Elon's engineer

In trouble

Chapter 17

60 minutes before launch

Charlene has memorized everything she needed to memorize by now. Everything. Investors, workers, head engineers, volunteers, departments' heads, NASA representatives and the costs and resources of everything on this launch. She was taken aback of how much this company had but had no time to think about how did they get all this money. Now all she had to do is stand outside of mission control room, with Elon's secretaries, greet and talk to important people that were invited to watch the launch. So far, everything was going good. People knew her as Elon's representative and they didn't ask any further questions. Most of them asked general questions about the launch and future missions which she managed perfectly. She was worried about the media and interviews. Although Silas told her she'd be famous if that happened and she shouldn't worry about it. She wished Silas would be with her right now. She really did not want to appear on TV. But this part was well after the launch so she was hoping Elon would be here by then.

30 minutes before the launch

After talking to and greeting a lot of people, she had to enter mission control room now and prepare for the launch. Richard approached her before she went in to update her on something.

"Charlene.. the biggest SpaceX investor, Mr.Harden is expected to arrive soon. he won't be outside and will enter control room too. He likes to be involved And he's a bit annoying so just ignore his stupid comments and focus on the launch".

"What about Elon? Is he coming? Did you talk to him?"

"No.. I haven't heard anything from him yet"

"Okay.. I'll go in now.. thank you for the update" she told Richard with a smile

"Good luck" he patted her shoulder to encourage her

20 minutes before the launch

Charlene was standing on the side of the mission control room not wanting to distract anyone. She prayed Elon and his family are okay, and hoped nothing bad happened.

"Ms. Jackson?" Charlene raised her head to meet Jane, Elon's secretary with a tall old man with a big smile on his face standing next to her.

"Mr. Harden has arrived"

Of course he did and he does't even need an introduction

"Thank you Jane. Welcome Mr. Harden. we were waiting for you. I'm Charlene Jackson and I'm Mr.Musk's representative for today. Very nice to meet you sir"

She raised her hand to shake his but he pulled her hand upwards and kissed it.

Who the hell does he think he is?

"Very nice to meet you young lady" he smirked at her and stood to face the big screens next to Charlene.

I have a fucking name

"So how's my rocket today?"

Your rocket? The hell

"you mean Starlink? Very good Sir. Everything is going according to plan"

"Very well" he stood really close to her with his shoulder touching hers. She wanted to push him but did not want to cause any problems for the company so she just stood still.

"Tell me, beautiful, do you work here?"

I really want to punch this man in the face

Charlene looked at the screen in front of her and 15 minutes are left to launch.

"uh.. yes Sir. I'm an aerospace engineer"

"Oh is it not hard or tiring for a beautiful woman like you to be working in such a manly job? Seems like Elon does not rest his employees"

"actually sir we get breaks throughout the day and I won't say this job is meant for men only"

"Well.. I would not tire this body with fixing metal all day" he placed his hand on the lower part of her back and pulled her closer to him.

She instinctively pulled away from him and he tried to grab her again when she heard a familiar voice call her by her name. They both turned to face non other than the CEO of the company.

"Charlene"

Author's note- Elon's back to save the day!

Yours, 

V