Chapter XXIV: Death at 36K

Andrea Gunn stood in the queue for the trans-lunar shuttle to Earth. She could have taken a military shuttle, but wanted to avoid other Stellar Patrol personnel at the moment. She still felt flushed over the embarrassment of being so publicly dismissed as Commandant of the Lunar Academy. The way Admiral Weston appeared, unexpected, confronting her in the outer office of the administration dome. The manner which he had dismissed her from her duties, and ordered her off the base was very degrading. She was to report to Earth, pending an investigation into her relationship with the activities and crimes her son had been accused of.

The access hatches for the nine-fifteen shuttle opened, and she followed the crowd into the small ship. She let out a heavy sigh as she looked over the long, slim shuttle. It was noisy and cramped with about one hundred other passengers, civilians all, fighting for the pairs of seats to each side of the narrow aisle. She stood out in her black and silver uniform, and as she moved to find a vacant grubby seat, a hush in the conversations settled around her as people became aware of her presence, then slowly resumed as she went past.

She finally located a seat in the back of the shuttle, and tossing her bag in the rack above, settled into the seat, and stared out the long window that stretched the length of the shuttle. The desolate grayness of the lunar surface, broken only by the hard shadows caused by the low sun on the horizon, outlining the dome and structures of the Heinlien habitats, randomly scattered boulders, and the nearby crater walls in stark relief.

The grayness fit her mood. She was required to report to Earth, but the means were left at her discretion. She felt hurt, to be treated so disrespectfully and dispassionately, after her half-century of sterling service and unquestioned loyalty, and even sacrificing her only son in the name of the service. Therefore, she decided to take the slow boat back to Earth, and avoid the accusing eyes of other patrollers. Weston was not discrete in her dismissal; therefore the news would travel the grapevine at a speed rivaling, and in some cases, exceeding light speed. She was now a liability, a pariah. Other officers avoided her company, for fear of being drawn into the investigation.

The slow trip back to Earth, via the trans-lunar shuttle to high Earth orbit, where she would transfer to the O'Neil ring, and take the Starrail to the surface, would give her time to think, to put things into perspective, and give her time to cope with the sudden changes. She was still a loyal officer, and if her destruction ensured the survival of the Stellar Patrol and the Terran Federated Worlds, then she would welcome it, and accept the consequences.

The shuttle hatches clanged shut, and with a gentle nudge against her back, sailed up and away from the lunar surface. The terminator of the Sun was slowly engulfing the Heinlien habitats in darkness, and pinpricks of light appeared against the black lunar canvas. She felt the darkness creeping across her heart as well. She had been Commandant of the Lunar Academy for four years now, and while she originally took the position to be near Rick, she had discovered that she enjoyed the post. Now she was leaving to an uncertain future, and lord help her, it occurred to her that she never got the change to take Rick to visit the Tranquility Museum. That such a trivial matter would occur to her at this time cheered her up slightly. Even with her heavy heart, there was still room to appreciate the little ironies of life.

She knew she should know better though. Admiral Weston obviously wasn't in on the operation. He wouldn't have known anything more than what was publicly announced. As a result, as she had given Rick the authority to take the Stingray interceptor and leave the academy, she was guilty by association of the crimes of murder and piracy that had been assigned to Rick. All in all, it was rather surprising that she wasn't in irons, and being transferred to Earth by a security team. Perhaps her years of service did count for something after all.

It was obvious that the assignment that she had given her son came down through special channels. It was the Psi Corps assignment, and top secret. She knew this would put her position in jeopardy with the rank and file, but that seemed unimportant compared to the expected fate of her son.

Only two months ago, late in the evening while she was working on the endless paperwork in the privacy of her quarters, when they came. Two cloaked members of the Psi Corps visited her. Psi Corps people creeped her out, even after the many decades of service. You never knew who they were and whether or not they were reading your mind. It wouldn't bother her if some act of god suddenly happened, and every psi in existence suddenly vanished.

They came to her with a request, and displayed the authority to make it an order if needed. They explained that something very bad was starting to happen, and that they didn't know what. That alone bothered Andrea more than their presence. They were quite disturbed about it as well. Their precogs had not been able to see anything other than faint glimpses of widespread death and destruction.

One however, saw that if her son, of all people, were to be involved in a certain way, there was a probability path out of the darkness and chaos that was foreseen. Unfortunately, that meant that her son would most likely die, but with that death, give the Stellar Patrol the chance to act and preserve Terran civilization.

She knew what her answer was before they asked her. There was no choice, no way to avoid it. She would have to allow her son to go, and be unable to prevent his fate. It ripped her heart into pieces, and no one, not even his father, would ever know the true reason.

Now, much to the puzzlement of the Psis, Rick had somehow survived longer than expected. They still did not foresee his survival, but already Rick was beating the odds, and that made her feel very, very proud of her son.

A bright flash caught her eye, and she stared out of the window. She caught sight of a bright white star off in the distance. She did a little mental calculation, and decided that it was Clarke County, a pair of huge space build colonies out at one of the Lagrange points between Earth and the moon. The flash that caught her eye must have come from the massive mirrors that lit the colony. Originally build several hundred years ago as the ultimate resort and retirement community; it now housed the Stellar Patrol's starship crew training and recreation facilities. Massive space docks had been built along side where some of the largest ships of the Stellar Patrol were built.

The shuttle flight only lasted for an hour. Five minutes before they were scheduled to dock, the Earth swam into view on her side of the ship. The O'Neil ring was clearly visible, a huge orbiting band around the Earth, built in geosynchronous orbit around the planet, connecting the six space elevators spaced at equidistance spaces around the equator. The politicians that commissioned it's building stated that it symbolized how Terra was the hub of the Federated worlds.

However, in Andrea's current state of mind, the site of the sun setting behind the dark bulk of the planet, the glowing elevators and ring made the Earth resemble more of a red swollen spider sitting in her web, the shuttle that she was traveling in was the tiniest morsel about to become stuck in her web. As the shuttle approached the docking port and entered in to the shadow of the planet, Andrea lost the image of the spider, which was replaced by the sense of a foreboding weight hanging above her. Damn those Psis anyway.

Her thoughts were distracted as the shuttle completed docking to the ring, and she fought her way out of the crowds. Her bag thrown over her shoulder, she started down spinward of the station, noticed a pair of priests from the Interstellar church of Elvis, one slim, the other short and rotund. Not wishing to be pestered into purchasing miniature charms of teddy bears and hound dogs, she turned and headed in the other direction.

The main concourse of the ring stretched horizontally off into the distance, circling the earth at 36 thousand kilometers and four hundred meters wide. Off to the north side of the ring was the tracks for the high-speed maglev shuttles that provided the main transportation around the ring, in both east and west directions. Shops and eateries lined the concourse, with the remainder of the space broken up with small live parks with both Terran and off-world flora. People were moving around, using personal scooters, and small wagons.

It was possible to purchase anything manufactured anywhere within the Terran sphere, as well as imported goods from allied alien spheres here in the ring. More than just humans populated the ring as well. Offworlders, races discovered within the terran sphere came to visit and work as well as many races from allied spheres as well.

The Ring itself was five hundred meters in diameter. Much of the ring was devoted to off-world manufacturing, in addition to housing for space workers, ship repair facilities, and raw materials processing.

She tapped into her wristcomm to find out where the nearest Starrail space elevator was. The closest one was the Steele elevator, with a destination at a docking tower built out at sea east of Hawaii. She boarded a high-speed internal shuttle, which brought her to the Starrail terminal in less than ten minutes. Five minutes later she had her boarding pass for the next passenger car that would be arriving in eight minutes.

She wandered over to a huge bay window that allowed her to peer down to Earth, or would, if they hadn't currently been in night. Lights dotted the length of the elevator, however, and they appeared as descending beads fading into the darkness below. As her eyes adjusted to looking out the window, she could make out a small series of bright splotches north and to the west of the cable that she thought was Hawaii, and she could make out the contours of the pacific west coast of the Americas by the sting of light that hugged the coastline.

She saw a flicker out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see a wall monitor flicker on with a Galactic News Network special report. The announcer appeared especially grave, but what drew her attention was the Psi symbol superimposed over an asteroid.

"GNN has learned that the Stellar Patrol has confirmed that there has been an explosion on Omega Prime, headquarters of the Psi Corps, the special talents division of the Stellar Patrol. There is no word yet on casualties, but emergency and hospital ships are enroute to Omega Prime in what appears to be the largest space disaster in three hundred years. Communications were cut off when the explosion occurred, and the Stellar Patrol has not indicated that they have regained communication with the asteroid. SP Officials have refused to speculate as to whether this was an accident or a terrorist attack."

This was it, thought Andrea as a cold lump settled into her stomach. The beginning of the end of the Stellar Patrol that the precogs foresaw. She knew it was an act of war, the first strike of a new offensive against the Federated Worlds.

A chime rang, indicating that the passenger car had now arrived, and was boarding. She tore her gaze away from the monitor, and got into the boarding line. Near the front of the line was another priest of the Interstellar Church of Elvis. He was the same short fat one that she had spotted earlier as she debarked from the trans-lunar shuttle. The trip of thirty-six thousand kilometers to the surface of the planet would take about twelve hours. Most people took shuttle flights to orbit, trips only lasting ten to fifteen minutes, and left Starrail to lift cargo and transfer raw materials from orbit to the surface. Only a few of the cars on the elevator cables were passenger cars, taken by those unwilling or unable to afford the orbital shuttles. Again, her choice was simply to have time to think. She certainly wasn't in a hurry to get to where she was going.

She entered the passenger car, which with Starrail corporation's attempt to live up to the name "Railway to the Stars" was laid out much like ancient passenger rail cars that used to run on the surface. There was a long corridor with doors to cabins that could hold up to six passengers, and a long window viewing out into space on the other side. There was a small window in door to each compartment. As she was one of the last to board, she was sure that once she claimed one, she would be alone for the duration of the trip. The crowd ahead of her thinned out quickly.

She went down a narrow stairwell to a lower level, and the only person she met there was an attendant making his rounds prior to starting the descent to Earth. She found an empty compartment and slid the door behind her, feeling like she was finally by herself. She tossed her bag onto the opposite seat, and sat down so that she would be able to watch the Earth grow as they dropped. However, dawn wasn't due for at least three more hours, so she rested her head back and closed her eyes to rest a bit.

Hardly more than a few minutes passed before there was a sharp knock at her compartment door. As she opened her eyes, the young attendant that she had passed in the corridor earlier was entering her compartment. She stood up, and glared at him. "Yes?"

The attendant ignored her for a moment while he shut the door behind him and then turned to face her. "Commandant Gunn?" he asked.

"Yes," she repeated. "Can I help you?"

"Yes," he nodded. "You can die." With that, his arms shot out, turning into long tentacles, and wrapped themselves around her. To her horror, the young male face in front of her began to melt and shift, transforming into her own face!

To Be Continued...