Absolutes & Other Stories by Robert Stanek

Author:Robert Stanek
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Reagent Press
Published: 2009-08-06T04:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER THREE:

STRUGGLE AGAINST TIME

A trickle of blood ran down my cheek. I knew they’d kill me in the end, but I grinned at the monitor and began all the same. My thoughts were for Margaret’s safety and not my own.

I took the four-hour shuttle from EOS-7 to Moon Colony to listen to an obscure scientist named Doctor Martin Schwenne, more specifically to hear his ideas on the future of space colonization, which he claimed was nonexistent. He also claimed progress in space travel was dead.

This astounded and attracted me. Especially since he was lecturing at Space Pro Labs which only a year ago had matched and then topped the previously thought unattainable Earth-Moon Shuttle Speed Record of five hours set by Galactic Engineering a decade earlier. The five-hour record had lasted ten years. Space Pro Labs had broken it in grand style and in the process won total Earth-Moon Shuttle rights — a contract worth billions per day.

So where did this obscure scientist named Doctor Martin Schwenne get off proclaiming the era of progress in space colonization defunct?

For the most part, passage on the shuttle went smoothly. I gained entrance to the labs with a special clearance pass and was seated in the middle of the ninety-third row of the assembly hall exactly four hours twenty-eight minutes after departure from Earth Orbit Station Seven. A buzz of frenzy was sweeping through the crowd. I played my part, proudly relaying the latest gossip. But what everyone really wanted to know was: who was this Doctor Schwenne?

A tiny toothpick of a man wandered onto the stage. The crowd quieted. I think most thought, as did I, that the little man would introduce our speaker, Dr. Martin Schwenne, but as it turned out he was Dr. Martin Schwenne. I was shocked.

I settled back into my seat, vying for armrest space with my neighbors. On one side was a gaunt but thick-jawed man clad in prim business attire who undoubtedly hadn’t slept in days. He was popping red beepers like they were candy. On the other sat the inevitable robust lecture-circuit attendee. He slapped both corpulent forearms down onto the armrests with the intent of not moving either again until the meeting concluded. We conducted war with our elbows for a time.

Then without warning, Martin Schwenne’s meek voice rang out. “Innerspace is a fraud. Cryodrives are a false hope!”

Needless to say, I jumped straight out of my seat and screamed back at him, “What do you mean innerspace is a fraud? What do you mean cryodrives are a false hope?”

Martin cleared his throat, his face pallid. I quickly settled into my seat and conducted armchair warfare with my neighbors again.

Martin Schwenne talked on. I jumped out of my seat two more times. I just couldn’t help myself.

“Yank this man from the pulpit,” I cried out when I just couldn’t take it any more. The lectern at Space Pro Labs was sacred to me. It was here in 2391 that I had listened to Ishad Ballin defend his first dissertation after leaving Galactic Engineering in 2390.

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