CHAPTER
13
The pressure
ducts hissed as the air-clock emptied. The interior hatch popped
and Wentz stepped out. Ashton leaned sullenly against the commo
chair.
“Is he still
alive?”
“Yeah. He sends
his regards.”
Wentz labored
to get out of the EVA gear. He threw it all into the
corner.
And looked at
Ashton.
“What now?” she
asked. “Put me into the air-lock and eject me into
space?”
“You should’ve
told me.”
“I wanted to
once we were underway…but I had orders not to.”
“Yeah, well you
still should’ve told me, that’s all.”
“They were
afraid you might bolt, abandon the mission and fly back to
earth.”
Wentz’s hands
clenched into strange fists. He seethed. “I’ve never
abandoned a mission in my life, and those sons of bitches
know it.”
“They couldn’t
take the chance,” Ashton countered. “You know what’s at stake
here.”
“Yeah…”
“And what could
I do?” Ashton was growing irate. “Christ, I’m dying. I offered to
do it. I offered to have the surgery and take the training, but it
wouldn’t have worked! It takes a pilot’s
mind, Jack. A
pilot’s reactions and a pilot’s instincts. I couldn’t have flown this thing in a
million years.”
Wentz slumped
into the operator’s seat. “I know. I’m just pissed off. I put up
with the bullshit for twenty-five years…and now they give me one
more mouthful.”
“I’m eating
from the same bowl, remember?” Ashton sat disgruntled in her own
seat. “We had our jobs to do and we did them. We’re in the
military; sometimes we have to sacrifice ourselves. Others have—now
it’s our turn. And look at the payoff. Now the virus will never get
to earth.”
Wentz errantly
stroked his chin. “You’re right, of course. It’s a kick in the ass:
women are always right.”
“I won’t
disagree with you there.” Ashton rolled up her sleeves. “I guess
you’ve noticed—”
Wentz looked
over. Shit. The stuff moves
fast. The
tiniest specks of the virus already could be seen on her arms. Then
Wentz checked his own arms and noticed the same. On the OEV’s deck,
the faintest glittering traces had formed.
“Farrington
said we’ve got three months if we’re lucky,” Wentz
recounted.
“That’s
probably pretty accurate. The virus has an extended incubation
period, which means infectees are contagious for a long time.
That’s why it’s particularly dangerous.”
But Wentz
wasn’t listening. The remaining realization was fully sinking in.
“So we can’t ever go back.”
“No, Jack. Even
if they quarantined us, the virus also attacks inorganic material,
and it’s osmotic—it goes through anything.”
Wentz stared at
the silence in the air as if it were a distant cloud. Everything
he’d ever been seemed just as far away.
“The apogee’s
on,” Ashton told him. “We’ve got video. Do you want to talk to
them?”
Wentz sighed.
“Why not?”
Ashton tapped a
few keys on an auxiliary panel, flipped down a small liquid-plasma
display screen. First there was only white fuzz and static, but
then a grainy picture formed: General Rainier’s
face.
“Sorry about
this, Wentz,” his voice crackled. “But surely you
realize—”
“I know,” Wentz
confessed.
“Did you
destroy the collector probe?”
“Yes sir. It’s
space junk now.”
“Good. You’ve
made the ultimate sacrifice, Wentz. What you’ve done for your
country and for the world is beyond—”
“Save it,
General. But do me a favor, will you? I know you have to tell my
wife and kid that I died in a test crash. But tell them I loved
them, will you?”
“I will, Wentz.
Personally.”
Waves of static
rose and fell.
“Is there
anything else?”
“No, sir. I
guess not,” Wentz replied.
On the screen,
now, Rainier was saluting. Then the screen fizzed and faded as
contact was lost. Ashton turned off the
display.
“I don’t know
about you but I could use a drink,” Ashton
commented.
Wentz scowled
at her. “The bars close early up here.”
But then Ashton
whipped out a bottle of whiskey. “I smuggled this on in my flight
pack. It’s not Johnny Black but—”
Wentz grinned.
“It’ll work.” He opened the bottle, took a swig, then passed it
back. “So what do we do now? We can’t go back to earth.”
“No, but look
what we’ve got. We’ve got rations that will last months,” Ashton
reminded, “and a fuel-cell that’ll produce all the water we need.
And what else have we got?”
Wentz saw her
point. “We’ve got an unlimited air supply and an unlimited fuel
supply, not to mention a fully operational extraterrestrial vehicle
capable of exceeding the speed of light.”
“Um-hmm.”
Wentz clapped
his deformed hands together.
“Looks like
we’re going on the road trip of all time,” he
said.
“Go for
it.”
Wentz could
feel the gleam in his eyes. The internal systems powered up when he
pressed his hands into the detents. “Ready for take-off,
Colonel?”
“Yes,
sir.”
The OEV began
to hover upward.
“Now let’s see
what this alien spam can’ll do…”
The craft rose
a few more yards then shot away, heading for the
universe.