“No, they didn’t.” Words came out of Andrew in a rush. “I was looking forward to life with you. It was the most important thing in my life. Instead, I wound up alone, no kids, living anywhere but in Eugene, blasting space rocks for a living. It wasn’t what we had planned.”
Ed and his dad passed by the drill, now motionless but still stuck into the asteroid. His dad pointed at the drill.
“Is it deep enough to plant those nuclear bombs?” his dad asked.
“We’re not going to do it,” Ed protested. “How can we? We would kill you.”
“I’m already dead,” said his dad. “But think of yourself. That military spacecraft will be here any day now. If you don’t blow up Odette, they’ll arrest you and blow it up anyway.”
“We’ll fight them,” Ed declared. “I lost you once, I won’t lose you again!”
“Ed, you can’t have me forever. Stop clinging to me. Son, why do you keep clinging on to me?”
“Because, because,” Ed started. He couldn’t force the words out of his mouth. But it was time to tell him.
“Because I never got to tell you that I forgive you for leaving me and Joan and Mom,” Ed said.
His dad put his hand on Ed’s shoulder. “I know, son. I’ve known all this time.”
A tear ran down Ed’s cheek. “You mean, you died knowing I had forgiven you?”
“Sure did. Don’t let that bother you anymore.”
Ed heard a clicking sound over his helmet radio. He turned around and looked at the drill’s sensor box. The sensor box’s lights were lit up in red, blue, and green. He kneeled down to read the display.
“My, oh, my,” said Ed. “Dad, you’ve got to see this.”
He turned around to look at his dad, but his dad was not there.
Rachel uncrossed her arms. George remembered that she always crossed her arms when she was angry. Had she been angry? Was she still?
“Since Abby is the girls’ mother now, “ she said, “does she do everything that a mother should do?”
“Yes,” said George.
“Do the girls love her?”
“Very much. You should see the three of them together.”
“Ohhhh…”
“Oh, no, I shouldn’t have said that,” George said. “I’m sorry, so very sorry.”
“No! Don’t be sorry!” Rachel cried. “Oh, George, I’m so happy for you and Megan and Crystal! And Abby!”
She threw her arms around him and squeezed him. Even through his space suit, he could feel that it was the tightest hug she had ever given him.
“I’m thrilled that my family is happy,” Rachel said. “Why wouldn’t I want to hear that?”
George took a deep breath. “I felt I had betrayed you by marrying Abby. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing.” She kissed his helmet visor. “You haven’t betrayed me. If anything, you’ve done exactly what I’ve wanted. You’ve raised our girls to be happy, confident young women. You’ve created a warm, caring family.”
“Really?”
“If you’re looking for my permission to love Abby and raise the girls with her, you have it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
They hugged, they kissed, and this time, George felt her lips press against his.
That’s impossible, he thought. I have my helmet on. Oh, God, I better still have my helmet on!
He felt his helmet with one gloved hand; he was still wearing it. He looked around. He didn’t see Rachel anywhere.
Inside the ship, Ed scrolled through the graphs and figures appearing on his computer monitor. A three-dimensional computer graphic of Odette appeared, showing how animated waves poured from the core of the asteroid.
“Incredible!” Ed exclaimed. “The drill’s sensor detected electrochemical signals below the asteroid’s surface. The asteroid is hollow, and it’s emitting electrochemical signals.”
“Like a battery?” asked Andrew.
“More like a brain. Look at this.” Ed pointed at the animated image. “It’s also absorbing electrochemical signals.”
“From where? The only sources of electrochemical signals are us, from our brains,” said Andrew.
“I can’t prove it without further tests, but I think the asteroid is absorbing our brain waves and sending its own signals into our brains,” Ed guessed.
“Holy smokes. Sally, Rachel, your dad. Could the ghosts be based on our memories and thoughts?”
Ed nodded. “That’s possible. Dad’s ghost knew how I’ve felt since he died.”
They heard the sound of metal doors swinging open and boots pounding upon steel as George emerged from the air lock. After entering the control room, he began to take off his space suit.
“Funny thing happened out there,” he said. “One minute, Rachel is standing there, hugging me, completely alive—”
“No,” Andrew interrupted. “Rachel isn’t alive. The asteroid is. This is a Siren Stone.”
Aboard the Long Island, Colonel Chang returned to his usual calm, if humorless, mode after hearing Andrew’s explanation of the ghosts. To Andrew, this was as close as Chang would get to showing happiness.
“Finally. Now that you’ve determined that there are no living human beings on Odette, proceed to destroy it,” said Chang.
“Colonel, we still can’t do that,” said Andrew.
Chang glared at them through the thousands of miles of space. “Why not?”
“The asteroid is absorbing our brain waves and emitting its own brain waves. It’s some kind of living being. We can’t—we shouldn’t—kill it.”
“It’s a rock!” Chang snapped. “Unlike Space Station Reagan. Reagan has two hundred and ninety permanent residents: scientists, tradespeople, artisans, farmers, settlers, and children born on the station. Don’t forget that Reagan isn’t just a space station; it’s their home. You have to blow up the rock!”
“We’ve been working on the calculation for moving the asteroid. We’ll know how many explosives to use, where to place them, and when to detonate them. We can do it,” Andrew insisted.
“No, you won’t. You’re under arrest!” Chang yelled.
Andrew cut off the audio link to the Long Island. He could still see, if not hear, how Chang continued barking orders to restore the audio link.
“George, have you finished the prep for shifting the orbit?” Andrew asked.
“I’ve figured it out,” said George, “but it’s a complicated calculation. If I missed a variable, it might not work.”
“It’s a chance we’ll have to take,” said Andrew. “Ed, how’s our flight plan coming?”
“Just finished it,” said Ed, looking up from his computer monitor.
“Good, good,” said Andrew. He moved toward the crew quarters. “Excuse me for a minute. There’s one last thing I have to discuss with Sally.”
“We should have died together,” said Andrew.
“No, no,” Sally said. “We should have lived together.”
“But we didn’t,” he argued, “and that’s what’s haunted me for years. Life didn’t go the way I wanted. No house in Eugene, no job with the city, no cottage in the summer, no vacations to Disney World, no taking our kids to see their grandparents, no kids at all—”
“Hush,” Sally ordered. “Listen to me. You’ve had a good life without me. You’ve beaten the enemies of our country. You’ve saved lives by blowing up asteroids before they hit people. You’ve been all over the world and beyond, from Oregon to Polynesia to the Moon to the asteroid belt. You’ve done things, seen things, helped and saved people. Don’t ever think that your life was a waste of time.”
“Even if I’ve lived it without you, Sally?” Andrew said.