Max Q

Wake up commander,
It's T minus 3 hours
Time to have your cake
And light the candle

T minus 20 -
Poll the program manager
GO - NO GO!
The comm-check starts
We're live on NASA Select

The SRO's happy and so are we
Splashdown's clear as the cloudless sky
We'll be marching past T minus 5
10, 9, 8, 7, 6...
No red page today
5, 4, 3, 2...
In a minute we'll be Max Q

Alarm bell rings
Dreamstate fades to a dull, gray haze
Once again time to execute
The routine begins...

Marching single file
Good busy worker bees
Must sacrifice for the hive
Nothing more than worker drones
Nothing more than a worker.

Holding down a chair in a
small, gray cube
Talking to a prisoner on the outside
Staring at the cathode ray
It burns my eyes
Watching my life fly by
Watching the dreamer die

Come in commander -
It's 2 minutes MET
Brace yourself for staging
Let's separate the SRBs

In 3 minutes we'll be out of sight
Just vapor trails in the morning light
Houston calls for main engine cutoff
Jettison the external tank

Watch it burn up as it falls

Fire the OMS to stabilize the orbit
Now Sir Issac's in the driver's seat...

But you're not in orbit...

You're standing in line
You're counting your time
Nothing more than a worker drone
Just standing in line
You're wasting your mind
Nothing more than a worker drone

Nothing more than a worker drone
Nothing more than a worker...

Sign on to insanity
No time to sit idle
Every move monitored
It's time to go live

They can record my words
They can't suppress my thoughts
There's a safe place where the dreamers go -
They can't read my mind

Staring at the cathode rays
It burns my eyes
Watching my life fly by
Wake up, Worker Drone!

In my daydreams
I'm an astronaut
Orbiting the earth
On a spacewalk
I float above the atmosphere
So far away from here...

Lyrics by Daniel Cote, William Cote, Charles Cote