere. Now suddenly they were hyperstars, megacelebs, their every move outside JSC stalked by crowds of paparazzi. Axelrod’s security guards moved them between the training center and their secluded living compound.
Somehow she hadn’t anticipated this roller-coaster life. At least the recent nasty talk in some of the down-market media had gone away, once their marriage was announced. Amazing, what a piece of legal paper could silence. Still, she felt that a lot of this had fallen upon her while she was busy doing something else. Like her job, for instance.
“I’d feel better about it if we weren’t getting all this attention before we’d done anything.”
“Yes. But maybe no time after.”
A good way to put it, she thought sourly. Maybe what we’ll be remembered for will be our deaths.
July 4, 2015. An Axelrod irony, “getting hitched” on Independence Day.
The wedding took place on Axelrod’s private island off the coast of North Carolina, six weeks later.
“Just a simple garden wedding,” he said to Julia and Viktor. “Leave all the arrangements to me. You concentrate on Mars.”
And that was just fine with Julia. She didn’t like weddings, had no interest in organizing one. She’d always thought vaguely that if she ever did marry, it would be in a judge’s office with a couple of friends.
But here she was, in a long white dress, looking like someone from a bride’s magazine. Her short brunette bob had been meticulously arranged; she was wearing a veil and had a bouquet of flowers in her hand. After months in training, she felt like a butterfly, emerged from the chrysalis of her astronaut coveralls. Axelrod had flown her in two days early, for a succession of mud baths, facials, hair and makeup consultations, and last-minute dress fittings. It would be more than three years before she had the opportunity to do anything remotely like it again, so she just smiled and went along with it all.
“Oh, my,” Robbie said, dabbing her eyes. “You look gorgeous, Jules.” She sniffed. “I do wish your father were here.”
Julia felt his absence keenly. Harry was a devoted family man, and they had been close for years. The death of Julia’s brother, Bill, had melded the three of them into a solid unit.
And yet he wouldn’t come to her wedding. What was it he so disliked in Viktor?
In the absence of Harry, Axelrod would give the bride away. He was between wives at the time, so Julia’s mother had flown in from Australia the week before to personalize the arrangements. But she hadn’t been able to make a dent in the spectacle.
The media were divided into “invited” and “uninvited.” Axelrod sent boats to the mainland for the former, the latter were reduced to buzzing the island in rented motorboats and helicopters.
Huge quantities of food and drink were ferried or helicoptered in. The JSC crowd and the media were serious partyers.
It was time. Her mother left. There was a knock on the door.
Julia hesitated one last moment before opening it to a beaming Axelrod in an ice cream suit. He was clearly relishing this.
“Ready, my dear?” He offered his arm and they walked through the cavernous mansion and out into the lush garden.
Her mother copied Julia with her letter:
TO: HBarth@mesh.com
FROM: RBarth@jsc.gov
July 5, 2015
Dear Harry,
You really missed a great party! The Axelrod island looks like all those old movies of the American South. It’s not just a house, but a complex. Great hunks of communication gear around. John must be able to reach anywhere on Earth he wants.
A huge white mansion with pillars, of course.
My suite was simply enormous. There was a fireplace in the bedroom, and the bathroom had a tub on a dais that Cleopatra would’ve loved. Hot and cold running help, too.
The “simple garden ceremony” was anything but, of course. Great drifts of food and drink, live music, tents, etc. Everyone danced and laughed until the wee hours. Half of JSC must’ve been there, and a lot of NASA brass from elsewhere. It looked like a convention for The Mars Society. And he’d invited a slew of reporters. They were pretty well behaved, had a special roped-off place to sit during the ceremony.
But the paparazzi were something else! There must’ve been a fleet of them buzzing the place with helicopters and speedboats! All for our Julia! But she was worth it. She looked really beautiful! And Viktor just couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was just so pleased. I know how you feel about him, but I’m sure he does love her. He was very cordial to me, said he was honored to be joining Julia’s family. His parents are gone, you know, and he’s so far away from the rest of his family.
The actual ceremony was pretty simple. Raoul and Katherine were the attendants, and Axelrod stood in for you, of course. They’d decided on a civil ceremony, so John arranged for a judge—I think he was a North Carolina Supreme Court Justice, some friend of his. The soprano was very good. She sang “Amazing Grace” and some other songs with a touch of jazz to them.
The cake was incredible. It was Mars, of course, a huge red-icinged confection. Julia did her best to carve it—with a laser!
Julia’s really not much of a public person. That was our Bill. So she had on her public face, and a bit of a grit-your-teeth smile at times. But overall I bet she enjoyed it. How can you not, when you’re at the center of the universe like that?
