Tides of the Continuum 1: Making History (15 page)

His personal affects, after being searched, would be transported
back to Earth and kept in a storage unit in his name. After his time in prison, he would be given the location and information on how to open it. No advanced technologies would be sent with it. No information regarding space or the Legion or the state of the EPF would be permitted in his care. In short, he would have no proof of his previous life.

21

The time came when the Colonel arrived at Aurora’s door. The pit in her stomach grew deeper as she contemplated not seeing this place again. They walked in silence to the maglev and continued the same silence until the end of the ride. The two stepped from the carriage into the hallway, finding two androids waiting. Drokk stood next to a nanny, the former continuing his duty of protection, the latter to give Aurora a hug before she left. The two departing humans went into the airlock and sealed the door behind them.

The suits were assembled with some sadness, but quic
kly. Outside the bay-side door in the hangar stood their waiting transport. It was the same style of craft Aurora had ridden the day before, only this time she would sit inside it. It was a sloop, smaller than a frigate, larger than a patrol cruiser. It could carry ten men with gear and support them for up to a month if needed. All this she’d learned while dipping into the Legion’s database on her off time. All that didn’t matter, though, now. She was confident she wouldn’t ever need to know that information in her life on Earth.

She didn’t leave empty handed though. From her experiences in space, she learned that she had
within her the makings of a great woman. She had strength of character and the will to succeed at any undertaking. She just wished that her talents could be used onboard the Legion in some fashion. She would have accepted a position as a janitor if it meant staying aboard. Though she knew that androids were used to keep the areas clean.

The small confines of the sloop were somewhat similar to the ship in which she had arrived. There were some differences, though. For instance, the ship she had ridden in before possessed two chairs, while this one had four, two facing forward, and two behind them, facing to their respective sides of the cockpit.

After the hatch was secure, the air seals on their suits were opened. Aurora disrobed her suit, stowed it in the proper compartment and claimed the copilot’s chair.

The radio, near the back of the instrument console, resonated with Athena’s voice. “You will be missed
, Aurora Dane. I believe I speak on behalf of everyone who knew you when I say that we’re sad you will not stay.”

Aurora let a few tears escape before she caught herself. She wouldn’t let
Lincoln know of her will; she was too strong for that. How would it look to see her beg like a child for something she couldn’t have? No, that would not happen. Not this time and not ever again. She resigned herself to a common fate, that is, one of the common man. There would be no more androids, no more talking computers and no more space flights. There would be no more stars, or star battles, no more ray guns, or space cannons. The only people who looked like people would be real people and not special androids.

As they passed Earth’s moon, Lincoln switched the radar shielding on to prevent any unwanted attention. They were moving fast, more so than her first flight. The sloop could reach a speed of one half the Legion’s cruise speed. The cosmic dust was just too abrasive at higher speeds; one of the reasons the Legion didn’t have any windows. She was probably the only woman who would live on Earth, who had experienced such a close look at the moon, almost close enough that she might have seen the Apollo landing sites.

She wanted to close her eyes and not see any more, anything else she could miss while on Earth. As she sat watching the approaching planet, she remembered a statement made by one of the first astronauts. He reported to Houston, that from his view port, on the side of his craft, the world looked like a great big blueberry. As she watched, she realized it was true. Not realizing what she was doing, she began to search for her home, like a child who has learned about maps for the first time. But alas, the world was turned so that Europe was facing their approach. Oh well, she had always wanted to see Europe. She chuckled to herself, realizing the irony.

They started a slow orbit, chasing the sun, traveling the opposite direction as the Earth’s rotation. Against her resolution, she had to speak. “I will miss this ship, I mean, the Legion. It was starting to feel like home to me. But I guess I’m not cut out to be an astronaut, am I?”

Lincoln didn’t answer. He felt like she wanted to say something else, but to force it out would only change it into something she wouldn’t really mean. He only nodded.

“I just wish I could stay aboard for a few more days, I wouldn’t get in the way, I promise. I wouldn’t even leave my quarters, if you wanted.” She caught herself start
ing to beg, and bit her tongue. She promised she wasn’t going to do it, but found it hard not to when it came down to the wire.

Who wouldn’t beg to stay in a life of the future? This was her chance to live the life those millions of nerds all over the world dreamed about every day! And here it was, being taken from her without so much as a single word of apology. The entire senior staff had wanted her to stay, why didn’t Lincoln? Did she say something wrong? Did she damage a very expensive component? Was she breaking a rule without knowing it? Oh life wasn’t fair.

The Earth was turning in her view, beginning to show Florida now. Lincoln sat stewing on her statement. Had she said what he had heard? Did she want to stay? After what had happened on the ship, when she was chased out into the endless blackness by a homicidal robot, which by itself was a freak of metallurgy, was it possible? After being shot at by the ship’s First Officer, and watching her personal guard protect her from certain death, did Aurora really want to stay? He decided to chance a baited statement, in the hopes she would bite. “Well, you wouldn’t have to stay in your quarters, if you didn’t want to.”

Her head turned slightly toward him. If he was insinuating what she thought, the universe was a compassionate place
after all. “I would do any job required, if it meant I could remain a member of your crew.” She turned her face to his, hoping to find a sign of acceptance.

His heart lifted, finding she didn’t really want to leave. But to word his proposal properly, “Well, the First Officer position has just come open, if you’re interested.”

She paused for only a moment, before leaping from her chair to hug her traveling companion, her friend, her Colonel. “Thank you.” She whispered as they embraced. Though Lincoln didn’t know it, Aurora was crying more from pain in her ribs than happiness. But her joy exceeded the reflex to pull back from the pain.

Both laughed as they landed near the remains of the barn, which had housed the transport that first took her from Earth. “So I thought since you didn’t argue against packing your things that you wanted to leave,” said Lincoln.

“And I thought you were kicking me off the ship, so who would I be to oppose the Colonel of the
baddest starship in the galaxy?” Aurora laughed.

“Oh, it isn’t the
baddest ship in the galaxy. But, it does have me.”

He said it so nonchalantly, that it didn’t register at first. But as the hatch was unlocked and moved around out of the way, the thought occurred to her that there could really be other star ships out there, not of this Earth. “Other star ships?” she asked.

“Yeah. Hey, if you want to get your stuff from your apartment, I could wait for you here.” He suggested.

She knew he was changing the subject, but thought it best to drop it. After all, he would tell her all she needed to know,
when she was ready to hear it. She decided instead to ask him something else. “Actually, I couldn’t tell you how to get back to town. I only went this way once, with you, about two weeks ago. Could you come with me?”

Thinking for only a second, he agreed. As they got into Lincoln’s broken clunker of a car, she joked, “You command a star ship a hundred times bigger than Rhode Island, and this is all you could come up with to drive to school? What’s with that?”

“Hey, I was supposed to keep up an image here. A regular student has to approach the recruits. If I flew to school in a low altitude cloud car, what would the faculty think?” He defended. “Besides, I like this car. It’s named after a planet I’ve visited.”

''How were the rings?'' asked Aurora asked.

''Breath taking,'' replied Lincoln.

They laughed again and sped off toward Liberty Falls Community College. Along the way, Lincoln filled Aurora in on the duties and obl
igations of the First Officer.

Aurora felt slightly nervous to ask
, but her curiosity won out in the end as she spoke, “What’s going to happen to Paul?”

Lincoln, now more sober, answered, “That’s up to him. Should he choose to remain in our brig, he may. If he wants to return to Earth, he will be escorted down and ‘transferred’ to a military prison like Leavenworth. And he knows that if he doesn’t keep his mouth shut about Earth Protection Force, he’ll be sent to a detention center for the criminally insane, where he’ll either most likely live out his days in a drugged stupor, or become convinced that the past twelve-odd years of his life were a hallucination.”

Softly Aurora asked, “Is that what’s going to happen to me when I retire?”

“I certainly hope not!” answered Lincoln shocked. “Paul’s going to prison for crimes, end of story. You’ll probably retire honorably and live to a ripe old age in a retirement community somewhere. I personally plan on moving to Florida when I retire. But the choice is yours.”

Aurora considered the things she’d heard as they drove the remainder of the way to town in silence.

As they neared her
apartment, Lincoln asked, “Do you have any regrets?”

Aurora thought for a second, and then spoke. “Only one.”

“What’s that?” He asked.

“In the space battle, I completely forgot about the essay that was due in Dr. Aikins’ class a week ago.” She was truly sorry because she had grown quite fond of Dr. Aikins.

“Well, you win some, you lose some. Besides, you can apologize when you see her. She’s due back on the Legion in another week, along with Dr. Graf.”

Aurora and Lincoln exchanged smiles as they got out of his car to get her things. Three hours later and fifty miles away, a flaming trail could be seen in the gathering dusk leading from an abandoned farm
house into an exciting new day among the stars.