Search & Recovery: A Retrieval Artist Universe Novel by Rusch Kristine Kathryn

Author:Rusch, Kristine Kathryn [Rusch, Kristine Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: WMG Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2015-02-10T06:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

FINALLY, FINALLY, THE Port of Armstrong let selected ships land. Wilma Goudkins cheated: she used her Earth Alliance Security Division credentials to expedite the landing, even though she wasn’t here on government business.

This was as personal as it could get.

After Anniversary Day—after she had seen what had happened to Tycho Crater (heard what had happened, dammit, Carla)—she had booked the first flight for this solar system out of the starbase housing the Security Division. She hadn’t been alone; the flight was filled with Earth Alliance employees who had taken emergency leave to see what had become of their families.

Each person on this flight was grateful that she had used her credentials to jump the line in orbit around the Moon. Each person probably figured she was the one who would be fired for using government resources on a personal mission.

And she really didn’t care.

Just like she hadn’t cared that her boss disapproved of her leave.

Her sister had just died, most likely (although Goudkins hoped—hoped against hope—that the lapse in communication late that day had been caused by some technical problem), and Goudkins' supervisor wanted her to stay until there was confirmation.

Goudkins threatened to appeal. After she had snapped, If I wait, then I miss the funeral, even though she didn’t know if there was going to be a funeral. If anyone was going to have a funeral.

As she got closer to the Moon, and the pilots announced that the Port of Armstrong still wasn’t letting in ships, she began to realize just how big a mess she was walking into.

Alone.

Her family mostly lived on Earth, but they were distant cousins and an aunt and uncle she had met only once. Her sister Carla hadn’t married, and had no children.

Goudkins had married and divorced before she and her husband had the two or three children they had hoped for.

She knew the difference between hope and reality; she had lived it every day of that marriage—hoping for one of those perfect relationships that some couples managed, and discovering that reality consisted of two people who simply couldn’t get along, no matter how much they wanted to.

It was a small thing to compare to the evisceration of the Moon, but it was her small thing—and her greatest hurt after the death of her parents.

Her greatest hurt until now.

She and Carla had always been close. Her mother used to call them almost-twins—only 11 months apart. Goudkins was the younger and she couldn’t remember a time in her life without Carla.

They’d been sharing a link that horrible day.

Carla had been in the Top of the Dome, a resort built against the dome in Tycho Crater, when the attacks started. Carla contacted Goudkins, asked for her advice on how to deal with the crisis, and had managed to escape the resort and the madman who had taken people hostage.

Then she had gone back in to help with the rescue, to help with the victims. She was leading first responders inside when Goudkins lost contact with her.

Later,

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