Heat and Light by Marc Neuffer

Author:Marc Neuffer [Neuffer, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-24T22:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

SANDY

16 Boat Load

My name is Kathrine Sanderson, a billionaire many times over. Nobody calls me Kat more than once. Why wasn't I off enjoying the good life? The answer is simple. After we got paid for our three-billion-year-old find, I very quickly found myself not fitting into the Richey Rich scene. I'd spent tons of money just playing around trying to find my footing. After the new wore off, I realized I was trying to put on someone else's life. I was becoming involuntarily committed, cocooned in a hardening shell. I had to breakout or drown.

When I got the call from Hornblower, I jumped at the chance to ship out with him again. Our relationship had been much more than captain and crew. To me, he was a brother of a different mother sort. I was the same for him. Our bond was even stronger than you find in close-knit military cohorts. I know, I had been a Marine, not and ex-Marine, there’s no such thing. I trusted him with much more than my life. What's more than life? A lot more, as I found out. I trusted him more than I did my tools.

I missed the cold dark, the expanse, the beautiful sweeping majestic nebulae, the infinite noise of silence. At times out there, I would sit in the airlock. Sit quietly with the outer door open. Just sit on the deck, my legs hanging over the edge. Gathering it all in. Wanting to drink it, breathe it, float in it, be alone with it. It was a longing to belong. Belong to the biggest thing that ever was, or ever will be. To be a part of the cold dark.

♦ ♦ ♦

On the Rift Planet

After I transitioned my face plate back to transparent, I checked my suit sensor records. Rewinding. Nothing, nada, zero, zip. Just blank non-data. Two point three seven seconds of nothing.

Everybody, even the fake cat, seemed to be OK. Gone was the rift and the quantum fabric. I was going to get some of that stuff. Beyond making a dimensional rift disappear, I bet it has more tricks than a circus monkey.

Hornblower looked relieved, Dodger did too. First time I’d ever seen that look on him.

I listened with interest as Martin told Hornblower about the technology caches. More toys for me? But, as interesting as it was, I just wanted to get back to the transport, and shed my armored suit. I needed to scratch some itches and pee.

Male or female, voiding yourself in an armored suit is a weird and unpleasant experience. The suit tech kept it all sanitary, but most spacers I’ve known preferred to wait if they could. The only people who didn't mind it too much were Space Force Marines in combat units. They would spend weeks in their armored suits either in the void or on some nasty planet that had even nastier residents. Mostly the 'I'm gonna eat you' variety.

That's one of the reasons I resigned my commission in the Marines.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.